Another Hurt Loop for Speed

Rex and I have altered our training approach. We are now working on Speed rather than distance. This mean mostly hard 20 milers and shorter runs over ground we will be running in the HURT. The goal is to get the times down so it becomes natural to push at desired paces over important ground.

We are climbing the Hogsback in sub 20's, doing the run to the three way at Center in 30, and making the top of Tantalus road by the upper 40's. This gives us the ability to hit the map room by 1:20 or less; a pace that carries us down to Paradise in 2:00, and back up to the bench at the grassy knoll in 3:00. The goal is do a down and up of Jack-ass by 4:20 or less. That puts us in line to do a 5:30 or so if we decide to run the downs back to Nature Center.

This is way beyond the race pace I intend but it is good to know I can do this pace if I need to. For a while there I was wondering if I could break 7:00. These sub-sixes are a real confidence booster as far as speed is concerned. Doing sub-sevens over three loops now seems entirely possible while just a few weeks ago I was not so sure I could do it.

We plan a half dozen of these over the next few weeks, and that will be the end of the training.