Horsetooth in silhouette.
Longs from Stout/Spring Creek.
Longs, clouds.
Tues - AM: 9 miles (2,700') easy with Fast Ed and Nick P in Boulder. Chautauqua - Gregory - Green - Green/Bear - Mesa. Scott and I were in town for a meeting with the Pearl guys, so snuck in a morning cruise with Nick P on the Boulder trails. Absolutely beautiful out again.
PM: 9 miles track. One mile warm up, then 400-800-1600-3200-1600-800-400. One mile cool down. It was just me and Dakota tonight and we ran every interval in lockstep (although Dakota was on my outside shoulder for every turn, so was technically a bit quicker). Anyway, we were shooting for 5:20 pace on the 400/800 and 5:30 for the mile/2mile, and pretty much hit those splits: 80, 2:38, 5:30, 11:08, 5:29, 2:39, 76. We both dragged on the second mile of the 3,200, but otherwise hit our intervals. Given the morning run up Green, I was definitely working, but it was pretty gratifying to hang in and get 'em done.
Weds - 6 miles (500') easy. Valley.
Thurs - 8 miles (1,600') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home.
Fri - Noon: 8 miles (1,600') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home. Insanely beautiful out. 45 days into fall with 45 until winter and we're still hitting 70 degrees.
PM: 4 mile cruise at Pineridge.
Sat - 17 miles. Heart Center Half with 4 mile warm up.
Sun - AM: 3 miles easy marking the T&H 5k course. A record 45 runners showed up for the run. Awesome. Pedatella takes the Hare title with an 18:10.
PM: 9.5 miles easy (2,000'). Horsetooth 8 mile route with some add on.
Total: 80 miles (10,000')
Another week in the books, and I've got to say I am enjoying this change of focus to road training way more than I thought I would. A month or two ago, the mere thought of running hard in training made me want to roll over and go to sleep. I now find myself devising wicked hard training days in my head whilst daydreaming on the trail. Weird.
Anyway, the half on Saturday went just about as expected. According to the various different equivalency calculators out there on the interwebs, the 1:16:47 I ran is good for a low 2:40 marathon. Accounting for altitude and total non-taper, I am going to say that I'm more likely in high 2:30 shape. I have a number in mind for New Orleans that right now seems pretty reasonable given my current fitness and the three months of training to come, but you never really know until five or six weeks out where the fitness is going to land. The goalposts will no doubt change as I move through the process.
With all that said, I still consider this little marathon block as no more than base building for the real work to come next season. The obvious goal given the winter speed work is Western States, but I'm still far from committed to that. UTMB became something of a strong possibility earlier in the week, and I would be super stoked if I could make that work, but really there is plenty of time to be thinking about these things. I wonder if teammate Scott Jaime will be cashing in the WS ticket he just won at Mountain Masochist? He's got two weeks to figure it out.
PM: 9 miles track. One mile warm up, then 400-800-1600-3200-1600-800-400. One mile cool down. It was just me and Dakota tonight and we ran every interval in lockstep (although Dakota was on my outside shoulder for every turn, so was technically a bit quicker). Anyway, we were shooting for 5:20 pace on the 400/800 and 5:30 for the mile/2mile, and pretty much hit those splits: 80, 2:38, 5:30, 11:08, 5:29, 2:39, 76. We both dragged on the second mile of the 3,200, but otherwise hit our intervals. Given the morning run up Green, I was definitely working, but it was pretty gratifying to hang in and get 'em done.
Weds - 6 miles (500') easy. Valley.
Thurs - 8 miles (1,600') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home.
Fri - Noon: 8 miles (1,600') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home. Insanely beautiful out. 45 days into fall with 45 until winter and we're still hitting 70 degrees.
PM: 4 mile cruise at Pineridge.
Sat - 17 miles. Heart Center Half with 4 mile warm up.
Sun - AM: 3 miles easy marking the T&H 5k course. A record 45 runners showed up for the run. Awesome. Pedatella takes the Hare title with an 18:10.
PM: 9.5 miles easy (2,000'). Horsetooth 8 mile route with some add on.
Total: 80 miles (10,000')
Another week in the books, and I've got to say I am enjoying this change of focus to road training way more than I thought I would. A month or two ago, the mere thought of running hard in training made me want to roll over and go to sleep. I now find myself devising wicked hard training days in my head whilst daydreaming on the trail. Weird.
Anyway, the half on Saturday went just about as expected. According to the various different equivalency calculators out there on the interwebs, the 1:16:47 I ran is good for a low 2:40 marathon. Accounting for altitude and total non-taper, I am going to say that I'm more likely in high 2:30 shape. I have a number in mind for New Orleans that right now seems pretty reasonable given my current fitness and the three months of training to come, but you never really know until five or six weeks out where the fitness is going to land. The goalposts will no doubt change as I move through the process.
With all that said, I still consider this little marathon block as no more than base building for the real work to come next season. The obvious goal given the winter speed work is Western States, but I'm still far from committed to that. UTMB became something of a strong possibility earlier in the week, and I would be super stoked if I could make that work, but really there is plenty of time to be thinking about these things. I wonder if teammate Scott Jaime will be cashing in the WS ticket he just won at Mountain Masochist? He's got two weeks to figure it out.
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I am pretty sure Scott will be cashing in his ticket to WS. He put a target on my back!
ReplyDeleteAnd, I sure hope you come back, too.
AJW
Nick - I'm leaning towards WS and then pacing someone at HR.
ReplyDeleteAndy - I don't plan on seeing that target... It's not so much you, per se, but the times you put up. My goals are always time based and what you have achieved there lands in that same range, if not a little better on my best day. You've figured out 100s, I haven't. So to have you buy me beers after a hundred is just icing on the cake...
Andy - being that you're one of the best 'closers' in the business, I doubt Scott will be seeing that target until late in the game (if he's gonna see it all). And I'm sure he'll hear you coming long before he sees you.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me the WS track is tailor-made for Scott, so I think you'll have your work cut out, but after this year's performance, I'm putting nothing past you.
Scott - why not the AJW Slam?
Fast Eddy always says he's not doing Hardrock.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could "race" both WS and HR. I would much rather be at HR pacing and enjoying the scenery a little more. I guess I could still enjoy it by walking the whole thing like JT...
ReplyDeleteUTMB should be extra epic next year with all the pent-up energy that didn't get a proper outlet this year.
ReplyDeleteNick - Nice job nailing those splits in the track workout Tuesday. I totally hear you on the road/track stuff...its really weird. I also had zero to negative desire to run on roads or tracks over the summer, but all of a sudden it has become fun and a refreshing change of pace.
ReplyDelete