Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Hot Stuff

So the past three days have been in the 90s here in NYC. Not very fun for running. So I was very very relieved when, Monday night Ramon sent out this email:

TOMORROW'S WORKOUT:
NOTE: DUE TO THE EXPECTED WEATHER, I AM MAKING A COUPLE OF CHANGES TO THIS WEEK'S WORKOUT
(you see, I do have a soft side and do have a heart )
WE will have 2 Workout options, you make you own decision which one you want to attend:
OPTION 1: 5-6 Miles EASY Hot/sweaty/sucky run !!
OPTION 2: Cross Training Killing Workout + Running !!
You decide which of the workouts/options you want to do, just go to the proper location.
NOTE: KEEP in mind that if the weather gets better, the coaches could/may change the workout at the last minute.

Hurrah! It has been too hot to MOVE so I had not been looking forward to the original workout, which on the calendar just said "Hills."

But when we got to our meeting place Ramon had a bit of a change-up. One group could still do option 1, but the second option was going to be hills.

I really felt like an easy run would be a waste of valuable coaching time/practice, so I opted for the hills. I never get to train with Ramon (we usually just have Steve and Pete) and I forgot that his practices were really really HARD.

Everyone was bitching and moaning about the change-up in the plans, but Ramon said "Didn't you read my email? I said that we could change the workout if we wanted to!" So Ramon's workout was basically the worst of both worlds...hills AND cross-training.

We ran easy up to Harlem Hill and stopped off in the grassy area by Lasker Pool. We were already all drenched. I am not exaggerating. (I actually turned to my one friend and said "Uh, I have sweat running down my back into my butt crack." It tickled.) There we formed two lines to do Ramon's favorites. Squats. Ramon makes you do 90 degree squats...and hold them for a minute. And then he goes around and yells at you if you aren't low enough. (I got called out by name for this. Whoops.) After about a bazillion squats he yelled "GO!" and we had to sprint up either the left or right side of the hill, recover back and do more squats.

Harlem Hill (counterclockwise) was shorter, but definitely steeper. Lasker Hill was longer but more gradual. Both suck. My legs were already getting tired before I even started up the hill! But I sprinted to the best of my capability (I picked Harlem Hill...glutton for punishment.)

For the next round we had to switch hills. I must say, Lasker did seem a ton easier. It also seemed about 20 degrees cooler on that side of the park. I thought I was crazy, but Coach Pete said the same thing to me on our recovery.

We ended up doing 4 rounds of hills and 4 rounds of squats. (I kept hearing from different people "I thought cross-training involved more than squats.")

It was a HARD practice, made even hard by the high 80s temps. At the end I was exhausted and my stomach was growling so much that it hurt.

But I wouldn't have had it any other way. I do love a hard practice.

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