Weekly Hill Workout: Cinco de Cerro
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- Written by Mike Renz Mike Renz
May 5, 2015
On this humid but not as hot as yesterday, the Cinco de Mayo shout-out was a cinco of repeats up Grove Hill. Grove Hill is a lovely new addition to hill regimens, a nice decently steep climb from the Toftrees Trail to The Grove student housing, which makes a turn for the steeper about 2/3 of the way up to create a very trying finishing kick to complete a repeat. Dean Capone pretended like he would join but became a no-show. Adam Ilgen, Ken Davis, and Allison Machnicki ran to the hill with the group but were a cero. John Domico mechanically inclined himself up the hill as an uno. Andrew Maguire (one week off a 2:58 marathon) Mike Martin (2 days off of a 1:06 10-miler), Mike Zimmerman and Judd Michael all managed to do repeats in trio. Yours truly was the uno sicko to do the full cinco, although very slow or not at all pronto.
The temps are rising, the spring marathons are dwindling, the summer is coming. Get those hill repeats in now before the 80+ degree and 80% humidity makes it completely painful, although we’ll still punish ourselves throughout the summer months with this lovely hill workouts! Come join in on the fun!
Weekly Hill Workout: Brought To You By The Letter 'G'
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- Written by Mike Renz Mike Renz
April 21, 2015
A gaggle of golfers were greeted by multiple genders of gleeful hill gallopers gallivanting up and down the Park Ave golf course path. It’s a medium graded medium length hill, conveniently situated close to Rec Hall, allowing these disgruntled runners to gratify their hill repeating guise with a generous dose of hills galore. Most of the group grossed 6 repeats! Meira ‘Gift of Gab’ Minard, Alex ‘Gladly Goes Up Hills’ Wouden, Mike ‘Guess I’ll Grasp some repeats’ Martin, Mike ‘Growing Gorgeous Hair’ Renz, Mark ‘Gonna do 1’ Lee, John ‘Also Got Time for 1’ Wilcox and Seth ‘Goes Gently with Gait like Gazelle’ Senior all attacked the hill in their on their own anti-egregious ways.
Rumor on the street was that Judd ‘Gotta Get there Late’ Michaels was too shy to do repeats with the rest of the group and showed up after all the excitement had fizzled so he could do repeats in peace. We will assume he did his fair share of repeats, netting inclusion in this report. Next week’s hill is steeper, so come prepared for some grimace inducing repeats.
Weekly Hill Workout: Rocked That Top
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- Written by Mike Renz Mike Renz
March 31, 2015
In what promises to be the last day of snow in March, a fearless headbanging (or banging their head against this stupid weather) bunch of hill repeating groupies set out to find a hill to rock up and roll down. Today’s setlist was for Rocky Top road, which drummed up ample interest for a decent sized gropu on a lousy weathered day. Alex “The Godfather of Sole” Wouden, Ben “The Prince of Cankles” Tolton, Mike “The Coldest Running Man in Snow Business” Zimmerman, Mike “I just want to be in a hair band” Renz, Mike “The King of R&B (running & beerfest)” Martin, Seth “The Boss (of no one)” Senior, and Bob “The Elder City Madman” Cornwall all showed up pick in hand ready to strum.
After conquering the hill thrice, the groupies attention span was dwindling and most everyone was ready to go home. Just then, Meira “Princess of Pop(ped ankles, hamstrings, bunions, knees, or whatever she happens to have ailing at the moment)” Minard showed up for an encore performance, forcing Senior, Renz, and Tolton to do a pity-peat or two with her. Five was enough for this band leader, and I set off on my merry way back to work….but Meira swore on all things rock-n-roly that she would complete at least 4 more hill repeats before dropping the mic. We can only assume that this actually took place.
Weekly Hill Workout: Hill Workouts Aren’t Over
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- Written by Mike Renz Mike Renz
April 7, 2015
It was overly and overtly overcast as over 8 runners set out over lunchtime to scale over a hill, in some amount over 4 times, while trying not to overwork or overexert themselves into a state of overtiredness…else their run would be over. In search of a hill workout that involved a little bit of variation, the crew set their sights on the bike path next to the high school + Gill Street.
Lance Bland, Jim Meyers, Andrew Maguire, Andrew Webb, Mike Zimmerman, Mike Martin, Seth Senior, Alex Wouden, Mark Fedkin, and Mike Renz all trudged up and down the hill multiple times. The called workout involved 1 path-only climb, 1 path+gill hill climb, 2 path-only climbs, and lastly 1 path+gill hill climb. A trying hill workout especially on the repeats involving the Gill hill sin! ce there is a long flat spot between the climbs to help rob your energy. Bob Cornwall, Tom Cali, Peter Dunnohislastname and one other fearful hill non-runner joined the group to the bottom of the hill, but continued on away from the hill workout in what could only be diagnosed as hillwussyitis, or marathon tapering…you decide.
Mike Martin decided just a measly hill workout was not a high enough effort, so he plopped the workout into the middle of a 11 mile long run. Mike Casper the running ghost also partook in the hill workout and completed 5 full path+gill hill repeats, although no one could see him since he’s invisible, or because he got there late since work got in his way. And Meira Minard, unable to join us for the workout, sent in her Mom as a hill workout correspondent to make sure we were still completing our regimen. Spring marathon and racing season is upon us runners….if you want to hit those PRs, you gotta hit those hills first!
Weekly Hill Workout: The OrchardGate Scandal
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- Written by Mike Renz Mike Renz
March 24, 2015
It was high noon. A conspicuous time to be trotting around possibly forbidden territory. 5 men set out from Rec Hall with one task at hand: to get to the complex hill, and cover both up and down it. Running towards Orchard road, they found themselves upon a gravel path leading to a know hill, worthy of repeating. Their plan was almost thwarted by a lock gate. But not this fearless fivesome with a fervor for running freely. Mike Zimmerman, Mike Martin, Alex Wouden, Ken Davis, and Mike Renz haphazardly cased the scenario, feverously looking for wiretaps or recording equipment, or even a no trespassing sign. The coast seemed clear so they scaled the gate to get to hill repeating, in what only can deemed the OrchardGate Scandal.
The crew of five made it to the base of the hill to find yet another locked gate. They were trapped! Not wanting to risk yet another gate scaling, they began their hill repeat not from the very bottom of the hill, but close enough at the almost bottom. Upon reaching the crest of the hill, a guard was there awaiting their arrival. Oh no!, they gasped….but it was Judd Michael…showing up from nowhere, ready to climb some hills with the group.
Wanting to evade any real trouble, they decided to scale the other two inclined arteries that branched off from the main path. But 2/3 up the second climb, their plot had seemingly been foiled yet again. Thankfully this was yet another latecomer, Mark Fedkin, eager to catch up to the hill climbing group. Feeling free from possible imprisonment, and seeing no reason to resign from the hills, the group! did another couple repeats. Davis and Wouden even did an extra repeat for good measure with the late comers as the trio of Mikes set off to launder their running trail. We can only hope that these transcripts are not released…else our running positions could be at risk. Let’s only hope the media is fair, and may we be pardoned for any inadvertent wrongdoings.