Oh yeah, I'm *that* excited!
Wednesday night I had downhill repeats. It was close to 10pm by the time we made it out,I had to wait that long for the temperature to drop below 100 degrees. Charles and Dash came along for the fun.
I had been scouting out crazy hills in the area and hit upon this gem,a lovely half mile hill with about 160 ft drop. For Hood to Coast my first leg has a 2000 ft elevation loss over 5.64 miles. (Tired of hearing about it yet?) So while this hill isn't obviously as long, it was still a pretty good spot to practice form.
I'll admit,I kind of thought finding my form would be easy.
One trip slooooowly uphill
3:44-tried to be 'in control' on this one. Short steps,long,I cant figure out what to do. Didn't feel great
Slooowly back uphill. Totally not timing these,it would be slow anyway,but add in a stroller and a 35lb toddler and it was a little ugly.
3:49-this one I lengthened my stride,but felt like I was putting on the breaks the whole way down. Slight weird pop in knee. No bueno.
Up Hill is fuuuuun
3:32-better,not great.I could hear my feet slapping. At this point I'm feeling it in my quads a bit.
Up up we go.
3:29-knowing this was my last round I decided to do something new. I tried to imagine myself running 'like Dash'. I mentally relaxed and just let myself have fun. I leaned forward a bit, and let my feet fly. This one felt the best, the most natural. It was also the fastest, but I didn't feel out of control.
Cool down to total 5 miles.
So, Coach Adam wanted each of those ran around 4:00. I was a little fast, but since this was the first time running through this workout, it gives us an idea of where I'm at.
The thing I'm so excited about? NO IT band pain after this run. That's been may main fear about Hood to Coast. I had no idea how my irritable IT bands would react to crazy downhills. This gave me confidence that heeeeey I can do this! :) So yeah, leg 1 is longer and a bit more steep and odds are I won't run it at a 7min/mile, but I can DO it without pain. (Knocks on wood)
(my Garmin still thinks it lives in Fl.Hello east coast time)
My Hill:
Hood to Coast leg 1:
So,its a Fan-freaking-tastic Friday because my IT bands still love me. In other exciting news,we have a start-time. Hood to Coast releases in waves throughout the day based on a projected finish time. They come up with that number by 10k times each team mate submits along with taking the course and terrain for each leg into consideration. I don't know what the formula is,but it spit out a time for us.
On August 26 at 12:30pm I will be toeing that start line and proudly starting team Nuun Platuun on its way to the coast.
What's making YOUR Friday Fan-freaking-tastic?