Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Weekly Summary: Jan. 23 - Jan. 29

1/23 - Rest.

1/24 - 5.62 miles.  :49:27.  ~400'v.  Stagecoach.  PM.  Evening run from the house down to the mailboxes at South Shore and back.  Definitely pressed the pace a bit. 

1/25 - 3.11 miles. :26:16. 

1/26 - 5.17 miles.  :56:08.  Stagecoach.  PM.  A mile or so of road before another mile of postholing in the snow.  Back on the road for most of the remainder as I looped around back home.  Relaxed pace for the most part although it was challenge running some of the deeper snow sections.  Dark but not a particularly cold evening run. 

1/27 - Rest.

1/28 - 13.87 miles.  2:28:09.  1170'v.  Stagecoach.  AM. I woke up to -0.4F on the thermometer, so I waited until it warmed up to a balmy 15F just before 10 a.m. to go out for my run around the reservoir.  A beautiful morning albeit cold.  Even the dirt roads had a decent layer of snow and ice on them but I managed to run a few miles in deep snow on trails, particularly on the north side of the reservoir, where I did some knee deep postholing.  Good stuff.  I came up just a bit shy on mileage but the difficulty of the route more than made up for that. 

1/29 - 2.65 miles.  :28:37.  Stagecoach.  PM.  Instead of doing a 6 miler, I ran a short cool down run after doing a ~2 mile, 1.5hr., 1200'v. hike and snowboard descent on Stagecoach Mtn. with Benihana dog.  We got some decent powder despite the general lack of it this winter.   By the evening, my right hamstring was already feeling a little sore.

Weekly total:  32.42 miles.
January total:  142.76 miles

This was the fourth week in my training cycle and, therefore, an "easy" week, mileage wise.  It's a blasphemous thing to say around here but I'm glad we're having a very mild winter and I've been able to get out and run.  That's not say that I wouldn't be riding my snowboard every chance I got if it was dumping like it usually does but it is nice to actually have the option of running in the winter.  In a normal year, there is just too much snow to do much more than death march and hope you don't freeze to death.

Also, I officially registered to do the Run Rabbit Run 100.  $275 is alot cough up for a 30-hour sufferfest but what the hell?  You only live once.  Last week, I also registered for the Quad Rock 50 in Fort Collins.  It'll be a good training run and alot of fun to run some mountain trails in the Front Range this summer.  I'm shooting for a modest 12 hr finish, to make myself slow down, think about my game plan for the Hundred and just enjoy the views.  I should have a ton of photos to share from that one.  So, my race calender is shaping up and I'm stoked about it.  It's going to be a good year.  Lastly, I am havin second thoughts about running the Steamboat Marathon.  Training-wise, I just think it might be a mistake to throw in a road marathon. I don't know.  It would be fun, right?  That's all that should matter.  Well, we'll see.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Weekly Summary: Jan. 16 - Jan. 22

1/16 - Rest.

1/17 - 1.91 miles.  :21:01.  Steamboat.  Noon.  Just a short run to take advantage of a sunny but cold afternoon after a decent snowstorm rolled through.  PM.  ~4 miles.  Quick run after work on roads around the middle school as the sun was going down.  Started to get pretty chilly.

1/18 - 4.83 miles.  :44:57.  Steamboat.  Noon.  Ran from my shop over to Christian's to say hi to my friend that I haven't seen that much lately.  Luckily, I was also able to catch up with Jonny B. and Astaman Vibration while I was there.   From there, I ran to the Core Trail and ran it from the James Brown Soul Center of the Universe Bridge (actual name) through town to Fetcher Park to meet Katy.  I ran a progressively faster pace each mile from 10 min./mile down to 6:30 min./mile.  Not a bad effort considering it was very cold and I wore Microspikes on my feet and carried a 10 lb. backpack!

1/19 - 6.3 miles.  1:00:01.  5-600'v.  Stagecoach.  PM.  Cruised downhill on the roads to the boat ramp by South Shore in near complete darkness.  The footing was actually quite good considering a decent amount of snow and ice.  It was cloudy but relatively warm for a January night.  A little windy.  Tried to push the uphills on the way back home.  Mostly because I wanted to get home and cook dinner!

1/20 - Rest.

1/21 - 16.47 miles.  2:58:01.  1670'v.  Stagecoach.  AM.  Really glad I got this one started early as the weather turned to shit in the afternoon.  I was able to catch the sun rise over the Continental Divide for about 20 minutes before it disappeared behind the clouds.  From the crib, I ran 2.5 miles next to the road before jumping on the snow covered trail on the north side of Stagecoach Reservoir for a couple more miles.  The snow wasn't that deep but the footing did get tough in spots.  About a half mile was just post holing shin deep snow.  The next section was a couple miles of snow covered dirt road before I crossed the dam and ran some more snow covered trail along the south shore.  There were quite a few people ice fishing on the lake, in various spots.  I had no idea it was so popular around here.  The last seven miles were a mix of dirt roads and asphalt.  I ended on 400' of climbing in the last .5 mile on snow covered trail.  There were no real low points during the run and I felt really good running a very conservative pace.  I ate two gels and just about finished my 21oz. water bottle.  After the run, I met up with Graffitti Pete in Oak Creek and he proceeded to give the ribs on my left side a beat down with his tattoo machine.  That hurt way more than the run but he gave me a sick Japanese hannya face that I'll have the rest of my life.  Good times!

1/22 - 3.10 miles.  :33:11.  Stagecoach.  Noon.  Just a chill jog with Katy after hiking up the mountain and snowboarding a little bit.  Nice and mellow dirt road run on ice and new snow.

Totals:  36.61 miles.

A solid week with a great long run.  Looks like the weather may have turned a corner and winter snow conditions MIGHT return to the Yampa Valley.  We had a decent storm roll through Saturday night but who knows if we will start getting it on a regular basis as is the norm here in the north central Rockies.  If it does, it could affect my opportunities to get running mileage and, instead, I will just do more touring on my splitboard (as I originally planned for the winter).  Truthfully, I was enjoying the chance to run in the winter since it's not much of an option in a normal snow year.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Weekly Summary: Jan. 9 - Jan. 15

1/9/12 - Rest.

1/10/12 - 6.08 miles.  :57:22.  Steamboat.  Noon.  Did the 3.5 mile loop from Dizzle's out to the middle school during lunch.  PM.  After work, I did another 2.5 miles out and back on Spring Creek.

1/11/12 - 5.27 miles.  :49:19.  Steamboat.  PM.  Left work an hour early so I could still run in a little sunlight.  Not much, though.  It was dark by the time I wrapped it up.  Out and back on Spring Creek.

1/12/12 - 0 miles.  Didn't get out due to work, cold weather and life.

1/13/12 - Rest.

1/14/12 - 14.28 miles.  2:39:12.  >1000'v.  Steamboat.  AM.  Headed into town early with Katy so that I could go to the shop and work on her car after my run.  It was a brisk 5 degrees when I started out.  From downtown, I hopped on the Core Trail across from the rodeo grounds and headed toward the mountain.  I ran through my old neighborhood at Indian Meadows where some people had cleared the snow off the pond and set up a hockey rink.  At the end of the trail, I decided to take a lap around Whistler Park.  From there, I got back on the roads and did the 700' climb up to the top of Apres Ski Lane and then came downhill on Ski Trail Lane before stopping in at the Lodge to say hi to Katy, Greg and Patrick for a minute.  Afterwards, I continued downhill on Mt. Werner Circle and started to feel a little sore in some of my core muscles.  The feeling passed after a couple of miles and I was feeling good again by the time I got back to town.  As I ran passed Howelsen Hill, I could see cross country skiers competing and heard an announcer saying they were collegiate athletes.  There was a good sized crowd at Olympian Hall.  I ran down to the library then crossed over the 13th Street bridge and ran the rail road tracks until I crossed back over to the BMX track.  I ran on the side of the cross country ski track that had been groomed next to the softball fields and could hear skiers coming up behind me.  I almost felt like I was in the race for a minute there.  I would've stuck around to watch the race if I didn't  have a Subaru engine to take apart to install new head gaskets.  I finished up my run at the high school and did a quarter mile of walking/shuffling to cool down.  Overall, it was kind of a tough run with the rough patch in the middle but it was nice to get past the half-marathon distance again.

1/15/12 - 5.59 miles.  :49:45.  >500'v.  Stagecoach.  Thought I might be more tired for today's run but actually felt fairly recovered from my long run with the exception of a little soreness in my inner left quadracep.  Since I'm resting tomorrow, I pushed the effort a little bit harder but not overly so. 

Weekly Totals:  31.22 miles. 

A decent week of running despite getting shut down on Thursday.  No matter, that's life.  Sure, the overall mileage was down a little but I doubt I'll miss that 6 mile run come next summer.  (Hell, I didn't miss it that much on Thursday.)  I feel like my body is responding to my training schedule and is getting stronger however,  I still have much work to do in the endurance department.  Saturday's 14 miler definitely had some rough spots (even though I finished strong) and I'm hoping for good weather next weekend when I need to go 16.  After that long run, I'm getting my ribs tattooed (yeah!  Graffitti Pete is town for a visit.) so it could end up being a fairly painful day.  In a good way, of course.  Also, I registered for the Desert R.A.T.S. 25 miler in Fruita on April 14th to use as a long training run.  I'm actually going to run 6 miles BEFORE the race starts so that I can get in a 50 kilometer effort.  Last year, I was registered to run a half marathon during this yearly trail running festival but didn't go, so I'm stoked for the chance to go run in the high desert this time around.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Weekly Summary: Jan. 2 - Jan. 8

1/2/12 - Rest.  My new training schedule calls for an off day on Mondays so I'll try not to run. Instead, I'll try and take the dogs for longer hikes up and down the hills or hit the pool or the weight room.   Today, I just hit the hot springs and took it easy.

1/3/12 - 6.07 miles.  :57:10.  ~350'v.  Stagecoach.  PM.  Clover-leaf run on the roads after work.  Cold, dark and enough traffic to make me nervous everytime an oncoming car came bombing down the road with its headlights blinding me.  Not a big fan of running roads at night. 

1/4/12 - 5.01 miles.  :43:10.  ~300'v.  Steamboat.  Noon.  Ran a road loop from 4th Street to the middle school and back into town.  Then, up and down the trail by the high school for an extra mile.  There were a couple good short uphills and I took it easy on the climbs but the downhills were nice and long so I pressed the pace a bit when I had the chance.

1/5/12 - ~6 miles.  54:52.  ~300'v.  Steamboat.  Noon.  Great road run (In shorts, no less.  Is it really January?) from JDs, past the high school, over to the middle school, then out to Buff Pass road and back into town.  Possibly just a touch short of 6 miles but I didn't have my GPS with me for this one.  I really like this route:  good up and down hills and a couple of flat road miles.  What a warm and sunny day, though.  I can't believe we're having weather like this!  Definitely the most mild January day I've experienced since I moved here. 

1/6/12 -  Rest. 

1/7/12 - 12.15 miles. 2:12:52.  1120'v.  Stagecoach.  AM.  It was supposed to snow this afternoon so I decided to run early and beat the storm (It never materialized.  Same thing all winter.)  Plus, I just love to run early in the day.  It was a crisp morning, mid-20s and lightly snowing.  I ran dirt roads covered in just a skiff of snow, hiding the icy spots underneath, for the first 3.5 miles.  I probably should've worn my Microspikes but I managed alright.  I jumped on the trail that parallels the lakeshore and ran a few trail miles out to the dam.  I took in the view of the water spewing out the other side of the dam where the Yampa river was being recreated and relieved myself while basking in the natural beauty.  Ahh.  Then, after nearly slipping to my ass on the ice, I started my run back home.  I retraced my steps in the snow on the trail back to dirt road and then ran a few more miles next to the asphalt road.  I kept the effort extremely relaxed, breathing out of my nose almost the entire time.  It was a nice, cool morning and I hadn't run in a snowfall for a little while so I took my time and really enjoyed the run.  I took two gels during the run.  One, just before the 1-hour mark and another at about an hour forty-five.  I stayed on top of my hydration and felt really good when the run was over.  Not tired a bit.   Walked up the hill and back down as a cool down.  Already looking forward to going long next weekend.  Fourteen miles.  Yes.

1/8/12 - 6.28 miles.  1:09:25.   670'v.  Spring Creek Trail.  AM.  Snowfall from the previous 24 hours accumlated a bit more in Steamboat than it did out here in Stagecoach.  I bit the bullet and made the drive into town to run Spring Creek for some snowy trail run action in the Microspikes.  I did the familiar out and back from JDs downtown abode up to the ridge above Spring Creek.  There were a few inches of new snow but the trail had been packed out a little bit by hikers and one skier.  The footing was a little dicey, yet fun and challenging.  By the time I made it up to the turn around point, I was running in sunlight under a bluebird sky and stoked I had made the drive to town just to run 6 miles.  I pushed the pace on the way out and didn't carry water or gels.  Excellent run and half mile cool down walk/run around Old Town. 

Weekly Mileage:  35.51 miles  ~2740'v.