A Hilly 8

Today, we increased our mid week long run to 8 miles. I believe that is mileage for the next 3 weeks. As the distance gets longer, our start times will be earlier. The plan was to meet at the Y at 0555. I was early (0545) and I was walking up to do some stretching and wait for Scott, he appeared from out of the Y. Scott did some light stretching and we were off... early.

I came up with the run for today and it is one of my favorites. The middle 3 miles are hills, hills, and more hills. Nothing crazy but you do get kind of tired of them. We headed to the park from the Y. After a half loop, we caught Wiggins and ran the "Art Course" (hills). The Art Course is about a 3 mile loop from the picnic shelter at Washington Park. You head out Wiggins, cross Outer Park, run around the neighborhood, take Outer Park to Illini to Leland to Wiggins and back into the park. It is a GREAT run and will definately build strength.

We totalled 8 miles for the morning pushing about an 8:20 pace. After we finished, Scott ran off the splits and we were almost negative with the exception of 2 of the miles and those were only off by a couple seconds.

Last night was cross training where I completed 45 minutes on the recumbent bike, 2 sets of my weights routine, and some stomach work.