Week Ending Nov. 1

Mon - Dublin Marathon. 26.2 miles.

Tues - Off, but not too sore.

Weds - 4.5 miles easy. Up to my favorite place to run in Canterbury, Blean Woods, for a recovery number. Felt great all things considered, but did choose to drop a 4-mile loop from the plan because it was completely pointless.

Thurs - Travel day. Watched a record four and a half movies crossing the Atlantic. Gunning for five next time out.

Fri - Off

Sat - 10-11 miles (2,300') at Horsetooth with Ryan. Nice to be able to get a run in with Ryan before he heads out to NZ for six weeks with Megan on their delayed honeymoon. He's been up in Pingrey for most of the summer so has been getting a ton of great 10,000'+ running done up in the mountains at Rocky. Great base stuff for next year. Ryan and I are about as evenly matched as it gets on both road and trail, which should make for some fun racing next year. Chances are good that we'll be racing at Moab in Feb, Salida Marathon, San Juan 50, Jemez Mountain 50 and others, I'm sure.

Anyway we got out this morning for a romp around a very snowy Horsetooth. Service drive up to Horsetooth hiking trail was decent, as was most of the trail up, but as soon as we hit Westridge, the snow was deep, soft and somewhat crusty, and we were the first in. Somehow we managed to get off 'trail' and ended up bushwhacking through thigh-high drifts, trees and all manner of silliness before finally re-finding the 'trail' 45 minutes later. Kind of funny to get so lost up there, considering I know the place like the back of my hand, but lost we were.

Ended up on the move for a bit over two hours, but didn't cover much ground because of the silly conditions. Nothing quite like a workout in deep virgin snow. Mercifully, the sun was out and warm, so there was zero cold factor in shorts and long-sleeve T, despite having to wade through all that snow and slush. Definitely felt some background aches from Dublin, but generally felt good.

Glad I opted out of the Basic in Boulder, as that sounds like it was much the same but twice the distance. Next time.

Sun - Nada.

Total: 42 miles (2,300')

Only ran three times this week. Dublin pretty much marked the end of my season, so I have been able to take zero days this week without too much internal angst. I plan to continue through the next couple of weeks with very casual mileage before beginning preparations for next year, which will include the laying of the all-important winter base, but until then it's time to kick back and heal up a few niggling aches and pains, put on some winter pounds and catch up with the world outside of running. Spent all day Sunday clearing out the garage and then putting it all back together again. It is now officially ready to receive cars through the winter. Next up is a tiling project around the fireplace.