Ingrid has been taking lessons from Duck. Do not believe this woman when she says that tonight's run is an easy half an hour. Those of us seasoned Jog Squadders will remember the days of training diaries and the innocuous "flat run" note alongside a scheduled Jog Squad run. Substitute the words "short hill" for "flat run" and you'll start to see where tonight's run is heading!
We started easily, with a fairly fast-paced run along Courtney and up Cambridge to the Basin. From there we hung a right up Buckle Street back onto Taranaki. From there it was uphill to Bidwill, and then straight up. Short hill? Yeah, right.
Halfway up I found myself standing doubled in one spot, without any recollection of actually having stopped. It was all I could do to get to the top of the hill. I got overtaken by certain Jog Squadders on the way, but was happy with that, because certain members have obviously gotten quite a bit fitter of late!
Once we were on the downhill though the world was Pip's. Flying past at a Mad Dog clip I muttered something over my shoulder about reclaiming some lost pride. By the bottom of the hill I'd caught up with Legs and Sarah, Trudi and co again, and from there we all ran back down Willis and Dixon to the gym, pretty much right on half an hour. I wanted to prove something to myself, so sprinted with Karen the length of Dixon. Now that felt good!
I have definitely lost some leg strength over the last month. My quads in particular seem to have gotten weaker, possibly because I was reluctant to use too much leg lift when I was running with the abductor strain. I've only been doing my lower body weights every fortnight on average, and with Duck staying away from my lower body and a number of lower-impact workouts on the x-trainer and spin classes, things have definitely atrophied. I think my cardio fitness has dropped off a little, but not as much as my leg strength.
I may be the only client in record who has asked their personal trainer to insert hill repeats into their training programme. As I was running Bidwill I was thinking back to the days of suicide sprints up Aurora Terrace with the Special K squad. I find myself longing for the pain. The thing I want the most right now is to be able to run hills with power and form. Bring on the quads and buns of steel...
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3 comments:
Bidwill Street is a definite butt kicker! Good luck getting those quads back again!
eek hills! Thankfully the Chicago lake front is pretty flat, as is the Chicago marathon path, otherwise I'd probably be rolling down the hills after I'd crawl to the top.
Actually, the whole rolling down the hill part would be a bit fun, wouldn't it?
Living in Wellington pretty much means hills - unless you want to run around the waterfront the whole time. Scenic - but boring! I do actually love hills now, and particularly the downhill bits, which I seem I be quite good at! :)
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