June 19th- June 25th

“You'll run into problems if your expectations don't align with the amount of work you're willing to invest.” - Mat Fraser

--- This is supposed to be my peak mileage week before Hardrock.  We will see what we can do.

Monday:   

9 AM: 6.6 miles w/ 1000ft of vert averaging 10min pace.  Easy miles over on the Beaver Creek Trail area just exploring.  Kept it super mellow walking some uphills that I would normally run and stopping for photos or to look at things a lot.  Really cool beaver ponds everywhere over there.  Will be doing more of my easy mileage over there for sure for it is just up the road from the cabin.

4 PM:  Walk 3.4 miles w/ 500ft of vert.  Dog walk with Don and his dogs.

Tuesday:  

7 AM:   10.7miles w/ 1100ft of vert averaging 7:20pace.  Steady state push on the uphills, and recovery on the downhills.  Done in Bailey on the mini mags road at 8000ft on the way home this morning. Perfect road for a workout like this. Very similar to Mags outside of Boulder but not quit as long. 

3:30 PM:  5.5 miles w/ 1400ft of vert averaging 10:30pace.  Out and back up Bear Canyon.  Stopped at the honey pot on the way back and cooled down since it was almost 90 degrees out.

Wednesday:

-NOTE:  Weight check in.  First time in quite a while.  Holding steady and even lost a few pounds which surprised me considering all the snacking I have been doing lately.  169.4lbs @ 8.8% body fat.

6:30 AM: 10.4 miles w/ 3100ft of vert in 2:13.  Mid-week longer hilly jog. Since I was down here for work I did my loop on Green Mountain before heading back up to Fairplay over lunch.  Legs are starting to get really achy after this run.  Miles and vert are starting to pile up on me I think.

Thursday:  

9:30 AM:  8.4 miles w/ 1450ft of vert averaging 10min miles.  Miles over at the Beaver Creek Trail area.  Took some side trails (intersecting trails everywhere over there) and got a little lost so the run ended up longer than planned.  Had to use the backtrack on the Coros watch to make sure I took the right trails back due to all the intersecting trails.  Most of this route is not on any maps that I have looked at.  So looking at the route after getting back and uploading it, it seems that if I would have kept going I would have hit tree line within a mile and started up a ridge on Silverheels Mountain.  Hmmm...

2 PM:  1:10 at the Alma gym doing some lifting for all major muscle groups.  Tried to hit everything since this is the only time I will get in here this week with all the jogging I am doing.

Friday:

7:30 AM:  16.25 miles w/ 3700ft of vert averaging 11:20pace.  Run up Loveland Mt again.  Almost to the summit but turned around because I was already way over what I had planned.  All good though!  Got up to 13,500ft or so.  Really love this route as you can tell.

--  Heading to Leadville this afternoon to camp tonight and do my long run there tomorrow.  Donnie is coming up and meeting me so it will be nice not to be solo all the time for a change.

Saturday: 

6 AM:  24.2 miles w/ 9200ft of vert in 7:23.  A lap of Massive and Elbert with Donnie.  Donnie joined me on Massive where we went up the front side from the Elbert trailhead.  Came back down to refuel at the truck then up Elbert.  Donnie was not feeling super well so he bailed on the Elbert attempt at tree line but I felt strong and got it done. I think it was just under 3 hours on Elbert.  What a fucking training day!!!!  Could not have asked for better weather today either.  Photos are not in the correct order due to coming from different phones.  

Sunday:  

9 AM: 12.9 miles w/ 3300ft of vert in 3:36.  Was just supposed to be a 2 hour easy run today but legs were shot from the last 2 days so turned it into a longer hike checking off a few peaks that I have been eyeing the past few weeks.  Basically a hike up Mosquito Pass to tackle Mosquito Peak then down to the base of London Mountain which is what I have really been wanting to do and up that.  Did jog all the flats and downhills so there is that.  Also between the top of Mosquito Pass and Mosquito Peak there is an almost flat mile of 4x4 road at 13,000ft (photo below), maybe we should do a beer mile up there, that could be entertaining.  LOL.

BEER MILE ANYONE???

Total Weekly Numbers

One of the best weeks that I think I have ever had training wise.  Not my biggest mileage week ever and not the most vert in a week but the combo of the two of them puts it up there.  Also the fact that 85% of this weeks mileage was also above 10,000ft as well makes it the best I have had I think.  Anyways super please and super tired this Monday morning as I am typing this.  Actually taking a rest day today, first in about 2 weeks.  I will do a walk today and some upper body lifting but that is all for today.  One more week then the taper, but not as big of a week as this one but still one more week of real training.  This was my peak volume week.

June 12th- June 18th

“Fitness is not about being better than someone else. It's about being better than you used to be.” - Unknown

-- This week was just about being better than last week. 

Monday:   

2 PM: 35-40 degrees with rain/snow mix all day long.  Glad today was a rest day from running.  Went over to the Alma gym where I rowed 3000m on the rower, walked 3 miles on the treadmill then lifted legs and core for 45 mins.  Not a bad afternoon at all after a lazy morning.  Paula went home early this morning and I will be doing the same tomorrow morning.

Tuesday:  

6 AM:   10.8 miles w/ 1100ft of vert averaging 7:30pace.  3x8mins...  Done in Bailey on the mini mags road at 8000ft on the way home this morning.  Perfect road for a workout like this.  Very similar to Mags outside of Boulder but not quit as long.  Turned more into a long tempo instead of 3x8mins but still got the work in.

Wednesday:

6:30 AM: 10.4miles w/ 3100ft of vert in 2:12.  Mid-week longer hilly jog.  Had to come down home for some appointments on Tuesday so hit this run up Wed morning on Green Mountain before heading back up to Fairplay.  Kind of nice not to have to deal with snow like I do if I want vert in Fairplay (anything above 12k).  I know, first world problems.

Thursday:  

  -NOTE:  No weight check again, in Fairplay.  Well at least the pants still fit so we will just go with that.

7 AM:  10.15miles w/1400ft of vert averaging 8:40pace.  Easy jog up Buckskin Gulch via CR10 and 4x4 roads.  Really liking this route, never see anyone else and can keep going up to over 12k which I will most likely do tomorrow for the 14 miler I have planned.  

2:30 PM:  50 mins at the Alma gym doing legs and core.  Mostly working on mobility verse strength today.  Super tight....

Friday:

7 AM:  14.15 miles w/ 2700ft of vert averaging 10:40 pace.  Up and back up the side of Loveland Mountain from Buckskin Joe trails off of Mosquito Pass road.  Was racing weather coming in early today.  Been doing this route quite a bit the past week or so and really love it.  Got up to 12,700ft today and the summit is still another 1100ft above me.  One of the few places without a lot of snow above tree line due to it being southeast facing.  Most likely will do my long run up there tomorrow as well.

2 PM:  1 hour at the Alma gym doing upper body work.  2 exercises for each body part (chest, back, shoulders, biceps, and triceps).  Just trying to maintain some muscle mass.

-- Got a surprise visitor here in Fairplay.  Dad was passing through on his way to Crested Butte for a wedding.  Short visit for some food and drink but was great to see them for a bit.

Saturday: 

7 AM:  12.5 miles w/ 2300ft of vert averaging 10min pace.  Switched the long run from Saturday to Sunday due to the weather forecast.  Is supposed to start raining/snowing mid morning today and I did not want to get caught above treeline in it.  Out and back on Loveland Mountain again just like yesterday.  This is becoming my go to run.

--  Got a text from Don right after this run to see if I wanted to go to Leadville for the afternoon to hang out and watch the Leadville Marathon finish.  So we did, fun to get out of town for a bit.  Was snowing like mad over there.  Was back before dinner.

Sunday:  

7 AM:  18 miles w/ 4700ft of vert averaging 15min pace.  Finally put together a couple of runs I have been doing making it one big loop.  The out and backs I have been doing on Loveland Mt and the out and back from Alma to Buckskin.  I started at Hwy9 & Mosquito Pass Rd and ran up to the summit of Loveland Mt then the ridge over to Buckskin and North Buckskin.  This got me 3 summits all over 13,600.  I thought about trying the ridge from North Buckskin to Democrat but it looked technical and was covered in ice and snow.  Will try that another time when I am not solo.  There was so much more snow up there than there was last week, looked like it snowed over a foot up there.  I was postholing up to my hip at times. This was more of a winter mountaineering climb than long run once I was up high.  LOL...  Slogged from North Buckskin down to Kite Lake and ran the road back to Alma and Hwy9 to the truck.  I really loved this loop.

Total Weekly Numbers

Solid week this week.  Would have liked to have had more vertical but overall pleased.  Super tired and cranky by Sunday night and ended up sleeping 10 hours until Monday morning which is rare for me.  I am a solid 7-8 every night without fail usually.  Tells me I am pushing myself somewhat.  Been a challenge with eating clean with not having a fridge and living off my Yeti cooler but been doing the best I can with the exceptions of the pre-bed snacks.  Those need to stop.