Hills

I went to the county park today to do some running. Let's just say that it wasn't my best performance. I live in a flat town. When I say flat, I mean flat. Flatter than you think Kansas is, flat. Which makes running in a straight line pretty pleasant, all things considered. So today, in the park, which is in the hills outside of town, it was less so. My first hill workout was not pretty at all. I started sucking wind from the get-go. Add to that a few more complications: the map provided by the county is so lame it doesn't even give distances; the weather was surprisingly warm and sticky; I've had a rough couple of days, professionally. Take that all together, and today's run was more of a run-walk.

On the plus side, I did get out for about 50 minutes of exercise that included constant motion and some uninterrupted stretches of actual running, mostly on the downhills. The downhills were kinda fun, even if I have doubts about my knees ability to like them as much as my brain. Running on dirt is nicer than pavement, and the scenery was considerably more enjoyable. I did at least get some elevation gain into my week.

As Coach Oullette (sp?) would say, first you have to get used to the distance. Then you can work on the other stuff. If that means walking part, then walk part.

And, it's still a 6+ mile week, which is more than I did last week. Onward and upward.