Thursday, January 24, 2008

Afternoon Fifteen

While we're still in the middle of winter, the nice thing is the days are getting noticeably longer. It really dawned (dusked?) on me today that I finished the run with plenty of daylight left, despite the additional time taken to make a pit stop. Legs still felt a little rusty and the heart rate was a little on the high side, but all in all I felt it went really well.

Ran 15.0 miles @ 8:25/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 146/162
Paved roads.
Slightly hilly.
Mid to lower 20s, partly cloudy.
Long pants, fleece jacket, short sleeved shirt, refl. vest, beanie, gloves.

4 comments:

Mike said...

Hi Jamie - I'm a new runner/blogger. You seem to run in a lot of hilly terrain. I wanted to ask you - what do you consider "very hilly" for your daily runs, and do you limit the number of runs you do on these types of hills?

Reason I ask is because my "regular run" has a stretch where it goes up about 230 feet over about 3/4 of a mile (not too different a grade of your recent run where you climb 150 feet in about a half mile) I'm wondering if running these hills 2 or 3 times per week is too much. (If you're interested, you can see the elevation profile of this trail under "where I run" on my blog)

Anyway - being that you have a lot of experience running in hilly terrain, I figured I'd ask your opinion - any advice greatly appreciated.

Jamie Anderson said...

Hi Mike. Couldn't find an email on your blog, so I hope me answering here suffices.

My rating system for hills is pretty unscientific and more of a judgment call. Here are some rough guidelines though:

Mostly flat - pancake like
Slightly hilly - hills exist, but you hardly notice them.
Moderately hilly - you notice the hills, but they have little effect on the pace.
Very hilly - you can't help notice the hills, and neither can your legs.
Extremely hilly - so grueling you come close to becoming forced to walk.
Insanely hilly - so grueling even walking them is tough.

I wouldn't say you are doing your route too often, but I guess it all depends on what you're training for. There are many benefits to running hills though. I say if you're doing them relatively comfortably, keep on doing it. However, I'm somewhat haphazard in my training approaches, so I may also not be the best person to ask.

Mike said...

Thanks Jamie, yeah I guess I need to get an email address up there.

OK - so "very hilly" is not at the top of the list, that makes sense. The grade on my route (5.5% for the 3/4 mile stretch) seems reasonable, but it does affect the pace (and/or HR) somewhat.

I can tell the hills are helping my speed and strength, I just don't want to overdo it and come up w/ an injury.

Thanks again for the help.

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

I'd say you are back in the saddle. Well done!