I love running hills. Its a real mind game. After about 5 of them if you are doing it right your mind tells you little things just after half way up. “dont over train”, you dont need to work this hard”, you could hike up them instead of running, it would be easier on the knees and feet!” You need to make a concious decision to run what you are scheduled to run.
Today I was scheduled to run 15 hills, which is a 900 meter loop. Its a hard switch back hill on asphalt. I am supposed to do a 1.5 km warmup but today I wanted to also test running hills with poles so I went upriver with Diana 3.75 km first and filmed a bit of pole running. ran back to start my hills.
Last time out I ran steady but slow. This time I wanted to kill them. Im at a point now where I want a break and want the race to be here and get it over with. On the other hand I tell myself to be greatful for the extra days to train as I will need all I can get.
Today at 5 I already started playing mind games and thought maybe I’ ll quit and just run some flat distance today. I pushed that thought aside and started doing the old trick of counting down instead of up. So instead of saying thats 5 hills out of 15, I said 10 left, then 9 left etc. This technique works well for me, but by the time I reached 9 I was thinking, thats enough you should go home. Your knee is twinging you may get injured. I stopped and examined my knee. bullshit, its fine. my mind is playing with me. I thought verity wouldnt quite now. Tracey Garneau sure as hell didn’t quit in the Western 100!!!!!! I made a deal that every time i thought about quitting I would add a hill. As a result today I did 19 hills, and covered 21 km in 1 hour and 55 minutes. 4000 feet of elevation change. Great training run!
I hit the gym for my 20 minutes of core I promised myself for the next 25 days!
Its July. I’m officially in the home stretch now! 30 DAYS
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