Notes
I was going to try to 5 mile road loop through the park as recommended by Rob W., as a good training course for Boston, but I didn't want to run on the road with traffic, so I concocted this tougher course instead.
To get motivated, I put on my Boston shirt, and cracked out a new pair of shoes.
The course:
I started at the top of Stanley Park, at a place called Prospect Point. The first 1.5 miles started with a short and gentle incline, then a long and gradual downhill, descending about 200ft. From there, I crossed over a gravel path to the other side of the park, over the course of about a mile. That takes me to the park entrance, and up and down Pipeline Road for about .5 mile. This is where I did all those up and down 400s and 800s, and it is also the park entrance which marks the start of the final tough 5k of the Rock N Roll half. Pipeline is about 50ft up and then 50ft down the backside. The final mile starts out flat, but then goes back up to the top of Prospect, with about 1km of climbing.
Lap 1 - Just a warmup
Lap 2 - Getting comfortable
Lap 3 - Not quite ready to hit the downhill hard, but started to get some quicker turnover. I felt like the pesky old hamstring was starting to talk to me a bit going over Pipeline, but then I started to feel really strong going up Prospect.
Lap 4 - Focus on hammering the downhill. I seemed to have lost focus and gotten into the zone though, because I started going across the wrong trail and had to backtrack. Starting to feel some fatigue going up Pipeline, but recovered going down and another strong ascent up to Prospect Point.
Lap 5 - Forgot to focus on hammering the downhill for the first little bit, then I got really moving. Tired again at Pipeline, but I managed to finish strong going back up to the start.