Secret Hills, 12052007, 13 miles

Years ago, I worked at the local newspaper, The Daily Camera. One of the real treats of working there was getting to spend time with Michael Sandrock. The Rock and I would talk track, numbers, running history, etc. And we'd even occasionally run together. Rock knows more about running and running lore than anyone I have met. And he has run pretty damn well too.

One workout he introduced me to, and I think it is one he got from Deek, are the Secret Hills. There is nothing really Secret about them of course, but I think every training thing Rock does is Secret something. Secret Hills starts with a warm up (we used to go from the Camera to Chautauqua via this really crazy route by people sleeping near Boulder Creek ... I don't do that anymore simply because I park at Chautauqua now). At the corner of the parking lot near Baseline, head east on the road (the one way road that comes down from the Dining Hall, so yes - against the traffic). Follow the road around clockwise up around the the Dining Hall (go to the left of the Dining Hall), past the ticket purchase, to the picnic area and then meet up with the Enchanted Mesa Trail. Follow the Enchanted Mesa Trail up until to the connector with the Mesa Trail.

This part of the workout takes anywhere from 9:20 (as I understand it, this was the FKT posted by Sean Creighton of AUS) to ... well, whatever you need. My best is 10:03. I will break 10 on this someday. Today, I went 11:53 ... slowest I have done in a long time - but then again I have not done this in a long time (and I did it in a two minutes on, 1 minute off type approach).

Then jog down to the Mesa and just west of the stinky bathrooms, pick up the Bluebell loop. Run the east side of the loop hard and the west side easy as a recovery. Do this eight times. These sprints usually take me somewhere between 49-55 seconds. Today I did 52 on nearly all of them (I think my best on anyone is 46 with an average of 48 across all) with 1 at 51 and the last at 50. Rest in between was anywhere from 90 seconds to 2 minutes)

I warmed down today with about 8 miles. (Total running was 13 miles, 35 for the SH, 70 of warm down for another ... 8 (no warm up)).