Flat ✔ Incline ❌

[Kerhel]

Need a plan! Lost! I can run 28 minutes but only on the flat. If there is an incline involved I can't manage much more than 8! I come home feeling defeated and end up repeating week 6 and failing again. But I live on a hill - my closest routes are up and down. I can only get to the flat once a week. How should I progress? My aim is to complete week 9 - on the hilly bits.

[pinkaardvark Graduate]

The route choice is up to you, so if you can only manage 8 mins running uphill, then turn around at 8 and run for 8 downhill. The only thing I can offer to help, is that if you keep running inclines you will gradually find it easier, and it doesn't matter one jot about how long it takes you to do the program. If it takes longer because of your terrain.. who cares. You will be a better runner for it at the end of it.

Some of us actually wish we had a few more hills to train on

[AnnieW55]

Try "back stitching" the hill. Run up to first lamp post (or static marker, no using cars that move - guess who did 😚), turn and run down. Turn and run up two, down one - repeat until you get to the top. The run down gives a bit of recovery time before going up again and you get plenty of practice going up. Do this slowly and with small steps, it really works. It's the way I learned to run the hills around here - I can't do a run without doing a hill or two and I don't want/won't drive to a flatter area.

[Kerhel in reply to AnnieW55]

Perfecto. Back stitching - love the lingo.

Right! To the hills it is.

[sallenson Graduate in reply to Kerhel]

And slowly. And small steps. Smaller the better. What you don't need now is a lot of new strain on your shins.... I'm saving hils and intervals and all the big boy stuff until I graduate. I'd collapse in a soggy heap trying to anything like that now....

[SandieF Graduate]

Or drive to somewhere flat? I’m surrounded by hills and that’s what I do. But my middle name is Cheater 😂. But I am impressed your doing them at all 👍👏

[Jullaly Graduate]

I live among hills and I decided if I was going to see this through I would have to conquer them. I started by 'backstitch' method as AnnieW55 mentioned and it worked! So much so I tried a flat run the other day and it went terribly wrong, I was back in my hills this morning, the good thing about going up is there is usually a coming down

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

If you never learn how to run hills, then you will never learn how to run hills.........

[Kerhel in reply to IannodaTruffe]

True dat