Hills hills hills hills

I did a short but painful bike ride last weekend involving hills. I know I will get better if I persist....

Runing-wise Mel and I met three times this week.

Monday was a nice relaxed easy run.

Wednesday we decided to do something a little different -- hill repeats. There's a hill we nearly always go up at the end of our runs to get back to where we've parked our cars. From the base of the hill to the lot is about 1/2 mile, with about 1/2 of that the actual hill. So we chose to go up and down the 1/2 mile route 3 times (and the last time up the hill we decided to continue up another portion of hill, probably adding another 1/4 mile uphill). We felt pretty good afterwards, actually, and I had no muscle soreness or anything afterwards. Although it was a good workout, it didn't really feel like a hard workout -- I'd consider it moderate.

Today we ran down the hill then did 3:2 fast (for us, I'd guess 9+ min pace for the run portion) run:walk intervals. Huffing, puffing, sweating, heart rate up, not talking much, REALLY glad for the walk breaks....and trust me, we REALLY felt the hill going back up to our cars.

I've swam a little once this week and lifted upper body once. Weekend -- LSD run and biking some more hills.

Carlsbad Half -- Brief

Survived! AND with a PR!

Finished at 2:54:09, 13:17 pace. My 2003 Long Beach 1/2 marathon time was -- get this -- 3:03:57. Pacific Shoreline 2003 was 3:07:44. (I've done that twice but can't find the other results.) (We won't mention my time for the inaugural 2004 Chesebro Half.)

Almost a 10 minute PR! Okay, okay, I know it's still dismally slow. But hey, that's a lot of improvement in my mind.

Race report to follow.

Carlsbad half coming up...this Sunday

Ooh, boy, are we gonna suffer.

Have I done any really good long runs? Nope. Has Dave? Nope. Has Mel? Nope.

Oh, we'll all make it through. I've done halves with less prep. It's just how painful and long and slow the process is going to be.

That said, I have been getting in a few spin classes, gym workouts, and shorter runs in. Not as much as I should, but some. And markedly missing from that list is a) bike rides especially hills and b) swimming.

I'm planning on swimming tomorrow morning and Friday morning (my membership to the gym w/ the pool is for MWF&Sa), running tonight, tomorrow night and Thursday a.m., and biking Saturday. Lifting before swimming. And a spin class, if I can fit one in. (The night runs are sponsored by Nike -- fun, chances to win stuff, free food afterwards, free socks for trying on Nike shoes. This time 'round there are 2 in the South Bay -- one in Hermosa and one in Redondo -- very convenient.)

Friday afternoon we're driving down to Carlsbad. We're staying at a nice B&B with a totally sweet, awesome innkeeper. Saturday we're all planning on going for a nice bike ride as well as picking up our packets at the expo....and maybe, just maybe, moseying on down to San Diego to go to Extraordinary Desserts. (What's the use of doing a half if you can't indulge in the best desserts I've ever had???) Sunday is the half, then probably lunch at Karl Strauss brewery (yummy beers).

Thanks for everyone's comments regarding motivation -- I'm working on it! I have the fear of Wildflower and Alcatraz simmering in my heart -- those races are two HUGE motivators.