hill work

Hills.  I need to do more hills or else I will absolutely die doing the AA marathon (17 weeks from now).  The marathon course doesn't have any huge or horrible hills, but there are a lot of them.  And historically so far, its been hills that tend to knock the crap out of me (the Milford 30K, the 22 mile Tortoise and Hare training run), so I need to make sure that I build the necessary endurance to manage, if not survive, the whole race.

I've been picking routes that have hills and I will also work in doing hill repeats (up and down the same hill - which is kind of boring for me..).  I prefer doing hill repeats at the Arb if for no other reason than it is scenic and its a dirt path, vs asphalt or cement (easier on my feet), but if it's been raining it make the path somewhat difficult.  My goal in doing hill repeats is to be able to do them while keeping my heart rate within a reasonable range.  But I don't always wear a heart monitor (too fricking unreliable) so its just a "feel".

I recently read a quote in Runners World by Mark Remy where defined treadmills as "designed to destroy one's mind through sensory deprivation and monotony" - and while I agree with the sensory deprivation and monotony and I avoid treadmills now as much as possible, I never would have gotten started with running were it not for treadmills.  Running on a treadmill basically gave me the confidence to hit the road and a safe place to run in the winter.  Interesting how a perspective changes...

St Pat's run in 3 weeks.
10K run in 4 weeks.
DexAnnArbor run in 15 weeks.
Ann Arbor Marathon in 17 weeks.
Grand Rapids Marathon in 35 weeks.