Hill Training

So this weeks race is cross country. As I found out from the second and third races cross country is a mess affair. The first cross country that I ever raced in was at Wendover. Before hand I felt that the race would be like another training session. I mean I run five miles at least three times a week with out to much of a problem. People kept telling me that it would be a struggle, but I refused to listen and remember thinking to myself that this should be re-classified as more of a fun run. Boy was I wrong. The race started on a narrow muddy path, my thoughts where to get a good start so I kept to the sides and burned it along. As I was over taking people it occurred to me that I was using up a lot of energy trying to balance myself and run fast at the same time. Just about this time so first hill come, it was a slow incline hill. This really zapped the energy from my legs. Everything seemed to go wrong at the same time, my legs felt like jelly, my breathing was heavy and my ipod stopped working on the hill. As I fought my way up the hill, my running partner Adam shot past me, like I was standing still and shot of in to the distance. I was still running but just not at a very quick pace, the terrain soon leveled of and I regained my strait. It was not long before I had Adam back in my sights at this point we must have been up to about the first mile mark. Then the course started to go down a really long hill into a valley. Being the young foolish rookie which I am, I pushed myself down the hill at break neck speed whizzing past people. I had a quick look back and Adam was behind me. When I got to the bottom of this hill the path took a left and then went on a long bending L shaped bend. When I got to the end of this bend I could see about 800 meter straight and then a step hill going back up the valley. This didn't really faze me at this point, I just chucked a long, thinking to myself it doesn't look to huge and just to go up it at a sensible pace. As I was nearing the top of this hill, I started to over take people that had started to walk. I began to feel the burn in my legs. I had a quick look round for Adam and carried on going when I finally reached the top my heart rate was really high approach about 180. So I just kept running at a slow pace to re-cache my breath. Then the unthinkable happened the course took a sharp right and I was faced with another hill. It was at this point when I realized that this so called fun run was turning into a nightmare course. In my training and all the other race which I had done before there would obliviously be hills but when you get to the top there is some kind of rest bit for about another 300 to 400 meters to give you time to recover. I started to climb the hill at a crawl type pace, it seemed to be getting steeper by the meter. All the time my heart rate was getting faster and faster. I could hear my little black heart monitor watch start to beep. At the same time people starting to over take me and I remember thinking to myself that I would never underestimated multi-terrain ever again.

I did end up making it to the top of that hill and finishing with an average time of 40 minutes. So I was reasonably pleased with myself. What I learnt from that race was to never use up all your energy by speeding up a hill because when you get to the top there could be another. Just take your time your get there in the end. I mean I have never heard of the "Never Ending Hill". Just keep plugging away, with one foot in front of the other and your get there in the end.

So getting back to this weeks cross country. I haved decided to change my training schedule to have a lot more hill interval training. The local steepest hill is called greys road. I have been running up that and then jogging back down an adjacent hill. Running back round to the start and running back up it. This I feel is helping my body to get used to the stress that it is put through in cross country by do hill after hill. I want be able to tell you if it had helped until Sunday night, but I have noticed a slight increase in speed all ready when I am climbing the hill.

So that's about it for this week training wise, will post again tomorrow with my thoughts on fundraising and to see if I have made the Wokingham paper for last sundays race.