Double Hill Day

Since this is my last day before surgery and I might be out for awhile, I wanted to challenge myself.  The hills were calling.  I had not been to Bear Creek yet this year, so I planned to head there in the morning.  I also decided to see if I could get the BCR folks together for running steps at Lafayette's football stadium.

The weather was almost perfect when I started at Bear Creek.  Last year, it took me quite a few times there before I could run the whole thing without walking.  That was my goal for this day.  Although it is a climb to the top of a ski slope, it starts out downhill and flat for awhile.  I weaved in and out of this area with no trouble.  It was a good warmup.

The legs were then ready as I started the climb.  The trail doesn't go straight up, so although the run isn't easy, it is a more gradual uphill for the most part.  It was still a tough climb, but I wasn't doing much huffing and puffing.

I passed some hikers on the way up and was cruising and feeling good.  Some sections are pretty rocky and technical and thus a bit challenging.  At one point the climb gets pretty steep adjacent to the ski slope.  I knew this section wasn't too long, so I battled through it.

The cruel part is that after climbing pretty hard, you drop back down again on the backside of the mountain.  That is a good recovery and nice and fast, but what goes down must come back up again to reach the summit.

The back section is mostly flat or downhill as you near the end of the first half of the run.  There are some climb that are a little tough, but they are usually short.  Recovery is possible.  The trail is winding and that slows the pace a bit.  There is a smooth and wide open section and I tried to open it up and fly while I was there.

Toward the top, I really started to struggle.  I thought I was climbing to the summit and I was breathing heavy.  It turned out there was still one more tough section before the top.  I made it through both, but it was very hard.  I didn't know that section too well, but I kept pushing through the tiredness and soreness because I knew the top was near and it was mostly downhill from there.

It was relieved when I reached the top.  You briefly go across the top of the ski slope and have a great view.  I was too tired to look though.  I walked very briefly.  Throughout the climb, I walked no more than a step or two.  Usually that was a short lived rest when I reached the top of a climbing section.

Coming downhill was fun, almost too much fun.  From the top, the descend is initially pretty steep.  I was going down it too fast and almost fell.  I was able to slow down and cruise at a much more reasonable pace.

The downhill part flies by.  There are some long and fast sections where you can really cruise.  One seems to be an old rail bed as there are still some ties in the trail.  I wasn't killing myself at any point in the run, but I definitely pushed more downhill.

As I got near the conference center, I realized that I'd be very close to breaking an hour.  Last year, it took me just over an hour to complete the loop, although it seems I ran a little further than (5.1 miles instead of 5).  There are some slight inclines and this section is more technical than most of the descending side, but it is still quite fast.

There is a mountain bike area and I always seem to get lost there.  I think I did an extra unecassary loop through that area.  The trail markings are a little confusing as to which direction the trail goes.  There were a couple times throughout the run where I almost when on the wrong trail.  It is pretty well marked for the most part though.

I finished up running quite hard.  I ran across the parking area and was just short of five miles.  I decided to head back into the trail briefly until I hit that part.  I completed the five miles in just under an hour.  That was great as it was faster than the only other time I finished the loop last year.  That was at the end of August too, so I'm way ahead of schedule.

I know I'm faster than I was at the same time last year, but I was still unsure how good my ascending ability was.  Some tough hilly runs over the last two week have definitely strengthened me.  I didn't think I was quite this far along on hilly terrain, so I am very pleased with my progress in this area too.

The second part of my hill day included running the steps at Lafayette's Fisher Stadium.  It was cool because I've been an LC football season ticket holder since 1992, but I've never run there.  The BCR have been doing this for awhile, but I never joined them.  I thought I'd see if anyone wanted to go and initially Bob was going to join me.  Something came up though.  I figured I'd go and if anyone else was there to join me, great.  If not, I'll just run alone.

I arrived a little too late to have some company.  A group of about eight girls, presumably Lafayette athletes, was running the steps with their coached.  They finished up as I was getting ready to run.  When the renovated the football field a couple years ago, they took away most of the track.  There are still about two lanes remaining though.  I warmed up on them with an easy half mile.

After the warmup, I started on the steps.  I really had no set plan.  I was hoping to do around five reps.  I went up them and then walked back down for recovery.  The bottom of each rep wasn't bad, but going around one of the tunnels and the top part of the climb were tough.  It was also a bit difficult for me too because I'm not used to such a quick cadence.  I usually take longer strides uphill.  It is better to take shorter ones though, so this was good practice.  I suppose that I could've skipped steps too, but this worked out fine.

I was pretty beat already by the second rep.  My breathing was a little heavy, but my quads were taking a pounding.  It was hot too.  My times were pretty consistent.  Although my first rep was 25 seconds, most of the time, it took me 29 seconds to complete.  My slowest rep was 30 seconds.  My last rep was at 28 seconds.  I ended up doing six reps total. 

After the fourth rep, I stopped a little longer to grab a sip of water.  That extra recovery was a big boost.  I felt much better on the fifth rep.  The last rep was tough, but I knew I was done.  Walking down wasn't too easy either.  It took awhile for my quads to recover. 

All those reps up and down only actually accounted for about a quarter mile of distance.  I might've been able to do some more, but I didn't want to push it too far.  There's plenty of time for more reps later.  I got what I needed accomplished today. 

My cool down was about three quarters of a mile slowly around the track.  This time there were some other runners on the track.  I found a penny that was heads up right before my warmup.  Normally, I'm not superstitious, but I decided to pick it up.  Hopefully it'll bring me luck for tomorrow's surgery.  If not, I'll get rid of it.  I just thought maybe it was a sign.  My sore area got so much smaller since I first discovered it in March.  There's almost nothing there now, so I'm really hoping the doctor finds nothing and that it is nearly healed.

I hope next time I do this workout it will be with the BCR group.  I'm not sure quite how they structure this workout.  I'm thinking maybe next time, I'll do five or six reps, then a recover half mile on the track, then another five or six reps.  After some recovery, I definitely felt like I could do more.

It was a great day on the hills and I'm getting so much stronger.  I can't wait to get tomorrow over with and find out which direction I'm heading.  Hopefully, it will be back to running over the weekend.  If not, I've built myself up pretty strong and I'll come back again.  I'd for it to be nothing so that I can put together an actual training plan and also sign up for races.  At least I'll finally know it 24 hours.

5 miles - 59:42 (11:56 pace)

1.5 miles 23:26 (15:39 pace)