Hill reps - really

When you are doing the Steepest Street in the World Race, you want to be okay with steep ascents. Your legs and lungs need to be ready for it, and you need to know how to pace yourself. Hence that I was doing my normal route with extra enthusiasm. From my front door to the top of Moel Faban is some 250 m up, and thereby quite comparable to the race. And when I couldn't physically stand up on the top of this rather small hill I sought solace on the incline on its flank, which was rather sheltered. And I actually enjoyed it. So the next time I did a run I made sure to go there again. I approach it from halfway up, and I decided to run to the top, walk down, and then run the whole way up again. The whole incline is about 50 m up. About 1/4 of the steep slope of the upcoming race!

The next time I came there I did it again. This time I had the extra entertainment of the Coast Guard practising their first aid skills right next to the incline. And after I had run up one and a half times, I couldn't resist going up one last time. I surprised myself! Since when do I enjoy this? Hill reps, that sounds way too much like hard work. But this incline is right on one of my common running routes. I seem to have got the bug now. I think I will be doing incline reps more often. And I think it's good for me! Give these lungs something to do...

At the bottom of the incline

At the top