Mon - Noon: 6 miles easy on valley trails (500'). Legs felt okay after Jemez, but definitely sore and tired.

Tues - Noon: 8.5 miles easy (1,800'). Still some soreness in the quads, but legs felt strong other than that. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderburg - home long way
PM - 5 miles steady at Pineridge. Ran 7 min pace here just to stretch the legs out a bit. Despite the lingering aches in the quads, this was a nice cruise.

Weds - Noon: 11 miles easy (2,400'). Falls - SC - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Carey - Towers (to top) - Secret Trail - Westridge - Rock - home long way. Hamstring tight again, probably from the Pineridge cruise on Tuesday.
PM: 6 miles easy (500') on valley trails.

Thurs - Noon: 9 easy super easy (2,300'). Audra/Horsetooth long. Thutt (thigh/butt) area giving me some gyp, so went below even my usual easy effort. Seem to have shaken most of everything else from Jemez.
PM: 6.5 miles easy with Alex's FCTR social group at Pineridge. Good burgers, beer and conversation afterward.

Fri - Noon: 10 miles easy (1,200'). Soderberg to Well Gulch and back via Overlook/valley. Super easy again due to lingering thutt pain. Scoped out a rare .8 mile stretch of trail I had yet to see in Lory (Well Gulch).
PM: 2 miles easy. Jogged around the park to feel out my hamstring before picking up Alistair.

Sat - AM: 31 miles (7,100'). Met top American (Justin) and Nick P early in Boulder (out of bed at 4:45) for a run with my all-star crew for Western States. Justin, fresh off his 2:29 marathon in London, will be pacing me, while Nick will be whipping me through the aid stations at record pace. I don't know the trails particularly well down in Boulder, but I do know that we started on South Mesa and made our way through scenic Eldorado Canyon, with a spur climb/descent thrown in for good measure, over to Walker Ranch for about 3/4 of a lap before tying in to Flagstaff, which took us to the back side of Green/Bear from where we cruised downhill all the way back to Nick's gaff in south Boulder. After today's run, I have a new appreciation for the Boulder Mountain trails. It turns out that you can in fact piece together a decent run on singletrack that is actually worthy of the name, although the vert still racked up to make for a big climb day, despite no single ascent of much more than 1,000'. A solid outing, although my boys need to work on their climb a bit - Justin especially if he thinks he has any chance of beating me at Pikes this year ;) Bumped into a few Boulder Mountain Park regulars, with a double passing of the D-Rock and a single encounter with Team Shart and Jim P.

Sunday - AM: 21 miles (5,200'). Another 4:45 wake. Ouch. Double loop of Lumpy Ridge with Pete and Alex. This one begins and starts just outside of Estes Park. The 1-2 mile trail up to Gem Lake is obscenely popular with day-hikers (mostly Texans), but the rest of the loop is typically clear of traffic for the most part. Couple of good 1,000'+ climbs delivered on each loop with an altitude range of between 7,800' and 9,100', which has to make this one of the best training routes around. Not a drop of snow to be seen and even Longs was looking like it will be ready in a month or so. Twin Sisters (11,000'+) also looked to be clear, so a trip up there next weekend could well be in the cards.

Got bored trying to figure out how to edit the video footage from Lumpy below, so either don't watch or accept as is.


Total: 116 miles (21,000')

Felt like the recovery from Jemez went well, and I was able to keep things in gear for most of the week. Strong weekend with some good longer runs. These were more about time on feet than mileage or speed, and the run Sunday felt good - a little creaky to get going but for the most part my body responded when asked. Some more climb and mileage planned for tomorrow morning to cap out a heavy three-day stretch, then easy for a couple of days before reloading for next weekend.

Round Mountain, west of Loveland of Hwy 34 at 7:00 am for anyone interested. Slated as a time trial, but not personally expecting anything too miraculous.