Hill work Tuesday

After the success of the hills into Killington Ski resort at the 100on100 relay, and the failure of the hills at the Cape Cod Marathon - I decided today that a) you can never run too many hills during training and b) no matter how successful one race is on hills - you can still never run too many hills during training.

Last night I signed up for the Run for the Refugees 5k in New Haven. This course starts about a 1/4 mile from my house so gotta love the no commute to a race. However, it is a very hilly course that goes up into East Rock park and then back down. Today I decided to try out the course.

The plan was to warm-up the first 1/4 mile to where I think the start is, then run up 1.55 miles, then down, then repeat it, then back home. I was able to run the first 1.55 miles (up) relatively hard, then the down I took a semi-picked up recovery down. I hit the bottom of the hill and started over again - this one was still at same effort, but the pace fell a little (not overly concerned with that though). I got to the turn around point and decided to try to go all the way to the summit in East Rock park. This was really fun yet challenging as the road got rather steep and windy. But once I reached the top the view made the run to the top so worth it. I stopped for a few minutes just to take it all in - New Haven from 350+ feet is amazing. I headed down back the way I came up and tried to push the pace a little. Saw a fellow runner on the way up - we exchange pleasantries as we passed.

Today's run was great - and I didn't have to dodge too many cars. I hope to do the run again (maybe not to the summit just the first half of the hill) again as repeats next week in preparation for the race.

Total Mileage: 8 miles
Total Time: 1:08:26
Average Pace: 8:33

Splits: 8:53/8:16/8:31/9:05/8:46/8:51/8:14/7:47
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23277291