Bring thee hills and lets talk 25K

I firmly said NO to the dreadmill this morning and went outside @ lunch @ work today since it was in the low 30's and BRIGHT sunny. The snow on the driveway was already melted by noon. Score! I did the hill outside of the office 2X as part of a 5 miler. For those of you NY area triathletes who are considering doing the Westchester Triathlon @ the end of September, this is the hill known as "Claire's Climb." Its really not that bad of a hill, just big enough to get you breathing pretty hard and making the legs burn. This is the profile:

(Its not really 10%...prolly more like 7-8% max)

This hill reminded me of my upcoming 25K. You know how you sign up for a race that is weeks or months away but you still haven't mentally "checked in" to it yet? Well today I checked into it considering the 25K will not only be the longest run I will have ever done, but it will also be a hilly one:

(The graph is not normalized, so its not THAT steep, but it will still be kicking my @$$!)

So basically you climb for 8 miles, then descend for 7.5. I'm not worried about the up, I'm actually worried about the down. By the time I start going down, my legs will be getting shot and the constant pounding really does a number on your quads. You really have to train those downhill resistance muscles just like you have to train those uphill muscles! Go run a downhill marathon lemme know if it was "easy."

Just so happens a coworker and fellow triathlete of mine happens to live 1.5 miles from the top of the course. Oh how convenient! So I will be heading up there this weekend to put in a short 11.72 miles on the upper loop of the course :)

Speaking of the course, here it is: