Ninety Second Hills

Time: 98:30
Distance: 14.25 mi.

Target: 12 x ~400m hill (actually about 380-390m) with descending effort, try to keep downhill rest at a decent clip (100%?)
Workout: 95, 94.5, 93.7, 92.3 (avg: 93.9); 91.3, 87.8, 90.2, 88.3 (avg: 89.4); 88.5, 88.6, 85.7, 85.9 (avg: 87.2)


Looking up the hill on Grant Road

Early afternoon workout on Grant Road on the western side of Rock Creek Park. I ran up this hill yesterday when trying to avoid Ridge Road which was unplowed, and figured that it would be a good place for a longish hill workout. Today I warmed up over Ridge Road, only to find that a lot of it still had ice and snow making for a very slow warmup.

To get the distance for the hills, I ran 95 seconds up Grant Road at a moderate effort. The goal for the rest of the workout would be to bring that time down 7-10 seconds, which I successfully did. Despite feeling the effort pretty well even on the first interval I was recovering very quickly and the recovery of running all the way down seemed excessive. Not a lot you can do about that on a hill workout like this, though, and I tried to keep the pace downhill fairly honest (90-100 seconds). My right hamstring was a little tight and sore from the get-go, but it didn't get any worse in the course of the workout.

Midway through the workout as I was getting ready to head up for an interval my mind flashed back to a high school pre-race chant, inspired by the film Gallipoli. I was hoping that I could find the clip online, but it doesn't seem to be out there. Anyway... it brings back great memories.

Coach Gould: What are your legs?
Team: Springs! Steel Springs!
Gould: What are they going to do?
Team: Hurl me across the course!
Gould: How fast can you run?
Team: As fast as a leopard!
Gould: How fast are you going to run?
Team: As fast as a leopard!
Gould: Then let's see you do it!
All: Go 'Canes!

It is a great movie. Go see it.