It was another crazy warm day in Pittsburgh today.  Unfortunately, work commitments prevented me from getting my run workout done early.  By the time it became time for me to run, it was mid afternoon, and the temperature was 80’F.  A little hot to be running, especially when I was scheduled to do hill repeats and tempo work.

This run workout involves some harder efforts, so I was really sweating by the end of it.  Hill repeats are a very useful training tool for runners.  I wrote a previous blog post all about them.  The hill I used today, the one in the photo, is a little steeper than my usual hill.  This was OK because my goal today was five, thirty second repeats at 90% effort.  The steeper hill helped me get to the 90% effort level a little more easily.

The reason my workout was so challenging however, was that I transitioned straight from hill repeats into tempo running.  This was made more challenging, because I started the tempo run at the bottom of a hill. The first three minutes of tempo was all uphill.  My pace was a little slower, but I ran at a Tempo effort.

After this hill repeats and tempo work run session, I rested and hydrated for an hour or so, before heading to the pool.  At the pool, I gave my shoulders a good workout, with some paddle work.  All in all, it turned out to be a very successful day of training.