Hills

Summer is upon us, and my speedwork has been limited to shorter intervals and hills to gain strength.   Last week, I ran hill repeats on a smaller hill off Goshen (close to the YMCA), and had a lot of trouble with the turnover going both up and down.  For the Boston Marathon training back in 2010, Ben Rosario gave me some great advice to make sure to train going down just as much going up. It's very good to do so, seeing you still need fast turnover when you're blazing down some steep hills, not to mention getting some strength to handle the impact on your legs.

Hoping to have some cooler mornings coming up so I can do some longer tempos.  I have found a few races to jump into as well, in hopes to race myself into shape since those races typically are the best workouts.  Mud Mountain XC is tomorrow, and looking to do the Hecker Tiki Trot 5K which we ran in 2010.  Very fun race, and one that I have wanted to do the last few years but hasn't worked out!  7 more weeks till wedding!

Wednesday, July 22nd - ~6 miles (2 up, 10 x hill, 2 down).  Did a hill workout during lunch, and found a doozy close to Creve Couer Park on Dorsett.  Parked in the park parking lot, then warmed up for 15 minute around the area.  Did repeats at hard effort going up and down, and quite honestly it sucked.  I am estimating those hills were ~250 meters, and was hitting ~60 seconds going up, and ~45 seconds going down.  Slow cooldown around the park to finish out this torture.  Not a fun workout to do at noon, despite the "cooler" temps.

Thursday, July 23rd - ~3.5 miles.  Ran with Crystal over in Lafayette Square, before meeting up with him and Craig for the Hot Chocolate Social Hour and Bailey's Chocolate Bar.  Crystal and I were both pretty beat, but managed to get in 30 minutes, which was almost exactly 4 loops.  Sunny and warm, but we had some shade and a nice breeze.  Afterwards, met up for the social hour and hung out with the RAM Racing team, and met some good people.  Fun times!

Easy run tonight.  Mud Mountain XC tomorrow.  No time goals - just want a good effort, and would like to place in my age group.  Going to be tough conditions, as I typically run very poorly on that course and it will be a hot one tomorrow.  Game plan is to run a conservative first mile, and save some energy for the hills.  In years past, the sub 6 minute first mile has always backfired, so let's see if I can learn from those experiences!