They might as well have been taunting him.

When second-year safety Tracy Walker showed up at the Detroit Lions' Allen Park practice facility one day this summer to watch film, he saw workers building a small conditioning hill behind one of the outdoor fields.

"I was watching them put in the work on it and I was like, 'That's tough,'" Walker said Wednesday. "I knew eventually we were going to run it."

"Eventually" came Wednesday, when the Lions ended practice with a four-minute-or-so conditioning run up the hill.

Players ran the hill about six times in small groups, covering two "trails" with one slightly more steep than the other.

The hill is only about 15 feet high, but it's still quite the workout — especially after a two-plus-hour practice.

"Honestly, I don't even want to look at that hill no more right now," Walker said.

Several Lions have used the hill in the past week as part of their rehab work, including Trey Flowers and Steve Longa on Wednesday. But the post-practice run was the first time the Lions have used the hill, publicly at least, on a larger scale.

Matt Patricia gathered players around his ATV to talk briefly before the run, and Lions owner Martha Firestone Ford even came over in her golf cart for a closer look.

Players who didn't run the hill, those sitting out Wednesday's practice and some others with previous knee injuries, spent the workout doing abdominal work like planking and crunches in front of the hill.

And while the run clearly took a toll on several players, Danny Amendola, Justin Coleman, Zach Zenner and Ty Johnson were repeatedly among the first up the hill in their groups.

"I mean, it’s running up a hill," Amendola said, when asked how tough it was. "Just like anything else, it’s hard. That’s why we do it and I feel like it helps us with our conditioning."

Of conditioning work in general, Amendola said the goal is to "put it in the bank" for later in the season with expectations that it pays off come November and December.

That's how the New England Patriots, who have a similar hill behind Gillette Stadium, have always operated, and that's what Patricia is trying to do in Detroit.

One player, rookie tight end Isaac Nauta, even ran the hill a few extra times after his teammates were done and stretching Wednesday.

“Yeah, got to, man," Nauta said. "You got to get a little extra work in. It’s all about conditioning so just trying to get as much extra work and be in the best shape possible, that’s all it is."

Wednesday was Day 6 of training camp, and the Lions' fourth straight practice (with an off day in between) in full pads.

Here are some more observations from practice:

• Romeo Okwara returned to practice on a limited basis Wednesday, but the Lions still were without several players, including Christian Jones, Da'Shawn Hand, Mike Daniels, Austin Bryant and Marcus Cooper. Hand stopped to sign autographs for a group of fans after practice, and he used his left arm at times to hold a shirt or pennant or whatever he was signing. But the second-year defensive tackle also was very careful not to hug any of the fans with his arm, which remains swollen and in a bulky elbow brace.

Hand made some small talk with reporters on his way off the field, but he once again declined to answer questions about his injury or timetable for return.

• Walker had a good day Wednesday, intercepting a Matthew Stafford pass in a 7-on-7 drill midway through practice and breaking up a pass to Logan Thomas one period later. Walker is clearly the team's starting safety opposite Quandre Diggs and I wouldn't be surprised if he had a breakout year.

• Walker made a nice play on his interception, undercutting T.J. Hockenson for what would have been a pick-six had it been a game. But Stafford threw the ball behind his rookie tight end, and the veteran quarterback has been a tad inconsistent the last few days.

This strikes me as more due to working out the kinks in a new offense than any major concern, but Stafford wasn't particularly sharp with his deep passes Wednesday, and coming off a season when he struggled with his accuracy downfield, that needs to change. On Wednesday, Stafford missed deep throws to Amendola and Brandon Powell in one-on-one work, was out of rhythm with Kenny Golladay on a back-shoulder fade in the same drill, and threw incomplete on two "push-up" plays (where the losing side, offense or defense, has to do push-ups based on the last rep).

• Patricia told reporters before practice that he wanted to put his players in a few surprise situations Wednesday, and he had to be pleased with how his defense responded to those "push-up" plays.

On the first one, Stafford threw well wide of an unidentified receiver in the back of the end zone. On the second, the coverage was sticky enough that Stafford scrambled to his right to buy extra time. He finally found Hockenson sneaking open in the back of the end zone, but Jarrad Davis made a nice play to get his hand on the ball for a pass breakup.

• In one-on-one work between running backs and linebackers, Davis overpowered Kerryon Johnson in their first rep of a blocking drill, sending him flying backwards with two hands to the body. Davis got the better of Mark Thompson in the same drill (and again when the two squared off in a goal-line one-on-one drill where the ball carrier has 1 yard to get and the defender has to keep him out of the end zone), but Johnson sailed past him with ease when the drill was flipped and linebackers were asked to cover running backs one-on-one.

• I don't know for sure if this was new, but I didn't notice it in previous practices this summer: Johnson practiced with a wrap on his left knee Wednesday. He missed six games with a sprained MCL in the same knee last year that brought an early end to his season.

• From the long-snapping-isn't-as-easy-as-it-looks department, fullback Nick Bawden tried his hand at the position early in practice, and if the half-dozen or so snaps I watched are any indication, the Lions are in deep trouble if they need him to be their emergency replacement for Don Muhlbach. Muhlbach stood over Bawden giving him tips, but Bawden had neither the velocity nor the accuracy for the job.

• A couple more individual notes from the one-on-one receiver-defensive back work: Teez Tabor made a nice play to punch a ball away from Marvin Jones on an in-breaking route, Brandon Powell got several yards of separation from Jamal Agnew with an inside fake on a deep route, and Chris Lacy made a nice toe-tapping grab on the sideline against Amani Oruwariye.

• Undrafted rookie defensive lineman Kevin Strong continues to impress in one-on-one pass-rush drills. Strong, who first caught my eye Sunday, has a big-time motor and never gives up on a rush. He made a nice move to disengage from Graham Glasgow in his first one-on-one rep Wednesday, and got the better of Micah St. Andrew later in the drill as well.

• A few more notes from the period: Davis said he spent some time this offseason working on his pass-rush moves and he's still doing so in camp. Rick Wagner got the better of him in their matchup Wednesday, but Davis showed good bend in a second rep against Andrew Donnal, even though it wouldn't have ended in a sack. There weren't many true first-team matchups Wednesday because of the injuries the Lions have on their defensive line, but Taylor Decker walled off Romeo Okwara on his rush and Kenny Wiggins kept A'Shawn Robinson away from the quarterback, though Robinson still showed some power with his second effort.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.