I did 9 up city creek today. The workout called for 9 with the last 20 minutes being moderate. I have found it is hard to get into the grove on the down hill for a couple of miles, especially after making the transition from going up hill. Today I felt tired until the last couple of miles. My uphill was not as fast as it normally is, and my downhill started out slow as well. By the last couple of miles though I had found my grove and I was cruising. The last 4.5 miles of this run were all down hill, and the last 2 are pretty gradual elevation drop. Not quite level, but not steep either. In the past two weeks I have run those 2 miles at least 5 times, and the fastest I have ever managed to cover those miles is 7:30 per. Today I covered the last mile in 6:50! I was pretty excited because not only is that fast for me, but it felt completely natural. I could have gone another mile at that pace I think. Tomorrow I may try to do my workout on a flat course just to see how fast I can go there. I've been doing a lot of uphill work, and a lot of downhill work to go along with it, and I think I may have improved my time. One last thought I had tonight. A lot of people tell me that they don't like to run because it is boring. At one time in my life I had that same opinion. But I think that maybe running is boring when its a chore. When I push myself and run faster than I thought I could or when I am able to run up mountains that I couldn't have run up before running is a blast. So maybe if running is boring your just not pushing hard enough. | 