Hill repeats

I used to run hill repeats in high school. Tuesdays and Thursdays. I HATED THEM. We ran up a super steep long hill. It was torture. Then I did like running down the hill. The undoubtedly made me strong and a better trail runner.

I've really avoided hill workouts as an adult. I run the hills in the trails I run and call it running hills. Because ugh hills.

But hills have been killing me in races lately. I definitely need to be a stronger hill runner. So when hill repeats came up in my weekly running plan, I decided I would actually do them. The workout was 2 easy miles, 5 hill repeats (of 2 minutes each, so 2 minutes up the hill and then jog down) and 2 easy miles.

I went home after work and took a nap before trying this workout and then headed out to try it. (In my mind I was saying that if I did four that would be good.)

I ran my two miles. I felt good. And then I opted for a side hill instead of the hill I've dubbed HORRIBLE hill. And this hill ended up being a good length. It was about .2 miles with a 6% grade. (Which I was looking for a .25 mile hill was a 5-8 percent grade.) This hill took me almost 2 minutes to climb (like the workout said) and it killed me. One minute in the first one, I was dying. The second hill was faster. The third one was okay (feeling strong), four started feeling rough and five I finished. (I finished the hill in 1:54, 1:44, 1:45, 1:48 and 1:53).

So I finished all five. And I felt great on mile two of the cool down. When I'm running 9-minute mile pace, I feel like I can run forever. It's just hard for me to find that speed.

So hills—I'm really glad I did this workout. I felt stronger for doing it. And I swear the grade seems steeper than 6 percent. I didn't do the workout as fast as the directions said. I was supposed to do the hills at race pace. I did them at survival pace, 9:20-ish pace, I think. They got faster actually. Miles 2-3 were at 9:14 place and miles 3-4 were at 8:38 pace. I am not good at hills (yet) and I feel like my heart rate gets too high when I do them. So, I can learn to NOT WALK on the hills then it's progress. Speed will come later.