Hills

Bob -

Today is hill day.  Every Friday we do a hill run.  As long as our schedules allow, we do anyway.  We try not to let anything get in the way of this workout.  For me, the Friday hill run and the step workout is the key to my running.  The long run is important, but honestly I am in this running thing to be in really good shape.  Really good shape means to have overall muscle tone and fitness.  Increased strength and muscle tone leads to less injury.  To have overall muscle tone means that I have to bust my butt doing things like hill runs and kettle bell workouts and push ups and pull ups.  I would love to try the Flamboyant Ed workout, but I am afraid that I will fall down, so I'll have to practice that at my shop for a while before I go public with it.  Like Ed, I have found that the more intense type workouts have led to my greatest gains in running.  They also allow me to eat more than I should.  I like to eat...a lot.  I cannot eat the bird size portions that is recommended.  If you look at the height/weight charts, I am considered over weight.  Quite a bit.  I do have some pounds to lose, but if I weighed what the charts say I would be too skinny and have no muscle.  So, I pay no attention to those things.  By doing the harder workouts, thusly and therefore, I am able to eat like a human and maintain my weight and get stronger.  When I was struggling with my heal issue and some other stuff and getting frustrated, I decided to cut my running back and set a goal of just running a few miles with the intent of finishing each run strong.  I mean strong both mentally and physically.  Kicking it in, while not kicking myself for not going farther.  Not saying things like, "I only ran 3 miles", or whatever.  I concentrated on working hard in the gym and building muscle.  Working on my legs, which I never really did before.  After a few months of this I was amazed at the fact that ran my fastest 5k in years.  My legs didn't die like they did in the past.  I also found that I could run on consecutive days which I was never able to do before.  So, back to the hill run.  This is a little over 5 miles.  Not alot, but it starts with one of the toughest little hills in our area.  We feel like we are going to die, and then it is flat for about a mile for a decent recovery and then all hell breaks loose.  1.3 miles of hills with really no break.  There is no flat spot.  No matter how many times we have done this, it is never easy.  We know we are getting better and stronger, but that just means each time we are going up faster, so there is no magic moment of it being easy.  Wheezing, cursing, huffing, puffing and near horking we get to the top where we rest a bit.  There is no worse feeling than doing this run for me.  Then it is mostly downhill to the end.  Once we are done, everything is great and we forget how bad it is until we start to do it again the following week.  The great thing about it is that it is short, intense and over relatively quickly.  The payoff is huge.  The moral to this particular story is that hard work pays off, steak fat is good (I will take yours if you aren't going to eat it) and I have developed lovely calves.