Hills, hills, hills...

The last week has been a bit of a recovery week. I skipped the long run over the Easter weekend, but did get out for two runs, an 8-miler with a friend Jon, who we stayed with in St Ives, and another (5 miles) on my own.

I have recently taken the step of trading-in pure miles for shorter more intense hill training sessions.

My weekly schedule is now usually:

Sunday - Long run (unless it's a recovery week)
Monday - Medium / long run to back-up the Sunday run
Tuesday - Rest day
Wednesday - Hills
Thursday - Weight training
Friday - Hills
Saturday - Rest day

Trading-in the pure miles seems to be suiting me better. I feel less like I'm on the verge of illness or injury, and I am recovering better from my training sessions and feel like I'm getting stronger.

Yesterday was a typical hills session taking-in a variety of local hills. I wore my Heart Rate Monitor out of interest. The results were as follows:


I gave it some stick up Marlborough Hill. A hill steep enough to get my HR up towards its limit. My heart maxed-out at 184bpm which was lower than I was expecting.

My max-HR used to be about 192bpm. Maybe my max-HR has lowered due to age.

Hoping for another good long run this Sunday.