After an easy 6-miler on Thursday it was back to the Hill on Friday. Same deal as last week - 10 x 1-minute, but this time I ran them considerably faster which made for an extremely difficult workout.
Once again I started late, and it was already starting to get dark as I attacked the hill the first time.
Last week I ran the first three somewhat conservatively as I wasn't sure how I'd handle 10-repeats. By the 5th one I started to increase the pace a bit and the last two were very quick. This week, the first 5-repeats were as fast as the fastest one from last week! Needless to say, by #6 I was really feeling it. After that one I seriously considered shortening the workout to 8-reps, but decided against it. After #7 I considered it again. . . why not do one more and bag it, after all it was quite dark now and I couldn't even see the Garmin's display w/o the back light . . . again I decided against it - needed to find a way to push through, but I was dying.
The 8th and 9th repeats were a little slower, but not by much. My legs were really burning the whole way up the hill - much much more painful than anything I've done on the track lately. I re-tasted my lunch several times during this period although I never quite did heave one over the hill. By the time I started #10 it was really dark. I did my best to hit the pace of the first 5. The burning in my quads was excruciating now, but I managed to increase the pace further. Almost done, almost there.
When I was finally able to hit the "stop" button on the Garmin, I felt absolutely dreadful. I looked through the trees out over the hillside. The lights of civilization sparkled against the night sky. The only sound was me trying to somehow get oxygen into my lungs. I dropped to the ground unable to move. I couldn't see 3-feet in front of me now but the view was nice. I heard the rustling of some animal in the woods behind me. Perhaps some predator eyeing me up? Whatever - if something attacks me, I'll deal w/ it then - I was going to be here a while . . .
Training:
Thurs, 9/23: lifting (upper-A, abs) stretching rolling
PM 6-miles @ 7:20 pace
Fri, 9/24: AM 4-miles @ 7:18 pace
PM 5-miles including 10 x 1-minute Hills
3 comments:
You've just reminder me why I like hills so much - the finish! Well done on pushing through the pain and keeping your dinner down.
And there's me thinking of including hills in my next training cycle.... maybe not!! :)
I had forgotten that when I was younger the only session that made me want to get sick was hills!!!
yeah 2 years is about right. One year of running to get fit enough to start training and another year of training to get ready for racing.
1:20 ehh - I like the sound of that!! as I say only 'time will tell'....
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