After work on Wednesday, I decided to get my 6 mile hill run in. I had my women’s group with church friends at 7, which is only about 15 minutes from my work, and there are lots of hills around my office, so it worked out well. I always feel slightly weird leaving work wearing running clothes, but I actually get the weirdest looks in the bathroom. I change in the big stall because I’m too lazy to walk over to the locker room. Apparently, changing in the bathroom isn’t normal?
Anyway, I grabbed my Poor Man’s GPS (piece of paper with mile splits), tucked it into the waistband of my capris, and headed out. The whole day, my stomach had been hurting and it hadn’t completely disappeared as I started on the initial downhill of my run. But I’m stubborn and refused to quit.
I’ve ran the first 2 miles of this course before and biked the rest (after the killer hill on Simms) but no matter how you get to the top, this hill is a doozy.
On paper, this run doesn’t seem all that much more difficult than my hilly 8 mile and 9 mile long runs. But in practice, it. kicked. my. butt.
The first couple of miles, I felt great. Legs felt light and fast. Lungs felt strong. My stomach was still hurting, so I ate my Chocolate Cherry Clif Shot at Mile 3 to see if that would help. At the very least, it didn’t make things worse. And it tasted exactly like Dark Chocolate covered Pomegranate:
Mmmm… chocolate.
Running up the hills of Miles 2 and 3, I was still feeling pretty good – even smug about how all my hill training has made running hills so much easier (go figure).
Then I saw The Hill. 250 feet of elevation gain in 1 mile. I wasn’t feeling so smug then.
But I ran the entire thing. Even when I could barely breathe. Even when I thought I was going to puke going downhill. Even when I was tempted to call it quits at Mile 5 because my stomach hurt.
I got back to my car exhausted.
Splits:
1 – 9:58
2 – 10:46
3 – 11:23
4 – 11:40
5 – 11:54
6 – 11:43
.09 – 1:13
6.09 miles in 1:08:40, average pace of 11:16/mile.
I discovered later that my legs were ridiculously sore.
Pilates and a 3 mile run yesterday morning didn’t help. If you’re looking for a good hip flexor strengthener (or destroyer), Pilates leg circles are where it’s at.
Today, the following body parts are sore:
- Back
- Neck
- Abs
- Hip flexors
- Hamstrings
- Quads/IT bands
- Calves
I am a hurtin’ unit. I’m running 12 miles tomorrow morning with Heidi so I’m going to make sure I do some foam rolling and stretching after church tonight.
What do you do when you’re ridiculously sore from a workout? Any magic tricks I can do before tomorrow?
Life, Really Blog 