Mon - 6 miles (500'). Easy on valley trails.

Tues - 5.5 miles (1,000'). Social run at Reservoir Ridge with FCTR.

Weds - 6 miles (500'). Easy again on valley trails.

Thurs - Noon: 3.5 miles easy on valley trails.
PM: 7 miles (1,700') Towers hard. 30:04. Went out conservatively and never really caught up the time. Ended up working really hard on the second half and came away with nothing to show for it. Windy on the second half and of course hot. Not exactly a confidence boost for Pikes, but then I had an even suckier Towers TT the week before States, so I'm not sweating it. Splits with PR splits in parentheses: Towers turn: 2:57 (2:49), Stout: 8:49 (8:30), Loggers: 13:27, Herrington: 16:35 (16:25), Top 30:04 (29:27).

Fri - 6 miles easy (500'). Valley trails.

Sat - 4 miles. Rat Race 5k.

Sun - 11 miles steady (1,900'). 1:39. Loop of Bobcat Ridge.

Total: 49 miles (6,100')

Kind of a ho-hum week. Not really feeling that rested yet, and some blah harder efforts on Thursday and Saturday.

Will go super easy this next week before heading out to Colorado Springs with the family on Friday after work. Up the mountain Saturday morning to watch the Ascent unfold, and then some hanging out until Sunday morning.

The plan on race day is to go out easy from the gun, uncorking the run gradually to Barr Camp, before unleashing the dogs of war from there to the top and back down. Or, an entirely possible - even probable - alternative is to get caught up in the adrenaline fueled sprint through town, hammer the W's, bomb the flats and then blow up at A-Frame.