The Hills have I's - "Granny Down and Git 'er Done"

Well, once again, I have lived up to the name of this blog, rising long before dawn and getting ready for a big run. 9 miles. That figure loomed at me this morning as an unknown. Sure, I'd done more before. But not since my disasterous attempt at the Rt. 66. And not with the kind of hills I was about to face.

Today was the third training run in a row that I didn't have breakfast. So, when I got going at just before 0530 this morning, I was pretty quick to break into my nutrition for the day. Let me say that I had a plan for tackling these hills I'd only heard rumors about. And that included taking a more laid back approach than usual. I started off more slowly and it wasn't until 0615 that I started using my alarm for my 4 and 1 walk/run rotation. This gave me a bit more energy for the hills.

I actually ended up taking the hills in the opposite order this morning, failing to read the map properly until I was on top of the first one. The loop at 106th Street was the harder of the two sets of hills, not just for the steep grades, but because there were simply more hills. And like clockwork (hehe), my alarm goes off about half way up the introductory hill at that location. The only way I could keep "running" was to shorten my stride and just pump the best I could. Even then, I ended up only making about 45 seconds of the 1 minute. At this point, it was still dark and I didn't really have a full appreciation of the hill. I'm really glad of that.

I made it the rest of the way up that hill before my alarm went off, only to look another hill square in the face. Ok, in honesty, it wasn't another hil but a continuation of the one I'd started, but the grade was a bit less and I had a short flat spot that gave me a bit of a respite. Back on it and my alarm went off again. Yikes, this was really wearing me out. I cut the alarm off again at the 45 second mark in order to conserve energy. I was really using it up. I finished the climb and took a quick rest break. Liquids and nutrition intake and then back at it. Continuing down 106th there were a couple of small hills which didn't bother me too much and then I got to the turnaround. By this time it was starting to get light and I was able to realize the full difficulty I was facing, just getting turned around. My alarm went off just as I started the downhill portion on the Hidden Oaks turnaround. Well, I guess it was time to catch up on my running because it made the full minute and I was still on the downhill.
　

Now people who know me know I hate downhill. Downhill is, to me, the hardest part of running. It is harder on my knees than any other kind of running (except stairs) and at my weight... well, lets just say it isn't nice. But here I was running down hill and a pretty steep grade at that. To stop might just be to risk injury, so I continue to run in the "gear" I'm in, maintaining my speed until I get to the bottom. Finally, I get there, I guess I ended up doing a full 2 minutes of running. Guess I made up for the two shorter runs. But reaching the bottom only meant I had to climb back up and so I chugged along going back up. After all of that, it was time to get off this set of hills and get on with the rest of the course. I'd gone the first 4 miles.
　

There was a good half mile of flat running to get to the second set of hills. If I'd have followed the course correctly, I'd have gotten here first, in the dark. Initially, I wasn't worried about it. It didn't look too bad. Not at half a mie it didn't. That changed as I got closer. And it was at that point that people started catching up to me, too. Remember, though. I was coming up on 5 miles... they were coming up on 3. I turned and headed up the hill. It wasn't as steep as the ones at 106th, but the hill at 111th was longer. Similarly, though, it, too, had a flat spot for a little recovery. This was a good thing as I needed every break I could get at this point. I was chugging. I got to the turnaround and only a few people had been there before me this morning. I was feeling accomplished but tired and I still had 4 more miles to go, so I took a quick break, took off my right shoe which had been bothering me and did what adjustments I could. Put it back on and cinched it down so it wouldn't wiggle so much and trooped on. Coming down off the hill was again, not quite as much struggle as I had thought it would be. I came off it actually fairly strong with a quick rest break at about 2/3 of the way down. I drained the last of my carried fluids (I was past the water stop early and they hadn't been set up yet), got up and trotted the rest of the way down the hill. I was feeling pretty good, although my knees were a but on the sore side. On the way down, David Sargent caught me speeding and I was asked if I had any advice on taking the hill. My reply was "Granny down and git 'er done." In case you don't know, its an old truck driver's term for using a lower gear to climb a steep grade in the mountains. You select the lowest gear you can make it up with because if you miss a gear shifting, you're gonna go back down backwards. Not a pretty sight.

Finally, I was free of the big hills and I just had 3 and a half more miles to go. I filled up at the water stop and headed out for the last part feeling very accomplished. Then I hit mile 7 and man, the weight of the effort up the hills started taking it's toll. I had put out such effort and used up so much of my energy store that I was runnning out. I hadn't "hit the wall", but I knew I was starting to struggle. I just kept on saying to my self "Just another 2 miles," "Just another 1 and a half miles," "Just another mile." Struggling through, I finally made it back to the finish. I was beat and beat up, but I made it. I finished the 9 miles I set out to do. I finished it with my first true confidence in being able to go the distance. Today was 3 more miles than I have gone since that fateful day in November of last year and was certainly more hilly than I have done in a long time. Now I have the hills!