After the London Marathon I am quickly back into the build phase of training for my next event and more importantly, back into ultra training. To this end, I was told I would get the pleasure of some changes in the plan, and hills would feature. On Tuesday this week I had the challenge of finding a hill around 0.5 miles in length and to do 6-8 times.
Helped by the fact it was a glorious morning, I was looking forward to this one but also as I hadn’t done anything of this scale for donkeys. I used to do hill reps called ‘Tesco HIlls’ which were 0.5k and 70-75ft of climbing from bottom to top. For this session I choose a hill, which was on trail not road, which was 1k in length and 200ft of climb. So, twice as long and much steeper. The reason for trail is it is really runnable in the main, and to be honest, there wasn’t a road one I fancied.
I did 7 reps. In the main my ups were around 5:15 (close to 9 /mi) for climb, which isn’t too bad. I wasn’t hammering but I was working hard. By 5/6 I was having to dig in a wee bit and I totally got a buzz from that feeling. I love the change in focus from marathon training.
I am reliably informed by Mr. Giblin that this is about rhythm and form, as well as helping use different muscles and we discussed the benefits to future races briefly. He knows his shit.
I share this post to say to all of you who shy away from Hill Work. Go do it. It is fun, it is hard, but it works different muscles, after a tough effort like yesterday’s I was absolutely fine this morning and the slight aches I had were in new places. I can’t wait to do more of ’em!
James Stewart 