A week and a half ago, I was in total damage control mode, trying to ignore the achey-grinding sensations in my pelvis & back and do whatever I could do minimize the pain in my left hip. After a massage and a rest day, though, I had a great long run on Sunday with a few fast miles that felt way easier than they should have, a solid and pain-free 8 miler on Tuesday, and a pretty awesome hill interval session on Thursday.
My four weeks of hill work include two types of hill workouts--"medium hill repeats" and "long hill repeats." For the mediums, you find a pretty steep but still runnable hill and do 50-60 seconds of charging up at 15:00 race effort, then jog back down, & repeat some number of times. (And WOW, are these miserable when you haven't done speed work in 9 months.)
For the long ones, you find a hill that is noticeable but not too steep and run up for 2-3 minutes at 30:00 race effort (so for me kind of right in between 5K & 10K). I missed the first assigned one of these thanks to Boston, so this past week was my first time figuring out where I was going to it. Close to home, we tend to have short, gentle rollers and super-steep-bordering-on-unrunnable peaks, but nothing that really fit this particular bill.
I thought of a good stretch in Golden Gate Park that would work, but it's about five miles away, and since I didn't want to drive out there or make this a 15 mile workout, I settled for a closer stretch in the Panhandle. It's definitely a hill, but probably not *quite* as steep as this workout has in mind, so I tried to make up for it but pushing maybe a little harder than I would have normally.
Again I ask, why do hills never actually look like hills in pictures?
Also, it was HOT, by which I mean 80s and full sun (exceptionally rare in SF), so I was prepared for everything to feel harder.
Weirdly, though, this workout never actually felt that hard. I jogged 2.4 miles out, then did 8 repeats up the hill (~.28 in around 2:00 each, give or take) at 5K-ish effort level. I mean yes, they do obviously get hard toward the end of each one, but I kept waiting for the utter exhaustion to set in and it just never did. I was recovering just fine with each downhill jog, and I finished repeat #8 red-faced and panting and soaking wet, but also feeling like I could have busted out a few more if I had to.
The easy 2 miles back home made it a 9 mile day. Between that & the heat & the hills I kept waiting to feel wiped out, but it never happened. I've definitely had many easier days at the track in better weather and come home feeling considerably worse, so #winning.
Grand Total: 34.2 miles
- * 16.4 easy
* 4.6 hill intervals
* 13.2 race
This week had some harder runs in it, so I didn't push the mileage. (CAN YOU SEE ME WORKING SUPER HARD TO STAY NOT-HURT HERE?)
Monday: Rest. I would have gone to karate except Don got stuck at work with the only key til nearly 9pm (ON HIS BIRTHDAY!!). Instead, I got him dinner & an apple-rhubarb pie for when he finally got home.
(Note: In case you were wondering, no, my visit to the nutritionist does NOT mean I will be giving up pie, because what kind of life is that??)
Mission Pie, you know I can't quit you.
Tuesday: 8 easy. I was supposed to do like 15 x 0:20" sprints, but I've decided to only ever do these on the track, and due to my afternoon/evening plans, I had to do it in the morning & didn't have time to drive to the track so instead I just did 8 easy.
Wednesday: a.m. strength / p.m. karate. I was up late so didn't get to bed early enough to get up at 6 am. BUT, it was to have a non-shitty birthday celebration for Don with karate folks after class featuring beer & pizza, so to be honest I have no regrets.
Thursday: 2.4 warm-up, 8 x .28 hill intervals w/ .28 downhill recovery jogs, 2 cool down = 9 total.
Friday: 2 easy. Just a few easy shake-out miles.
Saturday: 2 warm-up, ~13.2 race = 15.2 total. (Race report here)
Sunday: Rest
You're so right. Hills never look as hard as they feel in pictures. I've run some really gnarly ones and gone to take photos to find that they barely look more than flat. Totally unimpressive and a bit like the enormous spider that you kill only to have it shrivel up to miniature size before you can show anyone.
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