Week Ending May 15

Mon - Noon: 9 miles (1,900') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Loggers - Carey Springs - Towers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - home long.
PM: 8.5 miles (800') easy. Bluesky to Arthurs and back.

Tues - AM: 10 miles track. This workout was Sarah's suggestion and ended up being a nice mix of speed and stamina: 4 (1,600, 400). It's always so hard to get cranking at six in the morning, but then it's also great to be done with your workout by seven. Digits: 5:41, 75, 5:31, 75, 5:24, 75, 5:20, 73.
PM: 7 miles (1,600') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - home long. Dead legs, sore throat, crappy run.

Weds - 8 miles (1,900') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Wathan - Rock - Audra - Southridge - home long. Holy hail batman. Hailed pretty much the entire run - think there might have been a mix of snow in there too.
PM: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls long.

Thurs - 11 miles (1,500') hill tempo. Scared off the trails by two days of rain, my Thursday morning running partners outvoted my pitch for Bluesky in favor of our winter road route: the HTH 5 Mile Out and Back (HTH5MOaB). It was wet, kinda windy, but generally pleasant enough. Out with Scott, Sarah and Tim in a casual 40:38, then back in 31:25 (7:25, 6:17, 6:36, 5:40, 5:25). Doubled back to run the last half mile back in with Sarah.
PM - 8.5 miles easy. On the bike paths with the FCTR crew for the Thursday social run.

Fri - 13 miles (2,000') easy. From Bluesky TH, Bluesky - Valley - Arthurs TH - Arthurs Rock trail to summit - Howard - Mill Creek Link - Valley - Bluesky. Hot. Nice cruiser run.

Sat - 25 miles (3,700') easy. 3:31. Out and back from home to Devil's Backbone in Loveland via Bluesky. All three Loveland-side loops with Indian Summer both ways, then home long. Ran easy with Alex M to the Loveland Ridge, picked it up a touch coming home. Just the warm up for the main event tomorrow.

Sun - 30 miles (10,000'). Round Mountain ladder workout. 5:22 run time, 5:34 total with stops at TH. Okay, so Round Mountain (8,500') is an approximately 3,000' foot climb to the summit over the course of 4.75 miles from the trailhead. Conveniently there are mile markers to the summit, which when combined with the steady and steep climbing nature of the rocky singletrack makes for a great training hill. The plan for this particular morning was to out-and-back from each of the four mile markers, finishing up with a final run at the summit for 29 miles and just under 10k' of climbing (9,750'). As usual, we had a good group show up for the early 5:30 start, despite the socked-in snowy conditions. The goal going in was to run at a steadily decent clip all morning with a slight uptick in effort as the run progressed. An uphill pacing session, I guess. I took splits at each and every mile marker - up and down - to try and make sure I was sticking to the plan.

The up splits: Mile 1 <+580'> (12:43, 11:43, 11:14, 11:24, 11:16); mile 2 <+780'> (12:55, 12:25, 12:15 , 12:24); mile 3 <+460'> (11:41, 11:25, 11:07); mile 4 <+580'> (12:32, 11:45); final .75 <+480'> (10:49).

The down splits: Mile 1 (9:26, 8:45, 8:23, 8:43, 9:02); mile 2 (8:53, 8:19, 8:07, 8:10); mile 3 (10:03, 10:18, 10:17); mile 4 (9:15, 8:56); final .75 (8:21)

Ran the final summit lap in 57:21, a good 7 minutes off my PR, but given the previous 20 miles and 6,500' of climbing and descending, I felt like it was a pretty solid effort. Pooped out on the final 3/4 of a mile to the summit. Total climb on the day, including bonus climbing on the down laps, was exactly 10,000 feet (per my Highgear altimeter). Warmed down with a final half mile out and back to hit 5 figures on the climbing front and a nice round 30 miles on the morning.

The Round Mountain Ladder: 29 miles, 10k'. Courtesy: Pete Stevenson

Final descent. Photo: Rob Erskine.

Punch drunk on vertical: Mr Awesome (Slush). Photo: Alex May.

Pete showing off the Hardrock beard. Photo: Rob Erskine.

Total: 135 miles (24,400').

Another big week (biggest ever in fact) with just three more to go before I start a gradual three-week taper for WS/HR. Today's workout was maybe not the best idea with Jemez just around the corner, but got to keep my eye on the dueling Western States/Hardrock goals. Will definitely take things easy this week in getting ready for Jemez.

Looks like Kilian ran well for the win at the NF100k in Australia against some decent competition this weekend. Tony is running again, and most everyone else on the WS100 start list looks to be in killer shape. Gonna be a barn burner.

Switching things up this week for the Towers workout with a run at Horsetooth Rock. We'll meet at the Upper Horsetooth parking lot at the usual time (a few ticks before six) with the usual handicapping. Choose your route: 3.3 - 3.6 miles & 1,500' climb depending on your route choices.