Surprise On My Training Log
Last night, when I checked my training log for today's workouts...I was thrown a curve ball! The first thing on the list was "Garden of the Gods 5 Mile Road Race"...ummmm, OUCH!
I was up early this morning for some pre-race breakfast and then headed out the door with my friends Jasmine, Mike and Yonni. Since I'm the lucky one with a vehicle, we all piled into the Xterra to drive through some light rain towards GOG (official COS abbreviation for Garden of the Gods...I'm not sure where the 'the' went in the GOG but you get the point). We had to park about 1.5 miles away from the start but that made for a perfect warm up run.
Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a 'warm' up because it was freezing outside with strong winds and occasionally some light rain showers. I did the best I could to stay warm...found some other triathlete friends doing the race (Matty and Kelly) and saw Cliff on his bike ready to motivate and cheer.
The first 1 mile of the course is directly UP hill. There is no gradual incline off the starting line, it's just up hill running for 7 or 8 minutes (depending on how well you paced yourself:). I just got back to altitude on Thursday so I was in no rush to kill myself from oxygen deficit...my first mile was nice and slow and my lungs were already burning.
At the 1 mile mark, we hit our first down hill section and I was pleased to see that all my practice has started to pay off as I was able to fly by a ton of people as I pounded down that road, arms flailing, legs churning! Of course that only lasted for a few seconds before we were heading back up hill. There isn't a single flat section of road in Garden of the Gods and that's what made this run a really great challenge...it was all about keeping my form together going down, going up, and surging over the crests of the hills.
We do a lot of cycling training around the GOG loop but I've never been running in the park. Along with the huge bike/walking path on the edge of the road, there are miles and miles of trails that wind through the rocks and rivers. After the race I jogged along some of the trails for my cool down...just watch out for the poke-y cactus and yucca plants.
I was up early this morning for some pre-race breakfast and then headed out the door with my friends Jasmine, Mike and Yonni. Since I'm the lucky one with a vehicle, we all piled into the Xterra to drive through some light rain towards GOG (official COS abbreviation for Garden of the Gods...I'm not sure where the 'the' went in the GOG but you get the point). We had to park about 1.5 miles away from the start but that made for a perfect warm up run.
Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a 'warm' up because it was freezing outside with strong winds and occasionally some light rain showers. I did the best I could to stay warm...found some other triathlete friends doing the race (Matty and Kelly) and saw Cliff on his bike ready to motivate and cheer.
The first 1 mile of the course is directly UP hill. There is no gradual incline off the starting line, it's just up hill running for 7 or 8 minutes (depending on how well you paced yourself:). I just got back to altitude on Thursday so I was in no rush to kill myself from oxygen deficit...my first mile was nice and slow and my lungs were already burning.
At the 1 mile mark, we hit our first down hill section and I was pleased to see that all my practice has started to pay off as I was able to fly by a ton of people as I pounded down that road, arms flailing, legs churning! Of course that only lasted for a few seconds before we were heading back up hill. There isn't a single flat section of road in Garden of the Gods and that's what made this run a really great challenge...it was all about keeping my form together going down, going up, and surging over the crests of the hills.
We do a lot of cycling training around the GOG loop but I've never been running in the park. Along with the huge bike/walking path on the edge of the road, there are miles and miles of trails that wind through the rocks and rivers. After the race I jogged along some of the trails for my cool down...just watch out for the poke-y cactus and yucca plants.
posted by Sara McLarty at 5:28 PM
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