Din: Hill Training and My First Half Mary

My favorite workout is hill training. Mind you I'm not a masochist hehehe =). I just love the challenge and the exhilarating feeling of being on top of a hill after a hard run. Thus, when I started my training for the half marathon, I immediately incorporated hill training in my workouts. In fact, I even incorporated it in my long slow and tempo runs. I firmly believed if I could be strong in running hills, I would be stronger in "flats."

This belief and training regimen was put to the test, successfully if I might say, in my first half marathon run last Sunday, October 17, when I joined the The Fort Running Festival. I was only aiming for a 7min 30sec / km pace. That's what I have trained for based on my 5K race pace using the FIRST Training program. During the race, even if I was already running at a 7min / km pace, I still felt strong thus I continued with this pace surprisingly until the end of the race with enough juice left so to speak.

A week after the Fort Running Festival race, I ran another 21K at the Adidas King of the Road race last October 24. I was able to get a new PR considering that the route was a lot more challenging and there were hydration challenges in the last 5 kilometers of the race. Good thing I have my Amphipod Hydration Belt which supplied me with enough juice during these last kilometers.

Pictures courtesy of Greentennial Run

Picture courtesy of Adidas Philippines

All these great results, I attribute mostly to hill training. As such, I am planning to incorporate hill training again to my marathon training plan that will start next month. It is my hope that  I will be able to replicate the same great results that I have in my first two 21km races to the TBR Dream Marathon next year.

For more information about hill training, I have listed below some links that helped me. I hope these will also help you out in learning and enjoying this great workout.

Hill Training articles from Runner's World
Hill Training from Runner's World UK
Hill Training from BrianMac