The Hills (can I be Lauren Conrad?)

Another tale from the “Don’t Die on the Hills of Hood to Coast” saga.

Last night I hit up a new route (thanks for the rec, Deirdre!) for my weekly dose of climbing and trying not to choke on my lungs.

First, I’d like a Spoiled SoCal High Five for getting out there despite these unacceptable conditions :

The sun seriously did not come out AT ALL, all day, and look at that ‘humidity’!  Precipitation ACTUALLY FELL FROM THE SKY.  I got hit by a drop probably once every 10 steps.

(The midwesterner in me has officially fled the scene.  So embarrassed.)

Anyway, the new spot boasted a 1 mile loop with a decent climb, which I planned to do six times.

But I after a strangely stressful day at the office, I wasn’t in the mood for zoned-out lap running.  I wanted to rage run, and the .25 mile steep (by non-hill-runner terms) climb was screaming to have some angry intervals pounded out on it.

So I scrapped my plan, took off, and let the hills have their way with me.

I made sure to run HARD – focusing on picking up my knees and landing on my toes – on both inclines.  I wasn’t watching my pace during, just focusing on getting to that point where my butt & thighs were burning at almost the same intensity as my lungs.

After a *flat* mile cool down, I finished 7 miles with about 2.5 of climbing (467 ft total).

Now, I’m not that well-educated on proper approaches to specific workouts.  Actually I’m not really that well-educated on anything, except maybe beer or the local Thai place’s takeout menu, but scientifically technical running is definitely at the bottom of my knowledge bucket.  So please take anything I post here with a grain of salt; it’s not meant to be the running world’s next big breakout training plan, I promise.  All I’m trying to do is get through Hood to Coast without requiring serious medical attention or needing my teammates to stand at the top of the hills with cupcake bribing me to finish.

Actually, that’s kind of a brilliant idea.  Team Noon Van #1?  Thoughts??

But what I DO know (aside from cupcakes), is for true intervals you should peak, run down as your recovery, and then head right back up.  I think.  Right?  Anyway, those little valleys in my peaks and spare time at the bottom make this less of a “proper” hill interval, but I still felt pretty badass afterwards.

Rules & guidelines be damned  –  If I’ve got jello legs the next day (which I do) I call it a success.

  *  Are you a scientifically, pre-planned, order & execute type of runner?  How are you as smart as you are?  Or do you have someone bossing you around and drawing your routes for you?  I’m looking for max efficiency with minimum book-reading or brains required.

Sarah OUaL