Breaking down and building up

Ten days until CPTR and my training is going along as well as I could hope. This week marks my longest and toughest runs in this cycle and while a sight shorter than marathon distance, I'm really happy to be feeling injury free and getting stronger adding mileage each week without any difficulty.

Yesterday, I started out running in the park with the dogs, Benihana and Marvin. Right away, I could see this wasn't going to work. Still, I took them around the park and on a hill climb and trail run to wear them out a little. Added up to a couple miles of warm up running for me and I took the little guys home and took off on the road. Ran the hill road route up Bear Dr. to Apres and over to Ski Trail and then around Mt. Werner Circle. I just ran and didn't bring a watch so I have no I idea how long I was out. Sometimes, I just want to run. Not train, just run. My mileage came out to about 8 miles, accordig to Map My Run. I kept the tempo quick and worked all the hills up and down.


Today, I ran the 4 miles down to Howelsen Hill along the old Yampa River bike path. Overcast skies kept it cool and a little breezy. I, then, surprised myself by running up and around the backside of the Hill hitting some major renegade snow and mud on the climb. I kept my pace steady, heart rate also steady at 164 bpm. After the steep ass 440' up to the top of the Hill, I stayed long enough to look at my watch (:48 from the house!) and , then down the steepest part of the face, under the T-bar, in half snow and half mud, slipping much of the way. So damned fun! Ran back at the same way I came, bike path, running 90% of it on the trail again, and kept the pace strong. Finished the 10 mile(ish) loop in 1:27 and jogged it off for a few minutes. That was good for an 8:42/mile average pace, including the climb and descent (took 4 minutes!) of Howelsen Hill. If I can maintain that pace (or push it) I could break 4 hours for the CPTR! Chances are, though, that I will start to crumble in the late miles since I haven't done any running longer than 3 hours this year. But the thought of breaking 4 hours is exciting though.

My race strategy, if I have one, is to run aid station to station and refuel hard each time, stopping as short as possible. There are five, so I'm just going to go for five 5 mile runs that day. I want to run light, gearwise, hand bottle only. I'd like to carry my camera, too, but the jury's still out on that one.

I drove by Mad Creek trail head this afternoon to check on it's run-worthiness and I'm stoked to see it good to go. I'm going to run up there tomorrow after work! Hope to have a great trail report to follow.