My quest to conquer the hills

It's no secret that the hills of Durham were my Achilles' heel in the Ramblin Rose last year. I avoid hills like the plague. I trained for that Half on the uber flat American Tobacco Trail. Looking back, maybe it wasn't the smartest idea. But I was looking to be able to build up my base miles without concerning myself with things like speed and certainly not hills. Well here I am now, another year older and wiser....

I was running on the Al Buehler trail yesterday and had what I consider to be a good idea for my training. The AB Trail is challenging (at least to me). I've read it described as "a hilly packed-gravel path that treats all Duke runners like the wife in a Lifetime Original Movie." I am not absolutely sure what that means exactly, but it doesn't sound good. Anyhow I am setting up a little challenge for myself. One run around the loop each week. No stopping of the watch during walk breaks (I'm a bit of a cheater that way normally.) Watch my time decrease as I get stronger, tackle more hills, walk less and run faster.

This method of hill training seems more interesting to me than hill repeats. This year, I can not ignore the hills!