Runner94

Living in a hilly area is gift! After living in Florida for a few years, hills are a natural wonder to me! They are a great part of base training to add. The only worry you might have is having knee problems and maybe some calf soreness. I would invest in some knee wraps and calf sleeves as well as a rolling stick or foam roller. Here are a few tips to get through the hill workouts: 1. Don't hold yourself back going down a hill. Most of injury comes from slowing yourself down and placing pressure on your knees. Try to open your stride and use the minimal effort. 2. When going up the hill, focus on opening up the hips and lifting the knees. Many people try to muscle through the hill but the form comes first. Keep your hips tucked forward and drive the knees upward. 3. Shoulders down, head up, and pump those arms. The worst thing to do on a hill during a nice easy run is make your muscles go anaerobic and build too much lactic acid. Make sure to open your breathing by opening your chest and using your arms. Take advantage of these hills while you have them. Try to use them for strides, fartleks, and broken tempo repeats.

Its definitely going to be tough but better now than never! I started seriously lifting about 3 weeks ago but before then just some minor, light weight training to prevent injury in track season. Finally getting through that initially painful 2 weeks and getting into the fun part!

Growing up, I was raised in the famous church of the Sunday long run. When I got to college, I started switching it to Saturday and taking a shorter easy run on Sunday. I found that if I was trying to raise my mileage on my long run and tempos, the best recipe for the next day after a harder day was a nice long warm up and cool down. Personally, I would try and do an easy run the day after your tempo. I would add in some form drills and dynamic stretches the next day. This will also help to prevent injury. Also, a workout that I found very helpful when I was in the "tempo" time of the season was this: 15-20 x 300 w/ 45-1 min rest jog (jog that last 100m slow) try to prevent yourself from going anaerobic( building lactic acid). so where you would normally do 45sec go 55-60. its very easy at first but is a great way to follow up a long slow tempo

Hey there NF! I'm very excited to start my first ever challenge here! I am a 20 year old computer science student in the sunny state of Florida. For 4 years in high school and 2 in college, I ran varsity cross country and track. After a lifetime of running and a solid 6 years of focusing my efforts on running, I decided to leave my school's team to focus on school work and general fitness. I am 5' 9" and about 134 lbs. Although I still love running, I want to start moving to other areas of fitness. Main Quest : I would like to gain some muscle without losing and fitness in running. Goals 1. Go to the gym and lift 4-5 times a week. 2. Wake up before 7am every morning. 3. Cut out all soda and start drinking water. Life Goal: Study, take, and destroy the GRE. (my final step to getting into grad school) Very excited to get started on my goals and help support others! Thanks yall!