Hills of Death

Ran 7.1 miles @ 7:37/mile pace.

Ah, my Hills of Death route. It starts and ends at my school where I teach, and I haven't run it since June because of summer break and cross country season (which is now over). The first 1.2 miles of the route are pretty flat, but then it begins an arduous climb for the next mile that gets progressively steeper as you approach the top of the hill. It's a real butt kicker. Then you have rolling hills for the next three miles followed by two miles of relative flatness to finish the route off. Very fun route to run.

Overall, the run felt great today. I felt very strong and no real problems. Just some lingering soreness in my soleous muscles from the marathon, but nothing bad. It feels good to allow myself to start creeping up the length of my runs again.

I'm following my usual post-marathon/ultra recovery plan, which is no more than 25% of my normal mileage for the first week after, no more than 50% for the second week (where I'm at now), 75% for the third, then back to normal. That's worked out well for me in the past, so that's once again the plan.

It's also time to start thinking about my training schedule for the Hyannis Marathon in February. Very roughly, it'll involve getting my mileage back up to 50-70 miles a week, including one to two 20+ mile long runs a month and weekly speed workouts and tempo runs on the alternating hard/easy principle. One thing I really like about my training is that most of my runs are on very hilly routes. I don't have much choice based on the geography of where I live and work, but that's fine with me. Running up hills is my favorite part of any run. It's just fun, pure and simple.

Happy running.