Have I lost my mind?

Last week I blogged about my first experience with doing hill work. I honestly never thought that I would do it again without my friend that I did them with the first time but I guess I proved myself wrong. It has been a long week. I ran my 10 miles Sunday and did sprints Tuesday with a friend. I attempted to run Thursday but I just wasn't feeling it. We had a few things come up the day before that were really wearing me down so when I went out for my run it wasn't pretty. I didn't get in the distance that I was hoping for either.

It was really wearing me down that I wasn't able to push myself to do more that what I did. So I decided I would run yesterday. I normally don't run on Fridays because I take a water class and then take Saturday off completely to get ready for my long run on Sunday. At our local rec center, there are no classes this weekend due to it being Labor Day weekend. So I decided I was going to make up for not getting my miles in that I wanted to.

I decided that I would go out and run an easy 3 miles. Well I quickly decided that I would do hill work and started the first of four sprints up the first hill. At that point, I quickly thought to myself, "Have I lost my mind?" But I already started so I had to finish. I did 3 different hill sprints with each hill being a little steeper than the next one. I did the second hill four times and even set a PR sprinting up it. I was extremely excited about this because I usually slow down dramatically when going up hill and this time I actually was going faster than I normally do when I am running. Below is a picture of on of the hills that I sprinted up.  Even though it doesn't look steep, it is and it is one of the ones that I would easily slow down on but not anymore.  :)

Next comes this big hill that just about everyone I know that runs or walks doesn't like it. Including me. I dread that hill everytime I hear about a 5k or 10k going down that way. I learned the last time I did hill work that you don't need to let the hill dominate you. You dominate that hill. Even if it means you feel like throwing up once you get to the top which is exactly what I felt like doing after running up these hills repeatedly.

I am wanting to do this type of hill work until the week of the half and take that week off from running hills because I will get plenty of hills when I run the half. The course is the same as it was last year so I feel as though I have an advantage. I remember quite a bit about the course. Especially the hills. Even though I have heard that it isn't as hilly as it has been in the past. Don't even want to begin to imagine that.

I know last year I struggled quite a bit with the hills. Mainly because I didn't train properly. I feel that if I would have trained like I am now then I wouldn't have struggled so much. I am hoping that my training this time will pay off and I will be able to do a lot better.

Compared to last year I don't feel as though I am as nervous because I have trained well and I am trusting my training.  I know I have said it before but I feel that I was unprepared for my half marathon last year. I only ran 8 miles in training and then turned around and ran 5.1 miles longer to complete my half. I am very lucky I didn't permanently damage anything and make it to where I would be unable to run at all.

As I have said before, you need to do your homework. In running, it would be training properly. If you don't train properly, you will get injured. I only know one person right now that doesn't really have to train and she runs like she has been training for months. She ran a half marathon just because she felt like it and had an amazing time. Makes you wonder what the difference in time would have been if she had trained. I am saying this to all of you that read my blog so that you don't run into the same problem I did. So you are able to run your next race. I am still learning so I am just telling you based on my experience. I would love to be able to hear about your running experiences and if you don't run, tell me about what you do that brings you happiness.


So until next time.