Challenged myself with a hilly route

PaytraB

According to gmaps, the route I took today ascended just under 100 meters and I jogged up about 3/4 of it. I'm pretty happy with that. Also, my time was not longer at the end for going the same distance so I think I may be speeding up just a titch.
The next 3 weeks will be challenging. I'm on-call at work which makes the schedule very hectic and ties me closer to home. I've mapped out a route closer to home that will be repetitive but will keep me active and challenged.

KathleenKP

Good job on the hill! I've recently added that as a focus. Yesterday, when I ran a flat route for distance, I could already notice that I am getting stronger at that...thanks to doing the hills and the sprints.

Maybe for the repetitive parts this next week, you can do some speed work intervals if you're worried about it getting boring.

likitisplit

Sounds like a great plan! I run the two blocks in my neighborhood once or twice a week. I find the repetition helps me "learn" the territory. There is one place where I always feel like stopping. It looks flat, but there's a slight incline that is steeper than you realize, so when I feel that way I just tell myself that I'm working harder than I realize. And I have an attack plan for each of the hills. There's a lot of value to practicing the same route over and again.

PaytraB

Thanks, Kathleen. I am a bit worried about the boredom factor of running in circles. I'm hoping the hilly aspect of it will keep me challenged and will add some speed work into it as well. I hadn't thought of that.

Congratulations on feeling stronger! It's such a great feeling when that happens.

PaytraB

Vardaemi, thanks for that info. It gives me some encouragement for the next few weeks. I will try to learn the territory and concentrate on techniques that will help me improve. Hills will be a big challenge and one that I'm looking forward to conquering.

KathleenKP

The speedwork or hills should help with the boredom. I found today that I actually like the treadmill, which I detested before due to boredom. But I was just running on it at the same speed and incline for the whole duration. Today, I did some speed work on it, and it was actually...FUN!

Now that we've all finished the c25k program, we can work on mixing things up. It was hard to adjust my thinking to accept that I wasn't just going to run for 45 minutes straight, but now that I'm adding in other activities to my running workouts, I really like it. It is giving me a little flexibility now, too, that I can have shorter workouts on some days when I need to, if I include sprints.

I hope you can figure out a fun workout with your hills and staying close by. Maybe you can pick a distance to run, then walk back, then repeat that a number of times, holding or improving your pace for the running portions.