Hill Training - Take One

The alarm went off early this morning: 4:50am to be exact. I really thought about just turning it off and rolling over. But my concience won and I crawled out of bed, put my running clothes on, had a piece of peanut butter toast and walked out the door sipping a much needed caffiene jolt: Click.

Today was the first day of HILLS! Ha, nothing to get too excited about, but I definately need all the training I can get if I'm going to rock my first marathon in hilly San Fransisco this fall. I was perked up by the time the run started with a nice easy jog over to the hill spot. It was dark (I should have brought my flashlight) and the grass hadn't been cut in a while. There was long grass up to my knees! It was itchy and wet and once we started sweating the mosquitos came out. Talk about unprepared. I saw my bug spray as I was walking out the door this morning, but I don't guess my brain was awake enough yet to process that I might need it. We did 4 five minute repeats with a five minute rest in between. The first 3 hill repeats went really well - I felt strong and ready. But that quickly faded with the last round. My body was tired and starting to ache already. I sucked it up, pulled through and even finished with a nice jog back to the car. I dusted my legs off quickly and moved into the core workout. The various planks and bridges were easy compared to the hills I'd just done. I'll defiately be more prepared for next week - let's hope they cut the grass before then!

Edit: I was feeling pretty good around lunch, so I hit up yoga. I'm not so sure how I'll feel in the morning, but right now it's not so bad. We focused on stretching lunges and hip movements - it was pretty intense. I guess we'll see tomorrow if that was a good idea or not!