hills

that was the word of the day Saturday. Took Friday off. My legs were incredibly tight and stiff so I felt best to just rest them. Saturday came and after a trip to Lowes I threw on my running gear, inserted by headphones and rocked out to the likes of Wilco, Dave, Rise Against and a little Slipnot! in the mix. Ran 45 minutes around Rock Island and Augustana college. if you've never ran around Augie there's quite some big hills around it... so I made it a hill workout day really hitting the hills hard. Two long steady uphills around Augie. Then to Lincoln Park next to Augie. Stopped to stretch and ran for a few minutes until I hit the first of 3 or 4 short, very steep hills. I pounded those out which wasn't easy due to the steady on and off rains I had during the run, but they felt great.

I will try and incorporate more hills earlier into my runs. These were at the end, and even though I felt great doing them, I think I would have been able to push off a lot stronger if I did them earlier. I think I'll head to Crow Creek this week and do another hill workout...

6 Days until my next 5K. 25:53 the last 5K and I've been training at 24:00 pace, so I think I'll do great. I've put speed work in, something I didn't do the last 2 5K's, so I'm feeling good about this race. Plus, it's the Race for the Cure and it's for a great cause. Sarah's mom passed away of the very same cancer this race is for. I'm not the type of person to say, I'll run this race for someone, but this one is special and means a lot. I'm running this race for Linda Bender.

-Hoffy