Call it Hilly Tuesday

Let's just call it Hilly Tuesday and yes I know right now it is Wednesday. On tap for today's workout hills. I have been thinking about this all day. Where was I going to do it? Is that hill long enough? Is that hill steep enough? But, what about Traildog?

Too many questions, questions are not going to get me anywhere. So off I went, I left Traildog back at home as this was going to be a bit too much for him. The great thing about my location is I am near a few hills. I finally decided on the hill for my first hilly Tuesday. I ran over the bridge and dropped in and ran to the where I thought would be good starting point. The one tough part about this hill is, yes it is long but it also flattens out. So after the first initial climb and it flattens out I decided that this next section of hill would be great. A nice grad at the start followed by a little bit steeper and than it levels out ever so slightly and if I had kept going it would have been a killer hill.

It was a killer hill no matter where I finished. Since it has been awhile since any sort of hill workout I knew I didn't want to destroy my legs. On the first pass, I decided that 3.5 to 4 minutes of really hard effort (talking red line here) would be good, and once at the top turn it and head back down with hard effort and once back at the bottom I allowed myself a 30 second recovery break. No recovery at the top turn and burn baby!

It may not seem like much, but the effort was there. In fact I really should have brought a water bottle. On the second pass it took 3  minutes to get up and that is where I averaged on all the climbs and about 1.5-2 minutes going down. I at first told myself I would do four repeats but upon the fourth repeat I found myself charging the hill once again.

A total of 5 repeats with 1.5 warm up and cool down totaled 7 miles. Let me just say that running home was interesting. My legs felt like jello on any hill and my quads were burning. A good feeling, one that brought a smile to my face yesterday and today just thinking about it. (7 miles)

Once home I grabbed Traildog and took him out for a mile run. He was very happy to be running and acted like I had been home the entire time. What a good little boy I have. He will run his little heart out just to be with me and he loves it.

I think I have found my new running routine for the week. Monday's will be a 6 mile run, Tuesday hills, Wednesday recover, Thursday long run (every other week) Friday could be a off day, Saturday long run (every other week, work schedule. If not long than run) Sunday run. So far sounds good on paper now to just execute my plan.