Monday, January 30, 2012

Week Ending Jan 29

Mon - 7 miles (1,900') easy. Soderberg - Rock - Wathan - Spring Creek - Falls - home long.

Tues - AM: 8 miles of intervals with Jane's group at the cemetery. Workout was: mile, 3x800, mile, 3x800 on 20 second rest between 800s and 3 min before/after miles. Can't seem to get any turnover going at the moment, but it'll come: 5:25, 2:43, 2:44, 2:46, 5:22, 2:46, 2:46, 2:49.
PM: 6.5 miles (1,700') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Soderberg - Rock - Southridge - Soderberg - home long. Great dusk cruise blowing out some post-work frustrations. Starting to feel like I've found some of that early season hill-cruising fitness. We build from here.

Weds: 8.5 miles (2,100') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Soderberg - Rock - Horsetooth summit - Audra - Southridge - Soderberg - home long. I love the fact that we're stuck in fall-like weather. I don't think we're going to get a winter.

Thurs - AM: 13.5 miles LT. Met Sarah and Mike early for a 2x4 mile LT session on the Spring Creek bike path with 1.5 mile w-u/c-d and two mile jog between 4 milers. Goal was 5:50 pace heading east (on the subtle drop toward the plains) and 6:00 pace coming back up. Out was a total cruise: 5:58, 5:49, 5:53, 5:52; coming back up was more work than I would have liked (and I think breached the lactate threshold): 6:04, 6:01, 5:56, 5:57. Work to be done. Good job it's only January.
PM: 9 miles (1,800') Towers. Beautiful night out with no wind, so decided to try and push out a second tempo-type effort after easing into things on the lower sections of the hill. Up in 32:25 with some nasty ice up above Westridge.

Fri: 7.5 miles (1,100') easy with Brian E. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Towers - Swan Johnson - Shoreline - 38e. A dusting of snow over patches of ice made for some pretty treacherous conditions. Brian took a really bad fall on the Falls trail so we cut things short so he could get home and clean things up and, as it turned out, get stitches to the back of his head. Ouch!

Sat: 10 miles (3,000'). Blue Mountain from Pinewood Reservoir.

Sun: 20.5 miles (1,200') w/5k, 10k double at the Frost Giant in Estes Park. Warmed up with 5.5 on the 5k/10k course, raced 5k, jogged 2, raced 10k, jogged 4.

Total: 90.5 miles (11,900').

A solid week of running without really pushing myself to get out the door. Even though the mileage is a little higher than I had planned for January, it still feels very organic at this stage. I'm definitely a step or two slower than I was last year, but then this time last January I was just about ready to taper for the New Orleans Marathon. Right now I'm just enjoying the mild temperatures, the company of good friends and some new peaks and places in Larimer County.

With all that said, I have been finding the mind wandering to June in the last week or two. The question I keep asking myself is what do I need to do differently to avoid the implosion I suffered over the last 10 miles from Auburn Lake Trails to Placer High? An easier January is, I think, part of the answer, but there will be no shortcuts. There's a lot of hard work ahead and I think I'm just about ready to get started.   

On a different note, Pete and I have been blown away by the response to the Quad Rock race here in Fort Collins. The 25 miler is now full (although we do have a waiting list) and there are about 50 spots left in the 50 mile race. We're working hard to make sure we give you the best race experience we can.

8 comments:

  1. Nick -solid week man.....thoughts on WS: in my opinion, to beat a well-hydrated Kilian (if that's your goal, which I assume it is) you almost have to put all your eggs in one basket for that race. Bc, I mean, to be honest, currently I don't see him being beaten (given he executes in the way he did last year), not to say he can't be beaten (as obviously seen in 2010). Pound-for-pound, he's physiologically superior (let's call a spade a spade), however, you're the mentally toughest dude I know and you have that strength above most, if not all. What I'm getting at is that if you tweak whatever you need to in training to be more prepared and head into the race with your mental strength fresh and at an all-time high and execute flawlessly (ie: don't get lost :), take care of your feet better, and set yourself up for a solid last 20 "Mike-Wolfe-style"!) your gonna be tough to beat Nick. Just my two cents and subjective opinion. It's gonna be another exciting year at WS.

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  2. "Brian E. Falls" HAHA. Was that intentional?

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  3. Jake - I've come close twice. If I'm gonna beat him anywhere, it'll be Western States. I'm a firm believer in setting lofty goals, and you know where my goals lie with regards to that race. I'll be ready to roll the dice.

    Jay - Ha, no, but good eye.

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  4. Can't wait to see you do it.

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  5. You trail/mountain guys should log your training volume in minutes rather than miles - that would give a truer (and more accurately impressive) picture of your true training volume at a given effort. - Brian

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  6. Fair point, Brian, but I generally don't like to wear a watch unless I'm doing a workout. I know that I'll typically be in the 9-10 min per mile range when I'm sauntering around at Horsetooth at an average 450-550' gain/loss per mile.

    I know all the segment distance splits on the trail network so it's easier for me just to track mileage, I guess.

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  7. Nick: Glad to see that you made it up Blue Mtn again. Have you found a semi-respectable route that isn't just trespassing hell? I've been staring at Blue from the highpoints around Lyons, and really want to finally bag it, yet hesitate to make the whopping 12 mile drive out there if it's just hell with houses everywhere. Perhaps the less used west side is better with a bicycle stashed somewhere??? Researching with USGS and even Google Earth/Sat is worthless in determining how much private property is actually on the ground. I'm not opposed to trespassing, yet don't want CONSTANT paranoia...

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  8. Aric - best way to get up Blue Mountain is to head south on Green Mountain Drive off Pole Hill Rd, bearing left at the immediate fork. Got to jump a gate here. Where the road 180s up to the first communication tower/summit, continue straight on a jeep track and then follow the ridge to the lower road when the jeep track cuts up to a second communication tower/summit. Follow the jeep road for a bit and then cut straight up - or just ignore the road and follow the ridge the whole way up. Either way you should be on top pretty quickly.

    There was a road that looked like it might wind its way up the northwest flank, but that is in plain view of farmhouses below so might not be the best route. On this backside you are out of sight quickly.

    Pretty much everything around there is private property except for the lake and small acreage around it.

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