Monday - Noon: 8.5 miles (800') easy. Blue Sky TH to Arthur's TH and back. Nice and mellow. Felt pretty good for the most part. Still a little lethargic, but really no soreness from Salida.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Falls loop long.
Tuesday - AM: 9 miles intervals. Met with Jane's group for her City Park/Cemetery workout: mile, 3x fartlek mile, mile. Wasn't expecting great things so just cruised for the most part, but definitely wanted to make sure I got some leg turnover going this week: 5:43, 5:49, 5:55, 5:52, 5:20. Rest between each was 2 - 5 minutes.
Apparently I missed the Ides of March toga memo. Jane Welzel (third from left, back row) organizes year round Tuesday workouts. Longer intervals at City Park/Cemetery through the winter, then Tuesday Night Track (TNT) from May. This is always a fun group (that hits 30-40 in the summer) with a good spread of paces. Jane, a five time OT Marathon qualifier, is a wealth of running knowledge and has a ton of workouts up her sleeve. She probably has 10 different mile routes (all within .03) in City Park alone.
Weds - Noon: 8.5 miles (800') easy. Bluesky TH to Arthurs TH and back.
Thurs- AM: 10.5 miles (1,400') tempo. 1:13:32. Good group this week for the "Oh my God it's early" hill tempo run on Centennial. In attendance were Sarah, Slush, Tim, Matthew and Alex (a record number since I've been doing these runs). Out easy in 41:39, back in 31:50 chasing down Matthew and Tim who went a little harder going out (7:30, 6:19, 6:33, 5:49, 5:39).
PM: 7.5 miles easy with the trail running group. Come join us: Thursday at 6:00 pm alternating week to week between an easy 6-7 mile loop around Pineridge (followed by pot luck beers and tucker), and the Towers time trial from the Soderberg TH at Horsetooth. Next week we're on The Hill.
Thursday Social Regulars. All pics: Scott Slusher.
Dogs Welcome. Mary, Gus, Joselyne.
Fresh off a Towers PR last week, Cat rocks a descent.
Mainly a flat circuit around Pineridge, however there are a couple of mini hills.
The FCTR shirts were a good choice for St Paddy's Day. Mary, Celeste, Cat, Slush, Chris.
Always front and center. Sarah, Celeste, Nobby, Alex.
Sat - 35 miles (6,400') long. 5:40. I don't think I would have chosen to run 35 miles with a butt load of climbing today, but as this was the first annual 'March Mileage Madness' run (or 'Triple Dick' as Marie prefers) I certainly didn't want to miss out on the excitement. A total of 31 runners took on one of the three course options (10, 23, 35 mile), with just a small contingent opting for the Big Boys outing. Driving down to the start at Alex's place, I passed the 7am start group who were making their way around the southeast side of the reservoir (which we were circumnavigating as part of the route). I ended up starting solo at 7:55, approximately 45 minutes behind the rest of the 34-mile starters.
As is typical for me on runs like this, I was very much in one-gear mode and content just to plug along, enjoy the morning and get around in one piece. I ended up catching up to the lead group of Pete, Drew and Sam on top of Arthurs and then cruised on at my morning's pace for the remaining 15 miles. This was a fun route in that it was a complete circumnavigation of the reservoir (with some contrived silliness added on in Horsetooth/Lory). Coming back around the east side of the reservoir heading south to the finish, it was certainly satisfying to check out the three-summit route that I had earlier knocked off on foot. Started getting a little tired coming down to Maxwell, but that was mainly because the end was nigh and I was ready for a beer. Fun times BBQing, drinking and hanging out after at Alex's place. We're a lucky bunch to have such a great community of runners and such an awesome trail network here in The Fort. More here.
Sun: 10 miles (1,300') easy. Bluesky TH to Arthurs, with small loop up and around Mill Creek Link. Saw everyone and their brother out this morning, including Marie and Karen, Bryan, Rob, and Mike and Shannon.
Total: 111.5 miles (15,300')
So another one in the books and another step closer to the summer racing season. Got both my faster turnover sessions in again this week, although went pretty easy on Tuesday considering the marathon three days prior, but all the same I feel like I am training a little wiser than last year by switching things up a bit and not just churning out endless days in the hills. Hopefully the slightly tweaked training philosophy will yield results come June.
Went close to six hours on Saturday, which is just about where I want to be for American River (with an additional 15 miles covered of course) and that felt relatively comfortable. I wasn't exactly jumping out of bed on Sunday, but the 10 recovery miles I did do felt fine. I would have liked to have run for an extra hour, but income taxes were calling my name and I've decided to take things a little easier leading up to the Antelope Island 50k next weekend so I can hopefully run hard there.
Lots of Pikes-related chatter starting to brew over at GZ's place with general registration opening this week. Kind of bummed to be missing out this year, but that's alright. I'll be back next year to hopefully take a crack at beating MC if he can go yet one more year as King of the Hill. However, I think the Spaniard (Jordi), Daryn or A.N.Other with a good run could finally have his number this year.
