Hills….

Last night was my first hill workout on a treadmill. When I was in school I spent plenty of time doing hill work outside, but never on a treadmill so this was a new experience for me. I had 2 miles warm up, 8 hill repeats, and 2 miles cool down. I got started on my warm up and to my surprise, no more calf pain! After I got through my first hill I realized that the people around me were looking at me all weird… I had my headphones in while I was running so I wasn’t aware of how loud I must have been. Oh well, I had 7 more to do they were just going to have to deal with it. So after about 4 of them I started thinking about running hills when I was in track… it’s so different from running them on a treadmill. I like running hills outside better, but right now with the snow on the ground, that’s not an option. So as I was nearing the last 2 hills I found myself actually enjoying them… they were getting easier the more of them that I did. I’ve noticed that with my running as well… the first 2.5 miles in of a run I don’t feel so great but at miles 5 or 6 I actually have more energy and feel better than what I did on mile 2! I just wish I had the endurance to be able to run for many miles… it would make training a lot easier.  In time, I guess….

2 miles warm-up (9:40 pace)
8 hills – 7% incline – 9 MPH – 20 secs – 3:00 recovery @ walk
2 miles cool down (9:40 pace)

5.5 miles total

Tonight is a Bike LT workout so hopefully I can get through that and then on to an easy run day on Thursday.