To the Hills…

I decided to get off my backside and go to the club hill session this evening as I’ve been dodging it a lot lately in favour of running with Ruby. Don’t worry, Ruby still got to go out, just not for a run. Duncan took her on a nice walk instead.

I ran down from home to the junction of Foxholes and Factory Hill where I met a couple of lads from the club and did a bit of a warm up with them. This was probably not the best idea I’ve ever had, seeing as their warm up pace was my race pace but, hey, in for a penny…

We then met up with Steve, hereinafter referred to as ‘coach’ and the rest of the group. Coach told us the plan for the evening – effort up Factory Hill to the cottages, a bit of a rest there, then effort all the way to Geroge’s Lane. Nice recovery along to and down Foxholes, then effort again up Chorley Old Road to George’s Lane. Along George’s Lane back down Foxholes. A figure of eight really. The ‘A’ group were to try to do three of these, the ‘B’ group two and the ‘C’ group – that’s me – one and half.

So off I set up Factory Hill. It started off well and I remember thinking that I was keeping up with Lindsey and Maria… for about two minutes, then they left me for dust.

I felt good as far as the cottages, which is where coach caught up with me (I had a bit of a head start on him). I then started to struggle a bit en route up to George’s Lane but coach waited for me at the top of Foxholes for our recovery run back down. Part way down, we passed Ed (the unready) on his way up.

On the way down, rather worryingly, I got the pain in my side that I’ve been getting a lot recently when running downhill. I have noticed that I only seem to get it when I run with my bum bag on so I’m not sure if it has anything to do with the restrictive nature of having something tight round my waist but it only happens when running down hill and it really takes my breath away. I usually have to stop when it happens and double over for a minute.

We then set off up Chorley Old Road where coach went ahead of me and said he would wait once he got to George’s Lane. I felt OK going up COR but I was only plodding at a steady pace really and didn’t feel I had much energy to go faster. I reached coach at the end of George’s Lane and we set off towards Foxholes. We passed Ed again on the way.

When we got near to the stables coach made me get a wiggle on and sprint to the lamppost before Foxholes. I was feeling pretty tired but managed to get a good effort in. It’s funny because if I had been on my own there’s no way I would have been able to sprint at that point but because coach told me to, I really pushed hard.

We then went back down Foxholes and when we got to the bottom, coach decided we should do another trip up Factory Hill all the way to George’s Lane and back down Foxholes. I was knackered by this point but, again, I was being pushed by coach so felt obliged to continue when really I wanted to wimp off home up dog poo alley. Half way to the cottages coach got me to sprint again all the way to the cottages. Surprisingly, I felt OK at this point but was happy for the rest when we reached the cottages. After a bit of a rest, we then did another sprint to the corner at Brinks Row. I felt a bit more tired at that point, but still not too bad. We then continued up to George’s Lane and I REALLY started to struggle, to the point where I was shuffling along rather than running (for those who don’t know, this is a very steep hill!). Coach then said we had to do one last sprint up to George’s Lane. There was no way I thought I could do that but, again, as coach was pushing and pushing, I tried really hard. It was painful and I felt like my calves were going to explode but I made it and then kept going along to the top of Foxholes. That was it, all the effort over. Just a nice jog back down Foxholes and it was time to go home. We bumped into Maria and ran down with her where, again, we passed Ed on his way up. He must have been doing his own hill repeats in the opposite direction.

From the bottom I then jogged home up dog poo alley and am now sat on the couch drinking a well deserved glass of wine.

That was one hell of a tough session but I’m really glad coach pushed me out of my comfort zone rather than just letting me plod out the hills. I found it really painful but know how much benefit it was.

Coach told me that once a week I should do a short session involving three 300-400 metre hills which I have to go up at speed. I’ll try to incorporate that into my training. Hope Ruby is up for it.

Total distance – 6.2 miles