First session of hill work since my return to running. Did the usual up and down Stockport Road route and the uphill bits were murder as usual, but felt good and not overloaded – didn’t attack to much with it being first session will aim to build up slowly. Only a minute slower than the 6k yesterday and with half of it uphill!
Splits:
5:21
5:38
5:54
5:29
6:02
5:29
Average pace 5:39/k
Seeing as my next 10k is described as “undulating” I thought I’d better put in some hill work.
Weather cold to start off with, but sun came out about half way – went off quite slowly, 2nd k downhill was quick, then the hard hill reps began! Felt I went quicker up the hill than last time I did this routine, of course it hurt going up the hill but I held it together and even went for a fourth lap, but ended up only going half way down and back up the hill again (less severe incline at the top) as I could tell I was getting pretty tired – still managed to put on a little burst at the end until slowly jogging down to the 10k mark.
First time I’ve tried to do some hill work – having experienced hills both at the beginning and end of races, I’ve learned that I much prefer them near the end – but thought it would be a good idea to prepare for any hill races might throw at me, while at the same time building up speed and endurance.
I started off with a 1k jog on the flat and down Stockport Road, then ran back up – up and down about a k each, so did 3 reps of this plus another k cool down. No idea how steep the hill is, but it starts off very steep and then gently rises over the course of 1k – takes it out of the legs the first half!
Really felt it doing me good, and running 8k with 3 of them pushing uphill was a good workout 
