I plan to kick my own butt this weekend running by adding formal hillwork to my Sunday workout and hopefully mix it into my weekly workouts in prep for Baltimore .. my 20 miler tomorrow offers me some rolling hills but its just one of the normal courses I’ve been running, so there’s nothing really new. Sunday though, I plan to head out along a new route, either east or south from where I live to what I’ve always called the ‘hilly region’, basically the area that i’ve never spent time running, naturally because of the hills. Now is the time to face it ..

I didn’t finish mapping out the Baltimore course for elevation as of yet, but from the existing elevation map, it’s looking like about a 200 foot elevation increase over a 3 mile section from the start of the race… then 7 miles of pretty much downhill (yeah, like they said at the Steamtown Marathon .. then about 7 miles of pretty much flat (yeah, like they said at the LVHNM) .. then another 200 feet of incline over the next 4 miles .. then its all over the place for the finish (but thankfully mostly downhill).. call me cynical, but thats hard to train for, I have quite a challenge ahead of me..

So we’ll go out this weekend, do the best we can with hillwork, and most importantly not injure myself, its not worth that .. its supposed to be actually COLD on Sunday, I mean COLD, they’re talking 40 degrees overnight Saturday??? I’m not sure i’m ready for that weather yet, so either way, it’ll be an interesting weekend. The chilliness will be a nice change from last Sunday (the marathon) where I totally overheated…

Off to rest, a long weekend is ahead ….