Hilly Help

Happy Monday Everyone!  I hope you’ve had a good day!  Mine didn’t start off too well, but hey, it’s ending pretty well, so no complaining from me!

I woke up this morning with a bit of an upset belly. Ok, that’s an understatement.  I was as sick as I was last time.  But it didn’t appear until after I ate breakfast: oats, apple, mixed nut butter and cinnamon.

This feeling prolonged my journey out to the field and since I knew I’d be gone a while, but felt bleh, I took a bag of TJ’s O’s with me for the rescue…blandest but best thing for my upset tummy.

But who cares about my belly, check out the fields!  Look, it’s turning ORANGE!!!

Remember when I showed it to you two weeks ago?  Spring is coming!

(hrm, somehow it looks more orange from the two weeks before…I blame the camera…and the snow we had?  Winter has been present the past two weeks)

Anyhow, it was cold and so freak’n windy out today.  Most of my time was spent in the car except for a small hike, but man did it hurt! All that dust and dirt in my eyes was not pleasant!  Look at all the flying dirt from the fields!

By the time I got home I was starving but almost not because it had been so long since I’d eaten.  I wanted to keep it simple but get in some nutrients in case this stomach bug keeps up so I blended a banana, 2T of Vega Protein Powder, 1C USVAB (unsweetened vanilla almond breeze for those who have asked!) and ice cubes.  Hit the spot!

A few hours and chores later I was feelin’ ready for dinner, but kept it as simple as I could.  I had a can of Amy’s LF Minestrone which I drained the liquid out of and replaced with some water (I do this to reduce the sodium…you know, like when you wash your canned beans?!), and added in a quarter of a cauliflower head I needed to use.

To finish the night I figured what better than probiotics for my belly…in the form of chocolate.  Attune seriously has some of the best healthy chocolate on the face of the planet…side it with a handful of dried cherries and it’s the perfect dessert!  And just wait till this weekend…Attune and I will have something to share with you!

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I got a few comments and emails on my Crazy Hilly Run this weekend and if I could do a post on tips to run hills and how to conquer them!  I am more than happy to oblige!

So believe me, I used to hate hills.  We did hilly workouts every single Saturday when I was in high school but as soon as I wasn’t forced to do them anymore, I wanted to do them!  I lucked out in college that I lived just above a canyon where on the weekends I would head out there with my best friend/roomie to do hills and get in a sweet workout!

(Source: Canyon directly next to my school; so pretty!)

Now a days I don’t get in as much intense hill running as I used to, even though I live on the side of a mountain and am always going up or down, but it’s usually gradual.  Now that I have found an area with some serious SERIOUS incline and decline, I’m ready to take it head on!

So here are a few things to take into consideration when you’re running hills.  I use all of them and have been for years, but please take precautions as always!  Hill running is renowned for injuring you if you don’t do it correctly!

It’s not about the pace.  Some people think they’re doing horrible running hills because they’re doing so slow, but it’s not the case!  I always slow down my pace by almost a minute or two because well, hill running is hard!  You’re using muscles that are normally used by those who sprint, not those who run longer distances!

Take small steps, even teeny tiny steps!  By shortening your stride you’ll help conserve the energy in your muscles that you’re using (and don’t use often) and it helps to keep you from over extending to the stride length you have when you run flat.  I also believe it helps you conserve energy overall.  But don’t be discouraged if it feels like it’s taking forever, you gotta work towards moving faster over time!

(Source)

When you’re going up, USE YOUR TOES AND ARMS.  Don’t think they go together?  Oh yes they do.  When you run uphill and use your normal (ok, my normal) heal-toe foot fall it’s going to end badly.  You’ll be stretching your achilles and hamstrings more than they’re used to and can cause injury to yourself.  Running on your toes causes you to propel your body forward, helping with your energy and getting you up to the top! 

Going uphill also uses a lot of energy but this is what I use as key to get me through the moments where I want to quit: PUMP YOUR ARMS.  When you pump your arms, your legs have to follow, so the harder you pump, your legs will keep going!  This is why I like to try and get in some upper body workouts to keep my shoulder/arms strong and help me power through those “I want to quit!” moments.

(Source)

When you’re going up, try your hardest to keep you body straight up.  The more you lean over, the more you’re going to slow down and use more energy you’ll need later!  Use your abs to keep your body upright along with your arms, which you should try to keep between your belly and hip bone.

When you can see the crest of the hill, go through it.  Don’t stop or change anything until you get up and over it, then return to your normal stance as you would when you’re running on flat surfaces.  Use this moment as a time to recovery from the victory you just accomplished! You made it all the way up!

Use the downhill and flat areas after the crest as a recovery.  A lot of the time I will regain my normal stance and then actually use it to stretch out my legs and speed up before I hit the next hill.  This allows you time to catch your breathe (believe me, you’ll certainly be breathing hard!  But it shows your determination!)

When you start to head downhill, lean into the hill, almost like you’re going to fall over, or your quads will tell you later how you didn’t do that…because I know mine are, even two days later!  This helps to reduce the amount of pounding on your quads, which are the muscles most readily being used at this time.  I’ve also heard that you should try and keep your feet as close to the ground as possible to also reduce the pounding.  Believe me, any sort of ideas will help!

STRETCH.  Always stretch very well BEFORE AND AFTER.  I find this to be crucial..and not just the measly bend over and touch your toes.  Stretch every single muscle in your legs.  And ice if you need to. I’ve been icing my quads since that afternoon to help with the pain that’s creeped up on me, along with some foam rolling.  I anticipated this to happen since I haven’t run such intense hills in so long, but man, it’s kill’n me! Hah!

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I know that was a lot of text, but I hope it helps those of you who want to start running hills, or are doing them and having well, ya know, the time of your life getting through them ((wink::wink)).  I can’t wait to get myself back up to this course again, where there are also lots of others, to run and improve my times and strength!