Week Ending October 31

Mon - Noon: 6 miles (1,300') easy. Horsetooth - Wathen - Spring Creek - Soderberg. Some tree carnage on Wathen from the strong winds. Nice cruise.
PM: 4.5 miles (700') easy. Falls loop.

Tues - Noon 4.5 miles (700') easy. Falls loop.
PM: 8.5 miles track. 4 x 1 mile on lap rest: 5:30, 5:29, 5:23, 5:24. 1 mile w-u, 2.5 mile c-d. Wind had mainly died down by the time we got started which made things a little more relaxed than I was expecting. Great group of like-paced guys for this one: Dakota Jones, Chris Aronson, Frank Antonelli and David Rubush. We had planned on 5:30s and pretty much nailed them as a pack the whole way. First two were very smooth, although a little hot through the first 800 on the first interval (2:35/36). Dakota picked up the third lap on the third interval and pulled the group through an up-tempo second 800, and the final interval was evenly paced with a faster last quarter. Really starting to enjoy the faster work, and mildly encouraged with the apparent progress.

Weds - 8 miles (1,600') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home. Stopped halfway around for a lengthy chat with John Binder who was out with a crew doing some trail maintenance on Stout between Towers and Loggers. He's been running the Horsetooth trails ever since the county bought the land from the Soderberg family in 1982. Most of the trails currently in existence are old Soderberg logging trails, as they logged it pretty heavily when they owned it, milling the lumber up on top of Mill Creek. Great to get some history from a guy who is just as passionate about the trails and land up on Horsetooth as I am. Apparently there is a whole crew of 'old timers' down in the valley neighborhoods who run the trails from Soderberg, although not at lunchtime because I never see them. John was delighted to hear about the burgeoning FoCo trail running community, and was highly congratulatory of my last year of running, which apparently he was well aware of - ah, celebrity at last. Almost didn't run because of the heavy wind - glad I did.

Thurs - AM: 9.5 miles (1,800'). Ran down to Soderberg to meet Pete, Victoria and two of her friends for an early morning jaunt up Towers. Got up at 5:00am after a late night so felt like I was in a dream for most of the run, but the orange hues from the sunrise to the east made up for the general unpleasantness of running while half asleep. A steady 36:20 up the hill and an easy jog back down. Grabbed a ride home from Pete.

Pre-sunrise orange from top Towers

PM: 6.5 miles easy @ Pineridge with the mötley FCTR crüe. Beers, good conversation and food afterward.

Friday - 6 miles easy (500'). Valley trails.

Saturday - 22 miles (7,200'). Basic Boulder Mountain Marathon.

Sunrise from home as I was heading out to Boulder.

Sunday - AM: 3 miles easy with Don and Alex as a warm down after their 5k races at the Spooktacular. Alistair also raced in the kids' sprint. Back to Alex and Ean's afterward for food, coffee and good times.
PM: 8 miles (1,600') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home.

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Jan: 252 miles (33,700')
Feb: 189 miles (33,500')
March: 488 miles (70,000')
April: 482.5 miles (72,700')
May: 439 miles (79,500')
June: 334 miles (49,000')
July: 279.5 miles (64,400')
August: 302.5 miles (50,100')
September: 237.5 miles (53,200')
October: 301.5 miles (44,600')

2010: 3,305 miles (550,700')
Avg: 330.5 miles (55,070')
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Total: 86.5 miles (15,400')

Looks like I'll be running New Orleans as the goal marathon in February, so that's where the bulk of the next three months of running will be focused. With that in mind, this week was exactly the kind of week I need to be avoiding. Running up mountains is fun, but not great for building speed or, more importantly, recovering from hard workouts to get ready for upcoming workouts. I think moderate hill days on the trails are fine as easy runs, because really it's more about being outside than it is about 'training,' but big multi-thousand vert days need to be kept to a minimum as they tend to take a chunk out of you, especially if you're not conditioned for them, which I'm really not right now. So discipline is the key here. We'll see how that goes.

Good mile repeat workout at the track on Tuesday with a bunch of guys who are all within range of each other pace-wise, so hopefully we can keep that going through the fall/winter. Seemed to push out the 5:30s with relative ease, which is definitely a good sign.

Signed up for a half marathon on Saturday. I'm figuring that if I can go 1:17 or better there, then I should be able to whip myself into the kind of shape that I want to be in for February.

Towers handicapped time trial this Thursday at 6:00pm from the Soderberg trailhead. As always, anyone and everyone is welcome and encouraged to come out and put the hurt on the hill. Sunday is the Fort Collins Running Club's Tortoise & Hare 5k from Warren Park, and once again all are welcome and encouraged to run.