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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Holy Hills. Alternately titled: The Hills Are Alive, With the Sound of My Screaming.

Catchy, no?

True to my word, I switched up my Tuesday easy run this week, so I wouldn't have two back-to-back easy runs. Because, honestly, what do I need to recover from after an easy run? The boringness? But I digress.

Today I decided to do 4 miles of hills in preperation for the Wild West Relay. Granted my legs were a bit stiff from the long run on Sunday, but they loosened up pretty fast. They had to! I made them run hills! Suckas! :) The first and last .8 (roughly) of the run were flat, but the middle (umm...let me grab my calculator..) 2.4 miles were a DOOZY. At one point I looked down and my pace said 11:xx. Aye aye aye. Poor little leggies.



Well that's teensy tiny, so pull out your bifocals if necessary because that's my elevation from the 4 miler today. Keep in mind that this is #1 or #2 hilliest route in my town, so my primary source of pain/prep for the relay.

Gain: 391 ft
Elevation Loss: 484 ft
Min Elevation: 1,404 ft
Max Elevation: 1,529 ft

First leg of WWR (7.3 miles)

Gain: 601 ft

Loss: 267 ft

Min Elevation: 5,500 ft

Max Elevation: 5,950 ft

Baahahahah.

But seriously, I'm SO EXCITED for this relay, even if it is going to hand me my butt on a silver platter. :)

For the 4 miles I completed it in 38:30 for a pace of 9:37. My Garmin Connect won't let me access my splits, but they were pretty close to that. Apparently hills also slow me down, it's the craziest thing.... ;)

I must say it's a s-t-r-u-g-g-l-e to go back to work after a 4 day weekend. Yikes. I'm finding myself read for a nap and it's only lunch. Yikes.

And I forgot to mention after the 9 mile run on Sunday my dead/drown due to my sweat gnat count on my chest was 8. Inhaled gnats: 3, including one that lingered--not wanting to go up or down for at least 2 miles. Snorted gnat: 1. That was probably the worst. YEOUCH!

10 comments:

  1. HAHAH gnat count. I remember looking in the mirror and seeing a graveyard of gnats on my chest. Gross!!

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  2. WOW those are some serious hills!!!

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  3. it's def tough to make it through the workday sometimes. running always makes it better tho!!!! way to bust a move on that workout!!!!!!!! seriously i haven't done a true hill workout... in more than a year. i NEED to because it's SOOO good for training. you did AWESOME. and LOL- gnats. ew, but LOL!!! :)

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  4. Oof, check out those hills! Awesome job hauling your poor legs up them!

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  5. Great job on the hilly run! It will totally be worth it! I am so jealous you get to run the WWR!!

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  6. jeri- hmmm i'm not sure gu vs roctane, but i love the roctane so i would recommend at least trying it!! there is blueberry pomegranate and vanilla orange. they are both very sweet tasting. if you want to try something else to compare i also loved hammer gels. espresso and banana were my faves. they also had some fruity flavors. guess it's just a matter of finding what you like best :) you could also try the chewy things like shot bloks!

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  7. Thanks for the congrats on the 16 miler this past weeked. And the nap? Had nothing to do with "deserves". This old body was going to make me do it whether I wanted to or not.

    About Garmin Connect - have you looked at SportTracks (http://www.zonefivesoftware.com). I use it becuase it allows me to massage data regardless of how it was collected in the Garmin. For example, yesterday my workout was 5 miles in HR Zone 3 followed by 5 miles in HR zone 4. So in Garmin Connect I have two laps. But, in SportTracks, I am able to look at each mile individually. You can read moreon my blog here: http://therunningfatguy.blogspot.com/2009/01/sporttracks-software.html
    I highly recommend it and the price is right (free).

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  8. haha! love the gnat count and the mile deduction for warm up/coolwdown (calculator needed!)

    hey your elevation DIFFERENCE is just about Spot ON - but I must warn you about the 5500 ft. I was just home and we're at about 5600 and whewwww it's rough! way to work those legs tho ;)

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  9. I am jealous of your hills! I wish I had some out here to run!

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  10. those are some rock'n hills!

    and we are gonna rock WWR! yeah!

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