Run!

I was having musings on the letter versus the spirit, usually I am a spirit person but I thought I'd fall back on "letter" today - only I wish I had checked my workout before going out, as I realize I was obsessing so much about the three hills that I forgot about the 1hr part!

Coach Dave's instructions: "1hr run (try to huff and puff on 3 hills, like really enjoy the hurt. It's all about perspective!"

So I finished the second of two reports due this morning and I didn't have to be on campus until one and I thought - WIN! Time for proper run now!

On the downside, it is 40F and overcast and windy and wintry, and as soon as I set out (with the intention of doing 3x Harlem Hill, with option to jog or walk the hill home depending on how I felt), I could tell that (a) my lower body is just TIRED from weightlifting and (b) my back is very very tight.

Anyway got one really good run up Harlem Hill, TRUE huffing and puffing with happy running chemicals making me feel great, but my back was so tight and sore that I was making faces: not pain as such, but definitely well past uncomfortable. (Lower right-hand back - this has long been a weakness for me, and I pulled the right spinal erector muscle a few years ago, so all of that side is just prone to be grotesquely clenched.)

Scaled back expectations and figured I could count the hill up 110th St. as #2 (more scrunched-up faces of discomfort!) and then (this really is barely in the letter!) the one-block hill from Riverside to my building near Broadway as hill #3. That took me to :45 but as I say I had forgotten that there was a time suggestion as well as a direction re: huffing and puffing!

Anyway anomalously I'm not teaching a proper class tomorrow (student presentations and a truncated day) so I think I can get out again tomorrow morning for 40 minutes with something like 6 or 8 x the 1-minute Riverside Park hill.

In summary: :45, 3 hills, quite a bit of huffing and puffing, sore back!