This week is a cutback week on our half training schedule (yes, you hear me yelling woo hoo!!!!!). We were going to aim for a 7 miler, but decided that we might benefit from hill training even more. "C" and I drove to the Big City and ran in a brand new area for us (it was near the hilly area of the race I did a couple of weeks ago). Although it was nearly 55 degrees at our start - the WIND was crazy! We ran at least a mile into the wind - "what the heck have we gotten into?" We started and found it incredibly difficult to breathe. The wind was literally taking our breath away. It felt so cold and windy - definitely a challenge all by itself, but no - we weren't settled with just wimpy running tonight. We took on hills -one right after another!!! The next one bigger than the one before. For at least 4 1/2 miles we had hill, hill, hill, hill, hill, hill, hill - you don't need an elevation map - dude, it was seriously challenging. We pushed - pushed through the pain, and pushed past the 2:2 interval to ensure we RAN to the top of the hill.
We did the full 6 miles in about 1:20 minutes (it was really 1:24, but we had to wait for a lllloooooonnnnnnngggggg time at 2 stop lights so I would say that it was at least 4 minutes). The last 1/4-1/3 mile we ran FAST (it's all relative, but we probably were going 12:30 m/m - we practiced "coming home" at a race.). Although this was a complete challenge, we decided that at least the next few weeks needed to include this hill training. It will definitely help us with confidence if nothing else during our May half which we've been told is hilly!!!! I'm not sure how my legs and feet will feel doing a long run on Monday an a 6 mile hill run on Wednesday - but we're certainly going to give it a try next week.
Now some questions for you -
1. Do you do hill training? why or why not?
2. How fast do you go? faster or slower than normal runs?
3. How often do you add hill training into your schedule? weekly? monthly? daily? a few times each training cycle?
4. Anything else you think I should know about hill training is GREATLY appreciated!!!!
Hill training - blech! It's one of those necessary evils to get better. I am not sure if I'm an expert but if you are running three days a week, I would make one run every other week a workout like last night or make one run a week an easy run over hills. When I was training for the Pig, I did "hils" (aiming for repeats) once a week but we don't have good hills in my 'hood.
ReplyDeleteHill training in Florida would be kinda funny...not a lot of hills really, LOL. Great job girl!
ReplyDeleteHaha. 12:30? Sounds like my pace!
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