Random thought #1- I am starting to obsess about hills. The La Jolla Half Marathon is in eight weeks. I can't stop looking at the course map and the elevation profile*. Holy CRAP. That hill is GINORMOUS. That steep steep grade in the middle of the race is 420 feet in less than a mile! I have heard that it isn't even the worst part. Apparently the hill at mile 12 is the true killer. It is short and steep and right at the end to suck the life out of you.Luckily, I live in a very hilly neighborhood. I usually don't like to run anything longer than a couple of miles here because that is the length of the flat route. Thursday, I took on some of the hills. One of them was ridiculously steep (214 feet in .14 miles) but I ran the entire thing. I doubled over, completely out of breath at the top, but I did run the hill. The other hill I ran was a bit better. It was 78 feet in around 1/3 of a mile. I didn't have much difficulty... until I learned that the big hill in LJH is much, much steeper. sigh. Next week I am taking on yet another (bigger) hill in my neighborhood. I am going to do everything I can not to let that race get the best of me.
Random Thought #2- I have been a big fan of The Biggest Loser since the first season. I love watching these people change their lives for the better. They lose weight through hard work and eating right. It is not all about cutting calories, but fueling the body correctly.
This week's eliminated player was shown training for and completing a marathon. Kudos. They went on to say that he finished in in 3:53! Holy cow... if a guy who just lost 100 pounds could do that, surely I could, right? Hold on. I've been reading this week that not only did Dane NOT run a 3:53 marathon, he didn't FINISH the marathon. WTF? At mile 17, he got in a car (reported to be an NBC production van), was driven to mile 20 and ran the last six. He was in danger of not making the cut off of six hours and they wanted to show him crossing the finish line... AT 5:53!
I am so disappointed. This leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. What else has the show lied about? I hope that they retract their report on Dane and set the record straight. I would hate to stop watching one of my favorite shows.
Random Thought #3- Good luck to all of you racing tomorrow! Terri, I know you have your four-miler. You'll do great! Irish Cream is going for a PR in a 5K! Good luck to anyone else I forgot.
Chris, I hope your race went well this morning. Did the cold temps get you moving fast?
Random Thought #4- It is after 11 p.m. and I am running fourteen miles tomorrow. What am I thinking? I really need to get to bed. I haven't run fourteen miles since before the marathon.
Nighty Night.
*Sorry for the poor quality. I couldn't seem to save the map from the website big enough to post. This image is from 2003, but it is exactly the same as what is on the website.
7 comments:
The race sucked, but thank you Lisa. I figure I will right up a post sometime today. Feeling a little lazy right now...
I am not sure how The Biggest Loser producers expected to get away with lying about his time. They clearly show the the clock as he crosses the line in 5:53 or something like that. Then they state he did it in less than 4 hours. Kinda makes you question the entire show.
I have only been to La Jolla once but I do remember there being some ugly hills in the area. Sounds like you will have your hands full. Don't worry though. You will do great. Just make sure you beat Dane's marathon time! ;-)
Be careful training on super steep hills. Even though I run hills all the time here, (I live in a town called Fountain Hills). I still managed to pull my hamstring back in October on one particular hill that I had never run before and seemed to go straight up. My running partner and I went back to that hill recently, I took it really slow and she powered up it and the SHE pulled her calf. I think its something about how steep it was, not how long. Just be careful, don't go too crazy on the hills or you could regret it! :)
Yay, thanks for the good luck wish, Lisa! I'll have a report up hopefully some time this evening . . .
And I too am starting to get really obsessed with hills and hill training!! I think I've decided to run the Seattle Rock N' Roll Marathon in June, and even though the course isn't as bad as it could have been, I am still seriously freaked about the hills!! Arg.
Best of luck with your training, and definitely let us know what--if anything--seems to work best!! :)
Thanks Lisa. Today was not the day to PR, but then again, I've never run a 4-mile race before so I guess it was. Just a lot of snow, really freaking cold temps. Scary to run down a hill, and instead of going for speed, trying not to fall or wipe out. I did see someone who did wipe out at the end near me - she looked so bummed.
I, like you, need to get some hill work in too - I just wish I had more hills in my neighborhood like you do! Sounds like the hill you were doubled up on was like the one we had in our race. I HATE hills. But you're being smart about doing them, just be sure to give your legs some rest in between them so you don't get injured. I know you know what you are doing.
I'm not a fan of hills, but our county is really hilly, so I do a lot of hill running. That made the hills in my marathon much more doable.
That hill in the middle of the HM looks wicked though! Good luck with the hill training.
It's good to have hills right in your own neighborhood. We have a few, but not as big as yours. I've got to get out there and run some hill repeats before my very hilly marathon!
I joined a Facebook group "Biggest Liar: Real marathoners against Dane and NBC." Of course, I'm not technically a "real marathoner." Yet! I was so inspired by that show last week and finding out it was a FRAUD really irritates me.
Hills are just "bumps" in the road. Granted, they may be long, steep bumps, as you seem to have waiting for you! I'm confident you'll do well. Keep attacking them during your training.
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