Running for the Hills: Hills, Hills, Hills!

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Hills, Hills, Hills!

I didn't originally plan for this week to involve mostly hill workouts, but that's what it turned into, and once it started, I didn't see the point in changing it! I decided on Tuesday that it was past time for some hill sprints, and talked two others at the Wolf Pack group to join me : Ben and someone new. Then on Thursday Ben and I planned to meet early so we could get in a ten miler before dark, and I suggested we run down to the bottom of White's Mill and back...so we did. And we ended up going up the long hill faster than we went down it. I spent the weekend in Lewisburg and planned a long hill loop for Saturday morning, but it was 27 degrees Saturday morning, and I was staying in a house with no heat (waiting for a new furnace to be installed). The thought of putting on cold running clothes to go run in the cold was really not appealing. So I stayed in warm sweats until I went out to the barn for a trail ride at 11. I almost let myself take yet another day off today and call it an easy week, but I managed to talk myself into getting out the door once the frost melted. And once I was out there, I convinced myself that it would be silly not to get my 30 miles for the week when I've been on a streak for 6 weeks, and I should really be pushing it to 35 by now.

This week :

M : 6 w/Amanda / 7:59 / 240 ft

T : 4.6 hill sprints / 8:50 / 568 ft

R : 10.7 w/Ben / 7:33 / 581 ft

Sa : 3 hour horseback ride

Su : 9 / 8:07 / 823 ft

total : 30.3 miles

Tuesday

I put about 85% effort into the first 6 sprints, going for consistency, and 100% all-out effort into the last one. Lungs were hurting bad in the last one! I'm impressed with myself for being so close to the same time for the first 4! You can see that the oxygen debt started hurting me after the fourth one.