Thoughts on hills

[R4inbow]

Hills might be overstating it a bit, but I live out in the middle of nowhere in the countryside, so my runs tend to be on country lanes nearby. My favourite (and the quietest) route has a few big inclines and I've found I'm try to time my turning round/ starting points so I'm walking at the most steep parts. I'm not talking crazy inclines here, but today I did w4r1 and the first bit of my first 5 minute run was uphill and it really seemed to make the next 4 minutes a struggle.

I'd really appreciate knowing what other people do, as doing this all on my own and haven't told anyone so I've got no one to compare with.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

I have hills all round me and live on the side of one. In W6 I realised that I had to change my route to avoid finishing every run on a steep uphill. As soon as I completed the programme I went back to that original route, so incorporating that hill into all my home 5k runs. This improved my strength and stamina further, but I didn't need it mid plan.

If you never learn to run hills, you will never run hills and that would be a great shame as they provide rewarding challenges. Most of my running at present is hill running, as I am trying to build up my muscle strength.

For every up there is a down.

[Hidden]

I completed the program two weeks ago and during those 11 weeks all my routes have been planned out to avoid hills at all costs, a little like how you’ve described it yourself. All my warm up walks get me up hill.

After completing my fist parkrun on Saturday, which included two short yet steep inclines I’ve now decided that now is the time to incorporate hills into my routes!

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

IannodaTruffe has given you great advice..hills like the weather are to be embraced

I am thinking of starting a hill running plan to improve my strength and eventually my speed.... ( Did I just say that ?)

Go you... and well done

[Hidden]

I’m with IannodaTruffe on this, I too live at the top of a hill, and any run I do means I have to run them. From the very first run I ran the hills, and it makes a huge difference. Oldfloss told me about doing teeny tiny steps and that helped a lot. I ended up doing a rather weird tiptoe type run to keep my stride length short. There is a method called ‘back stitching’ which may help if you can work it in. identify your incline and some milestones on it - a hedge/gate from bottom to top. Then run up to the first milestone then walk back down the hill, then run up to milestone 2 and walk back etc.

If the inclines are really horrid, then just keep doing the bottom milestone and walking back. This may not work within the C25K plan - I used this after graduation on the bigger hills I faced.

Good luck with them