Two Weeks Ending August 31

Week Ending August 24

Mon - Noon: 9.5 miles (2,500) easy. A Horsetooth summit (134), then some scrambling heading north on the ridge to connect with the high point on the Westridge trail. Felt really good today.
PM: 6 miles (500') easy. Jogged out an initial three miles, then came back hard at a progression effort.

Tues - Noon: 6.5 miles (1,700') steady. Horsetooth (135) at a steady 50-mile effort.
PM: 6 miles (500') tempo. On the Valley trails again from Soderberg. Easy opening mile, then progression to 5k effort. Feeling kinda spry.

Weds: 7 miles (1900') easy. Horsetooth summit (136), back via Wathen.

Thurs - AM: 5 miles (1,500') easy. Casual jog up to the top (137) with Lee early morning.
PM: 8.5 miles (1,500') easy. Led a Black Squirrel Half Marathon training run from Timber.

Fri - 12 miles (2,500') easy. Horsetooth summit (138), then around on Westridge, Mill Creek, Loggers, Stout, Spring Creek. Nice and steady and really feeling pretty good.

Sat - 8 miles (2,000') easy. Horsetooth summit (139), then some tooling around on the ridge rocks before heading down Spring Creek.

Sun - 18 miles (8,500') bagging. Never Summer Traverse with Cam. Just an awesome line in some killer hills.

Total: 79.5 (23,100')

Week Ending August 31

Mon - 6.5 miles (1,700') easy. Jogged a lap on Horsetooth (140).

Tues - 8 miles (1,900') steady. Knew I wasn't going to make the evening's track workout, so went hard on Horsetooth (141) via Audra and then back down on Wathen.

Weds - 9.5 miles (2,000') easy. Horsetooth summit (142) and down on Westridge/Spring Creek.

Thurs - AM: 10.5 miles (1,200') steady. Early morning outing on Blue Sky with Lee and Slush. Came back at a tempo effort from Rim Rock junction over the last 3.5 miles.
PM: 7 miles (1,700') moderate. Had intended to fully jog Towers, but found myself warming into the run about halfway up the hill, so kept things steady from there to the top. No watch, but somewhere in the 33-34 range.

Fri - 7 miles (1,700') easy. Jogged out an easy summit of Horsetooth (143).

Sat - 24 miles (6,000') at 100-mile effort. Out on the local trails for a Horsetooth - Arthurs- Horsetooth (145) yo-yo by way of Audra - Westridge - Mill Creek - Howard - Lory Westridge - Arthurs Rock - Valley - Sawmill - Loggers - Herrington - Towers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Wathen - Rock - Audra - Southridge. Fun, steady and confidence-building morning. Practiced keeping right on 100 mile effort, fueling and maintaining mental focus. Felt supremely comfortable the whole way around. Really starting to get my head in the game for Steamboat.

Sun - 10 miles (2,500') easy. Ran with Sarah early, nursing a slight hangover from moderate overindulgence at Alex and Nora's weeding the night before. Sweated most of it out early, then enjoyed a nice social cruise with Sarah, who I hadn't seen in a while. Always good to catch up. Horsetooth (146) - Westridge - Spring Creek.

Total: 82 miles (19,700')

So, mainly some jogging around in the local hills with some fun peak bagging outings thrown in along the way. I've really just been trying to get into a rhythm of daily vertical and consistent running without worrying overly about total mileage, which is way down on my volume from years past. But that doesn't concern me.

The major concern for Steamboat is getting the effort level correct for the full 100 miles, which in concert with some pretty significant tooling to my nutrition strategy (working closely with Abby McQueeney Penamonte over the last six weeks) should hopefully have me finishing the race on a strong note. By no means am I going to be setting the ultraruning world on fire out there, but that's not the goal. The goal is to complete the race in the fastest manner possible, which for me means slowing way the hell down over the first half and hopefully staying consistent over the back half.

Confidence levels are getting back up there, after pretty much being ready to throw in the towel post Western States. Enjoying some taper time right now.