The Hills of League Line Road

OBJECTIVE
9 mi. @ 8:20/mi.

ACHIEVED
9.48 @ 7:51/mi.

7:31 AM 44° 97% 0 mph

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Jonathan and I had arranged to meet in Conroe to run League Line Road. We heard about this location about a year ago and have wanted to get out there for sometime. For flatlanders at sea level like us, we'll drive 45 minutes to find some hills to run on.

Have I said the morning was beautiful? It was. We saw cardinals, a deer, Texas wild flowers, and much more in an impressive display of nature's beauty. This along with Jonathan's excellent conversation and superb pacing resulted in a very good run. The miles just seemed to roll by without much effort until the very end.

The infamous hills of League Line Road were okay but weren't as impressive as I had built them up to be in my mind. Over the out-and-back route, we had about 9 good climbs ranging from 50' to 100' ... some decent rollers I suppose. I envision this being somewhat like the first half of the Ogden marathon course. The maximum elevation was 325' and the minimum was 200'. I suppose that's about the best we're going to get for a long hill route near Houston.

Jonathan is great. I really enjoy his company. I'm not sure this workout required that much of an effort from him. He's been running high mileage weeks with speed workouts over the last several weeks. He just won a local 5K last Saturday. His times and conditioning really seem to be improving at a rapid pace but he's been paying the price to achieve those gains. I look forward to running with him in Ogden.

I worked on my downhill technique today. Jonathan suggested keeping my knees lower and not over-striding. This seemed to help a lot. Now if I can just hold that form near the spillway in Ogden Canyon!

The goal this week was to get back to 100% healthy. I think I'm close. I didn't have any problems while running today. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. Based on how I'm feeling now, I think my left knee and ankle will be a bit achy. But as long as that is post-run rather than while running - it's all good.

The coming week steps up the pace and mileage culminating in a 20-miler next Saturday. This will be my last 20 below the marathon. I really need a good one!

PRE RUN
oatmeal & skim milk

POST RUN
2 SlimFast
Later, Kashi GoLean cereal with skim milk