Climbing Mt. Bonnell

This morning, with the weather okay at about 60 degrees and overcast, a pretty large group gathered at 5:45 am for our trek up and over Mt. Bonnell. Marci, Kelly, Patrick, Alex and Jan joined Frank and me for the 13-14 mile journey. With the time change last week, it stayed dark for a long time on this one, which was really different. We made two short water stops early in the first 3.8 miles, as we sort of fell into our running rhythm. The pace for those early miles was 9:21, a relaxed start to the day. I was feeling pretty good, and it seemed everyone else was in good form. After that second stop (both stops totalled 1:45, basically a sip and go situation), we rolled into the Scenic loop, a hilly route that we know by heart. There was some pushing and pulling in the group as we sort of took turns leading the pack. We finally turned up Mt. Bonnell Road, and Patrick said "Here we go!" And we did.

I like the idea of the Bonnell run. I like the feeling after I've done the Bonnell run. I even like the feeling at the top of the second rise up Bonnell, where I swear I hear the "Rocky" theme song in my addled brain. But, there's always a moment as we slog up that steep beast when I question my sanity. :) Anyway, we reached the top of Bonnell, about 7 miles into the journey, at 9:16 overall pace. I had stashed coolers of Accelerade and cups at the top of Bonnell, so we took a somewhat leisurely 3 minute stop there and drank some replenishment fluids and a GU. Refreshed, we moved on.

The Garmin went wild on the overcast and tree-covered Balcones Woods, but later smoothing of the data showed that we rolled down that and further down Pecos in sprightly fashion. Pecos is a rolling, hilly route, but we handled it pretty well. The group's mental energy helped me through Pecos, which is the main reason I enjoy training with other folks on the long runs. At Enfield, Jan and Patrick turned for the slightly shorter 13.25 mile route, and the rest of us headed the other way. By the time we reached the last water stop, back on Lake Austin Blvd., we had covered 10.5 miles, and our average pace had dropped again to 9:09/mile.

After that brief 1 minute stop, we gathered ourselves, and took off for the last 3.5 miles. From there, we were sort of on our own, so some folks (Frank and Marci) took off and pressed the pace from there. I ran with Alex and Kelly to the Mopac bridge, and then slowly continued accelerating for the last couple of miles. Kelly had done a 60 mile bike ride on Friday, so she wasn't in the right shape to blast away. Alex ran with Kelly for a while, but ended up catching me in the last mile of the run. I rolled past the Zero marker and continued on for a bonus loop of Auditorium Shores. The extra loop was slightly slower, as a sort of recovery lap. My last splits were 8:43, 8:44, and 1.6 miles at 8:21. A nice bit of accelerated pace, without going totally crazy. My recovery lap, about .9 miles, was at 9:06 pace.

I was pretty tired by then, but the 15 miles had gone by at exactly 9:00/mile pace. That was a nice Mt. Bonnell run, and I was pleased with my running day. Of course, Gilbert was there at the finish, and made us all do some striders. These 4 striders were easily the hardest ones I've ever done. I felt totally stiff and awkward on the first one, but by the last one, I was feeling fairly normal.

We trudged back to RunTex for the big stretching session, and as usual, we groaned our way through it, laughing at ourselves at the same time.

I hung out and did my post-run exercises with Patrick, Jan and Richard. For Richard, this was his introduction to the Gilbert-Suggested crunches/pushups/back raises, and it was fun to watch him go through the same initial groaning that we all have suffered. Those ab exercises are tough, especially after a long run. Jan showed me a new crunch exercise that's just evil, but I fought through a set of 20 of those. I did the usual 4x30 crunches/leg extensions, 2x20 back raises, the single set of 1x20 "Jan" crunches, and 2x12 pushups. The pushups are getting easier each week, but I still don't have to like them.

Tomorrow is pretty much a day off, with a possible visit to the gym. It's been a good week!