Hello Running family!
Here I am, a whole week of a closed Catch-Up Corner! I apologise for that. My whole Wi-Fi system decided to behave appallingly and having just got it all sorted, I am playing catch up.
My own little hill to get over!... which leads me into this ramble.
There have been a fair few posts over the last weeks, mainly from our new runners, about hills!
I remember, very, very early on in my running, when I queried/groaned/moaned about hills... a runner who I admired greatly, gave the priceless advice... “ Hills? We just get over them “.
Yes! I know exactly what you are thinking... the same thing as I thought I bet! But. It is right... we DO get over them and we do, many of us, learn to love the experience.
Hoping this may help!
Hill runs are, ( or may be for you), important for a number of reasons. Hills shake your runs up... they can improve so many features of your running. endurance, breathing, pace, control and strength.
Hills strengthen your muscles, and help improves your running form. Running uphill makes you lift up your knees higher than on the flat helping with strength and pace. Your muscles get stronger.
Now...that is all super, but, ( there is always a but, ), hills do increase the difficulty of a run. Climbing a hill naturally increases heart rate, which improves both your aerobic (endurance) and your anaerobic capacity.
So many things happening when we start some uphill sections...everything seems to change... physically and mentally ! Believe it or not, you are thinking faster, you will feel less tired.... because it is so different from your flatter runs.( Eventually).
This all sounds really positive, but there are 'down' bits as well...
When running up a hill, you’ve got to do extra work to overcome gravity. your body has to use more muscles in your legs to overcome that force and carry you up the slope.
Your foot strike changes, and your calves may feel that... ( a lot), especially the next day.
It is quite natural, when we start running up a hill, to feel that we want to lean into it, usually by bending forward at the waist. That slight forward lean is necessary when running up a hill, a lot of people lean much too far.
Running uphill alters the way your knee drives you forward, it stops you pushing off effectively and it can throw you off balance.... This is getting scary now!
So what can we do ?
We can...Stand tall! When you run up a hill, this is a good mantra to have; drive your hips, focus on them and use your arms to drive you too.
To push off the ground and use those calf muscles, effectively, then you need to fully extend your leg straight behind you, this can be achieved most effectively when your upper body is not slanted forward. By standing tall, when we run up a hill, it makes it easier for our glutes to extend the leg behind us! Sounds simple doesn't it?
If you are just beginning to run, and you do have a choice, then it is sensible to wait a while, before seeking some hilly sections out...and then, introduce slowly... your running body has got to be built up slowly, with regular, structured running progression, and with some core strength and stamina work running alongside that. This applies to those of us, also, who have no choice but to run up some inclines... long and steady or short and steep. But at least, we know now that there are things we can do to make it easier
I found myself in that position.. when I began in 2015... not huge hills, but lots of uphill and long slow inclines, whichever way I went...things that I felt were hills when I began. I realised as the months and years went on, were just gentle slopes... and as the years increased, and I ran more and more, I discovered that I loved the inclines, I loved the hilly bits and wait for it... I run faster on anything going uphill, even now at 72! Weird... yes... probably!
So if you are surrounded by hills... what do you do? ( Drive to the nearest flat bits)!
Nope... you learn, quite simply, to love, “... them, thar hills “ !
It will make you all the stronger for the other running that you will be doing eventually!
All a bit like life really, “...we won't make the top, by never going uphill “; and when we do... the view is just great.
Ramble over...
We all need now to know, please, where you are and what you have been doing, whilst I have been away... slip of your running shoes and take a rest.
Have you overcome any hills over the last few days?
Grab a cushion and share 
Oldfloss x
PS
Running downhill.... that is a whole other post.... suffice to say at this point, keep it slow and controlled! x
