Tranquil Hills

Time: 79:48
Distance: 10.68 miles

W/u: 23:30 for 3.11 miles
W/o: 12 x 1 min hill with jog recovery back to start
C/d: 21:53 for 2.67 miles

The workout on the schedule called for some hill repeats which is something I haven't done is quite some time. The last hill specific workout was back at the beginning of May. I remember gaining a lot of confidence and fitness as a result of that session and hopefully that would be the same for today.

During the long run on Sunday, Nick mentioned wanting to do hills when the time was right. I told him that I had hills planned for Tuesday, but he said that he was sticking to his plan. I guess he re-looked at his training plan and texted me that he was down with some hills. He committed to doing 8 x 30 seconds. Meagan changed her workout from 16 x 1 min hard to 12 x 1 min hill which brought my wolf pack to three.

"I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But then I found Meagan and I knew she was one of my own. And my wolf pack, it grew by one. So there were two of us in the wolf pack. I was alone first in the pack, and then Meagan joined in later. And a few weeks ago, when I was introduced to Nick Frank, I thought, 'wait a second, could it be?' And now I know for sure. I just added another guy to my wolf pack. Three of us wolves, running around Myers Park together, in Charlotte, looking for fitness and scalps to take."

Our pack decided to run Tranquil which happens to be a hill that Scott Dvorak told me he used to train on. The hill starts gradual, gets steep and then levels off as it nears Selwyn. It allows you to simulate "running over the top" and not settling at the crest of the hill. My first 6 intervals were supposed to be medium and the next 6 were categorized as hard. Nick ran the first 30 seconds of the first six intervals and then did the last 30 seconds of number 7 and 8.

Splits:
62.05 for .19 miles at 5:18 pace (1:48 rest)
62.31 for .20 at 5:16 (1:50)
61.76 for .20 at 5:10 (1:56)
61.95 for .20 at 5:11 (2:09) *bit of a timing error here due to sweat
47.63 for .15 at 5:11 (2:09)
61.50 for .20 at 5:10 (1:56)
61.71 for .21 at 5:00 (2:00)
62.60 for .20 at 5:11 (2:14)
62.18 for .19 at 5:21 (2:00)
61.85 for .20 at 5:05 (2:11)
60.95 for .19 at 5:17 (2:00)
61.34 for .21 at 4:59. 34:25 total and 4.84 miles

It was huge having someone to keep the pace honest for the first 8 intervals. I got off the line better and maintained my form as a result. Now that I'm analyzing the splits, I like that the rest didn't get too out of control as it stayed pretty consistent at 2 minutes. I had a bad interval in number 11 and just felt terrible. It wasn't a loss of focus, I just didn't feel fast during the middle section of the hill. I wasn't able to pick up the pace halfway through because the first few hills were run so hard. I was glad to just maintain throughout.

It was good seeing Meagan struggle after killing most of her recent workouts. She was clearly exhausted and the conclusion of the workout. Nick had to peace out a bit early so the two of us jogged a longer cool down back toward Freedom Park. Once we were home it was time to jump in the pool for some aqua jogging, stretching and core work. I was inspired by the work put in by Team Cook.