Week Ending March 1

Mon - Off

Tues - 8 miles (1,650 ft). 1:12. Was going to take Tuesday off as well, but it was such a nice day out that I really wanted to get out and see how things felt. After slight soreness through the first couple of miles, the groin felt the best it has in weeks once warmed up. This is the fourth run I have done, including a 22 miler on Sunday, since starting my stretching and strengthening program, and remarkably things have gotten better than I ever could have hoped for in such a short period of time.

Weds - 8 miles (1,650 ft). 1:15. Another promising run with little groin pain once warmed up.

Thurs - 10.5 miles (850ft). 1:15:48. Out and back on the Blue Sky trail to the Coyote Ridge intersection from home. 37:00 out and 38:48 back. The majority of the climbing is in the last two miles, so I was pretty happy to run relatively even splits at a decent clip.

Fri - 10 miles. 1:15. Ridiculously windy outside, so ran 10 on the mill. Started out doing a mile at 7mph, then increased by 0.1 each lap to 10mph, dropping 0.5 per lap from there to 8mph for the last mile and a half. Although only a 7:30 average, the steady build up in pace turned out to be a good workout. I got the idea from a workout Scott Jaime wrote about on his website this week. It's called the 'cut down' or 'Kenyan' and you're supposed to hold the max pace once you hit it for however much time is left of the 75 minute run. I didn't want to push my luck so backed down after maxing out at 10mph.

Sat - 15 miles (5,000 ft). 3:20ish. Two loops up to Greyrock with Eric, Pete, Kyle, Katy C and Brian.

Sun - 2 miles. Setting up Tortoise & Hare 6k course.

Total.............. 53.5 miles with 9,150 feet of vertical
Feb. Total.... 259.5 miles with 40,350 feet of vertical

With a late decision to run Greyrock on Saturday, I ran more vertical than I had planned for the week, but managed to keep the mileage where I wanted it with two weeks to the Salida Marathon. My groin has been pretty good the whole week and the stretching really seems to help. I was a bit sore after running Greyrock on Saturday so was satisfied with a real easy two miles Sunday morning while setting up the Spring Creek 6k for the Fort Collins Running Club's Tortoise & Hare series.