The Hills are alive....

Couple of sessions today.
The first a sociable 5 miles around Green lane/straight mile with the 9am Friday morning crew. Ten of us in all. Talking pace.

The main one in the evening at 6.30. The notorious Romsey Hill session.
As I keep reminding people, "Hills are our friends". Pound for pound I believe hill sessions are the best single work out you can do. Great for speed and speed endurance, they can benefit any athlete no matter what your distance.
There are plenty of variables you can play with to create a great session:

• The length of the hill
• The steepness of the hill
• The speed you run up
• The number of repetitions
• The recovery time between repetitions

Most Thursdays through out the winter I use a hill in the Southampton sports center that is 300m long. I run up it at 5k pace then slow jog down. I do about 8 reps in 20 minutes.
The last 50m of the last few reps are hell, but fantastic for training your legs to cope with lactate.

Tonight we went on our usual run around Romsey - about 4 miles in total, taking in four of our favourite hills. Starting at the clubhouse, tipping down with rain, Ian and Graeme along for company. The whole session lasts about an hour.

• The wiggly path off Campion drive, x2 as a warm up.
• Richmond hill (about 300m, three sections, gentle slope, flattish, hard slop) x 2
• Durban hill (about 150m, hard climb for 100m, then gentle) x2
• Botley road (Cemetery hill, 200m, gentle start, gradual increase) x1

My times tonight:
Richmond 74/74 secs
Durban 21/21 secs
Botley 35 secs

Pretty pleased overall. Richmond was slow, I'm lacking the speed endurance at the moment, Durban fairly quick, Botley average. So plenty of work to do.

Enjoyed my fish and chip supper afterwards - the food for fine athletes :)

Plan to be up tomorrow at 7.30am for an 8 mile slow run around Squabb wood (Cross country). After that we'll have a Harrier's marathon planning session for all those taking part in the London this year.