Monday, July 9, 2012

Week Ending July 8

Mon - 6.5 miles (1,600') easy. Horsetooth summit via Southridge/Audra, down on Rock trail. Easy up, sore WS quads still on the way down.

Tues - 6 miles track. Workout was: open 1k, then 6 x 600. No watch for these, just wanted to get the legs turning over. Still plenty of residual in there from Western States.

Weds - AM: 6 miles race. Jumped in on the FireKracker 5k to see what I could churn out on trashed legs. As it turned out, I couldn't churn out much. Miles went: 5:35, 5:50, 5:35. :43 (17:43). Assuming that the last .1 was long and third mile short. Worked reasonably hard here for very limited results. Two years ago I went 17:17 on shorter rest after WS, so figured I'd be in that ballpark again, but my quads this time around are remaining stubbornly sore and not allowing for much fluidity in my running.
PM: 2 miles hiking with Alistair above Lily Lake in Estes Park.

Thurs - AM: 10.5 miles (1,400') easy with Mike on Bluesky.
PM: 6.5 miles easy with FCTR at Pineridge.

Fri - 7 miles (1,600') easy. Horsetooth summit. Audra/Culver.

Sat - 16 miles (5,000'). Hagues Peak (13,571') from Lawn Lake TH. Had originally planned to tag Tileston and Bighorn (two ranked Larimer 11ers) on the way back down, but the mountains were socked-in below 11,000 feet so route finding would have been super challenging. Decided instead to take some extra time on top of Hagues enjoying the cloud cover and views of the Glacier Gorge section of the Continental Divide to the south. A full Mummy Traverse next weekend, I think. Still a good bit of soreness in the quads on the last few miles of the descent.   

The scene at Lawn Lake (11,000') later in the morning. Fairchild (13,504'), Hagues, Mummy (13,425').
South face of Mummy Mountain from Slopes of Hagues Peak.
Fog was swirling above the 11,000' cloud base. Mummy almost enveloped on the left. Longs sits above it all to the south.
Fairchild in the fog. Fairchild, Hagues saddle below.
Continental Divide/Longs from Hagues.
Continental Divide behind east ridge of Fairchild and Crystal Lake.

Deer and fawns enjoying the lush timberline summer.


Sun - 2 miles hiking. Headed down to Horsetooth falls with Alistair to enjoy the moisture and explore the creek.
  





Total: 62.5 miles (9,600')

Had planned to get out Sunday for a longer run, but that never happened due to life and other circumstances. Probably good to give the legs the day off though as there was still some residual Western States soreness in there on the Saturday Hagues descent.

That leaves me three or four weeks to ramp things up to get ready for Leadville. I'm in desperate need of some extended above-timberline action, as I was definitely feeling the lack of oxygen on Hagues this weekend. It's always tough to carve out the time with the extra driving involved, but I'm sure I'll find a way. I'm thinking a Mummy Traverse for Saturday or Sunday which is an uber-classic RMNP route that I always enjoy, and then maybe a couple of family trips to Leadville and other spots in the coming weekends.

I just took a look at the Speedgoat start list - which I haven't done in months - and wow, all of a sudden it's a massively competitive event. I'm not sure I'll be in the best shape to compete, but it certainly looks like it'll be a fun weekend.

Ho hum, time to start getting after it.

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