Taking a Break and Paris Mountain Road training

After a skipped long run last weekend while at Kiawah Island - my return to running has gone well. I did get in a 6 miler and a 9 miler while I was there - the first in the 2pm heat and the other in the 7am heat/humidity. Both ended with a dip in the cooler swimming pool at the house. The little break (no 20 miler as scheduled)must have helped because I did my planned speedwork the day after I returned (and the day after my 9 miler) and I met my prescribed times. Quite shocking to me actually. 6 x 800's at 3:34 after a 2mi warmup. That was Thursday and I followed that up with some smaller hills Friday for 4 more miles. Saturday was grass day (call it more hill-work). Today I had 13 on the schedule. Since it was one of my shorter "long" runs, I decided to do some more hill training for the Blue Ridge Relay coming up in 3 short weeks (and the RiverBound Trail Half the following weekend).
Why do I need to train for that/those? Take a look at the Blue Ridge Relay elevation charts:

Leg 12

Leg 24

Leg 36 (Final Leg into downtown Asheville)

Those are my 3 legs. Not nearly as bad as last year. Have a couple more miles this year, but last year had Serious hills. More elevation climb than anyone else in the relay (aside from possible the Mtn Goat Leg runner).

2009 - Leg 11

2009 - Leg 23

2009 - Leg 35, yes it was that bad. 

I ran over Paris Mountain last year (25min up the steep/Furman side, 38min down the backside to CVS) after running ~6 miles, but that didn't seem to do a whole lot to prepare me. As I am slower this year, I need more. I decided to run from CVS at Altamont/State Park Road up the ~3.5 miles to the top of Paris Mtn, go down the ~2.5 mile backside to Old Buncombe, towards Furman University. Then turn around and go back to CVS. 12 miles total. Walked in spots on the first climb (are there really 20% grades?), but made decent time and peaked in 39 minutes. Steep back down in 17 minutes. I had to walk plenty going back up the toughest section, but I was fine with only taking 30 minutes for that part. More (mostly) downhill to finish in 33 minutes for a grand total of 2 hours even! ~750 ft of climb and ~750 of descent each way, give or take.
Feel pretty good about it. Legs need more strength for those hills - so I can actually Run up them), but maybe that will come with time. 31 miles last week. 12 x 400's this week plus an 18 mile long run over Labor Day Weekend.