5 miles and just under 2,300 feet of vertical gain and loss, very slow. I read an article a while back by Karl Meltzer in which he described his training technique. He said the best way to get ready for a long mountain run is to really practice the down hills. Everyone, he said, focuses on running up but most people end up walking up the hill, or at least the steep sections. It's on the down hill that you are able to make up the time, if your legs are ready. I also understand that the best way to train for a race is to mimic the race conditions as best as possible during training. Speedgoat, my next race, is a lot of steep up hill followed by steep downhill, all at elevation. At the present time, running at high elevation is out of the question because there is too much snow up there still. But running up and down steep hills is very do-able. Right out my font door is a 1,000 foot vertical climb, over a mile and a half, up to flag rock. So, the training plan for the next 4 months will be largely using this as my treadmill, ala Scott W. and Mount Wire. 2 laps today, the second one was much harder than the first. | 