Half-marathon training – Week 15 – Training for Prospect Point

Earlier this week I got an email from the Vancouver Marathon with a bunch of links and information about the big day. One of the links was to the final course map (pdf). If you look at the bottom of the map you’ll see the elevation profile on which you’ll see a VERY BIG hill. The climb to Prospect Point is 200 feet covered in less than a mile! I knew this hill was on the course but I don’t think I’d really considered it in my training before.

This was a step back week so my Saturday “long run” was only 7 miles. I figured the shorter distance would be a perfect time to try to climb hill similar to the one on the course. It turns out there’s a hill near my place that has a 188 foot elevation covered in 0.9 miles. I bike up this hill on the way home from school and it kills me every time. Needless to say I was a little worried about running up it. Well running up it was way easier than biking up it. Probably because I’m in better running shape than biking shape. I think the Vancouver hill is steeper but making it up this hill without too much difficulty was a huge confidence booster.

For the record the final mileage for week 15 was 21.5 miles (5+5+7+4.5).

Three weeks to go!