June 26th- July 2nd

“It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.” - Albus Dumbledore

-- Lets try and make the right choices this week before the taper starts on Sunday...... that is the goal of the week.

Monday:   

9 AM:  Walk 4.4 miles w/ 500ft of vert in 1:10.  Walk around the dirt roads by the cabin.  Made a loop into town and back.  Taking a recovery day today for sure but will hit the gym later as well.

2:30 PM:  1:10 at the gym in Alma.  Lifting upper body and core doing 2 movements for each major muscle group.  Just getting in some work.  

Was feeling like shit this morning but after walking, lifting, and the hour massage I got at 5pm, I actually went to bed feeling somewhat okay.   Movement is key....

Tuesday:  

7 AM:   11 miles w/ 2300ft of vert averaging 10:30pace.  Easy lap halfway up Loveland Mountain again.  Some new flowers up there since last week when I was up there.  Kept it super chill for I am a little sore from the weekend and the massage last night.  Taper starts on Sunday and I am looking forward to it!

Came back to the cabin from working at the coffee shop in Fairplay for half the day so that I could put a little bit more of a charge in the battery pack I use for electricity to have this guy watching me by the shed about 70 feet way.  At first I thought it was a mountain lion but was incorrect.  Large Lynx..

-- Forgot to mention.  Finished book 16 of the year over the weekend about Pat Tillman and book number 17 this morning about UTMB.  Ahead of schedule for the year of course.  Link to my book list is above in the header.  Each one is linked to Amazon to make it easy for you if are interested in a book.

Wednesday:

9 AM:  11 miles w/ 2400ft of gain averaging 10:40pace.  Up Loveland Mt again but this time I branched off from the normal route to check out the old miner cabin that I have been seeing off in the distance.  Pretty cool to see and to think that people used to live there.  The cabin is at 12,600ft or so.

Thursday:  

 -NOTE:  No weight check in this week.  Never went home this week like I have been.  Opted to stay up here until after the 4th of July.

9 AM:  8.2 miles w/ 1000ft of vert averaging 8 min pace.  Easy jog from Alma gym up Kite Lake Road to Windy Ridge where I went up a little before turning around.  Was able to get in a few faster miles coming back.  Last few miles were all under 7 min pace.

10 AM: 36mins of lifting at the Alma gym right after the jog.  Just did easy bodyweight single leg stuff.  Just trying to maintain some strength before Hardrock.

---  Brownie is in town this morning hiking so hit up the South Park Salon for lunch with him and his buddy.  Good to see ya dude and welcome back from the ride.

Friday:

6:30 AM:  3.25 miles w/ 1300ft of vert in 50mins.  Started heading up Silverheels at 6:30am to be chased off by lighting. A few strikes were really close and the poles were buzzing. Turned around at 12,800ft,  Guess we were due for a bad weather day for it has been great for over a week.

-- Right after this failed attempt I heading to the coffee shop in Fairplay to work and charge up the battery pack.  It started hailing like mad, it looked like snow was covering the ground and then I get this from Don.... these were in the area.  I thought the clouds looked weird and were moving a lot.

Saturday: 

7 AM:   12.75 miles w/ 6300ft of vert in 4 hours.  Run up Silverheels Mountain and some ridge exploring around there with Dan.  Basically what I was planning on doing yesterday before being stormed off.  So much FUN!!  Windy as shit up there today on Silverheels but not to bad on the ridges which was weird.  Thanks for joining me Dan!  Been the first time I have ran with anyone in a few weeks.  LOL!  All of this run but maybe a mile total was above treeline.  Photos are not in order due to coming from different phones.

Sunday:  

8 AM:  14.6 miles w/ 3700ft of vert averaging 12min miles.  Run to the summit of Loveland Mountain and back before Paula gets in town for the 4th weekend.  Another day getting above 13k...  found a complete skeleton of an elk at about 13,200ft on the ridge.  Of course I brought down the skull...

2 PM:  Hike 2 miles w/ 300ft of vert in 40 mins.  Hike with Paula and Venus once they got to town to show them the Beaver Pond area by the cabin.  

Total Weekly Numbers

Solid last week of training before the taper starts after Sunday's run.  Missed a few miles on Saturday but with the amount of vert we did that was not expected I am okay with that.  TIME TO TAPER!!!  WHOOOOO!!!!  Actually overall I am feeling pretty good, tired but good.