Today was a satisfying run. I chose to run my 4 miles today instead of tomorrow. The weather looked a bit sketchy so I stuck close to home in case of a down pour. The focus of this run was light hills. I live 1/2 mile from what I consider to be a "great" training hill. It's about 1/4 mile of moderate sloping, enough to be challenging, but not enough to kill you. I usually end up running this at the end of my runs. My reward for running up it is a short walk to the stop light once I reach the top. Today I used it for hill repeats. Hill repeats are a form of speed training. The idea is to run quickly up the hill, and then walk or jog back down slowly to recover. You then repeat this as many times as you wish. The benefits of these repeats are the increased leg strength and increasing your body's ability to process lactic acid (the chemical that causes sore muscles). Any type of speed work should be approached gradually. Today I did a total of 6 repeats, with a 1/2 mile warm-up and cool down. My average pace for the entire run was 10:26. So I wasn't sprinting up the hills, but I certainly wasn't taking my time either. When I was through my legs were tired and a little stiff, but overall felt good. In addition to the repeats, I also did my strength training. I know I am going to be feeling that tomorrow. I did 10 minutes of ab exercises and then 12 reps of each of the following: calf raises, squats, lunges, push ups and tricep dips. I plan on running 2-3 miles tomorrow, it will all depend on how my legs feel.