02/02/2013

Hills Are Good

Today's run: 4.23 km / 2.63 miles in 30:00.
Injury check: All clear.
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Hills!

Today I tried this instruction from my running plan: "Hills: 30mins inc 4x3min hills, 1min recovery". So, three minutes of running up a hill, then a minute running back down, then three minutes running up again. And repeat. 

I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I was going to. 
Let me present my five steps to hill running success:

1. Find a hill. Not a problem, as I live on a hill.

2. Start with 5 mins warm up around the park at the bottom of the hill. Then begin uphill run. The warm up was definitely required today, as the wind was rather bitter. 

3. Pass my flat on the second uphill section. And the second downhill section. And the third uphill section. Repeatedly covering the same ground did get a bit old. 

4. Run out of hill before finishing run. Oddly enough, I didn't expect this - my hill seems really long when I'm walking up it. I lengthened the downhill section and turned up the parallel road, which was a bit twistier and longer and - it turns out - steeper.

5. Listen to good music. I loaded up a playlist full of pumping tunes, the last of which was Starships by Nicki Minaj. Such a good running tune. It spurred me into a sprint over the last flat section of the end loop of my run - so much so that when I turned the corner and spied my flat I still had a couple of minutes of the tune left. So what did I do? I carried on running, turning up the hill a final time. Yes, I sprinted up the hill. Not for long, obviously. Still felt good though.


I can see why hill running is good for building up endurance - by the last uphill stretch I had that burning feeling in my lungs that lets you know you're really working hard. 

I will be doing this again. I just need to find a longer hill...