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My hill and Jerry Rice

NGN
NGN
Joined: 08 Oct 2012
Posts: 2
California, United States
Posted: Mon 08 Oct 2012 11:51 pm GMT   topTop
hey all,
Im a novice runner and have been motivated to run hills. I started running Cowles mnt trail a few weeks ago. I havent done any other running since I got out of the army in 1996. The hill is 1.5 mile up and climbs just under 1000'. The first time out I went about 1/8 mile before I had to walk a bit, the second time I ran 1/4 mile before walking, 3rd time I got about 1/2 mile, 4th time I got a little less. these were done going to the hill 2x per week. The night of the 4th attempt I watched a video on Jerry Rice's hill and how he ran it everyday.
I went back to the hill the next morning and ran all the way up, and have been running it everyday since. Today was 6th day in a row. I also do a park workout on the bars for upperbody strength 2x per week (mon, thurs) also walk up with 50 - 70 lbs after the run on Tues and Fridays.
Question, do you guys think Rice really ran his hill everyday of the off-season? or was that an exageration? my legs and calves are sore but not crazy sore. Can I continue everyday?
BTW my strength workouts have been amazing during this time. I would think that I would run out of steam at some point but something is def. clicking.
backcountryrunner
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 194
Utah, United States
Posted: Tue 09 Oct 2012 03:40 pm GMT   topTop
Nice work! I've also run more hills than ever this year -- mainly to better prepare myself for mountain ultramarathons. When I started training a few years ago for my first hilly ultra I was cautious on hills, and mixed up hilly trail runs with flat runs, not wanting to cause injury or overdo it. I trained on hills, but didn't think about matching the terrain closely to the terrain of the ultra. I did well in the race, but wanted to do better. I also entered the Speedgoat 50k, an insanely steep race. I ultimately decided to say "screw it" to caution and started running exclusively on mountain trails, trying to match the inclines to the race I was doing. Instead of wearing myself down and getting injured, I've just gotten stronger, my knees feel stronger, and I've gotten faster. Basically, our body adapts. You can't run mountain trails strongly without training on mountainous trails.

That said -- I realize there are always limits, at some point. I'm not a coach, but based on my experience you just have to listen to your body, cutting back if you feel lack of energy or muscle soreness that doesn't go away and make sure you are doing a hard-easy-hard-easy workout routine (or hard-rest-hard-rest) to enable the body to "recover" (get stronger) from each workout. I suspect that eventually your 1.5 mile hill will become "easy" so that, yeah, you COULD do it every day without any problem to retain that level of fitness. It's when you go beyond what your body has adjusted to that you need to alternate hard and easy days.
NGN
NGN
Joined: 08 Oct 2012
Posts: 2
California, United States
Posted: Wed 10 Oct 2012 01:28 pm GMT   topTop
Awesome reply. Thanks!