thursday night fever

Thursday nights are hill intervals with the Carnethy crew. Just a mile up the road from my house we meet opposite the rad road at 7pm and run hard up hilly bits of Arthur's Seat for around 40 minutes, a different session each week, a short but tough workout.

up

The light was so spectacular last night I took the camera along. The session was also more apt than usual for photos: normally we just do one climb in any of half a dozen places, doing a pyramid session or say five reps of 4mins. Recovery is the jog back down to the start. The variety is essential as mostly you don't want to repeat a tough workout ever again having burst yourself on it. (It's a while since we tackled the Rad Road and I dread it coming round again.)

back down

So with Iain (who usually leads the sessions) going to the last of the British Champs races at the weekend he decided we would do a relatively mild workout last night, travelling round the park doing 2 mins sustained uphill followed by 1 minute recovery jog halfway back down the route we had just climbed. This suited me fine. I had had a very tough workout out the previous evening with Porty, and thought I might have to go home half way through. Possibly because of the 4hrs on Tuesday, following on from Sunday's race. I don't know if it was the joyful weather last night or the magic massage stick I'd used an hour before going up the road, but I was feeling in considerably better shape for the hill reps than the night before.

more up

and back down again

As we climbed the hill there was more to take photos of and I developed a reluctance to descend for the minute recovery only to climb the same part again. This slacking was duly noted.

and back down again

After getting most of the way to the top we went over to Whinny Hill and continued the 2 / 1 repeats. I was distracted by the fab scenery and had to stop at various points to take photos, falling behind the group. Normally I am a bit more conscientious.

a fine photo ruined by unfortunate grouping

and that was the end of the session - I went back up to the summit to take some more photos 

Whinny Hill from above the Dry Dam

artist's impression of a nuclear device detonating at Faslane

So although it can be quite intense I would very much recommend this weekly session. A variety of folk attend (from 3 to 15 in number) and, usually being reps, allows people of all abilities to take part. If you can stick it the night after a club session then I think it works even better although it is a long time since I combined them with a Tuesday night Meadows session as well. Good luck to the Carnethy team at the weekend and see you there next week.

Pentlands