Silly hilly question!

[Cmoi]

Forgive the silly question, but neither Googling nor reading other posts on here is helping much!

I'm curious to know what's considered a hilly run.

Context: I've not yet been running six months, and I live in mid-mountain France at 680m, where fields give way to forest, so I run mainly on quiet country roads, forest tracks, and paths between fields or through woods.

Prior to lockdown my 5-6k runs would typically come in at 55-60m elevation gain, but could vary between 32m and 70+m. I was also just getting into longer runs, which invariably involved even more uppy-downy bits, so 10-12k came in at 214-248m, 10 miles at 297m and 312m, and my one and only (unplanned) half-marathon at 446m.

Lockdown restrictions of maximum one hour's exercise within 1km radius of home have forced me to change my routes, and Strava tells me that my recent runs were, in order of distance, as follows: 53m elevation gain over 4k, 95m over 5k, 185m over 7k, 219m over 8k and 240m over 8.2k.

So, I'm guessing this is quite hilly, but I have no context. What do others consider hilly?!

[linda9389 Administrator Marathon]

I'd call that hilly!!!! It's beyond 'undulating' in my book and most definitely not flat. I'm not sure what the technical definition of hilly is (if indeed there is one), but even if you look at the definition for races I don't think they're very consistent. What's hilly to me may be gently undulating to you 😀.

Sorry, I realise that definitely doesn't answer your question 😂

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to linda9389]

Thanks linda9389 - frankly you've reassured me that it wasn't quite such a daft question after all!

[roseabi Ultramarathon]

I live in Brighton & Hove in the UK, which I consider pretty hilly, although I usually have to run around 5k before I get to anything I would describe as a "steep" hill. I'm not sure how much of this you will be able to see (depends on whether or not you have a Strava account) but here is a route that I ran quite some time ago - I cycled to the start of it so I would be hitting the first uphill part more quickly, and also it is 11km, so it is comparable in distance to your 10-12km. It amounts to 199m of elevation, which is also comparable. I would describe this route as hilly!

strava.com/activities/21387...

What I mean by a "steep" hill is one that would be steep enough that I would probably need to walk sections of it. There are a couple of them on that route, and also a very long stretch that I ran down, which I would probably find quite taxing if I'd been going up it! But gentler uphill runs, where I wouldn't need to walk, do also count as hilly, I reckon. To get a bit more technical here's an article about hill repeats which talks about gradient: runnersconnect.net/sprint-t...

And, to toot my own trumpet, I have run the Beachy Head Marathon twice, which I would describe as VERY hilly 😊

strava.com/running-races/20...

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to roseabi]

Thanks roseabi . So far I haven't actually had to walk on an uphill stretch, but have certainly been reduced to a feet-barely-off-the-ground-why-am-I-doing-this shuffle!

Any sort of marathon seems like an impossibility to me right now; I'll be chuffed if I can get through lockdown without my mojo going awol.

[GoGo_JoJo Ultramarathon]

From Runnersworld Oct 2019

If you run up a hill then it's a run with a hill in it. If you run up and down a lot of hills then it's a hilly run. 👍🏻😁

It can mean different things to different people.

I regularly look for routes of 500m plus over 10 to 18 miles, a flattish route locally is usually still 180m plus over 6 to 10 miles.

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

Thanks GoGo_JoJo . While I'm very far from being able to match your achievements, all my routes have at least a bit of uphill and downhill in them, otherwise I'd never get home - we live in a slight dip between a properly hilly field and some gently sloping ones.

[SlowLoris]

Hilly trail runs are usually described as undulating. If they are really horrible they will be called challenging.

Quite hilly is probably hiding your light under a bushel.

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to SlowLoris]

Thanks SlowLoris . Not sure I'm hiding my light under a bushel though, I'm more of a clueless-but-stubborn newbie! I am very, very bad at giving up once I've got it into my head I'm going to do something, even when it would be better to stop and try again another day.

[SlowLoris in reply to Cmoi]

Have you seen this?

youtu.be/BbS32MAurnQ(Not working as expected?)

Stubborn is good.

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to SlowLoris]

I haven't! Will watch later, thanks

[Magellan Marathon]

I live where a 5k run will typically come with an elevation gain of 60-100m, and I'd categorise my gentler runs as 'rather hilly' and my average runs as 'hilly'. I occasionally do a 'very hilly' which to me means a gain of more than 100m per 5k.

At a gain of 20m or less over that distance, I'd guess there's little need to slow down on any of the slopes, which is the point at which I'd say it's not hilly at all.

Your short runs are 'rather hilly', or 'hilly', and you've done some long runs I'd call 'very hilly'.

I'm basing this on nothing more scientific than the amount of effort it takes me to get up the slopes.

Every now and again I drive down to the coast, where it's flat as an ironing board that's just been sanded and polished. I can run so fast for so long, it's like flying! (Not really that fast, but fast for me!!)

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to Magellan]

Thanks Magellan , I can totally empathise with your scientific approach (despite the ghost of my father, who worked in pharmaceuticals research, standing behind me and telling me there's a formula he could explain to me which would enable me to calculate the precise incline of every step to the nearest decimal point, if only I would listen!)

[NetCadet]

I'm so glad you asked this as I was wondering the same thing! And thanks to everyone who responded.

All my runs involve an elevation (because I live on lake Geneva and have to run up away from the lake to get anywhere). Just looking through I nearly always do around 55m over whatever run I do to access the places I run BUT it's pretty much all in one hill at the very beginning or after the first km depending on my route. I find it steep and when I was starting out I would walk and start running gradually further from the top. Now I can run the whole thing but often don't if I'm trying to keep my HR down or don't want to get tired before a long run.

I guess it's not hilly over 5km but I guess if I said I'd done 55m over 1km (straight up the hill and straight back down again) I guess that would be "very hilly"!! LOL

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to NetCadet]

Thanks NetCadet , I'm so pleased it wasn't just me who was wondering! My runs all involve some up, some down, and my current "lockdown special" has extra uphill that I wouldn't usually do on a 7-8k run.

[GoGo_JoJo Ultramarathon]

Another way to see it if you use Strava, add #gradientmap to your description field and your map will be coloured based on elevation. If Its mainly green its not that hilly, yellow requires effort, red blobs means hilly! 👍🏻😁

[Sandie1961 Half Marathon in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

Ooh, I didn’t know that. Where is the description field? I can’t find it 🤷‍♀️

[GoGo_JoJo Ultramarathon in reply to Sandie1961]

The bit where you might write what you got up to, under the add photos bit.

[Sandie1961 Half Marathon in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

Brilliant, thank you 😊 I’ve just done it for my last run. Not surprisingly for Lincolnshire, nearly all green and yellow!

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

Thanks GoGo_JoJo ! I'm guessing it's subscriber-only though? I have the free version of Strava at the moment.

[GoGo_JoJo Ultramarathon in reply to Cmoi]

I'm not 100% sure, certainly the description box isn't, not sure if the map feature is though

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

GoGo_JoJo , from what I've found on Google the Strava map feature is currently subscriber-only. Another thing for me to ponder!

[SkiMonday Ultramarathon in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

Just came across this whilst blundering around HU. It's a feature I wasn't aware of before.

Looks like the colours are:

green: downhill

yellow: gentle descent

orange: gentle ascent

red: uphill

I can't tell if there's a colour for flat, the ground around here won't keep still enough.

[GoGo_JoJo Ultramarathon in reply to SkiMonday]

There is also #elevationmap and #heartratemap might even be more!

[SkiMonday Ultramarathon in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

Thanks JoJo.

[HeavyFoot Half Marathon]

Bonjour Cmoi

That had me thinking. First reaction: You know it’s hilly when it hurts.

Then I thought about parkruns. One of the hardest is Bodmin with 138m over the 5km. It used to kill me but I can’t wait to tackle it again when parkruns start again.

Much depends on how many downhills you get to recover. They’re lovely.

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to HeavyFoot]

Thanks HeavyFoot , or should I say merci Pied-lourd ! I'm so with you on the general loveliness of downhills, though wet leaves on the road aren't so great. Bodmin parkrun sounds frankly scary...!

[Maddee_6333 Half Marathon]

That is definitely hilly.

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to Maddee_6333]

Thanks Maddee_6333 , I'll buy that!

[Curlygurly2 Half Marathon]

I also live in France part of the year, and while I'd say, yes, that's hilly, it also kinda depends on how the hills are spread out. I often run down in the valley which is pretty flat, but then I have a massive climb back up to the village. I rarely run back up...does this chime with your running, or are the hills all over where you are?

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to Curlygurly2]

Thanks Curlygurly2 - it's pretty much hills, or at least slopes, all round from home.

This morning's 5.19k came in at 92m elevation gain, which was essentially 2k downhill, 1k uphill, 0.5k downhill, then uphill again until the end.

The 8k from the day before yesterday included a 2k uphill stretch from 615m to 777m, which I then run back down on the way home. Normally I'd only run up that road if I were continuing on a longer run on the forest roads and tracks, but needs must when lockdown drives!

[Curlygurly2 Half Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

Then yes - that counts as hilly. I reckon I clock up around 10,000 mts of elevation over an average summer in Cordes, even if I don't run it all it's hard walking back up at the end of a run. Now, I'm back in lovely flat Cambridge!

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to Curlygurly2]

Cordes-sur-Ciel? We've stayed there a couple of times in our motorhome so I know it a bit. I can entirely understand why you wouldn't be running back up to the village all the time, especially in summer!

[Curlygurly2 Half Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

This year for the first time I did, all the monster hills...mostly "run" is a relative term, I can walk faster than that, but run them I did! Ha ha, never gonna do that again!