Monday - Noon: 6 miles (500') easy. Valley.
PM: 4 miles easy. Pineridge.
Tuesday - Noon: 6.5 miles (1,550') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Falls. Wind was blowing hard, but I was absolutely floating on this one. Been a while since a run has felt as fluid as this, even if it was just a jog in the park. Zero fatigue, soreness or niggles anywhere and just a general sense of fitness, which is a most pleasant sensation.
PM: 10 miles track w/ Dakota, Frank and Nick M. 1.5 mile w-u, then 2x1 mile, 1x2 mile, 2x1 mile w/200 jog between miles and 400 jog before and after the 2 mile, 2 mile c-d. Slotted into 5:30 pace and stayed there the whole workout: 5:32, 5:27, 11:00, 5:29, 5:29. Came into this workout thinking the ease of my lunchtime run would carry through to the track, but ended up having to work hard for the two mile and push a bit on the miles. As always, it was about getting 'em done, and get 'em done we did.
Last track session for Dakota before his trip to the North Face race. Maybe he finds himself in a sprint finish for a podium spot ... but really, I think there is merit in these workouts even for a 50 mile race, and especially a race stacked with guys pushing the pace. He'll need to be running comfortably at up-tempo paces in the early going and hopefully find a way to hang on late when things get ugly. I remember on the re-route section of WS100 this year, we were running low 6:00s for more than a few miles, so I am sure there'll be plenty of similar silliness in Marin considering the race is half the distance.
Wednesday - Noon: 8 miles (1,650') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home.
PM: 4.5 miles (900') easy. Falls loop. Nice twilight cruise.
Thursday - Noon: 6 miles (500') easy. Valley trails.
PM: 9 miles (1,900'). Towers TT. 2 mile warm up then 31:17 up the hill. Started with Sam who dropped me as soon as the serious climbing started. Didn't have much tonight - almost two minutes off my PR. The snow and ice may have been worth 30 seconds, and the night running maybe another 30 seconds, but still a fairly lackluster effort. Might have been feeling the track workout from Tuesday.
Friday - Noon: 8 miles (1,650') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home.
PM: 4 mile easy. Pineridge.
Saturday - 21 miles (2,750') steady w/Sam. 3:00. Out and back from home on Blue Sky. Pushed the last couple of miles coming back and dropped Sam like he dropped me on Towers two days earlier.
Sunday - 15 miles (3,350') easy w/ Jason. Dragged like nobody's business on this one. Jason was pretty spry heading up Horsetooth, and I was content to watch him run away from me. We re-grouped at the top and then enjoyed a tour of the park, with my legs ever so slightly opening up as the run went on. Horsetooth - Westridge - Mill Creek - Valley - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington - Stout - Spring Creek - Falls - home.
Total: 102 miles (15,000')
Felt pretty tired on the run today (Sunday), so I'm going to drop the mileage this next week in a bid to feel somewhat rested for the big Turkey Day showdown on Thursday, and also to recharge for the last eight weeks of marathon training.
Got to make a decision on Western States by November 27. The main reason to run this race is for the competition, however, there are a host of other reasons not to run it. Firstly, it is expensive and a pretty big time commitment. It would also preclude any serious bid of a fast run at Hardrock should I get pulled in the lottery for that, which is of course far from guaranteed. So if I don't register for WS and then don't get pulled in the Hardorck lottery, I am left looking for a plan B - maybe a long trail speed attempt or just a summer running local peaks and getting ready for UTMB in late August.
Seems like we have this lottery discussion every year around this time, probably because it is frustrating to have to commit half a year ahead for races that are so expensive. Anyway, there are plenty of other more serious issues to be fretting about, so I guess I'll leave it at that and figure things out for myself over the next week.
Need to start running some faster pavement miles over the next two months, but with the fall weather being so nice, I can't see it happening just yet. Perhaps by January we'll have some snow.
