Inspired by a comment from Instructor57 this morning reference dropping a gear to up the revs I decided to mix up my recovery plan and throw in a hill sprint for a change.
At the start of my usual route there is a long uphill stretch which usually takes me just under 8 minutes. I don't usually push it up here as it kills me for the rest of whatever run I have planned. However, I've been doing this for over a year and not a sniff of a pb from strava. Hmmm!
I am the local legend on this segment but miles off any time record which is under 5 minutes 🤔
Inspired by Instructor57 I started a warm up around the estate prior to heading off up my segment hill.
I eased into my speed and then gradually picked up the pace. Half way, I am puffing, panting and sweating. People walking doggies move aside as I could probably be heard from 30 metres away by now. Keep going ..... I can see the top...... get there. Shattered.
It was just as hard coming back down slowly trying to recover. I was spent.
Amazing how much a hill can take out of you. Full respect to those hill runners on the forum. You must be super fit.
Finally in the house I paired up Garmin and Strava and like an excited child opened up the app and there it was .... a wonderful 🏅 PB medal.
Phew! I was pleased as I don't want to do that again 🤣🤣.
Back to my gentle happy running tomorrow with a 40 minute meander with a couple of lamp post gear changes thrown in.
PS. Celebrated with Aero chocolate buttons. Oh yes.
They certainly don't faze me the same way they used to a year ago, but there are some routes I do where it's a relentless climb spread over several km and the last, steepest bit is just too much, and I walk.
Sometimes on long runs it's the only thing to do, and there's no shame in walking a steep hill. To quote from Born to Run:
Eric and I eased back to a walk, obeying the ultrarunner’s creed: “If you can’t see the top, walk.” When you’re running fifty miles, there’s no dividend in bashing up the hills and then being winded on the way down; you only lose a few seconds if you walk, and then you can make them back up by flying downhill.
The road to where I'm staying is definitely one where you can't see the top, though you can see the turning to where I'm staying. Please may I rely on this quote when my husband teases me for walking up the very steep hill?
While I totally agree with the energy-efficiency principle behind it, if I adopted "If you can't see the top, walk" there's a whole bunch of hills here I'd never run, because they go on for several km. They're not steep though.
I don't attempt to run up steep stuff or risky surfaces, I walk or just clamber up them instead. As for downhills, I need to learn to run them properly. I'm reasonably OK on roads and tracks, but fields and slippery trails can get a bit scary.
Having just finished Born to Run (I binge-read it), it appears that the natural ultrarunners described in it would run down slopes with a similar cadence and shorter stride to how they ran up them.
The Tandle Hill route I do is a long, continuous climb, with no relief until the summit. The last 100m or so is steeper than the rest. I've still not been able to do it all at a run.
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Hills!
Hills!
To take to the hills... or not?
