Week Ending Dec 12

Mon - Noon: 8 miles (1,650') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington, Spring Creek, Soderberg - home.
PM: 5 miles easy at Pineridge with Alex M.

Tues - Noon: 6 miles (500') easy. Valley.
PM: 11 miles track w/Sam. 3x2 mile @ marathon pace w/400 jog between. Intervals went 11:40 (5:50), 11:37 (5:48), 11:16 (5:38). Pushed the last mile of the last interval just because, but otherwise these were pretty comfortable. Probably not quite comfortable enough to bang out 26 at that pace, but close. 3 mile w-u, 1.5 c-d.

Weds - Noon: 7.5 miles (1,500') easy w/Terry. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Towers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg.
PM: 6 miles (500') easy. Valley.

Thurs - Noon: 8 miles (1,650') tempo'ish. 64:00. My original plan for this run was 10.5 miles out and back to the 3-mile marker on Redstone, w/ the 6 miles on Redstone Canyon Road at tempo, but having watched the wind gust all morning I just couldn't face the thought of battling for a hard effort in the canyon. Instead, I decided to run a more sheltered and hilly trail route in the park at a tempo-like effort with a jog from my house. Managed to get the heart rate up if not necessarily the leg turnover. Will call this one a strength session.
PM: 6.5 miles super easy with FCTR/FCRC for the 'Christmas Lights Run.' A 500' vertical beer mile was plotted and will occur Dec 30 on Towers, in lieu of the regular TT. This is a must-do end of year FCTR event. I love my chances of bringing home the gold. All comers welcome.

Friday Noon: 9 miles (2,000') easy. Soderberg - Horsetooth - Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Loggers - Carey Springs - Towers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg. Another gorgeous afternoon for a cruise.
PM: 6.5 easy on Spring Creek bike path.

Saturday AM: 15.5 miles (3,700') easy w/Pete. Horsetooth - Southridge - Audra - Horsetooth North Summit - Horsetooth Rock - Soderberg - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Mill Creek - Loggers - Carey Springs - Towers - Herrington - Spring creek - Soderberg - home. Ran the Horsetooth section of Chubby w/Pete before heading our separate ways at Loggers/Mill Creek. Set a few cairns and other directionals for Saturday. Trails are currently in great shape and ready for some runnin' action.

Sunday: 11 miles. Ran the Xmas Classic 4 miler in 22:31 (5:27, 5:35, 5:45, 5:44), which was a pretty lackluster 42 seconds slower than two weeks ago at the T-Day race. The course is much slower with hills and tons of turns, but still. Legs had nothing from the get go and my breathing was all over the place. Just one of those days. 4 mile w-u, 3 mile c-d. Race report to come.

Total: 100 miles (11,500')

We've pretty much got things in place for the Chubby Chubster next Saturday. Pete and I did some cairn marking and other things out there yesterday and the trails are in fantastic shape right now; some ice in places higher up, but largely clear. Forecast currently looks good, so it's full steam ahead. I'll get out and make sure all the missable intersections in Horsetooth are flagged this week, and will hopefully be able to recruit someone to get the Lory stuff marked. I still expect at least 50% of runners to get off course, but just so long as people have maps, life will be good.

Not much else going on. Plan to bang out another 100 mile week next week and then back off a bit so that I can take a stab at finally running a respectable (for me) mid 16 min 5k time at the Resolution Run on Dec. 31.

Towers Time Trial this Thursday at 6:00 from Soderberg. Final Towers run of the year has been scheduled (12/30) as an end-of-year celebration, which will involve approximately 600' of vertical gain over one mile, and the consumption of 4 cans of 5%+ fizzy beverage.