Thursday, July 1, 2010

cadence, hills & hospitals

just when i was getting used to the circuit drills, today is an intro to cadence and conquering the hill.

let's start with cadence first. in order to be efficient, for a half or full marathon, i need to know my cadence. it could have been that it was 6am when coach was explaining, but i don't get it. i do know that i'm supposed to take 180 steps a minute. so after our warm up run, we get to count our steps. first time, i think i lost count 188... that's too high. second time 186.... am i taking too many steps? small stride? what's up with that?! coach said any extra is gravy... now too bad he was also timing the entire 1/2 mile and i wasn't paying attention on the run and pace, just the count.

1/2 mile
5.26 minutes
11 minute mile... at least for now :)

then the hill. so to conquer the hill is to not look up the hill, but to run through it. we started with the little hill... okay, i can do this. then we did the real hill. ACK! did i tell you that we're not supposed to look up the hill, just where we are running. it's kind of like telling you not to look down when you are on a tightrope. OOPS! i still have time to practice. it's running down the hill that seems harder. i'm supposed to land on my heels so the bigger muscles absorb the impact and i don't get too fatigued. i think i'm doing it wrong, but i'm sure this won't be the first hill we'll be running through.

i need to find a hill and time myself. just not today. it started at 4:45am and isn't going to end any time soon. just got off the phone with my dad. he is leaving for the hospital now. i need a quick shower then off to work early. i'm picking him up around lunvh and babysitting. back to work. then teach class at 7:30pm...

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