10 replies to this topic

[clateboulder]

Hills Hills Hills.

How do you feel about running hills?

Do you love them or hate them? And how do you get through them?

Do you have a favorite hill?

Ten Reasons I Love Running Hills

[Jimmy4990]

"The hills are your Friends" We tell our kids this, all the time. My local Hill Rep hill is a beauty. Timothy Lacey Lane, The Oaks. 22 metres over 350 metres with the last 30 metres the toughest. We have a love/hate relationship

[Kato]

A couple of years ago Geoff Williams organised a race called "Mountain View".  Everyone who did it found it incredibly strenuous.  I now train on that hill once a week.  Average gradient is 10%.  I did 19 km there last Saturday with 1000 metres of gain, 1000 metres of descent.

That way, when I do a run like Caloundra, or the Twilight Half, and people complain about "the hills" - I just laugh.

[vat]

I know of a few runners who have taken to doing hills as their 'effort' (as opposed to 'speed') sessions to quite a degree of success, the thinking being it's not as hard as speed work but reaps similar cardio rewards.

If you can find a hill you can run up without changing your form substantially you've got a good rep session.  I will occasionally get out and run the Mt Coot-tha bike time trial section (Simpsons Rd to just past Channel 10), great 13-15 minute load workout, run down, repeat.

Great workout on a bike, too.  A mate of mine and I have taken to smashing Dutton Park all the way to the top of Highgate Hill - it's hilarious, people grinding away and we fly past, heart rates north of 180.  Epic.

Edited by vat, 24 August 2011 - 10:11 PM.

[undercover brother]

Kato, on 24 August 2011 - 10:03 PM, said:

A couple of years ago Geoff Williams organised a race called "Mountain View".  Everyone who did it found it incredibly strenuous.  I now train on that hill once a week.  Average gradient is 10%.  I did 19 km there last Saturday with 1000 metres of gain, 1000 metres of descent.

That way, when I do a run like Caloundra, or the Twilight Half, and people complain about "the hills" - I just laugh.

i hear you kato.
remember doing that run a few years back - was fun...well the up anyway.
hilliest thing i have ever done was some training runs up/down the skislopes at snowmass in summer (near aspen, colorado) took a particular liking to the ?is it double black diamond runs?
was 900m up and down in 9km (4.5km ew).
made the hardrock course marking i had done the week before look flat.
i love hills.

[run2work]

There are three hills in Dubbo. Roden Cutler Park hill, Bell Av hill and Mugga Hill (ehh hill). I live a kilometer from Mugga Hill which is actually not too steep or long to have to walk. You can run the lot.It is about 300 to 400m with a 50 to 60m elevation gain.

It is a dirt road with a dirt track finish. The name Mugga is aptly named because the last bit, the dirt track section is rugged enough to 'mug' ya.* I used to do reps on the hill, but now I just run through it to get onto what is known as 'the gasline', a stock route mostly about 100m in from the road to Dunedoo (pronounced dunnydoo). It has a few hills as well, but mostly I like it because it is offroad and all I have to contend with are kangaroos, cattle and snakes. There are no cars to worry about for about 20km in one direction. Nice.

*Actually Mugga is another name for the Ironbark tree which is common on the hill. Oh and by the way, I consider the hill to be mine even though it isn't really. It just feels like it is! Or maybe I belong to it, one or the other.

r2w

[Skat]

Love my hills. Have found a few beauties on trails near my place in the blue mountains recently. The best part about any hill is once you have conquered it there is usually a downhill on the other side to recover. And once youve managed it once theres no backing out next time!

[SpecBGT]

Living in Canberra, there always seems to be a hill somewhere on the run. I think the psychological benefits of doing hills are just as important as the physical. In my training days in the Army, the Physical Training Instructors (PTIs) used to have a saying when running up hills 'Lean into the hill, let the hill do the work for you!!' Never managed to get the logic on that one, but I guess that was reason that PTIs were called lobsters: body full of muscle, head full of %$it.  

[southy]

Hills are one of the easiest ways to build strength, power, endurance,  lactate tolerance and improve your technique. Safer too for those who are injury prone than speed sessions. Some days short hill repeats at the end of a long run, every second week long hill repeats.

[clateboulder]

And after you've hit the hills, you know you've definitely done something.

[southy]

Especially the next day ! (sore quads, calves  & glutes)

But I take that to mean I have worked hard