Hill Training - AKA "Hell Training"

Last night was week #2 of 6 weeks of hill training. Wow. That was hard.

We met at the coffee shop as usual, and then jogged to the park. We always do a little stretch warmup before we run, and I am really glad we do. I tend to do a much shorter stretch when I am running on my own. The we did a 1 mile run down to the bottom of a big hill by the lake in Prospect Park.

Last week we concentrated on running the hills properly. We would slow down going up the hill, and concentrate on proper form. This week, our coach Luis told us that we were going to run hills the wrong way. He said he doesn't ever want to see us run hills like this again. We were supposed to go ALL OUT running up the hill, and then recover on the way down. You get your heart rate back down, and get ready to do it again.

The hill we were running up was at least 4 times the hill I grew up on, and that is a steep hill.

The first time up the hill was crazy. Towards the end of it, I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to continue. I thought I was going to end up walking, but somehow I pushed through. I was running with 3 other girls, and we all thought we finally understand what it must feel like to have asthma. Everybody was struggling for air.

After we ran up this hill 3 times, I started to wonder when it was going to end. Luis said we would be doing this for an hour and half. He sounded like he was joking, but I was a little worried he wasn't! I was really hoping we wouldn't do this so many times that I would start lose count. Strangely enough, after 6 or 7 times I started to get faster. Somehow I started to pass lots of people on the way up. I was concentrating on turning on the power little by little every few steps, and it really worked. I was still exhausted at the top, but I felt slightly more efficient.

We all were trying to think of ways to cope through the up-hills. My old triathlon coach Scott told us that he will chant in his head "I'm a runner" over and over again. It does kind of help to get your mind and feet connected and moving. We all tried it, but we all ended up losing the chant in the last quarter of the hill. You're working too hard for your brain to think about anything.

Finally after hill #10 Luis took mercy on us. We jogged back to the entrance of the park, did a good long stretch and then went back to the coffee shop to pick up our stuff. I took 2 advil on the subway on the way home. I figured it would help bring down any inflammation I was going to get.

The plus side of running hills: I slept really, really well last night.