Boston Training: Hill Work Session #1

I began my Boston Marathon training a little later than I would have liked, but better late than never. Right? The nagging aches and pains, which are slowly getting better, kept me from really getting into full-on training mode. But after printing out Hal Higdon's Boston Bound Training Plan, I feel much better. One major thing, it's a 12 week program instead of the usual 18, so I have only missed the first two weeks. Switching around Monday and Tuesday to deal with the snow (which we are now getting) had me running hills last night.

I arrived in Hinckley just as it was getting dark. I planned to run one loop around the lake. There are plenty of hills to choose from there, both uphill and down. If the trail wasn't runnable, I would run on the road. I ended up doing a little of both by the time I finished. I didn't count on it being so cold though, and I was glad to be doing only one loop.

Four hill repeats were on tap with one being downhill. I ran counter-clockwise from the Spillway, using the first uphill as a warm-up. The trail was plowed but mostly packed to loosely packed snow with icy spots. My first hill was the one at the Boathouse. I ran down on the roadway to check the footing, reached the bottom, turned around, and sprinted right back up. Good one! Running back down I thought about sprinting it again but decided to save it for the next one which is a little longer.

Hill number two was the one that runs alongside the long road that dips down to the bridle trail access area. I ran in the road again here as there were no cars around and more bare pavement. This one really tired me out but it felt good. I was able to get a little rest before hitting the big dip along State Road.

Hill number three was the uphill along State Road going north. Here, the trail was dry pavement and I pushed hard. I was gasping for breath by the time I crested the top. I'm sure the low 20 degree temperature didn't help any. But I didn't have much time to recover as I still needed a downhill repeat.

So I turned around and flew downhill as carefully as I could for hill number 4. A great finish to my hill work! All I had to do was run back UP the hill I just came down, then make my way back to the car which was still nearly a mile away. But that was OK. I needed a cool down.