Yesterday, I decided to do a more intense hill workout than typical. The hills at Sharon Woods are my closest option, plus the park is pretty.

The hills are within the first 2 miles of my usual starting point, but the rest of the loop is pretty flat. My plan was to walk 2 miles out, turn around and walk the 2 miles back for 4 miles of hills. However, when I got to the top of the last hill, I estimated I had walked only about 1.5 miles. Because my goal was to walk hills,  I just wasn’t interested in walking an extra half mile with no hills. Here’s where I made an easy decision, but it is a little bit hard to explain.

At the top of that last hill, I decided to turn around, repeat the last half mile of hills then go back to the 1.5-mile point. I turned around and went back to my starting point for a total of 4 miles. (I know it is confusing, but I can’t figure out a clear way to explain this.)

The workout was great! The hills were challenging and today I even felt a little bit sore. A “you did a good workout the day before” sore. I thought I was ready for the Parkerburg Half Marathon before this, but after this hill workout, I feel even better.
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NOTE: Sharon Woods doesn’t have half-mile markers, just mile markers. When I got to the top of that last hill, I had walked 7:36 min past the mile marker. Though I walked the first mile in 14:30 and the last mile in 14:00, I decided to estimate that 7:36 was a half mile just to make my life easier. I’m sure I walked a little farther that 4 miles.

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