Now, THESE are hills!

I let a co-worker and work-out buddy talk me into this as a preparation for Tough Mudder coming up in October. He promised steep and difficult climbs. He was NOT kidding. We drove to the trailhead and started out walking through the scrub oak. We ran a bit of uphill trail before the roller coasters started. (Carol wisely backed out when she saw the first hill because the tread on her shoes wasn't great, and she has oodles of races planned this summer. To fall and get hurt would be a huge waste of money - not to mention the getting hurt part. She ran the paved hills below us.) We "sprinted" up the first hill. When I say "sprinted," I mean that MW sprinted and I struggled. I made it halfway up the hill before I had to walk. These were seriously steep. At the top, he barfed and fought waves of nausea. Finally, he convinced me to go on ahead. I did three more of these hills. There was a lot of walking involved. I looked at the last one and said HELL NO. I met up with MW on the way back. We had to gingerly walk what were now the downhills because they were so steep. He was right. This was a good climbing workout. We're going to do it again a few times before the TM race. We'll run some other hills in other places between now and then. I would love to take the boys there sometime! Stats: 2.48 miles in 35:44 for a 14:25mpm pace