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.

Sixty Second Hills

Time: 88:00
Distance: 13.5 mi.

Target: 12 x ~300m hill (actually probably 290m), 4 comfortable / 4 hard / 4 harder
Workout: 65.2, 66.0, 62.1, 62.6 (avg: 64.0); 60.6, 61.1, 61.6, 58.3 (avg: 60.4); 59.4, 58.6, 57.4, 56.2 (avg: 57.9); rest between 75 and 90 seconds running down

First time I've gotten out for a hill workout in this training cycle, and it felt pretty good. I started from Puffer's Pond and ran up past the starting point for the hills so that I could get in a 25 minute warmup. The hill, starting at Market Hill and going up the first section of Flat Hills Road isn't too steep, but is a steady grade until the top where I went up and over. I finished with 35 minutes easy back to the car.

Amherst College Hills

Time: 54:00 
Distance: 8.25 mi.
Map



Target: 8-12 relatively short intervals with 100% jogging rest
Workout: 8 x 325m(?) hills with consistent effort and keeping the jog at a decent tempo; ran 73 (85), 72 (83), 71 (88), 75 (87), 72 (86), 73 (88), 73 (87), 69

I'm trying to get back into a harder effort / workout schedule, which means shorter faster efforts (exaggerated strides, at this point) on Tuesdays and hopefully steady state runs on Fridays or Saturdays. I started out the door thinking I was going to do something like a 30/30 (30 sec hard, 30 sec easy) fartlek. When I was getting close to starting and approached the hill near the Amherst College trails just off South East Street, I decided to give myself some sort of tangible goal and do some hill repeats.

The hill starts flat, gets steep, then gets flat again, which I knew from running it during distance runs many times. I had no idea how far it would be, but after running the first hill in 73 sec., I decided to try to keep them all under 75 with no more than 90 seconds for the downhill. I was hurting pretty quickly but got through it, despite not recovering very quickly. I need base base base.

Boulevard, Hard Mile, Freeman

Time: 35:00
Distance: 5 mi.

It started as an easy run from the OMAC. Then, for some genius reason, we decided to add in some challenges. After running down the Boulevard and starting back up towards the track, Coste decided he wanted to see if he could run a fast mile. Jordan and I got in for the pacing job and next thing we were running around the track in blazing sub-75 pace. We ended up running 4:47.

Then, as we headed back, Craig decided he wanted to see what he could run a Freeman in, shooting for 68. We charged up it and sneaked in just under... 67.7 or so.

Good times. Maybe we should institute a REAL mile at Brown commencement every year.

Pease Park Hills

Time: 13.5 mi.
Distance: 90:00

Target: hard effort-based hill workout with decent volume, make myself tired/hurt
Workout: 16 x Pease Park hills (up and over, alternating sides); from ~60 down to ~54 (the far side is longer but less steep, so they work out to be about the same time)

Warmed up with Ian who was just running easy up Shoal Creek a bit, and Joe met us there. We started by doing two hills up the shorter and steeper side before deciding to use both sides. We ran the hills pretty well, and Joe started to push the pace on the last 4, which was good as I needed a little kick in the ass. On the last one I had him wait and run to catch me, as he was definitely feeling better than I was.

I was pretty tired from being up late last night, as South by Southwest is getting started and Brian, Ian and I were up late last night seeing a few shows.

Pelham Warren Wright Hills

Time: 93:00
Distance: 14 mi.

Target: stready/tempo up the Pelham hills (a classic AR/XC workout)
Workout: 5 x Warren Wright hills (~1100m) (the last one was 100+m short)

Things were not working in my favor this morning... Matt's dentist appointment was earlier than he thought so we left his car at the top of the Pelham hills so that he could drive straight to it, then we realized that part of the road isn't maintained during the winter, then we realized that most of the rest of that hilly road was really icy there so we ran on the other side of Rt. 9 to run on flat roads, then when I dropped him off and went to finish up my run (and hopefully get a good effort in) I was interrupted near the end when a train came through in the middle of the long hills.

I got 40 minutes in with Matt before I had to drop him off and then did a few minutes to get back into it before I started the hill on Warren Wright. I did the first hill in low 3:50s and was mid 3:40s on the rest of them. I measured the last 800m of the hill and was hitting it in 2:50ish. Legs felt stiff and I was rigging a bit on the steep part at the end. Overall it was a little mediocre, but all things considered it was fine. Right now I think I just need to get back running hard.

Morris Williams Hills, 300s

Time: 90:00
Distance: 13.5 mi.

Target: 16 steady to hard hills; 6 x 300m in ~48 sec with 100m rest in ~25 sec (~7:20-25 total)
Workout: 16 hills from 42 down to 35ish?; 300s from 48-49 down to 46 (7:26 total)

An okay workout, but I was feeling a little off of it on both the hills and the 300s (especially the last one that the guys blazed). Tried to keep under control on the hills, which meant getting dropped a little bit up and then catching up across the top of the hill. These are never my best workouts, and both hamstrings were very tight so I wanted to make sure not to over do it.

Morris Williams Hills, Track Tempo

Time: 104:00
Distance: 15.5 mi.

Target: 16 steady to hard hills; 3 mile tempo at 5:05 pace
Workout: 16 hills, 42 down to 34 sec.; 3 miles in 14:55

Unlike yesterday, this was a beautiful morning for a workout. The skies were a little overcast and the temp was a balmy mid-70s. Easy 20 minutes over to Morris Williams to do 16 hills (increase of 4 from last week), which felt decent though I was missing a little bit of "pop" in my legs (probably from running a hilly run yesterday evening). Ran back for 3 miles on the track, and I recovered very quickly from the hills. Five minute pace felt very good, and I was happy to get in flats and work my calves a bit. Definitely a better workout than last week for pretty much everyone. Felt very relaxed.

Got a general massage in the evening, which was nice... some work on hamstrings, IT bands and piriformises.

Morris Williams Hills, Track Tempo

Time: 90:00
Distance: 14 mi.

Target: 12 steady to hard hills; 2 mile tempo at 5:05 pace
Workout: 12 hills, 40 down to 35 sec.; 2 miles in 9:59 (5:00, 4:59)

The good ole' tuesday morning workout. Ran from the track down to the Morris Williams Golf Course (just about 3 miles), ran 12 hills there, and headed back to the track for 2 miles in just over 5 min pace. Started off feeling pretty stiff and sore from the strength workout yesterday afternoon and only loosened up a little bit. Adducters and hip flexors on both legs are pretty sore, as well as both arms. Other than that I felt pretty good. Most of the guys ran really well together, which was good to see.

Tuesdays are a little tough because I have a 9am class that I need to rush to, so no stretching or therapy right after the workout. I was still feeling sore after class, so I headed back to Moncrief to contrast bath.