Hills, repeat 6xs

Obviously you can tell by the title of said post that I did a hill workout yesterday, and I am paying for it today. This week has been absolutely monstrous in terms of training. It's my third week in a row of building mileage and training intensity, and by Monday night these poor legs of mine will be so weary all I'll be able to do is sit back and drink. Hopefully SJ will be home so I can have someone wait on me hand and foot don't have to crawl to the keg to keep refilling. But that's a whole three days from now, and in between is some serious business.

Yesterday I did hill repeats, and I rocked them if I do say so myself. (Which I do, because I just did, because this is me that's writing, which makes that expression somewhat stupid.) I have been doing the same hill the past three hill workouts so that I can see how my progress has been coming along. The first time I ran it, it was about 104 degrees and the humidity was hovering somewhere in the 1000 percentile, so that was a bit of a wash. I didn't have my Garmin with me so I had no idea of my pacing and as it was the first time doing hill repeats since high school winter track, I really had no idea what I was doing. The second time I ran repeats, it was pouring rain but I soldiered on and performed as well as one can be expected in not-so-great weather. However, yesterday I had no excuse. The weather was great - low humidity, nice breeze, not super hot out - and though I was far from having fresh legs, I felt good.

After an easy 2.5 mile warm-up I was ready to attack. I had six repeats on the schedule for today, and my splits evened out to this:

1. 47.5
2. 47.8
3. 48.4
4. 47.5
5. 46.3
6. 46.2

BOOM! Nothing over a :50, which I hit four times the last time I did this hill, including a :55 effort. I don't know if it's the or the simple fact that it wasn't pouring with rain, but I'm gonna take it. Coming off two weeks of building mileage and a hard bike ride on Wednesday, I was super pumped by the results.

I didn't ride this afternoon like I had intended to do, but I did get in 3000 yards in the pool. I struggled the whole time, which is how I know I am super tired, but I knew that going into the workout it wouldn't be a great one. This heavy workload is starting to catch up and my legs are feeling it. I did go to the bike shop this afternoon to order my new tri shoes, though, so I am going to count that as training-related time. So I guess I did get in a ride afterall!

Just because we're racing this weekend doesn't mean we can't 

have a beer for happy hour! 

This is a big weekend for both SJ and I. SJ races tomorrow morning out in Calverton at the Deep Pond Triathlon, along with Mamadukes. They get to cycle part of the bike leg on the old Northrop Grumman runway, which will be a pretty cool experience - it's supposed to be one of the longest runways in the country. The race is starting at an ungodly hour, even for a triathlon. Our alarm is set for 3:45am - which is partly why I am so cool and blogging on a Friday night at 9:30 (as SJ snores like a truck driver gives cute little sleep snorts next to me). After the race we head up to West Point to get ready for my race the following day at Camp Buckner. Unlike SJ's race, I have no fun facts about my race, except to say that it is on the military academy training grounds. However, I will make sure to find out one fun fact to bring home and report on!

Don't expect anything this weekend kids, as I've made it an unofficial rule to not blog over the weekend. However, upon my return on Monday I will regale you all with a weekly wrap-up, not one but TWO race reports, and some highlights from our upstate adventures. I'm looking forward to West Point as I've never been there before and SJ and I are going to make sure we take pictures in Cornwall to send to her brother in London. I am supposed to run 17 miles at some point over this weekend, and it probably won't be Sunday, so a long, slow run in the mountains on Monday morning is looking like it's in the cards for me. I'll make sure to take pictures and send postcards.

Happy training this weekend and if anyone is racing, good luck!