First off, I was tired last week. Drowsy and sleepy almost all week. Maybe it's all just caught up with me a bit. It was a low overall week of training, but a pretty good run week overall.
Hills. 'Bob' asked about hill routes. I have a few that I use, and if you aren't from Austin...sorry. If you aren't from Austin, then I think that running hills can be multi-purposed. They build strength. Strength is speed in disguise, especially in a triathlon. I can tell that I have not run as many hills this year. Hill repeats (uphill) can be a good way to get LT/VO2 work without the same pounding that you might get on the track. As long as you take the downhills very easy, you should not get injured. There's nothing better than a hilly long run either for building strength.
We live North central. So, every so often I'll do a route that goes down Wood Hollow to North Hills, North Hills to West Rim to Greystone, Greystone to Hart, Hart back to Spicewood. It's about 4-4.5 miles and solid. Another good solid steady hill run is to do an out and back the full length of Pecos.
I'll also do Scenic/Matthews hill repeats going up Scenic and down Matthews. It's 0.9 miles and has a solid solid uphill on Scenic. The hill going up Scenic is steep enough to get your heartrate up, but not so steep that you can't get your turnover going. I was introduced to this one years ago by Steve Sisson with Rogue Running.
Wilke is in Barton Hills. It's a standard hill for a lot of runners. It's too steep in my mind. But, it can be a good one for repeats. Robert E. Lee or Stratford are other good ones for repeats.
And then there are "The Marshes". It's a workout that I guess is still used at times by Rogue, but you start at Barton Springs and Dawson. Run up the hill and cross over to Bouldin on the first street. Run up Bouldin to the next street and across to Dawson. Repeat until you hit the school or church or whatever it is and come back the same way. You can push the across sections and 'recover' on the Bouldin/Dawson sections.
Hills. 'Bob' asked about hill routes. I have a few that I use, and if you aren't from Austin...sorry. If you aren't from Austin, then I think that running hills can be multi-purposed. They build strength. Strength is speed in disguise, especially in a triathlon. I can tell that I have not run as many hills this year. Hill repeats (uphill) can be a good way to get LT/VO2 work without the same pounding that you might get on the track. As long as you take the downhills very easy, you should not get injured. There's nothing better than a hilly long run either for building strength.
We live North central. So, every so often I'll do a route that goes down Wood Hollow to North Hills, North Hills to West Rim to Greystone, Greystone to Hart, Hart back to Spicewood. It's about 4-4.5 miles and solid. Another good solid steady hill run is to do an out and back the full length of Pecos.
I'll also do Scenic/Matthews hill repeats going up Scenic and down Matthews. It's 0.9 miles and has a solid solid uphill on Scenic. The hill going up Scenic is steep enough to get your heartrate up, but not so steep that you can't get your turnover going. I was introduced to this one years ago by Steve Sisson with Rogue Running.
Wilke is in Barton Hills. It's a standard hill for a lot of runners. It's too steep in my mind. But, it can be a good one for repeats. Robert E. Lee or Stratford are other good ones for repeats.
And then there are "The Marshes". It's a workout that I guess is still used at times by Rogue, but you start at Barton Springs and Dawson. Run up the hill and cross over to Bouldin on the first street. Run up Bouldin to the next street and across to Dawson. Repeat until you hit the school or church or whatever it is and come back the same way. You can push the across sections and 'recover' on the Bouldin/Dawson sections.
More later about the weeks training.