Hills, as far as the eye can see!

[katjo]

Newbie poster but I’m just about to start week 4 Hi!

Just wondering whether any of you have any tips on how to run the longer times when your only option is hills? I live in South Devon, which is beautiful, but unbelievably hilly! At the moment I’ve just been squeezing the runs into the downs or short level bits, with the recovery walk up hill to my house, but with longer periods of running coming up I don’t think that’s going to be possible. Any thoughts on making running up steep hills more achievable? From my tentative steps I think it’s just going to wipe me out!

Might just have to drive somewhere flatter, but if I can modify technique I’d like to give it a go.

Thanks!

[GoGo_JoJo Graduate]

The key is smaller strides, reduce your stride to even half your foot size for really steep hills. I find if I keep the same pace but just smaller steps I can power up the hills. In the beginning it was really hard but practice really pays off.

Don't look at the top, just focus on the 6 feet in front of you.

Hills are tough but they really help with training. Try to place the worst ones at the beginning of your run whilst you are freshest, tailing off for the end. 👍😁

[Mrs_Gibson5k Graduate]

I’m going to give completely different advice from @gogo_JoJo as this is the advice I was given from a pro runner when I asked them about hills.

They told me not to look down but look up, keep your chin up & focus to the top of the hill, keep your shoulders back & chest out & keep pounding up the hill at same pace as running on the flat. This advice definitely has helped me with the hills, I noticed a massive difference after putting this into practise.

It might not work for all but it works for me, suppose it’s just finding your own rhythm to beat the hills.

[katjo]

Thanks both, looks like I’ll have to play around with it - will have a go with both and see what works for me