Week Ending Dec 19

Mon - Noon: 6 miles (500') easy. Valley
PM: 6.5 miles (1,550') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Falls. Set some markers for The Chubster.

Tues - Noon: 6.5 miles (1,500') easy. Southridge - Horestooth - Southridge. Set cairns for Horsetooth section of Chubbapalooza
PM: 14 miles track. 3 miles warm up, then 2x4 mile @ MP with one mile jog between; 2 mile c-d. First four were right where I wanted them to be effort-wise, but had to work for the last two miles on the second set which has me worried and thinking I should be stepping back and looking at maybe 5:55 pace for the marathon. First four went 5:50, 5:47, 5:46, 5:50 (23:13), but lost focus on the second four and my pacing was all over the place: 5:55, 5:46, 5:54, 5:45 (23:20). Not a great workout as far as confidence is concerned, especially after a crappy race at the Xmas Classic on Sunday, but I'm hopeful that things will start to fall into place in January. Ultra training is so much easier - no worrying about pacing and numbers, just go out and run a bunch.

Weds - Noon: 6.5 miles easy (1,200'). Valley - Sawmill - Loggers (O&B to Mill Creek) - Stout - Towers - Swan Johnson. Set more course markings for the Cheekmeister with Rob.
PM: 5.5 miles (1,200') easy. Soderberg - Spring Creek (O&B to Herrington) - Soderberg. Yet more course marking for the Cheeks of Chubbiness.

Thurs - Noon: 4.5 miles (900') easy. Falls Loop. Final cairn creations for The Chub.
PM: 10 miles (1,900'). Towers TT. 31:10. Put in a reasonably hard effort on a cold night. Yet another impressive turn out from the hardy FCTR crew. Twenty on hand in sub-zero conditions. I've been in this medium-hard zone on Towers for a while now. I know what a full-on effort feels like and I just haven't wanted to take myself there in the last couple of months - probably because it hurts so damn much. Maybe when there is light again I'll take a stab at Sam's record, but I don't think anyone will touch it until the spring.

Friday - PM: 7.5 miles (2,000'). Finished the last touches on the Chub markings. Bumped into Rick Hesseck at the TH and ran the route with him. Horsetooth - Soderberg - Audra Culver - Horsetooth - Soderberg - Spring Creek - Horsetooth Falls.

Saturday - el zippo.

Sunday - el zippo grande.

Total: 67 miles (10,750').

So the weekend didn't happen from a running perspective, but I still came out of it feeling like I'd run a solid 100 miles. Wowzer!

Got to make the most of it while my mother-in-law is in town helping out with Stella and Alistair in order to keep the mo going for NOLA. Had planned a peak-mileage week of 115 or so for this last week, but won't go chasing mileage this week to make up. Will continue with the vague plan I'd had for the rest of the training block, which is to focus more on quality over quantity. Hadn't had a day off of running in 67 days before Saturday, so the forced rest was probably a good thing. Still finding it hard to get out on the roads, but I am at least getting to the track on a weekly basis.

Here's a link to an interview I did with my buddy, and fellow Brit, Terry Chiplin a week or two ago. Terry owns and operates Active at Altitude, a fitness-focused inn at 9,000' up in Estes Park, and he has just started another business, Running Vacations, that looks to have all kinds of promise.