Training week ending 031812

Monday 031212 – Creek trail (Boulder), Red Rocks, Sanitas, down the back side, then back over Red Rocks.  7 miles.  1765 vertical feet.  Achilles was a bit sore, but not too bad.  Not too worked from yesterday either.

PM – dog jog, 4 miles.  I feel good!

Tuesday 031312 – started out okay but I ended up popping pretty good as I was underhydrated going in.  The warm temps had me paying for it.  Did the Dirty Bismarck, but cut it short on the climb on the trail near McCaslin  - by swing over to the road and just heading back down to the Coalton trail head.  13 miles.

Wednesday 031412 -Mid day, 14.5 with Shad and Bob on the Dirty Bismarck out of Superior.  Another warm day but I was fairly hydrated going in.  Felt comfortable throughout this run, and even put in a few 6:30s towards the end (although down hill).  Achilles was yipping on and off … sometimes was good, sometimes as a bit pissed. 

Thursday 031512 Mid day, warm.  Thought I’d go a little longer but I was a bit “meh” in the middle and end and so I cut this off at 10 miles.

Friday 031512 – AM – pre dawn very easy 5 miles.

Afternoon – before heading off for the Tenderfoot Stomp, did 7.5 on the Ridgeview Trail, turning it into a tempo, taking the hills a bit harder.  Took the water tower climb and “death hill” to add a bit of vertical and distance.  Felt good, but the hills made things … fun.

Saturday 031612 –slept outdoors (camping with the JZ, the Scouts), and the weather was so wonderful I even skipped putting the rain fly on.  The boys did a five mile hike so I got my run in then.  Pretty beat down given the harder run yesterday and given all the meat and cheese I have ingested in the last 12 hours (typical Scout fare) (need to keep this in mind for future such events).  11 miles.

Caught up to the Scouts towards the tail of the run and so tried walking quickly to see what that was about.  I can walk a sub 15 minute mile fairly easily.  Getting below 14 is more work.  Of course, if I could hold 15 minute pace above treeline at Pikes, that would be pretty damn good.  Something quite a bit different about walking on a flat grade at 5500 feet versus a 11.5 percent grade at 13000 feet.

Sunday 031712 – elected for a day off.  Post the camp out transition, I could have easily got a run in, and was leaning towards some track work.  I made a game day call and decided that with 72 miles of running on the week and ten hours, I would edge in and could easily afford a rest day.  Interested to see if this helps the Achilles at all.

Decent week – over the course of Sunday (from last week) to this Saturday I had my highest weekly total for the year at 89 miles, with about 8000 feet.  I could have gotten 80 plus pretty easily with a Sunday run, but I felt confident in taking a day down.   I could see that today’s run, while it may have been decent, was equally as likely to turn into a “middle” run, not doing much other than leaving me in a hole.

Additionally – the week was different for me in that I did not do typical workouts (typical turn over session, typical tempo session) as I felt a need to have an “absorb” week …absorbing a bit more of the higher mileage, absorbing a bit more of the vertical. 

With folks registering for the race in August, I got wind that we are 22 weeks out.  I will look to continue to wade into the climbing and volume waters a bit more this next week with such matters becoming something I am a bit more mindful of. 

Happen to have been alcohol free for the whole week.  I know it makes a difference with performance for me.

On a side note Steve Bremner caught a picture (as part of ascending Pikes every month of the year) of a marking of the trail near A-frame where folks have traditionally gone off.  This should help.