Fast forward to today. I ran switchbacks up a mountain. Literally. I lost count of how many of these I did. A lot.
A couple weeks ago I told coach about a climb that was available to me... I was actually envisioning biking up it so I told him about it as an option for climbing if he wanted me to do such a thing... I should have known though how his brain was going to interpret that... he is a mountain runner after all... So instead of thinking that I should ride up it he asked if I could run up it... um, well, um, I suppose I could?... I should have known that when I hired a mountain runner to coach me that eventually I would be running up mountains. Duh.
Truth be told I was nervous about this workout. It's been on my TP schedule for a few weeks now... Just staring at me. As I was driving to my starting point this morning I was calling on all the crazy workouts and races I have done in the last ~10 years... Ironmans and Double Roughwater swims and Century rides... and I ran up that mountain on Moloka'i last summer... I'm pretty sure that mountain run was harder than the one I was going to do today, and I'm 100x more fit now than I was then, so I didn't really question IF I could do it... I was more worried about how it would feel and how I would handle it. Because today I had not only a 5 mile climb to 1750 ft, but then a 5 mile descent as well. I am truly testing the power of Recovery e21.
Anyway, turns out, it was an awesome run. I had no problems running up or down it. I enjoyed the whole thing. I took a few pictures too... nice run, huh?
Another switchback... Don't worry, I didn't take a picture of all of them. Just two. They all pretty much look the same anyway.
View of West Oahu from near the top...
Turn around and you see Honolulu, Waikiki and Diamond Head off in the distance...
Running down I was rewarded with this view. The camera doesn't even start to give it justice.
Anyway, I feel completely fine right now. Keep trying to kill me, Coach. I've still got all 9 of my lives remaining. :)
14 comments:
Hilarious!!! Amazing to see how far you've come since January.
One of these dys one of us will get some medical testing done and someone will wonder if our samples are contaminated as we're showing up as 70% dunaliella salina.
That's not what MY hill runs look like. I'm soooo jealous. It's so pretty!!!
You are lucky you only had 2 months of crying at your HR paces. I did it for 2 years. Yes, it took me 2 years to get my HR to a happy place :-)
That climb is definitely worth the views!!! :) Great work!
Way to go! It's awesome to see the progress you've made in this relatively short period of time!!! It's encouraging to me as I'm starting over slightly this spring and am at the point where I need to walk to keep my HR down in to the prescribed ranges. Anyway, it's neat to see you doing well and thank you for the pictures! I think of you when I see the show Hawaii 5-0 come on tv. :)
My favorite run - I do it once a week! Helps that it starts from my driveway... It always makes me feel so grateful that I run and I get to do this! Nice job, runner.
Woohoo! That is so awesome! It sounds like you're in such a great state of fitness right now! Yay!
Wow, that's awesome.
I do not like living in the Midwest, there are no hills here apart from few dump hills....
intimidating-YES
fun-YES!!!
When do you get to do it again?! :)
tn
Thank you so much for commenting on your initial experiences with MAF. That is really motivating to me to that at some point I can actually run like a normal person at my MAF HR. Nice work on those hills and amazing views.
Wow, awesome views and nice run! Is your HR much lower than it was on stuff like this?
I was thinking the same thing "How fun would it be to ride up that" and views are awesome.
Congrats on the progress
Awesome hill! That one rocks the house, and what amazing views! Stick with the MAF my dear, it's where it's at and will make you strong like bull. You will laugh one day when you are running so fast that seeing MAF test on your schedule scares you because you know you will have to haul fanny!
;)
I always find it weird when I get nervous about a run, there is no one there to see or judge me, and yet, the butterflies. I don't know, it's just strange to me. That said, of course you could do it! And don it well. Nice view from the top, huh? (a metaphor for something maybe?)
I need to hit some hills tomorrow...enough of this flatland stuff.
This post makes me so sad that I do not live in Hawaii....
Post a Comment