So Dallas has one clear exercising upside -- you can run outdoors pretty easily year-round, and one clear exercising downside -- it's flat as a pancake.
We're staying with hubby's best friend in Birmingham right now (leaving today for Mardi Gras in Mobile), and all 4 of us went for a run yesterday.
Hubby's friend mentioned as we set out that we're in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He wasn't joking. Within a quarter mile of their house, we were on a decent downhill. Dallas-sized. But that was followed by an uphill worse than any I've seen in Dallas. And I even drive to special places sometimes to run hills! That was followed by a slight down, and then an even bigger up. Followed by a long, gradual downhill.
There was a little loop in their neighborhood that was about 1.2 miles, so we just did that several times. My training schedule, ironically, had 5 miles of rolling hills scheduled yesterday. I'd just assumed that if I ran at all (I did consider just resting, per my PA's advice, but my ankle really is fine), it would just be flat and easy.
Surprise! I got my hills in, undoubtedly even more than I would have if I'd met my buddies in Dallas!
I love flat marathons, and am always surprised by the many people who prefer slight rolling hills. Now I understand. Most of the rest of the world is used to slight rolling hills, or even big rolling hills. Just a Dallas disadvantage I guess.
I live in Winnipeg, MB where our only hill is a man made one (called garbage hill, as the hill was created by covering over an old landfill site!). Seriously - there is one small stretch of slightly rolling hills near my house, everything else is flat.
ReplyDeleteI like to run it to change things up, but real hills are a challenge for me as I just don't train anywhere near them!
Glad you had a good run and your ankle is better.