Mile High Hill Repeats X 10

I concluded my 6 weeks of hill repeat training today with a grand finale of 10 repeats (up from 8 last week).

I took yesterday off after the 20 mile long run. It was a good day to take off, it was cold and blowing snow at lunch. I was still fatigued from the 20 and wanted to be "fresh" for this workout.

Word is one of the lunch time runners Tom took a bad spill on the way to wash park and banged his head on the ice. He's OK but a little dinged. He had to miss the hill workout today though, but should be back at it on Thursday.
Speaking of which, I was sore from my fall on Sunday, neck and shoulders from the whiplash.

Back to the hills.

I met Alicia outside the Post building and we ran to the Hill, no other runners made the 11:30 trek. She had never been to the hill, aka Monoxide Hill (she had seen Pete M the day before who refered to it though). Anyway she did the first hill repeat with me, we jogged down and then she ran back. I joked with her to stay in our group you had to do 1 hill workout, a middle 3, track work, a group long run and a mountain run every year. I did the first repeat a bit slow, the bottom 1/2 of the hill was clear, but the top half had a couple of inches of snow on the path. I stayed on the path and did a 2:23.

The 2nd repeat I did solo and ran on the road, back to the 2:14 range. The road has a little curve with a knook in it that adds some distance so you can stop at the no parking sign instead of the light. Mile High Rules.

When I got to the bottom, Matt and Craig C were waiting, they had run over from the Y. Matt did 5 repeats with me (Craig 4). Chasing Matt up the hill sped me up a bit, he was doing them under 2:00. Craig M showed up later and did a couple, then Matt and the Craigs ran back, leaving me with 3 hill repeats to go. I was staying in the 3:15-3:18 range.

I took some gatorade and a granola bar snack to the hill with me. Which helped It was a long workout, over 2 hours with 12 miles, 6.5 miles of hill work.

I did the last 3 OK, a bit slow on #9 2:24. 2:19 on my 10th one. I was glad to have that workout done. I ran back to the Y easy, but pretty smooth a few hills on the way back uphill of course.

When I put it on my schedule I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do all 6 hill workouts on Tuesdays. Especially the last one (10) with work and the weather, but I did and I feel good about it. Hopefully it will pay dividends in Moab and Boston.

On to the track next week.

I am looking at my schedule trying to fit in the Snowman Stampede (10 mile race), the Running of the Green (ROTG) 7k , Moab and of course Boston without sacrificing a long run or speed workout. I might take an easy week this week and run long next, looks like I'd need to do a mid week long run before ROTG.