What constitutes a Hill?

Since the garmin and I are on a break, I have been playing around with a few things the past month (in hopes of keeping myself entertained and sane during these hot summer months). So one thing that I have been focusing on, due to its weakness in my previous training cycles and just training in general, is hills.

In living in the lower mainland of BC, one doesn't have to run far to encounter a 'hill' of some sort. But all hills are different so I suppose my main question, is what kind of elevation gain classifies a hill as being useful for hill training? I know that for me, with starting out, the hill can't be a mile plus of straight incline (yes, Whatcom 'Hill', I'm talking about you). The elevation gain is far too great and too long for  my legs to start out on, and with little to no breathing room to recover I find it mentally and physically overwhelming and defeating.

Thankfully, I have a hill by my house that for right now is a good first step in this hill training process. The roads are set up in such a way that it is a 1.15 mile loop (thanks Map My Run) with a .25 mile flat stretch, and an elevation change of 70 ft. I like this hill because it's short, a loop (which naturally, you don't look as crazy running a loop multiple times in comparison to up and down a hill... right?), and has a flat stretch that allows a small break and recovery stretch to stretch the legs out and find my rhythm again.

Now whether or not this is what a hill work out looks like I have no idea, but right now I do a small warm up and then hit up this hill. Last night I did the hill loop twice, cooled down and then stretched my legs out in hopes of preventing things from getting tight or sore... This morning my butt is definitely reminding me of the hills and lunges I did yesterday (yesterday morning I attempted to go for a run, didn't work so as punishment I made myself do lunges in the catwalk... ever notice how long catwalks are! That thing was never ending). So for the first time, in quite some time, my body is sore, in a good way. Its nice to wake up and be reminded of a previous days workout, it makes me feel like I'm improving again or working towards something, even if I'm not too sure what it is.

July Recap... or lack of anything to report?

Alright, so seeing as I haven't posted anything the entire month of July here is a brief recap of what I have been up to, or not up to...

After the Marathon I was pretty wiped out. In addition to this, work got quite a bit crazy with the office being re arranged and people being on holidays, that I was getting run down/overwhelmed at work and it was definitely following me home each day. I took a week off from running after the marathon, bought a new pair of runners, and went for a run along the Seawall in Vancouver one week after the marathon.

Brooks... anyone surprised? Didn't think so.

 My garmin and I are on a temporary break. (Yepp, this type A girl aint trackin anything!) I don't have any idea of the distance or pace of my running adventures these days, but thats a good thing. I feel like I need to enjoy running for a bit and incorporate some new things into my routine and work on my energy levels. Based on the foods that I eat and my activity level I shouldn't be as tired as I am so I've been experimenting with protein powders and I think I have found one that works (more importantly I can actually drink it almost without gagging! yay me).

I haven't been swimming or biking much this month, but I think part of that is just recovering from the Marathon. Additionally I took an unexpected trip to Calgary for a weekend and have just been enjoying time with friends. That being said, I often do end up doing active things with my friends... or perhaps its more we do active things at the same time at the same start up and end points? (sometimes your doing separate work outs but its the accountability of going together and seeing one another doing it that keeps us honest).

How is it that frozen fruit makes any drink look much cooler then it is?

With August right around the corner I have a few tentative goals floating around but nothing solidified. As it stands, I'm going to try to get swimming and cycling back into my routine in addition to running and we will see where that takes me. For now,

Rock'N'Roll Seattle

Hey All,

Here are a few pictures of the route from this weekend!

Seward Park

A beautiful day for a run, with a beautiful view

I-90 bridge

With cars on either Side we ran and were likely a bit of a distraction ;)

Coming up on the Home Stretch, with views of my 2 favorite places

Safeco Field

CenturyLink :)

Upside down of the Ferris wheel

What a fantastic day, a bit warm but better then torrential downpour like the Run for Water was.
I will do a full race recap later, but for now here are some pics for it and a forewarning, I hit the wall, crazy hard! and for some reason wasn't expecting to and was completely thrown off... yea...

Anyways! Happy Wednesday, Summer is official here but on the Wet West Coast you can't tell.