i just want to cal you my B****

I was so relieved when I saw only a 25 minute run and a swim on tap for today. Yesterday was hard. I made Ward Hill road my Bi***.

A tempo bike ride is like giving me candy, and although it was gorgeous outside I do these rides indoors. Well, in the open garage. If you were around here last year you remember I had a pretty good bike crash doing intervals outside. I have wattages / cadence / heart rate I have to align and it's nearly impossible to achieve that much control on the rolling terrain we have round here. Secondly I have to be safe. Control of the parameters, safely on the roads, I just like to do these things indoors.

Ideally you have 3 hours between workouts on days like this but who does? I got a 90 minute break in before I headed out to my hill run.

"Pick a good hill." Jesse instructed "It's the hill for the rest of your life". It takes me about 2 minutes to run the whole thing, Coach wanted a shorter effort of about 90 seconds. I took the back way to Church Hill Road so I could cut out the beginning which incidentally is not the steepest part. I chose this hill because it is the hill I avoid the most. It's got a billion percent grade.

As I ran down Church Hill road I was a bit nervous, I will admit. It's been a long, long time since I have done hill repeats. I can't think of a time where I have ever bounded up the hill. You run up the hill the way you think you should run down it. High knees, long strides, big arms. To zip down short cadence.

Remember this is just a drill. This is not how you want to run hills. This is bounding, strength training. Hills make you damn strong.

I made it up to the top in 1:22 on the first one. 1:24 on the second and third. 1:26 on the fourth. The 15 second wind sprints were like sticking a needle in my eye. Yet as much as it hurt...... it was a good hurt. The hard work kind of hurt. The kind of hurt that will make me stronger.

There was a couple, the ones who live in that brown house..... out working on their lawn. The wife waved to me during the first one. Looked at me strange during the second. And stopped watching after the third. The husband called to me "Short steps up the hill!"

"Bounding!" I called back. I knew someone would offer advice somewhere along the way here.

At the end I smiled. I stood at the very bottom of the hill, past Church hill Road and I turned around. I took this second to pause and look back. The hill I have avoided is now my hill for life. I will make it my Bit**. I will get that time down to below 1:10. I will gain a wicked amount of strength as I run it. Both mentally and physically. I felt ignited, I felt excited yet at the same time a lot like I'd freaking pass out.

When I finally got home I got into the bath tub and turned on the cold water. As the tub filled I slowly added.... scoop by scoop..... seven pounds of ice. And I started the timer for 15 minutes. It's easier for me to get into the tub and then fill it up, than to immerse myself into cold water. Ice baths are by far the best recovery tool.

After the 15 minutes were up I took a good long hot shower. Then I put my legs up for 20 minutes and got my compression socks on. Rather than a feeling of exact quad soreness, I just felt general leg heaviness. And a light feeling in my heart.

When Jesse and I spoke the other night he reminded me to recover like it is my job. So that's the kind of stuff I do to recover. I had to work for 8 hours on my feet last evening so not only do I wear the socks, I wear Danskos..... I will never again wear Crocs. Danskos have a slight pitch to them which is heaven when you work on your feet. They are a hard soled shoe, like steel hard. So your feet get stronger.

I welcome a nice easy day today. A swim and a short run. I love when we make the hard days hard and the easy days easy. It allows my body to fully commit to the effort. Allows my mind to wrap itself around it. Ride the waves of hard, get stronger with each bounding step........ and make that hill my bit**.