A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!

This past Saturday I took part in my first Train With Ron Charity Hill Run event near Soldier Field.  The run benefits the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society, an animal shelter in downtown Chicago.  Coincidentally, Monika and I got our fine four legged family member Brady at this very shelter!  (It worked out amazingly well, she is a dream doggie!)  When the announcement about the Hill Run was made, I shot my mouth off on Facebook and told everyone I would be running for $.50 per hill or a flat donation of $30.00 – this was before I had ever seen the hill and I wasn’t aware that we had only 60 minutes to do it… I thought we’d be able to run until we hit our goal!  Monika is still on the 15-Day Disabled List / Injured Reserve so she was there to support all the runners and take pictures.  She wanted to run very badly and can’t wait to get back into her workout routine.  We were members of the gym last year, but opted not to be a part of the hill run because we were so new.  As I looked at that hill last Saturday and remembered the kind of shape I was in this time last year, I doubted whether I could have made it up 5 times… never mind 60.

Well, the hill was steeper than I thought and we only had 60 minutes to do it.  It’s deceptive… this hill slopes gradually at the bottom but the last 20 yards of the 70-ish yard length are very steep.  Quite simply, you’d better have a little momentum going as you get to the top.  Getting up the hill, however, is half the battle… you don’t really think of running DOWN a steep slope as difficult, but since you have to control your speed, this requires some work from your quad muscles, specifically those closest to your knees.  There’s also some shock to the knee as you take steps down the hill.  I started out running down for the first ten hills, then switched to walking.

So, you ask, “did you make your goal of 60 hills?”

I seriously need an oxygen tank... this was around run #45 up the hill.

The honest answer is… I THINK so.  I THINK I did 63 hills.  I know there were a couple of times when I got to the top and was so physically stressed that I wasn’t sure what number I was on.  In those cases I tried to go BACK to the last number I remembered.  It’s possible that I didn’t actually do the full 63 hills.  There were two reasons I doubt my count is correct – one is, Doug (who I’ve become friends with at TWR) was on his 24th hill when I was on my 22nd… he kept moving the whole time – and so did I… but I walked down the hill and he ran down it… he only finished with 60 hills so I’m having a hard time believing I passed him that many times.  Also, RON himself from TWR ran 65 hills… I thought sure I’d be much further behind him.

I was elated and I know I gave it my best effort so even if I didn’t get to 60 hills, I’m proud of how hard I ran and that I ran pretty much the whole hour, with a very few 10-15 second rests between hills.  I kept a good pace and ran pretty hard up the hill every time.  Next year I’ll use a counter to make SURE I run the number of hills I think I am running.

Afterwards we went out for drinks and food – it was really awesome seeing the friends we’ve made at TWR outside the gym environment, in a more social setting. It’s such a great group of people, really – there’s a camaraderie amongst us, as we all know how hard it is to train there… DB, Matt, and Ron are excellent trainers who challenge us every time we work out, and being able to accomplish what we all have, in varying degrees, brings us together as we all try to reach our physical health and fitness goals.  It’s a time to turn off the brain and pay some attention to the body, a nice luxury for so many of us who work so hard all day and need to release that pent up mental and spiritual energy – and what better way to do that than through the burning of calories?