Came up with a 1.5 mile variation to my normal 4 mile trail loop ... for downhill speed training ... first half mile on service road leading down to base of dam (185' elevation drop), next half mile is trail along river & then some ups & downs, 3rd half mile is all up hill on trail (164' rise) Too bad I didn't think of this more than 6 days before my downhill half! Oh well ... I see a 2:50 at St.George next year if I get in and train on this loop! Pretty brutal 1/2 mile downhill speed intervals with 1 mile uphill recovery. The nice part is you are in shade 95% of the time ... and can jump in lake to cool down when finished.
I ran the loop twice, downhill 1/2 mile splits were 5:23 pace & 5:11. I took it super slow on the trail sections. I .look forward to doing more loops when I start earlier in day & am not in middle of holiday weekend! | 