Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

is there an easy way to work out how steep a hill is? just to make sure i’m using a hill that isn’t too steep or not steep enough?

  thanks

What are using the hill training for?  Steep hills and low-incline hills both serve a purpose in a sprinter’s training regiment.  Let us first find out what you are trying to accomplish by using hills and then we can see what sorts of hills you need and how to determine the incline level you need.

i use them both for sprinters and for strength for my distance runners but currently its for the distance runners just for strength

round where we train there are many hills- really steep ones to barely classed as a hill so i was just wondering what should i be looking at depending on what im aiming for
eg.
1. should it be really steep as in they really have to work to climb it
2. should it be a slight hill so they can still keep a decent pace but just so they can feel the hill abit

i was thinking #1 for sprinters (speed/power) and #2 for distance runners as they’d climb it a few times for strength endurance (#1 being used by distance runners in their speed phase.

i was reading stuff (Peter Coe’s i think) about using a bounding/springing action while climbing the hills and was curious about what sort of hill this could be done of- steep to get more of a upwards bound/spring (causing to work harder) or a little one to keep up the pace abit but while using a bouncy stride.

any thoughts on these sort of stuff would be great- even if its not to do with my questions but still to do with hills would be great too :D thanks

Ps: also if there is a way of working out what sort of degree a hill is at by looking at it or something?(sounds tough but who knows what people can work out these days lol)

If the hill slant was somewhat consistent there are electronic leveling devices that could be used to determine the incline of a hill. I have a ton of hills where we train also but we primarily only use one for acceleration development for the short sprinters and some specific strength-speed work for the long sprinters. For the acceleration stuff we keep it under 40m (usually 30m) and for the long sprinters, they will occasionally go as long as 100m repeats with incomplete recoveries.

thanks for the reply mike

what are the athletes like when they run up it- is it steep enough that it really slows them down and they have to work really had, or is it just enough to add a tiny little resistance?

The one we use is probably a 18-20 degree grade. That’s fairly steep but not so steep that they can’t actually sprint.

Maybe someone should write a FAQ on hills…

I believe there is a way to use trig to figure out the degree of a hill as well.  Measure the distance of the run then measure the height from the top of the hill to the bottom and use sin.

tkaberna - 13 March 2008 09:13 AM

I believe there is a way to use trig to figure out the degree of a hill as well.  Measure the distance of the run then measure the height from the top of the hill to the bottom and use sin.

I had actually thought about that but couldn’t come up with a way that you could accurately determine the rise. Have any ideas?

you can use gravity.
put some small weight on a string, hold the string high enough so the weight touches the surface of the hill. put something flat, like a wooden board on the surface of the hill, and measure the angle between the board and the string.

sizerp - 13 March 2008 10:21 AM

you can use gravity.
put some small weight on a string, hold the string high enough so the weight touches the surface of the hill. put something flat, like a wooden board on the surface of the hill, and measure the angle between the board and the string.

thats actually a pretty good idea- might try that or something like it. the hill gets steeper towards the end so ill just have to do it twice to figure out how steep both sections are. any other ideas guyz?

I would use a level as well on the board to make sure the board is actually level then you can measure the distance from the board to the ground.  Or you can use a tape measure and level that out from the top of the hill to where you start and make sure it is level and measure the distance from where the tape measure is to the ground and use trig to find the angle.