Heat + Humidity + Hills = Hell

It’s my own fault. Since November I’ve avoided hills with the rationalization that I was training for a flat half marathon. I convinced myself that it was more important to focus on distance and endurance. I don’t need much convincing to avoid hills. I always time my 1 min per mile walk breaks for the steepest elevation changes along my route. Downhill is fine. I’ve got great quads.

As for the heat and humidity, the winter season took care of that. Now both are back with a vengeance.

My last 2 races (5Ks) had a lot of hills and it was evident that I needed to reacquaint myself with those during training. I spent my last 2 days attacking my “North Hills” route while the pollen was attacking me. It wasn’t pretty. My next race is a hilly 5K too.

You would think that I’d learn my lesson by now. You can’t avoid the hard stuff. My hamstrings are confirming how foolish I’ve been. I’m going out there again today, but just walking. I don’t want to stress those muscles too much, but still want them to do some work.