The Climb

I confess, at times in my running career I have gone to great lengths to avoid hilly runs. I have extended runs to avoid a hill, I have plotted paths that were mostly flat... I let the hills get in my head. They are hard, they slow me down, the chew up my legs.

However, this running season I have a new mantra. I love the hills. I love them. They will make me strong. They will give me a nice tight tush. And more importantly, they are part of the ground I have to cover to get there. Instead of fighting the hills I will embrace them, celebrate them, look forward to them.

This morning was our first hill workout of the Dam to Dam training season. The group was making some fun of my new cheery attitude about the hill repeats. We ran a little over 20 minutes to a small-ish hill near an elementary school and then tackled it 6 times alternating walking and jogging on the downhill slide. We were racing up those hills - at one point I looked down at my Garmin and saw we were running at a 7:15/mile pace.

The cool down was rough - it felt like a lot more than a mile back to my car. I didn't feel exhilarated like I did after Monday's brutal fartket workout, but I felt good, strong. I am amazed at the power of a new mindset though. My hill mantra started a bit in jest, to try to chase away the negative self talk that can plague me and replace it with something that sort of made me laugh. I didn't dread this workout one bit - I was a goofy cheerleader to our early morning group, I am running stronger and a little faster. I am leaving my "I can'ts" behind me.