Mon - 8 miles (500') easy'ish with Jason O. Felt pretty stiff and tight from the faster hardtop long run on Sunday. Jason had no sympathy and dragged me around faster than I would have liked. Something about payback for a couple of bonks I put him through this summer.

Tues - 12 miles (1,200') easy. Soderberg to Lory Visitors Center on Valley, back on Well Gulch - Overlook - Valley. Legs still a bit stiff from Sunday long run.

Weds - AM: 8.5 miles (700') easy. From home to Lory fence on valley trail and back.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,800'). Horsetooth Summit hard (23:50 P.R.) w/Rob, then back down via Wathen - Spring Creek - Falls.

Thurs - Noon: 14 miles (4,000') easy. Got out with Ryan B who is back in The Fort after his stint up in Gunnison. Great to have him back. We hit the Horsetooth sections of the Chubster in big flaky snow and slippery conditions. Cold out. Horsetooth - Summit - Horsetooth - Soderberg - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Towers - Westridge - Wathen - Spring Creek - Falls.
PM - 5.5 miles (1,500'). Vertical Beer Mile.

Fri - 12.5 miles easy (1,200'). To Redstone Canyon 4 mile and back. Very cold out, but needed this run to hit 4,100 miles on the year to keep up with Mr Consistency himself.

Sat - AM: 6 miles (500') easy. To Towers/Swan Johnson and back. Cold.
Noon: 8 miles (1,650') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home. Good amount of snow on trail, but can't see it sticking around too long. Nice out with the sun poking through.

Sun - 22.5 miles easy. Bike paths. Was going to do the last seven at MP, but I bumped into Bryan G, who I hadn't seen in a long time, coming the other way early in the run, so turned around and ran 15 miles of the loop with him in the opposite direction than originally intended. By the time he peeled off at Shields, I couldn't be bothered upping the tempo so just kept running at what was probably a 7:30 pace the rest of the way on the Poudre trail and then back to the car on Overland.

Total: 104.5 miles (13,250').

First two days of the week were a write off as my legs were very stiff in the hamstrings from a faster-paced long run on Sunday. As a result, I didn't get to the track this week, but I did get in a hard effort up Horsetooth on Wednesday that somewhat compensates. That said, everything else was largely easy paced, so I need to get after the speedwork a bit this coming week. Glad I went easy on the long run today as I should be nicely rested for a hard session at the track on Tuesday. I'm thinking 3 x 3 mile at marathon pace.

Decided to bail on the two New Years 5k races as I didn't see the point in trying to run hard in the snow and ice. As a make-up, I'm thinking I'll head down to Lafayette on Sat/Sun (not sure which day) to run the Oatmeal 5k. Looks like they're putting up some cash, so there should be some speedsters to chase, which will hopefully help in posting a decent time.

Got an exciting running schedule figured for next year, I think. As with last year, the focus through the first half of the year will largely be on Western States. With so many other great races and adventures to experience in future summers, I'm pretty sure this will be my last WS for the foreseeable future, so I fully intend on going hell for leather if I'm fit, taking a few risks and seeing what I can do. As build up races, I'll be running New Orleans in Feb, Salida Marathon in March (love that race), American River 50 in April (I'm probably more geeked about the prospect of running AR than WS), and then maybe Jemez (or something else) in May. I mailed in my Hardrock appo this week, so that is floating out there as a post-WS possibility, but really the second half of the summer will be all about UTMB and Sierre Zinal, two races that I am super stoked to be running.

With the addition of Stella to the family and with Alistair starting big-boy school tomorrow, my running routine is about to be shaken up considerably. However, with the races I'm hoping to run in 2011, I'll just have to roll with the punches and make the necessary adjustments to ensure that I do what I can to stay fit. I'm predicting a lot of (very) early AM runs this year.