Cranmore to Black Cap

Sunday will be my third Cranmore Hill Climb. Year to year the course changes, but it looks just about the same this year as last year. It will be two clockwise laps with incredibly steep uhpills and a more gradual downhill. Weather looks reasonably good, unlike the torrential downpours and lightning storm that kicked off the 2008 edition. I'd like to extend my run a little further after the race. It turns out Cranmore is really a foothill to Black Cap Mountain, which rises an additional 1000 feet.



Still a short peak, less than 2500' with a base at about 500' elevation. There is a decent loop to the summit of Black Cap and back that isn't much longer than the race, maybe shorter overall. If I'm feeling up to it on Black Cap, I have the option of looping over to Peaked Mountain. A three peak day would be nice.

Success

2:00 PR at MWRR, Sunday, with dramatically less training. I still am not pushing it, I want to do serious distance today but will settle for this. Mt. Washington proved it is better to be 80% undertrained than 10% overtrained. This course was mapped long ago and I never got around to running it.

One Hill

This is the big day! After a couple fast 5k's this week, I feel my legs are back under me. I'm in pretty good shape. If I was overtrained last year, why shouldn't I expect to beat that time? So, I'm aiming for 1:45 or faster. This is a very unpredictable race, I may walk or not (which means I probably will).



That's how I may get back down. If it is wet, slippery and treacherous, I'll take the ride I've arranged. If I don't descend on the trails today, I may try and arange to run the Mt. Greylock Half Marathon trail race tomorrow. For today's race, results should be posted for the race after 1:00 at mountwashingtonroadrace.com

East Mtn. Holyoke

This is one of the best local trail workouts I know, a short tour of the Southern East Mtn. range. Much like 7 Sisters course, but not as dynamic. Last year, running every little summit of the East Mtn. range was a project that developed my running skills quite a bit. This cuts short of the Northern End which is truly brutal terrain.

[Edited these maps to reflect the actual run.
The first four miles below link to the second map, last four miles below finish the run.]



I'll run this before the Elks 5k tonight, then volunteer at the race. My final training for Mt. Washington is shaping up nicely. I plan some repeats at Mt. Toby on Saturday, a long tempo run during the week on roads up to Pomeroy Mtn., and I'll run a couple short races for speedwork. Next weekend, Northfield will be my last hard uphill run before the big day.

18 days till Mt. Washington

Going to bring up the weekly mileage carefully, with key workouts. Climbing was a major weakness at Pack, so I'll have to put in the time on hills. There is no luxury to wonder about last year's training and what to change this year. I have to run as much as I can on as many hills as I can recover from. Today, this moderatly hilly trail run, steady pace will give my legs a stretch on the downhills.