Bring On The Hills!

Distance:  2.69 miles
Time:  34:10
Location:  Yucca Loma to Cronese and back

Run #2 this week called for two separate miles with a quarter mile walk in between.  I decided to try a "new" route out since I've been doing the same two routes the past couple weeks.  The 5K I'll be running on Feb. 15 has a prominent hill as part of its course, so I knew that at some point I'd have to start hill training.  I decided what better time to start than now.  The Yucca Loma hill is actually an old run I've been doing since 2011, but I haven't run it in almost a year.  I knew it would be tough, but it ended up being even tougher than I anticipated.  I began my run a quarter mile up the street from my house.  From there it was a steady uphill east along Yucca Loma.  The hill starts very small, barely an incline, but about half way through it the steepness picks up and soon enough you find yourself crawling up a sharp, unrelenting ascent.  I barely made it, even thinking of stopping once.  Once at the top, when I reached Cronese Rd., I was able to turn around and walk for a quarter mile, which was a life saver.  Then the last mile was fairly easy as it was mainly downhill and I could just cruise it.  This run taught me that I still have a ways to go before I can consider myself ready for this 5K, which is in only 3 and a half weeks.  I will for sure be doing this route more now, since I see that hills right now are my weakness.  But other than the difficulty of getting up the hill, tonight's run was pretty good.  For one, it was my longest run so far this year, and I burned almost 350 calories on it, which is a good feeling.  The night was dark and cold, but when I started running I forgot the cold completely.  In fact, these past couple weeks, with daytime highs in the 70s and nighttime in the 40s, have been about as good as it gets for weather in January in the desert.  I couldn't ask for anything better.  I still have 3 weeks of training left, and more than likely I'll be dealing with some inclement weather at some point.  For now I'm enjoying this good luck.