May 24, 2014: In-Training for Peachtree, Week 7

Goal: 4 mile run in hilly neighborhood

Memorial Day weekend typically begins the summer season, and the weather certainly feels like summer now.  The temperature this morning was a comfortable 68 degrees F, but at least 10 degrees warmer than previous Saturday mornings.  After thoroughly stretching and warming up, we set out on a route exclusively through residential Brookhaven, working our way around the Oglethorpe University campus for the first and last stages of our run. 

Miles in magenta

Rob was out of town this week, so the coach for today's fastest group was Chuck, a recently retired Georgia Tech professor and veteran of a couple of dozen Peachtree Road Races.  With three students in our group, our quartet led the way through a loop around the Town Brookhaven mall, then left at the traffic circle with Hermance Drive.  After a very short downhill section, we began going uphill, with the top of the hill coinciding with the 1 mile mark shortly after we turned east on Windsor Parkway.  Afterwards I checked the elevations and learned that was a 25 meter hill, but while we were fresh, that wasn't too difficult.  (For comparison, the infamous Cardiac Hill on Peachtree is 35 meters high, and begins shortly before the end of the third mile of the Peachtree Road Race.) 

We turned right onto Woodrow Way, and taking advantage of the downhill section of the route, I lengthened my stride and pulled in front of the other runners.  It felt really good to lightly lope downhill, with a gentle enough grade to stay in control while running at my maximum speed.  At the bottom of the hill, we turned left onto Lanier Drive, a nice boulevard.  The route headed uphill, but at a more gentle grade.  The other runners caught up with me at the turn, and we were able to talk a bit while running on Lanier.  

As promised, there was a case of bottled water marking the end of 2 miles, our halfway point.  We turned right to loop around the school in a counterclockwise direction.  There were a couple of relatively steep downhill sections on the loop, and I slowed down a bit to ensure that I didn't lose my footing.  But as we turned south, away from the lake, we were "rewarded" with a 15 meter hill, a 6% grade and the steepest hill of the route.  Curt caught up with us at this stage and took photographs of us laboring uphill.  We retraced part of our route southward along Lanier, turning right at Windsor Parkway.  Because of some traffic, I was running on the sidewalk whereas the others were on the asphalt roadway.  I covered a few extra meters in this section because the sidewalk was not perfectly parallel to the street, but pleasantly curved and shaded.  Shortly before crossing Woodrow Way, we had passed the 3 mile mark.  We knew that the rest of the route was net downhill, with just one mile to go! 

As we made the left turn onto Hermance Drive, I realized that we had lost one of our group.  I had not wanted to spend the energy looking all the way behind me earlier, but on a turn I only had to swivel my head 90 degrees.  Hopefully the following group picked him up.  So it was just a trio at the end, enjoying the long downhill run.  This time I didn't try to pull ahead of the others, and I doubt that I had the energy to do so even if I had tried.  I started looking for the traffic circle, but we passed a couple of small intersections before I saw it, on top of a 10 meter hill!  Remember that very short downhill section in the beginning?  It wasn't that short on the return leg, and I soon lagged at least 10 meters behind coach Chuck and the other student.  But we turned into the traffic circle and into the mall, and we all dashed (relatively speaking) to the entrance to the Publix garage to complete 4 miles total.  We were all soaked with sweat but we had definitely had a good run.  I signed in at the Atlanta Track Club table and picked up a banana, but realized that I had better keep walking to cool down gradually.  After walking to the end of the garage and heading back, I felt my heart rate returning to a slower rhythm.  

Our splits per mile: 9:32, 9:17, 9:39, and 8:58!  4.06 miles covered in 37:59.  It had felt like a hillier route than last week, although there wasn't much difference when I compared elevation maps afterward.  I guess it was the higher temperature today along with the additional half-mile that felt tougher than last week, but overall we ran exactly the same average pace as last week, 9:21 per mile.   

I'm glad that we're gradually acclimating to warmer weather, and the commitment to the training course undoubtably helps.  By July 4, we'll be very lucky if the temperature is below 70 deg F at the start!