When 5 Miles is Not Just 5 Miles

Distance: 5.66 mi (18.05 total miles this week)
Pace: 9.35 min/mi (Avg weekly pace: 9.86 min/mi)
Location: Raley Field to the Capitol building to midtown and back
Week Locations: Treadmill, my neighborhood, El Dorado HILLS, See above

The Relay, or what I'd like to call 200 miles of running bliss, is less than a week away. You might have seen some variation of it. There usually is one in every region taking you from different terrain to different terrain, touring the state. Some crazy person decides they want to assemble a team of 12 people to go two sleepless, non-stop running days only to end with a buffet of room-temperature beer (unless you have a fantastic cooler), is how it gets started. The race I'm doing promises to be an absolute eye-candy route from Calistoga to Santa Cruz. The team to look out for? Team "Trans Fatty Asses." That should give you an idea of the mis-fits our team is made of and the sense of sick humor we have. No, I exaggerate. We are a pretty diverse group of runners ranging from sub 7-minute milers to folks like me and I couldn't be happier with the team I've gotten.

So this is what I'm training for. I'm Runner 3 rounding out legs 3, 15, and 27. I'm not so worried about leg 3 or leg 27 (though leg 27 comes after 2 days of no sleep), but leg 15 is rated as a "hard" leg. Although not far in distance, the leg has me climbing 225' in 2 miles then descending 480' in 4.5 miles. Even though this falls far short of the 1000'+ climbs a couple of my teammates have to endure, I am new to this hill thing. With the exception of the Lake Tahoe Iron Girl Triathlon I did last year, I climb all of maybe 30' running around the Sacramento area? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't frightened. But more than frightened, I'm excited! I'm excited for the opportunity to train for this unfamiliar challenge.

Team "Trans Fatty Asses" Van 1 decided we wanted do some hill work this past Thursday. When asked how many miles we should do, I bravely said 5 miles and got a look of "are you sure?" And this is where I learned that 5 miles, is not JUST 5 miles. You see, the Fricks live in El Dorado Hills and the name of the city is quite literal. I can't tell you how low we descended and then how high we climbed but the muscles I worked doing it, I did not know I had. We were running in a man-made trail dodging branches and jumping rocks. It was one of the most fun and also most challenging runs I've done.

We were rounding up the last mile of the run when Mr. Frick and I started chatting about how to improve our pace and he mentioned something about running hills. Naturally, I did what any 20-something would do and Googled it. You see, I've tried a lot of things to improve my pace, from mediocre strength training, to forced cross training to running intervals but I've been stagnant around this 10 min/mi pace for my long distance runs. My leg 15 can best be described as a mixed hill. The ups will challenge my calves, posture, coordination and endurance. While fatigue will undoubtedly set in, the downhill is where I have to worry about strain and injury. It is in downhill running that the runner will experience the most impact to their body, thus increasing the strain on your ankles and knees. Paying attention to my posture by leaning into the hill and my opening my stride will get me through. And the opportunity lies in learning to run efficiently (a term we economists love to hear). Remembering not to use all my energy and fighting the uphill will allow me to take full advantage of the downhill, which is what will improve my pace.

This race will be an adventure. I don't think I'll ever experience anything like it again (even if I do this race again) because of all the unknowns. I'll keep my phone on me and will tweet about the entire team's race just to give you an idea. Follow me @cristina_wong.

Credits to Brian Mac Sports Coach and Coach Jenny of Runner's World for the training tips.

The hills are my best friend...