2/27 - Rest.
2/28 - 5.78 miles. 1:04:21. ~600'v. Steamboat. PM. It snowed very hard all day long but I was able to take advantage of a mid-afternoon window of moderate snow to run Spring Creek Trail from JDs house downtown. It started out only snowing lightly for the first half hour. I was even warm and took of my beanie for a little while at the beginning of the run. I passed a group of older folks skiing down the trail as I ran up and one of the concerned older ladies says to me, "Where's your hat?" How thoughtful. I assured her it was in my pocket and I was going to be alright. Later, the trail was snowshoe packed but I still ended up breaking some trail on the final climb up the ridge and I continued until I got stopped by a fairly deep snowdrift. I turned around and started back down and it started snowing harder. I cruised the 2.5 miles back to the trail head then ran the road up to Butcherknife Canyon trail before running through some alleys on the way back to JDs. It was cool spending most of the run in the woods and then coming out and running by the cute, little mountain houses in Old Town. Snowy run, for sure.
2/29 - 2.16 miles. 1:17:15. ~400'v. Stagecoach. PM. Snowshoe with Benny. Made a .5 mile lap through the open space but it was a bit windy so we headed up the mountain. Broke a trail up and, then, downhill in some pretty deep snow. I didn't feel like running when I got home so this was my alternative. Slow and steady.
3/1 - 6.66 miles. :57:43. Steamboat. Yampa River Core Trail. PM. After work run from downtown to Casey's Pond and back on the Core Trail. A little cement and alot of ice and snow just before it got dark and started snowing again. Another burly drive home afterwards.
3/2 - Rest.
3/3 - Snowboarding. 2:43:00. -16,360'v. Steamboat Ski Area. AM. I was supposed to do a 21-mile long run today but, instead, Katy scored me a ski pass and with all the new snow this week, had to settle for the Best Day of riding this year. Solo shred morning session. Tons of powder and plenty deep as it continued to snow. Ridiculously good runs through the trees on the skier's left of Concentration. Later, I ran into Ian Wilson, in town from Ft. Collins, and took him and couple of his friends down Broadway Trees where I had found untracked lines earlier. My last run, I dropped the rope next to the Gondola and rode some out of bounds terrain before finishing up. I even got to "hollywood" under the Gondy as I rode out on Lower Valley View. It was hard to leave when I did but I wanted to meet up with some friends and watch "A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas."
3/4 - 20.69 miles. 4:06:28. 1,800'v. Stagecoach. late AM start. From the house, I ran some hilly, snow covered dirt road for 5 miles until I got to the end of the road in the South Shore neighborhood. That's when the fun started. From there, I pulled out my hiking poles (yep, I ran with poles in anticipation of dealing with over a foot of snow that fell during the week) and started post holing thigh deep snow. At first, I decided to follow a track that led across the lake but I was not only punching through super deep snow but also stepping into 3 inches of water every time I took a step. My gaiters and Gore-Tex shoes kept my feet from getting totally soaked but I was sure that my feet were already wet. I decided to not trudge through the water and turned around making my way back up to the shoreline and punched out a new trail for the next .5 mile until I got to the dam. I looked down at my GPS to check my pace, which had slowed to a laughable 30-45 min/mile. Once I crossed the dam, I took off my gaiters and stowed them in my Nathan vest. I kept the walking sticks out, sipped some water and felt pretty good, ready to run some snowmobile packed trail down towards Sarvis Creek. This was the best part of the run. The snow was decently packed so I could maintain a run and the sun came out as I ran in a small, narrow valley next to the Yampa River. I passed a couple of snowshoers and couple people out fishing. It was really beautiful. I turned around when my GPS read 9 miles and cruised back up the road. Right before I got back to the dam, I stepped through a cattle guard and put a nice knot on my left shin. Ouch! Took it easy for a minute and ate a Clif Bar. From the dam, I stayed on the road that goes around the north shore of the reservoir. Fortunately, the plow had made one pass on the road so it was easy to run. After a couple more miles, I got onto CR 14 and ran on the shoulder of the road which was just wet asphalt, so I was finally able to get some traction and I ran a decent pace to the turn off that goes back up to the house. The next 2 miles were pretty uneventful except seeing the sled dogs hanging out by the reservoir. It made me think of local musher, Tom Thurston, who is running his dogs in the Iditarod right now. As I made the last hill before the house, I was starting to struggle a bit so I pulled out the sticks to lean on a little bit and decided to run another mile and half up the road before turning around a calling it a day. I took a few big gulps of water and worked one more long uphill then turned around pushed myself to finish strong. I was definitely tired and a little sore by the end of the run but felt really good about breaking the 20 mile and 4 hour marks.
Weekly Totals: 35.29 miles. 6:24:00 running/snowshoe. 2:43:00 snowboarding. 19,160'v.
Again, I didn't get the mileage I was supposed to get according to my training schedule but I'm getting the long runs done, getting plenty of time on my feet, spending some time outside and I'm shredding some serious snow. All good things and it's always good to mix it up to avoid overtraining. It's exciting to be able to run 20 miles again especially so early in the year and feeling strong enough to improve.
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