10 km with hill repeats, 1:02:40!

I missed yesterday's Team Myles run because of my prior commitment with my Cub pack. The Team Myles run plan was to go 1 km to the MacDonald bridge and then cross the bridge 4 times, with increasing rest intervals after each crossing, finishing with a 1 km return run back to the start, for a total of 6 kilometres.

Well, now I know those distances because I measured them on RunKeeper.com, an exercise measurement tool that my brother-in-law uses to post his runs on facebook.

I didn't know the distances before my run this evening after work, so I decided to make up my own version of bridge training. We have a 400 metre hill near our home, so I ran to it (1.6 km from our place to the bottom of the hill), then I ran up and down the hill 8 times, in sets of 2 times each, with increasing rest intervals in between each pair of uphill/downhill runs: 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 4 min, as per Kris's instructions for the bridge training for yesterday.

I figured it might be close to the bridge training but maybe a bit more, figuring at the time that the MacDonald bridge is maybe 1.6 km across (it is actually 1.0 km across). Well, partway through, I did the math for my route and realized all I had to do was add another 400 metres to the end of my run and I would have completed 10 kilometres!

My run was as follows:1600 metres from home to bottom of hill, 6:15/km pace+/- = 10 minutes
400 metres up hill (2:30 pace = 6:15/km), 400 m down hill (2:30 pace) x2, 1 minute rest = 11 min
400 metres up hill (2:30 pace), 400 metres down hill (2:30 pace) x2, 2 minutes rest = 12 min
400 metres up hill (2:30 pace), 400 metres down hill (2:30 pace) x2, 3 minutes rest = 13 min
400 metres up hill (2:30 pace), 400 metres down hill (2:30 pace) x2, 4 minutes rest = 14 min
400 metres up hill (2:30 pace), 1200 metres to my street, added another 400 metres to add up to 10,000 metres! 12:40 for final 2,000 metres (6:20/km pace for final 2 km).

Total run time 1:02:40 for 10 kilometres!

I managed to keep pretty close to my target pace of 6 minutes per kilometre, once I deducted the waiting time between pairs of hill intervals. The surprising part was how much energy I had after all the hills! I felt great and still kept pretty close my target 6 min/km pace even after running back up the hill a 9th time to return home! I know I had gas left in the tank and I wonder how much further I could have run tonight.

I ran up the hill using a midfoot/ball of foot strike and downhill and on the flats to and from the hill using a traditional heel strike. I find the midfoot/ball of foot strike forces me to shorten my stride up the hill and have quicker pace with less impact on my heels. It also forces my torso forward a bit, making the climb a bit easier.

Here is a link to a blog on Chi running for more info on foot strike methods.

Hill repeat training works! I look forward to Saturday's run to hopefully see the effects in a faster/easier run.