My ass hurts!
I'm not kidding or trying to shock. It's been three days and three runs since my hill repeat Thursday, and I am STILL in pain. So why is that?
Well, gentle readers it takes more work. A lot more work to get up that hill. And that causes muscle fatigue. It will also come up on you faster. Further, as I've just read, an incline means shorter distance for your foot to fall so less energy coming from the tendons. So no boost as you would get on a flat surface. Ugh.
But why do it? Where's the pay off? Unless your "pain junkie" like me, you're going to ask yourself, how does this improve my running? Well... Hold on to your hats... The pay off is lotto huge! You will get stronger and stronger every week. It's like going to the gym with no gym. Your body adapts to the stress and then will be better ready to eat up those hills during a race. Trust me, you will love passing people on a hill. What a rush!
But, if you're not me and in love with hills, how can you make them easier to fit into your training? I use Interval Hill runs. After a warmup run, you need to start at the base of a hill about 100 to 200 meters long. Run up it at a high intensity, though not full on max. Jog or walkback down. Repeat. Now you can repeat until you think you've had enough, or say three times. I do a set of 10 and that is enough for me. I recommend slowly working yourself up to it. As you get stronger, increase the number of intervals up to eight or more. Another plan is Group Hill Intervals. Here you do the above but with groups of people to get motivation ratcheted up. The slow runners go first. Then the middle runners after 15 seconds. Then the fastest runners after another 15. The slow runners don't want to get passed. The middle runners don't like being in the middle. And the faster runners don't like being last. So everyone is nipping at each other's heels all the way up the hill. Then walk or jog down. Repeat.
For other strategies on hill running see my previous entry last year on the subject.
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