Week Ending March 22

Mon - 6 miles easy (750 feet). Milner. Legs felt surprisingly good after Salida Marathon on Saturday, despite a bit of soreness in the thighs and lower butt.

Tues - 8 miles easy/tempo (1,700 feet). 1:07. Started feeling pretty good once warmed up, so decided to push the pace a bit. Pushed hardest, but not too hard, on the downs. As much as I hate to push downhills in training, it is currently my biggest weakness, so have decided to start working the quads a bit more.

Weds - 10.5 miles (850 feet). 1:11:36. Out and back on Blue Sky trail to Coyote Ridge. Pushed relatively hard. 35:31 out, 36:00 back. With most of the climbing coming back, was happy to run relatively even splits. Over four minutes faster than the last time I ran this hard.

Thurs - 12 miles (2,500 feet). 1:54. Mill Creek route. Legs were heavy and tired from last two workouts, but was able to grind it out without too much misery. Saw a flock (gaggle?) of wild turkeys on the back side of Mill Creek. First turkey sightings for me in the park - beats rattlesnakes or cougars.

Fri - 27.5 miles (1,800 feet). 3:36. Original plan was to do 31 miles, but decided to nip things in the bud before I completely blew up. Out and back to JJs, then out and back on Redstone Canyon. Turned at the 5 mile marker on Redstone, rather than going all the way to 6.5. Was working on a bowl of cereal and four pieces of toast, so felt pretty run down over the last 7 or 8 miles. Only had one Cliff Shot (double espresso) and I'm still feeling sick (3 hours later) from it. Don't think gels are going to do it for me in long-distance races. Glad I'm finding that out now. 52:06 to JJs (7 miles); 50:21 to Horsetooth Mountain Park (6.5); 13:35 to Redstone (1.8); 40:24 to turn (5); 39:17 back (5); 20:19 home (2.3).

Sat - 9 miles (1,200 feet). 1:24. Spring Creek to Stout to Sawmill to Loggers to Carey Springs to Towers to Herrington to Spring Creek, Soderburg, Horsetooth and home. Legs heavy from Friday's run, but very little soreness. A lot of huffing and puffing in the early going.

Sun - 9.5 miles (3,000 feet). 2:00 ish, 1:10 up. Round Mountain with Chad. Took it pretty easy after a hard post-marathon week. Was feeling it on the way down.

Total: 82.5 miles (11,800 feet of vertical)

I wanted to build on a hard effort in Salida last weekend to get my body accustomed to running while fatigued. After feeling decent on a recovery run Monday, I decided to burn my legs with a couple of harder, faster workouts Tuesday and Wednesday and then tried to put in as many miles and vertical feet as my schedule allowed for the rest of the week. My diet was pretty poor, in that I didn't consume nearly enough calories, so I probably suffered a little more than I needed to, but I definitely got my legs working while fatigued, which was the main goal for the week.

The Fruita 50 is four weeks away now, so I want to get another big mileage week in this week, with a long run hopefully in the 30s. I'll probably cut back gradually from there to Fruita, but we'll see how it goes. I don't work from a structured training plan and pretty much take it day by day, so things often work out different than I envision at the beginning of the week.