Going Organic: Day 1 of "The Plan"

No, I haven't decided to exclusively buy organic (frankly, as much as I"d like to, it's too expensive for our food budget these days and the closest Whole Foods is two hours away). Organic seems to be a catch phrase these days in reference to well, just about everything. Organic growth. Organic solutions. Organic unity. But it was the word that came to mind when I was running today.

Today's workout was hill repeats part of the speed work that I will be doing on Mondays from here on out as part of my half-marathon training plan. There are plenty of hills in the town that I live in but I wanted to run the same hill repeatedly so I drove to a neighboring town (the town where my parents conveniently live= babysitting while I run) where theres a steep hill that leads up to a watchtower. I haven't run repeats on the hill since I was in college, it was an integral part of my training when I was training for my first marathon. I believe running the hill is what help make me fast. So going back to it seemed like a good idea, since the last time I ran "hills" was on the treadmill.

Running "hills" on the treadmill by manipulating the incline is a hard workout, but really nowhere near as hard as running a real hill. When it gets hard it is easy to hop off the treadmill and rest for a bit. It seems like the stakes are higher outside, with cars driving by, people watching: you don't want to stop and walk. There's a innate level of increased intensity with running outside as opposed to running on a treadmill. Which is what I'm trying to get back to in my training by avoiding the treadmill and going outside; getting back to something more natural, more organic.