Lift those knees up

Often a 'saying' heard mid run, coming from some juvenile delinquents' mouth, along with "Run Forest, run" and the like,.... but today "Lift those knees up" has a new slant. After reading in Runners World that running up hills has those (who are better at it), lifting their knees higher in order to attack the hill, using different muscles and having pure strength and explosive power, I thought, hmmmm... do I lift my knees up when I run uphill? I didn't know.

Filpoke lane is a bit of a tough route. It's fairly 'rolling' in that there aren't really any flat parts. The inclines can be brief but sharp, and over the six miles you climb 243 feet in total.
I decided to try lifting my knees on the inclines to see if I noticed any difference.

Running this route today, I was amazed. The first "biggy" is a 3% incline, and I literally flew up it. My legs seemed to have a reserve of unused energy. I looked back to see Graeme puffing and panting and whingeing at me to slow down as his HR was going through the roof.
The second incline was the same, and I told Graeme what I was doing and he should give it a go. He was saying he couldn't breathe (I can fully empathise with him, as this is how I felt 2 or 3 days ago with the cold which has been passed onto him).
At 3 miles, he decided to take the short cut home, and I had the opportunity to try this new found technique at my own pace.

At about 5 miles, there's a 2% incline and I ran up it at 9:23 pace. The feeling I got was similar to running anaerobically. It's a bit like getting to the end of a race and when you feel you have nothing left, a sprint finish comes from nowhere. I suddenly realised why people say that hills are better than a flat race, as you get a rest from certain muscles as you are running uphill compared to flat. I don't think I've had this benefit before, as I've used small shuffled steps to get up the hills previously.

Now, don't get me wrong, I was still knackered at the top of each hill however my leg muscles weren't aching as they normally would. Why have I been running for nearly 2 years and have only JUST found this out? DOH!!!!!