On a beautiful Sunday evening in Holloway Andy, Jess and I (Paul Bown) met to tackle some hill training in Crouch End. After a quick warm up that got our heart rate up and our minds thinking towards what we had got ourselves in for.

We ran a gentle mile to Finsbury Park Station to meet Danica (Goodgym had assembled) before setting off clockwise around Park itself. The preparation for Race the Train was the main subject of conversion, discussing everything from weather to food.

After 2.5 miles we caught a glimpse of Ally Pally in the summer dusk and arrived at our hill of choice - Uplands Road! On the way down the hill to reach our starting position I talked about the importance of leaning forward instead of back while running down (this not only increases your speed it also puts less pressure on your joints) and putting your arms to your side to provide balance.

Once we reached the bottom I said the idea of the session was to do 4 hills up & down this small urban mountain and to focus on technique. With Race the Train approaching next Saturday this is evidently important! When running up hill the focus should be on keeping a straight posture, high knees and using forward focusing arms to power. After giving a quick demonstration we were ready to go!

With a good slow incline to build up the hill gets progressively steeper and certainly makes you feel like it's getting longer with each climb. Everyone did wonderfully, with all sprinting up the hills and focusing on their technique! I may have heard Danica say "I hate you" while I took a photo of her climbing hill number 4, it's understandable really..

We had a discussion about the reviewed the session, importance of technique, other advice given to us by coaches and felt fulfilled to have completed the training. We ran the 2.5 miles back to Holloway but this time going a different way around Finsbury Park (adventurous I know).

With our return we proceeded to do 6 different stretches before wishing each other luck with the weeks tapering for Race the Train. Well done guys - great work!

Hill Training with Paul Bown with be back in September - next time we will do short fast hills!