The Bear Done Good

I did it readers. You would have been so proud of me tonight. I'd set out a plan to tackle an old fav; 5x4min long hill efforts. Tonight I was trembling at the prospect; this is a tough session at the best of times. I'd been reassuring myself all day that, well, if I couldn't do 5 reps then I'd just have to do 4, or reduce to 3 if I felt terrible. Anyway, did the usual warm up for a couple of miles and then decided to go straight for it (you don't want to prolong the agony as they say). First rep was lung bursting and legs felt heavy and tired. I managed to get through rep #2 feeling a bit better and then rep #3 was the peak, I managed to get the furthest of all the reps in the 4 mins; just passing the bungalow driveway at the top with the funny lantern on the corner. I then felt weak and wobbly and jelly Elvis legs starteded to kick in. I'd decided at that point I was only gonna manage 4 reps. This fourth one was the worst of all as my breathing didn't settle and my legs were aching to stop. Somehow I managed a bit of a strong spurt in the last 20 seconds. By this time I'd decided to call it a day. Then, somewhere halfway through the recovery downhill towards Ilkley that then shifted to 'I could possibly squeeze a 3 min rep for the last one'. That then shifted to 'I could maybe do 2x2 mins to make sure I do the full 20 mins altogether'. I then got to the start position and thought 'I'll just go for it like I'm doing a 2min effort but see if I can hang on'. Well. I'm pleased to say that I got right to the top and managed to squeeze out a full 4 mins for rep #5. Feel so chuffed I didn't give up! Through gritted teeth and plenty of gurning I got to the top; frightening the old bloke with my pained faces whilst he busily mowed his pristine lawn to my right at the 3 min mark. All in all, feel chuffed to have got through the whole thing and am now nicely shattered. It was tough to do this session alone again but it's good prep for those tough bits in races where you just wanna give up and walk. I did good tonight. I'm enjoying this training lark once again. Can't wait to tackle the weekend runs. Night all.