Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Uphill Battle

Yesterday's run was awesome!

If you follow me on Facebook you may not have got that impression. I may have done a little whining there.


And I'll still say that the whining was justified because the session was hard. Actually, brutal wouldn't be too strong a word for it. Paddington and Red Hill have four of the top six steepest streets in Brisbane. Coach Chris has a sadistic streak in him so combine the two and you get the hill session from hell.


I know hills will make me stronger and fitter. Doing a hills session is like doing a leg weights session only you don't have to be in a gym and you don't have to sit in someone else's sweat when they forget to clean up after themselves. Doing a hills session in a group means that pride will make you work harder than you would on your own. But I don't have to like them. 

And as a hill runner, it wouldn't be wrong to say that I suck! Big time!! My leg strength is pitiful. I start to run uphill and I get slower and slower until I could be passed by a ninety year old who's using a cane because of a recent hip replacement. I run so slowly that I could be going backwards.


I might start of at the front of the pack but one by one they run past. Leaving me plodding on my lonesome towards the top. Legs burning. Lungs burning. Wondering why I got out of bed so early to torture myself like this.


Yep, it sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it?! No really, it was. Obviously not because of the running and the pain part. But because of a little blonde cherub who'd woken up too early and had been taken for a little walk outside by Daddy (presumably so Mummy could get a bit of a sleep in).

This little blonde cherub was so excited to have a whole group of runners running up and down his street. He became our cheer squad for that hill and, honestly, it made the hill that little bit easier to run (apart from the last five metres which were still a b!#ch). He made us all feel like champions every time we got to the top.

I was sorry when we had to move on and leave him behind. But I wasn't sorry to finish the session. And I was sorry any time I had to walk up and down stairs for the rest of the day. Or really any time I had to move at all. If I could have laid on the floor for the rest of the day I would have been happy - as long as someone threw me a few handfuls of food cause running up hills will give you a pretty ferocious appetite.



11 comments:

  1. Coach Chris sounds positively evil!! I feed one of mydogs while he is still in his kennel by putting his food at the door of it so he doesn't have to get out!!

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  2. Oh - so awesome that you had a tiny cheerleader for your grueling hill workout!!! One day you are going to end up telling us how much you really do love hills!!!

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  3. OK here is something to think about: I like to run slowly, so I do hills, that way I can run slowly...

    There is a race I'm running in just over a week, it's 16km... 5km up, 6km around the dams, and then 5km down, I will take 26min for the first 5km and 16:30 for the last 5km!!!

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  4. Oh I wanted to say I like the first 5km better...

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  5. hills session makes you stronger. I did it two weeks ago because I am going to run a 12 km race in the hills on Sunday 8th.

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  6. The last time I did hill sessions I was lame for days! They can be brutal.

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  7. You are tough and strong and hardcore and all those things. I don't do any hill sessions. I just run on very hilly routes. So you can be very proud of yourself for sticking out those sessions.

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  8. Maybe you can pay the cherub to come out whenever you're nearby?

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  9. Agree hills suck but they're a necessary evil. I love that you had a cheerleader!

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  10. Well, I'm a gym girl, maybe because I can suffer my indiginities relatively in private. Also because my awesome instructor there pushes me beyond anything I would do myself. I'd just give up and go home and have a nice cup of tea. So I admire everything you do. (And I love the video of the hungry doggie)

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  11. The hills have to be part of our running routine. They are necessary. Glad you did it!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment. I love hearing from you.