Running uphill with my "chugga chuggas"

I just listed to the "Run Like a Mother" ladies' podcast on hills.  Perfect timing, since I'm doing a relay race in Door County next weekend that I know from experience feels like it's about 80% uphill:

http://www.fall50.com/

Last year, I was part of two five-person relay teams. We organized by pace so that the teams would be synchronized during the run.  It was the first time I ran with my best running friend, who is seriously the only woman I know who shares my love for running along with my overall feelings about goals, training, and racing (plus she's a divorced mom and runs at my pace).  We're uncannily well-matched but would never have known that until we ran two legs of the Fall 50 together.

She's been injured this year and almost dropped off of the team but rejoined when she finally started to recover.  We're running one leg together, and I'm running my other leg with my boyfriend, who is also very evenly matched to me for pace.

I haven't listened to the podcast on relays yet, but I will this week (and between now and next Sunday, I will have thought a lot more about relays--pros, cons, and costumes!). I'll also write more on the dynamics of running with partners and on a team later this week.

Right now, I'm in love with the way Dimity and Sarah called arms "chugga chuggas," as in the art of the train that pushes it forward and the part of the body that pulls a runner up the hill.

Since I live in a very flat area, my first hilly race messed with my head and my body.  I actually had to drop out of the half marathon in no small part because I let the hills psych me out.  After that, I sought out a personal trainer who recommended Chi Running. I read the book, which has amazing advice about how to learn to love hills.  Feeling my arms help me as I ascend and letting myself be pulled forward by my lean have really helped.

But so has advice I read from Kara Goucher. When confronted with a choice in routes between the easy and hard way home, always take the hard way.

I don't always do this, but when I read that statement, I assessed what I was doing: two years ago, I always took the longer way home to avoid the hill that leads to my apartment.  No wonder hills scared me!  I spent miles staying away from them.

I've started taking on that hill when I'm faced with the option of climbing it or taking the easier way home. When I want to work on speed, I pick flat routes. I know I should try hill repeats, but I haven't talked myself into it yet.  It seems like it might have the going-nowhere feel I get from my treadmill runs (I know they're good for me, but the scenery doesn't change).

This week, my goals are to rest and recover so that I'm ready for the race, to do some speedwork on Monday and Wednesday so that I feel sharp, and to take easy runs on Thursday and Friday that help me center myself.

Since the relay isn't a race that I can run for an age-group prize or a specific time, my goals will be focused differently. I want to feel strong on every hill and to take them with confidence and mastery rather than self-doubt, and I want to run with my partners in a way that feels good for us both.

To deal with the hills, I am going to use my "chugga chuggas" along with the skills I learned from Chi running. I'm going to divide the hills into segments so that I don't waste energy at the bottom--I want to take the final third of every hill strong and keep that momentum on the flats and downhills. I will also try to look at the hills as a chance to prove my strength instead of as something that makes me doubt my training.

And when I'm struggling, I'm following Dimity's advice to break it up: count steps and make mini-goals. I just hope this year the min-goals don't involve counting how many piles of wet, slippery leaves I have to pass before I reach the top of a hill with one of those signs warning trucks.

Of course, I may take all of the hills out of my runs this week so that I can save my strategies--and my muscles--for Saturday.