Week Ending December 15

Mon - 7 miles (1,700') easy. Horsetooth jog.

Tues - AM: 9 miles intervals. This one was kind of a bust with choppy snow on the cemetery loop and single digit temperatures, so just got around. Workout was mile, 2 x 800, mile, 2 x 800, 1.5 mile lamppost fartlek. Jogged the first mile with the group to check out the conditions, then ran the rest at between 5:30 and 5:50 pace.
PM: 7 miles (1,700') easy. Kind of a creaky jog up Horsetooth to catch the sun heading down behind Longs Peak. Finally warming up a bit and just a glorious afternoon to be on a peak. Pikes was visible in glorious technicolor 100 miles to the south.

Weds - 7 miles (1,700') easy. Horsetooth #148. Sun was out and felt awesome after a solid week of frigidity. Down to two layers. Not a whole lot of energy, but it was still great to be out.

Horsetooth from the south on Audra Culver.

Palisade and Round Mountains at the base of Thompson Canyon, with Twin Sisters and Longs above Estes.

South, Middle, North.

Thurs - AM: 10 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Jogged out super easy on Centennial with Slush, Katie and Marie, catching up on the local goings on, then came back solo at a reasonably controlled effort. Now that I don't have Mike to race on these return trips, I'm hoping I can keep things truly within the desired effort range, i.e., not too hard and somewhere between LT and HM. Legs felt a little wooden this morning. Splits coming back: 7:34, 6:26, 6:36, 5:30, 5:15 = 31:22
PM: 6.5 miles easy. Jogged a few easy miles with the FCTR crew around Pineridge. Been a while since I've been to the Thursday social, but felt good to shake out the morning workout.

Fri - 7 miles (1,700') easy. Nice easy cruise up Horsetooth under the warm Colorado sun. The thaw was in full effect and people were out.

Sat - 19 miles (5,000') steady. Out for the classic two summit tour of the parks, with Horsetooth #150 on the year registered along the way. A bit of slipping and sliding and 95% ice or snow, but way, way better than the conditions last weekend and probably 40 degrees milder. Two miles fewer than last weekend at Chubby, but 2 hours 20 minutes quicker. Yup. Out with Malmberg, Burch and recent FoCo (well, Masonville) transplant/Boulder escapee Dane Mitchell. Fun morning.

Couple of Quad Rock course record holders, a Towers FKT holder ... and Clark on top of FoCo.

Summit #150 for 2013. The view of Her Majesty and her Glacier Gorge minions never gets old. 

Sun: 9.5 miles (2,200') easy. Shorts and a T for this one. Bagged another Horsetooth, then eased around on Westridge for the always fun Spring Creek descent.

Total: 82 miles (15,000') 

Haven't seen 80+ miles on the odometer in quite some time. It feels good to be running a little more consistently, but I need to grab a few more Larimer peaks before things start getting serious for 2014. That won't happen until the new year though as we take off for the UK on Tuesday.

Pete and I were hoping to put on a Towers 10k race in April 2014. It would have been a stiff 5k to the top and an electrifying 5k back down to the finish, and surely a whole bunch of fun, but it got nixed by the authorities. Ah well, the biweekly time trials will always be there. Permits for our other three races - Quad Rock, Black Squirrel Half and Bluesky Marathon - have all been given the green light, so we're happy to have those boxes checked. QR reg opened Dec 1, and early pricing is available until Dec 31.