Hellish Hills!

I was going to get the train up to Ribblehead this morning and have a nice steady jaunt up Whernside to watch the runners in the 3 peaks Race and also get my long run in for the week. Unfortunatley I slept in and missed the train and couldn't get up there. I therefore abandoned that plan and went for something much more challenging; the hill rep session.

After having the longer reps last week, it was time for the shorter rep session as I alternate these each week. I say longer, as last week's were scheduled to be 10 minutes but actually lasted more like 7 minutes and the ones today were going to be 5 minutes long. I decided on 5 rather than 6 which I guess was taking the easy way out, but after struggling last week, I thought it would be sensible to just build things up before going for the full whack.

After a 1.5 mile cycle to Flasby and a short jog warm up to the starting point of the reps (see right), I was off. My legs felt stiff on the first ascent, which as you can see is terribly steep and hits you straight away. As the gradient became more maneagble however, I opened up and began to feel strong, maintaining a pace which wasn't uncomfortable but had me working hard ie. Threshold. The 5 minutes passed quickly and before long I was descending back down the same way, resting for a minute and then climbing again. The legs tired as the session wore on, but this was to be expected and I still maintained a very good form on the 5th and final effort. I had a jog warm down back to my bike and then cycled home to give me a total of 8 miles for the day. I'm delighted with both the mileage and the climbing I've managed today. Each rep, according to memory map, had 350 ft of ascent in which is very pleasing and gives me over 1500 ft altogether. The profile above shows what the hill was like. Long run tomorrow - the easiest and nicest session of the week!