Ramon is Trying to Kill Us

So Sunday I got an email summarizing our upcoming September in running. My favorite line was
"Well....the advance group has been thinking all along that they were not doing any hill work, wellll....september is your hilly month...get ready !!" And all of this started out with our first September group workout.

Last night we had 7-10 hill repeats on Cat Hill. YUCK.

I have never done THAT many repeats in one workout. Ramon emphasized that we should not be guaging this workout on what anyone else was doing, that it was a personal workout. We were also not supposed to worry about time (good thing, because I forgot my watch) because obviously you will get more and more tired as the workout progresses. Instead, we were supposed to run at effort levels again. The up hill was an effort level 4 (out of 5...that means at about 85%). I guage these workouts through my breathing, which is what I think you are supposed to do.

It was also a sliding scale of 7-10 because you were supposed to go with how you were feeling. For instance, if you were dying after 4, you should only do 7.

All of these caveats were because (as our coach for the night explained to us) all of the Advanced runners have Type A personalities and think they have to do the full workout even if they are dying and that they have to beat everyone that they usually run with because they are so highly competitive. (Guilty as charged).

The first 3 were not bad at all (I mean, for hill workouts). I was definitely tired and definitely behind the people I usually run with (you can't help but notice), but I was feeling pretty good. I hydrated after these 3 which I think was a mistake, because it sort of took my momentum and motivation to do more away.

So instead of my plan to hydrate after every 3 I decided to play it by ear and try not to hydrate until the end of the workout. This worked out a lot better. Our coach was at the top of the hill making sure that we ran at full effort all the way to the end with great form, so I was really concentrating on keeping my arm swing low and not running on my toes, which I tend to do when the hills get tougher for me.

After 7 I was done. I was slowing down and my recoveries included walking.

So I decided to do two more.

It WAS a good workout. I think all of this heavy hill work will help me out in the marathon for sure.