10.1 mile fartlek today. 55 degrees and a steady rain. When I was done I had about 7 pounds of wet clothes on. The total running time was 1:14:01 (7:19s). The goal today was to hit all hills during the run at a pace that was somewhere between 3k and 5k pace depending on the length of the hill. Hills under 150 meters were done around 3k pace and those over 150 meters were closer to 5k pace. The recovery goal was to get my pace down to LSD (7:30-7:45 as quickly as possible). All total there were 13 hills on my run. Some were as short as 75 yards and two or three were 300-400 yards. Total time spent on hills was 12:04. Finishing mile was a 6:45 started about 300 yards after my last hill fartlek (200 yards). The goal for this mile was to see how fast I could run without actually running fast. Keeping it smooth and tempo oriented (M-paceish).
I have this theory about hills. I don't know the science behind what is going on or if its simply something that MY body happens to respond well to, however, I find that between 4 and 6 days after hill work (done between threshold and vo2 max) my tempo runs go very well. | 