Wednesday, February 4, 2009

That hill is my B**CH!

We came. We saw.

We conquered!

And when we were done, we did it again.
I am quite pleased to say it was easier than I had feared. I felt so good afterwards, like I had really accomplished something. ;)
I have a question for anyone (Victoria, Mike, Rick, Lori, etc.) that might be able to answer: While training for hills, which do you think is best? a) Stopping for 15-20 seconds a couple of times to catch your breath and then continue, or b) Slow to a walk if you need to, pick up running again when you can, just keep moving.
You know what? I'm looking forward to doing that one again.
Until later.............

14 comments:

Southbaygirl said...

you are a rockstar!!

Jo Lynn said...

LOL Penny!

Missy said...

I can't answer the question because I'm skerd of that hill but way to go. Boomer looks happy, shocker!

209Mike said...

Since most of my "hill" running has to be on the treadmill, I try to do at least 1-minute repeats on the steep 15% grade stuff. I usually will follow that up with 1 to 3 minutes of flatter running and then repeat. There is a small hill out where I live that I'll just keep running up and down until I'm ready to fall over. Sounds like you're on the right track.

Jo Lynn said...

Thanks Mike. This hill, by the way, is 1/2 mile long!

209Mike said...

In that case, try to charge up as far as you can go for 30-60 seconds. Rest. Then do it again. Or you can head back down first and then do it again.Can't really lose either way.

Jo Lynn said...

Perfect! Thanks a bunch Mike. Good luck at Woodside Saturday. ;)

run to eat said...

Way to go, Girlfriend! I sure wish Mikey and I were out there training with you and Boomer. You know that if I'm not with you I'm with crazy Sue so I just try to keep up....which for me means running as much of the hill as I can to keep up. Each time I tackle a particular hill I just try to "run" a little further. Sometimes I'm barely moving, but to me I'm "running"!

Rick Gaston said...

Hmmm for hill repeats I find a hill that I can run to the top of or as Mike suggested part way then I come back down easy then do it all over again. On my long runs where I encounter some large hills I just walk till I recover then I start charging again.

Rick Gaston said...

And oh, the current issue of Running Times also has an article on "Hill Sprints". These are different from Hill workouts/Hill repeats in the recovery part. You actually take 2 to 3 minutes to recover. You walk down and recover completely. What this does is make your sprints faster. I should just scan and send to you. Now that I'm re-reading it, it's a great article.

Jo Lynn said...

Thanks Rick. All of that information will be really helpful to me. I appreciate it.
Thanks Lori, for the input. Maybe you can pick Sue's brain for me. :)

Victoria said...

Hmmm... I don't usually do hill repeats, I just try to run the hill the whole way, not sprinting but not walking either. I do think that Rick's article probably has some good suggestions, though. My technique is not borne out by any kind of solid research, just me running on my own.

run to eat said...

HI Jo,
I checked with Sue - she charges on like I mentioned (and like Victoria and Rick). On the really long runs she'll even purposely walk. No hill repeats for her though she says she should.

Jo Lynn said...

Thanks Victoria & Lori. I really appreciate your comments. I learned a lot by posting that question. ;)