Okay, not quite as extreme, but this hill is my Goliath and the challenge that I want to complete is being able to run intervals up the entire way without any extra walk breaks.
Obviously I have yet to conquer this beast of a hill (at least that's how I see it). I'm sure there are many people who have done this and more. But so far the hill has won every single time in my story.
It is a mile long, extremely steep hill and I have had to walk up it many times. Enough to know that walking it alone can raise my heart rate, cause heavy breathing and make my legs burn.
Yesterday's scheduled 6 mile training run turned into 7.73 miles when I decided to run from our apartment to my in laws. We were heading there anyway, might as well run right?
Unfortunately this course includes one pretty intense hill and Goliath. I made it through the first one, but by the time I started the big one I was already 5.3 miles in, exhausted from multiple factors (distance, the hill, heat, etc), and I was dizzy, out of breath and my heart rate was elevated.
I made it four 30:1 intervals before Patrick showed up on his way to his parents. Like my night in shining armor, he arrived when I needed him most. He dropped off a cold water bottle and tried to encourage me to keep going. At that point I had hit my wall and I was beyond encouraging words so I just kept putting one foot in front of the other.
At the 6 mile mark (not yet halfway up the hill) I text Patrick to see if he could pick me up. I justified that I had made it the scheduled distance and it was okay to stop. I sat on the curb for no longer than 5 minutes before I felt like I could keep going. So I text him again, this time simply saying "never mind" and I kept going.
Once I got to the top I started my intervals again and made it the full distance. I'm glad I took the short break (being dizzy while running is not a good combination) and I'm glad I was able to finish.
I will defeat the hill at some point. Maybe I haven't been able to because it's always been the middle part of the course so I'm already spent by that point. Maybe I need to just park my car at the bottom and take it on as the first mile.
Regardless of how it gets done, it will get done.
No comments:
Post a Comment