Larry showed up this morning, but the toes which have been bothering
him lately hurt him as he walked over so he opted to ride his bike
instead of running with me this morning. I was okay with that, but
didn't know where I wanted to run. Larry (jokingly I hope) said to just
run up the big hill on 2000 N six times. I decided I would run
that hill. In the Wasatch Back relay I have a big downhill leg and
another steady uphill leg. I figured the hill work might be beneficial.
I decided to run the steepest part of the hill, from the Oak Canyon Jr.
High crosswalk near 180 W up to the fire hydrant at the top of 2000 N.
This is just over 1 mile up, and then another mile back down. Running
it six times would have been 12 miles, so I chose to only do it three
times. I didn't really press the pace, but I wouldn't classify it as easy
either. It felt like it was just slightly under marathon pace effort. I
pushed the uphills hard enough to maintain a steady stride rate at
around 180 steps/minute, and then recovered on the downhills while still maintaining my form and stride rate.
My up/down paces for the three repeats were: 1 - 10:52 / 7:51 - I started at Main instead of near 180 W, so this was only 0.85 miles uphill. 2 - 10:26 / 7:36 3 - 10:25 / 7:05 - At the top, instead of
immediately turning around and heading back down I continued along the
road (which levels off) to our normal turn around point (0.25 mi). My
thought was to catch my breath a little so I could push the downhill a
little faster the last time down. I did go faster, but I wasn't really
pushing. It was more like letting off the brakes a little more. With
the warmup and cooldown the total mileage was 7.7 miles. This is a
little short of the 8 miles per day Sasha recommended I do, but I'm
okay with that. After all, I ran 11+ yesterday, and today was hills. By
the way, can I count the 1/2 mile walk with my dog I do after many of
my morning runs while I cool down? :-) I really enjoyed this
morning's run. The weather was cool and the day was beautiful. I didn't
notice any aches or pains, and I recovered pretty quickly. | 