With only a couple of exceptions, no matter what state I’ve lived in I’ve been able to find some hills to run on and for the most part, I actually like running hills. They’re character builders right? Flat can be boring and for every uphill, there’s always a downhill. Lately I’ve decided that maybe I should try working a little bit harder on hills during my training runs. This modest increase in effort, combined with my past jogging experiences, has only led me back to my same old supposition that my VO₂ max

sux. In fact I’m not even sure I have any VO₂ max. If anyone ever tried to measure it, it might just come out zero. I could be a VO₂ max flatliner. As many times as I’ve done the Incline, I still huff and puff like an old locomotive while I’m going up it. Maybe I have undersized alveoli or they just aren’t doing their job. The other thing I work on is my posture. Whether sitting or standing, it’s always been lousy. Going up a hill, really leaning into it, is when I’m really hunched over. It isn’t just hills though, even coming down a 14’er I sometimes realize that I’m concentrating so hard that I’ve clenched my shoulders, a lot of tension in there. The two times I’ve run the Garden of the Gods course, most of my body seems to handle the 10 miles just fine. What I do notice, when I finish, is some fatigue and minor discomfort in my middle to upper back. Anyone who would care to pass on any relaxation technique(s), I’m all ears. Is there some form of mobile yoga that one can do on the run? With less than two weeks to go before the first leg of the Pikes Peak Triple Crown, the excitement is starting to build. I plan to run the entire course once more, this week and then do shorter runs until the Garden of the Gods 10-mile Run on June 10.