Aobadai Hill Loop

Run Type: Hill workout. 13.4 km. Non-hilll portions at about HR 140 to 145.
Route: Home to Aobadai, around a little, then five Aobadai Hill Loops

I needed about 12 km this morning so that after tomorrow's long run (target: 27.5 km) I would have around 95 for the week. So, what to do? Well, we had a great thunder storm last night and the air felt cooler than it has been for a while, so, why not another hill workout? I was going to use Saturdays to alternate hills and core-strengthening circuit type workout. But I did the core exercises on Wednesday and my gut muscles are still a bit tender (DOMS of the guts) . So, hills it was, same as last Saturday. Ran up to the red bridge at Aobadai and quickly discovered that even though it was as cool as yesterday (at 25 deg C, I use the word "cool" loosely here) it was probably even more humid. Still, heart rate was lower than on the same run last week. Got a bit lost running from the bridge to the hill, so that was about another 2 km. Then decided instead of running up and down the same hill I'd make a loop. This worked out well because the uphill is fairly long and of moderate slope, total length, 708 meters. Here is the loop. So I did five of these. Really flogged myself on the last one and just about popped a gasket, but still the heart rate didn't go over 173. So I need another HRM to be able to measure HRmax. Ran back home at about the same heart rate as last week, but 24 sec/km faster. That's a clear indication of the heat effect. I like this hill loop and I think I'll do it fairly regularly from now on.

Tatsuya left for a soccer camp today for four days. His 15th birthday is tomorrow, the 14th, so we celebrated last night. Kasuya Rei and Obaa-chan came by. Here we all are: