anarchist_nomad (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
anarchist_nomad) wrote2014-02-20 12:02 pm
anarchist_nomad) wrote2014-02-20 12:02 pm
A Day In The Life (Chapter Two: A Running Milestone)
I returned upstairs to Chiron Beta Prime, our flat, and consumed said breakfast. Then it was time for a run. Normally, setting out for a 60 minute run would no longer qualify as newsworthy. After all, I do these a couple of times each week now. However, I was determined that today's run would be different.
As mentioned above, I live in the neighbourhood of Headington. Headington sits at the top of the similarly named Headington Hill. Headington Hill is steep. Intimidatingly so. Only once have I successfully ridden my bicycle all the way up the hill; normally I make it halfway before dismounting and walking the bike up the rest of the way.
When I took up running in 2012, I was very careful to choose routes in East Oxford that would avoid running down the hill. After all, what goes down must come up! As my runs got progressively longer, these proto-routes merged into what became my "standard run" -- a 12 km loop around the eastern portion of Oxford. This is all fine and good... but running the same route eventually gets dull. A few months ago, I broadened my horizons with runs that start by going down the hill in the first five minutes, then spend the rest of the workout running up a gentle gradient that takes me back home without ever needing to climb the steep hill.
This, too, was good. Tis a nice route and sometimes allows me to run past my darling![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miss_amaranth when she walks to work. Nothing wrong with this route -- or the original -- and I plan to continue using them both.
That said, I have been running for nearly eighteen months now. In my travels, I have encountered hillier locations than Oxford. My standard run in Tokai, Japan has a steep section; when visiting Mom in Staten Island, NYC in December, I also ran up a couple of hills (e.g., Forest Hill and Todt Hill) that I estimate are steeper than Headington Hill. Thus, on Monday I decided that the time to fear Headington Hill had passed. I would demystify the experience by taking the bull by the horns.
The route was simple to devise -- merely reversing my path would take me down a gentle gradient for 45 minutes, then up Headington Hill in the last 5 - 10 minutes of the run. And that, my friends, is precisely what I did.
Post run, I am actually very pleased with myself. As suspected, running the hill was far less difficult than I had once envisioned. Surprisingly enough, I made very good time for today's run, too. My overall pace was 5:24 for sixty minutes, which means that I ran 11.1 km in an hour. That doesn't break the current record (5:10), but it is faster than the average (about 5:30). Indeed, during the kilometer that included the hill, I still managed a pace of 5:31. Not too shabby!
I hate to say it, but methinks that there will be more running up Headington Hill in my future. It isn't fun, but it is doable... and it is good for me. Maybe I can aim to tackle nearby Shotover Hill sometime soon.
As mentioned above, I live in the neighbourhood of Headington. Headington sits at the top of the similarly named Headington Hill. Headington Hill is steep. Intimidatingly so. Only once have I successfully ridden my bicycle all the way up the hill; normally I make it halfway before dismounting and walking the bike up the rest of the way.
When I took up running in 2012, I was very careful to choose routes in East Oxford that would avoid running down the hill. After all, what goes down must come up! As my runs got progressively longer, these proto-routes merged into what became my "standard run" -- a 12 km loop around the eastern portion of Oxford. This is all fine and good... but running the same route eventually gets dull. A few months ago, I broadened my horizons with runs that start by going down the hill in the first five minutes, then spend the rest of the workout running up a gentle gradient that takes me back home without ever needing to climb the steep hill.
This, too, was good. Tis a nice route and sometimes allows me to run past my darling
miss_amaranth when she walks to work. Nothing wrong with this route -- or the original -- and I plan to continue using them both.That said, I have been running for nearly eighteen months now. In my travels, I have encountered hillier locations than Oxford. My standard run in Tokai, Japan has a steep section; when visiting Mom in Staten Island, NYC in December, I also ran up a couple of hills (e.g., Forest Hill and Todt Hill) that I estimate are steeper than Headington Hill. Thus, on Monday I decided that the time to fear Headington Hill had passed. I would demystify the experience by taking the bull by the horns.
The route was simple to devise -- merely reversing my path would take me down a gentle gradient for 45 minutes, then up Headington Hill in the last 5 - 10 minutes of the run. And that, my friends, is precisely what I did.
Post run, I am actually very pleased with myself. As suspected, running the hill was far less difficult than I had once envisioned. Surprisingly enough, I made very good time for today's run, too. My overall pace was 5:24 for sixty minutes, which means that I ran 11.1 km in an hour. That doesn't break the current record (5:10), but it is faster than the average (about 5:30). Indeed, during the kilometer that included the hill, I still managed a pace of 5:31. Not too shabby!
I hate to say it, but methinks that there will be more running up Headington Hill in my future. It isn't fun, but it is doable... and it is good for me. Maybe I can aim to tackle nearby Shotover Hill sometime soon.
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