Skip to main content

Fun Facts Friday - Hills

Raise your hand if you're happy that it's Friday? I have both hands up in the air. It's Friday and it's a rest day for me. I actually slept until 5:40 this morning too. It's the little things right?

Speaking of little things, and big things too really, lets talk about hills. A few weeks ago I was emailing with my friend Jolene about running, running routes, and hills. The next run, all I could do was think about our email chat and about hills.

It's hard to avoid hills entirely unless you go to a track. So, as a runner, you have to learn to contend with them somehow. You either dread them and try to avoid them. Or you suck it up and stare them down and challenge them. Or you just try not to think about it. Like if you don't think too much, it won't be so bad.

But all hills are not created equal. And they affect you so much differently depending on where you're at with your run. The first hill might not seem so bad. Silly me for being nervous about it. But then when you've been out there for a bit and your legs are starting to get heavy, a teeny tiny blip feels like a mountain. Am I right or is it just me?

For Fun Facts Friday, I thought I would share the types of hills runners face. And this is from my perspective of course. I look forward to hearing your types of hills and how you tackle them. 

Gradual inclines - these might be the most deceiving of all hills. These are the stretches of road (sometimes a mile long) that at first glance seem flat. Then you start to feel like you're working harder and harder, running in place. What the heck? Then you really focus on the road and you realize…it's all one.big.long.long.incline. 

Bridges - bridges can be tricky. One side somehow is always steeper than the other. Some can be fairly steep inclines that arch up, others resemble a gradual incline. And you know that if you go over one bridge, you're likely to have to cross the same one again or another one to get back. 

Rolling - these hills never seem to end. You see one and you think, ok, I can do this. Then you get to the top and start the decent only to realize that another one awaits you. 

Monsters - these are just the king of all hills plain and simple. You can't over think them, you have to either avoid them or just tackle them head on and hope you survive. 

Blips - these are almost like gradual inclines, they sort of spring out of the ground out of nowhere. You're just humming along and then, bam, a small hill. They aren't incredibly steep or anything. They just surprise you and you find yourself huffing and puffing a little confused as to where it came from. Blips are also far worse the longer you've been running.  


What are your thoughts on hills? Love to hate? Hate hate? Try not to think about? And how do you tackle them? Maybe I should do some hill repeats now.

Daily To-Enjoy List:
Rest day
Friday
Picking up new running shoes

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Love in Photos

In honor of Valentine's Day - Love in Photos Husband Family and Furbabies Friends Even if you're not a fan of Valentine's Day - I hope you have a wonderful day and remember the loves in your life.

Workout Wednesday - Body Blaster Tabata

Happy Hump Day! I wanted to thank everyone for their comments on yesterday's post: Be Kinder to Your Body. Calories are Not the Enemy . It sounds like it resonated with many of you. Today I wanted to share a new workout with you. I've been working on interval workouts for some of my clients. I try to give them the most bang for their buck (time). I know that in an ideal world, we would all have time to do longer workouts. There would never be scheduling conflicts, sick husbands or kids, or sick us. In reality, workouts need to be effective and efficient. And they don't have to be lengthy to be effective and efficient either. There's no need to spend hours in a gym to get in a good workout. Interval workouts like HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) or tabata, or even interval running are great ways to get in a fantastic workout in a short amount of time and have many benefits. You can read more about Tabata workouts  here . The benefits of this type of work

Piriformis Update & Grilled Veggie Salad

New Piriformis Exercises Today wasn't too terrible for a Monday. Of course, I did leave a little early. That always helps huh ;-) I had another round of physical therapy today. My PT has been really researching piriformis syndrome and found an interesting article that discusses the use of McKenzie Exercises - typically used for back pain. I have started adding in low back extensions (one of the exercises) but now have a whole new list of exercises to add into my workout rotations. But, if it helps, I'll do it. I also asked her about dry needling (thanks Sarena ), which is sort of similar to acupuncture, but is more about trigger point and intramuscular stimulation. And I'm glad I asked because the timing is uncanny. One of the doctor's in the clinic happens to be going to get certified this weekend. They both believe that I am a prime candidate for the procedure. So we'll see how that goes. Kind of scared because I hate hate hate needles. Have any of you tr