The hill and Cedar Ridge
Posted on 10. Dec, 2006 by Brad in Training
Deborah and I started out this past Saturday’s workout just as we did last week: at the hill at I-45 and I-20. We pushed our start time back to 11am vs. 7am which worked out well since it was still chilly late into the morning. This time, we had a bit more company on the hill, with several groups coming out for about 20 minutes only to head on their way. We put in a solid hour of hiking, jogging, and walking the hill and headed over to Cedar Ridge.
Last week, the terrain at Cedar Ridge was even more tough due to the mud. In fact, my shoes reflected this at the start of this week’s workout. I hope the people at the gas station down in Hutchins didn’t mind the loose dirt and mud that came off my shoes.
We looped around the trails for about an hour, finishing off the shortfall with several loops around the “Tea path,” which we later discovered is actually called Bluestem. After an hour, we topped off our water/Succeed bottles and headed back out. I also continued to munch on the bag of Doritos I’d bought … quite tasty and just the saltiness to suit me.
Our original mileage goal for the day was 25 miles, but we realized that was probably ambitious shortly into our second hour at Cedar Ridge. The first hour seemed to drag on forever and we were tiring. The earlier hill training combined with the hilly terrain was taking its toll. But we reminded ourselves that this would be no different than what we’d be facing a few weeks into the future at Bandera. I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready for the hills there!
So we spent an additional two hours to bring out total time to 4 hours. The GPS tallied 14.8 miles by the end of it all but I am not sure the elevation changes are properly accounted for. I plan to do some research on the model I use (Garmin GPSMap 60Cx) to see if others have similar thoughts.
