Hills…ya’ gotta’ love ‘em!

It’s no secret to anyone I run with that I tackle (well it seems like that to me) the hills we come across on our runs. Fortunately for the majority of my runs there are very few hills, particularly on longer runs and most are not what would qualify as a true hill…more like speed bumps really.


Just because I tackle the hills, doesn’t mean I find them easy, nor does it mean I always enjoy the experience, quite often I’m struggling as much if not more than my running mates… so why then do my running partners and team mates think I LOVE hills?

Here’s my secret…I pretend I LOVE them, I pretend as I see the hill coming up, I pretend as I start the hill and then I find a new gear, switch it on and motor up that hill believing that I LOVE it….and so far…in training that has worked…I haven’t done quite so well in races as evidenced by the effects of Hamilton’s Around the Bay for the last two years. I’ve set a goal to change that at the Marine Corps Marathon this October, there are not a lot of hills, but there are a couple of big ones near the start and we finish on an uphill, so I’ll have the opportunity.

I was beginning to question if my two weeks away from the Campus hills that I normally run 3 times a week was going to take its toll. I had been training on mostly flat routes due to scheduling issues while away from work. I was still getting in the times and distances, but the post-run feeling was not quite the same as when I’m tackling 3 or 4 hills on a route.

I came back to the campus last week and was really relieved to see from my Garmin stats that my times and distances were pretty much where they had been before leaving the hills behind and running the flat routes.

More importantly though, I really missed the hills, I was able to charge up all of the hills in each training session and although I still felt the effects of the hill, I had renewed energy and appreciation for what the earlier training had done for me. I can honestly say that (last week at least) I LOVED the hills!!

I’m looking forward to the next couple of months of training and to seeing how well this plan transfers to race day and the ability to charge the hills at Marine Corps…I’ll keep you posted.