Monsters

I don't believe they exist, but how about a monstrous hill.....ask any runner in seattle and he inevitably would have run on one...Well, I have done only three runs so far in seattle and each time I think, "hmm, looks good, today's going to be a flat, fast one..", I turn around the corner and there it is...the hill, the up-slope, the steep grade..whatever you wish to call it.
I noticed on today's run that it's much easier to run up a long hill than bike it up. I have gone on bicycle rides on some of the most treacherous hills out here in the past two weeks and yeah, its terrible. But whenever I ride up a hill, I think to myself..here's another hill training session.."The taming of the monster"...But next time I go around the same place, it doesn't get any better, despite the gears and experience.
Another good thing about today's run was that it involved 12 minutes of climbing and 7 minutes of down-hill running. Yep, I have never done that successfully before. Downhill running can be bad for your knees they say. Some also say that you should run a down-hill in an unrestrained manner...I had some success in that aspect today..Its hard to maintain your balance, avoid slippages and yet go "un-restrained" down the hill..Plus if its raining or the ground is wet , its gonna be a pretty risky thing to do.
The hill was a real long one, so by the time I had hit the flat portion on the boyer ave, the momentum from the down-hill running, saw me run abnormally fast speeds(for my current level of fitness) during the rest of the run..Anyway a great run today, hills are unavoidable and they are good for my calves and quads..so I am going for it.