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October 9, 2004

Hills, anyone?

This morning was the first time I've run with my marathon training group and not had to tack on miles before or after. They're catching up to me mileage-wise, which is good. And it's a good thing I didn't have to add anything on because I was pretty tired when we finished.

Steve believes in hills. I believe in hills, too, but Steve *really* believes in hills. So this morning we started off on the trail and then headed out to the hills. The first and last four miles weren't hilly, but everything else (the middle 8) was. In fact, we ran through some rolling hills to get to the big hill (Mt. Bonnell) and the subsequent rolling hills on the other side just to turn around and run it all again in the other direction.

I actually consider hills my strong suit. I'm not very tall and have a strong lower body (read: short with a big butt) to get me up hills with relative ease. Downhill, as I've mentioned, is another story. Gradual downhills are fine, but I become a complete mess on anything steep. So not only was I fighting fatigue from the miles and uphills this morning, but the jarring of *everything* on the downhill was taking its toll. My feet in particular were starting to complain. I wish we could find a course that's just as challenging without the downhill pounding.

I had good company again this morning. We were a little more spread out than we've been in the past, though. My friend Ruth, who's one of the coaches, is running with us now that she's gotten most of her fall marathoners through the heart of their training. Ruth will run whatever pace you want to run, but when I'm running with her I have a tendency to push. In fact, we all stopped socializing once we got back on the flat part and pushed it in from there.

The homestretch, though flat, was the least pleasant part of the run, too. We were out of the neighborhood and out on the long uncovered stretch leading back to Town Lake Trail, heading east into the sun. It didn't feel like October, I'll tell you that. At least once we got on the trail we got a little bit of a cool breeze. It's in the 80s right now. Good grief!

Glad to have the hard parts of another week behind me.

Posted by jenandmats at October 9, 2004 4:03 PM

Comments

Sorry, but I can't just let this go without commenting... You do _not_ have a big butt! (But you are a good hill runner, based on the one hill we ran up in Austin.)

Your training sounds great. You are going to be so ready when you get to the starting line of the marathon!

Posted by: Alison at October 10, 2004 5:26 PM

I'm such a girl for writing that, aren't I? ("Does my butt look big in this post?")

Posted by: jenandmats at October 10, 2004 9:57 PM