hill repeats

After four days of rest - for no real reason other than my love affair with my pillow - I dragged my sluggish body out of bed today at 5:00. Since mynext big event is the Nike Women's Marathon in San Fran, today's plan was hill repeats. I left my Forerunner at home since I know the distance to the hill is 1 mile. The hill is a 15% grade hill; possibly 300 feet in length. I did 5 repeats and then ran back home. All in all a good morning. I could have swapped the long sleeve top for a tee, but you never know how thick the marine layer will be. 20 weeks until the marathon.

I was training out at Fairview track today and as I ran I could see the storm clouds rolling in over the peaks. Spectacular! It is so great training in a place like this.

I was using the track as a base -- the actual sessions was hill repeats. 4 x 90 seconds on the road up a long steady hill, then a walk/jog break, then 10 x 30 seconds up something a little steeper: I chose one of the narrow little tracks that wind up from the lake.

I've only been running for, like, forever (it seems) so I am always surprised that I am so surprised at how intensely I can train when I am feeling so sluggish. You know the feeling? I started my warm-up run at a snail's pace, justifying it with the mantra "Just like the Kenyans, just like the Kenyans". Of course, they get progressively faster while I... don't. But still, it did start to feel a bit easier. And the first hill rep I ran so fast that I had to stop just short of 90 seconds to stuff my heart back in my chest.