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My ideal run this weekend would involve a long climb (not too steep) up to the top of a ridge and then running until I started to get pleasantly tired before a mile warm-down downhill to the finish. But I don't know of such terrain around here and starting and finishing in the same place (wherever we park the car) dictates the route a bit. And finding a ridge of the right length so that the run ends just at the point I want it too is impossible too.

I doubt very much that an ideal run like that would be ideal anyway. Part of the joy of long distance runs is the challenge of going a bit further or a bit faster than you'd ideally want to. I like feeling that I've pushed myself out of my comfort-zone when I've finished and that I've earned the cake. I'm still trying to figure out if the climbing that I'm doing twice a week (for about three hours at a time) is having any effect on my running. I think that it isn't because my arms are my weakness and so my legs shouldn't be adversely affected.