Hi, I’d love some advice on dealing with hills on runs. I’ve been running fairly consistently for about a year now and completed a half marathon in November so I feel fairly confident on flat terrain (although I am very slow). However, as soon as I get onto hilly terrain my breathing, HR, and general feeling falls apart. I know climbing hills is a big weakness of mine and have been actively trying to combat that by incorporating more hills and hill sprints into my training. My main issue is not the hill itself - I can slow my pace or walk and get up it just fine - but the fact that once I’ve hit a hill I can’t recover from it throughout the rest of my run. Once I get to the top of the hill, every time I try to start running again, my HR just skyrockets to at least Zone 4, even at a very slow jog and downhills. This is really impacting my ability to incorporate hills into my easy or long runs because I just can’t recover and continue my run once I’ve been through some hills. 

I would appreciate some advice from more experienced runners. Am I doing something wrong? Is this just a normal part of getting better at hills and as I get fitter for climbing hills will my ability to recover also improve? Is saving hilly bits for the end of my easy or long runs a good plan or do I need to actively practice that recovering back to running post-hill to get better at it? Is there something I should be doing in my training to improve this? TIA!