Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The hills of Ohio

Joke: What’s round on the outside and high in the middle?

O-H-I-O!

And boy do they have the High part right!

Over Memorial Day weekend, the Mrs. and I went to Ohio to visit her family and friends. While there I needed to get some kind of workout in.

I needed something to justify all those glorious home cooked meal and gluttonous drinking occasions!

The good news:
Last year - I ran the neighborhood and was the hills forced me to walk. It felt like it took forever to get anywhere. I ran down to the end of the block and back. Whew! What a workout.

This year - Hills? What Hills? This is easy, the end of the block?! Way to easy! Let’s keep going!

The bad news:
I'm feeling so good, I decide to find some serious hills (not a hard thing to do around here). I found the hill from hell! Short and steep!

14 % grade - 0.3 miles – 100+ feet from top to bottom.

Hill repeats – 2 miles worth! That’s 5 times up and down.

Down 14%! That’s a nice workout on the quads.



I thought that the Midwest states were supposed to be flat!!

9 comments:

triguyjt said...

Its amazing how many fricking hills we have here... less in cleveland, than in north central ohio by mansfield, loudonville.
toughest race I ever did was one of the ironman distance races in mohican area..called the pineman...

of course down in southeast part of ohio-wva its much steeper in spots... crazy... course those are speed bumps compared to thosde western states mountains..

SWTrigal said...

I am from Ohio-is there really a 14% hill anywhere in the state??
:)

Anonymous said...

Way to go on that seriously steep hill! How awesome that it's getting easier, too. Keep up the awesome training :)

S. Baboo said...

It's the mountains of the west that makes the midwest seem flat but anytime I've workout in the midwest it seems like a never ending series of rollers, you can get a lot of elevation gain that way.

Team Brazo said...

14% -- now that is a hill. I'd hate to do that on a bike, might tip backwards.

Calyx Meredith said...

You are addicted to hills! Could you share some of that because I'm so intimidated by them!! I don't mind them on the bike (in fact I think they're interesting) but on the run? They make me want to cry. You? Cracking jokes on every repeat I bet. Well done!

Ryan said...

My wife is from Cincinnati and every time we go back, I think the same thing,

"Damn this place is hilly!"

Although anywhere is hilly when compared to Pensacola. I live 7 feet above sea level and less than 1 mile from the Gulf of Mexico.

Crap!!!!!

How high was that Tsunami?

Great! Now I've got to worry about Tsunamis and Hurricanes. I miss LA!

IronTriTim said...

Good job on getting in some training while you are away. I know I tend to let my training lack when I'm away.

Rachel said...

Ugh. Come to San Diego, and I'll show you hills. I never do hill repeats--I just go out the door. It's hard to find somewhere flat to go on recovery days though.