The Hillz that Killz

Last Thursday, Garmy and I went to the gym to calibrate. It turned out to be a relatively painless experience, and I thought the instruction booklet explained it well. After 1 mile on the treadmill, my Garmin was showing 1.3 miles. I guess that's not quite so much when you are looking at just one mile, but over several miles, that extra 0.3 really adds up and ends up making it look like I ran much farther than I truly did. So, I did another couple miles after calibrating and called it a night.
On Saturday the group met at the Running Spot. When I say group I mean the whole group, not just the half that I belong to now that we are divided by pace. Luckily, I was able to get a parking spot. It was really cold (I think about 25 degrees) when we started, and it only got colder as the day progressed. Maybe our coaches are trying to thin the group out a little and get people to quit, because they sent us on one of the worst runs ever. It was about 8 miles through Eden Park and Mt. Adams, the two most hilly areas in the city. I was feeling kind of tired that morning, but I still managed a 9:50 average pace. (Which is really quite good considering the hills/mountains we had to traverse.) Lindsay was in Chicago for the weekend, so she was not there. I started out with Holly but soon ran out ahead of her and lost her at a traffic light after about 1 miles. So, I ended up running most of the run alone. When it comes to longer runs, I always prefer to run with others, but it was so cold and I was so out of breath on Saturday, I don't think it would have made that much of a difference. I was pretty wiped out after that run, so I skipped spinning on Sunday and spent the day cleaning.
I was off for MLK day on Monday and I promised myself that I would get a run in. I set out with the intention of doing one of my ususal 5.5 mile loops. After about 1 mile, though, I was feeling pretty good. Since I didn't have anything else going on that day, I decided to add on and ended up running 7. I was pretty proud of that, but I did use it as an excuse last night to skip working out once again. Oh well, not every week can be a hard week. I have only been resting one or two days a week since December, so I decided since we are cutting back on mileage this week, I will take it easier on the workout front as well and next week I will be back in full force.
Tonight's group run is at the Running Spot (again... for some reason the other group gets to meet in the more fun and different locations while we are stuck at the same place ever week.) The e-mail says we we have an "enjoyable" hill workout. Hm, sounds like an oxymoron to me. We'll see how it goes. I need to get a good workout in to make up for skipping yesterday. I just wish it wasn't so cold.