Hills.

Love them. Hate them. Either way, you cannot deny that they are INTENSE!

Crawl. Walk. Run. Rollerblade. Bike. Whatever... Hills are undeniably INTENSE!

I ran with my friend L yesterday on some hills (more like part of a mountain range) in the foothills near work. She calls it the "baby fat killer hill run" or something like that. Anyway, parts of it were fine, but the hills were terrible! (terrible = intense = a great run for the serious) My heart rate was high. So, I had to do a walk/run and just catch up to her at my own pace. She could kick it for sure! I kept up on the downhill and flats, but that uphill... WOW!!!

Since the run/walk was about 30 minutes with L, I decided to do another 30 before leaving. So, I ran downhill to the stoplight and attempted to run back up. Uh... Yeah right! I did a run/walk instead. L said it was nuts. She was right!!! I then did a little bit on the flat land so that I felt "better" about my capabilities as a runner. Haha!! It's all about how you feel at the end of the run. After about 60 mins of hills and flats, I called it a day!

By the way, those of you in the Midwest are seriously missing out on some fantastic trail runs! I feel like one of those Runner's World people should be taking my photo from a distance and saying -- check out this run in the Sandia Foothills of Albuquerque, NM. Heck yeah!!!!!