The Hills are Alive...

With the sound of my heavy breathing.  Today, I decided to stay local and get a good hill run in.  I went to my original route up the hill at Schoeneck Avenue near the high school.  This was my first run every during track.  I was so new that I ran in basketball shoes.

I arrived right as school was letting out.  There was plenty of parking in the lot near the football field.  I headed out from the middle school and up the hill.  It is actually almost half a mile before you hit the climb.

Schoeneck Climb

The weather wasn't nearly as bad as it has been lately, but climbing the hill made it seem just as bad.  I had hoped to really bust my butt up the hill, but quickly found that wasn't going to happen.  I'm not strong enough yet to just cruise uphill.  It was a chore just getting up there.  Add to that that my legs didn't feel very strong in the beginning.

The incline is definitely pretty steep.  The one good thing is that it is really only about a half mile climb.  It is still very tough though.  The difficult part is that it is exposed.  There is little shade while going up.  It can get windy there too.

Luckily at one point the climb decreases in slope.  It makes things feel easier on the legs.  It is still tough and the top seems so far away.  I thought about walking at one point while I was breathing heavy, but I just kept telling myself get to the top and you'll be able to cruise the rest of the way.  That certainly helped.

Once I got to the top, I had to peak back and see where I'd come from.  It is definitely tough, but always looks worse than it really is.  It is funny to think that I actually used this hill in the middle of my 23 mile training run before my second marathon.  Now, I'm sputtering up it as its own run.

Being on the flat and coming down was a relief.  There was some wind which was nice at times.  I tried to get in the shade when I could.  It was still hot though.  Since the route was going to come up short of the four miles that I had hoped for, I turned on the road to Martin Guitar for an out and back.  That was a good add on after coming past the Andrettis' houses.

The out and back added close to a mile to the run.  It was definitely tough too.  There were some slight hills on it.  Any incline was tough after the big hill.  Coming back to the main road was the biggest climb.

I worked on maintaining my form for the last mile and a half or so.  I need to focus on that more.  Keeping smooth form allows your body run faster and more efficient.  When your form breaks down, you waste a lot more energy.  The final two miles ended up being quite fast.  Some of that was my form and some was the downhill running.

My first mile included the climb and it also took my legs awhile to warmup.  My last two miles had a good portion of downhill running, but were an impressive 8:40 and 8:06.  The form focusing definitely made a huge difference in the end because my effort really wasn't any greater than earlier.  I'll have to keep focused on my form during the race on Saturday.

I ended up finishing the route right at the football stadium.  I was hoping to go up the short hill by the high school.  After some brief walking, I decided to run hard up it.  It wasn't a full sprint, but it was fairly hard.

This was certainly a productive run.  I love hills and need to keep working them into my training now that I have a good base.  Nothing like running on old routes too.  My progress has been great and I'm definitely looking forward to Saturday.  I'd love to break 8 minutes.  Maybe it isn't realistic, but if I have a shot at it in the second half of the race, I'm going to go for it.  Before that though, I have one more group run coming tomorrow at the LVRR group run.

4 miles - 35:13 (8:49 pace)