Weekly Hill Workout: See Saw, Run Ran

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Written by Mike Renz Mike Renz

February 24, 2015

It was a brisk 1 degree temperature with a real feel of wtf-are-we-thinking as CJ Wagner, and Mikes Martin, Zimmerman and Renz decided to put their lungs to the test with a see-saw hill workout of the Sunset Park bike path and Curtin Rd hills. Renz had the definite early advantage with his seemingly endless supply of hot air contained within, but was quickly outrun by not-so-seemingly-injured Zimmerman as he effortlessly passed him on the second hill, and progressed further and further away up each subsequent hill.

5 total hills were seen and sawed. The chilled four-pack teeter tottered their way uphill while merrily chatting during the down-swings about pleasantries past and unpleasantries present. CJ decided enough was enough after 4 hill repeats and set off to put on some more flatlandish miles. The three mikesketeers decided to mark one more climb in the record books for the day before running off towards the already setting sun, attempting to get back indoors to warm up and prepare to fend off any more school delays or cancellations.

Weekly Hill Workout: For Hills: Four Hills

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Written by Mike Renz Mike Renz

January 13, 2015

Ben Tolton, Andrew Maguire, Meira Minard, Michael Martin, Randy Jepson, and Mike Renz braved the winter winds and headed to Four Hills for the start of a possible resurgence of hill workouts for 2015.  Seeing as how the holiday trimmings are still looming around my not so trim midsection, and how Ben Tolton was nursing his trail-legs from a hill workout just 2 days prior, and mike martin is nursing his knee that is on a doctor prescribed ease-back-into-it….us three not-so-power-housed only did one/fourth of the four hills for a short but fast (well, relatively) paced repeats.  Somehow we managed 6 repeats of this quartered workout. 

Randy Jepson managed the longest repeat of the group turning the hill into a long out and back with some hill mixed into the middle.  Maguire and Minard were the champions of the hill pressing out at least 3 repeats of the entire 4 of 4 hills.  For all I know, they did even more, but I was too busy huffing and puffing my way back to the car to end the hill workout as soon as possible so that I could plot out my nightly 8,000 calorie meal.

For the Hill Repeating Lovers of the group, we will try to give a little more advanced notice of where we’ll be charging up and down inclines next Tuesday.

Weekly Hill Workout: Ups & Downs - We Had ‘Em

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Written by Mike Renz Mike Renz

February 3, 2015

It was decidedly too cold and snow covered on our favorite outdoor hills, so Mike Martin, Mike Zimmerman, Meira Minard, and Mike Renz mustered up the courage to run indoors and complete a hill workout high atop the bleachers of the Rec Hall track.  Marty ‘Colonel Mustard’ Mazur mustered up the courage to show up, but left his Over-the-hill-card back at the office and was unfortunately unable to join in on the bleacher antics, but was at least completing many laps on the hard concrete hoop we pretend is a track.

With Marty’s presence we decided to treat this hill workout like a pseudo-track workout, calling out a 3x3+1 of randomly prescribed intervals on the fly.  That is, 3 sets of 3 passes through the bleachers (with a nice recovery lap around the track between each) followed by an “all-out” lap, which eventually slithered into about as fast as a slug’s pace with salt on its tail.  Each pass through the bleachers is nothing to scoff at: consisting of 4 downs and 4 ups of sets of steps.  To add to the enjoyment, it’s not as simple as just running up and down the steps….we played follow the leader, where the leader would call out things like “hop up left foot only,” “right foot only, skip the yellow steps,” “pretend you’re skiing,” “high-knees” (Meira’s personal favorite when said rapidly).  We even threw in a backwards set, and some sidestepping for good measure.  Fun was had by few, and quads felts the workout for sure.  Quality workout for a makeshift hill routine!

Hopefully next week we’ll find a clean dry outdoor hill to abuse!

Weekly Hill Workout: Curtin Call

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Written by Mike Renz Mike Renz

March 25, 2014

Oh we find ourselves once again at Curtin St.
My legs still throbbing from the 6 repeats.
Will they get back to normal?  I think so.
Is this a great hill to workout on?  I think so.
So seemingly steep,  so seemingly long.
Hot it wasn’t today, cold…not so much either.
Love us some hills.  Find us more hills.
Me?  I love racing up hills.
Some others – not so much. Hill repeats like
Red, red roses.  Newly sprung this cold ass March.
Head back up that hill, then you’ll make more sense.

It was a springfully chilled day as Ben Tolton, Jim Moore, Meira Minard, Andy Maguire, Tom Cali, George Lesieutre, Dean Capone and Mike Renz red-headed to Overlook Heights to get in some hill repeats and some window peeping.  Tom and George forgot that today was hill repeat day, and merely hilled, but didn’t repeat.  The rest of the clan managed 6 repeats, with 1 spirited down-peat…which Meira “you’re not the boss of me” skipped since she was busy peering into the windows of every house along the street, looking for Mr Right, or was it Mr. Red? 

Join us next week, which will likely land us at the Grove hill – another grueling, but slightly shorter hill than Curtin.