Me versus The Hill: Week 3

Tonight I ran the Horrible Hill route by myself! Running partner E. was busy last night, so of course I put off going for a run. I almost put it off again tonight, but finally, after I procrastinated a bit, I kicked myself out the door. That's a small triumph right there.

Then, I was tempted to run a different route and avoid The Hill. But no! I will conquer this route by the end of summer. And alas, the only way to conquer it is to actually run it. Another small triumph.

So off I went, peering warily at the ominous clouds. It looked like the sky was considering falling, but luckily, the rain mostly held off until the end of the run. And the sky did not actually fall, so that's good, too.

As far as how the run went, I discovered that it is more enjoyable not to be struggling to keep up with running partner E. At no point did I feel the need to keel over as I tried to catch my breath. However, the fact that I wasn't pushing myself as hard definitely showed up in my time.

• Last week: 45:36


• This week: 46:03

But, I definitely felt that I did better on the hills. I employed the strategy suggested by Ted of taking very small steps when running up hills. On the Horrible Hill, it actually felt like I was running up stairs. I think this definitely helped, as this week I made it at least 3/4 of the way to the top before stopping to walk. So thanks, Ted! And I ran most of the way up the hill at the end too!

Hills, I will conquer you!

Overall, definite improvements toward my goal of running the Horrible Hill route in its entirety. We'll see how next week goes when I'm once again trying to keep up with E.