Ruchel’s Hill Climb Training Tips

Hi! My name is Ruchel Stevens and during the day I can be found working at Rocky Mountain Soap, as a Senior Accountant. In my free time I can be found running and exploring as many trails and mountains as possible. Last year I raced competitively in both Canada and the US at some of the Northwest’s most competitive and rugged ultra-marathons, summited 95 mountains, ran a double crossing of the Grand Canyon, and ran a 135KM grand traverse through the Rocky Mountains with my best mountain friend Emily Compton.
The Rocky Mountain Soap Women’s run is my favorite road race. The course is beautiful and has some awesome hills (my two race prerequisites!). The awesome RMSC finish line swag is a great bonus too!
Once a week I will incorporate a structured workout into my training plan, my favorite workouts are those involving hills. Here are some hill based workout ideas to inspire your training this week and help to prepare you for those rolling hills during the Rocky Mountain Soap Women’s Run. Ruchel’s Hill Climb Training Tips
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Long Hills:
Find an area with a nice long hill. Warm up with at an easy pace for 10 -15 mins on a flat if possible, followed by running uphill for a 10 minute duration. Once the ten minutes of uphill running is done, jog back downhill to your starting point and go up the hill again. Try and get to the same point of the hill or further on the second round.
Cool down by jogging lightly to where you started. For a great option local to the Canmore area, The Smith Dorian gravel road hill on your way to Ha Ling is a perfect choice.
Short Hills:
No long hills, no problem! Find a short steep hill and run up it 8 times, take a minute or two to recover at the top and run down. Always include a 10-15 minute warmup and cool down as part of your work out!


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Rolling Hills:
All of the courses at the Rocky Mountain Soap Women’s Run have rolling hills, so needless to say, a great way to prepare would be to find an area near you with rolling hills.
Warm up for 10 – 15 minutes, run harder for 10 minutes, recover for 5 minutes at an easy pace (try talking, if you can’t talk your pace isn’t easy enough) and then run harder for another 10 minutes, then cool down at an easy pace for 10 – 15 minutes.
I’ll be volunteering at the Rocky aid station on the half marathon course right before you climb the hill up to the Nordic Center. Be sure to give one of us a high five before you kill that final climb!



Happy Training!
Ruchel Stevens x
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You can follow Ruchel’s running adventures on Instagram 

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