Embrace the Hills

When we were in Utah on the San Juan River I was reading our river map.  There was an introduction that talked about the beauty of the river and gave advice, "embrace the sand."  As our week on the river proceeded I understood this wisdom.  There is sand everywhere.  Eventually the sand makes its way between you toes, in your ears, and no matter how careful you are in your sleeping bag.  Embrace the sand, it is part of the river trip.  The sand was part of the overall experience and it was fabulous.

I am transferring this knowledge to the hills.  I will embrace the hills.  The hills are good.  You use different muscles running up the hills than running down the hills.  Hills will give me a chance to use different muscles.  An all flat marathon is hard on the muscles because the same muscles are used for the whole thing.  The good thing about running up a hill is that you get to run down a hill.

I have looked at the Cincinnati course which is supposed to be hilly.  There is one "big" hill but it doesn't look that  bad.  Here is the Flying Pig elevation:

When I compare this with the Go St. Louis elevation, it doesn't look that bad.  Here is the Go St. Louis elevation:

The overall elevation gain of the Flying Pig is 1016 ft.  The overall elevation gain of the Go St Louis is 785 feet.  So the Flying Pig has 231 more feet gain but also that much more downhill.  I am going to embrace the hills and crush them.  We have trained for hills.  We will be ready.

For comparison here is the elevation chart for the Pikes Peak Marathon.  This is serious elevation.  (Note to self:  Never, ever, ever sign up for this one):

Today's workout was 18 miles.  Jim joined Kathy and I for the first ten miles and he did great.  He drove home then picked us up when we were done.  We ran the trail to Rockwood Reservation and added the last hill up to Manchester Road.  Then toward the end of the work out we ran up most of the Rock Hollow Trail.  It was tough on tired legs but we did it.  

When I got home I noticed that Jim had a mug with some hot beverage.  I asked him what he was drinking.  He said , "coffee".  Jim is not usually a coffee drinker.  I asked him why he was drinking coffee.  He replied, "So I can stay awake to watch basketball."

Training schedule 12 weeks down 6 to go.  Two-thirds of the way there.