The Hill 01.07.09

We traveled to the mountain by caravan, and surprisingly didn’t lose one participant. When we got to the bottom of Strawberry Canyon in Berkeley, the kids left their water and keys with me. I would drive to the top while they made the three quarter mile jog to what is called, “The Connector," a pretty tame name for a 200 meter hill at about 22% grade. Because it is also in the wooded hills of Berkeley, it makes it seem a lot longer than it is.

This is really one of the greatest mental challenges of the program. Regardless of how many times you do it, it still gives you butterflies when you run up on it. The first one to the top was a female soccer player from Boise State, Kaylea Perenon. Kaylea and I have been working together since she was about 13 or 14 years old. She’s now 21 and a senior in college.



To my surprise the second one to reach the top was Demetrius. After they all arrived, Daniel Stoops, an offensive lineman, said, "You were right, I used the bathroom before I left and soon as I saw that hill I had to go again."


Larry walked over to me and asked, "Is there a bathroom up here?"

"Yes!" I replied, "there are lots of them," and I pointed toward the woods.

We warmed up with walking stretches as usual and then prepared for interval hill work. I have cones every 20 meters or so on the hill. On the whistle, an athlete will sprint to the first cone. Each athlete will repeat the process on the whistle until they have all reached the top. The whistle doesn’t blow until they have all arrived at their prospective cones. This is a painful process if there is a slacker in the group. The football players have to greet each cone in a three point stance. It only took one hill for the vomiting to begin. By the third repetition of the drill almost everyone had thrown up at least once.

This was a very difficult drill for Larry. There wasn’t much tiger in his tank after the first set. It was painful to watch at times.