Fire Hydrant Hell

This week I needed to alter my training plan. My work schedule is a bit different and I thought it would be very challenging trying to get a hill workout in on Tuesday like planned. So easy fix, move it to Monday and with that I emailed Trailmomma to see if she wanted to join. She did; so the plan was to meet up at her place in Hell El Dorado Hills and take on one of her hills that would be challenging and offer the workout that we were both looking for.

Once at Trailmomma's house it was time for the hill repeats. We did a nice mile warm up and used that opportunity to catch up, all the while I was thinking "crap, it is really hilly here, there are no flats" When we arrived at the hill I think my mouth fell open to the street as I couldn't believe the incline of this massive hill. Pictures wont do it justice. Now this was a hill, and it was going to hurt.

My legs still felt pretty heavy from last weeks hilly adventures, but I dug deep down picked up my head and said "lets go." Or maybe I just started running. The plan was to run fire hydrant to fire hydrant, only upon arriving at the first fire hydrant we noticed it was too short, so we kept on motoring to the second fire hydrant. Let me tell you that second fire hydrant felt like we were never going to get there. The wind would pick up and push me back, my little legs were pumping but I really wasn't moving anywhere. Oh well just keep them pumping, just keep moving, don't you stop and walk!!!! Was all I was thinking. That is one tough hill.

Once at the fire hydrant as I turned to head back down I noticed my legs felt like jello. And this was only on the first repeat. The same thing happened on the second and the third and the fourth. But a beautiful thing happened on the fifth repeat, a glimpse of greatness. Each hill repeat Trailmomma had beaten me to the fire hydrant, but not this time.

I dug deep and ran and I ran and I ran, my arms were pumping, my legs were firing. Then a little push to the next gear, Trailmomma hung on almost like she saw that little surge coming. My breathing was labored, my legs were burning but I was still ahead by a step. Then another little surge on my part and again Trailmomma stayed with me stride for stride, labored breath with labored breath. Keep pushing don't stop, almost to the fire hydrant. Another surge and my legs were burning even more now, Trailmomma was right with me. OH my legs, my lunges, did I mention my legs were on fire. But I wasn't going to stop, one more step and we both arrived at the fire hydrant together. Victory was ours that day, the hill didn't defeat us we defeated the hill.

I wanted to collapse, my legs were spent. I was bent over, but you know what; a feeling came over me. The feeling of confidence that I accomplished something great today. It wasn't huge, but it was great to me.

Trailmomma and I headed back down after 5 hill repeats. At the bottom recovering, I decided we would run another hill repeat, but this time only to the first fire hydrant, run as fast as we could and than turn it and run hard back down. Off I went, Trailmomma gave me head start, but a second later she was flying by me and going hard. I was going as fast as I could but it was like I wasn't moving compared to Trailmomma. Her speed workouts are working, that is for sure. At the fire hydrant  I turned and ran back down. During the recovery I decided we would do one more, why because it was going to be fun. For the day we did 5 long hill repeats followed by 2 sprint hill repeats.

We ended up with 6.5 miles for the day with some great quality. Apparently Fire Hydrant Hell was so much fun for us we made plans to meet up next Monday for more Fire Hydrant hill repeats. It was great to be running with my running buddy once again and doing hill repeats in the middle of heat didn't seem that hard. Can't wait for next Monday!