Challenge Week #2

Back in August -- back when 5 miles was my long run for the week but it was really freaking hot -- I instituted a policy that during challenging weeks, I would acknowledge them as such and take the challenges in stride.  Sure, things might not go as planned.  But it was important to have faith that things would turn out okay.  With that concept in mind, I am hereby declaring this week Challenge Week #2 since three out of this week's four runs have not been fun.  Unlike Challenge Week #1, which was primarily about scheduling runs around meetings, this time around, the challenges are being posed in different ways:

1. The weather.  Tuesday and Thursday were too hot and humid and ick.  Luckily, here we are on Saturday and the weather has cooled to a reasonable degree.  It still got up to 85F today.  But the humidity was much lower (~50%) and the dew point manageable (around 60F) when I went for my run around 6pm.  Side note: As I ran, I was thinking to myself that probably if I ever move from Florida and have to go running in such conditions, I will probably post something as my Facebook status that says, 'How did I ever do this on a regular basis?!??!!!!?!?'
2. My stomach.  Today my stomach was not happy running.  Not one bit.  For about the first mile or so, my stomach hurt on the right side.  Then there was around half a mile that was fine, after which the pain moved to my left side.  Another break, then there was a kind of dull pain that was lower and across my stomach.  By this point, I was around three-quarters of the way through.  Today's run was also 5 miles with three aerobic intervals, so that was just awesome all around.  It did help me keep them at a reasonable pace, though.

I came super close to quitting today, or only running half and adding the remaining miles tomorrow, or adding the sprints tomorrow, or something.  Unfortunately, I couldn't go this morning because I was volunteering for something and had to be there early.  I think that the real problem with my stomach was that I ate too soon before running, but generally this is not a huge problem (and I did leave an hour and a half in between).  Oh well.  It's done now.

One thing that pushed me through was remembering what was probably my absolute worst race to date.  I had food poisoning and still ran (it was a 5k).  Adding insult to injury was the fact that I lived in Worcester, MA -- city of seven hills -- and had to walk over a very big hill (some might say killah) to get to the run.  Which was dumb.  Because you don't want to have to walk over a very big hill to get to a run.  Naturally, I also had to walk back afterward, at which point it started raining.  Once I got home, I went straight to bed, having given up on that day completely.  But what I do remember is somehow finding my way through that run and the fact that I didn't die trying.  One of my exercise rules is that while you might think you are going to die at times, you probably won't.  It's nice to know that however miserable that day (and it was miserable), I can still take something from the experience.

Temple Terrace: it's no Worcester

Today's run was 4 miles with 4 minutes uphill.  When I first saw that, I automatically assumed that those four minutes would be on the treadmill since this region of Florida is pretty bereft of hills.  All of the other places that I've lived since starting my running career have had a decent hill profile.  Boston has some killah hills, and others that are the slow and painful gradual types.  These are the ones that you don't even notice until you decide to run them, then you wonder why your run has been so awful for the past 1/4 mile.  Looking behind you, you realize that this is because you've been on a very long and gradual hill.  Looking ahead, you realize that this very long and gradual hill may never end.  Trust me, I've been on this run more than once.

When I started running in Boston, I lived in Somerville, which has several really nasty hills.  Somehow, I managed to live right near the crest of one of them.  So no matter which way you came to my apartment, the end of the run was inevitably a long, gradual, uphill climb.  I initially noticed this as I was trying to finish my very first long run (6 whole miles!) and felt like the last part of my run was all uphill.  I then realized that it actually was and that this 'all uphill' feeling was not my imagination.  This is the town with Heartbreak Hill, after all (it's a big, long, gradual hill 20 miles into the Boston Marathon, which is not where you want such a hill.  Many runners have been felled by it).

After Boston, I lived in Worcester, which is one of those many cities of seven hills.  They aren't kidding.  It's in the foothills of the Berkshires and you definitely get your hillwork done.  I ran more hills in my warm-ups than I probably do now in a month of Florida running.  There was a particularly brutal one that I used to use for hill practice which was a pretty decent incline that went on for 5-6 minutes.  Back then, I didn't even really think about hills.  They were just there.


Then I moved here, where there were zero hills.  Where I lived before, the only thing approaching a hill was a pedestrian overpass located on a running trail.  And yes, I did actually use that for hill training.  It even had the added advantage of no shade whatsoever.  So that was my hill. Or the treadmill.  Or wait for the summer and Vienna, which has some completely ridiculous gradual hills:

Yeah, I used to run that.  Up.  And down.  That's running Wiener-style.

When I was there this summer, I went on a run that had 15 straight minutes uphill.  Seriously.  And this was a casual hill compared to some.

Anyway, you can imagine my surprise and joy when I discovered that Temple Terrace does actually have a few hills.  My first concern was whether it had enough of a hill to constitute four minutes, as mandated by my training plan for today.  I decided to tackle 'the hill' to see how long it took, and wouldn't you know it?  Two minutes up.  So I ran it, circled around a lovely treed neighborhood, then ran it again.  Problem solved!

When I checked my phone upon finishing the run, I realized that Temple Terrace actually has several elevation changes in the form of long, gradual hills.  So actually, I did more than four minutes.  Hopefully this is making me a stronger runner without me even noticing -- although I don't think I'm quite ready for Comrades, the insane South African ultramarathon with completely insane hills:

Comrades profile map.  Insane.  I cannot use that word enough in describing this race.

Here is a photo of the hill I ran today.  Feel free to laugh.  I should probably put 'hill' in 'quotation marks':

It's no Worcester, that is for sure.  But I am running this marathon in coastal South Carolina, so likely I will be okay.