Firestone Hill Repeats

I ran over to Firestone Metro Park this morning to do a few hill repeats on the hill that runs alongside S. Main St.  Before I left, I mapped out the hill and found it is about .2 mile long and about 550 ft of elevation gain.  I had it in my head to do 10 loops of the route below.  This would give me 5500 ft of elevation gain and a total of 8 miles which includes the distance back to my apartment.

 

I forced myself not to go too hard up the hill early on.  I've done a hill workout here before when training for Pikes Peak, so I knew my legs would feel like jelly if I pushed it too hard.  I signed up for the Speedgoat 50K in July, so this will be great training for the climbs out there.

I clicked off each loop one by one, repeating the number I was on during each loop  When I got to 5, I felt good physically and also mentally because I would be counting down now.  

It was cold and windy out, but it's funny how 25-30 degrees doesn't feel so bad after the winter we've had.  

The loops got a little tougher at the end, but I still felt strong as I finished the 10th one.

I kicked my training into gear this past week and ended up with 30 miles.  I've been running sporadically the past couple months - enough to keep my base.  The Speedgoat is July 19th, so in my head I told myself I have 3 solid months of training left (even though it's a little more) and I think that gave me the bump to start running consistently now.  I had forgotten how good the feeling is to get runs in regularly and am always amazed how little fitness you usually lose.  I also got a membership at the Kent Rec Center and have been swimming laps there one or two times a week.

Hill at Firestone Metro Park (photo taken Feb 2013 - grass was showing today!)