10.07.2010

HILLS


I've never incorporated hill training into my run plan. In NC the only hills I ran were on the Buehler trail, and there were some gradual hills on my home long run route. But that was about it. I never sought out a workout that was purely for hill work. That changed yesterday. For run club, we met at 5:45pm at the Hoover Dam in Westerville, Ohio. I've run at Hoover Park before - for my PR 10K back in April. That race was pretty flat though. Last night's workout was not.

To warm up, we ran from the upper parking lot down to the end of the damn and back - that totaled about a mile. Lovely and flat. After that, we started at the upper parking lot then ran to the middle of the dam to take the stairs down to the lower parking lot - all 160 some odd stairs. Run across the lower parking lot then up a killer hill back to the upper parking lot. Turn around, run down the killer hill through the lower parking lot then UP all 160 some odd stairs back to the top of the dam and run back to the upper lot. Turn around, do it again. I managed to pull off 3 full cycles. I threw in a cool down mile run at the end.


I ended up having to stop in a Kroger parking lot on the way home to get my wits about me before I finished the drive. Egads.


That was one hell of a workout though I tell ya.........and I think I may look forward to the next one!!!!!!!

4 comments:

T said...

I'm so excited for how much ass you're kicking with your training. Phenomenal.

Big Daddy Diesel said...

LOL, I meet at that location every Wednesday to bike with the WBC and never knew about those stairs. Makes sense now that I think about it

KovasP said...

Hills are the best! I even do my speed workout as hills.

M said...

T - thanks so much! I think this is the most I have ever trained in my life - and technically, I'm not training for anything except ME!

BDD - oh, you should try out the devil stairs. There are actually like 4 or 5 sets of them on the dam!!

K - I will worry about speed on the hills in a few years. ha!!!