Hill circuits is one way you can utilized the 100 yard hill. Before attempting hill circuits, athletes should have a good base of mileage.
Hill circuits are a high intensity/low recovery type of training. It is an anaerobic threshhold workout where the emphasis is "training to race". You want to run hill circuits at a pace equal to or faster than race pace.
Hills improve endurance and enable runners to maintain the hard pace necessary for successful racing. Hill circuits are organized by running uphill/downhill at a race pace, with sets of 2-5 continuous repetitions.
Here are sample circuits on a 100 yard hill. Place a cone at the bottom of the hill, another cone 25 yards up, another cone 50 yards up, another cone 75 yards up and another cone at the top or 100 yards up the hill.
Run the circuit continuously from the bottom of the hill to the top of the hill and run all the way down, run up to the 75 yard cone and back down, run up to the 50 yard cone and back down, run up to the 25 yard cone and back down. This is one circuit. Then do a recovery jog until the next circuit.
Another sample circuit is to do three of the above circuit non-stop.
With regard to periodization, in the first week you could start with 2 circuits and in the second week you could do 3 circuits, the third week 4 circuits, etc., up to 5 circuits. This is where you apply the overload principle.
Coach Payan
www.CoachesEducation.com