Fifteen benchmarked their hill readiness under the double full moons at this morning’s Blue Ridge Prelay. The reputed home of the CLT Running Co’s BRR hill training is really a tale of two courses. The front half (from the base of Blue Ridge) to the back side of the loop (at the top of the Blue Ridge cut through) gives you all the hills you can handle. The back half (Wilby to Mountain View) is a nice recovery to get your head (and legs) right. There are plenty of options for each runner to choose his own adventure.
After a half mile mosey, the recommended course for today:
Rinse and Repeat until 6 AM. This is the Mt CLT Strava Segment but I added a descent back down Blue Ridge (seems like an incomplete loop to me…).
At 6 AM we gathered at the Bottom of Blue Ridge to run to the Yucca plant at the top of the Old Bell dead end. Then dealer’s choice: for the frisky, hill repeats up and down Blue Ridge to sweep the six. For the rest, head back to gravel lot on the flat and speedy Old Bell Rd.
OLD MOLEY
Wow, I’m not used to this much chatter on my sadclown Everest ascents. 10,162 vertical feet so far, 1,286 to go.
That Mtn View > Old Bell spike is legit, 14% grade in places. Here’s the segment: https://www.strava.com/segments/12162872. The KOM is the guy who sometimes wins the Thunder Road Half. Apparently no one ever runs it like we did. Of the 12 total on the leaderboard, 10 (11?) were us, this morning. Until you’re able to change that segment name, a workout name change is futile.
What’s the official record for ratio of comments by non-posting pax to pax who actually did the workout?
Wow…that’s a lot of scrolling through comments…now I feel obligated. The reality is even if the name is “officially” changed, it will always be referenced as McHorseyArse or whatever. As mentioned earlier, it’s futile to change it. As for the workout itself, great track for sure, the roads were surprisingly smooth and the hills are legit. I stuck to repeating the same loop with Silent Bob as we synched strides early; I didn’t know if I was doing the small loop or big loop…the dissertation at the start didn’t stick. The final romp up to the hilltop Yucca was a nice touch. Thanks TigerRag.
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