Happy hump day friends!
I’ve had a crazy star to the week, but to be honest I am loving being busy! It means I am making progress.
I did my first workout on Monday since coming back from my injury. I’m really happy with my progress so far and figured it was time to start incorporating short speed workouts.
I was nervous as I got on the treadmill. I reassured myself that if I felt the slightest bit of discomfort during the run that I would immediately quit.
My workout consisted of:
2 mile warm up
4 x 400 at a 7:41 pace (the last 400 I did at a 7:35)
400 jog between each
1.5 mile cool down
I ended up with a total of 5.5 miles. I felt good. Really good. I was happy that my legs felt fresh. It really lifted my spirits and gave me hope.
Yesterday I decided I needed to relax and take my run outside. The weather called for it to warm up to almost 60 degrees! Unfortunately, it didn’t decide to get to those temperatures until much later in the day. It was about 45 when I went on my run, but it still felt wonderful.
I don’t know why but my Garmin decided it would take forever to find satellites yesterday.
I ran the first 4 mile on a back country road. The first several miles were flat but at mile 3 I got hit with my first steep hill.
I pushed through it and the rest of the first 4 miles leveled out. I forgot how wonderful it is to run in temperatures that aren’t below zero. It was heavenly.
I finished the last 2 miles of the run on a local college campus. I threw some hills in near the end and finished the last half mile on their track.
Total of just over 6 miles.
I can’t even fathom how I got through 4 months without running. It feels so good to finally be back at it.
You may have noticed that I have incorporated hills these past two weeks. I find a gradual uphill and run up and down it 4-5 times in the middle of my run.
What are the benefits of hill training?
- Combines strength training in with your run
- Strengthens tendons and ligaments
- Helps reduce injury
- Improves running form
- Forces your muscles to work together to pull your body weight
- Helps develop greater power and speed
They key when you are doing hill work is that you must maintain proper form.
- Upright posture – don’t lean forward or backward
- Listen to your breathing – if you are breathing too hard you either need to slow down or shorten your stride. You are working too hard. You are aiming for equal effort going up and down the hill. If you try to maintain the effort you were running on flat you will tire yourself out too quickly.
- Shorten your stride – No matter if you are doing hill work or speed work you want your knees up and down as quick as possible, you don’t want to over stride and you want a quick push off from your ankle.
Hill work is an amazing tool both for being a stronger and faster runner!
I will leave you with this awesome quote I posted to Instagram yesterday morning.
I will never forget this.
Do you do hill workouts?
How often do you do a “workout” in your training?
Yes! Hills are SO good for your training! They make you so much stronger, and give you some speed workout without running fast! I definitely incorporate them into my training. In fact the first few weeks of a new cycle, hills are the only workouts I do. I think they have been an integral part of my achievements! Good for you for getting back on it 🙂
Excited to follow your journey!
Thank you Tina 🙂 That is a great point – speed training without running fast! It really is amazing to see how much benefit it can bring to your speed!
Thanks for reading 🙂
My first year as a runner I literally ran away from hills. Then, when I started marathon training with a local running store, I ran them weekly and my calf muscles exploded. I had a few little injuries to get over but now that my legs are used to it I see how running hills has made me a 10x stronger runner.
Yes the biggest thing with hill is that you HAVE to use proper form. If you don’t you can have calf and achilles issues. They will make you such a stronger runner! Glad you saw the benefit 🙂
Wow–was it really 4 months you took off? I am sure it seemed like 4 years to you…
Way to go on the workouts, Sara! You continue to impress.
I am not a “hard core runner” so I get to NOT do hills (unless I encounter one on my run) or speedwork. YAY.
I generally go out 3-4x per week for a 4 mile run (with some walking intervals). Because I like to swim & bike, too, this is about perfect for me.
Dealing with a cranky hip this week so after my 3 mile run on Monday I decided not to run again until next Monday. I am in PT because my pelvis is out of alignment (happens quite often with me) and getting massage & acupuncture. Trying not to be anxious about it because I love my runs! But also know my body is telling me “stop”.
Thank you for the reminder that you took 4 months off. I know I can do a week 🙂
Yes, it was a total of 4 LONG LONG months! 🙂
Glad you listened to your body and didn’t push through! I have made that mistake too many times. Any time you are forced to not run is hard, but listening your body is the most important thing!
The route I run has a few hills. I think my running definitely benefits from running hills!
So true JoJo! It can help you in so many ways 🙂
Congrats on your awesome run! You’re rocking it after taking the four months off. I love your point about hill training. For me, the best part is that I don’t even notice they’re helping me until one day I realize that that giant hill I used to struggle with isn’t so bad! 🙂 Thanks for sharing, as always.
Thank you! It has been a long time in the making. 🙂 It is amazing how quick you can see improvement!
I totally agree. With my first training cycle for a half marathon, I live in the most flatest place in the world and so my training reflected it – cue the first race and boy the hills killed me. I tried to change it up for the next race just a tad which did help but I still stray away from hill training.
Hill straining is one of those things you love to hate. It’s so good for you but so hard to talk yourself into doing sometimes!
Congrats on getting back into training! I love running hills. I don’t really have a choice, since I live in a very hilly area. I find that that you are at a MAJOR advantage if you train on hills versus someone that only trains on flat roads. What I have learned is that it’s also important to practice the downhills, not just the uphills! (little tip if you ever want to run the Boston Marathon!)
My husband has told me the same thing about Boston. He said the downhills were almost as bad as the uphills! They are hard but they really help you in SO many ways!
Yay! I can sympathize with how good it feels to finally get back out there!! I have also been doing a lot of hills in preparation for a hilly half marathon – and it really is speed work in disguise!
It sure is Annie! Good luck in your marathon! Which one are you doing?
I don’t know that I agree about hills being a way to help reduce injuy..? A lot of people who run hills too often will end up with achilles issues. In fact most articles that state the causes of achilles tendonitis cite running hills too often.
Nikki, thanks for your response. I wanted a thorough answer for you so I asked my husband and this is what he said basically…the reason people get injured hill running is because of a couple factors – 1) You should do “true” hill running efforts only 2, maybe 3 times a week 2) Bad running form and improper push off from the ankle 3) They run downhill too hard and/or with improper form 4) They do not do the little things such as stretching/strengthening/foam rolling to help ward off possible problems
This is just what my husband said and he followed it up with you can do everything perfect and still get injured – its just the name of the game. Hopefully, that helped. Maybe I’ll have him do a full post with helpful details on it to clear some things up as he does a fair amount of hill work as well as hill work is built into many elite athletes training regimen he says as well.
My brother was a distance runner he swore that he only used hill training. I never used to do hill training and once I started adding them to my training I did notice an increase in endurance and speed.
It really does help SO much both with speed and endurance!