Go to Hills. Run. or Run.stop.Run

Go to Hills. Run. or Run.stop.Run

At 0515 on Thursday morning, 22 PAX launched from the 4Mile Creek parking area at Bevington and Rea Rd.  2 more PAX rolled in after COT, but we’ll count them despite their aversion for inclusion – 24 PAX total at this weekly installment of DevilsTurn.

The THANG:

• Quick overview that it’s Piper Glen Hill week.  There will be something special, so regroup at the neighborhood entrance.
• Start the first mile through the Apartment loop
• Regroup just past 1mile at the entrance to Piper Glen
• Here are the options:
  1. Run at Threshold Pace (http://runsmartproject.com/calculator) for 1 mile on the course of your choosing.  There will be a tiny non-reflective orange cone in the darkest shadow in the left gutter or the road to mark 1 mile.  Rest for 1:00 (or up to 1:30 to allow regrouping with others), then repeato to next cone.  There are five 1 mile segments on the 6.5mile course.  There are three 1 mile segments on the 6mile course.  There are two 1 mile segments on the 4mile course.
  2. Run at Marathon pace on the course of your choosing.
• After your last 1mile segment, cooldown to COT at 0615.

Moleskin:

• HoneyBee has done an admirable job sacrificing his own run by putting out turn signals for this course via chalk arrows on the road each week.  However, this is a tiresome process that YHC didn’t want to engage in (or get mounted by Mr. Brady).  Instead, we took a leap forward with technology to compensate.  Jury is out if the maps are helpful or the format needs to be redone (smaller paper, laminated, better descriptions, etc.).
• Here are all of the routes in a single document – Google Doc download.  Here are the Strava courses:
  • 4mile course in Strava – an update to the past 4mile course that makes this 4+ miles.  Includes an extra hill.
  • 6mile course – the traditional Piper Glen course that HB has chalked out dozens of times. It’s really only 5.9 miles, but who’s counting (other than Outback and MT who made sure to get some extra).
  • 6.5mile “double hill” course – hill climbers get the Piper Glen Dr hill
• A strong group of Frasier, Mr. Brady, Bout Time, Honey Bee, and Clippy took on Option 1 – at least mostly.  Each 1 mile was ticking off in 6:00 to 6:30 per mile.  Apparently Mr. Brady doesn’t like to wait around for a minute and induced others to walk into the next mile.  Or, the Q didn’t explain it well.  Basically, we were setting out to run five 1 mile Threshold pace intervals and get no more than 1:30 rest (standing around if you want) in between.  The 1-1:30 rest gives some flexibility, otherwise you’re going to be running these on your own as each runner finishes 1mile at different times.  In then end, only Frasier and Clippy took on all five 1mile intervals.  Not to blame it on Mr. Brady (but he’s getting a lot of facetime in this BB), but when he said, “you guys go ahead” just after starting the 5th interval, the other part of the group hung back with him and took a little off the throttle on the last one.  #mindgames
• Haggis tore into the first mile, but was having none of the format.  Still finished well ahead of the first Option 1 group, so he was moving out there.
• Not sure how many others took on the Option 1 either due to lack of explanation, lack of finding the cones or having the distance on their watch, but this was a tough morning to run – hills never change but the 73 degrees F and 94% humidity wasn’t helping.  Comparing this to last week when it was 66 degrees F and 78% humidity.  Any improvements or close efforts to last week would have been HUGE!  Given the stop at the Entrance to the neighborhood, it gave all PAX a chance to CHARGE in on Old Course and set some PRs.
• Notables were several PAX at least taking the 6 mile option including Huggy Bear, Semi Gloss, Strange Brew, Hairball (with some bonus hills on his own course), Champagne, Cheese Curd (at least he took a 6mile map) and OutbackTussaud (they run so close to each other, they are a couple now – sorry Mr. Bean).  Some others may have run it, but if you’re not on Strava, it’s hard to prove!
• Suggestions for next time to put blinky lights on the Mile Markers are a really good option, and surely the early morning dog walkers won’t call the PiperGlen Rent-a-cops thinking that someone wants to blow up their mailbox or is marking the next house to “hit”.
• YHC appreciates everyone pushing themselves and those that took on the Option to try something different even though it may have seemed like a Run/Walk.  Thank you to HoneyBee and LongHaul for the opportunity.
• Thanks to Long Haul for the takeout.  It’s great seeing you back out there brother!