Hills #1

I admit that this worked seemed easier on paper. I don't know why. I guess the 3 minutes of rest between each set seemed too good to be true. I was wrong.

Warm up. 4 x 45 seconds up from the bottom of the back side of the hospital. Rest back down. 3 minutes recovery at the end of the set. Another set of the same thing from the stop sign by the emergency room. 3 minutes recovery. 4 x 90 seconds from the bottom of the hill. Cool down. I'm used to straight sets of 45 seconds, down, 90 seconds, down. We usually start with 4, end with 7. Although last year we started doing sets of 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute. Those were tough. But for some reason I thought it would be easier, despite having more hard sessions. Dumbo.

Bob, Justin and I went to pick up Konrad at his house at 4:53am and went to the hill. I was overdressed in tights and a warm long-sleeved shirt. So I just went with a t-shirt. Good call. The first 4 sets up from the bottom were tough. I felt like my first 45 was the best in terms of distance, but the were all pretty much the same. It just felt unfamiliar, starting from the bottom and doing 45 seconds from there. I reveled in the 3 minutes rest after that. Then we did a set from the stop sign-- more familiar. I did poorly. I was barely making it to the fire hydrant that I usually pass. But I still felt like it wasn't that hard of a workout. Then we started the 90s.

I felt like I was walking during the first 45 seconds of it, and then I'd get to the top sign and feel like I was standing still. The change in slope almost knocked me over on the 3rd hill. Justin and Bob left after #10 so Konrad and I could have some alone time for #11 and 12. They sucked. I missed Justin's footsteps. The last two were less successful than the first two 90's. I was toast. So it was a good workout by that measure. Not by the paces I was running. Pace by sets: 5(24, 14, 09, 13), 5(28, 28, 26, 22), 5(40, 42, 50, 44). I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that the 2nd set of 45s had slower paces but similar distances, since the slope of the hill was so much more in the 2nd set.

We cooled down back to his house and then I ran back to my car. It was like 6:05 before I left and I got to school later than usual as a result.

I blogged about my race this weekend too. You can go back to Sunday if you want to read about it...

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