Ever since I started running I’ve hated hills. The minute I hit an incline my heart rate and breathing quicken and my pace nosedives. However living in hilly North London I don’t have much choice about tackling them, and the hard work seems to be paying off. I’ve noticed finding hills gradually get easier over the past few weeks, and today I ran the hilliest section of my run from work to home, a mile long section which rises over 200 feet, at a pace of 8:37 min/mile, which is faster than I was running the entire route just a month or so back. What’s more, I ran it at essentially the same pace as my fastest 10K, despite it being a longer distance ending up 300 feet higher than the start. Very pleased with that indeed!
| Lap | Time | Distance | Pace | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 58:27 | 7.3 mi | 7:58 min/mi | 179 |
| 1 | 7:38 | 0.96 mi | 7:58 min/mi | 164 |
| 2 | 5:14 | 0.69 mi | 7:33 min/mi | 180 |
| 3 | 7:23 | 0.93 mi | 7:56 min/mi | 181 |
| 4 | 8:28 | 1.11 mi | 7:38 min/mi | 181 |
| 5 | 7:06 | 0.89 mi | 7:59 min/mi | 184 |
| 6 | 8:20 | 0.97 mi | 8:36 min/mi | 184 |
| 7 | 9:15 | 1.15 mi | 8:04 min/mi | 177 |
| 8 | 4:58 | 0.64 mi | 7:48 min/mi | 185 |