Week 5: Thursday - progressive hill repeats
Ow. Something ain’t right.
So far in the plan, I think the only consecutive days I’m generally running on are Friday and Saturday, with Saturday always being an easy run incorporating Parkrun. Thing is, this Friday I’ll be at the airport so I needed to move that day’s run forward to Thursday, back to back with yesterday’s long run. And, uh, it’s hills. Oh good.
Progressive Hill repeats
In the summary of the week, Coach Steph says:
Getting used to the hills is important ahead of your race … In addition to mentally preparing yourself for race day, hill training has lots of physical benefits.
And for this workout specifically, Coach Ben says:
This one will challenge you physically as well as mentally but you can do it!
Here’s what they wanted me to do:
- 1.2km conversational pace (which is now no faster than 5:45/km), plus whatever else required to reach the base of a hill
- Repeat 6 times:
- 45s running hard uphill
- 20s walking rest
- easy jog back to base of hill
- Repeat 4 times:
- 90s running hard uphill
- 30s walking rest
- easy job back to base of hill
- 1.2km cool down
Warmup
1.6km in total, slower than 6:00/km. There was a chance it would be longer, as I didn’t know until I reached my chosen hill whether it would be runnable or too muddy. It looked OK.
6x 45s hard / 20s rest / easy jog
These felt fine. Same hill as the 60s repeats in the first full week, and I’m a bit fitter so almost got as far up. Also wasn’t hindered by any hounds, in fact I didn’t see a single person or animal anywhere in the fields.
Paces were … interesting.
| Distance | Pace | Grade adjusted pace |
|---|---|---|
| 0.14 km | 5:05/km | 3:53/km |
| 0.14 km | 5:03/km | 4:10/km |
| 0.14 km | 5:07/km | 4:08/km |
| 0.14 km | 5:22/km | 4:15/km |
| 0.14 km | 5:11/km | 4:14/km |
| 0.14 km | 5:13/km | 4:18/km |
I think I should be ecstatic with those, perhaps tinged a little bit with regret for maybe going out too fast in the first 3? After all, another thing Coach ben had said was:
My top tip is to pace yourself at the start so you can hit those longer reps feeling strong.
How strong was I for the longer reps, then…
4x 90s hard / 30s rest / easy jog
Oh dear fucking lord. Why did I choose this hill? The soil is sandy and soft, and the hill gets steeper and steeper until it’s like 14% or something toward the end. I really thought I wouldn’t reach the top, but I did, and I hated it. So much so that after the second rep I had to properly, loudly sergeant major myself into carrying on.
Look. There’s only 2 left. Runna says if you do these things, you could get a PB at every distance you care about. Do you want that? Then fucking run up that hill, it’s only twice more. COME ON.
Having successfuly made myself feel terrible and small about even considering giving up, I ran up the fucking hill another twice. Bit of a longer gap between them, not because I was gassed but because finally someone else showed up, and a spaniel was interested in sniffing my hand and slobbering over my left shin. Nice.
Paces were, … well … I mean the averages don’t necessarily tell the story because it really is properly steep at the end, but anyway these were the 4 reps:
| Distance | Pace | Grade adjusted pace |
|---|---|---|
| 0.24 km | 6:15/km | 4:22/km |
| 0.23 km | 6:23/km | 4:17/km |
| 0.23 km | 6:30/km | 4:31/km |
| 0.22 km | 6:44/km | 4:34/km |
Yeah, I’ll take that. Would legit have put rate of percived exertion at 10/10 at the end, if I believe that RPE was a meaningful thing for me (but I don’t, I can only really gauge 3 states: comfy, strong, and THIS NEEDS TO STOP).
Cool down
5:50/km for the 1.2km to the shop, where I bought a blue Lucozade Sport because blue drinks are the healthiest and most additive free. Felt wrecked.
Aftermath
This run put me over 1000km for 2024! Yay! And yesterday’s had put me over 100km for the month. Those are nice milestones. Albeit they now feel a little fake because so many of October’s runs have had non-running bits, but whatever, I’m taking the wins.
Managed to go for a walk through Farncombe and around the lake, which had more fishermen and fences than usual, and the loudest fowl were the ducks rather than the geese. Wished I didn’t have to walk up another fucking hill to get home.