Mon: Noon - 8.5 miles (2,100'). Horsetooth/Audra + add-on route. Sloppy out. Legs felt good after big climb week last week, although foot flared up a bit. Guess I just feel a bit fragile.
PM - 7 miles (1,750'). Towers. Way sloppy on connector and lower section. Good running above that. Felt good and smooth, but took it easy.
Tues: Noon - 8.5 miles (2,100'). As yesterday, but a little sloppier. Shorts and T. Beautiful out.
PM - 7.5 miles easy with FCTR on bike paths in town.
Weds: Noon - 8.5 miles (2,100'). Same again, firmer in places, sloppier in others. Hoping for 90% dirt by the weekend. Shorts and T again. Beginning to feel like spring is in the air.
Thurs: Noon - 8.5 miles (2,100'). Felt pretty sluggish today. Didn't help that the trails were pure slop in many places, but boy was it beautiful out. The woodpeckers have started attacking our house looking to build nests behind our cedar siding, which is a sure sign spring is just around the corner. Time to start hanging some CDs from the rafters. Feels great to finally be getting some solid running done now that the weather is turning.
PM - 11.5 miles (2,300'). To Soderburg from home, then Towers to top and back down to Westridge and down Horsetooth.
Fri: Noon - 8.5 miles (2,100'). Went super easy today as I was feeling a bit burned from yesterday. However, was feeling great by the end of the run. Love that feeling of being tired but strong. Really starting to feel some good fitness. Keeping the focus on June, but sure looking forward to some racin' in the interim.
PM: 5.5 miles (600'). Milner loop easy.
Sat: AM - 25.5 miles (6,200'). 3:58. Up Horsetooth from home, then across on a snowy Westridge to top of Towers. Then descent of Towers + two more up and downs, and home via Shoreline/38e. 56' to Towers (1), 25' to Soderburg, 39:49 up (2), 26' down, 38:30 up (3), 25' down, 25:45 home w/add on. After a big climb week, felt surprisingly good on this quad-burner of a run. Decided to fuel as I would a race (EFS Liquid Shot), which I rarely do in training, and that really helped with good energy the whole way around. I felt so good in fact that I finished the last three miles at tempo effort. Tested out a Nathan waist pack with a one bottle/one gel flask set-up. The waist pack felt good with very little jiggle, but the gel flask was a bit cumbersome to get in & out although better than ripping gel packs. Will try it again at Salida as I really want to find a hydration system for WS that doesn't involve carrying hand-helds. I also have a two-bottle deal that needs testing, but the one-bottle seems like it will work out okay - certainly for shorter legs between aid stations - which is a good start.
PM - 3.5 miles easy setting up T&H course. Legs felt good after a creaky start.
Sun - 4 miles while T&H was ongoing. Ended up running the last two at 6:15 to make sure I was back before the first finishers. Kind of dumb as I was only trying to get a couple recovery-pace miles in.
PM - 6 miles (1,300'). Up Southridge, down Horsetooth, around on Spring Creek to Falls. Met up with Dana and Alistair and hiked the last mile home.
Total: 113 miles (22,700')
Very encouraging week. Way more miles than I had planned on at the start of the week, but with 50k in the bag by Tuesday, I decided to grind out some volume to get the WS train officially in motion. All my running windows stayed open this week and I was even able to carve out some bonus time by getting up very early on Saturday. Outside of running, I was also pretty productive at work and with the family. Hopefully I can keep the balance going through the next three months.
Everything this week was about climbing and moving well on the descent. I don't really ever plan my training beyond reserving time slots to run, but I have something of a plan for Western States, which looks something like this: run lots. I guess I'll be looking to keep the mileage as close to 100 per week as possible, but that may or may not be plausible from a time and wellness standpoint. Currently I'm thinking that 14-day hill blocks, followed by 7-day flatter/faster blocks sounds like a plan, so I suppose I'll go with that until I change the plan again.
With two 20,000' weeks in the bag, the week upcoming will be about resting the quads a bit and working in some faster stuff in preparation for Salida on Saturday. There are a couple of guys running Salida who are at about my pace (Ryan B & Nick P) and one who is faster (Timmy P), so there should be some good company to help push out a hard effort. Looking forward to it.
