Thinkin’ hilly…’n stuff

After chatting with my sis about her recent success (asslap, sis!) with tackling her first hill-style interval workout yesterday, I got to thinking about my own “relationship” with hills when running.

…which quickly blew up into a much bigger topic once the wheels started turning. (typical!)

To start – I thought about how I approach hills when I run. I really can’t avoid them all that much in my neighborhood since I’m sort of surrounded by them so they’ve never really “scared” me so much as I’ve just dealt with them and learned to push through them over time. I rarely, however, use much of an incline when I run on the treadmill though and I got to thinking about that fact.

So sure, I’m pretty decent on hills when I run outside…but how does that change when I’m facing far less hills in the winter (due to fewer outdoor runs and much more time on the ‘mill)? I’m sure it’s doing me no favors in the winter months not to be doing much in the way of hill work except on the rare occasions that I get to tackle them outside in the chilly winter months.

So I resolved right then and there to start incorporating hill work into my running plans this winter. It could translate into every-other-week hill-style intervals vs. straight-up speedy intervals. Or, it could translate into one of my steady-state runs including hill work, particularly as the winter months drone on and steady state treadmill jaunts grow more and more tiresome. And it most certainly means making sure that my outdoor runs still include any and all routes where hills are involved. Just for good measure.

But what this little exercise also reminded me of? That anyone can be the victim of a plateau or falling into the “well, I’m already pretty good at that so…” mindset. In other words – don’t allow yourself to get stuck in a rut or a routine just because “it’s how you’ve always done it.”

I want to apply this to all of my workouts from now on. 

Not that I’ve felt like I’ve hit a wall or anything with my workouts, but more because I never want to get complacent. I don’t want to hit the barre and feel like “I’ve done this workout before…” I want every trip to barre n9ne to feel new and challenging and shake-worthy. Same goes for each run – inside or out. I want to walk away from each run feeling as if I left nothing to spare. No speed left on a speedy day. No leg stamina left on a hill day. No endurance left on a long distance day.

This isn’t me being all hard core and crazy. Nope. This is just me never taking my workouts for granted by phoning them in. To me, there is nothing worse than complacency –not just with workouts, but in any area in life. Always be looking for ways to grow, change, evolve.

…to me – that’s what this lifetime is about – living your best life right now, and always working for that personal “best”…even if it stings a little. 😉