It’s a big weekend coming up for me – my third Ragnar Wasatch Back relay. And this time, I’m taking on the ‘Ragnar’ leg – 4 miles at a 7% average grade (that’s uphill people).

My legs go like this:

3.6 miles with a net elevation change of -7 feet (man am I looking forward to this leg!) This will be sometime mid-afternoon on Friday. So it will be hot, but it’s at about 5000 feet, so I’ve got that altitude advantage.

7.7 miles with a net elevation change of +294 feet. Don’t let this fool you…it’s just slightly uphill the whole way. Average elevation is 5600 feet (there’s so much air down there!). I did an 8 mile run yesterday afternoon, and it was great! I felt rested, able to go farther if needed, and except for the storm moving in the wrong direction toward my run, very comfortable. The big difference between that run and my leg? My leg will probably be at about 3 in the morning.

4.0 miles with a net elevation change of +1631 feet. Ouch! Plus I don’t get any altitude advantage as it starts at 7233 feet and ends at 8864. This will be mid-day on Saturday. While it will (hopefully!) be in the sun, the elevation should make it a little cooler, and much of the leg is shaded.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m really excited (and slightly honored) to do the Ragnar leg, but I’m still quite nervous. I really wanted to go to the other side of the mountain from that leg and run up it for training over the weekend, but the perpetual rain and less than 50 degrees kept that from happening. Mostly because I’m sure it was snowing where I wanted to be.

So this week, I take it easy. I’ll do 4 miles this evening (maybe some slight hills, but easy), and 30 minutes Wednesday. Don’t know our start time yet, but I’m guessing it will be about 9 o’clock Friday morning.