October 14th- October 20th

"Life is like riding a bicycle.  To keep your balance you must keep moving." - Albert Einstein

Monday:   

-- Finished book number 23 of the year last night.  Only one more to go to hit my goal for the year.  Targeted: Beirut  . Super interesting for it talks basically how we got pulled into the Middle East back in the 1980s and have not left since.

9 AM:  Airdyne in the garage for 1000 calories and/or 23 miles which took 1:17.  Done in a heat suit, 5 layers on top, all wool except the down jacket on top, and 2 layers down low. Will do this again on Thursday or Friday with more layers... that sucked.

1 PM: Walk 3 miles in 48mins.  Dog walk around the hood with Venus. 

3 PM: 40 mins lifting in the garage gym.

Warmup: Rowing and Mobility

Lifting the garage. All upper body. Bench, Shoulder Press, Back movement, Biceps, Triceps, and one Core movement. Little heavier today than normal. Will do legs Wed after they recover some from Saturday, quads are still sore.

-- followed this with 20mins in the hot tub... going all in this week with heat training.

Tuesday:  

9:30 AM:  6.3 miles averaging 7:30pace.  Lap of the Costco loop in Superior. Out on the dirt roads behind Costco and back on the Dirty Bizmark trails. Little quicker than I was expecting today but I'll take it.

1 PM:  Walked 2.6 miles in 43mins.  Easy dog walk around the hood. Same route as the past few days.  

-- Right into the sauna for 30mins right after the walk.  Will stretch and do the hot tub later this evening before bed.

Wednesday:

6:45 AM:  7.2 miles w/ 800ft of vert averaging 7:50pace.  Easy 2 loops of Springbrook from Dowdy Draw Trailhead with 6 or so pickups in the middle of the run. Great morning out there! Heart rate band was not working correctly so may have pushed a little to hard in the middle but oh well.

1 PM: Walked 2.6 miles in 41mins.  Dog walk around the hood, same loop as we have done the past 6 days.  30mins in the sauna directly afterwards.  

Thursday:  

  -NOTE:  Weight check in:  Was expecting to be back over 170 due to my snacking before bed the last week but instead I am down almost 2 more pounds and body fat dropped too.  So damn weird, I have been tracking my food and have been over my daily calories by hundreds of calories everyday but still dropping weight.  Guessing it is due to the increase in my metabolism from all the heat training.  Just a guess.  Anyways logged in at 167.8 lbs and 7.4% body fat.

7 AM:  7.2 miles w/ 800ft of vert averaging 7:45 pace.  Exact same route as yesterday starting at Dowdy Draw over to two loops of Springbrook and back.  Little quicker today and heartrate strap was working.  Tried to keep in in the 130's for most of the run.  Felt super good after the first warmup mile.

Came across this guy this morning.... 

1 PM:  Walk 2.6 miles in 41mins.  Same dog loop around the hood we have been doing for over a week straight.  

3:30 PM:  Easy 40mins Easy lifting in the garage gym. All legs and core focused. Lighter than normal with the race being just over a week away.  

Followed this up with 30mins in the sauna.

Friday:

7 AM:  6.25 miles w/ 500ft of vert averaging 7:20pace.  Easy cruise from the Coalton Trailhead straight west up the hill to just past the gate and back. Pushed a little bit on the way back with mile 6 being at 5:55pace. Feeling good.

9 AM:  35mins lifting in the garage. 

Warmup: Rowing and mobility

4 RFT: 17 mins 40 secs
4 rounds of:
Row, 500 m
5 Strict Pull-ups
20 Deficit Push-ups
20 GHD Sit-ups

-then-

3 rounds
20sec calf raises
10sec hold up
20sec calf raises
10sec hold up
30sec recovery

9:45 AM: Airdyne in the garage for 10 miles or just over 30mins.  In a heat suit, 5 layers on top, all wool except the down jacket on top, and 3 layers down low. Went directly to stripping off all the layers into 30mins in the sauna... that was worse than earlier in the week.  If all of this does not get me heat acclimated then I am at a lost.

2 PM: Walked 2.6 miles in 42mins.  Took Venus out on our hood loop before the rain is supposed to come in.  Funny how 60 degrees I was freezing and had to wear a jacket.  Hope that means all the heat training is working.

Saturday: 

Morning:  3 miles of jogging between the warmup and cooldown with The Great Trailhead Foot Race 10 miler in the middle at Bear Creek Lake Park in Lakewood.   10 miles w/ 600ft of vert averaging 6:20pace.  Went out hard and hung on for 1st overall. Figured I would get caught but 2nd never got that close with them finishing over 3 mins behind me. Goal of this race was just to keep the HR around 150-155 as much as possible. Of course it climbed into the 160s on the uphills and went down into the 140s on the downhills but the average was just what I was shooting for at 154. Hopefully I did not burn any matches that I will need next weekend for Javelina.

The 3rd place kid in this photo is 14 years old and ran the 10 miler in 1:08... Mind blown!!!

3 PM: Walked 2.6 miles with Venus around the hood loop again followed with 30mins in the hot tub.  Gotta keep that heat training up.

Sunday:  

8 AM: 7.2 miles w/ 800ft of vert averaging 8:15pace.  Easy 2 loops of Springbrook from Dowdy Draw trailhead. Lots of runners out getting it done this morning. Used to being here in the middle of the work week when I usually only see 1 or 2 other people if any at all.  First 2 miles were a little rough from yesterday but did loosen up and got to rolling.

1 PM: Walked 2.6 miles around the hood loop with Venus.  Followed that with 30mins in the sauna.

Total Weekly Numbers

This was the last week solo, Paula gets home late Sunday night.  We will only see each other on Monday because I am leaving for AZ for a week on Tuesday which sucks but we are going to Red Rocks on Monday night to see Hardy, super pumped about that.  Been a solid taper/recovery week, probably did to much and raced to hard on Saturday but oh well.  Really wish I had another 4 weeks to get ready because I feel like I am finally hitting my groove and I am going to go destroy all this progress by running a 100 miles next Saturday which will put me in recovery mode for at least a few weeks causing me to start this process all over again.  The shit we do......