Week Ending Aug 2

Mon - 13 miles (7,800'). Pikes ascent (2:44). CLs.

Tues - 6.5 miles. Track workout. 3 mile warm up, then 1,200 (4:04), 12 x 300 on minute rest (55, 57, 57, 56, 57, 55, 54, 53, 55, 53, 53, 55, 53). Half mile cool down. Definitely felt heavy and tired on this workout after yesterday's effort. Probably shouldn't have pushed or maybe even gone, but did anyway because it's a fun group and a chance to see friends. Felt warmed up after the first 5 or 6 repetitions so was able to push second set a little harder. Crapped out on the last one through the last 100 meters. WCs

Weds - Off

Thurs - 8 miles (1,650'). 1:15. Horsetooth/Audra with Ryan. Workout felt harder than it should have. Hopefully just fatigued from Mon/Tues effort. (WCs)

Fri - 6 miles easy (600'). Milner. No watch. (Vas)

Sat - 14 miles (5,000'). Flattop (62) and Hallett (77). 5 mile tempo. (CLs)

Sun - 15 miles (4,000'). Barr Trail to Barr Camp and back (from Ascent start outside City Hall). Got a late start on this one, and paid the price on a baking hot day. Felt like a hard effort, yet came up with the same split to Barr Camp (1:19) as on Monday, which felt like a much more controlled effort. Been a big week of climbing, so I'll put it down to that and maybe the heat. I'll need a 1:16 split to Barr Camp if I want to break 2:30 on race day. Not as confident of the 2:30 after today's run as I was after Monday's run. (WCs)

Total: 63 miles (19,400 feet of vertical).

Big, big climb week on fairly moderate mileage. This week would have looked a lot different if Pikes hadn't come onto the race schedule, but it has, and there's a red-hot field, so if I want to compete for a top-ten finish, then I'll have to cycle back the Dublin Marathon training plan until late August and keep pushing the hills. Not too worried about it, as I think I respond best to hills anyway, and I'll still have a good five weeks to get some solid LT and marathon-paced long intervals in on the road after Pikes and before the taper for Dublin. Coming from a very solid base, I'm hoping it will be enough. Another four big workouts planned for next week, with track on Tuesday, Horsetooth hill repeats on Thursday, 10k race on Saturday and Longs on Sunday; then a really easy week leading up to Pikes on Saturday.

Wildcats: 108 miles
Crosslites: 88 miles
Vasque: 56 miles