Great Feeling, tough run 5/16/12

Back at it - one day later than I wanted, but whatevah - "Reverse Irish Run" from the Haubers:

A little different this time - I included the grading map of the course I took.  You can see that the hill on "Woodend Avenue" was brutal.  If you map the running course for just that stretch, it will display a grade of 20% (which I could believe).  The graph here is stretched to average out the whole route.  I've run into this issue before - just know it's steep!

I started this route off on a blistering pace.  It starts with a fair amount of downhill, so that helps.  I calculated that I was in the neighborhood of a 7:45 mile - no problem at all.  By the 2nd mile, my pace had slowed to an 8:30 mile, roughly.  Again, even though it was largely flat with a decent climb around the 2nd and 4th quarters of it, I was feeling great.  The 3rd mile was no small potato!

Sort of what I was talking about in the picture caption - it's steep.  My 3rd mile took me almost 12 minutes. The entire stretch on Woodend Avenue is a brutal uphill.  You gain over 200 feet in elevation!  I did great on it (my HR got pretty high, but I mean, come on!).  I powered through it - not sure I could have done it a whole lot faster through.  That would explain the bulk of my HR and Calories.  Had I run a flat stretch instead of that monster, I'm sure I could have knocked 4 minutes off of my time (giving me a comfy 8:09 pace). From there, I finished the last 1.66 miles in roughly 13:45, only stopping at the park on 51st to meet up with the Erin and play with the very happy Ellie!  I wanted to finish out to the Haubers as I was still loaded up on energy, but I couldn't pass this up.

I was not tired/sore/in any way slowed by Sunday's run.  That gave me some confidence, for sure!  Even Tuesday I was still a little sluggish, so maybe it's good I gave it more time.  I'm still going to try to run tomorrow, but we'll see what happens.  I expect it will be a pretty busy night (with the birthday and all).

Anyway, just wanted to log the miles and get the run on the books.  If you're looking for the soul crusher of all hills in the KC area to train on, this one on Woodend would be it!

D

Running Total:
May:  47.60
2012:  210.12