Hills. We don't grow them here in Oshkosh.
Which means I haven't run a lot of them lately. But since I decided to run a half marathon in Raleigh, NC - the RunRaleigh Half Marathon - with by BFF Jess in April, that's got to change.
Because apparently Raleigh is hilly. And I don't want to die.
So when I sat down and figured out a training plan a week or so ago, I went back to something that has worked for me before. I pulled out my first plan from Coach Jim that I got way back in January 2011. It got me to my first 2:30 half marathon (in terrible conditions) and eventually lead to my current PR. So like I said, it worked. And I felt strong on hills. And considering my IT band has HATED hills for about the last 6 months, I'm eager to feel strong (sans a cranky IT band) when I encounter those hills in Raleigh in a few months.
So hill intervals it is.
And tonight was my first hill interval workout. Considering we don't grow hills in Oshkosh and everything has this layer of ice due to the crazy Wisconsin weather we've been having, I opted to head indoors for the treadmill.
After a one mile warm up, it was time for those hills. The first two felt pretty good. Number 3 was tougher. And that final interval? Absolutely brutal. But all four got done. And because that wasn't painful enough, I tacked on a 15-minute ab workout from the Nike Training Club app.
I'll be interested to see how the abs and legs feel tomorrow.
2 comments:
I don't think Raleigh has really tough hills, but that's coming out of the foothills of mountains of South Carolina where I had to bike in the small chainring all the time. People who come up from the coast (or midwest) can certainly find our hills intimidating. Really there is only one big climb. You go down it in mile 2, and back up in mile 11. So you can totally walk up it and still put in a decent finish time, at least that's my plan. I mean, you still might cry, but it's totally walkable.
Hang in there with the hill training! Eventually it gets a bit easier. I love the Nike Training app. So many great workouts on there!
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