Hill workout in Emigration Canyon

Yesterday afternoon after the easy TNT workout I decided that I needed more exercise, mostly to burn a few calories for the wedding we were slated to attend that evening :) but also because I really need to do some more hill workouts. Portland-to-Coast (PTC) is very hilly in spots, and so I'm scouting out local spots which have some hills corresponding to the legs I am supposed to do.

I read online that Emigration Canyon has an average grade of 5% (this turned out NOT to be true...) so I drove to the mouth of the canyon to work out. My PTC leg that is very hard has a 4.3% incline for 2.2 miles, then 2.8% downhill for 0.8 miles, then 3.8% incline for 2 miles, then 6.3% downhill for 0.75 miles. It's tough. And I'm supposed to average 11:15/mile for that 5.75 miles! So, my plan was to do 4 miles up Emigration Canyon to get a baseline of what I can do right now and what I need to shoot for. I started off and was moving really well, maintaining about a 10:30 mile for the first 2.5 miles or so. It was hard (my HR was about 155, so I still had some room to push harder) but not too bad, and then the heat started getting to me a bit and I felt nauseated. It was only in the low 70s, but it was sunny (very little shade) and I'm not used to training in warm weather yet. I was able to keep going after a quick water stop, and maintained about an 11:15 or so from 2.5 to 4 miles. Total for the 4 miles uphill: 43:39 or 10:54/mile, which I was quite pleased with. Then I took it pretty easy on the downhill, finishing in 44:36 for 11:13/mile going back. Yeah, I was slower going down! But that was by design, so it was all good.

When I got back home I uploaded my workout from my Garmin and discovered that the elevation change was not as much as I had thought. Hmmm, maybe the website I got the 5% grade info from was wrong? Garmins are not that good with altitude, so I did think it could have been off, but it was off by much more than made sense. A 5% grade is 1056 feet in 4 miles, and my Garmin showed about 550 feet change. Even if it was off by 100-200 feet (very possible), that did not explain everything. Drat. I looked up some more info and found that Emigration Canyon actually averages a 3.1% grade. Ohhhh. Bummer.

So, I was under my goal pace going up the hill, and could have pushed my HR higher, but the grade was not as steep as my PTC leg.

Still, I feel optimistic. 1) I am at altitude here, and PTC is all pretty low. My racewalk up the canyon was from 4900-5450 feet or so. PTC is 500-1300 feet on the leg I am going to do. 2) Yes, it was only a 3.1% grade, but it was still a good hill workout. My pace was faster than I need for that leg, and my HR lower than if I were racing, so I can probably do a harder hill and be close to goal pace. 3) This was after 7.34 miles this morning, so I wasn't exactly well-rested when I started. 4) I still have almost 100 days to train on hills before the race, and that will help tremendously. Now I just have to find some steeper hills, which is actually no problem around here. City Creek Canyon may be my next training spot. It's steeper, and it is more shaded and has less traffic than Emigration. www.Bikesup.com says it's an average 4.59% grade, which is pretty close to what I need (the bottom part is not as steep as the top, though, but it's probably close enough). I'm going to give that one a try next time.