Mon - 8 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth North summit (85). Got out under a legitimately hot sun and felt good enough. Should be comfortable working in the 90s by Western States time, I'm hoping.
Tues - 11 miles (1,600') steady. Early morning loop of Bobcat with Mike and Danny. Worked the climb a bit, easy on the ridge and descent and then a pick-up for the last mile and a bit on the valley.
Weds - 8 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth North. Hot again, but good breeze kept things comfortable; same breeze that was destroying homes down south in the Colorado Springs-area Black Forest Fire unfortunately.
Thurs - AM: 11 miles (1,200') easy. Nice casual Indian Summer loop on Blue Sky with Sarah. Nice to have a good mist in the air.
PM: 9.5 miles (1,900') hills hard. Committed to a hard effort on Towers, but came up a bit short on the PR that I thought might be in the cards. Just didn't have the will to take it to that place when things started hurtingt. Splits were 2:55 to Towers Rd, 8:45 to Stout, 16:45 to Herrington & 29:45 to the top. Ran out of drive by the Carey Springs grunter, but happy to get up under 30 and to be less than 30 seconds off a PR in warm conditions.
Fri - Noon: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Nice easy cruise up Horsetooth in the midday sun. Felt good in the heat.
Sat - AM: 16 miles (4,400') easy. Triple Horsetooth (90). Did each of the three summit teeth via Southridge, Rock and Wathan. The summit was ridiculously busy all three times up, but had south and center to myself.
Sun - Noon: 13 miles (1,200') easy. To Redstone 3 mile with Milner loop. Picked things up a bit coming back on Redstone to get the run over with. I really wasn't much into running today. Mind was in total taper mode with many other things to get done at home. 13 miles all of a sudden seemed like an impossibly long way.
Total: 84 miles (17,200')
This was a predictably blah week. Legs were a bit off and my mind was already on taper vacation and just not that interested in running. I'll cut things down again this week, probably not running much more than 50 miles. Off to Toronto for work as I write this and not back until late Friday, so 50 miles might even be a stretch. In Leadville over the weekend, so there'll be some mileage there I guess. Just waiting for the fresh-leg magic of taper-week three right now. Out to Squaw with Stefanovic Tuesday night.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Week Ending June 9
Mon - AM: 8 miles easy (2,100') at Horsetooth. Legs were predictably lethargic after going hard on the weekend's descents, but just fine once warmed up.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') jog/hike. Ran down to the park to meet Dana and Alistair for a casual run/hike of the Falls loop. Three miles with 700' of accumulated vert, mostly all run, is not nearly enough to put a dent in my 6.5-year-old's energy. Mountains required.
Tues - AM: 8 miles (1,900') hill tempo. With Danny and Mike for the first installment of Double Workout Tuesday. Similar mid-level tempo effort to previous weeks, and a few ticks faster (25:23 - north summit, north gap). Gorgeous morning.
PM: 10 miles track. Found myself with a bit of time before the track workout this afternoon, so jogged five miles to loosen things up from the morning. The workout was 2k open, followed by 8x400 on 70 seconds rest. Warmed into the 2k with the first two laps at 6 min pace, then got after the rest of the workout: 6:55, 73, 71, 70, 72, 72, 70, 69, 69. 400s are definitely not my pace, so I was happy to be able to hang in the low-70s arena.
Weds - 10 miles (2,500') easy. With Stefanovic at Horsetooth. Nice and easy up the hill and across Westridge, then laced the Spring Creek descent on legs that just wanted to go.
Thurs - 11 miles (1,200') fast finish. Ran with the usual Thursday morning suspects (Lee, Eric, Sarah, Scott, Ziggy, Mike) for an Indian Summer out and back. Easy through the first seven, then a ratchet from Rim Rock and a further ratchet from the two-mile fence up to half marathon pace. Fast is feeling really, really good right now.
PM: 5 miles (1,500') hike/run with Alistair. The boy was motivated for a Horsetooth PR attempt, so we got after it a bit this afternoon. Alistair's PR was 57 minutes and change going in, but it was clear by the steps on the rock trail that we were going to crush that, so we reset the goal for 50 minutes, beating it by six seconds with a 49:54 top out. I wonder how long it will be before he starts crushing his old man on the hill? He still had tons of energy when we were done. He needs big mountains this summer, I think.
Fri - 30.5 miles (9,100') long and hilly. Got up in altitude a bit this morning for a fun, if somewhat slow outing with Mike. Parked at the Cow Creek trailhead northeast of Estes Park and ran north on the North Boundary Trail in the northeast portion of RMNP for six miles towards the North Fork of the Big Thompson. The NBT has three decent climbs on the way to the North Fork into and out of a couple significant drainages. The first two are sharp 600-700 foot affairs, with the third being a steady 1,300 climb over not much more than a mile and a half. Once you top out on the narrow ridge there, it's a fun net-downhill contour to the North Fork intersection with compelling views across the valley to Signal Mountain. We headed upriver from the intersection to take the Stormy Peaks connector in hopes of picking up the long-unmaintained Stormy to Signal trail. We of course missed the turn and ended up way too high at the Stormy Peaks backcountry camping area, so retraced and eventually found the trail, which is now not much more than a game scratch. We gave it 20 minutes or so before giving up on the trail, losing it repeatedly to snow banks and general not-there'edness, choosing instead to bushwhack to the Signal - Stormy ridge and follow that east to Signal Mountain (11,200'). The 'scwacking took a ton of time and I think both Mike and I were working harder than expected, having not been above 10,500' for a sustained effort in quite some time. After finally gaining both Signal peaks, we set off down Bulwark Ridge, happy to find that the worst of the tree carnage from the previous winter had been hit with saws. There are still a good many trees blocking passage on the upper reaches of the trail, but the going was good enough for us. Once past the worst of it, the cruise down to Dunraven was a ton of fun. From there it was five miles back upriver to the NBT, and then the last six miles back to the car. Felt good enough on this run, with plenty more in the tank once done.
Sat - 21.5 miles (2,800') steady. I woke up feeling pretty good, but decided to get some work done around the house before heading out in an effort to run through some midday heat. The sun ended up being a bit in and out unfortunately, so I really wasn't that uncomfortable despite the mid-80 forecast and exposed nature of the route. Jogged down to Bobcat Ridge and then ran a steady ascent of Ginny and a tempo-like effort on the ridge and DR descent. Kept it steady in the valley and also on the five mile climb back home. Really pleased with what my legs gave me for this run after yesterday's effort, and also with how quickly three hours / 20+ miles seemed to fly by. All good signs.
PM: 3 miles (700') easy with Dana on the Falls loop.
Sun - 8 miles (2,200') easy. Horsetooth North. Original plan was to run to the Bellevue Bean to meet my parents and family for brunch by way of Horsetooth and Arthurs, but just didn't feel like putting a third long run in. I reconciled the poop-out with the fact that the previous seven days had been 140 miles with just a bit south of 30,000 feet of vertical gain. Jogged up and lingered on the summit a bit to reflect on the training I had put in for this year's running of the Western States 100, and felt good about taking it easy and beginning the taper a day earlier than planned.
Total: 120 miles (25,200')
This week was a good capstone to the Western States training block. It was my highest mileage week of the year and I finished it feeling strong and positive. The week had all of my major training principles packed in there: consistency, speed, threshold, hills and endurance. Those, in my opinion, are the necessary training ingredients for success in mountain ultrarunning. There are of course other pieces of the puzzle to figure out with regards to race execution, but if you have those basic building blocks in place over a good three- to four-month period, I believe you'll see great results.
And now begins the taper. I'm a strong believer in taking a more gradual taper than most. I always take this first week of the taper as more of a traditional cut-back week (75 percent of volume) and then follow up with two weeks of significantly reduced mileage and a real focus on being fresh for the start line - alway erring on the side of 'less is more'. I only do a proper taper once a year and I enjoy it every time. Cheers to that!
PM: 5 miles (1,100') jog/hike. Ran down to the park to meet Dana and Alistair for a casual run/hike of the Falls loop. Three miles with 700' of accumulated vert, mostly all run, is not nearly enough to put a dent in my 6.5-year-old's energy. Mountains required.
Tues - AM: 8 miles (1,900') hill tempo. With Danny and Mike for the first installment of Double Workout Tuesday. Similar mid-level tempo effort to previous weeks, and a few ticks faster (25:23 - north summit, north gap). Gorgeous morning.
PM: 10 miles track. Found myself with a bit of time before the track workout this afternoon, so jogged five miles to loosen things up from the morning. The workout was 2k open, followed by 8x400 on 70 seconds rest. Warmed into the 2k with the first two laps at 6 min pace, then got after the rest of the workout: 6:55, 73, 71, 70, 72, 72, 70, 69, 69. 400s are definitely not my pace, so I was happy to be able to hang in the low-70s arena.
Weds - 10 miles (2,500') easy. With Stefanovic at Horsetooth. Nice and easy up the hill and across Westridge, then laced the Spring Creek descent on legs that just wanted to go.
Thurs - 11 miles (1,200') fast finish. Ran with the usual Thursday morning suspects (Lee, Eric, Sarah, Scott, Ziggy, Mike) for an Indian Summer out and back. Easy through the first seven, then a ratchet from Rim Rock and a further ratchet from the two-mile fence up to half marathon pace. Fast is feeling really, really good right now.
PM: 5 miles (1,500') hike/run with Alistair. The boy was motivated for a Horsetooth PR attempt, so we got after it a bit this afternoon. Alistair's PR was 57 minutes and change going in, but it was clear by the steps on the rock trail that we were going to crush that, so we reset the goal for 50 minutes, beating it by six seconds with a 49:54 top out. I wonder how long it will be before he starts crushing his old man on the hill? He still had tons of energy when we were done. He needs big mountains this summer, I think.
Fri - 30.5 miles (9,100') long and hilly. Got up in altitude a bit this morning for a fun, if somewhat slow outing with Mike. Parked at the Cow Creek trailhead northeast of Estes Park and ran north on the North Boundary Trail in the northeast portion of RMNP for six miles towards the North Fork of the Big Thompson. The NBT has three decent climbs on the way to the North Fork into and out of a couple significant drainages. The first two are sharp 600-700 foot affairs, with the third being a steady 1,300 climb over not much more than a mile and a half. Once you top out on the narrow ridge there, it's a fun net-downhill contour to the North Fork intersection with compelling views across the valley to Signal Mountain. We headed upriver from the intersection to take the Stormy Peaks connector in hopes of picking up the long-unmaintained Stormy to Signal trail. We of course missed the turn and ended up way too high at the Stormy Peaks backcountry camping area, so retraced and eventually found the trail, which is now not much more than a game scratch. We gave it 20 minutes or so before giving up on the trail, losing it repeatedly to snow banks and general not-there'edness, choosing instead to bushwhack to the Signal - Stormy ridge and follow that east to Signal Mountain (11,200'). The 'scwacking took a ton of time and I think both Mike and I were working harder than expected, having not been above 10,500' for a sustained effort in quite some time. After finally gaining both Signal peaks, we set off down Bulwark Ridge, happy to find that the worst of the tree carnage from the previous winter had been hit with saws. There are still a good many trees blocking passage on the upper reaches of the trail, but the going was good enough for us. Once past the worst of it, the cruise down to Dunraven was a ton of fun. From there it was five miles back upriver to the NBT, and then the last six miles back to the car. Felt good enough on this run, with plenty more in the tank once done.
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| West off Signal Mtn |
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| Been a while since I've been in the Alpine. |
PM: 3 miles (700') easy with Dana on the Falls loop.
Sun - 8 miles (2,200') easy. Horsetooth North. Original plan was to run to the Bellevue Bean to meet my parents and family for brunch by way of Horsetooth and Arthurs, but just didn't feel like putting a third long run in. I reconciled the poop-out with the fact that the previous seven days had been 140 miles with just a bit south of 30,000 feet of vertical gain. Jogged up and lingered on the summit a bit to reflect on the training I had put in for this year's running of the Western States 100, and felt good about taking it easy and beginning the taper a day earlier than planned.
Total: 120 miles (25,200')
This week was a good capstone to the Western States training block. It was my highest mileage week of the year and I finished it feeling strong and positive. The week had all of my major training principles packed in there: consistency, speed, threshold, hills and endurance. Those, in my opinion, are the necessary training ingredients for success in mountain ultrarunning. There are of course other pieces of the puzzle to figure out with regards to race execution, but if you have those basic building blocks in place over a good three- to four-month period, I believe you'll see great results.
And now begins the taper. I'm a strong believer in taking a more gradual taper than most. I always take this first week of the taper as more of a traditional cut-back week (75 percent of volume) and then follow up with two weeks of significantly reduced mileage and a real focus on being fresh for the start line - alway erring on the side of 'less is more'. I only do a proper taper once a year and I enjoy it every time. Cheers to that!
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Pilot Hill 25k, 2013
There's never much fanfare at the Wyoming races, which is a big part of the reason I love going up there to race. Runners congregate around the start, chat for a bit, maybe run a few miles to warm up, then go about the business of running hard for a few miles before swapping stories over a few cold beers and then heading home. Simple. The 2013 rendition of the Pilot Hill 25k (the 37th), a race I have now run four times in the last five years, was no different.
The days leading up to the race here on the Front Range had been exceptionally windy, and closing in on gale force up on the high plains at 7,200 feet in Laramie. Race morning came, and while the winds were significantly lighter in Fort Collins, the trees were still shaking a good bit as I was drinking my early morning coffee. This meant the Laramie trees were being blown sideways, I thought to myself as I got in the car. The weather transition, quite comically and quite literally, always seems to happen as you cross the state line driving up Highway 287. For today's transition, we went from strong winds to stronger winds and from partly cloudy to ominously dark.
At the start line by the sand flats on the eastern edge of town, the weather concerns were actually muted somewhat with dropping wind strength and temperatures that while cold were certainly preferable to previous renditions that had been a touch on the hot side coming back down off the hill. I recognized Nik Deininger on the start line, a former UW cross country runner who'd beaten me by a couple of minutes last fall at the Silent Trails 10 miler, in addition to some of the usual suspects from home. Sam Malmberg was after the top-of-the-hill premium, I knew, so I was surprised to find myself running solo after just a half mile on the flats.
My pace felt way more controlled from the start than last year, when I'd been chasing Mike Hinterberg (who'd taken off like a just-released caged animal) while trying to hang on to Scott Foley, a much more talented runner than me. At the 180-degree turn this year, a mile and a half in , I was able to see that I'd built a 20 meter lead without really trying. I was surprised, but figured Sam, Nik and the rest of the chase pack were just biding their time waiting for the climbing to begin. I got my head down and continued on, feeling somewhat ridiculous so far out in front by myself.
The climb is not an aggressive one, with just 1,600 feet of vertical relief to cover over six miles, so your foot has to be on the gas the whole way up. The splits from my Highgear suggested that I was running a touch faster than last year, but with the quarter mile added to the ascent portion this year my goal of a sub-60 summit seemed unlikely (versus 1:00:07 last year). Nonetheless, I felt strong the whole climb, if a little clumsy on the rough and trail-less limestone sections and the rutted fields, and rounding the corner under the communication Towers of the Pilot Hill summit the math actually looked good for a 59:xx turn. I threw back a quick shoulder check and saw that Nik was far enough back that I was comfortably going to get the summit first, and indeed I did in 59:24. I stopped briefly to chug a cup of sports drink then took off like a man possessed for the return trip down the hill.
From a training perspective, the descent is the reason I run this race. Yes, it is only 1,600 feet down, but it is decently technical and long and fast enough to be a solid quad workout just four weeks from Western States. Baring disaster, I knew I wasn't going to get caught as I have consistently registered the fastest times coming down in the four years I've run the race. My Highgear splits were beeping in the 5:20 to 5:30 range, which meant Nik would have to be running low 5:00s to be gaining. Given the nature of the terrain, I knew that was unlikely, but I kept my foot on the gas to make sure.
Cruising into the finish on the last two miles of the gently rolling sand flats, I needed to hold just 6:30 pace to dip under 1:40, a target that I had initially considered unlikely. But, as it turned out, I came in a good bit under at 1:39:14, over three minutes faster than last year.
This is a huge boost to the confidence as I enter the final stages of preparation for the showdown at the end of June. There is no better feeling as a runner than that of fitness and preparedness.
Thanks as always to Jeff French, Pilot Hill RD, for managing the proceedings, brewing up the post-race bevvies and generally ensuring a fun time for all at the incredibly reasonable price of $25 (a dollar per kilometer). There aren't many racing deals better than that out there. A second lunch (after the post-race spread from Turtle Rock Cafe) with my parents, wife and kids at Altitudes Chop House (and Brewery), and it was back down 287 into the glorious summer sunshine of Northern Colorado. A good morning.
The days leading up to the race here on the Front Range had been exceptionally windy, and closing in on gale force up on the high plains at 7,200 feet in Laramie. Race morning came, and while the winds were significantly lighter in Fort Collins, the trees were still shaking a good bit as I was drinking my early morning coffee. This meant the Laramie trees were being blown sideways, I thought to myself as I got in the car. The weather transition, quite comically and quite literally, always seems to happen as you cross the state line driving up Highway 287. For today's transition, we went from strong winds to stronger winds and from partly cloudy to ominously dark.
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| Pic: Nora Testerman |
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| Tetserman |
The climb is not an aggressive one, with just 1,600 feet of vertical relief to cover over six miles, so your foot has to be on the gas the whole way up. The splits from my Highgear suggested that I was running a touch faster than last year, but with the quarter mile added to the ascent portion this year my goal of a sub-60 summit seemed unlikely (versus 1:00:07 last year). Nonetheless, I felt strong the whole climb, if a little clumsy on the rough and trail-less limestone sections and the rutted fields, and rounding the corner under the communication Towers of the Pilot Hill summit the math actually looked good for a 59:xx turn. I threw back a quick shoulder check and saw that Nik was far enough back that I was comfortably going to get the summit first, and indeed I did in 59:24. I stopped briefly to chug a cup of sports drink then took off like a man possessed for the return trip down the hill.
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| The somewhat bleak top (note tree being blown sideways). Pic: Marie-Helene Faurie |
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| The early stages of the descent. Marie. |
Cruising into the finish on the last two miles of the gently rolling sand flats, I needed to hold just 6:30 pace to dip under 1:40, a target that I had initially considered unlikely. But, as it turned out, I came in a good bit under at 1:39:14, over three minutes faster than last year.
This is a huge boost to the confidence as I enter the final stages of preparation for the showdown at the end of June. There is no better feeling as a runner than that of fitness and preparedness.
Thanks as always to Jeff French, Pilot Hill RD, for managing the proceedings, brewing up the post-race bevvies and generally ensuring a fun time for all at the incredibly reasonable price of $25 (a dollar per kilometer). There aren't many racing deals better than that out there. A second lunch (after the post-race spread from Turtle Rock Cafe) with my parents, wife and kids at Altitudes Chop House (and Brewery), and it was back down 287 into the glorious summer sunshine of Northern Colorado. A good morning.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Week Ending June 2
Mon - 4.5 miles (1,500') hiking. Horsetooth north summit with Alistair, Stella, Sarah and her kids. Up in approx 59 mins, which is another good push for Alistair, but he's hungry for a new PR when we're solo on the hill. As always, the Stella on the back dynamic was quite the workout. No time for much else, so reconciled the day as a recovery day after a big weekend.
Tues - AM: 8 miles (2,100') hill tempo. Week two of Double Workout Tuesday kicked off with a 25:40 run up Horsetooth (Rock/nth gap) in the early AM with Mike. Per usual, Mike got out quickly, so I settled in behind and waited for him to slow down. We were 5:00 flat to the bench, which is about 20 seconds off PR pace, but 20 seconds quicker than I've been doing these tempo runs, and then we settled in and slotted into our respective efforts. Legs were a little unresponsive through the first mile, but happy once settled in. Effort felt reasonably moderate, so I was happy with the time. Back via Wathan.
PM: 10.5 miles track. Round two of Double Workout Tuesday comes 11 hours later at the track. On tap tonight was 800 open (5 min standing rest), then 4 x 800/300 with 100 jog after 800 and 400 jog after 300. I warmed up with three miles for this one to see if I could work out a bit of the gunk from the morning, but I was still having to work hard to get the legs to turn over as we got going. The first 800 felt terrible, but the next four came a little easier and felt reasonably comfortable, although I had to push in places to bridge up to Ben and Brian to stay on pace. Track was ridiculously crowded, which meant lane two, sometimes three, on many of the turns. Splits: 2:37 (5:30 standing rest), 2:34 (w/ 0:36 100 meter jog), :57 (w/2:46 400 meter jog), 2:34 (:40), :56 (2:41), 2:32 (:42), :56 (2:49), 2:35 (:44), :55.
Weds - AM: 8 miles (2,100) easy. A very easy jog up the hill with Stefanovic on a foggy, wet and somewhat cold morning. Erskine sighting (with Quad Rock Tee on) just under the rock for another two squares filled on my Horsetooth Bingo board. Back via Wathan.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') slow. Falls loop. Could have probably hiked this one quicker - super tired legs for the first couple of miles.
Thurs - AM: 11 miles (1,200') easy. Blue Sky / Indian Summer out and back with Lee, Mike and Brian in very pleasant running conditions: wildflowers are off the charts this season. Didn't feel much like pushing at all this morning, so kept the pace super easy for the first 7, and then notched a bit from Rim Rock and then a bit more from the two-mile fence, but a nominal tempo effort at best. Had the upcoming Pilot Hill race in the back of my mind the whole time, and with the legs still feeling groggy it was an easy decision to keep things in check.
PM: 6 miles (600') easy. Jogged out some stiffness on the valley trails from Sodeberg to Arthurs and back. Decided against a run up Towers for the usual Thursday TT as there was nothing to be gained with my legs feeling in need of rest for Pilot Hill on Saturday. Layered up in winter gear to try and get a bit of a sweat going.
Fri: 7.5 miles (1,800') easy. Very easy Horsetooth north summit via the north gap (79). Super breezy out. Legs were still a bit lethargic. Layered up again, but it's just not that hot out yet.
Sat: 17.5 miles (1,600') race. Pilot Hill Classic 25k. Another year, another win and another PR/CR (1:39:xx). Really quite happy with how this one unfolded, and pleasantly surprised to wake up with legs that were ready to go. Although a small-time race, this has served as my pre-Western gauge of fitness for two of the last three Junes, and fitness looks good. Results.
Sun: 28.5 miles (5,800') downhill work. After steamrolling down the unpredictable footing at Pilot Hill yesterday, we got on Storm Mountain Road for an entirely predictable uphill/downhill session on one of the more prominent ridgeline high points in the foothills to the west of Fort Collins/Loveland. Started out a bit sore and grumbly from the day before, but the legs were soon warmed up despite the pedestrian pace Mike and I were maintaining. I put Mike in charge of navigation, considering he's been up this route before, and predictably enough we made a wrong turn not far below the scenic Galuchie Park at the base of the grunt to the summit. Total detour was a bit over a mile, which allowed Alex and Abby to catch up, fortuitously allowing us all to share the wonderful summit together. Just a beautiful, clear and windless day out; a breath of fresh air after the whipping wind frenzy of previous days. I took off on the 9.5 mile descent back to the car, maintaining a comfortable up-tempo pace despite a bit of quad soreness from the day before. Turned around and jogged back up to the Longs Peak View pull-off at 4.5 miles or so and then ran back down fairly casually. Fun morning out on the hill in just beautiful early summer conditions. Attempted to sit in the Big T afterwards to cool the legs a bit, but the snow melt was way too cold for me. Lasted 20 seconds tops.
Total: 106.5 miles (17,800)
All signs seem to be pointing in the right direction at the moment. Fitness checks are looking good, legs are feeling strong, and the mind is in the right place. I'm thinking I may just have timed the Western-States peak right this year after missing it by a good month last year. Starting to feel quietly confident about the summer ahead with the work just about done.
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| Pics: Mike H, who jumped out of the shrubbery, camera at the ready, just below the rock. |
PM: 10.5 miles track. Round two of Double Workout Tuesday comes 11 hours later at the track. On tap tonight was 800 open (5 min standing rest), then 4 x 800/300 with 100 jog after 800 and 400 jog after 300. I warmed up with three miles for this one to see if I could work out a bit of the gunk from the morning, but I was still having to work hard to get the legs to turn over as we got going. The first 800 felt terrible, but the next four came a little easier and felt reasonably comfortable, although I had to push in places to bridge up to Ben and Brian to stay on pace. Track was ridiculously crowded, which meant lane two, sometimes three, on many of the turns. Splits: 2:37 (5:30 standing rest), 2:34 (w/ 0:36 100 meter jog), :57 (w/2:46 400 meter jog), 2:34 (:40), :56 (2:41), 2:32 (:42), :56 (2:49), 2:35 (:44), :55.
Weds - AM: 8 miles (2,100) easy. A very easy jog up the hill with Stefanovic on a foggy, wet and somewhat cold morning. Erskine sighting (with Quad Rock Tee on) just under the rock for another two squares filled on my Horsetooth Bingo board. Back via Wathan.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') slow. Falls loop. Could have probably hiked this one quicker - super tired legs for the first couple of miles.
Thurs - AM: 11 miles (1,200') easy. Blue Sky / Indian Summer out and back with Lee, Mike and Brian in very pleasant running conditions: wildflowers are off the charts this season. Didn't feel much like pushing at all this morning, so kept the pace super easy for the first 7, and then notched a bit from Rim Rock and then a bit more from the two-mile fence, but a nominal tempo effort at best. Had the upcoming Pilot Hill race in the back of my mind the whole time, and with the legs still feeling groggy it was an easy decision to keep things in check.
PM: 6 miles (600') easy. Jogged out some stiffness on the valley trails from Sodeberg to Arthurs and back. Decided against a run up Towers for the usual Thursday TT as there was nothing to be gained with my legs feeling in need of rest for Pilot Hill on Saturday. Layered up in winter gear to try and get a bit of a sweat going.
Fri: 7.5 miles (1,800') easy. Very easy Horsetooth north summit via the north gap (79). Super breezy out. Legs were still a bit lethargic. Layered up again, but it's just not that hot out yet.
Sat: 17.5 miles (1,600') race. Pilot Hill Classic 25k. Another year, another win and another PR/CR (1:39:xx). Really quite happy with how this one unfolded, and pleasantly surprised to wake up with legs that were ready to go. Although a small-time race, this has served as my pre-Western gauge of fitness for two of the last three Junes, and fitness looks good. Results.
Sun: 28.5 miles (5,800') downhill work. After steamrolling down the unpredictable footing at Pilot Hill yesterday, we got on Storm Mountain Road for an entirely predictable uphill/downhill session on one of the more prominent ridgeline high points in the foothills to the west of Fort Collins/Loveland. Started out a bit sore and grumbly from the day before, but the legs were soon warmed up despite the pedestrian pace Mike and I were maintaining. I put Mike in charge of navigation, considering he's been up this route before, and predictably enough we made a wrong turn not far below the scenic Galuchie Park at the base of the grunt to the summit. Total detour was a bit over a mile, which allowed Alex and Abby to catch up, fortuitously allowing us all to share the wonderful summit together. Just a beautiful, clear and windless day out; a breath of fresh air after the whipping wind frenzy of previous days. I took off on the 9.5 mile descent back to the car, maintaining a comfortable up-tempo pace despite a bit of quad soreness from the day before. Turned around and jogged back up to the Longs Peak View pull-off at 4.5 miles or so and then ran back down fairly casually. Fun morning out on the hill in just beautiful early summer conditions. Attempted to sit in the Big T afterwards to cool the legs a bit, but the snow melt was way too cold for me. Lasted 20 seconds tops.
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| 4.5 miles up the hill you get a fantastic vista of Longs. And, yes, those are knee-length socks. |
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| Summit shot w/Alex, Abby, and Mike. All pics: Mike. |
All signs seem to be pointing in the right direction at the moment. Fitness checks are looking good, legs are feeling strong, and the mind is in the right place. I'm thinking I may just have timed the Western-States peak right this year after missing it by a good month last year. Starting to feel quietly confident about the summer ahead with the work just about done.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Week Ending May 26
Mon- Noon: 9.5 miles (2,500') easy. Horsetooth north summit with Sefano via a very breezy north gap, then Westridge - Spring Creek - Falls. Felt predictably tired after a big weekend, but tired in a good way rather than the deep muscular fatigue that I've been feeling the previous three weeks.
Tues - AM: 7 miles (1,800') hill tempo. Got an email from Mike Monday afternoon proposing a 'double workout day' for today with a controlled hill tempo in the early AM, followed by Jane's short track workout in the evening. Sure, why not. Mike ended up sleeping through his alarm, so I was solo for the Horsetooth ascent, although I would see him on his way up as I was coming back down. Set the tempo at a very reasonable effort from the get go and ran a comfortable low-end tempo for the full ascent. Went Rock trail the whole way, detouring under the summit to take my preferred north gap route to the bird-poop-stained summit rock. Up in 26:06, which is pretty much exactly what I did two weeks ago on what felt like a much more labored effort. So good to have my legs back. Ultragen with my breakfast.
PM: 8 miles track. Warmed up with two miles to see how the legs were feeling and was pleased to find them reasonably responsive. The workout for tonight was 1,200 open, followed by 2(800,600,400) w/400, 200, 400, 200, 400 jog rest between each. On the opening 1,200 there was a bit of burn in the upper quads and I felt like I was working harder than I should have been for the pace, but given the morning workout things were certainly better than they could have been. The situation was much the same for the rest of the workout, but I was able to hold on decently enough even if I had to dig a bit to hang onto the pace group: 3:58 (5:05 standing rest), 2:32 (2:27 jog), 1:54 (1:17 jog), :73 (2:41 jog), 2:35 (2:38 jog), 1:54, (1:24 jog), :72. Strong headwind on the back straight made the workout a little more interesting (2 x headwind for the 600s). Finished up with a two mile cool down and a full serving of Ultragen.
Weds: 11 miles (2,800') easy. Horsetooth north summit with Stefano, then Westridge, Spring Creek, Herrington, Stout, Falls, Reaper. Although the legs felt good, I kept this one super chill in preparation for the workouts ahead this week(end).
Thurs - AM: 11 miles (1,300') progression. Bluesky/Indian Summer out and back with Slush, Ziggy, Wesir, Lee and Mike. Notched the effort a bit after four miles, heading up Indian Summer, then again at Rim Rock and again at the two-mile fence. Felt great aerobically, but legs a bit bonky/crampy on the rolling terrain.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Jogged a super easy lap on the Falls loop. Calves felt sore from the morning.
Fri - AM: 7.5 miles (1,800') easy. Horsetooth summit before work. Lethargic legs, but beautiful spring morning. Summit 75 on the year.
PM: 3 miles (600') easy. Bench loop. Legs still cranky, so decided against a summit with the big Round Mountain workout early tomorrow.
Sat - AM: 29 miles (9,800') long, hard and hot. I've had this hill repeat workout on the calendar for a couple of months now. Along with the Crosier Triple Bagger from the last week, it's one of my local-mountain spring staples and a key piece of the Grand Slam training plan. I did it two years ago about the same time of year in ideally cool conditions; last year in April with time constraints and hence an abbreviated 21 mile version; and today it got proper toasty over the last couple of hours.
Round Mountain (8,500') is an approximately 3,000' foot climb to the summit over the course of 4.75 miles. The rocky singletrack trail has mile markers to the summit, a fact that has given birth to a painful, and some would argue, ridiculous workout. It involves an out-and-back from each of the four mile markers, finishing up with a final run at the summit for 29 miles and just a touch under 10k' of climbing.
I try to run this one at a steadily decent clip with a slight uptick in effort as the run progresses. An uphill endurance pacing session, if you will. I ran with Dan Verdi, who was up from Denver with his wife Abby for a Pikes training run, over the first three repeats then was solo for the rest. The pacing plan was on track all the way until the final summit push, when dehydration and temps in the mid-80s brought on a bout of nausea and a full-on bonk. By mile three on the summit push it was touch and go as to whether or not I'd get up in under an hour (as was the goal), and then by mile four with just .75 to the top there was a full on leg rebellion, and I ended up walking half of the last mile not caring one iota about arbitrary goals and numbers. I had to take a seat at the summit to avoid losing my gut before finding the energy to descend the final 3,000 feet to the trailhead. This was the first legitimately hot run of the year for me and it hurt. Heat training is a clearly piece of the puzzle I am going to have to work on quite seriously over the next few weeks.
Up Splits:
1. 12:42, 11:40, 10:58, 10:48, 11:15
2. 13:13, 12:46, 12:15, 13:20
3. 12:46, 12:15, 11:55
4. 12:40, 12:44
5. 12:22
T. 12:42, 24:53, 36:30, 47:58, 61:36
Down Splits:
1. 09:28, 09:13, 08:50, 08:58, 08:52
2. 09:21, 08:50, 08:26, 08:14
3. 10:03, 10:10, 10:51
4. 09:24, 09:02
5. 09:36
T. 09:28, 18:34, 27:43, 36:58, 46:34
Total run time: 5:23:11
Total outing time with car refuels: 5:32:34
Sun - 22 miles (2,700') easy. Bluesky out and back to Devil's Backbone from Soderberg with Mike. Indian Summer out, B'sky back. Got super lucky with cloud cover all morning, otherwise could have been some pain out there. Felt decent enough once warmed up, finished up the last four at an up-tempo effort. Solid run to cap a big weekend.
Total: 113 miles (24,400')
Got a lot done this week, with a double workout day Tuesday, an up tempo run Thursday, then big miles and vert on the weekend. Couple more weeks and it'll be time to start working on getting the legs, mind and body fresh for the thrashing that is 100 mile racing.
Tues - AM: 7 miles (1,800') hill tempo. Got an email from Mike Monday afternoon proposing a 'double workout day' for today with a controlled hill tempo in the early AM, followed by Jane's short track workout in the evening. Sure, why not. Mike ended up sleeping through his alarm, so I was solo for the Horsetooth ascent, although I would see him on his way up as I was coming back down. Set the tempo at a very reasonable effort from the get go and ran a comfortable low-end tempo for the full ascent. Went Rock trail the whole way, detouring under the summit to take my preferred north gap route to the bird-poop-stained summit rock. Up in 26:06, which is pretty much exactly what I did two weeks ago on what felt like a much more labored effort. So good to have my legs back. Ultragen with my breakfast.
PM: 8 miles track. Warmed up with two miles to see how the legs were feeling and was pleased to find them reasonably responsive. The workout for tonight was 1,200 open, followed by 2(800,600,400) w/400, 200, 400, 200, 400 jog rest between each. On the opening 1,200 there was a bit of burn in the upper quads and I felt like I was working harder than I should have been for the pace, but given the morning workout things were certainly better than they could have been. The situation was much the same for the rest of the workout, but I was able to hold on decently enough even if I had to dig a bit to hang onto the pace group: 3:58 (5:05 standing rest), 2:32 (2:27 jog), 1:54 (1:17 jog), :73 (2:41 jog), 2:35 (2:38 jog), 1:54, (1:24 jog), :72. Strong headwind on the back straight made the workout a little more interesting (2 x headwind for the 600s). Finished up with a two mile cool down and a full serving of Ultragen.
Weds: 11 miles (2,800') easy. Horsetooth north summit with Stefano, then Westridge, Spring Creek, Herrington, Stout, Falls, Reaper. Although the legs felt good, I kept this one super chill in preparation for the workouts ahead this week(end).
Thurs - AM: 11 miles (1,300') progression. Bluesky/Indian Summer out and back with Slush, Ziggy, Wesir, Lee and Mike. Notched the effort a bit after four miles, heading up Indian Summer, then again at Rim Rock and again at the two-mile fence. Felt great aerobically, but legs a bit bonky/crampy on the rolling terrain.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Jogged a super easy lap on the Falls loop. Calves felt sore from the morning.
Fri - AM: 7.5 miles (1,800') easy. Horsetooth summit before work. Lethargic legs, but beautiful spring morning. Summit 75 on the year.
PM: 3 miles (600') easy. Bench loop. Legs still cranky, so decided against a summit with the big Round Mountain workout early tomorrow.
Sat - AM: 29 miles (9,800') long, hard and hot. I've had this hill repeat workout on the calendar for a couple of months now. Along with the Crosier Triple Bagger from the last week, it's one of my local-mountain spring staples and a key piece of the Grand Slam training plan. I did it two years ago about the same time of year in ideally cool conditions; last year in April with time constraints and hence an abbreviated 21 mile version; and today it got proper toasty over the last couple of hours.
Round Mountain (8,500') is an approximately 3,000' foot climb to the summit over the course of 4.75 miles. The rocky singletrack trail has mile markers to the summit, a fact that has given birth to a painful, and some would argue, ridiculous workout. It involves an out-and-back from each of the four mile markers, finishing up with a final run at the summit for 29 miles and just a touch under 10k' of climbing.
 |
| Everyone loves a good workout elevation graph. |
Up Splits:
1. 12:42, 11:40, 10:58, 10:48, 11:15
2. 13:13, 12:46, 12:15, 13:20
3. 12:46, 12:15, 11:55
4. 12:40, 12:44
5. 12:22
T. 12:42, 24:53, 36:30, 47:58, 61:36
Down Splits:
1. 09:28, 09:13, 08:50, 08:58, 08:52
2. 09:21, 08:50, 08:26, 08:14
3. 10:03, 10:10, 10:51
4. 09:24, 09:02
5. 09:36
T. 09:28, 18:34, 27:43, 36:58, 46:34
Total run time: 5:23:11
Total outing time with car refuels: 5:32:34
Sun - 22 miles (2,700') easy. Bluesky out and back to Devil's Backbone from Soderberg with Mike. Indian Summer out, B'sky back. Got super lucky with cloud cover all morning, otherwise could have been some pain out there. Felt decent enough once warmed up, finished up the last four at an up-tempo effort. Solid run to cap a big weekend.
Total: 113 miles (24,400')
Got a lot done this week, with a double workout day Tuesday, an up tempo run Thursday, then big miles and vert on the weekend. Couple more weeks and it'll be time to start working on getting the legs, mind and body fresh for the thrashing that is 100 mile racing.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Week Ending May 19
Mon - AM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Quick loop of the Falls trail to kick off the week. Felt great and cruised at a good upbeat tempo, thinking that the weekend off for Quad Rock had paid dividends.
PM: 10 miles (2,700') easy. Horsetooth north summit, then around on Westridge - Spring Creek - Falls.
Tues - AM: 7 miles (1,800') easy. Cruised up for a pre-work Horsetooth summit. Beautiful morning.
PM: 7 miles track. First one of the summer season. Jane eased us in with a low-volume workout: mile, 4x800. Legs felt decent enough for these, if not totally psyched to be spinning on the oval: 5:23, 2:34, 2:34, 2:35, 2:33.
Weds - PM: 9 miles (2,300') easy. Horsetooth north summit with Stefanovic, then scrambled the true ridge over to the secret trail before descending on Towers/Spring Creek.
Thurs - AM: 11 miles (1,200') easy. Met Slush, Celeste, Ziggy and Mike for an early AM out and back on Blue Sky/Indian Summer. Notched the effort a bit to a steady pace coming back from Rim Rock over the last 3.5 miles. Nice to be back out on Blue Sky; been a while.
PM: 8 miles (1,800') hill tempo. Really wanted to try and get after it on Towers tonight to take stock of the fitness, but felt as flat as I have all week, and so had to muscle through instead. The morning run doesn't help with these efforts, I guess. Worked pretty hard for a 31:20. Worst run of the week.
Fri - PM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit, down Wathan. Kept things nice and easy to save something for the weekend.
Sat - AM: 25.5 miles (8,000') steady. Decided to start getting out of the local routine by moving up the Canyon a bit. Drove out to the Crosier Mtn trailhead with Jason for a crack-of-dawn start to the 2013 rendition of the Crosier Triple Bagger, a rite-of-spring workout for me that I have done the last five years. Workout involves a summit of Crosier Mtn (~9,200') from each of the three trailheads along the Devil's Gulch Road (5 miles w/3,000', 4 miles w/2,400', 4 miles w/2,000'). After the Towers fail on Thursday and general leg funk from weeks previous, I wasn't at all sure how this workout was going to feel. The early signs were not good and I labored up the first climb (muling 50 oz of water in a backpack), but once I ditched the pack it was off to the races. Legs felt really good for the remainder of the run which gives me a renewed sense of confidence for the next four weeks and the summer of racing. Splits went:
Garden Gate Ascent: 1:06:24 (8:56 summit spur) - PR: 1:02:15 (2011)
Summit stop: 2:45
Gravel Pit Descent: 30:33 - PR: 30:14 (2012)
TH stop: 1:03
Gravel Pit Ascent: 47:42 (8:04 summit spur) - PR: 46:30 (2011)
Summit stop: 3:21
Glen Haven Descent: 32:39 - PR (vs 32:59: 2011)
Glen Haven Ascent: 46:37 (7:51 summit spur) - PR: 45:21 (2011)
Summit stop waiting on Jason: 8:45
Garden Gate Descent: 46:05 - PR (vs. 46:26: 2009)
Run Time: 4:31:26 - PR (vs. 4:32:33: 2011)
Outing Time: 4:47:20 (vs. 4:52: 2012)
I really wasn't trying to break any land speed records with this run, but rather I just wanted to stay steady and strong all morning. Looking at splits from previous years, I was a minute or two off on the climbs versus some other years, but right there on the descents, and that was essentially how I felt. I was happy to run my fastest summit spur of the morning on the last time up, but had to work for it, and then was very happy to feel great coming back down off the mountain for the last time. An added bonus was to shave a minute or two off my run time PR, not that it really counts for anything as I've never tried to run this workout for speed.
Sun - AM: 15.5 miles (4,200') easy. The original plan for the morning was a steady 20 miles on Bluesky (moderately rolling with a 800' uphill finish) to replicate the last 20 at WS100 on tired legs, but I couldn't face the tedium of Blue Sky as I was drinking my early morning coffee trying to find some motivation to get out the door. I took the easy option instead and went out for some jogging miles at Horsetooth, making up the route as I went and ending with a double summit (#70 & 71 for 2013) . Legs responded fine once warmed up, which was further affirmation that I'm well on the way to digging myself out of the post Lake Sonoma/Horsetooth Marathon funk. Southridge - Audra - north gap summit - Westridge - Mill Creek - Loggers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - Rock - north gap summit - Audra - Southridge.
Total: 106 miles (25,200')
This was a good week that has me cautiously optimistic for the upcoming summer racing season. I know that I'm lacking a step or two versus years previous on climbing strength, but I'm okay with that. Success over 100 miles is first and foremost about stamina. Speed is certainly important, but irrelevant if you can't go the distance. The next three weeks are hugely important, but I feel like I am in a good place right now to get the WS100/GS100 peak fitness right. The focus now is stamina, downhill quad seasoning and some uphill tempo work.
This Saturday is another key benchmark workout for me that I've been doing the last few years in preparation for the summer season. The workout is somewhat mindless, involving 10,000 feet of climbing over 30 miles on a single 4.75 mile stretch of trail up and down Round Mountain above the Big Thompson, so we'll see how that goes. Two more big weekends after that then it'll be time to start winding things down.
PM: 10 miles (2,700') easy. Horsetooth north summit, then around on Westridge - Spring Creek - Falls.
Tues - AM: 7 miles (1,800') easy. Cruised up for a pre-work Horsetooth summit. Beautiful morning.
PM: 7 miles track. First one of the summer season. Jane eased us in with a low-volume workout: mile, 4x800. Legs felt decent enough for these, if not totally psyched to be spinning on the oval: 5:23, 2:34, 2:34, 2:35, 2:33.
Weds - PM: 9 miles (2,300') easy. Horsetooth north summit with Stefanovic, then scrambled the true ridge over to the secret trail before descending on Towers/Spring Creek.
Thurs - AM: 11 miles (1,200') easy. Met Slush, Celeste, Ziggy and Mike for an early AM out and back on Blue Sky/Indian Summer. Notched the effort a bit to a steady pace coming back from Rim Rock over the last 3.5 miles. Nice to be back out on Blue Sky; been a while.
PM: 8 miles (1,800') hill tempo. Really wanted to try and get after it on Towers tonight to take stock of the fitness, but felt as flat as I have all week, and so had to muscle through instead. The morning run doesn't help with these efforts, I guess. Worked pretty hard for a 31:20. Worst run of the week.
Fri - PM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit, down Wathan. Kept things nice and easy to save something for the weekend.
Sat - AM: 25.5 miles (8,000') steady. Decided to start getting out of the local routine by moving up the Canyon a bit. Drove out to the Crosier Mtn trailhead with Jason for a crack-of-dawn start to the 2013 rendition of the Crosier Triple Bagger, a rite-of-spring workout for me that I have done the last five years. Workout involves a summit of Crosier Mtn (~9,200') from each of the three trailheads along the Devil's Gulch Road (5 miles w/3,000', 4 miles w/2,400', 4 miles w/2,000'). After the Towers fail on Thursday and general leg funk from weeks previous, I wasn't at all sure how this workout was going to feel. The early signs were not good and I labored up the first climb (muling 50 oz of water in a backpack), but once I ditched the pack it was off to the races. Legs felt really good for the remainder of the run which gives me a renewed sense of confidence for the next four weeks and the summer of racing. Splits went:
Garden Gate Ascent: 1:06:24 (8:56 summit spur) - PR: 1:02:15 (2011)
Summit stop: 2:45
Gravel Pit Descent: 30:33 - PR: 30:14 (2012)
TH stop: 1:03
Gravel Pit Ascent: 47:42 (8:04 summit spur) - PR: 46:30 (2011)
Summit stop: 3:21
Glen Haven Descent: 32:39 - PR (vs 32:59: 2011)
Glen Haven Ascent: 46:37 (7:51 summit spur) - PR: 45:21 (2011)
Summit stop waiting on Jason: 8:45
Garden Gate Descent: 46:05 - PR (vs. 46:26: 2009)
Run Time: 4:31:26 - PR (vs. 4:32:33: 2011)
Outing Time: 4:47:20 (vs. 4:52: 2012)
I really wasn't trying to break any land speed records with this run, but rather I just wanted to stay steady and strong all morning. Looking at splits from previous years, I was a minute or two off on the climbs versus some other years, but right there on the descents, and that was essentially how I felt. I was happy to run my fastest summit spur of the morning on the last time up, but had to work for it, and then was very happy to feel great coming back down off the mountain for the last time. An added bonus was to shave a minute or two off my run time PR, not that it really counts for anything as I've never tried to run this workout for speed.
Sun - AM: 15.5 miles (4,200') easy. The original plan for the morning was a steady 20 miles on Bluesky (moderately rolling with a 800' uphill finish) to replicate the last 20 at WS100 on tired legs, but I couldn't face the tedium of Blue Sky as I was drinking my early morning coffee trying to find some motivation to get out the door. I took the easy option instead and went out for some jogging miles at Horsetooth, making up the route as I went and ending with a double summit (#70 & 71 for 2013) . Legs responded fine once warmed up, which was further affirmation that I'm well on the way to digging myself out of the post Lake Sonoma/Horsetooth Marathon funk. Southridge - Audra - north gap summit - Westridge - Mill Creek - Loggers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - Rock - north gap summit - Audra - Southridge.
Total: 106 miles (25,200')
This was a good week that has me cautiously optimistic for the upcoming summer racing season. I know that I'm lacking a step or two versus years previous on climbing strength, but I'm okay with that. Success over 100 miles is first and foremost about stamina. Speed is certainly important, but irrelevant if you can't go the distance. The next three weeks are hugely important, but I feel like I am in a good place right now to get the WS100/GS100 peak fitness right. The focus now is stamina, downhill quad seasoning and some uphill tempo work.
This Saturday is another key benchmark workout for me that I've been doing the last few years in preparation for the summer season. The workout is somewhat mindless, involving 10,000 feet of climbing over 30 miles on a single 4.75 mile stretch of trail up and down Round Mountain above the Big Thompson, so we'll see how that goes. Two more big weekends after that then it'll be time to start winding things down.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Week Ending May 12
Mon - 10 miles (2,700') easy. Horsetooth north summit with Stefanovic, then a loop back down on Spring Creek. The falls continue to roar.
Tues - AM: 8 miles (2,100') hill tempo. Decided that I need to start getting after a few more uphill efforts as I get ready for Western States (after an instructive comment from last week's recap), so turned the screw a bit on this morning's Horsetooth summit. Ran a few seconds over 26 minutes on a fairly controlled effort straight up the Rock trail, climbing up the north gap route. It was good to feel the burn of a harder hill effort, but I was careful to not go to that place just yet. More than two minutes off my PR; I'll give Towers a proper effort next week to really get a read on where the fitness is at.
PM: 4 miles (700') easy. Abbreviated Falls loop.
Weds - AM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit.
Thurs - PM: 10 miles (1,800') easy. Marked up the Lory loop with Stefanovic.
Fri - AM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Bumped into Jenny Pierce and Mike Aish on the way up/down. Both were in town for Quad Rock and among the favorites for Saturday. Bit of rain/hail on the way up.
PM: 10 miles (2,700') easy. Finished marking up the Horsetooth section of the Quad Rock course with Stefano and Pedatella. Rock (65) - Westridge - Spring Creek - Falls.
Sat - Off. On my feet all day directing Quad Rock, but no running mileage. Shoulda jumped in on the kids' race.
Total: 63 miles (15,600')
Decided to take the weekend off, given the demands of putting on an ultra event, and was happy doing so. I know I've needed a couple of days off for a while, but have been too stubborn to do so. The rest has been most welcome and I've been feeling great so far this week as I begin the final push for Grand Slam fitness.
Pete and I were really happy with the way things unfolded on Saturday for the second running of the Quad Rock Trail Races and we're already looking forward to next year, taking the lessons learned from this year to make it even better. We had some great racing action up front, and lots of great stories from the field throughout the day For those interested, we posted a recap of the event with some fun pics over on the race website.
Head down from here until Squaw. Time To Get After It.
Tues - AM: 8 miles (2,100') hill tempo. Decided that I need to start getting after a few more uphill efforts as I get ready for Western States (after an instructive comment from last week's recap), so turned the screw a bit on this morning's Horsetooth summit. Ran a few seconds over 26 minutes on a fairly controlled effort straight up the Rock trail, climbing up the north gap route. It was good to feel the burn of a harder hill effort, but I was careful to not go to that place just yet. More than two minutes off my PR; I'll give Towers a proper effort next week to really get a read on where the fitness is at.
PM: 4 miles (700') easy. Abbreviated Falls loop.
Weds - AM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit.
Thurs - PM: 10 miles (1,800') easy. Marked up the Lory loop with Stefanovic.
Fri - AM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Bumped into Jenny Pierce and Mike Aish on the way up/down. Both were in town for Quad Rock and among the favorites for Saturday. Bit of rain/hail on the way up.
PM: 10 miles (2,700') easy. Finished marking up the Horsetooth section of the Quad Rock course with Stefano and Pedatella. Rock (65) - Westridge - Spring Creek - Falls.
Sat - Off. On my feet all day directing Quad Rock, but no running mileage. Shoulda jumped in on the kids' race.
 |
| The Liddles getting dirty at the Quad Rock kids' race. Photo: Shannon Price |
Sun - 6 miles (1,800') run/hike. Hiked the Falls loop with Dana and the kids for mothers day, with a quick de-flagging detour up and down Spring Creek.
Total: 63 miles (15,600')
Decided to take the weekend off, given the demands of putting on an ultra event, and was happy doing so. I know I've needed a couple of days off for a while, but have been too stubborn to do so. The rest has been most welcome and I've been feeling great so far this week as I begin the final push for Grand Slam fitness.
Pete and I were really happy with the way things unfolded on Saturday for the second running of the Quad Rock Trail Races and we're already looking forward to next year, taking the lessons learned from this year to make it even better. We had some great racing action up front, and lots of great stories from the field throughout the day For those interested, we posted a recap of the event with some fun pics over on the race website.
Head down from here until Squaw. Time To Get After It.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Fortnight Ending May 5
Week Ending April 28
Mon - Off. Totally beat down from the Horsetooth Marathon.
Tues - 6 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit (# 50 on the year) in the snow. Played catch up with Wesir and Josh, after getting a late call from our neighbor that she could come watch the kids. A good romp in the snow and still a ton of snow on the summit. Down through the slush on Wathan/Spring Creek. Fun summit for the 50th on the year.
Weds - noon: 6 miles (700') easy. A quick loop of Milner on tired legs.
PM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Down on Wathan.
Thurs - 13 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Out and back on Centennial. Didn't even bother trying to keep up with Mike with legs still feeling totally fatigued from the Sonoma 50 / Horsetooth Marathon weekend back to back. Really thinking the Horsetooth race was a bad idea.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Super casual north summit.
Friday - 11 miles (3,200') easy. Slogged my way through a Horsetooth double summit (north/south) on still fried legs. Southridge - Wathan - Spring Creek - Soderberg - Rock - Audra - Southridge.
Sat - 27 miles (6,000') easy. Ran the Quad Rock loop with tooth and falls add-ons. Ran steady with Jason Ostram, Mike, and Bryan Williams on what turned out to be a pretty warm morning. Just the one bottle was not enough so packing snow in there as we made our way around. Steady Eddie the whole way round; felt marginally better than earlier in the week, but still something of a slog.
Sun - 20.5 miles (5,000') easy. Ran part of the QR loop from home, joining Alex and Danny at Soderberg. Went nice and easy and felt a good bit better than the day before. Sawmill - Towers - Spring Creek - Falls - Soderberg - Rock - summit - Wathan - Spring Creek - Falls.
Total - 99 miles (22,200')
A pretty torturous week on really tired legs. By the weekend, things felt slightly better, but still not great. Not really how I wanted to be feeling at this stage of the training cycle, but that's what you get for being an old man and racing too much. This one didn't deserve triple digits, so I purposefully capped the week at 99 miles.
Week Ending May 5
Mon - AM: 5 miles (1,100') uber easy. Falls loop.
PM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth middle summit with Wesir. Nice easy jog up, then Wesir talked me into a middle summit, which was mercifully free of bird crap. Snow melt must have washed a good bit of it off.
Tues - AM: 7 miles intervals. Workout was 4 x mile w/middle two as fartleks. Legs had nothing, and I mean nothing. Gave up on these and just got around.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') super easy. Wanted to grab a quick summit, but my legs said niet!
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January: 345.5 miles (51,900)
February: 309 (47,900')
March: 438.5 (68,800')
April: 362.5 (68,700')
Total: 1,455.5 (237,300')
Ave: 364 (59,325')
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2013 Summits (March)
---------------
Horsetooth (7,255') (39)
Arthurs Rock (6,780') (2)
Turtlehead (6,324')
Maderas Volcano (4,573')
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Weds - noon: 6.5 miles (700') easy. Milner loop in driving snow. Woke up to a huge snow dump and it then proceeded to snow all day leaving us with another two feet on the ground. Really didn't want to run, but forced myself out the door.
Thurs - 12.5 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Josh Arthur was in town and met Mike and me at Maxwell for the Centennial out and back. Legs felt about as good as they have all week, allowing for a controlled 31 minute return.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Slogged out a Horsetooth north summit in rapidly melting snow.
Fri - 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit in the slush and snow. Back via the roaring falls.
Sat - 25.5 miles (4,700') easy. Early start up Horsetooth with Jason O for a quick summit, then down to Redstone Canyon for 3.5 miles followed by a left on Puma Gulch Rd after eyeing from top Horsetooth what looked like a connector to Otter Road high on the Christ Mountain ridgeline. It's never much fun to run private roads, but all the people we passed seemed reasonable enough and just a few threw suspicious looks our way. Anyway, after a 2,000' climb the road dead ended at a private property high on the Christ ridge. After an inspection of the satellite images, it looks like we could have picked up a connector jeep trail to Otter Road if it hadn't been buried under snow. From there we could have run the ridge south all the way into Masonville for what would have been a super fun loop. As it turned out, we back tracked and ran the private-road gauntlet all the way back to Redstone, then back to 38e and home. Fun morning.
Sun - 21 miles (1,000') easy. Ran out to the 19 mile mark on the Colorado Marathon course to pace Sarah in to the finish. I picked her up just as she was entering full-on bonk mode, so the planned 6:30/40 pace ended up being 7:30s. She didn't give in though and still ran a respectable 3:02, which was good enough for third female. Always a fun event.
Total: 107 miles (16,100')
This was a tough couple of weeks, with heavy and unresponsive legs on a majority of my runs. Rather than do the sensible thing and take some down time, I plowed on and ran through it all. Things were better towards the end of this last week and the two long weekend runs felt pretty good. Hopefully I'm through the funk now and ready to finish out this training cycle with a strong May and June.
But enough about me. Burch has a fun Quad Rock preview up on his website. Pete and I are super excited to be hosting over 300 runners from all over the country this weekend, showcasing what we think are some of the best foothill trails in the state. We've got strong and deep fields in both the men's and women's 50 mile races, and we're of course looking forward to cheering in every runner from first to last. My buddy Justin Mock put a preview up on Running Times, if you want to check that out too. Please take note that Quad Rock gets top billing in the RT preview over that other race going off in the Canary Islands the same day.
We've also got a couple of events going on later in the summer: the inaugural Black Squirrel Half Marathon at the end of August and then the sixth running of the Blue Sky Trail Marathon in October. If you sign up for the Black & Blue Double (register for both races at the same time) it'll cost you less than $100, which we think is a pretty good deal.
Mon - Off. Totally beat down from the Horsetooth Marathon.
| Running through Lory at the Horsetooth Marathon. From the Coloradoan |
Tues - 6 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit (# 50 on the year) in the snow. Played catch up with Wesir and Josh, after getting a late call from our neighbor that she could come watch the kids. A good romp in the snow and still a ton of snow on the summit. Down through the slush on Wathan/Spring Creek. Fun summit for the 50th on the year.
Weds - noon: 6 miles (700') easy. A quick loop of Milner on tired legs.
PM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Down on Wathan.
Thurs - 13 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Out and back on Centennial. Didn't even bother trying to keep up with Mike with legs still feeling totally fatigued from the Sonoma 50 / Horsetooth Marathon weekend back to back. Really thinking the Horsetooth race was a bad idea.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Super casual north summit.
Friday - 11 miles (3,200') easy. Slogged my way through a Horsetooth double summit (north/south) on still fried legs. Southridge - Wathan - Spring Creek - Soderberg - Rock - Audra - Southridge.
Sat - 27 miles (6,000') easy. Ran the Quad Rock loop with tooth and falls add-ons. Ran steady with Jason Ostram, Mike, and Bryan Williams on what turned out to be a pretty warm morning. Just the one bottle was not enough so packing snow in there as we made our way around. Steady Eddie the whole way round; felt marginally better than earlier in the week, but still something of a slog.
Sun - 20.5 miles (5,000') easy. Ran part of the QR loop from home, joining Alex and Danny at Soderberg. Went nice and easy and felt a good bit better than the day before. Sawmill - Towers - Spring Creek - Falls - Soderberg - Rock - summit - Wathan - Spring Creek - Falls.
Total - 99 miles (22,200')
A pretty torturous week on really tired legs. By the weekend, things felt slightly better, but still not great. Not really how I wanted to be feeling at this stage of the training cycle, but that's what you get for being an old man and racing too much. This one didn't deserve triple digits, so I purposefully capped the week at 99 miles.
Week Ending May 5
Mon - AM: 5 miles (1,100') uber easy. Falls loop.
PM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth middle summit with Wesir. Nice easy jog up, then Wesir talked me into a middle summit, which was mercifully free of bird crap. Snow melt must have washed a good bit of it off.
Tues - AM: 7 miles intervals. Workout was 4 x mile w/middle two as fartleks. Legs had nothing, and I mean nothing. Gave up on these and just got around.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') super easy. Wanted to grab a quick summit, but my legs said niet!
---------------------------------------------------------
January: 345.5 miles (51,900)
February: 309 (47,900')
March: 438.5 (68,800')
April: 362.5 (68,700')
Total: 1,455.5 (237,300')
Ave: 364 (59,325')
---------------------------------------------------------
2013 Summits (March)
---------------
Horsetooth (7,255') (39)
Arthurs Rock (6,780') (2)
Turtlehead (6,324')
Maderas Volcano (4,573')
---------------------------------------------------------
Weds - noon: 6.5 miles (700') easy. Milner loop in driving snow. Woke up to a huge snow dump and it then proceeded to snow all day leaving us with another two feet on the ground. Really didn't want to run, but forced myself out the door.
Thurs - 12.5 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Josh Arthur was in town and met Mike and me at Maxwell for the Centennial out and back. Legs felt about as good as they have all week, allowing for a controlled 31 minute return.
 |
| With Josh Arthur after Thurs AM Tempo. Pic: Hinterberg |
PM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Slogged out a Horsetooth north summit in rapidly melting snow.
Fri - 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit in the slush and snow. Back via the roaring falls.
Sat - 25.5 miles (4,700') easy. Early start up Horsetooth with Jason O for a quick summit, then down to Redstone Canyon for 3.5 miles followed by a left on Puma Gulch Rd after eyeing from top Horsetooth what looked like a connector to Otter Road high on the Christ Mountain ridgeline. It's never much fun to run private roads, but all the people we passed seemed reasonable enough and just a few threw suspicious looks our way. Anyway, after a 2,000' climb the road dead ended at a private property high on the Christ ridge. After an inspection of the satellite images, it looks like we could have picked up a connector jeep trail to Otter Road if it hadn't been buried under snow. From there we could have run the ridge south all the way into Masonville for what would have been a super fun loop. As it turned out, we back tracked and ran the private-road gauntlet all the way back to Redstone, then back to 38e and home. Fun morning.
Sun - 21 miles (1,000') easy. Ran out to the 19 mile mark on the Colorado Marathon course to pace Sarah in to the finish. I picked her up just as she was entering full-on bonk mode, so the planned 6:30/40 pace ended up being 7:30s. She didn't give in though and still ran a respectable 3:02, which was good enough for third female. Always a fun event.
Total: 107 miles (16,100')
This was a tough couple of weeks, with heavy and unresponsive legs on a majority of my runs. Rather than do the sensible thing and take some down time, I plowed on and ran through it all. Things were better towards the end of this last week and the two long weekend runs felt pretty good. Hopefully I'm through the funk now and ready to finish out this training cycle with a strong May and June.
But enough about me. Burch has a fun Quad Rock preview up on his website. Pete and I are super excited to be hosting over 300 runners from all over the country this weekend, showcasing what we think are some of the best foothill trails in the state. We've got strong and deep fields in both the men's and women's 50 mile races, and we're of course looking forward to cheering in every runner from first to last. My buddy Justin Mock put a preview up on Running Times, if you want to check that out too. Please take note that Quad Rock gets top billing in the RT preview over that other race going off in the Canary Islands the same day.
We've also got a couple of events going on later in the summer: the inaugural Black Squirrel Half Marathon at the end of August and then the sixth running of the Blue Sky Trail Marathon in October. If you sign up for the Black & Blue Double (register for both races at the same time) it'll cost you less than $100, which we think is a pretty good deal.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Lake Sonoma 50 2013
I need to get some thoughts down about this race before those thoughts turn into distant memories.
1. The race went out way harder this year than the year before and there were a lot of very fast young men in the field (and a couple of fast seniors, too).
2. Although we went through the 12.5 mile aid station 6 minutes quicker than last year, the effort didn't seem that much harder, but then it's kinda hard to compare one's current effort to something you were outputting precisely a year ago.
3. By mile 18, I knew I was in trouble, but was stuck in a train of guys I couldn't bring myself to let go of, so continued to descend into a hole it would take 15 miles to claw my way out of. Not particularly smart; lesson (re) learned.
4. At mile 20, I felt like I was running slower downhill than I had been running uphill at mile five. I'm not sure I have ever felt that terrible going downhill.
5. My split at the halfway point was five minutes quicker than the year before. Leaving the aid station, I was thinking it would be a miracle if I finished within 10 minutes of my time from 2012.
6. Joe Uhan passed me early on the way back running the kind of race I wished I'd been sensible enough to run. Aside from Joe I wasn't passed by any other runners in the last 25 miles, and somehow managed to pass four guys. Lesson: no matter how crap you feel in these races, you always need to remind yourself that there's a good chance others are feeling/performing even worse (he who slows the least...). Keep doing what you can with what you've got.
7. After taking my foot off the gas for 10 miles or so, I finally felt a second wind and was able to finish the race feeling reasonably good.
8. Rolling hills are a bugger for cramping legs.
9. John Medinger puts on a stellar event and always manages to come through with killer weather.
10. The course seems like it should run faster than it does. Rolling hills are harder than sustained ups and downs.
11. Two minutes slower on what felt like an off day seems like a decent result.
12. Pure speed matters over 50 miles; the jury is still out for 100 miles. Western States this year should provide some good data points on that.
13.
14. I need a pacer/crew for Western States. Anybody interested?
15. Splits:
15:29
29:22
1:23:00
2:04:00
3:09:00
3:52:00
4:12:00
4:58:00
6:05:00
6:53:00
And that's all I've got to say about that.
1. The race went out way harder this year than the year before and there were a lot of very fast young men in the field (and a couple of fast seniors, too).
2. Although we went through the 12.5 mile aid station 6 minutes quicker than last year, the effort didn't seem that much harder, but then it's kinda hard to compare one's current effort to something you were outputting precisely a year ago.
3. By mile 18, I knew I was in trouble, but was stuck in a train of guys I couldn't bring myself to let go of, so continued to descend into a hole it would take 15 miles to claw my way out of. Not particularly smart; lesson (re) learned.
4. At mile 20, I felt like I was running slower downhill than I had been running uphill at mile five. I'm not sure I have ever felt that terrible going downhill.
5. My split at the halfway point was five minutes quicker than the year before. Leaving the aid station, I was thinking it would be a miracle if I finished within 10 minutes of my time from 2012.
6. Joe Uhan passed me early on the way back running the kind of race I wished I'd been sensible enough to run. Aside from Joe I wasn't passed by any other runners in the last 25 miles, and somehow managed to pass four guys. Lesson: no matter how crap you feel in these races, you always need to remind yourself that there's a good chance others are feeling/performing even worse (he who slows the least...). Keep doing what you can with what you've got.
7. After taking my foot off the gas for 10 miles or so, I finally felt a second wind and was able to finish the race feeling reasonably good.
8. Rolling hills are a bugger for cramping legs.
9. John Medinger puts on a stellar event and always manages to come through with killer weather.
10. The course seems like it should run faster than it does. Rolling hills are harder than sustained ups and downs.
11. Two minutes slower on what felt like an off day seems like a decent result.
12. Pure speed matters over 50 miles; the jury is still out for 100 miles. Western States this year should provide some good data points on that.
13.
 |
| Another two miles and this guy would have pushed me out of the top 10. We'll both be top 10 at the end of June. |
15. Splits:
15:29
29:22
1:23:00
2:04:00
3:09:00
3:52:00
4:12:00
4:58:00
6:05:00
6:53:00
And that's all I've got to say about that.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Fortnight Ending April 21
Week Ending April 14
Mon - noon: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth South Summit with the Wesir. First south summit in a while. Down via Slush's Slit.
Tues - PM: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls loop.
Weds - Noon: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls loop.
Thurs - PM: 3 miles (700') easy. Mini Falls loop from the parking lot.
Fri - Noon: 3.5 miles (700') easy. Last miles of Lake Sonoma out and back with Burch, Yassine, Jake, Bill, Todd and Cassie. Good to see the last couple of miles of the course to refresh the memory, and hilariously comical to watch Yassine leap over a rattler and hear Cassie scream full force and stop dead in her tracks. I would see (and jump over) another, smaller version the next day on the race course.
Sat - 50.5 miles (10,000') race. Lake Sonoma 50 (6:53, 10th). Race report coming, but kind of blah race, if I'm honest. Legs flat all day.
Sun - AM: 11.5 miles easy with Jake. Same loop as I did after last year's Lake Sonoma with Meghan and Thornley on super scenic rolling roads: vineyards and quaint bridges galore. Kinda creaky to get going and heavy legs for all of the run, but opened up a bit as we found our stride.
Total: 86 miles (15,300')
I was really hoping to run something in the 6:45 range or better at Sonoma, but ended up finding myself in damage-control mode from about mile 20 onwards after a start that was simply too aggressive on a set of pins that felt weirdly off and leaden. Nonetheless, you take the lessons learned (run within yourself early) and move on. Hopefully, I'll get a race report up for Sonoma in the next day or two. Kind of wishing I'd not taken things so easy in the days leading up, as I think the one-week taper thing does more damage than good - I should know better. My general rule of thumb on the taper is that the legs will feel awful the first week, regain some pop on the second week and feel awesome and ready to deliver after the third week. So for me it has to be all (three weeks) or nothing, I guess.
Week Ending April 28
Mon - Off
Tues - 5 miles (1,500') easy. Horsetooth north summit in full-on winter conditions, ski goggles and everything. A burly wind on top and even the start of a cornice with all the driving snow. Complete sock-in and easily the harshest conditions I've faced up there all winter ... er ... spring.
Weds - 5 miles (1,500') easy. Horsetooth north summit in deep,
deep snow. Had to plow through waist deep powder to get the summit. Put
in some tracks on the summit ridge that would trench out nicely over
the next few days.
Thurs - 8 miles (2,200') easy. Falls loop, then Horsetooth north summit. Up with a handful of folks from the FCTR crew. Came down postholing via Audra and took a full on superman fall trying to shortcut in front of Wesir as we stomped the descent. Fun times.
Fri - 10 miles (2,700') slogging. Horsetooth north summit (49) with Wesir, then slogging on Westridge & Spring Creek through still virgin snow to mark a section of the Horsetooth Marathon course. Several days of thaw and freeze had put a couple of really nasty crust layers in the snow, which made for some pretty painful tracks. Almost reneged on my Grim Reaper promise, but Brian guilted me into making the turn for the extra 200' of vertical - an unnecessary in-the-neighborhood turn that I haven't missed since the start of this year's 100-mile cycle.
Sat - 5 miles (1,100') easy. Snuck in a quick 5 on crunchy trails on the Falls loop before Dana took off out of town for the weekend.
Sun - 28 miles (2,500') race. Horsetooth Trail Marathon (2:58, 1st). Decided last minute to jump in on this one for a variety of different reasons, but mainly because I love the Horsetooth Half event and thought it would be cool to celebrate the 40th anniversary by running the inaugural full marathon, which essentially goes from my house to the New Belgium brewery via Horsetooth Mountain. I mean, c'mon. Descending Towers (miles 5-8) my legs were feeling like they did at mile 30 in Lake Sonoma the weekend previously. Needless to say, the final 18 miles were a lesson in slog'baggery.
Total: 61 miles (11,500')
Two weeks then with relatively low mileage and two longer races. Neither race did much to inspire confidence in my overall fitness and durability, but by the same token, the Sonoma race suggests that I'm in similar shape to last year when I felt like I peaked in May, rather than in June for Western States as intended. So with that said, I feel like I am in a decent place with regards to Western States and the Grand Slam, especially if I can get a really solid block of training taken care of in May.
In other news, registration for the sixth annual Bluesky Marathon (Oct 6) and the (new) Black Squirrel Half (Aug 31) have opened up for those interested in a couple of really fun local trail races later in the summer/early fall. Registration discounts are available for those who sign up for both through the Black & Blue Double option. And while Quad Rock is officially sold out, we have had emails from runners that can't make it and are looking to transfer entries, so if you're looking for a late entry into either the 25 mile or 50 mile race then sign up for the wait list and we'll get you transferred over to the start list.
Mon - noon: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth South Summit with the Wesir. First south summit in a while. Down via Slush's Slit.
Tues - PM: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls loop.
Weds - Noon: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls loop.
Thurs - PM: 3 miles (700') easy. Mini Falls loop from the parking lot.
Fri - Noon: 3.5 miles (700') easy. Last miles of Lake Sonoma out and back with Burch, Yassine, Jake, Bill, Todd and Cassie. Good to see the last couple of miles of the course to refresh the memory, and hilariously comical to watch Yassine leap over a rattler and hear Cassie scream full force and stop dead in her tracks. I would see (and jump over) another, smaller version the next day on the race course.
Sat - 50.5 miles (10,000') race. Lake Sonoma 50 (6:53, 10th). Race report coming, but kind of blah race, if I'm honest. Legs flat all day.
Sun - AM: 11.5 miles easy with Jake. Same loop as I did after last year's Lake Sonoma with Meghan and Thornley on super scenic rolling roads: vineyards and quaint bridges galore. Kinda creaky to get going and heavy legs for all of the run, but opened up a bit as we found our stride.
Total: 86 miles (15,300')
I was really hoping to run something in the 6:45 range or better at Sonoma, but ended up finding myself in damage-control mode from about mile 20 onwards after a start that was simply too aggressive on a set of pins that felt weirdly off and leaden. Nonetheless, you take the lessons learned (run within yourself early) and move on. Hopefully, I'll get a race report up for Sonoma in the next day or two. Kind of wishing I'd not taken things so easy in the days leading up, as I think the one-week taper thing does more damage than good - I should know better. My general rule of thumb on the taper is that the legs will feel awful the first week, regain some pop on the second week and feel awesome and ready to deliver after the third week. So for me it has to be all (three weeks) or nothing, I guess.
Week Ending April 28
Mon - Off
Tues - 5 miles (1,500') easy. Horsetooth north summit in full-on winter conditions, ski goggles and everything. A burly wind on top and even the start of a cornice with all the driving snow. Complete sock-in and easily the harshest conditions I've faced up there all winter ... er ... spring.
Thurs - 8 miles (2,200') easy. Falls loop, then Horsetooth north summit. Up with a handful of folks from the FCTR crew. Came down postholing via Audra and took a full on superman fall trying to shortcut in front of Wesir as we stomped the descent. Fun times.
Fri - 10 miles (2,700') slogging. Horsetooth north summit (49) with Wesir, then slogging on Westridge & Spring Creek through still virgin snow to mark a section of the Horsetooth Marathon course. Several days of thaw and freeze had put a couple of really nasty crust layers in the snow, which made for some pretty painful tracks. Almost reneged on my Grim Reaper promise, but Brian guilted me into making the turn for the extra 200' of vertical - an unnecessary in-the-neighborhood turn that I haven't missed since the start of this year's 100-mile cycle.
Sat - 5 miles (1,100') easy. Snuck in a quick 5 on crunchy trails on the Falls loop before Dana took off out of town for the weekend.
Sun - 28 miles (2,500') race. Horsetooth Trail Marathon (2:58, 1st). Decided last minute to jump in on this one for a variety of different reasons, but mainly because I love the Horsetooth Half event and thought it would be cool to celebrate the 40th anniversary by running the inaugural full marathon, which essentially goes from my house to the New Belgium brewery via Horsetooth Mountain. I mean, c'mon. Descending Towers (miles 5-8) my legs were feeling like they did at mile 30 in Lake Sonoma the weekend previously. Needless to say, the final 18 miles were a lesson in slog'baggery.
Total: 61 miles (11,500')
Two weeks then with relatively low mileage and two longer races. Neither race did much to inspire confidence in my overall fitness and durability, but by the same token, the Sonoma race suggests that I'm in similar shape to last year when I felt like I peaked in May, rather than in June for Western States as intended. So with that said, I feel like I am in a decent place with regards to Western States and the Grand Slam, especially if I can get a really solid block of training taken care of in May.
In other news, registration for the sixth annual Bluesky Marathon (Oct 6) and the (new) Black Squirrel Half (Aug 31) have opened up for those interested in a couple of really fun local trail races later in the summer/early fall. Registration discounts are available for those who sign up for both through the Black & Blue Double option. And while Quad Rock is officially sold out, we have had emails from runners that can't make it and are looking to transfer entries, so if you're looking for a late entry into either the 25 mile or 50 mile race then sign up for the wait list and we'll get you transferred over to the start list.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Week Ending April 7
Mon - AM: 8 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Tired.
Tues - AM: 10.5 miles intervals. Workout was: mile, 800, 800, mile, 800, 800, 2 mile fartlek (all cemetery, except the two mile, which was City Park route) with 2 - 3 min standing rest between. Mike, Brian and Garcia to work with this morning. Ran pretty much as a pack for the first half and then I tagged onto Garcia's coattails for the rest. This seemed like the first really good morning for running we've had at Jane's all fall/winter/spring, and for whatever reason the running felt really good. First mile as always served as a warm-up, and felt pretty casual, so I was pleased to see a 5:25, then went 2:36, 2:37, 5:15, 2:38, 2:38, 11:13 (5k/marathon effort on the hard/easy). For as comfortable as these reps felt, I was super stoked with this workout. I've kind of been slogging through these intervals all winter a little frustrated with the effort/result, so today felt like a mini breakthrough. I didn't feel like I was overexerting and the numbers came in a little better than they have been. I'm going to call that progress.
In other news, Jane Welzel - who organizes these workouts and the Tuesday Night Track workouts in the summer - was recently inducted into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame. I can't think of a more deserving person in the Fort Collins Running community for this honor. Not only is Jane a five-time Olympic Trials Qualifier ('84-'00) with a 2:33 PR and a former U.S. national champ in the marathon, but she is also a tireless supporter of the local running scene with an enduring passion for the sport that many a former elite would find hard to match. I think it would be fair to say that Jane serves as a huge inspiration to many a runner in Fort Collins, myself included. Very well deserved, Jane. Congrats!
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Falls loop. Tired, but had to push a bit as I was under the gun to get the kids off to activities.
Weds - AM: 8 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Killer inversion morning, with Milner's summit just poking up above the clouds and Longs basking in full morning sun high above the cloud base. Lingered on top for a good 10 minutes soaking it in.
Thurs - AM: 10 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Centennial out and back with Mary, Celeste and Ziggy. Back in 31:30 at a good steady effort. Feeling a little tired, though.
PM: 7 miles (1,700') steady. First time back on Towers in a while. Good turnout for the first spring session of the year - probably 25-30 on the hill. Feeling kinda sluggish from the morning session, I started out jogging and eased into a tempo kind of effort by halfway. Ended up running 32:30, which ain't too shabby given the relative effort and heavy legs.
Fri - Noon: 8.5 miles (2,200') easy. Horsetooth north summit (South/Audra/Gap/Wathan) with an out of shape Stefanovic. Good to get back on the hill with Bryan.
Sat - AM: 19.5 miles (5,200') easy. Quad Rock training run. We got a great day for running and a decent one for hanging out; we did both in great style. Had a good 50 - 60 runners show up for the run, with an impressively big group on the Horsetooth north summit on the first lap. I ran a loop and a half, then tended to all things barbecue. Fun times.
Sun - 15 miles easy/steady. Up early to mark the Tortoise and
Hare 12k course, then another 8 miles between 6:30 and 7:00 pace on the bike
paths. Last race of the 2012/13 season - been a good one with record
attendance. First and second today (actual time) were Karen and Sarah:
showing the boys how to get it done.
Total: 91.5 miles (15,400')
Another week in the books, and it was good one. Despite feeling a little tired and lackluster, the running came easily enough. A good workout on Tuesday, a strong double hill tempo on Thursday (AM/PM), and a fun hilly Saturday morning in Horsetooth has me feeling decently confident that I can post a PR over in California this weekend at the Lake Sonoma 50. Anything faster than last year (6:49) will be considered a success, and overall placement will take care of itself. I'm guessing a 6:50 or better will be needed for a top 10 spot.
If anyone is looking for a place on the Quad Rock 50 start line, we have a couple of people looking to transfer slots, so sign up for the waitlist and you'll get transferred over to the entrant list. In other news, registration for the Bluesky Marathon opens April 15. Pete and I have taken over the management of the event and in celebration of all things Fort Collins trail running, we have decided to DROP the entry fee. We still can't compete with Salida for the state's cheapest marathon, but we're close. A paltry $65 gets you entry if you sign up early. And get this ... we're offering entry into the inaugural Black Squirrel Half Marathon (yes, you read that right) for an additional $34 if you sign up for both at the same time. If my math is correct, that means you get to run the half and full (Black and Blue Double) for under $100. Blimey. We're working on the webpage right now, but Double registration details are available on the Bluesky Website. The date for the BS HM is August 31st and the course is a full outer loop of Lory, heading up Timber and down Howard. Should be a pretty fast course.
Tues - AM: 10.5 miles intervals. Workout was: mile, 800, 800, mile, 800, 800, 2 mile fartlek (all cemetery, except the two mile, which was City Park route) with 2 - 3 min standing rest between. Mike, Brian and Garcia to work with this morning. Ran pretty much as a pack for the first half and then I tagged onto Garcia's coattails for the rest. This seemed like the first really good morning for running we've had at Jane's all fall/winter/spring, and for whatever reason the running felt really good. First mile as always served as a warm-up, and felt pretty casual, so I was pleased to see a 5:25, then went 2:36, 2:37, 5:15, 2:38, 2:38, 11:13 (5k/marathon effort on the hard/easy). For as comfortable as these reps felt, I was super stoked with this workout. I've kind of been slogging through these intervals all winter a little frustrated with the effort/result, so today felt like a mini breakthrough. I didn't feel like I was overexerting and the numbers came in a little better than they have been. I'm going to call that progress.
In other news, Jane Welzel - who organizes these workouts and the Tuesday Night Track workouts in the summer - was recently inducted into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame. I can't think of a more deserving person in the Fort Collins Running community for this honor. Not only is Jane a five-time Olympic Trials Qualifier ('84-'00) with a 2:33 PR and a former U.S. national champ in the marathon, but she is also a tireless supporter of the local running scene with an enduring passion for the sport that many a former elite would find hard to match. I think it would be fair to say that Jane serves as a huge inspiration to many a runner in Fort Collins, myself included. Very well deserved, Jane. Congrats!
| Jane crushing it at the CSU track on a Tuesday Night. Photo pilfered from The Coloradoan. See the Q&A here. |
Weds - AM: 8 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Killer inversion morning, with Milner's summit just poking up above the clouds and Longs basking in full morning sun high above the cloud base. Lingered on top for a good 10 minutes soaking it in.
Thurs - AM: 10 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Centennial out and back with Mary, Celeste and Ziggy. Back in 31:30 at a good steady effort. Feeling a little tired, though.
PM: 7 miles (1,700') steady. First time back on Towers in a while. Good turnout for the first spring session of the year - probably 25-30 on the hill. Feeling kinda sluggish from the morning session, I started out jogging and eased into a tempo kind of effort by halfway. Ended up running 32:30, which ain't too shabby given the relative effort and heavy legs.
Fri - Noon: 8.5 miles (2,200') easy. Horsetooth north summit (South/Audra/Gap/Wathan) with an out of shape Stefanovic. Good to get back on the hill with Bryan.
Sat - AM: 19.5 miles (5,200') easy. Quad Rock training run. We got a great day for running and a decent one for hanging out; we did both in great style. Had a good 50 - 60 runners show up for the run, with an impressively big group on the Horsetooth north summit on the first lap. I ran a loop and a half, then tended to all things barbecue. Fun times.
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| A group heading up in the early stages of the first Horsetooth climb |
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| First Endurance and Pearl Izumi supported the run. |
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| Mary Boyts, an integral part of the Quad Rock team, tries on a pair of PURPLE Trail N1s! All above pics, Shannon Price. |
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| Summit pics. Pilfered from Silke Koester's excellent webpage |
Total: 91.5 miles (15,400')
Another week in the books, and it was good one. Despite feeling a little tired and lackluster, the running came easily enough. A good workout on Tuesday, a strong double hill tempo on Thursday (AM/PM), and a fun hilly Saturday morning in Horsetooth has me feeling decently confident that I can post a PR over in California this weekend at the Lake Sonoma 50. Anything faster than last year (6:49) will be considered a success, and overall placement will take care of itself. I'm guessing a 6:50 or better will be needed for a top 10 spot.
If anyone is looking for a place on the Quad Rock 50 start line, we have a couple of people looking to transfer slots, so sign up for the waitlist and you'll get transferred over to the entrant list. In other news, registration for the Bluesky Marathon opens April 15. Pete and I have taken over the management of the event and in celebration of all things Fort Collins trail running, we have decided to DROP the entry fee. We still can't compete with Salida for the state's cheapest marathon, but we're close. A paltry $65 gets you entry if you sign up early. And get this ... we're offering entry into the inaugural Black Squirrel Half Marathon (yes, you read that right) for an additional $34 if you sign up for both at the same time. If my math is correct, that means you get to run the half and full (Black and Blue Double) for under $100. Blimey. We're working on the webpage right now, but Double registration details are available on the Bluesky Website. The date for the BS HM is August 31st and the course is a full outer loop of Lory, heading up Timber and down Howard. Should be a pretty fast course.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Week Ending March 31
Mon - Noon: 7 miles (1,800') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Up South/Audra. A bit chilly out still, but a good trench pretty much the whole way up made for quality snow running. Strong sun meant that the melt was on despite air temps at or below freezing.
PM - 4 miles (800') easy. Quick Falls loop before picking up Alistair from the bus stop.
Tues - AM: 9.5 miles intervals. City Park segments. Workout was: mile (3 hills, slightly long), mile fartlek (1 hill, short), 1,200, 1,200 fartlek, 1,000 fartlek, mile fartlek (3 hill, long) w/standing rest of 3-5 mins between intervals. Good group (Brian, Mike, Ben) to keep the effort honest: 5:36 (5:28), 5:19 (5:25), 3:55 (5:16), 4:01 (5:23), 3:19 (5:20), 5:33 (5:25). Pushed the hard segments of the fartleks as much as possible, mainly by trying to hang on to Ben. Searching for that non-existent leg turnover.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. South/Audra. Started out at a really lethargic effort after the morning workout, but felt good once warmed up. The snow is melting quickly, so good and sloppy out. Got halfway up the north gap before turning back due to ice. Up the standard route.
Weds - Noon: 8 miles (2,400') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Up southridge/Audra, down Wathan/Spring Creek/Falls. Trails are a day or two from being completely clear, but mega sloppy right now, which is always a refreshing change here on the desert Front Range. Up via the north gap, which was almost snow and ice free, then down a slushy Wathan. Took a peek at the falls, but not much action despite the melt. Gorgeous out, felt great and super fluid. Fitness feels good right now.
Thurs - AM: 12 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Centennial out and back w/Mike, Celeste, Ziggy and Scott. Came back a little harder than planned, but nothing too crazy. Splits coming back were: 7:22, 6:14, 6:30, 5:30, 5:00.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Felt pretty worked from the morning session, so backed off on heading up the hill in favor of a really easy Falls loop. Trails are now essentially clear and dry.
Fri - PM: 9.5 miles (2,500') easy. After work with Burch. Horsetooth summit via Southridge/Audra, North Gap, then Wathan, Herrington, Stout, Spring Creek, Falls. Trails pretty firm the whole way around. Beautiful late afternoon weather.
Sat - AM: 29.5 miles (7,700') long. Horsetooth Extravaganza. With Lory closed and a long run close to home on the docket, Burch and I decided to see if we could cover as close to every inch of singletrack in the park as possible without too much back and forthing. I think we ran a pretty efficient route to get the job done, but there might be some alternative turns to make the route even more precise. For those who know the trails (and care), route went: Southridge - Audra - South Summit - Rock - Westridge - Towers - Spring Creek - Wathan - Rock - North summit - Rock Trail - Soderberg - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington to Spring Creek o&b - Herrington - Towers - Herrington - Loggers - Carey Springs - Towers - Mill Creek - Loggers - Sawmill - Nomad - Towers - Stout (right) - Sawmill - Loggers - Towers - Stout (right) - Spring Creek - Falls - Grim Reaper. Fun morning at a steady effort (4:45) on solid legs. Lots of people out running the trails, which is always great to see.
Sun - AM: 16.5 miles (4,300') easy. Becky Wheeler was down on the Front Range in search of a little dirt, so we got out and ran around Horsetooth for a few hours. Good to see Becky back up and running after she broke her foot last year at Collegiate Peaks. Some titanium and a few screws, and she seems to be back on the road to fitness. Becky will be among the favorites in the strong women's field at Quad Rock next month. Others to look out for will be returning champ Jenny Pierce, last year's runner up (and local legend) Steph Lynn, Anita Ortiz, Kerrie Bruxvoort, Meredith Terranova, Alyssa Wildeboer, and (The) Kristel Liddle, among many others.
PM: 4 miles (1,100') hiking with Alistair and the neighborhood kids to top Milner Mountain - upon which we live - and back, from home after a beer - maybe two - too many at our Easter party. Sch'wacked from the spring on Hilltop. Fun outing.
---------------------------------------------------------
January: 345.5 miles (51,900)
February: 309 (47,900')
March: 438.5 (68,800')
Total: 1,093 (168,600')
Ave: 364.5 (56,200')
---------------------------------------------------------
2013 Summits
---------------
Horsetooth (7,255') (39)
Arthurs Rock (6,780') (2)
Turtlehead (6,324')
Maderas Volcano (4,573')
---------------------------------------------------------
Total: 114.5 miles (25,000')
This ended up as a pretty solid week: couple of quality workouts, biggest mileage week of the year, heavy vertical, big long run - pretty much ticked all the boxes. Probably go by feel a bit for the next couple of weeks as I try to ride that line between onward progress towards summer goals and the desire to find a bit of freshness for Lake Sonoma on April 13. But essentially plan to run through Sonoma and keep the eyes on the prize.
What else? Got down into the lower valley section of Horsetooth a couple of times this weekend to take a look at the southern part of the burn area, and while it all looks very barren without the long, dry grass, it was super encouraging to see regrowth already poking through. Give it another couple of weeks and I'm guessing it will be hard to tell from afar that there was even a fire down there. Very little burn in the trees, which is fantastic.
Quad Rock is now full in both the 25 and 50 mile races, but we do have a waitlist and I'm sure spots will turn over through April given our refund policy, so get on that if you want to run. The QR training run is set for this Saturday and is open to everyone, registered runner or not. We've had to move it from Lory to Horsetooth due to continued trail closures in Lory, but same idea: get together with a bunch of trail runner folk, run for a few hours, kick back, eat some food, drink a beer or two, shoot the breeze, take the new PI E:Motions for a test ride if you want, go home. We'll meet at the main Horsetooth lot at 8:30 and do a 13 mile loop on the Horsetooth section of the course and then reverse for 26 (or just stick at 13). All abilities/paces welcome and likely to find company. More here.
PM - 4 miles (800') easy. Quick Falls loop before picking up Alistair from the bus stop.
Tues - AM: 9.5 miles intervals. City Park segments. Workout was: mile (3 hills, slightly long), mile fartlek (1 hill, short), 1,200, 1,200 fartlek, 1,000 fartlek, mile fartlek (3 hill, long) w/standing rest of 3-5 mins between intervals. Good group (Brian, Mike, Ben) to keep the effort honest: 5:36 (5:28), 5:19 (5:25), 3:55 (5:16), 4:01 (5:23), 3:19 (5:20), 5:33 (5:25). Pushed the hard segments of the fartleks as much as possible, mainly by trying to hang on to Ben. Searching for that non-existent leg turnover.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. South/Audra. Started out at a really lethargic effort after the morning workout, but felt good once warmed up. The snow is melting quickly, so good and sloppy out. Got halfway up the north gap before turning back due to ice. Up the standard route.
Weds - Noon: 8 miles (2,400') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Up southridge/Audra, down Wathan/Spring Creek/Falls. Trails are a day or two from being completely clear, but mega sloppy right now, which is always a refreshing change here on the desert Front Range. Up via the north gap, which was almost snow and ice free, then down a slushy Wathan. Took a peek at the falls, but not much action despite the melt. Gorgeous out, felt great and super fluid. Fitness feels good right now.
Thurs - AM: 12 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Centennial out and back w/Mike, Celeste, Ziggy and Scott. Came back a little harder than planned, but nothing too crazy. Splits coming back were: 7:22, 6:14, 6:30, 5:30, 5:00.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Felt pretty worked from the morning session, so backed off on heading up the hill in favor of a really easy Falls loop. Trails are now essentially clear and dry.
Fri - PM: 9.5 miles (2,500') easy. After work with Burch. Horsetooth summit via Southridge/Audra, North Gap, then Wathan, Herrington, Stout, Spring Creek, Falls. Trails pretty firm the whole way around. Beautiful late afternoon weather.
Sat - AM: 29.5 miles (7,700') long. Horsetooth Extravaganza. With Lory closed and a long run close to home on the docket, Burch and I decided to see if we could cover as close to every inch of singletrack in the park as possible without too much back and forthing. I think we ran a pretty efficient route to get the job done, but there might be some alternative turns to make the route even more precise. For those who know the trails (and care), route went: Southridge - Audra - South Summit - Rock - Westridge - Towers - Spring Creek - Wathan - Rock - North summit - Rock Trail - Soderberg - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington to Spring Creek o&b - Herrington - Towers - Herrington - Loggers - Carey Springs - Towers - Mill Creek - Loggers - Sawmill - Nomad - Towers - Stout (right) - Sawmill - Loggers - Towers - Stout (right) - Spring Creek - Falls - Grim Reaper. Fun morning at a steady effort (4:45) on solid legs. Lots of people out running the trails, which is always great to see.
Sun - AM: 16.5 miles (4,300') easy. Becky Wheeler was down on the Front Range in search of a little dirt, so we got out and ran around Horsetooth for a few hours. Good to see Becky back up and running after she broke her foot last year at Collegiate Peaks. Some titanium and a few screws, and she seems to be back on the road to fitness. Becky will be among the favorites in the strong women's field at Quad Rock next month. Others to look out for will be returning champ Jenny Pierce, last year's runner up (and local legend) Steph Lynn, Anita Ortiz, Kerrie Bruxvoort, Meredith Terranova, Alyssa Wildeboer, and (The) Kristel Liddle, among many others.
PM: 4 miles (1,100') hiking with Alistair and the neighborhood kids to top Milner Mountain - upon which we live - and back, from home after a beer - maybe two - too many at our Easter party. Sch'wacked from the spring on Hilltop. Fun outing.
---------------------------------------------------------
January: 345.5 miles (51,900)
February: 309 (47,900')
March: 438.5 (68,800')
Total: 1,093 (168,600')
Ave: 364.5 (56,200')
---------------------------------------------------------
2013 Summits
---------------
Horsetooth (7,255') (39)
Arthurs Rock (6,780') (2)
Turtlehead (6,324')
Maderas Volcano (4,573')
---------------------------------------------------------
Total: 114.5 miles (25,000')
This ended up as a pretty solid week: couple of quality workouts, biggest mileage week of the year, heavy vertical, big long run - pretty much ticked all the boxes. Probably go by feel a bit for the next couple of weeks as I try to ride that line between onward progress towards summer goals and the desire to find a bit of freshness for Lake Sonoma on April 13. But essentially plan to run through Sonoma and keep the eyes on the prize.
What else? Got down into the lower valley section of Horsetooth a couple of times this weekend to take a look at the southern part of the burn area, and while it all looks very barren without the long, dry grass, it was super encouraging to see regrowth already poking through. Give it another couple of weeks and I'm guessing it will be hard to tell from afar that there was even a fire down there. Very little burn in the trees, which is fantastic.
Quad Rock is now full in both the 25 and 50 mile races, but we do have a waitlist and I'm sure spots will turn over through April given our refund policy, so get on that if you want to run. The QR training run is set for this Saturday and is open to everyone, registered runner or not. We've had to move it from Lory to Horsetooth due to continued trail closures in Lory, but same idea: get together with a bunch of trail runner folk, run for a few hours, kick back, eat some food, drink a beer or two, shoot the breeze, take the new PI E:Motions for a test ride if you want, go home. We'll meet at the main Horsetooth lot at 8:30 and do a 13 mile loop on the Horsetooth section of the course and then reverse for 26 (or just stick at 13). All abilities/paces welcome and likely to find company. More here.
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