fast:  5 x 2:30 minutes uphill vo2max

Wednesday March 14th

Fresh off an unexpected rest week I was ready for a little speed, even if it meant running up hill.

Dear foot, please work.

It’s been about a year since my last hill workout (long steady hills) and it’s been a decade or two (wow) since I ran a short hill with any speed.  I was a bit on the nervous side but more excited than anything.

I was running a new hill and it didn’t matter how fast I ran it as long as I was breathing hard (vo2max effort).

I was thinking I’d like to run around 7 minute mile pace, but I had no idea what that meant on this hill.  As I stood at the base of the hill I tried to make sense of what I was about to do but at some point you just have to begin.

Any one surprised it was on the gray side?

And that’s just what I did and it was hard.  The first minute was the steepest part of the hill.  It sort of leveled off and then did this odd tight roll that took every ounce of energy out of my legs.  I reached the top and looked at my watch 2:12… dang this hill wasn’t as long as I thought it was.  I pushed on for 18 seconds over a relatively flat surface.

My hill was a bit shorter than I thought (I clearly wouldn’t be doing my 3 minute repeats here in a few weeks) but the leveling out on the top was good for my first vo2max hill workout in ages (I needed all the help I could get).

My 7:00 minute pace rep was followed with a 6:52, 6:51, 6:50 and 7:02 pace.  The last two were hell.  The last one I was tempted to push the pace (I know I’m crazy) but I was struggling and just focused on maintaining my form.

To say I was thrilled with this workout was an understatement.  My legs felt great though my lungs have some catching-up to do.  I was just happy to have completed a workout after a week off.

Happy runner.

The foot was pretty good too.  March might be picking back up after all.

Flat cool down run.

I ran a very slow (and flat) cool down, excited for the next run.

run pretty run fast