Last summer when I was training for the Baltimore Marathon I mapped out a 9-10 mile loop that included a number of Arlington's biggest hills. Since I had 15 miles on the schedule for Saturday I did an out and back on the Mt. Vernon trail before starting into the loop. My friend G's fiancee was nice enough to join me for that portion (thanks C!). For some reason he picked the flat part and not the hilly part. I can't imagine why. ;-)
My hill loop passed through the appropriately named Country Club Hills area of Arlington. The name does not lie, the hills over there are pretty intense!
heading down
going up
still going up
down again
up again
nice long downhill
the last huge hill from a distance
and up close
Lesson learned from this run? Hills are hard. The Four Courts Four Miler is going to hurt, but at least there will be beer waiting at the finish.
I wasn't able to keep my average pace quite as fast as I have for long runs over the last couple of weeks, but given the route I was happy with how I did. This was my longest training run for the National Half, so it's all "downhill" from here!
4 comments:
That must have been a hugely hilly run. Remember, 4 courts is really only a mile and a half uphill. Easy peasy. Run for the beer!! :)
haha, what Beth said. I think it's reasonable to always expect the pace to slip a little bit on the up, but you can make up for it on the down so that it all evens out. Nice job on the hilly long run!
i always find it funny how huge and daunting hills look from far off but when you actually get to them you totally lose that frame of reference. great job on tackling such a hilly run!
Nice job on the hill run, and Good luck at 4 courts, I know you will do great, and Beth's right, at least it's only one hill up.
One. Killer. Hill. :)
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