The Grand Old Duke of York

Distance : 8.20km
Time : 45:49

The Duke had ten thousand men to march up and down his hill, this evening there was just me.

This was the first time I've tried doing hill reps. For those that don't know this is basically running up and down a hill, which is almost as much fun as it sounds!

I had a chosen hill for my reps, a nice steep one (in my opinion) which forms part of one of my regular runs, I've never enjoyed climbing it so the prospect of repeatedly doing so didn't fill me with joy.

The only issue with said hill was it is over 3k from my house. I did think about getting the bus to the bottom but on second thoughts that is just lazy!

So, I set off at a very slow pace to the bottom of the hill on the basis I just wanted to be warmed up and as fresh as I could be.

I wasn't running the whole hill, just the steepest bit. The first assent wasn't too bad got up to a decent speed and descended for another rep.

The second and third were not quite as much fun. To the point where I followed the "listen to your body" motto; after three reps mine was saying "enough of this lark fella time to take that 3k run home and have some tea".

By the end I was getting some very strange looks of people as I kept passing them back and forth. Better get used to it, I'll be back next week...

Three reps was enough for the first time, I can target to do more next. What pleased me the most about the run was a clocked up over eight k's, granted at a slower than normal pace was the ability to increase my pace up the hill, have a sprint finish, and still finish without feeling that knackered. I'm feeling really positive about Sheffield now, bring it on!!