30mins, 35...

Well I didn't get round to blogging last week for one reason and another, but if I had, it would've been to mark the passing of the 30 minute mark.

So on Monday this week, I pounded out a 35minute run, and realised I've now got to work out how to solve a problem. This problem is aproximately 80 feet high, and measures just over 1/10th of a mile, but it's so far proving an absolute brick wall. I can't get past it.

There are 2 ways up to our house from Kirkstall Road, one a steeper incline that links to a slower rise up the same ridge. I don't quite understand the mechanics of it, but the seemingly more shallow of the routes has always been more difficult for me, although the steep one is far from easy. So far, the distances in the training plan have allowed me to walk up the last bit, but not for much longer.

Having realised this, on Wednesday morning, I set out to Kill the Hill. In my head, the plan was to run a short circuit 3 times. Down the hill from our house, down the steeper road, along the main road and then back onto the long hill. I ran it once and nearly expired when I got home. I walked back down the hill and tried to run back up and had to give up just a few steps into it. I ran back down the steep hill, this time really annoyed and gave it my last shot. I was breathing hard, hot and sweaty, as though I'd been out on my usual length run, and as I started on the rise again, I knew it was not going to happen. I walked home drenched, worn out and pissed off, arriving back at the door only 16minutes after leaving.

So on Friday, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I shortened the route by knocking the uphill curve off the first stage and heading onto the flatter part of the road that I used when I first started training again, thinking it was psychologically more important that I finished the run on the hill than that I clocked up another full length circuit. However, I couldn't get into it, my breathing was out, my legs felt tired and it felt like hard work. I managed only 20 minutes before switching to a walk for 5 minutes, and only another 5 minutes of running before getting onto the lower slope of the hill and having to give up again after only 2 0r 3 minutes of heavy plodding.

I was now fuming with myself. Why did I decide to live halfway up a hill? I obviously wasn't thinking about running when I moved in. I used to eat hills for breakfast when I was running round Morley, and Meanwood's valleys were fun for me back in the days before the 2007 10k. But back then, I wasn't lugging this extra weight, and I was 4 years younger.... How on Earth can I solve this problem?

Then I remembered that it hadn't always been easy in Morley, and remembered running up a half-mile long section of one of the longest hills in Leeds, Gelderd Road. In my memory, I spent weeks dejectedly running out of puff and having to walk for 2 or 3 minutes, feeling that I'd never make it, and knowing that I had to crack it in time to be running the complete 5k distance at my first Race for Life.

And I recalled the near legendary "Dunny Hill", the precipitous dip at the bottom of Stonegate Road. It acquired its status in my childhood when it was the challenge that would dog my Dad on his training runs for the eventual marathons he completed. When I first conquered it in training for the 2007 10k there was a very proud monent in our father-daughter phone call. My Dad understands. He's been vicariously running through me since I got serious about it. His little old legs still get the urge to get out there, but his knees, joints and beer belly are going nowhere these days. I remembered how I cracked the others.

This morning I set off on my full 5k route. I slowed my pace to something fairly easy, overcoming the doubt right at the beginning, concentrating on my breathing and allowing it to increase on the ups and relax on the downs. I made it to the bottom of the hill at 35minutes, and walked up the steeper of the 2 roads, not stressing about it, and knowing my heart was still working solidly. I set myself a visual target, a streetlight I think of as the point where the hill evens out, and when I got there, I started running again. And when I got back to the house, I felt like I'd made it. Bad run turned into good run.

Next time, tomorrow morning, I'll do the same again, but run a few steps further before stopping, so I'll be further up the hill, walking until I get my breath back, then starting running at the lamp before the one I started again at today. This week's challenge is to close the gap little by little until next Sunday, when I hope to run the whole 5k circuit for the first time.

From now on, I'll also be getting back to some serious walking, to and from town Monday-Friday, which should help with shifting some of this extra weight that's making it all so much harder.

In the meantime, I need some more support and encouragement. Time to be a bit more noisy on Facebook, I think!