Yo-Yos

I've decided to exploit the local terrain around my house more by using the hills even for ez training. I had largely been doing this with hill repeats but now I've decided that even my easy runs I'm going to pack with the local hills. No more (or at least, much less) back cove! In order to maximize the vertical, I've decided to avoid long stretches of flattish road by either repeating a hilly loop or just yo-yo-ing a particularly good stretch. For my long run last week, I did a 3 x 5 mile loop right outside my door on what I call the "top-o-Falmouth" because a little side road off the loop takes you to the top of Falmouth, which is a little higher elevation than the top of Bradbury.

I was planning on doing a variant of this loop yesterday for my long run but I stopped after loop 2 to deal with an emerging blister problem and the stop just made it worse so I bailed. I ran these two loops with Ian and it was nice to have his company except that he ran it faster than I was expecting - good thing I bailed after loop 2! I needed my long run so I took off today without any real plan and I thought briefly about a double woodville loop but ultimately decided on yo-yo-ing Field Rd. because this would allow me to really avoid all flat roads. The hills weren't as high as the Blackstrap loop but it was a fairly constant up-down-up-down (you can see the yo-yo between miles 3 and 11).

I've also done a hill repeat at faster than easy pace on a more local hill than Skillins. Its on the road but the traffic is pretty minimal and its a longer climb than Skillins

I'm hoping that by including more hills in my easy days, I develop a little more leg strength. Even if I don't, these runs should make racing flat roads feel like a breeze.