It’s hard to believe I bailed on last week’s hill workout because it was cold (44F) and raining. Today’s temperature was about 50 degrees warmer!

When I joined up with the group at 6:30 this evening, the thermometer in my car said it was 94 degrees. Where did spring go?

My time for each 200-meter hill is supposed to be 63 seconds, but I’ve been running them considerably faster. I knew I was going to have to slow down this week.

1. 59
2. 61
3. 61
4. 62
5. 65
6. 61
7. 63
8. 60
9. 59

Considering the conditions? Not too bad!

It actually didn’t feel as horrible as I expected. There was a bit of a breeze on the bridge, and it isn’t too humid … yet.

That doesn’t mean it was easy. I was feeling pretty beat up on our run back to the store. It felt like I had gone much farther than 5.25 miles.

Two more weeks of hills are on the schedule (10 and 12), and then we  hit the track. I’m kind of looking forward to it!

Tuesday nights are hill repeats with my running store race team. I got changed before leaving the office as usual. Rain was in the forecast, but it was dry and overcast as I left the office.

But the drops started falling on my 20-mile commute. By the time I made it home, it was really coming down. With wind gusts and a chilly 44 degrees, I just wasn’t feeling it. I was going to attempt to run my scheduled eight hills on the treadmill.

Phew. That was tough!

I didn’t do the math to figure out what I should be doing since the treadmill is so different.  After a slow warm-up mile, I cranked the incline as high as it’d go (my low-end treadmill doesn’t give me an incline percentage), and set the speed to 7.0 mph, around an 8:30 pace. (the treadmill only gives me mph, too).

This is slower than my splits have been lately. I should be a little over an 8-minute pace, but I’ve been hitting them around 7:45. Still, I figured it was a good starting point. Since we’re doing 200-meter hill repeats, I decided I’d run .13 uphill, with .12 recovery.

That first uphill was really hard!  Also, it was way too fast, about 52 seconds. I have no idea how that is possible. Maybe I messed up the timer?

I decided to make the remaining seven hills a little easier. I still kept the incline up at or close to the top (it’s hard to tell), but dropped the speed down to 6.5, which should be a little over a 9-minute pace. It sure felt faster on that incline!

I unfortunately have no idea what the rest of my splits are. I was trying out a lap timer on my phone, and it wasn’t really working for me. When I restarted for the second hill it didn’t start a new lap, and then my phone kept going to sleep. Next time (oh, I hope there will NOT be a next time), I’ll just use my Garmin for the time!

For the last hill, I kicked it up to 6.8. But I had to drop it down to 6.6 halfway through. It wasn’t just that the speed was tough on my tired legs. With the incline, I felt a little like I might go flying off the treadmill!

How did I ever make it through that first one?

I finished my hills, and ran a cool-down mile with no incline. That was all I had in me tonight, for a total of four miles.

What a workout!

Some people enjoy running alone. I’m more of a social runner. I love having company while I’m out there pounding the pavement!

We have a small group that runs together a few days a week. Somebody will start an email thread and we decide where we’re running that evening. Some days we have more participants than others.  Today I was the only one .

Many days I would just hit the treadmill, but I couldn’t stay indoors tonight. The weather was perfect! Blue skies, 60 degrees … I headed home to grab some water and ran out the door.

From my house, I can make a big loop around town and get about 4.5 miles. Seemed like a good distance for tonight!

When I’m on my own, I usually don’t push the pace all that much. I usually settle into a slowish, comfortable pace. Tonight I averaged 9:44 which is definitely speedy for me for a solo run.  I’m even more impressed with my splits:

• 1 – 9:56
• 2 – 9:48
• 3- 9:48
• 4 – 9:44
• .55 – 8:58 pace

I finished feeling great. If it wasn’t getting dark, I probably would have made it five!

I did  pause for a few seconds at the halfway point to take a photo. I’ve run past sunsets here so many times, but usually don’t have a camera (or phone) with me!

On Tuesday,  it was hills again. This time we did six. Like last week, my goal time was 63 seconds.

1. 57
2. 59
3. 60
4. 58
5. 57
6. 58

A few times I felt like I was losing steam, but my times were still good. I hope I can keep it up!

Make that hills.

My local running shop’s racing team is training again, and like last year we started with 200-meter sprints up a bridge. We had a great night for it — still over 50 degrees at 6:30 p.m!

Based on my 55-minute 10K goal, I was supposed to be running each hill in 63 seconds.  I had the same 10K goal last year. And I made it… barely…  at 55:57. I’d like to get a bit more solidly into that 55-minute range.

We had five repeats on the schedule tonight. I haven’t done any hill or speedwork for a while now, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. I had nothing to worry about!

1. 56
2. 59
3. 58
4. 58
5. 58

Hmm … a bit fast. I guess I’ll see if I can keep it up. I wouldn’t mind beating my goal!

I was the only one at the run tonight in my pace group, but it wasn’t bad. The group kept the 1.5-mile run to and from the shop slow (for them), so I had no trouble keeping up. I was actually in the front on the way back, which was strange in that crowd!

As for the hills, I just started each repeat with two women with a 53-minute goal. I couldn’t quite keep up, but they helped pull me along.

The post-Goofy break was nice, and I’m really glad I didn’t have a strict training schedule during all that snow. But I’m happy to have some structure in my running again!