Hills Suck— Why You Should Do Them Anyway
The benefits of running hills.
I hate hills, I always have. I’m just not very good at them. They hurt. I like to feel fast when I run and seeing fast splits on my watch motivates me. When you throw a hill in the mix, I slow down, breathe heavy, and my legs go dead. To top it all off, my otherwise fast mile time is ruined because of the hill.
I try to avoid hills at all cost. Sometimes extending my run just to take a flatter route. As a strong runner in high school, hills have always been my weak point. When we did hill repeats, I had teammates beating me who never beat me in races.
Where I go to college is very flat. There isn’t a hill in sight, my heaven. I really enjoy running there, my splits are never compromised by a hill. But my sophomore year, we had a lot of hilly cross country courses and my team didn't fare so well. We had no practice.
Since the pandemic hit, I am back running at home. I live in a very hilly neighborhood. Normally when I am home training for the summer, I will drive to trails most of the time to run on soft surfaces and avoid the hills. Now that we are in lockdown, I have been running from my front door around the neighborhood.
It’s really hard to avoid hills, they’re everywhere. I have been slowly building my mileage up recently, so my runs have been shorter. Anywhere that is flat, is not in a close enough radius to my house for the mileage I’m doing. I have to run the hills.
I had to take some time off from running before the pandemic so having to run hilly routes while not being in shape is terrible. My chest hurts so much as I climb the hills because my lungs are out of shape too. My legs are like jello when I reach the top.
I always complain when I come back from my runs that it’s too hilly. My dad always responds,
“Hills are good for you; they make you better.”
I always think to myself that I am going too slow and that I’m too out of shape for them to be doing anything. It can’t be helping me that much if I’m going that slow.
I’ve been running hills every day since quarantine started and they don’t feel any easier. My legs still burn, and I still breathe too loudly. I didn’t feel like I was getting any better.
Until recently.
I have been driving to runs on the weekends the past few weeks. It was an opportunity to run on flat ground. And guess what? I felt great. I felt so much better than my normal neighborhood runs, and my pace wasn’t that bad either. I even tried this track workout that I used to do in high school and my time was a lot faster than I was expecting.
Now I am not suddenly in amazing shape, I still have a long way to go, but I am much more along than I thought I was going to be. It takes me a long time to get into shape, it always has. I am not like those naturally talented runners who can take a month off and jump right back in where they left off. I am out of it for a while. During these last two and a half months, I have been running limited mileage, the lowest I’ve done since I got serious in running, so that’s why I was so confused.
It has to be the hills.
The hills are have got to be what is making me better. Even though they don’t feel like they’re making me better.
Benefits of Running Hills:
- Increases intensity
Running with others is always better because they push you to go faster and it feels easier to do so. When you run by yourself, it can be harder to get the same out of your runs. By adding some hills into your run, you can make up for the lack of a training partner. Running up a hill automatically increases the intensity by increasing your heart rate and making your lungs work harder. Over time this will help you build better endurance and have a higher VO2 max. Also, if it matters to you, you’ll burn more calories running uphill because of the increase in intensity.
2. Improves speed
Running uphill strengthens your muscles. Those same muscles are the ones used for speed. Doing hill repeats are an especially great workout to improve your speed. Even though you aren’t actually going that fast, it can help you with the finishing kick of a race. Hill sprints are even better than regular sprints because you get the same benefits but due to the slope, it shortens the distance that you land. This means less impact which decreases injury. Additionally, hill sprints improve elasticity in your muscles and tendons.
3. Improves form
Hills make you bring your knees up more which improves your stride length and speed. It also forces you to drive your arms harder which helps engage your core and strengthens your upper body.
4. You’ll be more prepared
If you run hills regularly, you will become better at them and be more confident in your capabilities. If you have a race coming up with a hilly course, you’ll be more prepared than your fellow competitors and be able to fly right past them up the hill.
5. The downhill
What goes up must come down. After enduring the treacherous uphill, eventually, it will have to go back down. This is the reward for the hard work, you can now cruise on down.
As much as I hate hills, I will continue doing them and not just because my house is surrounded by them. I’m not doing myself any favors by avoiding the hills. If you want to improve, you have to challenge yourself.