| Regular readers (are there any? hahah) of El Bloggo Runnermouse may recall that Friday is scheduled to be a hill rep session on my current training plan and that whilst I prefer to do this on the treadmill in order that I might more accurately control the speed and gradient, I am also partial to a sunny evening run by the canal. Previously, when these events have coincided, the sun and the canalside have invariably won. This evening however, I was the proud vessel of a particular brain wave; I could still complete the hill reap and enjoy the sun IF... I could locate... An Actual Hill. Genius. My hilly location ended up infact being a long but reasonably steep bridge over a lock between the Bridgewater Canal and the River irwell, round the back of Pomona tram station. It feels steep anyway! 
Run Data
| 
The Pomono Hill Reps Route
It's also a fairly quiet spot on one of my favourite routes but it had never occurred to me to 'use' it in this fashion before. My training plan suggested 6 reps but I wasn't sure of the incline (perhaps it's not steep enough?) and it's not a very long hill either so I wasn't sure of the distance, so after a 15/20min run out there, I decided to do 10 reps, to make up for any uncertainty. I'd love to know what the passers-by I did encounter thought of the crazy but determined lady dashing up, then down the hill, only to turn round and run back up it again! After I'd done 10, I realised that conveniently, 5 reps was about a mile so I decided to do 5 more, just to wring an extra one out. Then I was on the wrong side of the hill for my planned route back so it ended up on 16. You can see that if you count the peaks on the heart rate chart to the left! you can also see a little corresponding bump on the elevation chart. I'm quite sure it felt a lot steeper than that makes it look! Apparently the details of that are that the elevation gain was 10ft, the loss 11ft and with a minimum of 79 and a maximum of 87. I'm not entirely sure what all that means but I do know how very glad I am that my left thigh/IT band seems to be finally on the mend... |
Or at least not getting any worse.
No, I really think it's getting better!
"It doesn't hurt me yeh-yeh-yeah!"
No, I really think it's getting better!
"It doesn't hurt me yeh-yeh-yeah!"
