I went to the same old hill, a 500 meter, 12% grade asphalt hill in the river valley at the crack of noon so the heat would be intense. I like to say I run at this time in order to become used to running in the heat of summer rather than say something like …”I’m frikken lazy and I slept in till 10 AM,…”, which although true, doesn’t sound nearly as heroic.
So I began with a very slow 2 km warm up run on the flat around the Lion’s campground in Devon’s North Saskatchewan River valley. No, there were no lions, but there was one leopard, and a bunny.
After the warm up I stopped and stretched thoroughly before my planned 4 repeats. I ran my first repeat in 4:34 to the top, and 2:45 to the bottom. I rested for 2 or 4 minutes and then ran my 2nd repeat in 4:29 to the top and 2:39 to the bottom. My next repeat was 4:55 to the top and 2:47 to the bottom. My 4th repeat was 4:30 to the top and 2:45 to the bottom. I didn’t stop at the bottom for a rest since I wanted to run onwards for a 1.5 km loop on the flat then immediately tackle a 5th repeat without resting to more closely mimic race conditions. That hill repeat took me 5:00 to the top and 2:50 to the bottom, after which I continued on for a 2.5 km cool down.
I stretched again after and also took to the foam roller when I got home.
There seems to be little difference in my downhill times (about 10 seconds max) no matter what stride length I use or how fast I think I’m running. A short stride with faster cadence or a long stride with slower cadence seems to make no difference. If anything, the longer stride seems to be a wee bit faster, but also it is more prone to slipping out of control so that I end up having to slow down by heel striking.
The uphill times are clearly different (closer to 30 seconds difference) but that is simply the result of being just too darned tired to push the pace. Some of the variation is the result of sort of falling into a daze and not focusing on technique, but largely as the number of repeats increase, the energy level goes down.
So the total run today including hill repeats was just over 11 km. Five of those kilometers were on the hill, 2.5 going up and 2.5 coming down. For me, coming down is easier in terms of getting enough oxygen, but way harder than the uphills in terms of stride control, shock absorption, and so on. My quads and other downhill muscle groups are really going to let me know how they feel tomorrow.
I really like hill training which is why I approach it with so much dedication and seriousness. I like it because I know it is taking me a quantum leap ahead in my ability to run trails. I’ll be talking about my last trail race and how I smoked everyone (that I met) on the uphills, because of my hill training, but I got whacked on the downhills starting about 3/4 of the way through the race. Yes, even those very few hill training sessions I did before the race helped me out a lot. I am quite optimistic what continued hill training will do for me.