Week Ending March 17

Mon - AM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit via the north gap. Up Southridge/Audra, down Wathan/Spring Creek. Good bit of snow in the gap, but rock was decently dry. Legs felt great coming down Wathan, so really no soreness from Salida.
PM: 6 miles (800') easy. Milner Mountain Loop. Snuck in a late run just as a snow squall was coming in.

Tues - AM: 9 miles intervals. Cemetery workout: mile, 800, 800, mile, broken mile (2x800, with 10 second jog between reps), broken 1.5 mile (3x800 with 10 second jog between reps). Didn't want to push this workout so soon after Salida, even though I felt okay, so eased in and ran comfortably: 5:38, 2:45, 2:40, 5:26, 5:34 (2:49, 2:45), 8:31 (2:49, 2:48, 2:44). Snow was coming down pretty good during the workout and the underfoot was a bit slippery, but a good morning and felt nicely energized.
PM: 7 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Good amount of snow and slop on the ground, but the sun was out, so nice enough. Looked at the north gap, but backtracked to standard route as the rock looked super icy. Up South/Audra, down Rock.

Weds - Noon: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Up South/Audra, down Wathan/Spring Creek. Kinda sloppy out with all the snow melt, but beautiful afternoon.

Thurs - AM: 10 miles (1,400') steady state hills. Five miles out and back on Centennial with Steph, Mike and Celeste. Came back at a fairly casual effort: 8:24, 6:57. 6:48, 5:41, 5:45 - still not wanting to really push too hard post-Salida.
PM: 7 mile easy for the 3/14 Pi social run with the FCTR crew. West side of Pineridge was closed due to sloppy trail conditions, so no circular loop, but fun to catch up with friends as always.

Fri - Just before noon: 7 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. This one started out as a glorious run on a just a beautifully warm spring morning. As is typical at this time of year on the Front Range, the wind was blowing pretty good, but no bother as the temps were so good. Coming through the Audra gap back onto the front side of Horsetooth, I couldn't believe my friggin' eyes: smoke to the north. Surely not, but there was just no mistaking it from the top of Horsetooth. A controlled burn, maybe? Couldn't be with the winds as strong as they were. I had no phone but stopped the first person I saw on the way down - we called it in and sure enough, a friggin' wildfire in Lory. I wanted to scream. Memories of last year's devastating High Park fire came flooding back. Two hours later and we were getting a pre-evacuation call from the county telling us to get ready to evacuate our home, just an hour before we were due to leave for Denver to fly out to Las Vegas for a visit with the in-laws for Alistair's spring break. What to do? Decided to continue on with plans and head down to Denver for our flight out, and let the chips fall where they may. Taking off and heading west, I had a bird's eye view of a huge plume of smoke billowing east over Fort Collins from the northerly Front Range foothills. I can't tell you how depressed I felt looking out of that window.

Sat - 20 miles (3,600') easy. I was really in no mood for much of anything this morning, but decided to get out with Vegas local Josh Brimhall to get my mind off things. We ran a loop of the ridiculously scenic Red Rock Canyon on the west side of the Vegas Valley, with a loop around the White Rock trail for mileage add. Enjoyed the views of the Spring Mountains from the high point on the White Rock loop and looked out to an intriguing possible run for next week up the Rocky Gap Rd for a summit tag or two. Talked to Pete later in the day to get the latest from Fort Collins and was encouraged to hear that things had improved significantly, and that the carnage in Lory might not be as bad as I had feared.

Sun - 16 miles (1,800') fast finish. Met up with Josh again for a run at Sloan Canyon on the southeast side of the Vegas Valley. We enjoyed a nice cruise on the groomed McCullough trails, finishing up with four miles at: 6:00, 5:35, 5:40, 6:00.

Total: 98 miles (15,600')

On the running side of things, this was a good week. The mileage is back up towards the peak training zone, I recovered seamlessly from Salida and I feel pretty fit. Fire in March makes me sad.