I rode with my daughter to school this morning, which gave me a new start point.
Half #118: keeping it simple
I felt the need to bring it back to basics, avoiding hills and intervals today and choosing instead to build to a sustained tempo pace along my favorite South Island coast route.
Half #117: Cross Island Trail
The original cross-Island route, from Fairy Dell Trail on the west side through Grand Forest to Manitou Beach on the east side (and back, plus some extra Grand Forest trails to make a half).
Half #116: 2,000 miles for the year!
This is just the second year in my life that I’ve managed 2,000 running miles, the other being last year.
Half #114 and 115: trail marathon
Kept the pace easy for a low-heartrate effort (averaging 135bpm) like a lot of the runs I did last year in preparation for ultramarathons. It was harder than it should have been, but at least I managed to check the box on a marathon in September, keeping up my streak of at least one full marathon each month this year.
Half #113: a relaxed half
This is a variant of my South-End cross-Island route, and I kept an easier pace most of the way. Slightly cooler but sunny today: just beautiful out!
Half #112: Interval workout
I ran 4 intervals of 0.5mi @ sub-6:00min/mi, 3 of 1min @ sub-5:30min/mi, and 4 of 1mi @ sub-7:00min/mi, with 3:00 recoveries between each.
Half #111: South-end cross-Island with Toe Jam Hill
It rained the whole time. The face on that sheep says it all.
Half #110: a loose progression run
This was a new route, and without planning it I ended up with almost exactly the right distance. Luck! Ran a rough progression from around 9:00/mi to 7:00/mi.
Half #109: hill repeat half
This run includes what may be the hardest Strava segment on the Island: the “Up and Over x5.” Each “Up and Over” segment starts at the bottom of Westwood Shore Trail and involves going up the hill, across the connector to Knudsen Trail, down to the bottom of Knudsen, and then back again to the bottom of Westwood Shore, meaning each has two uphill efforts and two down. In total, this run has 11 uphill efforts of moderate difficulty (300ft or so), for something around 3,200-3,500ft of elevation gain.