When is Hilly Hilly

3 watchers

PinchyII Mar 2014 9:33am, 6 Mar 2014 386 posts	0 PinchyII Is there a specific formula to work out when a route can be considered hilly, bumpy, flat, millpond... Would you say 109M climb and descent over 8 Miles is bumpy? Is there also some formula to work out how much a "hill" effects the pace of a run? I guess it depends on bulk, as hauling 14stone up a hill must be harder than someone hauling up 8 stone.... Interested in opinions....
Nick Cook Mar 2014 9:59am, 6 Mar 2014 18,119 posts	0 Nick Cook If you import your Garmin runs onto ~~strava~~ it gives you an elevation adjusted pace for each mile. Just saying.
Velociraptor Mar 2014 10:05am, 6 Mar 2014 29,129 posts	0 Velociraptor I don't think there is a specific formula. For cycling, I start using "hilly" at an average of about 20 metres of ascent and descent per mile, but when I'm running it's more a "you know it when you see it" thing.
PinchyII Mar 2014 10:15am, 6 Mar 2014 387 posts	0 PinchyII I no longer use my Garmin - I upgraded to a Suunto Ambit 2 (although not totally convinced) - however I will see if I can import my xml files into ~~strava~~ and see what it makes of it - thanks Nick
DeeGee Mar 2014 10:18am, 6 Mar 2014 15,495 posts	0 DeeGee Depends where you are, doesn't it? My lovely hilly runs in the Lincolnshire Wolds would be nothing in comparison to anything in Yorkshire, apparently
swittle Mar 2014 10:23am, 6 Mar 2014 28,205 posts	0 swittle A handy glossary: perratt.me.uk ...and now, the serious bit: serpentine.org.uk
ChrisThePuma Mar 2014 10:37am, 6 Mar 2014 2,964 posts	0 ChrisThePuma And I am sure the "hills" (read road bridges and underpasses) in Milton Keynes would be nothing compared to the Lincolnshire Wolds
Wirral Dave Mar 2014 10:44am, 6 Mar 2014 114 posts	0 Wirral Dave When I moved from the Wirral to Scotland I noticed two things. Firstly, my easy training runs became just as 'hilly' as my previous hilly ones where. And secondly, that I went from being someone who relatively enjoyed 'hilly' runs to someone who hated them. This is because the definition of a hill moved from being not 100% horizontal to being 100% vertical. So I think it would be difficult to describe a run as 'hilly' in general as it is all relative to our other runs. I've wondered about the relationship between miles and 'miles * hills'. It seems obvious to me that if my marathon training suggests a 14 mile run one week and a 16 mile run the next I should be increasing mileage and effort. But, if I do a very hilly 14 mile session then a flat 16 mile session I wouldn't be increasing at all. It makes me wonder how far a '20-mile' run on a hilly route needs to be when training for a flat marathon. I would imagine that calorie consumption could be used to test this. The best reference I find from a quick google (an article about getting a body like Rachel from Friends, so perhaps not the most accurate) suggests you burn 5% more calories for extra 1% incline on a treadmill. Whether that 5% is on average or irrespective of weight I don't know (or trust the figure in general), but I suspect it would be possible to work something out. Does the calorie burn in our training log takes hills into account in any way?
Frobester Mar 2014 10:44am, 6 Mar 2014 25,066 posts	0 Frobester Milton Keynes has no hills, I think it can be safely said, but Hitchin has a Hilly Half, and Baldock has a Beast. Make of that what you will.
Rosehip Mar 2014 11:19am, 6 Mar 2014 2,934 posts	0 Rosehip and Bedford has Oakley, the profile of which is giving me the jitters - but our Northern friends would probably call virtually flat