Time to start logging the miles again. Not that I haven't been but I've slacked a bit here and there with total weekly mileage. Last week I was 12 miles short of my total and the week before that I was 15 short. The 81 on 81 kind of messed up a few days of my schedule, but hopefully this week I will end up with the whole 50 miles that I need. I have a long 22 miler on Sunday but I haven't decided on a good time to get out and run it yet. That's a big chunk taken out of my families day just so I can run. I might have to go at 4 a.m. when everyone is still sleeping. Ugh!
The last 5 days I've been very strict with the program and even got some hills in on Tuesday. There really aren't many hills around the area where I live and the closest town with "real" hills is about an hour drive from here. I was contemplating waking up at 5:30 to drive an hour, run an hour, and then I'd have an hour to get ready for work. There was only one problem with that idea. I had no place to shower unless I came all the way back home. I suppose if I planned ahead a bit more I could have asked a friend but instead I decided to run some smaller hills at the Old Mill State Park. It's only a ten minute drive for me and it's actually quite peaceful early in the morning.
It was definitely a beautiful morning to run and although the hills weren't long they still gave us a good workout. We ran down a short path, around the bathrooms, through some geese, up the hill, through the parking lot, and back down the path. We made about 6 loops like that and it felt great. Ahhhh- finally a change from flat pavement! I really wanted to run the hills a few more times but there is a pesky little thing called work that some people need to be punctual for.
In the very near future I will be returning to the park to do some more hill and trail running. Also the Park Rapids Fishhook half marathon is coming up in a few weeks and that will be a good race to get some more hill training. I did the Fishhook last year for the first time and that has been my only major hill race thus far. If your asking yourself "Why hill training?" I got the answer.
1. The Twin Cities Marathon has hills and to race well on hills you must train on hills.
2. Hills build strength.
3. It's a nice change of pace and scenery from the boring flat lands of Northwest Minnesota.
So there you have it! All that talk of hills makes me want to go run some more.
1. The Twin Cities Marathon has hills and to race well on hills you must train on hills.
2. Hills build strength.
3. It's a nice change of pace and scenery from the boring flat lands of Northwest Minnesota.
So there you have it! All that talk of hills makes me want to go run some more.
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