Just a few hills this morning

Day 72 - November 17, 2007

Waking up this morning I decided to delay the long run another day. I guess that is one of the benefits of running every day - there is always tomorrow. Instead, I decided to venture over to the other side of the neighborhood and reacquaint myself with those nasty hills on Jonquil. Jonquil is just under a mile long and has two seriously steep hills and another shorter hill. I turned onto Jonquil off of Morning Glory Turn, which is right at the lowest lake overflow... i.e. the lowest elevation in the neighborhood. After passing by the lake, it immediately turns upward and rises 95 feet in elevation in just the first quarter mile. The road then drops 50 feet in less than a 10th of a mile before climbing back another 65 feet in the next 10th of a mile. That accounts for 160 feet of climb (16 flights of stairs) in less than half a mile or about 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Jonquil then turns back down, but at a gentle 75 feet over the next 4/10ths of a mile. Then, for the grand finally, and just so you don't forget, the road climbs another 60 feet back up to Amicus over the last 10th of a mile. All in all about 220 feet of gross elevation gain over that short mile.

I would have loved to have a had a road like Jonquil when I was training for Cross-Country back in high school. Hill repeats like that are almost as good as going to the track to build leg strength. I'm sure I will be back to attempt those hills over the next few weeks as I begin to prepare for the Charlottesville 10 miler in April.

Day: 72 ..... Time/Date: 8:20 AM 11/17/2007 ..... Weather: Cloudy, 38F
Run: Jonquil Hills ..... Miles: 5.5 ..... Time: 40:41 ..... Pace: 7:24 min/mile
Miles to Date: 291.8 ..... Total Running Time: 36:07:24