Warm&fuzzy
I'm slow. I have been running a little over three years, and have known I was slow since I started. My pace for the year is about 11mpm (hey! it's faster than last year). I run a lot of miles, but it takes a lot of time.
I live on a ridge, hence my user name. We call it a mountain, but I'm sure the Alaska or Rocky Mtn folks would scoff and consider any "mountain" in TN a mere hill. Anyway, I can't run over a couple miles in any direction without going down a large hill - I think 375-450 feet in .5-.7 miles is a large hill. Even if I stay on the ridge, it's not very flat. I'd like to think if I was running in Kansas, my 11mpm would translate to Olympic qualifying speed
TL;DR version-
I added up last weeks elevation gain total after letting RA recalculate the elevation graph. I'm at about 91 feet per mile. What does your weekly gain look like?
I might be slightly bored, beered, and home alone to take the time to add it up and post. I'm too tired after all the longrun mountain climbing this morning to do much else.
Runner with a riding problem.
I think 375-450 feet in .5-.7 miles is a large hill.
Shit, you could probably run a 4:00 mile in Michigan!
What you call hills, I call mountains. lol
It's been awesome to see your mileage build up this year! I think that the elevation has a lot to do with it, and that hill sounds huge! Big enough that it would take way more out of you than gaining or losing a couple of feet gradually as you run.
I looked at my last 7 days of runs in my log, and it averages out to 61.5 feet per mile. But there are a few oddities in there:
Apparently I gain 9 feet/mile at the track?
There's a footbridge just over 3 miles from my house. If I cross it, both Garmin and RA calculate the elevation as if I threw myself off the bridge and then ran back up the far side of the bank.
The biggest noticeable "hills" that I have to deal with are 37 feet in .3 miles, and 20 feet gain in .1 mile. So, not that much really.
375-400 ft Holy crap. I looked and I average about 60 feet elevation gain per mile. I have an area that I've been running once per week specifically because it is hilly. I had one mile with 172 ft of elevation gain, one with 100 and several with 80.
There are some things named mountains in Maryland that do not fit the geographical definition of one (2000 ft). However, I've mountain biked in the state park near one of the fake mountains and it is brutally hilly. Even the <2 mile run I did after a 5k in April "only" had 233 feet of elevation gain. That was through the woods to the top of the old ski hill and then down the ski hill.
Most of my outdoor runs are 50-100' per mile. I have a 100+ foot climb in the first mile from my house in any direction I go. I'll drive to town or to a railtrail so I can run flat sometimes, but I know that the hills do me more good. When I'm in good shape, I can run up and down without too much trouble. When I'm not, I walk a lot. Since all of our local races are on similar terrain, I try to do some big hills at least once or twice a week.
Hip Redux
In terms of cycling, a route up to 50 ft/mile is considered flat/rolling. 50-75 hilly to very hilly, and 75-100 is damn hilly. That scales down for runs - anything 50+ ft/mile is likely something most would consider hilly. At 90 ft/mile that is a lot of climbing for a regular 'round the hood kind of run. We are in the hilly part of the state and average 50-60 ft/mile (though I try to avoid all the big hills around town lol).
There's a caveat there that not all watches measure elevation changes very well, and most calculations are sketchy as well. You usually need an altimeter to get consistent numbers, IIRC. And of course, hilly can be subjective depending on what you are used to.
Since my average is something close to 0ft, that sounds hilly to me!
Damaris
As part of the 2024 London Marathon, I am fundraising for VICTA, a charity that helps blind and visually impaired children. My mentor while in law school, Jim K (a blind attorney), has been a huge inspiration and an example of courage and perseverance. Please consider donating.
Fundraising Page
PleasantRidge, Your hills look respectable - approaching 15-20% slope for half a mile or so (if I did the arithmetic correctly).
I'm fortunate in that I have a diversity of terrains around me. OUt-my-door is pretty flat, maybe 1-3% in some areas. But nearby (3.5-8mi to thd, depending on which one) (one of those thds was where I used to work, so out-my-door also), we have rolling terrain from valley glacial moraines (not continental ice sheets). Those trails will generally get me 800-1000ft of uphill over 5-6 miles rt (so 900ft up in 3 miles approx). Then there are the bigger hills / mountains that might be as small as 700ft in 1.5mi or as big as 5000ft in about 5 mi (both are one way), although more usual are about 2000-3000ft in 2-3 mi.
For July, it looks like I hit 21,000ft of uphill over 134 mi total with all runs finishing where I started. That's an average of my flat, rolling, and bigger hills.
I do have a barometric altimeter in my gps..
Penguin Power!
^^this. Though I have been making an effort to run bridges more and in central park more.
Upcoming Races: Run as One 4M (4/24) * Japan Run 4M (5/8) * Brooklyn Half (5/21)
PleasantRidge, Your hills look respectable ...
You were who I was thinking of when I said Alaska. i think you know hills. I might get haughty when I run over my respectable hills here in a bit.
Mmmmm...beer
My daily runs are 7-8 miles and around 6-700ft of elevation, nothing crazy, but I think they're still doing me good. I went for a run when I was down in GA and it ended up being over 1200ft of elevation, but to me the hills felt only slightly bigger than at home. And I was mostly unaffected by the hills at my race yesterday.
Hills are great! (never thought I would say that lol)
-Dave
My running blog
Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!
This is one of the mountain races that was held Saturday (didn't do it this year since I wanted to do another race) with one picture from last year.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.887198451333716.1073741829.112569688796600&type=3
http://tinyurl.com/o4ez8tg
But it gives you an idea of one of the easier mountain races (2000ft in 2.2mi, nothing technical). (175 people with 7 in the 70+ AG in 2015, 3 male, 4 female)
What is a hill is all in the mind of the beholder. We've got some local rollers that I used to struggle with. Then I found out one of our top local ultra runners used to have to walk them after moving here from coastal plains of east coast. (He now does them as part of 45-mi training runs -or he did until he moved.)
While your hills aren't thousands of feet tall, they're big enough to give you a decent workout for many types of runs. And rolling hills can be meat grinders with the constant up/down.
ENjoy your hills.