Wednesday, July 28, 2010

It had been twelve years

....since I did a hill workout. Until this morning.

Until this morning, my most recent hill workout was from an era in which I didn't know about technical fabric, runner food, or running shoes that didn't come off the clearance rack at Shoe Carnival. With both L&C and the US National Half looming, it was time to bring my hill workouts into the 21st century.

The total workout was 3.8 miles, broken down like this:

warm-up: 0.95 M
interval: 0.23
recovery: 0.23
(repeat interval and recovery 3 more times)
cool-down: 0.95

I need to call in some help. RunningFirst, TNT Coach Ken, I'm looking at you guys. (or others if you know hills!) I'm a little out of practice on hill workouts. How many intervals should I be running? What total distance? What pace, if I'm hoping for a 4:30 marathon? My interval paces were 9:00/mi, 8:52/mi, 8:26/mi, and 8:11/mi. Not exactly speedy, even though it felt fast at the time. What do I need to be doing? Help!! I'm planning to do hills again next Wednesday and need a game plan.

Mileage:
349.3 + 4.5 + 3.8 = 357.7 miles
And it's official--I've covered more miles in July than I did in May and June combined. Which is both sad and fabulous. Go me? Go me!

3 comments:

Damaris said...

Go you!! I ran on Sunday and the hills here are a little crazy too - at least after the flat landscape of Mattoon. :)

TNTcoach Ken said...

I think you're right on with your workout, the warm-up is long enough and the distance of the hill seems great. The key for me is to work the hills hard and not focus on time. I would increase the number of intervals by one each week. Great job on those July miles.

Run Jess Run said...

Don't feel bad about racking up more miles this month...just remember that you had your appendix out and you moved...life gets in the way sometimes:)