Slowly Getting Faster

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 

Class was canceled this morning so I thought I would take the opportunity to try and improve on my pathetic performance last night. I think I improved but my watch died about half way through so I don't know for sure.  I was on the peak in 49 minutes and I started my watch at my house instead of the bottom of the hill which tacks on a little bit more distance. I was also able to run almost the whole thing, even the countless switchbacks up to the top. So I think it was an improvement but I have no empirical data to support that claim. It was definitely better to get out while it was still cool outside. 

Matt VH and I did the Flag Rock loop in reverse today.  It was a refreshing change and much faster. As it turns out, the south to north approach is much more technical (i.e. rocky) than the other way around.  This slows you down quite a bit on the climbs.  The other way is a little bit steeper (528' rise per mile north to south as opposed to ~450' rise south to north) but you don't really notice it because the trail is so much nicer.  We made good time to the top - I got there in 43 minutes which is 6 minutes faster than yesterday and 16 minutes faster than monday. Matt was a few minutes behind due to a product delivery. 

From the top it was a quick cruise down the mountain and back to the start.  I felt so good once we got to the top I felt like I was flying down the mountain. Once we got back to the road and down the steep hills we pushed the pace a little bit and I ended up breaking a 6 minute mile for about a 1/4 mile, even reaching a 5 minute pace at one point. In the end, we made this trip 6 minutes faster than the other way around. I think this might become the standard route.  

I've got a perfect record going this week for trips up to flag rock and I wasn't going to let a little snow and rain ruin that.  As soon as the sun came out at 5pm I was lobbying my wife for the chance to get out there.  Due to operator error my Garmin report is basically useless so it's a good thing I did this route yesterday so I know the elevation gain and mileage. The one thing the Garmin can still tell me is my elapsed time, which today is 1:23:02 seconds. That's 2 minutes faster than yesterday but slower than I know I can do this route. The upper bench and the rest of the trail, all the way to the rock, was covered in 1-2 inches of snow.  It made the up hill a bit slippery but not bad.  However, the downhill was much slower than it otherwise would have been. Without snow I think I could take another couple minutes off this time. 

Painful toward the end but fun nonetheless. North to south double up to flag rock.  1st round with Matt VH and Dorsimus, second lap alone. More to come after a shower and some rest.