Going Long (again) in 2024

Okay, my first real hill workout.  I drove three miles up the road to park at a mall. From there, it's about a half mile to the bottom of a hill which forms part of the wall of the valley in which I live.

I jogged to the top and then ran down, repeating this five times.  The hill is just over 900 meters long, with two distinct sections.  The top portion is more gradual and is just over 400 meters long.  Then there is a flat section of about 100 meters.  Then a steep drop which is just under 400 meters long.  So, I ended up running about 3 miles of downhill.

Now I have to wait and see what I did to my quads.  My plan is to repeat this workout every Monday this month.  The Hamilton Marathon is relatively flat for the first 13 miles or so.  Then, the course drops 460 feet over 3 miles.  That makes it about a 3% grade.  Then the final 10 miles are relatively flat once again.

Everything I've read on downhill marathons is how critical it is to do downhill workouts - otherwise the quads get trashed.  So, we'll see how I handled today's workout and adjust my plans accordingly.  Right now, I feel great.

I ran this at a super easy pace (8:45/mile), following yesterday's hill work.  Surprisingly, I have NO pain issues at all ... I had expected my quads to feel the stress of those hills, but nothing.  Good!

A couple of things about the pace.  First, it's in the range of my Hanson's Marathon Training schedule for 'easy runs', and I really need to be aware of running those miles at the correct pace.  My tendency is to do them too fast.  So, I'm working on that now.

Second, it's the pace of a race in Collingwood in October that I'm going to be a "pace bunny" for in the Half Marathon.  I've always wanted to try pacing, and this is my chance.  For me, it will be a simple training run, but for others, hopefully, it will give them a chance to reach their goal.  I'm signed up for a 1:55 Half, corresponding to a pace of 8:47, which also corresponds to my easy running days.  So, lots of reasons to practice running at this pace on my easy days.

So, happy with the hills yesterday; my legs are tired today, but I'm ecstatic that my muscles seem to have handled them well.

Ran six Yasso 800's.  Aimed for 3:20 splits.  They came out at:

3:14  3:09  3:09  3:13  3:19  and  3:13.

So, faster than I meant to run.  I aimed for between 6 - 8 repeats.  Ended up at the six.  Had a 400 recovery between each one, except that I took 800 after the fifth split.  Legs were rubbery at that point, and I decided I had enough for today, so just finished off with some slow recovery miles.

Just an easy paced run.  Cold and strong wind out of the North.  And my allergies are pretty much at their worst these days, with all the Spring pollen coming at once.  So, a bit harder to breath with all the congestion.  

Another easy run, with a consistent 8:42 pace.  A beautiful morning; cool at first, with the sun just coming up.  No wind.  I love running on these kinds of mornings.

Wanted to run this at a tempo pace, to start interiorizing what my marathon pace (7:38 - I am thinking of going for a 3:20 marathon) should feel like.  Need to work on that ... my actual pace was 7:24, so a little too fast.

My mile splits were all pretty even at that pace, and I just could not seem to reign back, even as I tried.  With my initial warm up mile included, those 1st 6 miles came in at a 7:36 pace.  So, I'll have to keep working on this.

Health wise, my allergies are killing me!  My throat feels like someone rubbed it with 80 grit sandpaper, I'm full of phlegm and finding it hard to breathe, my sinuses are burning and my eyes are constantly tearing.  Oh joy.  On top of that, with the phlegm building, I coughed up a lung at mile 4.  When your iliopsoas is sore at the best of times, the last thing you want to do is cough.  Ouch.

The good news is, by marathon day on November 2nd, all the things causing me to react should be dead.