2km warm up | 8 x 300m hills | 2km warm down Boy was that tough. It was drizzling from the start and my legs were hurting. Stiff hammys & calves, a sore middle toe - I could go on. Anyway I ran my warm up like a cripple (lucky it was dark) and then after the first two reps this little voice was telling me to go home. I recalled reading Heather Turland's tips recently on the C2S website. She spoke of mental toughness and heartbreak hill. She said you should visualize a door slamming every time you have a negative thought. OK then. SLAM ! I stopped and stretched some more and headed back up the hill. I always try to keep an even pace for the entire hill and try and run each rep with the same intensity. SLAM ! SLAM ! SLAM ! SLAM ! The hills weren't hard work at all really. It was that mental barrier coming down the hills in the rain with that voice saying "Maaaaate, go home. You've done enough" that made it hard. Grrr. SLAM ! With two more to go it started to really rain hard. My shirt was heavy with rain and my socks were squishy. "Go home fool!" that bloody little voice said. I recalled that Nike Ad with the fat lady singing, where the cyclist gritted his teeth and rode through her image ? SLAM ! SLAM ! After all that I actually finished feeling OK. I wasn't as stiff and sore as I was at the start. When I got home I spent a good 20 mins stretching out everything and anything from the hips down. They say that hill sessions build core strength. I'm not sure if my core is feeling any stronger at the moment. We'll just have to wait and see how much juice I have in the tank when I hit the top of the hill at Vaucluse in August. Mood: ---> :D

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