Running and the wall

I love hills.

On uphills pump your arms vigorously, your legs will follow.

On downhills relax your arms even to the point of flailing them at your sides. Do not lean back against the hill, remain upright and enjoy the gravity.

As to the funny feeling in your chest and light headedness, maybe you should consult a doctor. When was your last full physical exam?

Not sure how long you are out running for. My rule of thumb is if it's over 1.25-1.5 hours, then it needs fuel. Just before I run and then every 40-45 minutes you could use a gel or chews or whatever you like. If I'm racing, then before and every 30 minutes. You could tweak it to fit your needs, but I wouldn't overdo it because of the calories.

Hills can be as much of a mental obstacle as a physical one. You can practice running them in your workout and do other cross training exercises to get your legs strong and that might help your confidence too.

Are you monitoring your pace? Be aware of your pace and force yourself to slow down at the hills. If you wait until you feel the need to slow down, you missed the boat. As soon as the hill starts, take it easy. About the fueling, I usually feel the need to fuel at the 45 minute mark. I can stretch it to about 55 minutes if I'm ending there. Carry a gel with you and take it at the 40 minute mark.

Something like these but not necessarily these exclusively. You need to figure out what works for you. I suppose they are sweet and sugary, but they have other things in them that will help replenish what you burn when you run. If you have a local running shoe store, I'm sure they would help you out. It seems kinda early to be hitting a wall like that, but if the temps are that high, I know that would zap it out of me that much quicker too.

humagel.com/
https://guenergy.com/

yirara wrote: »

shmulyeng wrote: »

Are you monitoring your pace? Be aware of your pace and force yourself to slow down at the hills. If you wait until you feel the need to slow down, you missed the boat. As soon as the hill starts, take it easy. About the fueling, I usually feel the need to fuel at the 45 minute mark. I can stretch it to about 55 minutes if I'm ending there. Carry a gel with you and take it at the 40 minute mark.

Oh yes, I do slow down. I don't even need to slow down because it happens automatically. Big time.

Are there alternatives to gels? I hate everything really sweet and artificial tasting, and from what I've been reading a gel is exactly this.

When I do long runs I switch up gels with dried fruit (usually cranberries and pineapple). You could try something like that; either eat right before you go out or take some to snack on halfway through with some water.

yirara wrote: »

However, there's a little thing that simple doesn't really improve: as long as the road is completely flat I'm fine. But with just a tiny bit upwards (talking about 5 meters /15ft here!) it feels like I'm running into a wall.

You are. Relatively speaking anyway.

yirara wrote: »

This is massively emphasized when I'm already running for around 7-8km.

This makes sense as well, you're muscles are already becoming fatigued and any changes in effort produce larger numbers of metabolites at a longer stage into a run.

yirara wrote: »

My energy levels drop,

This aspect is more mental than anything. You feel the change in gradient, and know you have to work harder. You can't sustain the same pace, and thus slow down, and interpret this slowdown as a drop in energy.

yirara wrote: »

my legs get heavy and turn into rubber from one second to another, and I have a funny feeling in my chest similar to the lightheadedness you get when you stand up too quickly with a low blood pressure, but not in the head but chest.

You are going too hard on these hills, which causes your legs to turn to rubber. You might feel like you are backing off form them, and probably are, but not sufficiently to match the same effort you were giving on the previous gradient. On even a 4% or 5% gradient you have to go a TON slower than you were on the flat, depending on size, perhaps 50%+ slower. Even more if we are talking solid hills that are 8-10% + in gradient.

The lightheadedness is the only thing that doesn't jive perfectly well with all the other symptoms. It could be that your posture changes and you are restricting yourself in some way, or that your body is affected by the different landing angle on the hill...but the fact that this happens even when going from downhil back to flat makes me wonder about that.

The other probable option is that you also are running into some fueling/blood sugar issues. Light headedness is very common to experience when blood sugar is lower, and I know I've experienced it tons of times when I've run pre breakfast (especially whilst trying to lose weight). Probably the best bet would be to practice eating a little more pre run (60-90 minutes before), finding foods that don't cause trouble, and then experimenting with taking a gel or some dried sugary fruit or what have you at 30min and 60 min into the run. That little bit of extra sugar might helped the lightheadness.

The rest of the issue is that you are clearly not backing off on pace quick enough once you hit the hill. If you were there would be no dramatic shift in perceived difficulty or lightheartedness. For your next run, the second you get to one of these gradient changes, I want you to go so slow it feels like you could walk dramatically faster than you are running. Almost like a joke to see how long it can take you to get over the hill while still maintaining a running gait. Guarantee you won't have most of the problems.

It is NOT related to fitness or running experience.

Don't lean forward too much or hunch up when you run up the hill - try to bend slightly at the hips, not higher up. You are probably restricting your breathing as your posture changes and that makes it harder. This would explain why you are fine walking up hills (your posture doesn't change as much) but not running up them.