Today's Workout: Is up the only way?

Up at 3:50 AM, out the door by 5 AM to head to Skyline Drive for 5 hours of climbing. I was only supposed to do a 4 hour bike ride but with the training days fast slipping away from me I rode 60 miles of hills which took 5 hours.

My training partner, KR, was ahead of me the entire time. I tried to catch up to her but she is just too fast and everything at Skyline is uphill. The first 5 miles climb up to 2400 feet, then you get less than a mile of reprieve before 3 more miles of hills heading up to 3000 feet. It is a killer and as your speed slips to 6 mph you could watch the clock move. Climb, climb, climb--everything is an uphill grade until you turn around.

The road is still dug up at mile 25-33 so we repeated a section of miles 1-25. It would be better to be on new, unchartered ground but knowing the first 25 miles as I do I know it is just uphill. Everything hurts.

After the ride, I ran for 40 minutes. It was hot but it didn't seem as bad as last week. Toward the end of the run it looked like a thunderstorm was inevitable. Thankfully, we had good timing today.

When I returned home I iced my hip. It screams in pain on the uphill. Buddy curled up with me and we fell asleep. This is my favorite post workout routine and I think Buddy concurs.