On the twelfth day of Vertmas my true love gave to me five trips up Occoneechee mountain with my sister and Brian. (1,650 feet of gain)
Fun in the woods.
2019 Yeti 12 days of Vertmas complete.
Merry Christmas!
On the eleventh day of Vertmas my true love gave to me a sunrise run with many hills. (1,534 feet of gain)
A sliver of a moon, birds twittering along the trail in front of me, a sweet doe having breakfast, a beautiful sunrise and some hills.
A magical Christmas Eve run. Kind of like a Disney movie.
Merry Vertmas Eve!
On the tenth day of Vertmas my true love gave to me a walk on the treadmill at the gym. (1,100 feet of gain)
Walking is so much easier than running. Even at a much steeper incline.
On the ninth day of Vertmas my true love gave to me a frigid climb up to the Afton P.O. and an out and back on Dick Woods road. (1,211 feet of gain)
We had 16 miles on the schedule, but after eight days in a row of climbing at least 1,100 feet neither one of us had it in us.
We saw many deer, cows and crows and two donkeys.
Just three days left.
Merry ninth day of Vertmas.
On the eighth day of Vertmas my true love gave to me another hard, sweaty run on the treadmill. (just over 1,100 feet of gain)
Still a little flabbergasted that running at a 4% incline is so hard.
On the seventh day of Vertmas my true love gave to me a long walk in a sunny winter wood. (1,664 feet of gain)
There’s no way I would have gotten out there today if it weren’t for this challenge. Monday and Friday are generally rest days for me.
My legs are sore.
On the sixth day of Vertmas my true love gave to me a frosty morning hill workout on some of my favorite trails. (1,382 feet of gain)
Cold and crisp. So nice to be in the woods.
Four little hills and four big hills.
A new pain in the arch of my left foot.
On the fifth day of Vertmas my true love gave to me an early morning run and sixteen trips to the top of a parking garage. (1,139 feet of gain)
Sixteen trips to the top of the Market Street parking garage. That’s 80 flights of stair climbing fun.
The stairwell was fairly busy on a sunny Wednesday afternoon the week before Christmas. Twice I was with someone who climbed the five flights with both hands full (interestingly it was food on both occasions). I held the door to the roof for each of them before turning around to do it again.
The whole thing was actually kind of fun. I was sweaty when I went back to CVS to pick up Brian’s prescription, though. And my legs were shaking a little on the drive home.
On the fourth day of Vertmas my true love gave to me a hard, sweaty run on the treadmill at the gym. (slightly over 1100 feet of gain.)
Running on a 4% incline was much harder than I thought it would be. I only had an hour because I needed to get home to drive Brian to Richmond for eye surgery, but I figured I could do the requisite 5.21 miles in an hour. I just barely made it.
It would have been slightly less painful if they didn’t keep the heat at the gym set at 70 degrees.
Not too bad. I listened to The Moth and had the gym all to myself.
I kept the speed mostly between 3.7 and 4 mph, just had to slow it way down in order to take a picture.
So glad someone else figured out the math. 
The Running Nemophilist 