Hurricane Point – the “big one” on the Big Sur Marathon course…
I started looking for a good distance and climb simulation hill in my area last week and found one: Calaveras Road in Milpitas (starting at the Piedmont intersection and going up to Weller Road.) I figured I couldn’t simulate the possible windy conditions along the coast, but climb over distance was possible.
The Hurricane Point climb starts just before mile 10 and is 2.15 miles long and ~542′ up – about a 4.8% grade. The sim I set up on Calaveras is 2.17 miles long and ~670′ up – about a 5.8% grade. Not an exact sim, but I figured I would err on the side of longer/steeper.
This morning I added the sim to my planned 17-mile long run, to check it (and myself) out. For today’s run, the sim started at mile ~8 (the beauty here is that I can add miles to either side of the sim so my long runs prep me for Big Sur.)
So, today it was just me, my John Mark McMillan playlist on repeat, and my Hurricane Point sim. A great run and self-test. I think I did pretty good for a first trial and feel better about adjusting my pacing plan for the Big Sur.
Giddy-up!
Training Journal – 2/17/13:
- Current plan: Big Sur Marathon Training Plan – W8/D7
- Today’s session:17 mile long run @ 8:32-9:49 pace
- Comments: I did a 17.1 @ 8:51 pace
- Weekly mileage: Running: 43.08 / Bicycling: 16.16
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