Today my dad and I did a hill workout. We started with about a mile warm up, stopped to stretch (veryyy important) and then proceeded to the hill. I always get nervous for difficult workouts whether they are speed, hills, or long runs and today was no exception. Last week, I attempted a hill workout after 3 days of hard workouts between running and the gym. I thought I was just sore, but when I started to warm up, I realized something was wrong with my quad. I promptly stopped running and took 4 days off. Sooo, not only was I nervous because of the daunting hill, but I was hoping I would not have a repeat of last week's failed attempt.
Fortunately, I was able to complete the workout, but it was very humbling (read: butt-kicking). The good news is, my splits were practically identical to the last hill workout, about 2 weeks ago. The bad news is, I felt like I had to work so much harder to get there. I felt great after and will probably cross train tomorrow, (shopping with my mom = lots of walking :) take off on Friday, and then Saturday is race day!
Stats:
Distance: 4.01 Miles
Time: 36:28
Fortunately, I was able to complete the workout, but it was very humbling (read: butt-kicking). The good news is, my splits were practically identical to the last hill workout, about 2 weeks ago. The bad news is, I felt like I had to work so much harder to get there. I felt great after and will probably cross train tomorrow, (shopping with my mom = lots of walking :) take off on Friday, and then Saturday is race day!
Stats:
Distance: 4.01 Miles
Time: 36:28
Avg Pace: 09:06 min/mi
Best Pace: 05:41 min/mi
Min Elevation: 153 ft
Max Elevation: 499 ft
The hill is exactly a 1/4 mile. I included the elevation to try and give you all an idea of how steep the hill is. I tried to copy my garmin page into this post but it didn't exactly work...hopefully I will figure it out soon. We did 4 repeats and jogged down in between. My splits were 1:45, 1:49, 1:49, 1:54. We built up to jogging down in between. When we first started doing hills last year we probably started with 2 repeats and walked down after each one. I hope to build to 8 or 10 eventually.
There are a number of ways to do a hill workout:
~Short Hill Repeats: This is basically what I do, except the hill is twice as long so I do half as many repeats. Its also hard to judge because every hill has a different grade so use your judgment and start slow so you don't get hurt!
~Hilly Power Run: Good for building strength for longer race. Should be completed on a course with rolling hills. Try not to slow down when you hit the hill, but don't sprint up it either.
~Hilly Long Run: Longer and less intense than the hilly power run. This is the workout my running club does every Tuesday. (I never attend but I hear all about it!)
~Long Hill Circuits:
Runners' World is a great resource and you can read more about hill workouts here and here.
The hill is exactly a 1/4 mile. I included the elevation to try and give you all an idea of how steep the hill is. I tried to copy my garmin page into this post but it didn't exactly work...hopefully I will figure it out soon. We did 4 repeats and jogged down in between. My splits were 1:45, 1:49, 1:49, 1:54. We built up to jogging down in between. When we first started doing hills last year we probably started with 2 repeats and walked down after each one. I hope to build to 8 or 10 eventually.
There are a number of ways to do a hill workout:
~Short Hill Repeats: This is basically what I do, except the hill is twice as long so I do half as many repeats. Its also hard to judge because every hill has a different grade so use your judgment and start slow so you don't get hurt!
~Hilly Power Run: Good for building strength for longer race. Should be completed on a course with rolling hills. Try not to slow down when you hit the hill, but don't sprint up it either.
~Hilly Long Run: Longer and less intense than the hilly power run. This is the workout my running club does every Tuesday. (I never attend but I hear all about it!)
~Long Hill Circuits:
Runners' World is a great resource and you can read more about hill workouts here and here.
5 comments:
Sounds like a very solid run and it's great that you were able to perform about the same as two weeks ago so congrats! I need to find a good hill around me to do some hill workouts because they are great! To me, a hill workout and speed work on a track are almost identical!
Thanks so much for posting this! I had no idea that running all the crazy hills around my house actually classified as a Hilly Long Run :) My main focus has just been to get up every hill in the run without walking, I didn't make it up every hill on my last long run without walking, but I did make it up most of them... so there's definite progress....
Also, I like the idea of doing hill repeats to get some mileage in. I've been running loops all the way through this marathon training, but doing some hill repeats sounds like a good way to mix it up. I'll start adding them in after the half!
Thanks again for posting this, and not to hijack your blog, but I'm so excited and you encourage me so much I just have to share. I ran six miles yesterday Mile 1 9:53, Mile 2 9:35, Mile 3 9:22, Mile 4 9:00, Mile 5 9:03, Mile 6 8:37.
That's right 8:37 HURRAY! I was so happy to just break 9 minutes on Tuesday I wasn't expecting to be able to get under 8:40 so soon, and certainly not on the last mile of a six mile negative split run.... so exciting! Anyway... sorry to hijack your post, and thanks for sharing that running calculator with me!~
Thanks for this awesome post on hills. It's super informative, and it really helps since I'm not really familiar with running hills. Oh and I'm glad Dan is doing better!
Btw, I gave you the Happy 101 Award on my blog today. I love reading your posts :)
I like Hill workouts but living in South Jersey doesn't make it easy to find hills!! Pa on the other hand has some friggen hills!
Great workout- I love reading about your relationship with your Dad!
I hope I'm not too late to wish you a "Good luck with your 5K today!" Sorry, I'm behind reading my favorite running blogs...thanks for your comments on mine. :-)
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