Contrasting Vistas

I am a bit sore today. Yesterday I ran 13.5 miles through the hills around Lake George. The climbs were long and steep and wound along country roads. It was raining slightly, which made the several streams I passed flow with a touch more urgency. I was thirsty and tempted to sip the clean cool water. I covered a 4.5 mile loop three times. I could tell by the look of the locals that they were not used to seeing runners pass through these road, especially more than one time.

While I didn’t have difficulty climbing the hills, I could tell my body is just not used to climbing anything more than a half mile long. My legs were kind of surprised at the extra exertion needed to reach the top of a hill and my calves and gluteus are letting me know that they are less than pleased today. It just goes to prove the old training adage that your body adapts to the stresses you place on it. Doing the same type of training over and over again, will only you extremely efficient at that type of training and won’t prepare you for new or different challenges.

The toughest part of this run was the downhill section. While the main uphill segment was over a mile long, the trip down was covered in what felt like a quarter mile. Running down such a steep incline kind of freaks me out. There is such an out of control element to it and I feared slipping or tripping. I had to be very careful with my footfalls or else I braked too hard, causing a severe amount of stress on my knees. The first time down was difficult. The next two times, I just relaxed and flew down the hill. I bet I was running 5 minute miles. I just sort of leaned into the downhill and let my legs fly; kicking back high and spending a lot of time off the ground like I practiced previously.

So now I am back in Brooklyn and going for a 75 mile ride around Prospect Park. It will be nothing like riding country roads through the Adirondacks with trees and stream crossings every couple of miles. I always marvel at the contrast of the roads from just a few hours driving. At around 5pm last evening, I was on one lane country roads with the forest on both sides of me. Three hours later, I was driving on worn out asphalt roads around the housing projects along Third Avenue Brooklyn, near the Gowanus Canal. I was thirsty and not even slightly tempted to sip the water.

Here are the stats:
Time: 1:52:25
HR: 140/164
Dist: 13.5
TiZ1(155/137): A - 0:12:02, I - 1:03:45, B - 0:36:39
Calories: 1429
Loop1 - 43:20
Loop2 - 34:22
Loop3 - 34:43

My Lake George run route. Points 1 and 5 are connected by a road.