Tag Archives: hill repeats

Never Let a Roll of the Dice Decide Your Fate

4 Sep

Magic eight.

Eight is the number that was rolled last Thursday morning as we sat at the foot of a small Florida hill (technically some might call it an “incline”). To my chagrin, we did not roll a snake eyes.

What were we doing with a pair of dice on one of our morning runs? We certainly weren’t playing any board games.

It seems that I cannot miss any morning runs, because when I do, I come back to hear preposterous ideas like “Hey, let’s let the roll of the dice decide how many hill repeats we should do on Thursday mornings!”

And then something even more preposterous happens like an eight is rolled. Magic eight. *Sigh*

So eight times up, and eight times down we went.

Here’s how the experience looked in my head:

  • Hill Repeat #1: Alright let’s do this.
  • Hill Repeat #2: Good God! We’re only on the second repeat? There’s no way I can do this!
  • Hill Repeat #3: Hey, whose idea was this?
  • Hill Repeat #4: Seriously, whose ideas was this??
  • Hill Repeat #5: That was only halfway?
  • Hill Repeat #6: Wait, what repeat are we on?
  • Hill Repeat #7: (cursing starts) @#%#$!
  • Hill Repeat #8: You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.

Here’s how the experience looked via my friend’s tracking device:

Count the peaks and weep with me: 8

Needless to say, I’m very sorry that I’m going to be on vacation this week and unable to join this Thursday’s AM run…

Do you ever play games to get you through your runs? 

Advertisement

Hills, Groundhogs and the Most Inspiring Video

2 Feb

In the efforts of working on both my speed and strength, I’ve decided to rejoin the Marathonfest Thursday morning training sessions. I’ve been running with the ladies Tuesdays and Thursdays, but decided I could benefit from the Thursday hill and tempo workouts. The good news is, I can still join them for coffee afterwards (which I did this morning).

My goal for this morning was to run the 3.4-mile loop with hill repeats without taking any walk intervals. I was able to accomplish this goal. Since I remembered to bring my borrowed Garmin this morning, I actually have stats:

  • Distance: 3.34 miles
  • Time: 37:15.71
  • Avg Pace: 11:09/mi

Back when I trained for my half marathons, I would average around a 10:45/mi pace for shorter runs and 11:18/mi for the half marathon. My Disney Marathon pace was 13:22/mi and I hope to get that down to at least 12:00/mi for Flying Pig.

Going up hills you can usually find me muttering to myself. I tend say things like “dig deep” and “you can do this” and my favorite: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This was one of the bible verses my mom had us say before bed every night growing up and it’s always stuck with me. This morning was no exception. Unfortunately, you can usually also hear curse words flying out of my mouth during tough runs. I tend to have the mouth of a sailor. I try my hardest not to curse around the bible verse.

When I got home this morning I saw that a friend had posted this video. Watch it and tell me you don’t get the chills watching it. Tell me your whole being didn’t get excited at the end. Tell me you weren’t inspired. I think I actually clapped at the end and shouted. My dogs must think I’m weird (thought they have no room to judge).

And today’s Groundhog Day. For those of you in the colder regions, I hope the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow!

How did you feel when you watched the video I link to above?