After the 52 km run I did on Friday, I then cycled 136 km on Saturday with my friends, Dave and Peter. This included 1500 metres (5000 feet) of climbing, with 2 km of that at a gradient of 15% or above. Needless to say, I was very tired by Saturday night.

I am also a bit sore now, as Friday’s run included almost 1000 metres of downhill, and a similar amount of uphill too. However, the downhill was generally much steeper, and this has resulted in quite a bit of soreness in the quads. Not enough to stop me doing a reasonably good session today, though fairly slowly. But I will need to take it easier than normal this week.

This photo was taken in northern New Mexico during my world run, not too far from the border with Colorado. You can just see some of the mountains of the Rockies in the distance. There’s actually a town in the middle distance where we stayed that evening, though it’s in cloud shadow and a bit hard to make out.

On This Day

May 22, 2012

Distance today = 52.02 km; Total distance = 6613.12 km; Location = Pringle, South Dakota – 43 36.487′ N, 103 35.353′ W; Start time = 0843, Finish time = 1648

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/181075189

Running on a 33 C day may sound bad enough, but when you’re out in the direct sun, with heat radiating off the dark road surface, the effective temperature is over 40 C. Add to that a dry wind and a lot of uphill, and it made for a difficult day.

However, the bonus was that I ran into the Black Hills of Dakota. I can see why they are so renowned.

Earlier in the day I passed through Hot Springs. I found this place quite charming, with its consistency of architectural style, based on the local red sandstone – quite different to other famous sandstone cities, such as Salamanca, which are mostly constructed from a golden sandstone.

As I ascended into the Black Hills, the girls, who had gone ahead, came back to tell me there was a herd of bison right by the roadside. Signs abounded, telling tourists that these animals were dangerous. And that was if you were in a car. I was a little concerned at first, but when I passed them, they were quite sedate and not interested in me at all. As a precaution, the girls were there in the car, should I have needed to be shielded behind it in case of an attack from a charging bull.

The tracker is showing me in the town of Custer (named after George of the Last Stand fame), although my official run position is about 20 km south in the village of Pringle. Tomorrow I run past both the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore. Tune in at the same time tomorrow to hear more about those.