For most of July, we trained at San Felasco Hammock. We knew that Devil's Millhopper was in our training future because it has 132 steps to train on. Steps help prepare for hills and we want to be prepared. When we turned our backs on the ticks at San Felasco, it was time to try the steps.

Thus, August became Millhopper training time. The Park doesn't open until 8:00. In  Florida heat, we liked to start about 7:00 and be home for coffee before it is above 90 degrees. 

We decided to meet at Starbucks parking lot at 7:00, skip the tempting early coffee, and walk for an hour in the nearby Ashton neighborhood with lots of shady trees.  We could walk out the other end of Ashton and be a block from the Millhopper entrance. 

The Devil's Millhopper is a 10,000 to 15,000 year old, 120-foot deep sinkhole. It is about 500 feet across and has a 1/2 mile nature trail going around the top, as well as the stairway into the sinkhole.

After our shady neighborhood training, we would walk the perimeter trail, walk down into the sinkhole and back up, walk the trail again in the opposite direction, and repeat  . . . increasing the number of repeats as our training progressed. Gotta love Florida training!