Farewell to the Hill City group runs

Yesterday was my last group run in Lynchburg, and it was a very interesting mix of track, a hill and "conversation" pace running. It sounds confusing, but actually running it makes perfect sense: After a good warmup and some ins and outs on the track, we ran a fast 800 with a 400 recovery, then jogged over to a nearby hill. We ran the hill hard. The hill led to the other side of the track. Once we got to the track, we jogged to the start line and ran 1,200 meters. Then we repeated the hill workout. Once back on the track, we ran 1,600 meters. Then we repeated the hill and finished with a mile or so cool down. The hill wasn't too steep, but it was quite long. The weather was OK. While it was cool, the humidity was horrible.

Times are the track were: 800 - 3:23; 1,200 - 5:21; and 1,600 - 7:27. Total mileage for the day was 6.8 miles. It was a great workout overall and by the end of the cool down, we were all very happy the workout was over. Just about everyone in the group had ran the half marathon on Saturday, so we were quite worn out.

Today was a much needed rest day from running. Tomorrow I plan 3 or 4 miles and Saturday's goal is 14 miles (my longest ever), which will put me over 30 for the week. Next week I'll be in Richmond, not fully moved, but my plan is to just go with the flow. If I find that I need to move a run to the evening I will. I'll be back in Lynchburg next weekend and will have one final long run here before the big move. The two weekends after that are going to be busy, but I'm planning to maintain the long runs between 14 and 16 miles no matter what happens. I've basically told myself I can miss one long run that'll be traded for the major move-in day. More on that later. I don't know how much time I'll have to blog over the next few weeks, but have no fear, by the end of September things in the online world should be back to normal.