Hills today, back to Gateway. Bill, M & K wanted to do 10 hills, I wasn't too sure about that. Did our mile warmup and started the hills. After 8, I decided I was done and waited for them to finish. Then did our mile cooldown. Ended up totalling 4.25 miles. Funny thing, though, is that my 2 mile splits were exactly the same--9:32 average. With the warmup and cooldown, the charging of the hills, a bit of walking at the top of each hill, it's weird that it came out so even.

As mentioned last week, Bill decided Sunday would be a day of running drills. His original idea was just intervals, but I mentioned doing hill workout (remembering my Chicago St hill workout from several Sundays ago) would be a good combo to training. Today's our first one and we chose Gateway hill. I wanted to mix it up a bit, so I suggested we do the hill, then jog over to the stairs and do stairs. So we started with a 1 mile jog, then started going up the hill. Kristin and I started at our regular running pace, only to be passed quickly by Melissa and Bill teasing us---you're supposed to charge the hill to make it tougher, not just jog up it! So Kristin and I picked it up. Went up and down, jogged over to the stairs, up then down, then back to hill. Did that four times, then took a quick water break. Decided that although it was tough, I could do 2 more. After those two, I was done! Tired, and my knee was starting to bother me. Waited for the rest, then jogged a 1 mile cooldown. Overall it turned out to be 4.5 miles total.

Bill's leaving again today, so I planned to go for a run after he left. It's a fairly nice day, cool, but sunny. After dropping him off, I went over to the Panera 2 loop. We had just eaten so I read a magazine for a bit while sitting in the sun, then headed out to run. My Veronica's song came on and that got me going really good, probably too fast, for the first mile. Fun, though. Then unfortunately I was having digestive issues and really felt the need for a bathroom. Found a spot in the woods and used it...only #1, not #2 that felt like I need to do. Another true sign that I've become a runner---went in the woods!! Finished up the loop to get 2.25 and headed to McD's to use to the bathroom. It's so nice out and I still felt really good so I wanted to do something more. I headed to Lockwood park to try to run the hill, but the grass was really wet and only did a partial hill once and decided to head elsewhere. Thought about the steps behind the YMCA, but really didn't want to do steps. Then thought about the Chicago Street hill. Headed over there with the thought of doing at least 2 hills, up & down. After the first one, which was a little easier than I expected, I decided to try for 3 reps. After the 2nd, I figured I could do 5 reps. They did get harder and harder, but I found really pumping my arms strongly helped alot. I ran up the hill 5 times, and down all 5 times as well....striving to length my strides and just let myself go down the hill with only a little control and letting my legs just take me (as Anna recommended). That was a good little extra workout....need to do that more often, maybe once e/o week or so.

I've really noticed in recent weeks that I'm stronger on the hills and into the wind than I used to be. Although still not happy places to run, I'm getting better at dealing with hills and wind. I AM getting stronger in my running....feels good!!!!