Today was our usual Friday Terrier marathon practice. I woke up feeling surprisingly rested considering that I went to bed at 1:30am having eaten half a bag of popcorn for dinner, and only slept till 5:30 am. I arrived to practice mid-warmup, per usual. In theory I suppose I could get up earlier and attempt to take the 5:41 am bus instead of the 5:51 am bus but it's pretty doubtful that will ever happen. The only workout I can manage to get to ontime 60% of the time is WFBC and that's ONLY because I hate carrying water jugs up the stairs and having everyone else pay for my inability to get out of bed.
Anyway, I got started doing skips, lateral shuffles, backward skips and some other drills with the team. Then we did our strides and Spencer told us we were doing the hill up to the exit at 72nd street, which resulted in an audible groan from the group and with folks asking where that hill is.
I remembered that particular hill quite well actually. Last year it was the first hill we did repeats on at the beginning of the marathon program. At that time I was probably 10-15 lbs heavier than I am now and way slower! In fact, when we got to the hill I couldn't even believe how short and not steep it was. Spencer assigned the intermediate group 40 minutes--the first 20 at 85% and the second at 90%. Surprisingly, I felt awesome and strong for pretty much the whole time--which is a big deal given how much I HATE hills. Here's my garmin log entry from today.
TT Hill Workout 9/23/11 by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
For those of you who don't feel like clicking the link, basically for the first 20 minutes, I ran up the hill between an 8:12-8:30 pace and then coasted down at a 9:30-10 pace. For the second 20 minutes, I ran up the hill at between a 7:14- 8:03 pace and coasted down at a 9:30-10 pace. In total I averaged a 9:07 pace for the workout.
Now, what makes this super impressive is looking at my same workout on that hill from 2010.
TT Hill Workout 7/30/10 by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
Granted, this was the first hill workout I had ever done in life. Unfortunately, I hadn't figured out at that point that I should hit the lap button when I got to the top and bottom of the hills to keep track of my up vs downhill splits. But, that time I did 30 min and my average pace was 10:09 and my FASTEST pace for the entire workout was 7:51. What a change!!
Today's workout (and my post-workout evaluation) definitely inspired me to keep working hard!
Showing posts with label hill workout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hill workout. Show all posts
Friday, September 23, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Taking it easy, harlem hill and running with friends
In preparation for the NYC half marathon coming up on March 20, I've been trying to get some more runs in. I've gotten pretty wrapped up in my bootcamp and triathlon training and haven't been logging quite as many miles as I should. So, my last few workouts have been runs.
On Thursday 2/24, I did a nice easy 4 miler. Alanna and I met around 7:15 and ran down to 72nd street on the West Side and then back up the east side. Around 86th street I left Alanna and headed up to 102nd street and then back home. Nothing too exciting or crazy. As Spencer says, in order to recover you just need to take it nice and easy.
2/24 Easy 4 Miler with Alanna by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
On Friday 2/25, I woke up looked outside and it was pouring rain. I had told Spencer that I was going to go to the hill workout but I considered reneging on that given that he was in sunny Miami and wouldn't know if I didn't go. I sucked it up though and headed out. I really hate hill workouts. I showed up at the meeting spot and the marathon group was already leaving to head up north. Uh oh! I crossed my fingers that it wouldn't be the dreaded Harlem Hill. The ridiculously hardcore folks who actually made it out Friday are wayyy faster than I am so I ran behind them and hoped I wouldn't lose them before we arrived at our destination. About 1/2 way from the top of the park, our other coach Kevin came and joined me. He broke the news that, indeed Harlem Hill was the workout today. *sigh* So, Harlem Hill in the pouring rain. It really doesn't get worse than that. Surprisingly, the 40 min workout went pretty quickly. I think the rain distracted me from the hill climbing and the hill climbing distracted me from the rain. Once I was done, I felt pretty awesome about myself so I decided it was all worth it after all. And, by the time I added up all the miles to/from Harlem Hill and up and down Harlem Hill, I got almost 8 miles in Friday morning!
Run to Harlem HIill 2/25 by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
Harlem Hill Repeats 2/25 by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
Run Home from Harlem Hill 2/25 by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
On Sunday 2/27, I had my weekly long run--14 miles this week. Consuelo was in town so Alanna, Consuelo, and I all met to run together. They were only doing 6 miles in the park, so I decided to do my first 6 with them at a nice easy pace and then do the remaining 8 on my own. One thing that was irritating was that my heart rate monitor wasn't working. I wonder if it has something to do with the Garmin update I downloaded last week. I love running easy and actually keeping my heart rate at the level Spencer advises so it was disappointing that I didn't actually have my heart rate recorded for this run. For the last of the 6 miles (6 of my 14), Consuelo and I seriously picked up the pace. I knew she had some speed in her so I figured I'd try to bring it out. At W90th street, I said goodbye to my running friends and set off for another hour+ of running on my own. To my surprise, just a half mile down the road I ran into Rachel Swartz, another of my colleagues from Weil. She noticed that I had lost my running buddies and turned around and ran with me for the next 4 or so miles. Rachel is training for a 10 miler in 6 weeks. She wants to do it in at an 8 min/mile pace. I have the same lofty goal for my 1/2 but I'm pretty sure I have no chance of doing it quite that fast. It was good to have some company for miles 6.5-11 and it inspired me to not be so lazy and to run closer to a 9 min/mile pace. Once Rachel left, I finished up my run by heading towards home and doing a lap of the reservoir.
14 Miler with Alanna/Consuelo/Rachel by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
Let's see if I can keep up this running volume for the next few weeks!!
On Thursday 2/24, I did a nice easy 4 miler. Alanna and I met around 7:15 and ran down to 72nd street on the West Side and then back up the east side. Around 86th street I left Alanna and headed up to 102nd street and then back home. Nothing too exciting or crazy. As Spencer says, in order to recover you just need to take it nice and easy.
2/24 Easy 4 Miler with Alanna by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
On Friday 2/25, I woke up looked outside and it was pouring rain. I had told Spencer that I was going to go to the hill workout but I considered reneging on that given that he was in sunny Miami and wouldn't know if I didn't go. I sucked it up though and headed out. I really hate hill workouts. I showed up at the meeting spot and the marathon group was already leaving to head up north. Uh oh! I crossed my fingers that it wouldn't be the dreaded Harlem Hill. The ridiculously hardcore folks who actually made it out Friday are wayyy faster than I am so I ran behind them and hoped I wouldn't lose them before we arrived at our destination. About 1/2 way from the top of the park, our other coach Kevin came and joined me. He broke the news that, indeed Harlem Hill was the workout today. *sigh* So, Harlem Hill in the pouring rain. It really doesn't get worse than that. Surprisingly, the 40 min workout went pretty quickly. I think the rain distracted me from the hill climbing and the hill climbing distracted me from the rain. Once I was done, I felt pretty awesome about myself so I decided it was all worth it after all. And, by the time I added up all the miles to/from Harlem Hill and up and down Harlem Hill, I got almost 8 miles in Friday morning!
Run to Harlem HIill 2/25 by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
Harlem Hill Repeats 2/25 by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
Run Home from Harlem Hill 2/25 by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
On Sunday 2/27, I had my weekly long run--14 miles this week. Consuelo was in town so Alanna, Consuelo, and I all met to run together. They were only doing 6 miles in the park, so I decided to do my first 6 with them at a nice easy pace and then do the remaining 8 on my own. One thing that was irritating was that my heart rate monitor wasn't working. I wonder if it has something to do with the Garmin update I downloaded last week. I love running easy and actually keeping my heart rate at the level Spencer advises so it was disappointing that I didn't actually have my heart rate recorded for this run. For the last of the 6 miles (6 of my 14), Consuelo and I seriously picked up the pace. I knew she had some speed in her so I figured I'd try to bring it out. At W90th street, I said goodbye to my running friends and set off for another hour+ of running on my own. To my surprise, just a half mile down the road I ran into Rachel Swartz, another of my colleagues from Weil. She noticed that I had lost my running buddies and turned around and ran with me for the next 4 or so miles. Rachel is training for a 10 miler in 6 weeks. She wants to do it in at an 8 min/mile pace. I have the same lofty goal for my 1/2 but I'm pretty sure I have no chance of doing it quite that fast. It was good to have some company for miles 6.5-11 and it inspired me to not be so lazy and to run closer to a 9 min/mile pace. Once Rachel left, I finished up my run by heading towards home and doing a lap of the reservoir.
14 Miler with Alanna/Consuelo/Rachel by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
Let's see if I can keep up this running volume for the next few weeks!!
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