Dominating on the Downs

My cycling is paying off (YAY for Bike to Work Month!), along with my strength training.

Yesterday's long run was a bit special. Eric Sachs decided to have the group do some hill training. We headed to this trail that was tucked away underneath 272nd St. Who knew there was a legit trail here? (Look at the black paved trail to the right)


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I had no idea what to expect after we ran an easy 2.5-ish miles here from the Balanced Athlete store, but Eric decided to put on his sadomasochist hat on here.

The plan laid out to us was simple, steady effort up to about 1/3 miles to the point where it flattens out, head back to the beginning, repeat another three more times.

The trail is paved with a whole mess of switchbacks at pretty steep inclines. You don't get much in regards to elevation, but the inclines do make it an intense workout. My guess is that the inclines were atleast a 5% or higher if it was on a treadmill. First time up, I was going too fast for my own good and really hurting. It wasn't until the second time where I felt my groove. Plus, running on the way down helped loosen up the legs. Everyone was suprised at my downhill running ability.

Lesson for Me: Cycling and Strength Training = Better Downhill Running

Lesson to Learn: How to do better on uphills...and flats...and trails...and races...and getting that infamous BQ...and qualifying for WS100 and other runs...

My splits:

5:56.77
6:21.08
6:20.15
6:20.10
6:00.34

Due to finishing faster, I was suckered into doing one more repeat, for a total of 5 for the day. Thankfully, Eric's better half, Iliana, was also there doing 5 repeats of suffering. Sucks if you do more effort without someone else there doing the same amount and suffering along with you, right? Afterwards, we ran the long way back. That took us to very odd places around the Green River that I didn't even know existed. It's always a suprise every time I run with these guys sometimes.

So for the morning, finished with ~10.5 miles for that session and then went out for another ~3 miles with the family doing a walk/run. Daisy-puppy is able to keep up with me for about 0.5 miles before she needed a break. For a 4.5 month old dog, she's developing some killer endurance. I'm sure when she hits a full year or more, she'll totally outrun me.