Mon - 4.5 miles (900') easy. Falls loop.
Tues - 6 miles (500') easy. Bumped into Don and his friend Craig at Soderberg and ran easy with them to Arthur's Rock TH and back.
Weds - 6 miles (500') easy. Valley trails.
Thurs - 12 miles. Thanksgiving Day 4 Miler. Warmed up with four, raced four @ 5:27 pace, and cooled down with four more.
Fri - 10.5 miles (3,000') easy. Late afternoon cruise on a glorious fall day. Horsetooth north summit - Westridge - Spring Creek - Wathen - Horsetooth trail - home. A bit sore in the calves from Thursday.
Sat - 21.5 miles (5,500'). 3:55. Ran the junior varsity version of the Chubby Cheeks course with Sam and Nick P. Dragged for the most part, but got around. Still a bit sore from the Turkey Trot it would seem. Southridge - Audra Culver - Horsetooth north summit - Horsetooth trail - Soderberg - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Mill Creek - Valley - Sawmill - Loggers - Carey Springs - Towers - Westridge - Wathen - Spring Creek - Falls - home.
Elevation profile & topo map for Chubby Cheeks Short Course (21.5 miles, 5,500')
Sun - 15.5 miles (3,800'). 2:28. Out with Jason on the early stretches of Chubby. Certainly wasn't feeling much like another mountain run after a couple of bigger vert days Friday and Saturday, but ended up pushing out an up-tempo run after a quick initial ascent of Horsetooth. Felt surprisingly good. Yet another beautiful morning and the rut is on. Some decidedly horny bucks out there right now.
Total: 76 miles (14,200').
Despite the slight cutback in mileage from the first half of the week, I felt pretty lackadaisical and a touch sore after the Turkey 4 mile on Thursday. Having already lined up a couple of runs at Horsetooth with others for the weekend, I decided to just push through. The Saturday run was enjoyable for the company, but pretty much a drag as far as the running was concerned. Got after it a bit on the climbs today with Jason and ended the run feeling way better than Saturday.
Determined to get on some pavement next week. A fast 20 on the bike paths lined up for Sunday, a session at the track on Tuesday and Towers TT on Thursday.
Dropped 370 smackers on one race entry last night. Ouch. Looking at the start list for States, (pre-lottery) it looks like nine of the top 10 from this year are scheduled to toe the line in 2011 (Zach Miller being the exception). Some other speedy types also look to be on board from qualifying races with the lottery still to come. Should be another deep field. Hoping to piggy back my marathon training by running American River in April.
