Oh yeah, now that is a workout!!

I just returned home from a double header. Not baseball, silly. One hour in the House of Pain and then 4 mile run with 4x.25 mile hill repeats.


Let's start with the House of Pain. Working on negative pull-ups right now, five of them. However, I think I will do a full pull-up by myself before the end of the month. It feels close. Christina devised a wickedly fun workout today. A circuit of one minute at each station done five times. Here are the stations: Jump-ups onto steps (about knee height), push-ups, back rows with 15lbs weights, and then eight count body builders. It was a definite cardio workout. At the end I could not will my legs to do the body builders. Pure leg fatigue. It was lovely. Thank goodness my friend Diana let's me partake in these HofP sessions. This week I will be adding a second day at the HofP with my friend Jami. Oh the fun we will have.

After the HofP, Christina said she would tag along with me on a hill repeat run. Sounds good, I love company on hill repeats. We jogged out from her house to the nearest hill a mile and a half away, good warm up. Man it sure did feel like I was working hard. Just as I was thinking that I said, 'jeez, sorry I'm slowing you down so much, but I am having a hard time pushing the pace today'. To which she said, "Uh, do you always warm up at a 7 min pace?" "Uh, no not even close." Hey, maybe I should forget my watch more often? Oh, and running with someone faster than me helps a lot. I feel obligated to push the pace, so they don't have too slow down too much, well that's not entirely true. I love to run with faster people, so I can push myself more. I know the pain I work through today will pay off in the race down the road.

Now back to the hill repeats. I love doing hill repeats, you get to rest at the end of them. You push yourself hard and then get a short rest period. What's not to love. Maybe that's why I like the 5K. You push yourself hard for 3.1 miles. Then you hurl yourself on the ground in bliss, knowing you pushed yourself hard the whole way. We did four .25 mile hill repeats. I was satisfied with my effort when my last one was faster than my first one. That was thanks to Christina, pushing me. Nothing like someone giving you a 20-25 second head start and you are not allowed to let her pass you. I pushed that last one so hard, I saw a few fairies. Good times.

What's that? Am I still on that 'runner's high'? Oh, yeah! Add to the fact that I've lost five pounds. I only have five more pounds to get down to 135 lbs. My goal weight. I know that those hill repeats will help me shed some of that. So get out there, find a good hill and run...HARD!