Good morning. Thanks to Tall, Perchcreek, and CNYRunner for the refresher course on hill running. Thanks as well to Spareribs for adding the Good Runner Seal of Approval for what was said. That was good information from four solid runners that I have great respect for. Living in a city that is called "The Hill City" and that is located on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it is not hard to find "hills". I have jokingly said that one advantage our local football teams have is that they always pick the end of the football field that doesn't have the steeper hill in it for the second half of the game. The local Virginia 10 Miler Race that is run every year has numerous hills that every world class runner later talks about. There is a short steep half mile hill as well as a 1 1/2 mile long gradual hill. Since this is an "out and back" course, you see "all sides" of the hills. Even the cemetary that I often run in has a loop with two hills that I utilize by approaching them from both directions to get the variations they offer. While I understand that you can really crush the spirits of other runners by how you attack hills and also boost your own energy as you reel in the other runners, my question relates more to efficiency. KNOWING that I am going to have to take a walk break at some time, will my time be economized best by walking the hills?.......or walking flat areas?......or walking the down hills? IMO..There are two styles of racing that simultanously occur. One is the race against others. You see runners and try to overtake and pass them. The other race is against the clock and your own PR record. An example would be when I arrive at a certain stage in a mile a full minute ahead of my planned pace and there is a runner ahead of me that I can overtake. At this stage I have the choice of overtaking the runner or opting for staying within my game plan. I determine that overtaking the runner is a battle that I don't want to take on NOW, for the sake of how I want to finish the race. In this second case, I am wanting efficiency and that is where I am trying to determine how I smartly use hills to my advantage. Sorry for the long explanation and hopefully I have clarified what I mean. All of the information about hills that you folks gave me is definitely good and a part of this plan. I am glad that Mary is getting the medical help on that skin problem. That is usually easily handled in today's treatments and we want to know how it goes from you. I also noticed jlynne's new profile picture. Very nice picture of you and the boys. Thankfully Erika's DH is limited to two shoulders so that should be taken care of. (He DOES have only two doesn't he Erika?) I ran four nice tempo miles last night and enjoyed the work out. For those recently moving or moved.....Good luck. I have been in this location for 4 years and there are things I still cannot find. It is always a lot of work but you will greatly enjoy the new homes when you finally feel "settled". This is mainly Holly and Nonoruns. Have that great day folks. Climb the hills of your life and use them to YOUR advantage. The parallel there between running and life certainly applies. Joey

Lou! Glad that you are okay - I can imagine your hr soared! Roy - those were some wonderful pictures you posted yesterday. MrsRoy is very pretty! Thanks for all the well wishes on my biopsy results. I had one removed from my arm last winter, and do not want a scar like that on my face - so hopefully he'll be able to take care of it in a different manner. It is the best kind of skin cancer to get if you want to look at the positive side! Out for 5 miles this morning WITH Brinkley and wearing my new Asic 2130 shoes. I'm not sure about them though . . . 9:36 avg. pace - 163 avg. hr At the end of our dirt road I saw a large animal in the road. It was not a deer - it had a tail - but it was big like a deer. Luckily it was going down the road in the opposite direction, but right down the middle of the road. I'm sure my HR elevated as I tried to figure out what it was. I'll probably never know. Other than that we chased a couple of bunnies. I have the afternoon off to take 7 puppies to the vet for shots . . . all by myself . . . oh my! Cheers! Edited to add these - since it has been a while and they will be leaving soon.

Bill, you might experiment with doing those 800's or oneK's at about a 7:35 pace, i.e., about 20 seconds per mile slower than your fiveK pace, and shorten the interval to a 200 meter jog. You will get more quality work in, and you will be fresher the next day. If you think that the workout is too easy at that pace, add another 800 to it. Just a thought. Joey, having never done an ultra and only one trail run, I know nothing about this subject, but the ultra runners tell me that they have this saying, "If water is running down it, you should walk up it." So on those long, ultra runs, they often walk the uphills. I would say that suggests that in a road race if you are going to walk at some point anyway, walk briskly up the hill. I ran along the beautiful Missouri River this morning at 5:45 a.m. One mile at 10 and 4 miles at 9's, for a 46 minute run. Felt great and very nice scenery. Spareribs

Lou, that's awful. I'm so glad you're ok. Happy vacation you two. Bill, it will be fun & informative watching you train for your 5K's. thanks so much for all the training information over the last couple of weeks. I'm copying it & even have intentions of organizing it at some point. Erika happy anniversary! think you'll do something later? Send good healing wishes to your DH for me. & congrats to DS on his job. . wonder how long till he'll get tired of it. Holly, think of all that capital you're storing up. . wall fishing. Mary, I was just thinking that you'd had something similar last year, but couldn't remember if I was right, & if so where it is. Are they going to do Mohs surgery? That worked pretty well for me once. Good luck. & get all post-op information you can! Even though I tried to do that, there were several things I ended up wishing I'd known ahead of time so I could have been better prepared. CNY I have been wondering about them too. Also about C-mom. If any of you are looking in, I hope you are well. Doug, was happy to see where you were. how cool. Great pictures, thanks. How are you? what's going on, I think there was something I missed. Yesterday was a running day but I was supremely wise & mature . My right foot still hurts quite a bit, so I did 21 min. on the elliptical, 5 on some new machine that I didn't like, 18 on the arc trainer, & 23 on the recumbant bike. Talking about this the night before, my anti-running DH said (something like) "the idea isn't to run to the point where you can never run again". Not that we don't already know that, but I thought it was interestingly phrased. I have an appointment with a podiatrist Monday. am hoping I'll be ok to run on it tomorrow. . today so far somewhere around 40 minutes of prehab. I overslept. I've been tired, digging up lots of sod lately, but probably not as much as Nono, & I'm not moving at the same time! don't know how she does it.

Good morning, all...another set of outstanding posts. Lou: Wow! Scary, man...did you get the license #? What kind of car was it? Did it get good gas mileage? Vista: Good post...Yeah...I've run in lots of the Lynchburg 10-milers..live about 75 miles or so from you. My first one was 1978 (which was won by Bill Rogers, BTW). Killer of a course...didn't they used to have a lot more runners than they do now? Hopeful: Very best wishes...you're in my prayers. Breger: Killer of a workout...and I mean that literally! Did 4.1 miles this morning with lots of steep hills...my stamina is getting a little better but the hills sure ain't doin' my damaged groin muscle any good. Rest tomorrow and then maybe 5 more runs before I head down to Atlanta for the Peachtree.

DickyG, in case you missed Spareribs post to you yesterday, here it is. Be Smart my friend. Bill (who concurs completely with Mr. Ribs)

DickyG... just in case you missed Bill's post. . he took the words right out of my mouth.

Good Morning! WRFB - Scary! Have a great time on vacation! Today I had a MLR planned with 6 x 800m intervals, with 200m recovery. Actually, I had my Garmin programmed in miles, not kilometers, so my intervals were more like 804.7m/209.2m. Spareribs suggested that I aim at 15 seconds slower than my current 5K pace, which was 7:54 at a race a couple weeks ago, so my intervals were to be about 4:05. After a 2.6 mile WU, my intervals looked like this: 4:03 4:04 4:06 3:58 4:04 4:09 All was well until near the end of the last interval. I’ve been having some mild right hamstring pain – not sure if it was from running or from all the squatting I’ve been doing the last few days, painting the lower edges of my kitchen cabinets – but anyway near the end of the last interval the pain went from mild to acute. I finished the interval, walked for a minute, then decided that it might be best to cut my run short. Unfortunately I was 4 miles from home. At any rate, I made it home, jogging slowly, keeping my stride shortened as TomS had talked about, and then I stretched and iced. I’ve had sore hamstrings before lots of times, when I overdid my weight routine of squats, dead lifts and lunges, but this one is pretty darn painful. It doesn’t hurt sitting here, but lifting my leg to put it in my pants leg left me gasping. Of course, I am a big fat weenie when it comes to pain. Total distance today: 11 miles. Happily, tomorrow is a rest day, but I am seriously rethinking my scheduled 5K race this Saturday.