Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Hills in the morning...

...are easier for me than running the hills after a long day of work. Duh.

I have the day off from work today, so I got my run done this morning. Met my sister and we did the Wednesday night group run route -- 6.65 miles on a flat first two miles, then a hilly back 4.5+ mile section of town.

We started slow and planned on keeping an easy pace. We ran comfortably, and I really thought we were somewhere around a 9:45 pace. Well, it turns out we ended with a 9:18 average pace. Huh.

I definitely held back, and while we attacked the uphills, I noticed that my breathing was pretty even and controlled. I paid attention to my form, and had little problem increasing my pace as we went up the hilly sections. Overall, it was a good (albeit a bit too fast for the purpose) run. Crisp morning, clear, but warmer as we ended the run.

I really like the challenge of this route. I just wish the group run started a little earlier on Wednesdays...

Oh! and I got another pair of new shoes today. Now I have two (an UGLY purple pair and my power red pair) to rotate, and both are new enough for the upcoming races. Yay!

4 comments:

Runnin-From-The-Law said...

Hills are one thing I didn't mix in to this training plan as much as I should have. I have to travel too far to get to them. Or the ones that are close by I am scared to do in the ultra dark at 4:30 a.m. They are so good for you though. I need to do them next time around!

Nice workout!

Dan said...

GAh....I'm jealous. I want to run some hills but my recovery instructions right now are "don't run hills".
Maybe I should go run in Minnesota for a while.

Pretty cool to nail a hill workout like that - controlled breathing, increasing pace when needed.

Maria said...

So red is your power color ...nice!

sneakersister said...

Which shoes did you get?? I'm dieing for a red pair of shoes ... not that I'm going to be experimenting with new shoes in the near future ... just saying.