Week Ending March 11

Mon - 5 miles (1,000') easy. A quick and early loop on the Falls trail before scooting off to Boulder for the Pearl gathering.

Tues - early AM: 6.5 miles (~1,400') stumbling. After a vigorous tequila-fueled session on the dance floor, the unwise decision was made to attempt a summit of Green at 1:00 in the morning. It was, after all, splendidly nice out. I won't name names, but a good percentage of the Pearl team and a journo who runs long distances were in attendance for this most foolhardy of missions, which ultimately ended in defeat at the top of Saddle Rock. A lack of lights, traction and oomph were to blame; Ranger/Flagstaff was the escape route.
AM: 10 miles (~1,500') hungover. Three hours of sleep and a nasty hangover for the jaunt out on the Mesa Trail towards NCAR for PI photos and other misc marketing stuff. Only the journo failed to get out of bed. Grabbed a few more miles here and there throughout the morning. 

Weds: 7.5 miles (1,800'). Falls - Spring Creek - Wathan - Rock - Soderberg. Easy cruise, beautiful afternoon. 

Thurs - AM: 11 miles (1,200') progression. Out and back on Bluesky/Indian Summer with Pete, Slush, Mike, Sarah, Celeste, Ziggy, Mary and Steph. Controlled tempo over last four from Rim Rock.
PM: 7 miles (1,700') Towers. Nice evening out with a beautiful full orange moon to the east on the way back down. Went up in a very controlled 34:05. 

Fri - AM: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls loop early. 

Sat - AM: 26 miles (4,000') race. Salida Marathon.

Sun - AM: 15.5 miles easy. Super early at Pineridge and on the bike paths with Sarah, Nicole Callan & Nikole Johns. Fun to run with a group of competitive and talented women.    
PM: 5 miles (1,500') hiking. To the top of Horsetooth with the family, Sarah, Ryan and their boys. Carrying Stella up and down the mountain was, I think, the toughest workout of the weekend. Beat.

Top H'tooth with the family.

Total: 98.5 miles (13,600')

Didn't quite get the run in that I was looking for on Sunday, but I was still happy with how good my legs felt. Salida, as always, was a great little getaway. I love the town, the peaks and the overall camaraderie of the race. And the family always enjoys the area too. Just bummed we didn't find the time for a soak in the hot springs on the way home.

Looking forward to this upcoming weekend. I'm excited to race a road 5k on Saturday and then banging out 35 miles of Horseooth Reservoir circumnavigation (the long way) on Sunday, before hanging out and kicking back with friends and family over beers and burgers. The weather forecast is looking great, the trails are essentially clear of snow and ice, and spring is most assuredly in the air. Train leaves at 8:00.

Had a ton of fun at the Pearl gathering last week. The company has some really exciting stuff going on right now. The new 2013 'Ultra' apparel line really blew me away, and while we don't have samples to put on our feet just yet, the new 2013 shoe concept looks like it could be a game changer. More on that as it evolves.

Exciting stuff going on with other sponsors too. After listening closely to Robert from First Endurance, I realized that I still have a ton of work to do in figuring out the whole fueling thing. Fortunately, Robert has looked at all the research and produced some of the best products on the market. He is firmly of the opinion that the best fueling strategy for endurance events is a liquid one, so I ran my race at Salida this weekend fueled entirely on EFS drink. Energy was great, and not even close to any cramp issues (EFS has by far the highest concentration of electrolytes of any sports drink on the market), but damn it's sweet. I need to play with my dilution levels to cut the sweetness and then supplement calories with Liquid Shot, I think. More experimentation required.

Anyway, for the liquid diet, the optimal caloric dilution rate according to the research is 8%. This means 36 oz of EFS drink per hour (which seems unlikely), or the same amount of water/diluted EFS supplemented with the necessary EFS Liquid Shot to hit 300 calories per hour. Not enough fluids/too many calories and stomach issues come into play. Simply put, I need to consume more fluids in races, as I don't even come close to getting that volume in per hour. And that will take a focused effort if I want to avoid the coke-for-the-last-40-miles routine.

The other exciting presentation was from Dale at Highgear who was showing off the company's entry into the GPS market. The XT7's GPS capabilities include mileage accumulation, real time pacing, upload and download of waypoints, 8 hour battery life and probably a bunch of other stuff I haven't figured out yet. All this comes in addition to a barometric altimeter for accurate vert readings all packaged in a sleek watch. While I would never shell out $250 for a watch, I understand that this represents very good value.