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