No Stopping, No Dropping

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Our coach gave us a detailed rundown on how to do hill repeats that I thought worth repeating here. The goal is not to improve speed, but strength; therefore, going up hills, you focus on maintaining good form. Don’t sprint (not that we could anyway...those Balboa Park hills on Tuesday were ha-uge). Instead, hold it steady and once at the top, quicken the pace to gain a little more momentum, but, again, don’t sprint. If you run these both hard and fast, you’ll blow all your energy before the next repeat, and the one after that....

We ran in groups and in each, I ended up struggling to finish the first hill and leading the pack on the second. On the last of six loops, a woman half my age seemed to be waiting at the top of one hill while I, in second, gasped for air. Once I reached the summit, she sailed back down with me. As we started up the last hill together, and ahead of the others, she said she wouldn’t have been able to do this one without me. Did I mention I’m twice her age?

It was hot Tuesday (and Wednesday and today), but not nearly as hot as it was earlier this week for the 85 ultramarathoners running Badwater. I wrote a piece on Akos Konya and his crew, who despite being underdogs managed to come within 17 minutes of winning on Akos’s first attempt at the 135-mile race through Death Valley last year. This year he broke the course record – but still finished second to Brazilian newcomer Valmir Nunes. My story’s in the current issue of Marathon & Beyond. If you’re interested, e-mail me and I’ll send you a PDF of the article.

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