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Welcome Home Hill Fartleks!

August 8, 2019 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I've invented a new game. Its called Hill Farkleks. You guys are gonna love it.

I stepped off the plane at BWI this evening after 9 days in Hawaii ready to run. Soon after walking in the door of my parents' house and putting my bags down I dashed out again in the still-humid but cool 8pm air, relieved to no longer be running in a tropical climate (literally! Oahu's latitude really is that far south). I felt sluggish but could think of no good reason why I should be--I'd done pretty normal runs the past two days. Of course, maybe taking a redeye and sitting on a plane for 10 hours had something to do with, but I wasn't gonna let that stop me. I decided that if I wanted to feel good I would have to make myself feel good and the best way to do that was to run some pickups. I know, it sounds counterintuitive, but seriously, sometimes the best way to shake your body out of rut is some quick bouts of hard effort so it can recalibrate what "hard" and "easy" are. I picked up the pace running alleys between Tennyson and Western, but soon hit upon a better plan: push every hill. So for the next 45 minutes every time I got to a hill, no matter how small or gradual, I charged. At first, I would only slightly increase my speed and ease off as soon as I reached the summit, but in time I started to really turn on the heat. About halfway into the run, I began to do all the hills "hopper style," opening up my stride as I came over the crest and the slope dropped away and keeping up my effort until I reached some random landmark like a sign or corner 50-100m after. I daresay I enjoyed it.

I swooped down to Candy Cane and had my biggest hill yet ascending to Brookville along some streets I'd somehow never explored before (probably because it's so hilly). After that I meandered a big between Brookville and Connecticut where David Plotz '03 used to live. Merrily defying the "no outlet" signs, I discovered a new cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac shortcut and only runners and pedestrians can slip through. Never let those signs deter you from exploring, I say! Who knows what surprises lurk down a so-called dead-end street.

Coming back through the neighborhood between Bradley and East-West on the other side of Connecticut I took in one last big hill and then found that my pace wasn't really slowing down. In fact, I was getting stronger. My legs somehow knew to speed up on the uphills before I even noticed there was a hill to be surmounted. The last few blocks to Rittenhouse found me flying. I sprang up the long Rittenhouse hill from Broad Branch to 33rd, whizzing by my parents' house, and then slowed to a nice jog around the neighborhood to cool down.

Next time you all wanna find a way to make your run more interesting or shake your self out of a slump, try a game of fartlek hills. It'll wake ya up, guaranteed. I don't even know how many I ran, but what does it matter--they're all of random length and totally unplanned. It's all part of the challenge.