Hill Run Number Two

Rob decided to join me for this morning's hill run. I was glad to have him - both for the excellent company and for a navigator! I hadn't done this route before and had a vague idea of where the turns were, but it was nice to put it on autopilot and let Rob be the guide.

We left the house just after 5:30 am and walked out to the entrance to our neighborhood. The course starts out mostly flat with some rolling hills. A little over a mile in is the first big hill. This one I've run before, I know I can do it. We make it to the top, then down to cross a busy road. I commented that this was where we risk our lives, and Rob told me it was not a problem, that we'd just sprint. Fortunately, we got a break in the traffic and ran across at our normal pace.

Little bit of a slope here, then take a turn and down a nice, quiet rural-feeling road. Eventually, we come to the next big hill. It looks long and gradual, but it's deceiving, it's even longer than it looks. Rob continues to chat as we climb, I just go with the "uh-huh" responses. I should mention, every time my beeper goes off to walk, we are on a downhill. So we get to the top and it levels out with small inclines now and then. We run through the ritzy neighborhood next. Huge lots, spectacular views of Rainier and the valley below.

Then the road doglegs and I swear. Oh my. The hill ahead is long and steep. Really, really steep. Rob laughs and says "Did you think we would talk about this run if it wasn't hard?" I decided not to look too far ahead, just focus on the few feet in front of me. We climb, Rob talks, I revert back to the "uh-huhs". I keep sneaking peeks at my watch, wondering if the beeper will save me. It does not. We crest the hill to see a sharp downhill dip and another big hill! Rob tells me not to worry, it's not as big as it looks. Finally, the beeper goes off and we walk a little on the downhill. Once again, we start the climb. I was going to respond to something Rob said, but instead I told him I'd answer when we got to the crossroad.

Finally, we hit the crossroad, familiar territory and part of many routes I run regularly. I'm laughing to myself because it is a very slight uphill when headed south, so it still takes effort. Finally, we make the turn onto the last mile. One small hill to go. Feels awfully big today though!

We finished in 1:11:11. Eric's Garmin shows a six mile route, but he takes a detour through some of the neighborhoods that parallel the straight just to avoid the noisy traffic. I'll try that next time. Gmaps shows the route we ran today (we stayed on the straight) as 5.8. I'm pretty happy no matter what. Great new route with tough hill training, great company to run it with.

I've been feeling a little tension on the inside of my right shin during the last few long runs. Now, if someone said that to me, I'd say "well, you ramped up too fast, so of course you are hurting." I know that, and I know better than to do that. But, I did it anyway. Not my smartest move, but I felt like I was running out of training time - surgery threw too long of a delay into the works. Plus, I'm greedy. (See 3/13) Definitely greedy. I want to do everything I haven't been able to do, and I want to do it soon. I was even planning to run a little easier this week, but I haven't done it so far. I'm trying to talk myself into three tomorrow morning and three tomorrow night, just to lighten up a bit. I'm not making any promises, and you will all have the right to taunt me if I hurt myself. Just know that in the meantime, I'm having all kinds of fun!

Note: It's highly possible I missed describing a hill in there somewhere, the middle is kind of a blur...