Week ending 4/26

This was a decent week overall. Total weekly milage was 35 miles as I took it easy after another decent set of building weeks.
Mon: 4 mi easy
Tue: 5 mi tempo @6:55
Wed: 4 mi easy
Thu: 14 mi trail run 5 mi with a baby stoller! +5450'
Fri: Hot bubble bath, that's right... not afraid to admit it
Sat: 8 mi trail run +3500'
Sun: Off

Thurdsday's trail run was a mix morning evening, though unintended. I had made plans to be out the entire time in the morning but I had some serious GI issues about halfway through mile 5 and decided that I'd best just return to the car. That was O'fallon park via Lair O'er the Bear and after the 42" of snow Evergreen got I had to jump about 75 fallen trees that had snapped right at the base. It was really impressive and I've never quite seen anything like it.
The afternoon saw me take Xavier out for another trail run and we hit up Matthew Winters trail, which I think would be a bad idea in hindsight. I had never run the trail before and there were tons of rocks and areas where the trail was super technical. All in all I never got passed, not even by the plethera of mountain bikers out, and I managed to pass one lady on an uphill who seemed a bit surprised to be getting passed, let alone by someone on foot pushing a jogging stroller. Gotta love those moments.

Saturday, Gunderson and I made the trek down to Deer Creek Park for the first time and I'm going back hands down, no questions asked one of the absolute best trails on the frontrange. There was a great climb into the clouds and the light drizzle actually felt really good. It was a bit chilly but overall there was no problem as I took a light jacket. While on the run I tried out the new "just plain" GU gel and GU2O, LOVED it. The GU2O is not sticky, it's got about 1/8th of the sugar that traditional Gatorade has and all the electrolytes. I think the no taste aspect of the just plain GU will be great after long runs on the trail and races where I don't feel like eating.

In all, it was a great week, I'm looking forward to the coming weeks' runs. The goal milage for next week: 50-55.

A new approach

I'm going to start posting weekly! Too much time demand! DAMN IT!

Sunday Sun

It was so nice out today, the sun was out and so were the scantily clad but really shouldn't be people at wash park. I did a modified 7 mile loop to incorporate wash park and end at harvard gulch so I could meet Rachel and Xavier for sand box and swings time. The run was fairly uneventful but quick at sub 8's. Most of the past few days' snow had melted and the trails were actually nice and soft. I wore my trail runners because I felt like it and it wasn't too bad of a week overall. 45 miles total this week, pretty much right on target. I'll take a few days next week to recover and do more ab work. The old knees need more breaks when I have to run on pavement frequently.

Shloppy Shnow

Today I went out for a run with gunner. We were originally going to make it up for a trail run, but as evergreen got over 2 feet of snow we decided it would be best to stay home and run. The last few days were snowing hard and the snow was wet and mixed with rain. We went out and the snow was just above the ankle and it was raining fairly hard. Our pace was quick and the 7 miles passed nicely. Apart from wet feet and cold quads, the run was really fun. I'm excited to run the Denver Marathon with Gunner, and he's probably the only person that could lure me into running on pavement.

Blastin' through the hills!

So I took my long run today up at Mt. Falcon starting from the Morrison Parking lot. I'd never run that way and the hill was a biggun. There was about 2500' of climbing the first 2.5 miles. I did two loops including Devil's elbow twice, and it totalled out to 16.5 miles. The weather was iffy, but I didn't care, anytime I have a shot at the mountains I'll take it. It hailed for half an hour on the ascent, but then it turned into a drizzling haze as I was in clouds for the entirety of my run above 6500' which was 90% of the run. It was beautiful and the trail hadn't yet taken on too much water making it cushy and not slippery yet. I had several encounters with deer and rabbits, though a few times I was sure other animals were nearby, mostly when I was out on Devil's elbow. Can't wait to do this one again, I'm sore but it was REALLY fun!

An Evening in the Sun

It was a beautiful night as I ran through the park and I had a great 7 mile run. I felt good, about the same effort as monday but 30 seconds quicker per mile. As I was running I thought I saw a lady named Helen that has run with ERC a few times, but I was too shy to say hi. I'm gonna take a day off as my knees are a bit sore tonight... maybe a hot bath'll fix that!

The Rising Sun and the Setting Fog

As I ran this morning, the dew was settling on the grass at Washington Park, and as I made my way through Harvard Gulch, the fog was lying low. What it reminded me of was more picturesque of an Irish morning than a Denver sunrise. Regardless, the air was moist, yet another rarity that is cherished by those of us native to less arid climates. The 7 miles passed almost unnoticed and I had plenty of time to think to myself of all my recent aspirations. Most notably, I've come a long way to deciding that I'll attempt to gain entrance to the States next year. I have a volunteer stint coming at the Leadville 100, and that should also give me a good idea of how much guts it's going to take to finish the damn thing...

A Bit of Rain

I took a little jog over to Keith's place this afternoon and the drizzling rain made me think I was back in Central California again. It rarely rains here in Denver so it was a little treat to run in it. The run was short and quick, but I got to run down logan which has some neat older houses and the moisture we've been getting has turned everything green. The sight of flowers is always a boost to the spirits and my mind wandered a bit... As I was running I decided that I'll try to gain entrance to the Western States 100 next year. We all have goals I guess...

Recovery Day

Today I had a great little recovery run with my wife and son. We took the stroller and headed out around 9:30am to run 7 miles. We had a slower pace, so it felt good to back off a bit after getting in a good quick long run yesterday. We took a half loop of Wash Park before cutting down Virginia to Emerson. Crossing 25 we shot down to Pearl and ran that straight to Harvard Gulch where we took a half lap and headed for home along the bike path. It was great and it was Rachel's longest run ever, so that was really cool. Weather was a bit cold but not unpleasant, I'm looking forward to getting a short run in tomorrow, and I'm already a shade over my goal milage for the week.

Platte River South

After last night's run, I decided to put in some real miles as I was supposed to do my long run yesterday. Without the ability to get away from the house for a long period of time, I decided to check out a new section of the Platte River Trail that I'd never run before. As it turns out, the Platte River South is actually a great deal better than the North side. I found myself ease into an 8:30 pace which for me is moderately quick. The weather was great, 60 degrees with little wind, and there were plenty of bikers out enjoying the good Friday sun. As I went out, I tried some new margarita shot bloks and let me tell you, they are as advertised, lots of salt! I got them because they advertise 3x the sodium and I think they'll work great in place of using a salt cap during long runs. Tehe only bad thing about it was that I ended up going through my water quicker than I had expected. Low and behold, I ended up running along the side of a golf course and was able to refill my water bottle from a standing canteen just off hole 11. About 7.6 miles out I turned around and started heading home. When I started back I felt good so I decided to negative split back home and I held strong aroung 8:10 on the way back finishing at 2:05 for 15 miles. Only after I hit "stop" did I realize that Haile would've just finished running 26.2, what it must be like...

As Darkness Falls

Tonight, I ran in the dark. Started about 9:38 PM and ran O'fallon Park. I was planning on doing 2 loops which would've been 12 miles, but as I ran I discovered that my lighting techniques were less than stellar. There was a thick fog rolling into the valley via Evergreen and a few miles in my LED lights started to compound my sight problems. The uphill sections were actually rather easy, even the technical spot on the second ascent, but the way down was a bit sketchy. A few times I ran into trees, and about 3 times I came dangerously close to really spraining my ankle. As I climbed the final slow climb back to my car, I made an executive decision to call it quits for the night and live to run another day. Overall, I felt really strong, my legs have really gained a significant amount of strength and the core work I've done has really begun to help with my form when climbing. For now, I'll hold off on running trails at night by myself, as I don't think that any of my scheduled races will require any night navigation. In any case my friends, I'll be back to write about my next run...

Starting out...

Well hello internet nobodies who decided to read this blog. As a basic premise I'll be attempting to post here as sort of a narrative running diary. I would imagine that if you are reading this you know me or have associated some way with me through some electronic avenue. In any case I do look forward to posting my mental slobbering and give all the details of my running expeditions. What have I got planned, well, for starts I've got the Sageburner 50K in Gunnison CO on May 23rd which I'm really looking forward to.