Midtown Road

There's a hill on the ironman Wisconsin course with which I have a history. In some ways, it doesn't look like much...it doesn't have the distance of Old Sauk Pass or the steepness of Timber Lane. Nonetheless, Midtown Road kicks my tail.

That is, it used to.

Tonight I dragged my sorry, thyroid-depleted self out to Midtown. I parked the car in the ditch and did hill repeats on Midtown Road. 12 of them. In less than an hour. It was late, because this is when I seem to have the most juju, so I was out there with the deer and the bugs and the dusky-drivers...and with a gorgeous sunset and a beautiful view of what must be Blue Mound off in the distance.

12 hill repeats on Midtown may not be enough at this point. With more synthroid on board, I might have been able to do 15. But I am proud of myself for fighting back a little, for going on when the tank is empty, and for making it up Midtown a dozen times, with no walking involved.

It seems I do better when I can study a hill, get to know it, understand it a little, work with the hill, make it less scary. I told my coach I was going to go make friends with Midtown. "Friends?" he said "Attack the hill." I understand that this might be one way of getting at it, but in my thyroid-depleted malaise, I don't even feel much like attacking dinner, let alone attacking any hill. No, I prefer loving the hill up, literally, trying to befriend it, trying to appreciate the hill as a part of the pathway to a height from which I have a heckuva view.


For those less romantically inclined: I have now staged the hill....it's a short one...only three-tenths of a mile...but it definitely has stages, and each one can be navigated differently. I now have a strategy for each stage, and on my last couple repeats, I was finishing the final stage at a blazing 7 mph. It may not sounds like much to you, gentle reader, but that was faster than the first time up, faster than the times I've walked that hill,
and I was able to breathe and continue at the top, which was the ultimate goal.

The jury, composed of a couple of coaches and docs, is still out on the question of should I do IM WI, but I am continuing the training as though I am. This weekend: Dairyland Dare. Between now and then? Swim and run, swim and run.