Darn those allergies

This week my training got a bit harder. There were a couple of days in there were I slept like crap and I knew there would be no way I could get up at 5:30 to run. Then allergy season hit me like a ton of bricks. I don't know how you are doing, but about midweek it's like spring suddenly appeared and my throat hurt so bad on Thursday that I could barely speak. Running when it kind of hurts to swallow probably not such a good idea, so I gave it a rest until today. I have a nice little three-day weekend so I thought it would be a good day to make up a run. Boy was it! My throat feels better today (although I still sound a bit hoarse) and it looks absolutely beautiful out there. I got a good night's sleep and went out there and ran a bit later in the morning -- it was a bit warm for the long sleeves I wore, even, so I really enjoyed it.

On Monday I made up a "long run" and did a 6-mile run because I kind of felt like Portland Fit was keeping me at pretty low mileage right now. Lower than I am ready for. So I did that on Monday and today I decided to get a night little hill workout in. I did about a mile and half of a warmup and then did five passes up a hill by the house that is probably about a 5-10 percent incline. Not too hard of a hill so I decided to make it kind of a long one -- maybe a 90 second pass. By the fifth one I was feeling a little hard to get myself up the hill and, although time-wise it was short, the extent of the workout made it tougher. I think it's great to sometimes mix in a tougher workout on the body that is shorter in time so as to create some variety. I'm pretty happy with the workout today and so tomorrow morning I'll do Portland Fit and I'm hoping that Sunday I will feel up to doing a nice long run again. Maybe even take a little MAX ride down to the waterfront and do a loop around the trails. Sounds like fun to me.

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend and get out on the roads!