REAL....hill training.

06/11/09
Thursday

I decided to do hill training tonite and instead of dreary boring road hills, I decided to run Bradbury Mountain. I ran various trails around the mountain and managed to find the peak four times.

This is a total body hill workout as the trail causes one to work the core in conjunction with the hill climbing/ running. This is my first time at Bradbury since the snow dissappeared and was quite happy to find very solid trails and few bikers to worry about.

Everything went quite well as I negotiated the uphills, a bit out of breath and tired legs......but what does one expect when running trail hills? My biggest problem was the steep down hills. I found myself mostly (walk-run-sliding) them as I felt unsure footed and had visions of attempting to move a rock with my falling head.....not a good vision, the rock always wins.

I suspect once I have run here a few times, I will loosen up and run the downhills much faster. I knocked off 5.5 miles and then went to the east side trails for a cooldown run.

I am sure I looked like a 10 year old running up dirt mounds, kick jumping into the air,scooting around trees on the technical part of the trails, stomping through the mucky spots..... just plain enjoying my cooldown run. No doubt, Bradbury East is one of my favorite trails.


Hill workout
5.5 miles ...1:01:46 (11:14 av pace)
splits:
11:32...144-165hr
14:02...146-157
13:36...145-157
11:02...142-163
9:49....142-157

Cooldown (really?)
1.45 miles...12:46 (8:49av pace)