Running (Trail) 3:04:50 [3] 20.56 km (8:59 / km) +723m 7:39 / km
slept:7.25 shoes: Salomon Speedcross 3 Aqua
STORM and 'Bent had planned a Hockley Loop so I invited Browner to join AdventureDog and me for a Hockley Provincial Park run. I figured we could get in some great climbs in preparation for the Dolomites but we couldn't do the entire Hockley Loop since we wouldn't want the boys to wait around. Well, I got half the plan right... :)
It was a surprisingly beautiful day on the trails. We had sunshine in spite of a rainy forecast, and our Kahtoola Microspikes worked well on the deadly skating rink hills. It was great to catch up with Browner. AdventureDog behaved really well.
I figured the guys would take longer than usual in the icy conditions, and since 'Bent's previous PR for Hockley was 2 hrs 40 min, we would need to add about 50 mins to the usual HPP run. So we checked out the 3rd Line hill, which is accessible from the Hockley trails; I've always wanted to record it on my Ambit. It turns out to be a 100 m climb in 1.5 km but it's a twisty gravel road so we had to watch for traffic - not that we saw much. Next time I think I would only do a repeat from the northern trail access (80 m climb in 1 km).
Then we headed back via Hockley trails. After all our climbing, the last 5 kms seemed to go on forEVER. (Sorry, Browner!!) AdventureDog was the only one who held his pace and I had to push to stay close to him to make sure he didn't scare any hikers on the ice. (It's surprising how many people are afraid of dogs so I always want to be close enough to call him back and grab his leash.)
Unfortunately (?) STORM and 'Bent set a new PR for the Hockley Loop of 2:29 (!!!!!) so they had a loooong wait at the parking lot while Browner and I hauled ourselves over the final few hills and dreamed of our upcoming brunch at the Black Birch.
We exceeded our goal of 600 m vertical by a lot, thanks to my over-enthusiasm. Looking at the GPS track, I can see ways to increase the average climb per km. We did 723 m in 20-ish km today. At Lavaredo, there will be 250 m more climb in 20 km on average. Yikes.
This was a heavy training week with a focus on hills - 2450+ m in the past 7 days, all within an hour of home. I guess there will need to be a lot more of that! Looking forward to an easy week coming up. :)