Thursday, August 14, 2008

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

The other night my neighbor/captain and I were talking about the hill by our complex and how difficult it was to master. I confessed that I had never been able to run all the way up the hill. I have attempted it before, but it is about a quarter mile of painful steepness. Therefore, I had relegated myself to running down the hill at the beginning of my workout and walking up it as a cool-down after running a couple of miles.

The coach overheard us complaining about it and suggest we tried the repeating technique. In order to make the hill easier to tackle during a longer run, he said we could focus an entire workout just on the hill itself. As simple as that sounds, it never occurred to me before.

This afternoon I tried it, and after running down and turning around, I was really surprised when I was able to make it all the way back up the hill for the first time ever! I was even more proud of myself when I did it two more times! I only ran for about a mile and a half, but it was definitely worth it.

The coach was right, it was a lot easier when I just focused on the hill and nothing else. I think I will try another workout where I do five or six hill laps before I incorporate running up the hill into a longer run. Woohoo!

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