Tri harder

I've not been to my normal Glasgow Triathlon Club (www.glasgowtriathlonclub.co.uk) Thursday night running session for while. This is mainly because I suddenly became hooked on hill running (thanks to my Running Potter pal Rachel) in early December. But I was missing the guys and girls at the club and so I've decided to alternate between Thursday Tri runs and Bearsden hill runs.

The first night back after a few weeks off is always hard to take, and although I heard mention of this being a "recovery" week it still made me feel a little pukey. 

The format this week was a 10-min jog to warm-up, dynamic stretches and running technique drills, then eight 30-second hill reps to warm up further. The main set was 1 min 15 seconds up a long gentle hill, a run down for recovery, with either 10 squats or lunges in between each rep, all done 10 times.

And so it goes like this in the main set. First few reps I run off like a happy gazelle, bounding up the hill and chatting to my tri pals. By rep 5 I can't talk and I am regretting my starting pace but feel that I can't slow down now. By rep 7 I can't believe there's still 3 to go. By rep 8, another 2 reps seems impossible. On rep 9 I feel nauseous and my legs wobble a bit. Lap 10 hurts like hell but it's the last one so we all hit the road like last-lap heroes. 

Despite feeling weary afterwards I'm on a total high for the rest of the evening. I know I wouldn't bother doing anything so worthwhile if it wasn't for the club sessions.