Hillwork...a love/hate relationship

Today I had every intention of running speed intervals on the treadmill.  I wasn't really looking forward to it, therefore, I was in no big hurry to get upstairs.  Saw a friend and asked if she was running today.  She said that she was doing hill work.  Something I haven't done before.  I try not to run with people that are faster than me because I don't want them to feel as though they have to slow down for me.  Since when doing hills pace really isn't a factor, I decided to tag along. 

We got to the first hill and I have run up this hill before.  I went to sprint up it as fast as I could.  Oh my gosh!!!  I thought I was going to die.  My legs, butt and lungs felt as though they were on fire.  Finally get to run downhill and guess what??  Up we go AGAIN!!  I was thinking to myself, what have I gotten myself into?  I know I need to do this but I would like to live to run the Women's Half Marathon next month.  I stuck with it though and I am glad that I did.

We did this same hill 3 or 4 times and then continue to run.  We go down this big hill that we had to run for the 4th July race and when you go downhill, you HAVE to go uphill.  That uphill sucks, just in case you were wondering.  First, we had one more hill to do and yes we did it more than once.  It was probably 4 times.  I hated but loved every minute of it.  Then we ran a little bit on a flat surface and headed to go back up that massive hill.  I felt as though I was going as slow as molasses but I was going less than 10 minute miles up hill and I was thrilled.  As I stated in my previous post, I normally slow down dramatically when going uphill and make up time when going downhill. 

We get back to the first hill that we sprinted up and she wanted to do one it more time.  I was like you are killing me and honestly, I tried to get out of doing it one more time but she pushed me into doing it one more time.  I am so glad that I did too.  The rest was a breeze.  For once, I was able to keep up with her and it felt like it was easy. My pace was incredible.  I couldn't believe that I was going as fast as she was and able to keep up with her for the most part.  It felt amazing to do that because I never thought I would ever run that fast ever.  I just proved myself wrong!!!  I did a little victory dance!!  That was after I was able to catch my breath.  I will be out there again doing the same thing sometime next week.  It is definitely a good workout.  Thanks for letting me join you!!!

 

 

The above quote is what I was thinking each time I saw a hill that I knew I was going to have sprint up.  I didn't want to still be at the bottom wondering what it was like.  This got me through my workout today and will probably each time I do hill work.

 

So until next time.