Monday August 24 saw MVXC14 make their first trip up Fire Trail for hill reps on Matt’s Hill…this is always a trip of mixed emotions, as this is a bear of a climb (that we will have to do many times to come this season) yet at the same time it feels like the work has begun! One of the cool traditions the team has is the cheer-tunnel to welcome every runner up the top of the trail…and as always, our tunnel looked great!
The hill reps, while hard, give us just about the best bang-for-the-buck of any workout–we seem to get more return in race performance for the time the workout takes. The main benefits are in the areas of strength development (running hills is resistance training), running form/running economy, and our anaerobic systems, however there are significant gains in our aerobic system and our ability to process lactate too (though that is not the focus of this workout). There are also psychological gains–we get more confident in attacking hilly cross country courses, and the effort-recovery cycle helps us learn to recover on the run.
Great job, everyone!
I posted photos (downloadable) on the team’s Picasa site.
