Sometimes we are so focused on our goals and plans we don't realize the ridiculous training we are doing until someone outside the bubble points it out. Today was one of those days. My plan called for me to run up and down a steep hill for two hours and count the summits. The place I was supposed to do it was still covered in snow so I chose another one of my favorite steep hills. I didn't think this was going to be easy and it was the workout that stuck out when I first got my plan from Max back in December. I drove to the bottom of the road parked the car and left two bottles of water on the hood.
Started out good. The road starts with a pretty gradual grade and then goes up really quickly. It's brutal. After four trips one guy came out of his house to get his mail and told me I was nuts. On the next trip up he asked me what I was training for. Up and down I went knocking out 12 summits in one hour. Up hill actually felt much better than going down after a while. By the 15th summit I was really starting to feel it in my calves and reaching the spot just below the crest felt like I was trying to get over the Hillary Step on Everest. My pace was starting to slow and I was hitting 173-176 on the ups and recovering at around 142 on the downhills.
I reached the 19 mark with about 15 minutes to go and got focused on knocking out 21. The 20th was a bitch and another guy getting his mail asked me what number I was at and proceeded to tell me I was, "one crazy mother f'er". 21 was a burner and reaching the summit I let out a huge sigh of relief. On my way back down the first friendly neighbor came running out with a water bottle and chatted me up about IM and how nuts I was since he said he can't even walk up the damn hill.
Most amazing to me was how I had a singular focus of knocking out as many summits as possible. I didn't even realize I was running for two straight hours. It became a game and even though it was painful it was actually kind of a fun.
Summary:
Time: 2 hours
Avg HR: 164
Summits: 21
Click here for route and elevation profile
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