Hills on IM run course
IMWI has a decent climb on the run course (Observatory Hill). What does everyone do when approaching this hill? I've seen people try and stay at their same pace, I've seen more people walk. Since the aid station is right before the hill, you wouldn't be at the 15 second walking interval. Just curious on what would be the best way to attack that hill...whether you are a FOPer, MOPer, or BOPer. Thanks!
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Everyone has their own RPE/Pace at which they feel they're better off walking up a hill vs running. I would go with that. If it helps, you have a steep downhill on the other side, to recover or trash your quads, depending on how you look at it, then flat and a lot of mojo over to/into State Street and the out and back.
And, back in the day, 2002 the first year of the event, we did the hill 4x vs 2x, as we didn't do any of that unicorns and fairies stuff next to the lake that you spoiled kids do these day...
The other thing I learned is how to run down the other side of those hills. There's more to it than just letting your legs go and hopping for the best. I believe you can run down the hill successfully and recover the time lost going up. Here's a blurb from an about.com article that really sums it up:
The best way to run downhill is to lean forward slightly and take short, quick strides. Don't lean back and try to brake yourself. Try to keep your shoulders just slightly in front of you and your hips under you. Although it's tempting to overstride, avoid taking huge leaping steps to reduce the pounding on your legs.
1) walk, and look around, saying "hey, everybody else is, so no biggie". I don't choose this, but that's because it's much harder for me to get going again if I've given in to the walk
2) run, however slowly, based on PE, and just shuffle up that hill, thinking "wow, look at all those people who were forced to walk, I'm kicking ass right now." I loved this in LP, especially going back into town, because there were a crapton of people on that hill, and when you were running, almost everybody on that hill would yell out and cheer you on (since they were so used to seeing walkers). Huge positive psychology reinforcement going on there.
One thing I once tried about 2 days before an IM was to go to the hill (the was about 2-3 times as long as the IM WI hill) on the course, and run up it at my steady pace (trying to hold the RPE I would if I were racing, meaning going slower, same HR, same effort level as on flat ground), and then came back and walked up it at race-walk pace. I compared the times, and determined (on that hill), I would lose 2 minutes by walking. Another 2-loop course (CDA, prior to this year) with a smallish hill like Observatory hill, I ran the first loop and walked the second loop. 45 seconds difference in walking.
My point: you can make a strategic decision in advance about walk vs run if you scope it out ahead of time and give yourself some actual data about what you lose. Running at the same effort level as on the flat should not impact your total race time, but may impact your mental state , and that breather of walking, and losing 45 seconds (or whatever) may be worth it. But make an infomred decision.
Al, that's a great idea.
Looking at the run course here, I may park/have Joanne drop me off at Walnut and the bike path, and run that loop: bike path east bound, up Observatory, left on Park (no need to go into State Street), west on the bike path back to the car. Run it at IM pace/RPE to give myself a frame of reference for race day.
Different race, different distance, but Wildflower has a beotch of a hill(s) from mile 10 to 12. I run the course at race pace during a training camp in March, noting my pace and RPE up the meaty part of the hill. Then on race day I use that pace as a stick to get up the hill: you ran this at 7:45 pace in a training camp on shelled legs. Suck it up and run 7:45's up this hill. I pull my hat down, don't look up, and only look about 5ft in front of me. The hill ends when I get up to the top, I don't look for it.
Running *up* a hill with dainty short little strides won't trash your quads; it's going *down* hard and fast to try and make up time that may end up hurting you if you aren't trained/used to it. It always amazes me how much it seems to tax me going up hill, no matter how slow I go, and then how that feeling evaporates, and I get right back at it, once I reach the crest. "Half of the game is 90% mental."
The hill is very short and you only hit it twice so it will not have that much of an impact on your time, but if you destroy yourself either sprinting up or blow our your quads going down that could come back to haunt you later on.