Attacking the Hills

I tried not to think about the left knee today. It was sore and especially painful going up stairs.

Anyway, met up with Baz at Ourimbah and we cruised up to the top of the first hill. Same as yesterday, the knee was painful to start with but the pain soon subsided (in less time - say 10 minutes). The time at the top of the first hill was 14:14 so I was already a minute+ down on last week. The brief tonight was simple, get to the top of the first hill then attack all the remaining hills hard. I quickly picked up the pace and left Baz. I didn't feel great on the hills (it was quite warm), but I gave them all I had. My Achilles heel would be hills and what is quick for me would be slow compared to a decent hill runner. Anyway, I was 31:24 at the roundabout and 48:31 at the T (I blew up running one hill and had to walk for 10 seconds!).

I did a 26:04 loop after the T (13 minutes out and back), again still running the hills hard. Then I ran strong for the remainder of the run despite feeling tired (the second half of the run was cooler which helped). Total time was 1:57:42 (estimate 25km).

So my normal run of the T and back was 1:31:38 which I think is a PB. That was a bit surprising as although I ran hard, I didn't feel like I was killing it. So very pleased with that.

I was absolutely spent at the end of this run. I gave it everything I had. I spent at least 15 minutes at the end drinking, eating and stretching to try and feel normal again. The knee felt good but the damage done won't be known until tomorrow. It feels okay as I write this so fingers crossed.

Massage tomorrow morning and then rest until Saturday.