Week Ending October 17

Mon - 10.5 miles easy (1,300'). Soderberg TH - Arthurs TH - Overlook trail - valley trail - Arthurs TH - Soderberg TH.

Tues - Noon: 6.5 miles easy (1,500'). Waterfall - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg.
PM: 4.5 miles track. 2 mile warm up, then end of season relays with the Tuesday Night Track group: 800, 400, 200, 100. Slow again, but feeling motivated about doing the work to find some speed. 1.5 mile warm down.

Weds - AM: 11.5 miles easy (1,700'). Foothills trail from Maxwell with Fast Eddy and Young Money.
PM: 4.5 miles easy (700'). Falls loop.

Thurs - Noon: 4.5 miles easy (700'). Falls loop.
PM: 7.5 miles social at Pineridge with FCTR.

Fri - Noon: 8.5 (800'). To Redstone Canyon for a couple faster miles: 6:24, 8:00, 6:09, 6:07, back easy. Struggled again. Felt like I was working way too hard for these low-six-min miles. It was breezy, and fast miles never come easy on Redstone's rollers, but I definitely feel like I'm battling some sludge right now. Effort felt somewhere between 10k and half marathon. Ughh.

Sat - 6.5 miles easy (1,500'). Waterfall - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg.

Sun - 16.5 miles (4,000'). From Buckhorn Canyon, Pete and I scoped the middle loop of the current thinking on our proposed 100k race. Still some great color on the aspen on what was a truly sensational run. From Box Prairie we went northwest on Monument Gulch to Old Flowers, then east to the trail up the north side of White Pine Mtn, tagging the summit from the saddle, before taking FR 100 back down to Box Prairie. Both Pete and I were really impressed with this unexpectedly gorgeous route.

More at Pete's joint on today's route with tons of pics.

Looking south back to Crystal Mtn (left) and Lookout Mtn (right) from Box Prairie. Our current thinking on the 100k route would start seven miles south and 3,000' below Lookout from where it would come over the top via Donner Pass (on the far right of the picture), tag both peaks and then route down to Buckhorn Canyon to the 16 mile loop we did today. It would then head back over the top (a different way via Donner) to the start/finish at Dunraven. Total climb on the route is looking like it will be in the 17k range with three peaks over 10k and a possible (but unlikely) peak at 11,200'. Either way, it's gonna be a beast.

Lookout (10,800') left, with Donner pass to the right and Signal (11,200') far right. The route runs the ridge from Donner Pass to just below Signal and cuts down to Box Prairie from there. Signal Peak is in Comanche Wilderness, which currently makes it out of bounds for an organized event such as we are proposing to the FS. Pic taken from halfway up West White Pine.

Signal.

Lookout from Monument Gulch.

A view of Stormy Peaks and Comanche from Monument Gulch.

Lookout Mtn. far left through one of the many aspen groves on this incredible loop.

West White Pine summit.

Looking back to West White Pine Mtn from FR100.



Forest Road 100 descent from West White Pine.

Total: 81 miles (12,200')

The weather this week was insanely beautiful, so there was really no choice but to pick up the miles a bit more than I otherwise would have. The faster efforts on Tuesday and Thursday were short and painful. Quite clearly there is much work to be done if I hope to get even remotely close to the kind of marathon time I'm hoping to post in Feb/March, but the good news is that I feel motivated to get it done. The mountain miles were of course a pleasure.

Since Wasatch, my weekly mileage has gone 26 (6,000), 41 (8,000'), 28 (4,000'), 50 (6,000'), 81 (12,000') which is probably about as easy as I'm realistically going to take it. The leg sludge on the faster stuff this week and last week is to be expected considering I've done no focused flat speedwork in about a year, so I'm not concerned ... yet.

Horsetooth open time trial again this Thursday at 6:00pm from the upper parking lot. This will be the last Horsetooth TT before we head back to Towers, so come on out and get a workout done, and then enjoy the views from the summit as the full moon rises. Anyone and everyone welcome.