Well, that's a new kind of pain

I'm starting to get a little more serious about training for Chicago. All winter long, I've been maintaining and improving on my base, but I haven't really been pushing it all that much. But, since May is almost over, and October is suddenly a lot closer on the calendar, I'm starting up some of my harder workouts again.

Yesterday was hills. Sure, they are dreadmill hills. But, thanks to this handy little chart I found on a random Google search some time ago, I can see roughly how tough my effort really is. Judging from the chart, since I don't slow down for the higher elevations on the treadmill (in other words, if I start at 7.4 mph, I will finish at 7.4 mph, or faster, and only very rarely will I drop below that pace for any reason), I'm doing something of a speed workout as well.

And today was ostensibly a recovery run. I probably took it a bit on the fast side, but what's really left me sore was the water running. It wasn't deep water running, but doing some water running exercises in the local pool. Water depth ranged from 3 feet to neck high (where I turned around, because I have all the floatation properties of a brick). For such a short (and low-impact) workout, my legs are sore. Hopefull tmorrow goes well - though I am thinking that, based on my hill workouts, I can go easier on the speedwork. Maybe I will alternate weeks of hills and real speedwork or something.