January 13th- January 19th

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." - Rudyard Kipling

Monday:   

10 AM:  5.2 miles averaging 8min pace.  Easy 9 laps of the open space by the house with Venus this morning. 48 laps down and 952 laps to go. LOL.

3 PM: 50 mins Studio Red at VASA with Paula. This is basically a HITT class with kettlebells, running, airbike, and dumbells. Plan on doing these more since I am done going to Crossfit for a while.

Tuesday:  

6 AM:  1 hour at the gym

Went to VASA since I don't have a cable system in the garage gym.

Warmup: Walking and mobility

50 pull-ups broken up as needed.

V-Bar Lat Pulldowns
10@ 115lbs
10@ 115lbs
10@ 115lbs
10@ 120lbs

Rope Cable Curls
10@ 40lbs
10@ 42.5lbs
10@ 42.5lbs
10@ 42.5lbs

DB Single Arm Rows
10@ 55
10@ 55
10@ 55
10@ 60

Ez-Bar 21s
3 sets w/ 50lbs

Ez-Bar Bent Over Rows
10@ 90lbs
10@ 90lbs
10@ 90lbs
10@ 90lbs

Superset x4
8 Chinups
8 Hanging Knee Tuck to Extend

3 Rounds
10 Single leg calf raises with 30lbs each leg

2:30 PM:  9 miles averaging 6:50pace.  Easy with 6x30sec strides w/ 3min recoveries in between. Done over at the open space by the house. Had a limited window due to work so did not have time to drive anywhere. Venus (dog) ran the first 3 mile warmup with me before dropping her off to go do the stride part of the workout. The 3rd stride got down to 4:45pace for a little bit, they are getting faster week over week it seems. Knocked out another 15 laps of the open space, only 937 to go. HA!

-- Finished book #1 of the year so off we go.  Of course the first one was another Zombie Apocalypse book in one of the series that I keep up with.  Started the 2025 Books Read list, link is at the top of the webpage. 

Wednesday:

9:30 AM:  9.4 miles averaging 6:45pace.  20min Steady State run. Done over at Davidson Mesa. Did one lap easy then one lap at steady state which is 6:15-6:30 then a lap easy. Each lap is just over 3 miles.  I defined the paces by heart rate. Easy is 140 and under and Steady State is about 150ish. Felt good today.. progress is being made.

5:30 PM:  5.5 miles averaging 9min pace.  Finally got my act together and went over to the Runners Roost Wed run in Louisville.  Ran with Donnie the whole time, great to catch up.  Should be doing these more since I have been on the team the past 2 years but really slacked off the past year coming to run club. Think I am going to make it a goal to get 100 miles total with this group.  These are great to get in extra easy miles.

-- Was signed up for a half marathon this Sunday in Louisville to get in some harder work but due to the forecast of the temps being below 0 all weekend they moved the race to next weekend the 26th.  Guessing that the city of Louisville made them do this.  So gotta figure out what I am doing this weekend, brave the cold or hit the treadmill all weekend.  Of course it will be 55 on Thursday before the temp drop.  That's Colorado.

Thursday:  

6:30 AM:  55mins at VASA lifting

Warmup: Incline walking and mobility

DB Seated Shoulder Press- neutral grip
12 @ 40lbs
10 @ 50lbs
8 @ 50lbs
6 @ 50lbs

Single Arm Cable Lateral Raise
3x12 @ 15lbs

4 Rounds
10 incline bench DB front raises @ 15lbs
10 incline bench DB Reverse Flies @ 15lbs

4 Rounds
30sec Commandos
30sec Shoulder Taps
30sec High Plank Toe Taps
30sec High Plank Knee to Elbow
60sec recovery

Flutter Kicks
4x30

Torso Rotation
3x10 @ 130lbs

Plank Side to Side
3x20

3 PM:  8.4 miles w/ 900ft of vert averaging 7:55pace.  Easy to some moderate effort from Flatiron Vista down Dowdy Draw, around Springbrook and back taking the long way back around Flatiron Vista. Been a bit since I started at this trailhead because I got tired of trying to take a left on 93 out of the trailhead with all the cars. I do missing going here, at least here you get about 2 miles of flat to downhill to warmup on before any real climbing happens which is nice and of course the views are good too. Dead legs today but had to get out there when it is 60 degrees out in January.

Friday:

10 AM:  11.1 miles w/ 1750ft of vert averaging 7:50 pace.  From King Soopers at Tablemesa & Broadway up to NCAR then back down to the start of the neighborhood and back up 2 more times for a total of 3 times total. Super tired today so I did not pound the downhills as hard as I did last week but was only 5 secs a mile slower than last week, think my climbing was much quicker than last week at the same HR to make up that difference.  Ready for a recovery week next week. Still running but no hard workouts are planned like the last few weeks.  Glad to get one more day outside before the cold this weekend, most likely will be a treadmill weekend.

 

4:30 PM: 1 hour at VASA doing the Studio Red class with Paula.  Basically a HITT class with dumbells, running, and airbike.   Will be doing a bunch of these going forward instead of Crossfit as stated earlier.

Saturday: 

7 AM:  50mins at Spin class at VASA.  Windchill was in the negatives and no way I am riding outside in that so hit up spin with Paula.  Jumped out of class a little bit early so we could change for SR.

8 AM: 1 hour right after spin doing Studio Red class again.  My ass was tired after doing both spin and SR this morning.  

-Went out to brunch and then spent the rest of the day watching football.  Did get my new kit from Speedland in the mail today.  3 Rabbit shirts, 1 pair of Rabbit shorts, 1 hat, and a GORE Jacket.  Really loving that the shirts this year are light gray or white verses the black last year.  Black is just to hot in the summer months.

Sunday:  

9 AM: Treadmill 18.3 miles w/ 2000ft of vert averaging 7:20pace.  That was a long time to be running on the treadmill but at least there is good people watching at VASA.  I was not going to put my lungs through 2 hours of hard breathing in -19 degree windchill weather.  Put it on the random rolling hills program and just cruised.  I was surprised what the vert was when I was all done, yes I had to reset the treadmill a few times due to the hour time limit the gym put on the machines.  20mins in the sauna afterwards.

Total Weekly Numbers

Not a bad week considering the weather and trying to get in the mileage over the weekend without messing up the lungs.  Over 70 miles covered between running and walking.  Also the first time I have been on a bike (inside or outside) since my knee started acting up a few weeks ago every time I tried to ride.  No issues this week.  Hopefully we are past that now.  This next week will be somewhat of a down week then we go into the final 6 week training block leading up to Blackbeard Revenge 100 at the end of March.  Let's Go!