Sunday, February 19, 2012

Weekly Summary: Feb 13 - Feb 19

2/13 - Rest.

2/14 - 5.03 miles.  :54:05.  360'v.  Stagecoach.  PM.  Katy and I both got off work early enough to run an out and back on the road from the house down to CR 14. 

2/15 - 5.20 miles.  :54:38. 360'v.  Stagecoach.  PM.  Another roadie with the lovely Kate.  Felt tired.

2/16 - 3.88 miles.  1:15:04.  1220'v.  Stagecoach.  PM.  I opted to hike/run/trudge up Stagecoach Mtn. to "The Beach" in knee deep snow with Benihana rather than dodge headlights on the county road.  Solid effort and very slow going ascent from the top of Second Pitch to The Beach as we broke trail.  It's been snowing again and I'm not snowboarding!  WTF?!!

2/17 - Rest.

2/18 - 17.98 miles.  3:29:18.  1650'v.  Steamboat.  AM.  Started my long run with an easy 2.30 mile, :29:20,  warm up before doing a Running Series race, Love the Run Your With, a 6.85 mile, 1:17:21 snow run on Emerald Mountain.  The entire course was super tough with loosely packed and punchy snow that made it very appropriate to wear snow shoes, which I didn't.  The ascent was grueling at some points and I redlined my effort the entire time.  Tough, tough, tough.  I was relieved for the downhill but the footing remained difficult as I seemed to punch through the snow every 50 steps or so.  Really hard to establish any kind of rhythm.  I ran the majority of the downhill with a guy named Tom and we finished the race together, just happy to be done.  At least, he was.  I still had 9 more miles to do, so I ate another Honey Stinger and ran to the Core Trail from Howelsen Hill to Rotary Park.  On my return to town, I crossed over to River Road and made my way back to Howelsen to refill my water bottle at Olympian Hall.  I still had a couple more miles to go so I jumped back on the Core Trail and ran towards the library where I saw Mina, my friend Jonny's mother-in-law, jogging down the trail.  We jogged and chatted our way down to Stockbridge and back to Howelsen.  I felt good for the most part during my run(s) but my legs are definitely feeling it this evening.  Whooped.

2/19 - 10.01 miles.  1:38:59.  980'v.  Stagecoach.  AM.  I didn't think it was particularly cold when I left on my run but the wind chilled me right to the bone every time I was running into it.  I stayed warm enough but really should have worn a windbreaker instead of fleece.  I stayed on the roads for this effort since I was sufficiently over running in the snow after yesterday's race.  Still had some slight lingering soreness in my left quadracep from yesterday but, otherwise, I felt good on this outing. 

Week Totals:  42.10 miles.  8:12:04.  4570'v.

A good week.  Still coming up a little short on mileage but getting more than adequate time on my feet.  Such is running in the mountains in the mid-winter, when even an easy 4 mile "run" can take well over an hour.  I was a little worried about going long this weekend and actually getting the mileage required by my training schedule but I think it helped to include a fun (but challenging) race into the mix.   One of the participants in the race was Allen Belshaw, an accomplished local ultrarunner who has twice won the Squaw Peak 50 and Desert RATS 50 and has victories at the Plain 100 (self supported 100 miler) and Laramie 100.  I introduced myself after the race and while we talked he told me that it was a good training idea for me to race before finishing my long run.  "Put down some calories and keep running,"  he said.  "If you go sit down now, you'll never want to get back up."  I guess I felt a little inspired by his advice and it really motivated me to go out and get the remainder of my distance for the day. 

I feel like my diet is staying on track although I probably ate way too much Valentine's chocolate this week.

Next week will be another reduced mileage and recovery week which is good since I'm finding it harder to get miles in accumulating snow.  Hopefully, when March arrives, the weather will be more agreeable for running.  Of course, as I type this, I see that it is starting to snow.  Oh, boy.  Maybe I'll just have to go snowboarding!

No comments:

Post a Comment