This morning's run was back on my home turf. I always enjoy running in Washington, DC, because of the vibrant running community and the great scenery, but the humidity there is unbarable for a desert denizen like me. Apparently the DC weather stowed away in my suitcase, because the forecast for this morning was 85 degrees and 60% humidity. Yikes! We planned to do a 10-mile loop at DC Ranch (cutting through West World to spice it up a little). To beat the heat, we arranged to meet at Bill's house at 4:45 AM, which meant my alarm went off at 3:50. "Holy cock-a-doodle-doo, Batman!"
To help beat the heat, we planned to stash some extra water along the route. This proved to be a good idea since my Fuel Belt was completely empty by mile 6. We had a suprise guest runner this morning. Trudy decided to run 5 miles this morning, and she was there stretching when we arrived at our meeting place.
The name of the game today was pace. To survive the conditions, we needed to keep the pace between 9:30 and 10:00. Despite the steep downhill for the first few miles of the run, we managed to rein it in and keep to our plan. That wasn't easy because it's possible to shave a couple minutes off your pace because of the steepness of the hills on this route. We waved goodbye to Trudy at the 2.5 mile point, and continued down Thompson Peak Pkwy. to McDowell Mountain Ranch Rd., where we headed west. This was already over 4 miles, and I began to wonder if I had been duped into running a longer than advertised. Bill assured me that this was, indeed, a 10 mile loop. And, of course, he was right.
 We stopped for a bit at the back entrance of West World. The scenery there was a little desolate. I noticed a paved multi-use trail crossing the road here. We'll have to investigate this for future runs. We cut through West World, which their website advertises as "a premier, nationally recognized, user-friendly equestrian center and special events facility serving our community and target market visitors." I think that's a lot of fancy words for "they hold rodeos there."
We exited the front gate of West World and continued up 94th St. This was a gradual ascent up to Bell Rd. I thought of an article I just read in the August '08 Runner's World about the mental part of running. It suggested, instead of fearing the hill, "...to spin the negative thought into a positive one--think of adrenaline as fuel that will push you up the hill." I fixed my vision on the top of the hill, and focused on bringing my knees up and pumping my arms, imagining my adrenaline pushing me up the hill from behind. It worked-- instead of being scared of the hill, it made we look forward to the even steeper hill ahead!
We stopped on Bell Rd. to retrieve our water, and headed up the slight incline to Thompson Peak Pkwy. When we turned north onto Thompson Peak, the hill got immediately steeper. I continued to focus on my form and channeling my adrenaline. I imagined saying, "Is that all you got! Bring it on!" There are several level spots on this incline, followed by an even steeper slope on the other side. I felt strong and under control through here, and felt great when we got to the top.
After that it was just a smooth cruise back to our starting point. It was a great run, and I felt really good about our performance on a pretty challenging hill. We also managed to perfectly maintain our goal pace, averaging 9:47 for the run. High five!
Activity | Route: | -- | Elev. Avg: | 0 ft | | Location: | Carefree, AZ | Elev. Gain: | +0 ft | | Date: | 07/13/08 | Up/Downhill: | [+0/-0] | | Time: | 06:24 AM | Difficulty: | 0 / 5.0 | | | Weather: | Fair | | 84 F temp; 56% humidity | | 87 F heat index; winds SE 3 |
| Distance: | 9.93 miles | | |
| Time: | 1:37:14 | | Speed: | 6.1 mph | | | | Pace: | 9' 48 /mi | | | | Calories: | 1707 | | |
Elevation (ft)
Pace (min/mile)
Splits | Mile | Pace (min/mile) | Speed (mph) | Elevation
Gain |
|---|
| actual | +/- avg | actual | +/- avg |
|---|
| 1 | 9' 55 | +0' 07 | 6.0 | -0.1 | -- ft | | 2 | 9' 35 | -0' 13 | 6.3 | +0.1 | -- ft | | 3 | 9' 46 | -0' 02 | 6.1 | +0.0 | -- ft | | 4 | 9' 46 | -0' 02 | 6.1 | +0.0 | -- ft | | 5 | 9' 58 | +0' 10 | 6.0 | -0.1 | -- ft | | 6 | 12' 20 | +2' 32 | 4.9 | -1.3 | -- ft | | 7 | 14' 09 | +4' 21 | 4.2 | -1.9 | -- ft | | 8 | 9' 52 | +0' 04 | 6.1 | -0.0 | -- ft | | 9 | 9' 45 | -0' 03 | 6.2 | +0.0 | -- ft | | 10 | 9' 07 | -0' 41 | 6.6 | +0.4 | -- ft | | end | 10' 46 | +0' 58 | 5.6 | -0.6 | -- ft | | Versus average of 9' 48 min/mile |
|
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1 comment:
"High Five" right back. We're insane for attempting this run, but ROCKED IT nonetheless. Nice Post!
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