July 19, 2011Rachel
Today's Mileage: 4.75 miles
I've been training for my race for several weeks now and am finally feeling the need to mix things up a bit. I know that variation, including hills, sprints, strength training and other cross-training efforts, are really valuable when training for a half-marathon or marathon. But I'm also a creature of habit and have been pretty stuck in my short-medium-long run routine (one of each per week). This article inspired me to step outside of my box and start mixing things up a bit.
This morning I did a hill workout in my neighborhood. I found a mild to moderately steep hill about 0.10 to 0.15 miles long. I'd sprint at my hardest pace to the top of the hill and then jog fairly slowly the remainder of the half mile loop back to the bottom of the hill. I did the loop 6 times, and with my warm-up and cool-down jog to and from the hill, managed to get my nearly 5 mile run in for the day.
It was definitely a different type of workout than just plodding along at the same pace, mile after mile. I felt strong going up the hill (at least for the first part of it), and exhausted at the top and while recovering. I didn't like this running workout as much as a normal run, and I get a lot of interval training in at the gym two days a week. But it was a nice change and I believe that it will help my strength and endurance to continue to incorporate hill and sprint workouts into my training from here on out.
