Hills are hard

This is an update on how running is going these days. I finished the 12 week schedule of slow increments in distance while maintaining a faster speed. It worked wonders. I started with a mile average around 11 minutes and am now below 9 minutes for the mile average. Or I was when running on the track at our local high school. The very odd track that is .20 miles on the inside lane and .23 miles on the outer lane. More importantly, the really flat track with nary an incline or slope of any sort. I did not realize how good this was until I went out on the nature trail at work for the first time in at least three months. This trail is not in the mountains or anything dramatic like that. It does however have a lot more ups and downs than the track. Long gentle inclines that just suck the speed right out of your legs. Enough that my mile average is back up to about 9:40 minutes. I have until the Turkey Trot to work on getting this closer to the pie times, which I am putting at being below nine minutes per mile for the full five miles. Plenty of time. My distance endurance has also improved. I can now run three miles without stopping at the paces mentioned above. Its not prettty but I can actually do it. So, in addition to working on my speed (better said as "try actually getting some speed") on hills, I also have to extend my distance to a full five miles. Enough to keep my morning runs interesting. Today I ran the path for the local 5k and was almost four minutes faster than when I did it back in May. I still had the problem with the hills just taking it right out of me but I am enjoying seeing that improved time.
*smiles*