First Hill Sprints

Today's workout on the new training plan was a 45 min easy run and then 4 X 100m hill sprints.  There is a hill right near my house - I measured it out on RunningAhead's mapping tools and it was longer than 100m, so I ran part of the hill (after my run I re-measured the part that I sprinted and it ends up it was closer to 120m).

I had never done Hill Sprints before.  My thinking was - "what's another 100m after a 4 mile run - right?".  Well, sort of.  First of all, it is really tiring to run fast uphill.  I felt very winded after each sprint, but by the time I walked back down the hill I was ready for another.  The feeling I had while sprinting up the hill was "I'm doing this so I can finish strong in a race that ends uphill" - although I'm sure there will be other benefits as well.

I'm definitely feeling the effects of the workout more NOW - a few hours after the run.  My legs are more sore now than usual (a good sore - not an injured sore that I endured for 8 post-marathon weeks).  Next week when I conquer the hill it will be 6 x 100m.  In two more weeks it will be 8 times (with walking back down the hill, that's a full extra mile!).

Tomorrow is a short, easy run (probably my 3-mile lake run) and then short strides 4 x 50m.  I'll have to find a flat 50m piece of sidewalk to do those on - or I'll head to the track.