Mon - AM: 9 miles (1,900') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Loggers - Carey Springs - Towers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - home long. Felt like we were well above freezing this morning. Really looking forward to spring.
PM: 9.5 miles (2,100'). Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Wathan - Rock - Audra - Southridge - home long. Twilight was just as nice as dawn. It was a real joy to be outside moving through nature today.
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January: 440.5 miles (45,850')
February: 304.5 miles (39,200')
Total: 745 miles (85,050')
Avg: 372.5 miles (42,525')
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Tues - AM: 7 miles intervals. Met Jane's group for a cemetery workout: mile; 2(3x800) w/20 seconds between reps, 4 mins between sets; mile. After 1.5 mile warm up, workout went: 5:19; 2:37, 2:41, 2:47; 2:39, 2:43, 2:47; 5:13. Tough workout for 7 in the morning. Couldn't hang on to the 800s with the short rest, which was disappointing, but the miles were encouraging. Beautiful out again.
Noon: 9 miles (2,300') easy. Horsetooth/Audra long. Tired legs, went super easy.
Weds - AM: 11 miles (2,500') easy. 38e - Bluesky - Towers - Secret Trail - Westridge - Rock - Audra - Southridge - home long way. Nothing like a Towers ascent first thing in the morning. Felt Good.
Noon: 7 miles (1,500') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - home long.
Thurs - AM: 10 miles (1,400') tempo. Out and back to 5 mile mark on HTH course from Maxwell with Scott and Sarah. Out easy in 41:08, then back in 32:06: 7:55 (up north dam hill), 6:15, 6:32, 5:50, 5:32. Legs felt tight, so didn't push as hard as planned but definitely felt like I got a good tempo effort in.
PM: 6.5 miles easy with FCTR group.
Fri - Noon: 9 miles (2,300') easy. Horsetooth/Audra long.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Falls long.
Sat - AM: 31.5 miles (7,600') long. 5:37. Chubby Cheeks course with Ryan. Nice overcast morning for this, my longest run of 2011. I had originally emailed Ryan to see if he wanted to get in on an AR50 type run with 12 miles at tempo on the roads followed by 20 miles of trail. His response was less than enthusiastic, so we opted for The Chubster, which I actually hadn't run in its entirety. We ran the whole thing at a steadily comfortable pace, just plugging away in the same gear the whole way around. Lower sections of Mill Creek had some pretty sketchy luge runs, as did north-facing Timber and the frozen abyss that is Well Gulch, but I stayed upright the whole run despite having to dance a bit in places to do so. Most everything else was clear. Run time was close to 5:20, but we stopped on both summits and at the Visitors Center for extended periods. Felt strong the whole way round, which was nice, especially as this was my first run over 4 hours in quite some time. Looking forward to letting rip on the course at the end of the year.
Total: 122 miles (22,700').
This was an enjoyable week of reconnecting with my local trails and just getting out and running a bunch of vertical. I also got out for a couple of quality turnover sessions Tuesday and Thursday, and was reasonably encouraged with the way those went. For anyone interested in getting in on these excellent workouts, Jane's group meets Tuesday morning at 7:15 in City Park by the golf course parking area, while the Thursday morning hill tempo group meets at Maxwell at 5:45 (yeah, I know).
More of the same next week, with maybe a light day Friday in preparation for the Salida Marathon, one of my favorite local events on the calendar. I am hearing that the event is close to being sold out, so register now if you're procrastinating on that one.
I filled in a few of the blanks for May this week by signing up for the Jemez 50, where I'll be looking to defend my crown, and also Collegiate Peaks 25 where I'll mainly be looking to get a quality long run done.
Towers time trial this Thursday from Soderberg at 6:00 as usual. From what I hear, things got a little epic with a mid-run blizzard last time out, but having run up Towers three times this week, I can report that conditions are currently 90% clear which means the track should be in close-to-PR shape come Thursday, the last headlight session of the year. I'm a bit behind on updating times from the last two sessions, but should have that covered later tonight.
