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Starting hill training

by Nick Smith 22nd June 2009

Well I'm now just over 3 months away from the Nine Edges endurance race in September, and it is time to start doing some proper "training"! I've spent the last few months slowly building up some basic fitness, running 3-4 times most weeks, but without any particular plan.

I think my biggest weakness at the moment is hill climbing, so I'm going to start doing 2 hill intervals sessions each week. Did the first session this morning, using the short steep trail up to Stanage Edge from the popular end parking. And boy did it hurt! Rather than jogging slowly uphill for several minutes at a time, my running guru had me (attempting) to run quickly uphill for nearly 1 minute per interval. Judging from the leaden, jelly-like legs I had at the end of the session, it gave my leg muscles a great workout as well as my heart & lungs!

It hasn't all been smooth sailing though. I've done several trail races in the last 2 months, and found them quite demoralising! Hopefully I'll enjoy them more once I'm a bit better at hills. Also a bit nervous about injuries - my last 2 hr run ended in 10 minutes of hobbling slowly when an ITB became inflamed, and I think I may have Achilles tendonitis in both ankles! Time for another trip to the physio...

Although I'm not seriously thinking about ultra-distance events at such a novice stage of my own running, I recently read Life on the Run: Coast to Coast by Matt Beardshall and found it very enjoyable Recommended for anyone looking for some running motivation.

Update: my physio has stopped me from doing hill intervals for a couple of weeks, to aid my tendon recovery, but I am allowed to get out for normal runs! phew
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