Hill Running

1.5 Kilometers up + 1.5 Kilometers down = A fun hill run!

April is the hottest month here and the temperature has been soaring above 100 F most days the past week.  Combine the high temperatures with the low air quality because of it being burning season and even regular flat runs are not easy.  So what to do?  Find a hill with an average grade of 8% that goes up for 1.5 Kilometers and run up it, of course.

I hurt my right ankle my senior hill in high school--I came down wrong while playing basketball and my toes got acquainted with my shin--and that old injury comes into play on this fun hill run.  Parts of the hill are so steep that I have to run on my toes to make forward progress.  It's frustrating that my left ankle is flexible enough to put my foot down on those steep places but my right ankle has never regained all of its flexibility since that high school injury.  That makes for even more of a calf muscle workout on this hill run.

At the very end of the hill there is a steep steep part that goes up to a temple.  I enjoy sprinting up that part.  I find it easier to sprint up that last steep part on my toes than to try and slowly run up it.

After that final sprint I turn and start back down the hill.  Right after the turn is when my Garmin 230 alerts me that I've reached 1 mile.  The going up is tuff.  The going down feels brutal.  Thankfully most of the pavement is a chip-n-seal that offers rough surface for my Brooks Ghost 10 shoes to grip as I hurtle my body down the hill.

I find that when I get down the hill and head off on the rest of my run I'm already worn out even though I've only gone 3K.

I've run this particular hill multiple times (I try to run it at least once a week) and I find it works best to run it at the start of a run instead of the middle or end.  In March I did this hill run as part of a 15 mile run and it was fine (I did stop at the top and buy a bottle of water before heading home--because of that experience I've learned how to say, "Can you please open this bottle of water for me" in Thai).  I've run that hill as part of a 10K, 8 mile (twice) and as part of some shorter runs.  Last week when I ran that hill it was super tough.  Too hot!