Week Ending January 19

Monday - 5 miles (1,500') jog/hike. Horsetooth north. Drove down to the trailhead and attempted a summit of Horsetooth, but was reduced to a hike/jog, due to continued sickness and super icy conditions underfoot.

Tuesday - 4 miles jogging. Went down to City Park for Jane's workout, but ended up jogging the intervals as I was still feeling crappy. Gave up once the snow started coming down.

Wednesday - 7.5 miles (1,800'). Horsetooth north. The trails were still an icy mess, but I finally felt some strength returning to my body, although still hacking up a lung.

Thursday - AM: 10 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Out a little quicker than normal, but still relatively easy, then back with Jason at tempo effort. Still a bit under the weather, the hills were tough, but I was able to at least get some kind of turnover going. Back in 31:25 - 7:36, 6:35, 6:42, 5:24, 5:06.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,800') easy. Gorgeously sunny out, so cruised up and got a nice easy Horsetooth summit.

Friday - AM: 7.5 miles (1,800') easy. Another beautiful morning. Up the hill easy with Danny.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,800') easy. Jogged out another summit with the last rays of the day.

Sat - 12.5 miles (4,400') peaks. Met up with Jason, Burch, Lewis, Dane and Sam for a loop on Greyrock. The trails were better than I thought they would be, but I kept it at one loop before heading down the canyon to Gateway Natural Area with Jason to bag ranked 6,823' to the east of Seaman Reservoir. For this one, we ran the mile to the private property line on the southeast corner of Seaman Reservoir. Once the property there came into sight, we hoofed steeply uphill following a ridge with good goat trails all the way to the summit. This one was fairly open, so it went quickly. Up and back in just a little over an hour. Nice views of Seaman Reservoir, Greyrock and other peaks up the canyon from the top.

Sun - 21.5 miles (4,000') steady. Horsetooth/Redstone/Horsetooth yo-yo. 3:30. Started out with an easy jog up Horsetooth, then ran the road down to Redstone Canyon where I did a steady out and back to the three-mile marker, holding 7:10s up the hill and 6:45s down. After that I was back up the hill for another easy summit of Horsetooth (16) before heading for home. It took a while to force myself out the door for this one, as the motivation to run long just hasn't been there of late. This may have been my longest run since Wasatch, so I was pleased to feel decently strong the whole way around.

Total: 83 miles (18,500')

The start of this week was pretty much a bust due to lingering flu-like symptoms. That started abating by the middle of the week, so I was able to finish things out on a strong note - finally getting a legitimate long run under my belt on Sunday. It's been a while.

Looking forward to some Frost Giant action up in Estes Park on Sunday - always a fun time. This will be my first trip up the Big Thompson Canyon since the floods, so I'm interested to see how things look there. Hoping to also find some time to bag West Crosier on the way back, the last ranked peak in the Big Thompson area that I need. Speaking of which, I picked up Larimer County ranked peak number 150 on Saturday, which leaves just 105 more to get until I have the full collection! Probably be another couple of years.