health and fitness: View from the top: learning to love those hills

jeudi 4 juin 2015

View from the top: learning to love those hills

For some, running uphill is a terrifying prospect. But with the right mental attitude and technique, you can conquer the ascent

I have never forgotten watching Kenenisa Bekele in the 2008 World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh: on the final lap of the muddy course, where it throws in a nasty hill, he seemed to accelerate away effortlessly, leaving a world-class field behind him. I could not begin to comprehend how he had done it (testament to his excellent form, as well as astounding ability). A track runner through my teens, I liked to see the finish line from the start and to enjoy the lower gravitational pull of a zero gradient. I’m not saying I wasn’t prepared to feel some pain: just that I preferred it to be short and sharp.

Fast-forward a few years and I found myself living in a beautiful, mountainous region, where large sections of the populace hiked, biked and ran. Every other car had a bike rack and a patchwork of bumper stickers with slogans such as: “Train with altitude”. In essence, here was a place where hills were embraced, and if you wanted to run, then you had to run uphill. There was nowhere else to go. So over the following three years I developed a profound love of doing just that.