Finally over my back pain MattVH and I took a trip up to Flag Rock. We actually did the loop which was pretty sweet. I like the north side trail quite a bit. It's a pretty run through the trees. I felt dead on the way up and had to stop and walk in a couple of places. I think it was a combination of things. First, I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast except some licorice and candy nut clusters. I thought that the cheap energy that these things provide would be enough to get me through but I was mistaken. Lesson learned. I need to eat something substantial 3-4 hours before a run. The second problem today was not really a problem, just not something I realized until after the run was over. This route starts off by climbing 500' in a mile and a half. The majority of the climb is up a pretty steep road. My fastest time up that steep mile and a half before today was about 30 seconds slower than we climbed it today. So I pushed up the first steep hill and then I was dead after that. Next time, space out the effort. I think I have a sort of mental block with that hill as well. I know its steep and I know its going to be hard and so I psych myself out on the hill either pushing to hard to just get it over, or going to slow and feeling like its a grind the whole way up. Not sure how to fix this except maybe running it more so that it gets easier and isn't such a mental grind. once I hit the peak I felt dead but the trail down the back side is nice and smooth and pretty steep so I just let gravity do its thing. With a few pit stops we were down in no time. I need to hit this more often. The elevation on the actual loop is about 75' shy of 2,000', but I jogged up state street at the end of the run with my watch off. It's about 200' elevation gain in a 1/4 mile so I counted 2,000 feet. I was able to jog all the way up state street and it felt relatively effortless. I didn't ever even contemplate walking, which is a first for my trips up that hill. I think it says something about the effect of hill training on the mountain as opposed to hill training on the road. AP: 13:07
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