The snow was blowing all day long. The morning run felt quite peaceful but the traction was so bad that I ended up with terrible average pace. I the evening I did the usual Green loop with RMR in the now several inches of snow. Without much of a base-layer it was bit choppy but my new La Sportiva Crossover GTX shoes worked perfectly on their first outing. The real highlight (or lowlight) was biking to and from the Southern Sun afterwards. Getting to the bar wasn't too bad but coming home took about an hour (usually takes 10 minutes) due to the snow. I could just never get any traction in the sugary snow.
2/2, Tuesday - Green Mtn - 5 miles, 2800', 3:10
If you want to know really how bad conditions were today, check out that time. It took me 3 hours to go 5 miles! I biked up with my ski poles roped to my back and took the 1st Flatiron access trail to the summit in snow that in places reached hip deep. Luckily, school had been canceled because it took forever. On the descent I broke my pole in some rocks and tore a finger on my glove so I was pretty angry between how slow it went and my broken equipment. Nevertheless, I'm always happy to get out there in the snow.
2/3, Wednesday - Treadmill - 9 miles, 1:06
Too cold and snowy to run fast right now so Jack and I took shelter in the rec center for a workout. 1 x 20min then 3 x 5min. My pace for most of the intervals was somewhere between 5:50 and 6:30 min/mi. I felt okay but nothing special and definitely could not keep my magic carpet moving as fast as Jack's.
2/4, Thursday - Mt Sanitas - 7 miles, 1500', 1:06
School was busy since yesterday morning but I finally got a quick run in.
2/5, Friday - Gold Hill - 24 miles, 3300', 3:44
After getting squashed on this route last week I did it again in order to please Tony and Alberto who both said I went way too slow. It was cold heading up in the morning, but my legs felt good despite my numb fingers and wind battered cheeks. The descent passed normally until I reached the upper creek path which doesn't get city maintenance. All of the snow from the road had been plowed onto the path and almost nobody had tracked it out yet. Being day 3 after the storm I plunged knee deep at times for a couple miles (which ruined my mile average) until I reached the maintenance area where I could cleanly run back home.
2/6, Saturday - Ski: Loveland - 11 miles, 4100', 4:41
Finally got out on some AT skis. Its certainly not doing me any favors for Mississippi training, but it was a good time on the demo setup. I did 2 and a half laps from the base of Loveland up to the divide, or "Route B". I felt like death the whole time (not enough calories, sleep, water, rest...oops), so I only did a half lap on the last one.
2/7, Sunday - Mt Sanitas - 9 miles, 1500', 1:35
Still well behind on sleep but I felt a bit more fresh today until the ice climb up Sanitas; I hiked everything uphill. Huge turnout for the group run which meant the doughnuts and coffee were gone in a blink of an eye. Even cooler was that I won the raffle for guessing the cumulative score of both teams in the Superbowl (34), so I won a free pair of shoes and the Broncos won. Great day.
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| Pre-run group pic, clearly Guy likes being cold. |
65 miles
11,800'
15:18
Really light on the vertical this week (though including skiing the total gets to a slightly better 16k). School got really busy mid-week and then I stayed up too late for the early mornings on the weekend, so its my own fault I didn't have as a high volume as I should have. One month to Mississippi.
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2/8, Monday - Green Mtn - 6 miles, 2500', 1:30
RMR Monday. Snow was perfect for descending, almost PR conditions.
2/9, Tuesday - 2 x 5km - 11 miles, 200', 1:19 || PM: La Sportiva - 7 miles, 0:50
Doing speedwork alone is tough, its so nice to have someone else there that you can go back and forth with. Anyways, this morning I was on my lonesome on the creek path. Temperatures were high 30's which was perfect for a workout. I split 19:11 for the first 5km and 18:54 for the second with a 10 minute easy run between them. Went out for the La Sportiva group run in the evening, which ended up being a bit quicker with ~5 of the miles being at 6:50 pace, legs felt okay though, so I went with it.
2/10, Wednesday - 1st Flatiron + Green Mtn - 5 miles, 2800', 1:34
Given the nice weather, I left our crew of Hillary, Lassen, Cat, Derek and Clare to go up the 1st in an effort to hone my scrambling skills a bit before tomorrow. It really wasn't too bad aside from a few spots where I couldn't just mindlessly follow the usual holds. They passed me coming down just below the summit, so after tagging my summit I pushed the downhill just enough to catch back up.
2/11, Thursday - Longs Peak - 6 miles, 3000', 3:06
Kendrick, Peter and I went out hoping to summit via the NW Couloir but got turned around by biblical winds which were so strong any forward progress required crawling. We turned around on the shoulder of Lady Washington in 50+mph winds with gusts around 70mph, the summit gusts would have taken me all the way to Kansas!
2/12, Friday - 2nd Flatiron + Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3000', 2:13
Easy up the 2nd to Green with Hillary. She was nervous about the scramble but never even questioned any move besides getting a little spooked on the jump. Met Ryan and Cat on the way down Gregory Canyon.
2/13, Saturday - North Boulder Roads - 18 miles, 800', 2:05
Met Jack early in the fog but he had already ran 5 miles around the Res. We did an 18 miles lollipop loop on dirt roads at a quicker-than-I-wanted pace of 6:57. He then continued to round off his mileage to 30 (averaging 7:04's!) after I bailed off at 18.
2/14, Sunday - Fourmile Canyon - 20 miles, 1700', 3:30
Back to back long run with Jack again. Most startling was that Jack wasn't even remotely tired after yesterday's onslaught of miles and speed; he might have a shot at Western States ticket at Gorge if his MS50 goes well and he has a good race. Anyways, I felt super unmotivated and tired to the point where I was just running with eyes closed hoping to just get it over with and that my headache would go away.. At a certain point I decided to call it and trot back down rather than fight the un-winnable battle with my mind.
Week Totals:
84 miles
17,400'
16:15
Feeling a bit overtrained and missing out on sleep, calories and such lately which is probably a result of averaging 17hrs/80mi/17,000ft for the last 4 weeks without a rest day. Hopefully I can get out of this slump quick for MS50, then I'd like to try and take a week or two completely off (not even biking or scrambling, which is HARD to do. What do I do with time, then?).
Doing speedwork alone is tough, its so nice to have someone else there that you can go back and forth with. Anyways, this morning I was on my lonesome on the creek path. Temperatures were high 30's which was perfect for a workout. I split 19:11 for the first 5km and 18:54 for the second with a 10 minute easy run between them. Went out for the La Sportiva group run in the evening, which ended up being a bit quicker with ~5 of the miles being at 6:50 pace, legs felt okay though, so I went with it.
2/10, Wednesday - 1st Flatiron + Green Mtn - 5 miles, 2800', 1:34
Given the nice weather, I left our crew of Hillary, Lassen, Cat, Derek and Clare to go up the 1st in an effort to hone my scrambling skills a bit before tomorrow. It really wasn't too bad aside from a few spots where I couldn't just mindlessly follow the usual holds. They passed me coming down just below the summit, so after tagging my summit I pushed the downhill just enough to catch back up.
2/11, Thursday - Longs Peak - 6 miles, 3000', 3:06
Kendrick, Peter and I went out hoping to summit via the NW Couloir but got turned around by biblical winds which were so strong any forward progress required crawling. We turned around on the shoulder of Lady Washington in 50+mph winds with gusts around 70mph, the summit gusts would have taken me all the way to Kansas!
2/12, Friday - 2nd Flatiron + Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3000', 2:13
Easy up the 2nd to Green with Hillary. She was nervous about the scramble but never even questioned any move besides getting a little spooked on the jump. Met Ryan and Cat on the way down Gregory Canyon.
2/13, Saturday - North Boulder Roads - 18 miles, 800', 2:05
Met Jack early in the fog but he had already ran 5 miles around the Res. We did an 18 miles lollipop loop on dirt roads at a quicker-than-I-wanted pace of 6:57. He then continued to round off his mileage to 30 (averaging 7:04's!) after I bailed off at 18.
2/14, Sunday - Fourmile Canyon - 20 miles, 1700', 3:30
Back to back long run with Jack again. Most startling was that Jack wasn't even remotely tired after yesterday's onslaught of miles and speed; he might have a shot at Western States ticket at Gorge if his MS50 goes well and he has a good race. Anyways, I felt super unmotivated and tired to the point where I was just running with eyes closed hoping to just get it over with and that my headache would go away.. At a certain point I decided to call it and trot back down rather than fight the un-winnable battle with my mind.
Week Totals:
84 miles
17,400'
16:15
Feeling a bit overtrained and missing out on sleep, calories and such lately which is probably a result of averaging 17hrs/80mi/17,000ft for the last 4 weeks without a rest day. Hopefully I can get out of this slump quick for MS50, then I'd like to try and take a week or two completely off (not even biking or scrambling, which is HARD to do. What do I do with time, then?).
Man I really enjoy all the pics. I need to make a visit up there to hit some trails. Some day!!
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