The Hills

A 2:50 marathon is not run on the day of the race. Instead, it is run on the countless training runs, long runs and workouts in the months leading up to the race. Today was one of the first steps towards that 2:50 marathon in November as I ran my first hill workout of the summer. I ran with my trusty training partner Carissa, and we warmed up from my house to the hill in Enchanted Trails. The workout was set to be 10x hill which is approximately 400 meters long. I didn't do this workout until late July last summer, so I didn't quite know what to expect for my times.

It is quite humid today and we were a little worried that we would be feeling the effects of the heavy, wet air. Luckily, it was fairly cool under the shade of the trees in the trail so heat was not really an issue. The hill (and my fitness), on the other hand, was an issue.

The workout was not bad by any means. I did run about 5-10 seconds slower for each hill than I did for this workout last summer. The thing is, though, that a hill workout is meant to build but also depends on strength. Last summer, I had a solid 2.5 months of consistent running, and about a month of 60+ mile weeks under my belt when I began running this workout. I was feeling pretty strong. Currently, I am running the same mileage, only not nearly as many weeks of it yet. I am still very much in the "strength building" stage of the summer, so I cannot expect to be crushing workouts. I will be looking at these initial workouts as the building blocks for which I will construct my training on as I move forward.

The workout was hard. By the end I was sucking wind pretty hard, and had to extend my recovery between the last few hills. It was a ball breaker, and I broke my balls. Overall it was a good effort and I am happy with where I am and where I am headed. A 2:50 marathon is not run on the day of the race; instead it is run on hill workouts like today's, where you begin to push your personal limits a little bit further than you have before. That is where it happens.

Disclaimer: That picture is not the hill we ran on... but it kind of looks like it.