Z-Hill Repeats

Hill repeats on the agenda today, and after XC practice I headed over to the cemetery to do a workout the team does sometimes: Z-Hill repeats.

It's named Z-hill repeats not because they are French (haw haw haw!) but because you actually run a Z-pattern to get up the hill. The two hairpin turns you have to take while going up give the added challenge of decelerating and then reaccelerating to get around them.

Did okay, but on the two-mile warm-up run my legs felt really heavy. The warm-up did help though, and I felt loosened up and a bit more peppy once done, but still far from raring to go.

The Z-hills themselves kicked my butt, needless to say. Each rep up was about .18 miles and around 35 feet of elevation gain according to the data, but I think that data might be off, as it's likely quite a bit more than that for gain. I did ten reps total, with one minute of active recovery in between (1/10 mile jog down the hill), with a longer three-minute break after the fifth rep. Averaged anywhere between 5:40-6:16/mile pace with each rep. That may sound a bit hap-hazard, but it really wasn't. Splits were actually pretty consistant (between 1:01-1:05).

Good workout.

w/u - Ran 2.0 miles @ 8:24/mile pace.
10 X Hill repeats w/ one minute active recovery (three minutes after fifth rep). 2.9 miles total.
c/d - Ran 2.0 miles @ 7:54/mile pace.