I have a favorite 10-mile route I call the "Five Hills Route." It follows a starfish pattern from the stables in Rock Creek Park. I descend a hill and re-ascend the same hill before moving on to the next one. I do that four times. The fifth hill is when I'm heading home and I do the Brandywine climb, which is the hardest I've found in Northwest DC.
Today I broke out of the home office at 3 and amended the five hills to make it seven. I added the diabolical bike trail following Military from Beach Drive to Oregon Avenue and the Tilden Street/29th Avenue climb. Brandywine was still last, and still the hardest. By the time I topped out at Brandywine and Linnean I felt the weakness in the arms that comes when I've metabolized everything just to keep the legs moving. 1:37 and I would guess 12 miles.
Rather than crash on the couch and let the legs ache, I headed to the ice bath. I've written about this before. It works, I think.
I hope it works. Because tomorrow there's a 5K at Hains Point, very flat, and with promising weather. I've only rarely run that distance. Tomorrow I'm going for a PR.
Update: Or not. God actually intervened. Multiple road closures and we arrived 5 minutes before the start, insufficient time for a warm-up. I ran with P__, who, I'm pretty sure, ran her best ever. This was a very nice event put on by George Washington law students.
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