07/16/2005

Workout: medium-long run 14mi.

I've made a series of strategic changes to my training schedule to accommodate the upcoming Riley's Rumble on July 24th. The first of these occurred today...and proved a harbinger of painful days ahead.

My plan was to on Sunday drive up to Potomac to inspect the hilly course for the following week's race. On the sage advice of my running coach, Nick, I instead turned today's medium-long run into a preliminary "recon" run.

Getting up at around 4:30am, I packed up my stuff and drove to Potomac. Arriving at Riley's Lock Road, I then drove the approximate course, there and back. Ooooh boy...it seemed hilly even in the VW, with the RPMs regularly hitting the 4000 range. I could only imagine how this was going to translate on the heart rate monitor. Luckily, I observed that the most intimidating hills were at the start, at the turn, and near the end. Fun.

The splits turned out as follows:
Out: 00:45:16
Back: 00:45:36
Total: 01:30:52

I may have shorted the total just a bit at the turn, not being able to find any old road markings. But I think I added a bit at the end. At worse my actual time may have been closer to 01:32:00.

Regardless, I'm pretty happy with the results, even knowing that I started off much too fast. My strategery improved in on the back-end, and I hope to plan better for the real thing next week.

p.s. other route "participants": 7 cars, 3 rabbits, 1 cyclist and 1 jogger. So much for my concern about running amidst a sea of traffic next week.