March 9th- March 15th

 "The bounty of nature is also one of the deep needs of man." -Lady Bird Johnson

Seemed like a good quote for this week.  I needed that trail time in Salida this weekend.  Way to much road running the past 6 months or so, starting to wear on me a bit.

Monday:

1 PM: 8 miles averaging 7:30pace.  Easy afternoon cruise in the afternoon with Taylor from work before going to PT. Not actually a hamstring issue I have been dealing with but an abductor issue caused by super tight quads. Needled the shit out of my quads and the problem abductor. Right into the hot tub when I got home, that made me sore.

--  Another postcard for the board arrived today as well.

Tuesday:  

11:30 AM:  10.9 miles w/ 400ft of vert averaging 7:15 pace.  Hopefully last manual entry in my online workout log, new watch should arrive tomorrow.  Had to visit a supplier in Longmont this morning so did loops around Lagerman afterwards. Workout was 40mins of 50K pace in the middle which I took at around 7min pace for a flatter trail.  Felt okay for the most part.  Still trying to figure out how I am going to approach the Salida Marathon this weekend, most likely will just be a long easy supported run.

5 PM: 53 mins VASA Lift Class with Paula- Leg day.  Lots of RDLs.

Wednesday:

9:30 AM:  11.4 miles w/ 500ft of vert averaging 7:30pace.  New watch day!!! Whooo!! Anyways long loop from work between meetings this morning. Just cruising and not pushing. Legs still a little sore from the needling on Monday but much better than yesterday.  

Heading back in to get more blood work this afternoon, good times....  Love getting old.  

Thursday:  

9 AM:  7.75 miles averaging 7:45pace.  Easy cruise from work... holy shit that wind just kept getting worse and worse... glad I got out when I did, looks like it is increasing through out the day.  Legs are dead today, or at least felt like it.

5 PM: 50mins VASA Lift with Paula, upper body

Friday:

  -NOTE:  Weight check in: 168.4lbs w/ 8.4% bodyfat.  Been a bit since I have been under 170.

10 AM:  4.3 miles w/ 1200ft of vert averaging 10min pace.  Shake out jog...  Very tired legs today… felt awkward on trails, couldn’t find a rhythm. I can tell I’ve been doing too much road running. All good… I’m thinking tomorrow is just gonna be a long run and not a real race, but we’ll see in the morning how the body responds and how it plays out.

Saturday: 

8 AM:  26.4 miles w/ 3800ft of vert averaging 8:30pace.  Salida Marathon- 16th overall and 1st in 50-59 age group. Also a PR time for this race by about 3 mins which surprised me. I did not go out hard with the intent to race. Just went out moderate for the first 8 miles settling on the single track. When we hit the 5 mile climb up a dirt road at mile 8 I started grinding some and basically pushed until mile 24 where I started dry heaving on the last climb up S Mountain, HR got to high. LOL... just cruised it in from there. Basically it turned into a progression run with a 2 mile cooldown.  Super happy with today.... my previous PR is from 10 years ago at the age of 40.  

Had plans to say until Sunday morning then drive home early but the weather forecast changed on me and decided to head home shortly after the race.  They were calling for 4-10 inches of snow with 70mph winds on the mountain passes I had to drive over to get home... not doing that in the van.

Sunday:  

8 AM: 7.4 miles averaging 8:35pace.  Super chill recovery jog on the treadmill at VASA. Windchill outside was 0 degrees and it was icy. Considering how sore I was, I did not want to risk falling so treadmill it was.

Paula and I spent the afternoon with Don and Tasha checking out the Legos exhibit at the Denver Museum.  If you can make it there before it leaves, DO IT!  So cool!!

Total Weekly Numbers

Not a bad week overall with a trail marathon thrown in the mix.  Seem to be recovering better this Monday morning as I type this than after Black Canyon last month so I will take that as a win.  Was supposed to do the Big Alta 100K next weekend in San Fran but I am pulling out of it.  Not quite the stimulus that I need to get ready for the marathon in May and I don't want to lose 2 weeks of training trying to recover from the 100K.  I am still making the trip and spending the weekend at sea level training instead of racing.  Actually really excited for the trip and have a few things I want to do there that I never had time to do on past trips.  Hopefully another solid week of over 70 miles with efforts this week... Starting to feel like I am getting on a roll.