To Hill and Back

Today is another outstanding winter day here in Hog Heaven:  Temps in the mid- to upper 30s with sunny skies (this morning anyway) and light winds.  The snow predicted by the Weather Service is supposed to begin toward evening and likely will not amount to much.

I celebrated the nice running weather by doing a hill workout: 6 x .5 mile hill with 92' elevation gain and c. 3% grade run at a 5K effort.  I managed a decent and consistent effort--the final two repeats being only slightly slower than the first two.  With warm-up, cool-down, and jogging back down the hill between repeats, I totaled about 8 miles.  Tomorrow will be cross-training--an easy 3/4 mile walk--and Sunday brings a 6-mile run with one of those miles run at 90% effort. 

I should apologize to WWII hero and 1950s Hollywood star Audie Murphy for the title of today's blog.  Murphy, who earned the Medal of Honor as well as a chestful of other decorations, entitled his autobiography To Hell and Back.  The movie adaptation, starring Murphy as himself, used the same title.  As a Vietnam vet and the father of a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, I understand the difference between running hills and combat, and I mean no disrespect.  I just liked the play on words. 

That said: Done right, hill workouts are not easy, and you'll likely feel like hell before you're through.  I do six repeats of a hill that's almost exactly .5 miles from bottom to crest and has an elevation gain of 92'.  My math isn't the greatest in the world, but I believe that works out to about a 3% grade.  I try to run them at a 5K pace. 

On the best of days, I'm ambivalent about hill workouts.  On one hand, I don't look forward to them, and I most certainly don't enjoy them.  On the other hand, I know that I'll feel virtuous once I'm done.  I also know that hill repeats will make me a stronger runner.  And, I'm a closet Calvinist.

Having done hill repeats during training and incorporated several hills into my usual training routes, I find that I don't obsess over hilly race routes.  I'd prefer flat, of course, but I'm confident that I can handle the hills.  That's worth the discomfort of the occasional hill workout.

The Colorado Marathon, which will be my first race of the year (May 6), promises a gradual descent along the entire route and an elevation loss of 1100' or so--albeit at a beginning elevation of 6100'.   Coming from Iowa, I'm interested in how that will impact my time.  I'd like to think that it will help.  My son warns that what the elevation decline gives, the elevation itself will take away.  The race directors seem to be of a similar opinion.  We'll see.

Later in the season, I'm considering "running" the Pikes Peak Ascent.  The elevation is all gain--some 8000' over 13 miles, and some at 13,000' and 14,000'.   The challenge for me is preparing for something like that while at 500' in Iowa where climbs over 100' are rare.  People from places that don't have mountains run (and finish) Pikes Peak every year.  Of course, the perennial winner lives in Colorado Springs at the foot of the mountain.  Go figure.