Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Looking for Hills ... Dying on Hills

OBJECTIVE
Dynamic stretching
1.5 mi. warm up
6 x 75 sec. hill repeats @ 5:50/mi. w/2 min. active recovery
1.5 mi. cool down

ACHIEVED

2.83 mi. WU
6:42 / 7:13 / 6:52 / 6:54 / 7:00 / 7:28
2.65 mi. CD

8:06 PM 79° 77% 9 mph

Nothing went as planned for this run. I didn't know where I was going to find hills so I decided to wait until after work when I could go down to the bayou. Planned to go at 4:30 PM then come back to the office to take care of a project. Wouldn't you know someone drops by my office at about 4:15 for an impromptu meeting. Project starts at 6 pm (I've been at work since 7:45 AM). Project ends at 8 PM. I still haven't run yet .... arghhhh!

I skipped the "dynamic stretching" and headed out for the bayou. I figured I'd go over to the Shepherd bridge because that's the biggest hill I could think of. I knew it was going to be a bit farther to the bridge than the 1.5 mile warm up I was looking for but I just figured that would make up for the skipped stretching (I know, that's not how it works). It was farther than I remembered.

I sized up the hill from the bottom and choose the longest route I could see - a diagonal across the face of the hill (these are Houston hills people so don't imagine anything too drastic ... but there is a decent grade ....) I hit my watch and take off. I could tell I was too slow. At the top I checked my watch and still had about 30 seconds to go. Now what? I ran across the top trying to pick up the pace. The 75 seconds wrapped up and I was into my 2 minute recovery jog trying to figure out how to make these hills that were too short work. Long story, short. I ran the longest diagonal then came straight down and ran an long diagonal in the opposite direction. This isn't how this run was supposed to work out and I wasn't coming anywhere near my targeted time.

I finished it off and schlepped my way back to the parking garage at the office. It was about 9:30 PM. I still had to eat dinner and stopped at Chacho's drive-thru for a couple tacos on the way home.

My head hit the pillow at about 10:30 and I was asleep by 10:32. Obviously I need to find a better location to run this workout.

PRE RUN
water

POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, Chachos chicken fajita tacos - Mexico style (this was my reward for pounding the hills!)

1 comment:

Steph said...

Hi Cory! The hills you mention are about as good as it gets in Houston. You can cross sideways to make it longer, but that's about it. The next best option is a parking garage. The parking where we go on Thursdays is half a mile up and half a mile down. I have to comment on your pace though, the target seems a bit fast. My coach always used to tell me that it doesn't matter how fast you run up the hills, and also take it easy going down.
On a similar note I am about to leave for a stairs workout, 2x 55 floors up and down - In the Bank of America bldg. If you would like to join sometime let me know.
Finally, I am impressed that you still went running at 8pm. that's serious dedication!!