In just about 10 days, I am going to run a half marathon that has hills....lots of hills. I run at sea level....flat, flat sea level. My running friend, Nancy, warned me about these hills. She told me to train for them. I trained a little. Then I ran a half. Then I lost my mojo. Then I didn't train anymore. My other running friend, Kris, is running the half next week with me. She's fast and awesome. She met me for some hill training in an unexpected place not far from my house.
Before I get to the actual run, please let me tell you that summer has returned to Virginia. We don't ease into it here...it just comes. One day it's 60 and the next day it's 90....just like that. When I met Kris at 4:00 this afternoon for our run, it was 88 degrees. Luckily, there was a nice breeze.
I was hoping the hill training would be like this.
It wasn't.
This course was a big, green park with a trail (sort of) mowed into it. The grass may have been mowed last week....certainly not this week. We've been getting some pretty heavy afternoon rains for the past week. Mud puddles hidden in the grass of a hilly cross country course....NOT my idea of a good time. But, the hills of Williamsburg are coming faster than I am ready for. Plus, Kris likes the whole nature thing and was really excited to run.
I warned her that I was hot just getting out of the car and I was really worried about the run after the track record of the past couple of weeks. She told me not to worry about it and off we went. We went one way, only to be greeted with a dead end. So, we turned around and started our little jog through nature. I felt more comfortable with 1:1 intervals because of the crappy runs since Nike and the heat, so that's what we did. It was still pretty rough. Even 1 minute of running was hard sometimes. I did get some reprieves when I had to walk around the massive lakes in the middle of the trail and she didn't say anything when I counted that as a good time to walk, even though the watch didn't beep.
I missed a puddle about halfway into our adventure and splashed right through it. My "new" Brooks running shoes are no officially no longer new. I finished the run with a wet sock. I said some naughty words at the puddles. I had dirt and grass up the back of my legs.
The hills themselves weren't terrible. They were gradual, which is what Williamsburg will be like. I stuck with the intervals, so I knew that after a minute, I could walk. That helped. The company was fantastic. The breeze was nice and the park is really pretty. It's one of Chesapeake's best kept secrets.
I pretty much hated the entire run (great running company excluded from the phrase "entire"). I came home and found a tick on my leg. There was entirely too much nature out there. But, apparently hills are a way of life when you are a "real" runner. I'm going to be running through wine country in September. That just screams hills. Plus, I heard that hills make you faster.....I need all the help I can get.
Taking this running show on the road for the next few days. The plan is to do some speed work on a track on Friday and then run a golf course cart path (in the mountains of Pennsylvania) on Sunday.
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