HILLS. So beneficial to training and yet so deeply loathed. I remember when I first began my training for the marathons my friend recommended we do a few hill repeats to strengthen my legs and improve my endurance. "Why not?" I thought. "I am comfortable sprinting up a 25m hill." When we got to the actual "hill" (small mountain is more fitting) I cannot recall a time I have dropped more F-bombs in my life. "That?! You want me to run THAT?! More than once?!" This was a 400m hill at a fairly steep incline. Like a lot of areas of my training that I eventually overcame, I had the idea in my head that is was impossible. Had I only known I had just found the new love of my life, I would have owned that hill years ago.
That first experience was brutal. I accomplished maybe only 2 or 3 repeats. Every week I would meet with this exact same hill and tackle it all over again, cursing its very existence. Hills are like that. And the best part is: Everyone bleeds. They are a place of private inward pain and challenge where all runners are equal, forced by the incline and their own fitness to become a better version of themselves on their journey to the top. Hills torment us all, and they are necessary to us all. Running hills develops explosive power and muscle tone in our glutes, hip flexors, calves, and hamstrings. Our form becomes precise, because the body needs to flow in an optimal fashion charging uphill. And consecutive hill repeats increases overall speed and cardiopulmonary function.
I stood at the bottom of this hill today afraid of the challenge, and that's how i like it. I thrive off my fear, i embrace it, i crave it. Fear has made me determined to conquer what I am afraid of. I need fear to prove that I am capable of overcoming it and that I am strong enough to handle the challenge. The day I am no longer afraid of the challenge before me is the day I need to push myself beyond what I am currently trying to achieve. I like confrontation, and hills are nothing if not confrontation.
Current hill repeat count: 12 sprints up and down 400m monster.
