Hills AND Speed

It's always bad when your coach's email contains the subject "Tonight's Workout – LUCKY YOU!" I read through it at work and decided that I pretty much didn't want to go to practice. :) It seems everyone else in the advance group felt the same way. Our turnout was slimmer than usual and we didn't have any coaches sign up at our meeting spot for a LONG TIME. One of the girls suggested the 5-minute rule (if no coaches show up in 5 minutes we don't have to practice).

I was glad when they did show up because I was thoroughly confused by the workout description and needed it to be recapped to me. Even the coaches said they had to read through it about three times before they understood it. Here it is:

"You are going to do 2 x 2 mile(aprox) repeats, plus a little warm up.
We are warming up a lower loop with a couple of intervals (about 1/4 mile each) in the middle. From East 72nd street heading west bound and south to East 64th street, once you get there you'll start your first pick up to the Traffic light on 59th street and entrance of 7th ave then Recover to East 64th street then start your next pick up which goes to Eat 68th street. Then recover to East 72nd street.

NOW you'll start your 2 mile repeats.
The two mile consist of a FULL lower loop PLUS Cat Hill !! So, you'll start timing yourself from East 72nd and go around, complete the lower loop and once you get back to East 72nd continue (pushing) north until you get to the traffic light on top of cat hill.
The recovery will be from the top of cathill to Cleopatra's needle and back to East 72nd street. (repeat this a second time)

Goal and description of the workout: This is a TEST. That means you are going to try to run as fast as you can. Of course tomorrow the weather is gonna suck, so, be smart and adjust your effort accordingly, do no expect to get great times. Run by effort, as long as you put the effort you are getting the benefit of the workout.
This should be an decent effort 85%+, but it must be equal effort thru the whole 2 miles.
Time each of the 2 miles. see how well you pace yourself."

You can see why everyone was confused.

It was also very HOT out, so I wasn't really sure how to pace at 85% effort. The first two 1/4 speed intervals SUCKED. I had no idea how I was going to do 2-mile repeats at a good clip afterwards. Especially since they involved Cat Hill at the end. Despite how I FELT though, I was doing pretty good. My times were right on track in keeping a consistent 9-minute mile pace when I was pushing it, which is REALLY good in that weather. Also, the girls I usually run with (Nicole and MaryAnne) dropped behind me pretty early on. Nicole and I usually keep the same pace, but MaryAnne is a bit faster than me, so I figured I was doing okay if I was ahead of her.

Cat Hill absolutely killed me though. I felt like I was running through wet cement. The other thing that sucks is that most of the workout was on the east side of the park. Now, the west side definitely has more rolling hills. But the east side has what the mentor Marissa calls "sneaky hills". And it has a LOT of them. The way I define sneaky hills is this: they are hills that do not look like hills. In fact, it looks like you are running on flat ground unless you look waaaay far ahead....then you see that they are actually uphill climbs. If for some reason you don't notice this by sight, you notice it when your legs feel HEAVY.

So it was a TOUGH workout.

But it was one of those workouts that make you feel like you actually accomplished something when you are finally finished.

Also, I decided to bring a towel with me to that practice for afterwards. How smart! Why didn't I think of that before? :)