Only three weeks left until my marathon!! I have been so pleased at how well my training has been going.  I have been feeling great, strong and overall very happy with the progress I’ve made.  In fact, I have shaved about 30 seconds off my average mile time.  I am so excited to see how  well I can run the NYC marathon course, my goal is to run it in 4 hours or to get as close to 4 as I can.

This time around for my training, I’ve been following  Hal Higdon’s advanced 1 plan. This plan has  me running 6 days a week.  The program includes tempo runs, pace runs, and hill repeats; and the one thing I think has really helped most this training cycle has been my consistent work and training on the hills.

I used to complain about hills and always suggest routes that were flat.  So when my Run Around Princeton (RAP) friends hear how much I love them, they may be very surprised.

Each Thursday morning, I complete hill repeats.  The 1^st week  I started with 3 repeats up Washington Street in Princeton [this hill  (see pic. below) is a 1/2 mile long with a steady and steep incline- people in Princeton know this beast well] then worked my way up to 8 repeats.  At first I dreaded Thursdays; the work was grueling mentally and physically.  However, over time, as I became stronger and faster I began to look forward to Thursday mornings.  Now it has become one of my favorite days of the week!   When I started completing my repeats, it would take me close to 5 minutes to get up the ½ mile hill, but now, I can run it in a little over 4 minutes.  Running up and down this hill has helped me to feel stronger and more powerful.  As a result, when I encounter hills, instead of thinking “oh no”, I say “oh yeah”! Hills to me have become a “mound of opportunity”.  Life happens on the hill. As I run them, I begin to learn a little more about myself; tapping deeper into my inner strength and courage so that I can get stronger, better, & faster!

5 reasons why running hills is important to include into your training plan:

1.  Running hills strengthens all of your major running muscles, your glutes, quads, calves and hamstrings.

2.  Running hills is a great way to generate maximum force, as it forces the knees to lift higher. It also helps with stride speed and length, developing the muscle fiber and increasing power.

3. Running hills helps increase your endurance.

4. Running hills burns more calories.

5. Running hills is good for you mind. It teaches you that you are stronger than you think and that can overcome any obstacle in your way.  Plus, when you are used to running hill repeats any time you get to one hill on a course,  it feels like no big deal!

Overall,  running hills is a great way to help you to improve in ALL  areas of your running!

Enjoy! Happy Running 🙂

“I’d rather be standing at the top of the hill that I just dominated unable to breathe, ready to puke, hair matted to my forehead, than at the bottom wondering what it would feel like.”- Unknown