The hills are alive - and oh so brutal...

My per mile pace could use some improvement and I know one of the best ways to build up speed is to work some hills every week or two. So this morning my friend and I set out the the Lehigh Parkway to do the 5k course and the hills off of it. There are three hills that the cross country kids train on and my friend had run the route a few times last summer.

We started out a little after 8am and had done a little more than a mile before the first hill. A nice gradual hill with a paved pathway. I walked a little bit of it but made it up and back alive. The next hill came a little less than a mile later and was a bit steeper and I again walked a portion. The last of the three hills I knew was steeper than the previous and after doing the others and a little over two miles already on the trail I opted out. I know that if I keep going out and doing these I'll improve - maybe next time I'll give the third hill a shot. The humidity was a bit too much for me today.

Gotta register for the Philly 1/2 Marathon in November tomorrow. Registration goes up on Tuesday. I registered to do the Nike+ Women's Half virtually on October 19 - should be interesting. I'll just map out a route near my home or rerun the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon route from April. Not planning to do the PDR because I'm not very interested in training in the heat of summer. I just booked a trip to Vegas for the beginning of October so I'll have to fit in some treadmill training while I'm there - a couple tempo runs should keep me on track. I am NOT running by myself through Las Vegas. I'm going with my friend Kelly but she's not a runner so the only place I'll feel safe running on my vacation is in the hotel gym.

The last week has been a whirlwind of tennis, running and a little volleyball but tennis more than anything. I had lessons Tuesday and Thursday - my last two : ( and then went to a round robin at a club on Friday night. I was definitely the lowest NTRP rated person there but had a great time. Playing against better players definitely ups your game and in this case it was playing doubles which is another challenge for me. Wound up playing one set of a match today but the crazy ballpark food I ate earlier did not lend well to maneuverability on the court...

I'm so looking forward to having a long weekend next weekend - don't think it will be any less crazy than the last few have been but just knowing I have an extra day off is mentally refreshing. I think I need to book a massage. Also gotta push to do well in the LVRR 5K on Wednesday.....

Did Chrissy wear polyester?

Wimbledon begins tomorrow (yay!) and Tennis Channel and ESPN Classic have been showing classic matches throughout the weekend. It's really neat to watch these now because I didn't start playing and watching tennis until a few years ago. I knew who the marquis players were, just didn't have a lot of interest in watching it until I began playing. It's kind of interesting to see Monica Seles vs. Martina Navratilova in 1992, Chris Evert vs. Navratilova in 1978, Sampras, Agassi, Graf and so on.

So my big thought was about the way the players dress. Athletes today, in all sports, are wearing Dri-Fit and Climalite and fabrics that wick. Looking at tennis specifically, in the 1970s the women wore polished dresses, made of cotton in some cases, but it looks like polyester too, hence the title of my post. In the 80s and 90s the women took on bulky oversized tops that look more similar to what one of the men would wear than a women, with the exception of the skirts. What were they thinking??? If Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams were to walk on court in what Seles wore in the match I was watching Friday they would lose their contracts for half of their endorsements. Come to think of it, some of Sharapova's recent court attire choices look along the lines of the classic Chrissy Evert wardrobe. Interesting how things come back around. I really don't need to see the overized Fila outfits that Capriati used to wear though...

I don't know, if I had to run, play tennis or just exercise in general without the Dri-Fit tops and bottoms I've come to love I'd be so uncomfortable. Even in the 60 and 70 degree weather when you see people running in cotton T-shirts and sweat pants I can 't understand it. Not only do those not breathe, but they rub and chafe (ouch!). I'm even more surprised at races when I see people wearing cotton shirts, usually from some other race. Why is it that nearly every race gives out cotton shirts?

So that's what I've been thinking about this weekend. I should really go out and run but this whole classic tennis marathon is addicting.