Fortnight Edning April 22

Week Ending April 15

Mon - Noon: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls loop.
PM: 4 miles (500') easy. Bluesky.

Tues - AM: 9 miles easy/steady. Turned the legs over at a very controlled effort at Jane's morning workout: mile, 2 mile, mile, 2 mile. Ran with Dennis for all of these: 6:19, 13:10, 6:06, 12:53.
PM: 4 miles (500') easy. Bluesky.


Weds - Noon: 4 miles (500') easy. Bluesky.

Thurs - Noon: 3 miles (600') easy. Bench loop.
PM: 7.5 miles easy. Social run with FCTR.

Fri - Off. Wanted to run, but crammed to get taxes finished (need to seriously adjust my withholdings) before my noon flight to Oakland, and then found myself a plate of pasta and an IPA deep at the pre-race shinding before I remembered that I was going to run on the CA end of the day. Oh well. 

Sat - 50.5 miles (7,000') race. Lake Sonoma 50.


Sun - 11.5 miles (700') steady. Joined Craig Thornley and Meghan Arbogast for a 10 miler at Meghan's 100k pace a week before her trip out to Italy to race the 100k World Championships. The legs felt surprisingly perky, if a bit sore, and the low to mid 7's felt good on the scenic rolling roads around Healdsburg.


Total: 98.5 miles (10,800')

Pretty much a taper week for what it was worth. Lake Sonoma was an excellent stock-taking race. A plan has been formulated. Kind of.

Week Ending April 22


Mon - AM: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls loop.
PM: 6 miles (500') easy. Valley trails. Quads were definitely sore on both runs, but okay after a couple of miles.

Tues - AM: 4.5 miles easy. Out and back on the Mason trail while waiting for new tires to be put on the Xterra.
PM: 8.5 miles (800') easy. Bluesky TH to Arthurs and back.


Weds - PM: 8.5 miles (2,200') easy. Horsetooth summit via Southridge - Audra with a return on Wathan - Spring Creek. Legs were good on the Horsetooth climb, but still a bit quiffy on the descent.

Thurs - AM: 4 miles easy on Bluesky.
PM: 9.5 miles (2,300') w/ hard Horsetooth summit. Switched the biweekly FCTR Towers TT to Horsetooth for a change of pace and scenery. Started out relatively easy on the initial section of the Rock trail and then popped in behind Sam from about the Soderberg/Rock trail intersection. Ended up PR'ing by 8 seconds (23:42), which was a bit of a surprise given the Lake Sonoma effort on Saturday. Certainly more time to be chopped there. Splits - bench: 4:42; Soderberg/H'tooth junction: 7:23; Rock/Southridge: 15:43; summit: 23:42. Back via Westridge, Spring Creek. Legs kinda shaky coming down.

Fri - Noon: 9 miles (1,800') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Loggers - Carey Springs - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg. 
PM: 5.5 miles (700') easy. From Bluesky TH to Nomad/Shoreline loop.

Sat - Noon: 25.5 miles (8,000') Crosier Triple Bagger. For the fourth year in a row, I headed out to Crosier Mtn (9,250') and gave myself an early season ass whooping with three summits from the three different Crosier trailheads that sit along the Devil's Gulch Road between Drake and Glen Haven. Originally, I was planning on meeting folk from the Fort Collins Trail Runners at 5:45 for a pre-dawn start, but family obligations meant that I had to reschedule and run this one solo, starting just before noon. Given that it was HOT out, it ended up being quite a test and the first rung on the heat training ladder for WS100. I mueled 70 oz of water (heavy) to the top on the first climb from Garden Gate and drank all of it before the run was all said and done.

First climb and descent were fine, but I probably got a little carried away on the descent. Coming up on the second summit, the alarm bells started going off and I knew it was going to be a tough outing. My legs had very little pep and the uphill work was just hard. I was sweating profusely and feeling just a little bonky. I ate a banana and drank a ton of water on top, then started feeling bloated. Coming up on the third summit, the nausea started kicking in and I had no other thought in my mind than to get the run completed. For the first time ever on this route, I dropped to a hike on the summit grunt (450', half mile), but I was fine with that. I made an effort at running it, but just had nothing in my legs. Took it super easy coming down on the final 3,200 foot descent in an effort to get back to the car in one piece; hiked the 200 foot grunter in the middle of the descent. I think the heat, combined with lingering fatigue from Lake Sonoma did a number on me today. Nonetheless, I am super happy to take the crosier-triple streak into its fourth year, and as always the unsurpassed views of the Divide and Estes Valley from on top were (almost) worth the pain.

Splits (vs a steadier 2011):

First ascent: 1:05:53 (summit spur: 9:05, 3:41 on top) (2011 - 1:02, 8:55)
First descent: 30:14 (36:47)
Second ascent: 47:15 (8:24, 5:38) (46:30, 8:07)
Second descent: 33:54 (32:59)
Third ascent: 49:53 (10:11, 3:41) (45:21, 7:49)
Final descent: 51:12 (48:49)

Run time: 4:39 (4:32)
Outing time: 4:52 (5:33)

Sun - AM: 19 miles (1,000') steady. Ran from home to hook in with the Horsetooth Half Marathon course. Watched the race get under way from the top of South Dam and then ran easy for the next three of four miles waiting for the field to catch up. Bumped into A. Marks on the way, which was a surefire way to keep things easy. Leaders went by on top of North Dam, after which I picked up the pace a bit, dropping into the low 6s through to Bingham Hill. Dropped back down into the low 7s on the bike path so I could let friends further back in the field catch up. Ran with Pete for a bit, then Alex, and finally Sarah over the last two miles. Rounded out the morning at the New Belgium finish area with a brew and a bit of hanging out, before heading back with the family for a morning/afternoon of weed pulling and Horsetooth hiking.     

Total: 105 miles (18,300')

Straight back in the saddle post Lake Sonoma. May or may not be the best strategy in the world, but I always find that recovery comes easier through running than it does through sitting around. Paid for it on Saturday with a pretty miserable run, but that one gets filed away in the brain-callusing file, which I'll be inspecting somewhere between the Middle Fork of the American River and the Western States finish line in late June.