Alright, I tried to blog this run last week, but timed out on my computer. After a busy week, I'd thought I'd give it another shot. Jeff and I knew we needed one last challenging course before we tapered for Moab. More specifically, we needed hills. We mapped out a course up at DC Ranch that I had done last year while training. It's pretty brutal and I warned Jeff ahead of time. Jeff picked me up and we planted some water at Mile 6. Heading up to DC Marketplace, we were greeted with a completely packed parking lot. Pulling in I remembered that the Tour de Scottsdale was going on and it started here. We zig zagged our ways through the hundreds of riders in bright clothing prparing their EXTREMELY expensive bikes. Ok, I have to admit I was in heaven. I had thought of doing this race but it only offers a 70 mile route, a little too much for me at this point. Maybe next year. Jeff always starts out the gate pretty quick. My legs usually take a good couple of miles to warm up. Honestly my legs were a little tight and I thought I was in for a long run. Headed down F'U hill things felt a little better letting gravity take its course. Once we reached the bottom, we headed east up Bell Rd. I warned Jeff ahead of time that this is a pretty steady hill (aprox 1 mile). It's like a big bowl of pasta, ya take a big bite out of it but it never seems to end. A quarter of a mile up, I think Jeff realized what he was in for and gave me a look over his shoulder like "Are you kidding me?" I have a love hate relationship with hills stemming from last year. I try to give it my all knowing that there is typically a decline on the other side. Sure enough we got to the top and damn did it feel good. At this point my legs had warmed up. I downed some Cytomax and I cruised down the hill. Looking at my Garmin I saw I was cruisin at a 8:15 pace. I noticed that Jeff had fallen back a bit and I hoped all was OK. I came to find out at the turnaround that his calf was tight. Mile 6 was at the bottom of the hill, and we rehydrated, GU'd and Jeff emptied his infant bladder. Then he proposed the sick thought of doing an out an back and climb this hill back to the start instead of doing the loop we mapped out. At this point I figured "What doesn't kill you make you stronger" so I said sure. The legs felt great so I tried to keep the pace to an 8:45 as best as possible. The incline is brutal on the way back and it winds around so it's hard to tell where the top is, but I'm proud to say that I made that hill my bitch. After cruising down again, I headed up one last hill...that's right it was time to climb up F'U hill. For this run I'm gonna rename this hill Hamburger Hill because my quads felt like hamburger climbing this hill 10 miles into this run. When all was said and done, we finished a little over a 9 min mile. Keeping this pace with these hills was brutal, but I'm confident we're prepared for Moab! Bring it on! Activity
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