Diamond Rock

Headed out with a few people from work today on a route I've done once or twice before. Initially I had thought it was in a completely different direction, but it still contained a mega hill, which is one of the reasons I thought of doing it in the first place. The route is about 7.4 miles and we finished in about 64 minutes. It was untimed, however, since I split my watch at one point and accidentally stopped it.

Started off with Becky, Brian P, and Frank. Made it to the bottom of the hill and finished in about 4 minutes, 11 seconds, with a brief pause to re-tie a sneaker. It was pretty chilly out but this hill really jacks up your core temperature in a hurry. At the top of the hill, the route transitions onto the Horseshoe trail. I was wearing a pair of Asics that are about 2 years old and the treads are almost completely worn out, so it was cautious but steady going for me. The trail ends and the route progresses down the same hill that we initially climbed in the beginning. I tried to keep my cadence the same, but elongating my strides, but there simply was no easy way about it. I could tell my quads were going to be sore this afternoon. The hill is steep enough so that you would always be accelerating, no matter how fast you were going.

True to prediction, my quads were pretty sore after the run, but I think it was more because of my choice in footwear rather than the downhill. I left a pair of sneakers outside after a weekend run with Brigid and the snow we got earlier this week soaked them through. Can you imagine? Friday it's 70 and sunny and Monday we have snow and 20 degree weather.