Hill free hill workout

[Yesletsgo]

Today was supposed to be about running up hills for the NRC HM plan but there are no hills round here. Coach Bennett seemed to say in the weekly introduction that I could do it on the flat so I took him at his word and set off over the snowy pavements to the stadium.

First up, a five minute warm up run through a stand of trees nearby. The temperature was around zero but I'm loving the feeling of cold on my skin and warmth under my clothes. Then it was on to the pristine small running track, virgin snow, tempting.

The intervals were supposed to be up a hill for 45 seconds at 10k pace, a 75 second recovery, then 10 seconds up the hill at Best Pace with a 45 second recovery. The recovery was to give time to get to the bottom of the hill so you could run up again, I just walked around slowly.

Started off running round and round the track, probably doing a fast 5k pace instead of the 10k and really going for it on the Best Pace bits. After 3 or 4 intervals I spotted a small incline so after that 45 second run I used the recovery time to walk over there to do the 10 second runs then back to the track for the longer run. I asked Mr OBK who was doing a gentle jog to take a picture of me running up the hill but he reckoned the building behind was way too ugly, but then he spotted another short slope with a church in the background so I ran up and down there instead.

Looking at the figures afterwards the splits on the NRC app look like I was going way quicker on the 10k pace bits than the Best bits, but the Garmin Connect graph of pace shows the truth, five wide spikes with a pretty good pace, interspersed with five narrow spikes which look like they are under 6 mins/km, very fast for me.

This was a great way to spend a chilly morning, when I get back to the UK I'll try it again on a proper slope, the one I run down on my Parkrun 😂.

[Indielass00]

Wow good going! Running in the snow! Well done 😀

[Yesletsgo Graduate10 in reply to Indielass00]

The snow here is sort of crunchy and grippy, not icy and slippy, it's great for running and (ooh, I feel I should do another rhyme - trippy? dippy?)..... makes me happy (should that be hippy? 😂)

[Oldfloss Administrator 60minGraduate in reply to Yesletsgo]

Go for it... I feel a rhyme coming on!

[Hidden]

Oh well done 👏

Some great improvisation there and fantastic that you had a good time. I also enjoyed this session 😊

[Yesletsgo Graduate10 in reply to Hidden]

Your run report was one of my encouragements to do it on the flat!

[GailXrunning]

Sounds great. Well done on your adaptations and seeking of best photo oops. 🙌🌟 I had an embankment to use for that session, but I recall that I couldn’t get back down ready for the next effort in the recovery time allowed. And some poor guy hoping for peaceful morning reverie on a bench had me puffing back and forth.

[Yesletsgo Graduate10 in reply to GailXrunning]

I'll let you know how it goes when I do this for real 😂

[Hidden in reply to GailXrunning]

😄😄😄

[CBDB Graduate10]

Oh I remember that NRC run! One of my last runs before heading into the injury couch, and I did it twice and loved it!

I am looking forward to running much more interval and hill runs. They were new to me as I had only focused on endurance and consolidation of distances. And I’m lucky to have a hill right on my original C25k route. (I didn’t think I was lucky when I did C25k though 🤣🤣)

So really great to read, as it sounds you had as much fun as I did. Even without a hill.

Awesome!

[Yesletsgo Graduate10 in reply to CBDB]

Thanks, I felt quite cheated that I didn't have a real hill road 😂

[CBDB Graduate10 in reply to Yesletsgo]

Well, around here the farmer on the top of the hill must have thought it weird seeing this runner run up the hill, walk down and then repeat over and over again! 🤔

I couldn’t have done this at the start of my running journey, I was too self conscious.

But by the time we get to hill runs, I think we runners just don’t care, and we do all sorts of weird things. (Can’t get the image of 100 Santas jogging on a parkrun out of my head!)

[Oldfloss Administrator 60minGraduate]

Brrrrr.. that looks chilly. but super. How innovative of you too ! It will be interesting when you do get back home to see how it translates

[Yesletsgo Graduate10 in reply to Oldfloss]

I think my times will be a lot less impressive 😂😂😂

[Beatlesforever Graduate10]

Kudos to you 💪👏👏👏 I love that particular workout, I had so much fun with it! 😀

[pinkglen Graduate10]

Well done on the run. Coincidentally, I did exactly the same run this morning. My times and efforts were all over the place and I was shocked into realising that hills are difficult! I’ve never done them before. Ah well, back to the drawing board for pace/ times and a date in the diary ( next week) to redo. 🐢

[Maddee_6333 Graduate10]

Well done. I’m sure snow is a good substitute for a hill.