Today’s Workout: 

Total Mileage: 5.02 miles

Total Time: 00:52:18

Average Pace: Not sure (the hill sprints messed up my pacing and my watch went a little crazy)

Breakdown: 
1.1 mile slow run
8 x 10 second hill sprints
3.5 mile slow run 

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After yesterday’s post I think I was able to finally breathe a huge sigh of relief.  Now that I have put it out there, I have given in to the fact that this is happening and it is up to me to make it happen. 

I started off my training with some speed work yesterday, and today I continued it with hill sprints. 

For those of you who don’t know hill sprints consist of quick (usually about 10 seconds) sprints up a steep hill. They aren’t long but you are supposed to give about 90-95% effort. You are pretty much going to failure on each of these.   

I started by jogging to the hill near my house. I ran a total of about 1.1 miles before making it to the hill.  A tip for the future, next time I will try to do more of a warm up slow run before hand maybe 2 miles at least.  My legs were not quite into it yet and 3.5 mile was a long way to run after doing 8 hill sprints.

I completed 8 x 10 second hill sprints and then jogged back down the hill after they were complete. These are TOUGH but effective!

Here is a great article by Brad Hudson who uses hill sprints for all of the athletes he trains: 
http://running.competitor.com/2013/01/training/steep-hill-sprints_9050 

When I finished the sprints I jogged and finished out a total of 5 miles.  I am really working into the speed work because you don’t want to over do it at first.  I am focusing on speed work for the first couple months (starting with 2 speed workouts a week) while still completing semi-long runs on the weekend. 

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I was a sweaty mess afterwards but I was happy to complete it.  

In response to a few questions, no I have not decided yet which marathon I will be attempting to qualify for Boston in.  I will decide eventually and as soon as I do I will let you know, the EARLIEST it would be would be is in the spring of 2014.  

What is the biggest fitness goal you have ever set for yourself? I would love to hear about some other goals out there! 

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