Week Ending May 26

Mon- Noon: 9.5 miles (2,500') easy. Horsetooth north summit with Sefano via a very breezy north gap, then Westridge - Spring Creek - Falls. Felt predictably tired after a big weekend, but tired in a good way rather than the deep muscular fatigue that I've been feeling the previous three weeks.

Tues - AM: 7 miles (1,800') hill tempo. Got an email from Mike Monday afternoon proposing a 'double workout day' for today with a controlled hill tempo in the early AM, followed by Jane's short track workout in the evening. Sure, why not. Mike ended up sleeping through his alarm, so I was solo for the Horsetooth ascent, although I would see him on his way up as I was coming back down. Set the tempo at a very reasonable effort from the get go and ran a comfortable low-end tempo for the full ascent. Went Rock trail the whole way, detouring under the summit to take my preferred north gap route to the bird-poop-stained summit rock. Up in 26:06, which is pretty much exactly what I did two weeks ago on what felt like a much more labored effort. So good to have my legs back. Ultragen with my breakfast.
PM: 8 miles track. Warmed up with two miles to see how the legs were feeling and was pleased to find them reasonably responsive. The workout for tonight was 1,200 open, followed by 2(800,600,400) w/400, 200, 400, 200, 400 jog rest between each. On the opening 1,200 there was a bit of burn in the upper quads and I felt like I was working harder than I should have been for the pace, but given the morning workout things were certainly better than they could have been. The situation was much the same for the rest of the workout, but I was able to hold on decently enough even if I had to dig a bit to hang onto the pace group: 3:58 (5:05 standing rest), 2:32 (2:27 jog), 1:54 (1:17 jog), :73 (2:41 jog), 2:35 (2:38 jog), 1:54, (1:24 jog), :72. Strong headwind on the back straight made the workout a little more interesting (2 x headwind for the 600s). Finished up with a two mile cool down and a full serving of Ultragen.

Weds: 11 miles (2,800') easy. Horsetooth north summit with Stefano, then Westridge, Spring Creek, Herrington, Stout, Falls, Reaper. Although the legs felt good, I kept this one super chill in preparation for the workouts ahead this week(end).

Thurs - AM: 11 miles (1,300') progression. Bluesky/Indian Summer out and back with Slush, Ziggy, Wesir, Lee and Mike. Notched the effort a bit after four miles, heading up Indian Summer, then again at Rim Rock and again at the two-mile fence. Felt great aerobically, but legs a bit bonky/crampy on the rolling terrain.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Jogged a super easy lap on the Falls loop. Calves felt sore from the morning.

Fri - AM: 7.5 miles (1,800') easy. Horsetooth summit before work. Lethargic legs, but beautiful spring morning. Summit 75 on the year.
PM: 3 miles (600') easy. Bench loop. Legs still cranky, so decided against a summit with the big Round Mountain workout early tomorrow.

Sat - AM: 29 miles (9,800') long, hard and hot. I've had this hill repeat workout on the calendar for a couple of months now. Along with the Crosier Triple Bagger from the last week, it's one of my local-mountain spring staples and a key piece of the Grand Slam training plan. I did it two years ago about the same time of year in ideally cool conditions; last year in April with time constraints and hence an abbreviated 21 mile version; and today it got proper toasty over the last couple of hours.

Round Mountain (8,500') is an approximately 3,000' foot climb to the summit over the course of 4.75 miles. The rocky singletrack trail has mile markers to the summit, a fact that has given birth to a painful, and some would argue, ridiculous workout. It involves an out-and-back from each of the four mile markers, finishing up with a final run at the summit for 29 miles and just a touch under 10k' of climbing.

Everyone loves a good workout elevation graph.

I try to run this one at a steadily decent clip with a slight uptick in effort as the run progresses. An uphill endurance pacing session, if you will. I ran with Dan Verdi, who was up from Denver with his wife Abby for a Pikes training run, over the first three repeats then was solo for the rest. The pacing plan was on track all the way until the final summit push, when dehydration and temps in the mid-80s brought on a bout of nausea and a full-on bonk. By mile three on the summit push it was touch and go as to whether or not I'd get up in under an hour (as was the goal), and then by mile four with just .75 to the top there was a full on leg rebellion, and I ended up walking half of the last mile not caring one iota about arbitrary goals and numbers. I had to take a seat at the summit to avoid losing my gut before finding the energy to descend the final 3,000 feet to the trailhead. This was the first legitimately hot run of the year for me and it hurt. Heat training is a clearly piece of the puzzle I am going to have to work on quite seriously over the next few weeks.

Up Splits:

1. 12:42, 11:40, 10:58, 10:48, 11:15
2.            13:13, 12:46, 12:15, 13:20
3.                       12:46, 12:15, 11:55
4.                                  12:40, 12:44
5.                                             12:22

T. 12:42, 24:53, 36:30, 47:58, 61:36

Down Splits:

1. 09:28, 09:13, 08:50, 08:58, 08:52
2.            09:21, 08:50, 08:26, 08:14
3.                       10:03, 10:10, 10:51
4.                                  09:24, 09:02
5.                                             09:36

T. 09:28, 18:34, 27:43, 36:58, 46:34

Total run time: 5:23:11
Total outing time with car refuels: 5:32:34

Sun - 22 miles (2,700') easy. Bluesky out and back to Devil's Backbone from Soderberg with Mike. Indian Summer out, B'sky back. Got super lucky with cloud cover all morning, otherwise could have been some pain out there. Felt decent enough once warmed up, finished up the last four at an up-tempo effort. Solid run to cap a big weekend.

Total: 113 miles (24,400') 

Got a lot done this week, with a double workout day Tuesday, an up tempo run Thursday, then big miles and vert on the weekend. Couple more weeks and it'll be time to start working on getting the legs, mind and body fresh for the thrashing that is 100 mile racing.