This morning was hill repeats. We had 6-7 on the schedule, so we did 6, and then ran our cool-down, which meant going up another big hill to start it, so technically we got 7 hills.
It felt ugly. For hill repeats, all we do is 2 minutes of running up hill, then u-turn, and jog down. Last week we had rolling hills, so this was the first day of hill repeats.
I told myself to just get it done, ugly, out of breath, slow, whatever, just get it done.
Then I came home to eat breakfast, read blogs and get ready for work and I saw this little bit of motivation on facebook:
Some quit due to slow progress, never grasping the fact that slow progress ... is progress.
Hills are perhaps the most concrete way that I see improvement in running. Sure I'll see it in my marathon finish times, at least ideally, but that's a couple times a year. Hopefully the next time I do hill repeats, I'll do 7-9 of them, and instead of feeling like I'm dying after number 4, I'll feel like I'm dying after number 6.
Slow progress. It may just become my theme for the year...
I needed to hear that quote today. After dealing with the shin splint, a hamstring pull and most recently a sore Achilles I have lost some speed and it's frustrating. I had hopes of a PR in a race I'm running in August. Mentally I had told myself forget it, but it doesn't mean I have to quit trying.
ReplyDeleteSlow progress... that's great. :) I remind myself of things like that when I start to question if I'm making any progress. It's slow, but it's happening.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your next set of hills!