Back to boosting.

I ran with my girl Bridget last night and helped her kick some major hill booty.

We're running the Boilermaker 15K in July and we've heard there will be hills. Now, my neighborhood is Hill Central so hilly courses have nothing on me. Bridget, however, doesn't run the same sort of hills on a regular basis so she wants to train on them to be better prepared for what she'll face in the race.

Last night, she wanted to run up a certain hill ten times and, since this would be her first venture into hill repeats, asked me to run with her. Sure thing!


We started out at 8:00, so the temperature had fallen a little, giving us a break from the heat. We ran a short warm-up and then hit the hill. I told Bridget that for this first session it was more important to focus on steady effort up the hill rather than time. And that's what we did.

After two times up the hill, she asked whose big idea the hill repeats was and shook her head at the thought of finishing all 10. After five times up the hill, she shook her head at "only" being half-way done. After six, she asked me if I was even tired. I told her not to compare herself to me, because I run hills all the time -- with hills, the more you run them, the easier they are. She was getting down on herself because she was breathing hard and really working to get up the hill. To me, that meant she was getting something good out of the workout. Pushing herself.

After eight times up the hill, I gave her a cheerful, "Just two more left!" and she groaned. We finished out the last two and I could tell she was relieved, and maybe a little proud.

Ten times up, ten times down.

I'm  happy that she finished the whole thing: She set a goal of running ten times up the hill and that's exactly what she did. Did she want to stop? Maybe, who knows? The important thing is that she didn't.

Way to go, Bridget! 

It was fun for me to be back in the booster role. I haven't been running with others much lately and certainly not in the same capacity as I did when I started the new runners group last year when I was preggo. Last night was reminiscent of those runs last spring. I enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, today was not quite as kind to me as last night was.

I woke up with a crummy cold and it has knocked me out today. I was supposed to go out with a few friends, including Bridget, tonight and had to cancel. Grr . . . It's my own doing, I know. Too much going on, not enough rest, repeatedly forgetting to take my vitamins. I'll get back on track after I kick this cold -- and that had better be tomorrow because I certainly don't have time to be sick!

I have more hills to run.

What about you -- do you enjoy hills? Or do you dread them? Do you tackle hilly courses? Or are hill repeats your thing?


I welcome hills. With pumping arms.

~ Felice

PS: Don't forget to enter my Chobani giveaway!