Up Till Now

I had a great workout at the gym on Monday with Kelly. She's really making me work my butt off, so to speak. But it's a good thing and I love the challenge.

I switched my Tuesday & Wednesday workouts. (So Tuesday became a rest day.)
Here's the scoop on Wednesday.

Time: 57:35
Distance: 4.6mi. 
Pace: 12:31 m/mi
Time of Day: 3:40 p.m.
Weather: 73°F. Sunny and warm, very warm.

This run was a challenge from Kelly. There is road near my home that's pretty hilly and I've never attempted it. It's one of those up & down, up & down, up & down roads. Kelly wanted me to challenge myself with one of my runs this week and we decided this road would be it.

The route in detail: The first .25 mile was getting out on the road to the stop light where I turned right. The next 1-1.5 miles was up and down all the way. I did pretty good here. Only 1 hill that I walked part way up. When the ups & downs ended I was "up". The next .5 mile is a slow descent to a flat part about 1.5 miles. Then I turn right again and head up a long slow hill to get back home. That is the part I had to speed walk.

So here's the good, the bad, and some observations about the run & the route.

Bad
I wasn't able to run the entire route. I managed about 3.5 miles before I had to slow down & walk.
And, that's it. That's the only bad item.

Good
I finished the run! Yes, I walked that last 1.1 miles, but I finished it speed walking.
My pace was good - 11:30 - running the hills. That could be a contributing factor to why I had to slow down on the back end, but it really didn't feel too fast while I was running.

Observations
Man, I should have taken water! I thought about it but decided against it. I should learn that if I think about it, I should probably do it. It was 73°, sunny and I was running hills. A definite recipe for a bottle of water.

The hills were not as challenging as I thought they would be.

I will definitely run these hills again, but I'll loop back rather than run down that long hill and hit the flat part. The flat part does not have a sidewalk or even a shoulder on the road. It was hazardous a couple of times when I was walking. I had to step off the road onto the grass. It was bumpy and not good on my ankle. I think a good solution is when I am at the peak to run through the park and just turn around and come back. That will avoid that stretch of road with really nowhere to run.

All in all I was really pleased with the run. Woo-hoo!