Today’s topic of discussion: Wind or Hills?
For me, it’s a no-brainer – give me hills any day, and keep the wind. The caveat I’ll put on that is that I’ve never really ridden or ran mountains, as in over about 3 or 4 miles of continual decent climbing, and my max climb is probably around 500 feet (like on a routine basis – I’ve done a decent amount of backpacking/hiking in various sets of mountains). Yeah, I’m a flatlander.
Hills – Hills can be dealt with. Take shorter steps. Run slightly across the grade. Smaller chainring, bigger cog. They’re a challenge that can be broken down to one’s skills. AND there’s always the promise of a downhill while one’s running uphill. Although that promise is a lot more enticing when one’s on skis or wheels.
Wind? There’s not a darn thing you can do. If the wind’s blowing, unless it’s within about 45 degrees of one’s posterior, it’s going to slow you down. Vector addition and all that. Plus, wind always will shift to slow one down. And unless it’s really blowing, there’s not a whole lot of speed advantage unless one is sailing. And then, one needs to worry that the wind will increase the chop and potentially upset one’s drink.
4 easy miles today at lunch. No Forerunner, no iPod. No clue how long it took, ‘cept it was most likely closer to 10 minute miles than 8. But it’s all right. The whole thing pretty much felt good. I didn’t finish strong, but I finished. May have been a bit dehydrated, too. Oh, and the wind was fierce, blowing cold and strong straight out of Canada, with a healthy fetch across the bay.
I’ll skip the food details, but it was all good stuff. 50/50 extra lean ground beef / ground turkey meatloaf for supper. My wife should start a healthier food restaurant. I swear, there’s a happy medium to be found between sprouts and beans and deep-fried twinkies. Somebody needs to notice this and make a mint serving sensible but tasty food.
One last recommendation: NPR did a bit on Wayne Shorter, a jazz saxophonist who got noticed with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, was part of the Miles Davis Quintet with Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock. Brilliant.
Wind annoys me to no end. I haven’t ran too many real hills so far, but I have to agree with your concept that at least a hill has the promise of getting to go downhill.
And the wind … it had to come fiercely straight from Canada?? :) No way it might’ve originated at a border crossing or something?!? ;)
I’ll take the gnarliest hill over the wind any day. Wind is just continuous and there is no break, especially if it shifts when you turn around and get a head wind on the way back.
And wind is even worse on a bike: in Boulder on some rides you would get cross wind/head wind combo coming off the mountains, and it is really hard to hold a line.
I think wind sucks, but it must be good for your running. Think of it like “surprise intervals”. :D
I chose wind over hills.
Uphill is hard. Upwind is hard.
Downhill is no picnic. I find I have to shorten my stride to cut the impact, and so it feels like an unnatural gait. Downwind is like being gently pushed along, at any gait.
hmmm…tough one. warren makes good points, but i’d still have to take the hills. wind is relentless, especially when on a bike. even downhill on a bike into a headwind can be hard.
i think there’s more of a training benefit from running hills than running into a headwind.
Well, you could just quit/resign/give up? ;)
Seriously, add me to the hills camp. Wind is not a runner’s friend.