“Let’s see,” Alan said thumbing through his small white book of eclectic statistics, “he’s got Beech Mountain rated as the sixth toughest climb in the Southeast. It’s three and a half miles with an average grade of 9.2 percent — and a maximum of 17 percent.” I flinched. “That’s the one we’re doing today?” My grip on the steering wheel tightened. It was early Saturday and Alan and I were…

I looked up the road to the next street sign. “That’s it, right?” I asked. “Smallwood Drive?” “That’s it,” Gavin confirmed. “Now we just have a couple hundred meters to go.” Not what I wanted to hear on this steamy (92 degrees, 85 percent humidity) evening training run. We’d already done three mile-long fast tempo miles; this was No. 4 and I just wanted it to be over — now,…