Thursday 6 August 2009

Long hill repeats at Clieves Hill


At last I have something positive to say about my running.

Barry's schedule called for 3 x 5 mins uphill, so I headed over to Clieves hill [ the scene of my calf muscle tear last month] and parked up at the top of the hill.
It was a beautiful summers evening as I jogged off on a lap of the cycle race course, I think this would make a great route for some of my tempo runs, the 3 mile country roads loop with a 3/4 mile hill would make for a very challengin
g session.
I ran 2 1/2 miles round to the start of the hill [ 7.05 pace] as a good warm up then pressed the lap button on the Garmin and sprinted off up the hill on my first effort. My legs felt a bit sluggish as I reached the steepest section, I concentrated on knee lift and ball of the foot running and I was soon reaching the top of the hill and the end of the road, glancing at the Garmin showed just 4 1/2 mins so I took a right turn and sprinted along the flat, reaching a farm building bang on 5 mins, checking my lap time showed I'd averaged 6.45 pace for the 150 ft climb.I turned around and jogged back down the hill, no sciatic or calf pains, so things were looking good.
Once I reached the bottom of the hill I did a U-turn and sprinted off again, this time I felt sharper and move aggressive as I blasted the hill, I reached the top of the hill and turned right, passed the farm house where I reached 5 mins on my first effort this time the watch said 4.50 so I sprinted on, pressing the lap button at 5 mins gave me 6.32 pace for the hill.
One more to go, sprinting away my legs started to feel like jelly as I hit the steep section, COME ON I THOUGHT, THIS IS THE FINAL ONE, GO FOR IT. I dug deep, very deep.
I passed my first finishing point, then the second with time to spare, I sprinted all out until I reached 5 mins then looked at the Garmin - WOW, 6.20 PACE.
That was good, dam I almost enjoyed that workout and my sciatic problem seems much better since carrying out regular trigger point massage.

Shoes; NIKE LUNAR TRAINERS
3 X 5 mins Clieves Hill, 1/ 6.45 pace 2/ 6.32 pace 3/ 6.20pace
Total time = 50 mins
Wed
Easy run over the big sand dunes with Tess = 1.35

3 comments:

Ewen said...

Good to see you on top of the injury Rick. 6:20 pace up a hill is good running. A better venue for it too - fewer hand grenades and stray bullets!

Grellan said...

Looks like you're back on form Rick. 5 minutes is a long hill rep. The marathon programme i'm looking at calls for more hill work than other programmes - Short sprints for strehgth/form and longer hills at the end of progression runs.

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Hi Grellan
I'm training for some up and coming hill races, so thats why Barry's got me doing a lot of hill work right now, Good luck with the marathon build up.