Despite my last name being Hill, until recently I loathed hill running. I really didn’t look forward to running up hill and down dale. But yesterday I completed the  Great Ocean Road half marathon in a personal best time of 1:56 for the 23kms. Unlike previous middle distance runs around Melbourne and half marathon courses, yesterday’s course boasted amazing ocean views and stunning forest and farm vistas. It also featured several unpleasant hills.

Laura Hill after completing the 2016 Great Ocean Road half marathon

I’m not going to lie and say that running up the hills wasn’t hard work. On each incline, my quads and calf muscles were burning and my arms were working overtime; propelling me up the winding cliff faces. I was sucking in the air and silently cursing under each of my quick breaths, but once I was at the top of each hill I quickly recovered and loved gliding down the other side. What’s more, is that I noticed that for the first time since I started running I was regularly overtaking other runners on each hill climb and it felt great.

So what changed for me to finally enjoy hill running? The answer was relatively simple: my mindset and approach to running hills, as well as training of course!

Highlight the hills

In the lead up to the half marathon I made a real effort to plan my training runs so that I would stay away from my comfort zone runs along Port Phillip Bay and instead, strengthen my fitness and leg muscles my increasing the elevation. My training pals and me ran laps of Melbourne’s famous ‘Tan’ track and jogged along the Yarra River and Merri Creek trails to simulate the hills we’d experience along the Great Ocean Road.

Here’s a list of some great spots in Melbourne to go hill running:

• Mentone to Beaumaris (along the cliff tops, with views of Melbourne)
• The 1000 steps – Dandenong
• Clockwise around The Tan – Royal Botanical Gardens
• Kew Boulevard – Kew Boathouse
• Sandringham to Brighton Beach (along the walking track)

One of the hills I ran in Jan Juc as part of my training for the half marathon

Have a plan

Like other parts of running race, you need a plan for how you’re going to tackle it. I decided my goal was to be able to run hills efficiently so that they wouldn’t fatigue me or lead to me blowing up later in the race. My approach was to go easy on the way up and faster on the way down, working with the flow of terrain and making friends with hills. I wanted to feel tired at the top of a hill but able to recover in time for the next one.

Learning to love running hills was part of my training for the Great Ocean Road half marathon

Technique

In addition to the training, I worked on my technique for running hills. This involved being mindful of the following:

• Not leaning forward at the hips as this inhibits your ability to flex your hips and drive your knee up during the ‘swing’ phase of your gait;
• Standing tall when running up a hill makes it easier for your glutes to extend your leg behind you;
• Driving with the hip muscles to power your way up the hill and extend your leg fully behind you;
• Keeping your arms moving and hands lose – no fists;
• Avoiding hunching as this decreases your working lung volume making you short of breath;
• Taking shorter strides, with a more rapid turnover to improve efficiency;
• Keeping your head and eyes focused ahead, but not all the way up the hill;
• When going down the hill making sure your feet land underneath you to produce minimal shock on the body.

The start of the 2016 Great Ocean Road half marathon at Kennet River