Every runner has a few simple route wishes. For me, running a complete loop atop the Ming Dynasty City Wall in Xi’an was one of those small goals I’d wanted to check off.
This weekend’s trip to Shaanxi brought that chance, turning a standard 74.13km training week into a memorable weekend: a flat, historic rectangle on Saturday morning, followed by a vertical mountain ascent on Sunday.
Saturday: The 16.10km Xi’an City Wall Loop#
Stepping onto the wall at 10:03 AM in 28°C warmth and 47% humidity, the goal wasn’t to chase a fast pace. The historic paving stones can be uneven, and running in late-morning heat demands disciplined cardiac control.
- Distance & Time: 16.10 km in 1:45:54 (the main wall perimeter is ~13.74km, plus access ramps and approach loops).
- Effort & Heart Rate: Average heart rate stayed rock-solid at 135 bpm (Max 147 bpm, 75% intensity), holding comfortably in Zone 2 throughout.
- Cadence & Mechanics: Locked into a textbook 180 spm cadence with 0.86m stride length, generating an average 142W power.
Gliding past the corner watchtowers and looking down at the awakening avenues of Xi’an below, the miles ticked away effortlessly. Seeing the GPS track form a complete, crisp rectangle on the satellite map was deeply satisfying — ticking off a bucket-list route with zero cardiovascular strain.
Sunday: Mount Hua — 14.64km with 1,963m Vertical Ascent#
Twenty-four hours after running on flat grey bricks, the terrain shifted entirely. On Sunday morning, I headed to Mount Hua, recording the climb as a hike.
- Distance & Duration: 14.64 km in 3:53:34.
- Vertical Gain: A massive 1,963 metres of elevation climb across thousands of steep stone stairs.
- Cardiac Load: Average heart rate was held at 136 bpm (Max 161 bpm, 1,503 kcal burned).
An average heart rate of 136 bpm on a nearly 2,000m climb might look like easy aerobic work on paper, but the reality on steep stairs was purely a muscular bottleneck. Climbing thousands of vertical steps, my quads and calves hit their strength-endurance limit long before my heart and lungs could even be pushed into higher zones. My legs simply capped the pace.
Unifying the Weekend in ApexRun#
After descending, I imported the Mount Hua hike into ApexRun to keep the week’s training log unified alongside regular road runs.
Having both workouts side by side highlights why tracking diverse activities matters:
- The flat contrast: Saturday’s 16.10km wall run delivered clean cadence stability (180 spm) and pure Zone 2 efficiency (135 bpm avg HR).
- The vertical test: Sunday’s 14.64km hike layered on 1,963m of climbing without blowing out heart rate (136 bpm avg HR).
Running and hiking travel best when they let you inhabit a landscape rather than just visit it. With 74.13km in the bank for the week, Monday is dedicated to mobility and active recovery.
Previous log: August 30 LSD — Active Recovery and the 21K LSD.