Take that, evil hill!

I was feeling great after another kick-my-butt yoga class last night (thanks Caroline!) so I got up early for another run this morning. I figured since the Queens Half Marathon is about a month away, I should at least attempt hill repeats. My neighborhood is basically one hill after another, but there’s one in particular that I will go to great lengths to avoid. It’s long and steep and EVIL. So naturally this was the hill I decided to run.

I got up before my alarm (it’s my weird 6th sense) and headed out for my run. I did a quick warm up, then stood at the bottom of the hill, sizing it up. It didn’t look as bad as I thought. So I took off HARD up the hill. In my head, I was going pretty fast, but in reality, I was barely moving. I was trying to remember all my hill training techniques- keep my head up, don’t lean forward from the waist, take small, quicker steps- and I was trying to imagine Coach Ramon yelling these things at me, as he’s been known to do. But about half way up the hill, I just wanted to pass out. I couldn’t think of anything, except stopping. I told myself I would do at least 20 minutes on this stupid hill, so I recovered down the hill and went back for more.

Every time I headed back up that hill, I tried to imagine Ramon yelling at me. I’m not usually that motivated to attempt unpleasant workouts on my own, so this helped. I asked myself “What would Ramon say?” He would tell me to keep my head up and RUN HARDER. I have this little mantra I repeat on hills. I just say “baby steps” over and over. It helps me keep my stride short and quick. There were people sitting on a stoop and they must have thought I was totally crazy talking to myself and running up and down this hill, but I don’t think I cared. I did the hill for about 30 minutes and went for a quick cool down run. You know what? I felt great. I felt like I wanted to keep running. The morning was beautiful and cool and my legs felt light and loose. If I wasn’t already running late for work, I probably would have kept going.

I don’t know why, but whenever I have a butt-kicking, gonna pass out workout, I always feel AMAZING after. I think I’ll be subjecting myself to this hill more often.