Hills

When I first started running I lived in Breckenridge, CO. There are very limited places in Breckenridge where you can run without going up hill or down hill unless you run inside on a treadmill. I will admit, my first training runs were inside on the treadmill or around the mini track (13 times around = a mile). Part of that was due to the weather and the mounds of snow on the ground. I was also scared to run uphill.

The year I started to train for my first marathon I had just finished my second summer doing the Summit Trail Running Series. This is a great event, and if you spend a summer in Breckenridge I would sign up for the series. There are, I think, 5 races over the summer on different trails around Breckenridge. If you sign up for all 5 you get a cool shirt and a deal on the race fee. You also get drink tickets, half priced appetizers, and a raffle after each race at a bar in town. The raffle is great because you are pretty much guaranteed to win at least once over the summer. They have a short course and a long course you can run. I always signed up for the short course because in my head I was terrible at trail running and there was no way I could do the long course.(I have a great story about the short course/long course experience that I will save for a later date).

I thought I was terrible at trail running because I couldn't run up hill. Hindsight is 20/20 and I can see now what my problem was, but in that moment I just thought I was physically incapable of running uphill. I would start out running, but I would always end up walking most of the uphill. In case you are wondering, no it didn't occur to me at the time the only way to get better at going uphill was to practice going uphill. So I wouldn't really "train" at all and then get frustrated that I couldn't run uphill. However, my second year doing the races I started to feel a little more comfortable and could piece together more running uphill despite never really working at it.

When the training runs got longer, Jeremiah and I actually put together longer runs that did not involve going uphill up a mountain. We'd run to Frisco and back, or up a dirt road towards the Dredge. When the time came to do the really long training run (18miles), we were actually in the Midwest and did the run in Bentonville Arkansas while visiting my sister for my nephews baptism. I am sad that I left Breckenridge before I really learned to like hills.

How did I come to like hills? It finally dawned on me to get better at running uphill, I actually needed to practice running uphill. I made it my goal to get better at running uphill and I made myself practice running uphill. I think the one thing that really pushed me into it was I signed up for a trail race. Jeremiah and I didn't get into the Moab Half Marathon one year and he found a different race in Salida. It was a trail half marathon and full marathon. I signed up for it and I knew I had to get comfortable running uphill.

The best thing I learned in practice was how to find a pace I was comfortable running at uphill. In the past I just tried to run like I did on flat land and I would tire myself out pretty quickly which would result in my walking. I also learned how to take smaller quicker steps (hence the name of the blog tiny footing). I might not be the fastest uphill runner, but I can go at my pace for a long time. True, I still walk sometimes, like on really long steep sections. But I am able to "run" uphill and feel comfortable doing it. It's not the prettiest, but it allows me to keep energy for flat/downhill sections.

In short, if there is something you are struggling with in running, the only way to get better is to practice. For me, it was sucking it up and running hills and be okay with being a little slow, especially at first. If you want to go faster, you need to practice running faster. If you want to go further, you need to practice going further. A lot of race training programs include tempo or speed workouts. I usually just ignored that and did the mileage required for that run without paying attention to speed. But really the only way to get better is to practice the thing your scared of and pretty soon you'll be tiny footing it up a mountain too.