Panic Attack Hill Reps

True to my word of upping the intensity with my training, I did some more hills reps during my Sunday morning run. I had planned to do 6x 2 minute hill reps, but on the first one, the hill I choose only took about 1 minute 39 seconds, so they were going to be a little bit shorter than that. I decided however to try to do each one faster than the last and managed to do so from rep 1 to 6:

  • Hill Rep 1: 1:39
  • Hill Rep 2: 1:35
  • Hill Rep 3: 1:32
  • Hill Rep 4: 1:28
  • Hill Rep 5: 1:26
  • Hill Rep 6: 1:21

That was going to be the last one, but as I did it I decided to do a couple more at any old pace seeing as they hads been shorter than intended.

  • Hill Rep 7 came in at 1:20 though,

just a little bit faster than number 6, so that was it, 7 hill reps with each one quicker than the last, so number 8 was going to have to be an all out effort to keep the pattern.

  • Hill Rep 8: 1:15

I’d done it, but I paid the price. I certainly gone hard to make that time and I could barely get in enough oxygen at the top and almost had a panic attack as I couldn’t breathe deeply enough to recover. I told myself to slow my breathing and calm down though and I was soon OK for a nice little jog across the frost encrusted golf course back to the leisure centre ready for a swim.

It wasn’t the fastest of hill rep sessions really, but it was a good workout and will give me some targets to beat over the coming weeks.

The pool was far too warm for swimming really. I was going to do a couple of 800m swims but the heat made it feel like swimming through treacle, so I almost talked myself out of it on the first one. After a warm up and some drill I started on the first the reps, but as I approached 800m I decided to only do one. I completed the 800m and decided that if I was only doing one then I may as well string it out to 1000m. As I got to that I decided to keep going for the 1.9km which is a half Ironman distance swim. Once again though as I hit the 1900m mark I thought, well its only a few more lengths to a nice round number of 2000m, so continued on to that. Not bad in the end considering the temperature of the water, although I think it may have cooled a little during the session.

The café wasn’t open so it was then back home without a bacon sandwich or coffee, so I continued my fast until it was time for a late lunch. Not only had I done a couple of good workouts, but I was doing well with my diet too. At least, it was, until we got back from the panto later than evening when the munchies got the better of my and I ploughed my way through half a pack of paté with oatcakes, some chicken and noodle soup, a bowl or two of ‘mega maple and pecan crunch’, ½ a litre of yoghurt, some blueberry wheats, the best part of half a tin if celebrations, a few slices of Christmas Cake and several handfuls of cashew nuts. I guess I’d better be good today.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.