June 1st- June 7th

"If you're following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you've ever felt." -Phil Knight

Monday:

6AM: 8 miles w/ 2700ft of vert averaging 15min miles.  Easy lap of Shadow Canyon, miss judged how long this would take since it has been a bit since I have done Shadow so I went a little over the scheduled 90mins. Could not really run down the steep stuff, lack of coordination on tech stuff from all the road running lately and knee bothered me more on the downs than up so kept it super chill and will the rest of this week. It will all come back, no rush this first week. First time I have broken out the poles in over 2 years, figured if I am going to use them in Hardrock I should start using them now too. 

4:30PM: 50mins Lift at VASA with Paula. Leg day but skipped any squatting movements due to the knee, don't want to make it worse.

Tuesday:  

6 AM:  8.3 miles w/ 2700ft of vert averaging 14:30pace.  Another easy lap of Shadow Canyon again today. Just the closest place to get to from home to get a lot of vert so will probably be hitting it a lot this month. Little quicker than yesterday at the same effort. Knee felt better than yesterday but it is still there.

Taught her last year how to eat corn on the cob, guess she still remembers.  HAAA!!!

Wednesday:

6AM:  8 miles w/ 2800ft of vert averaging 14:15pace.  Third day in a row of Shadow Canyon then turn to South Boulder peak at the top of the saddle instead of Bear, legs are starting to feel it even though each day has been quicker than the previous day at the same effort. Somewhat interesting. Tested new Leki poles today, liking these better than my Black Diamond poles so will be switching to these and using the others as backups. Starting to feel a little bit more confidence in my knee on the downhill which might be why each day as been a little quicker.  Basically sitting at 7900ft of gain since Monday, LOL...

  

4:30PM:  55mins Lift class at VASA with Paula.  Upper body day.

Thursday:  

5:45AM:  9.4miles w/ 2200ft of vert averaging 10:30pace.  Easy lap of Santias and Anemone. Love this combo and works good for training for Hardrock in the direction it is going this year. Up the ridge, down Lions Lair then over to Anemone. Hardrock is up the faces and down the ramps this year which is why this is a good route to train on!

Friday:

7AM:  5.3 miles w/ 1300ft of vert averaging 11min pace.  Easy lap of Santias going up the ridge and down Lions Lair before heading over to Lucky's Bakery for National Donuts day!! Whoo...

4:30PM:  50 mins lifting at VASA lift class with Paula.  Skipped some of the squatting movements so not to set back the knee I have been dealing with.

Saturday: 

7 AM:  13.7 miles w/ 3800ft of vert averaging 12:50pace.  Solid easy vert run solo up to the summit of South Boulder Peak and Bear via Shadow Canyon then bombing down Bear Canyon and took the Mesa trail back to the van. Solid loop! I thought for sure this was over 4k in vert but not quite which is fine. Trying to keep everything super chill this weekend since this is really my first weekend of longer trail runs.

Sunday:  

6:30AM: 14.7 miles w/ 4300ft of vert averaging 13:25pace.  Easy lap of Mount Morrison and Falcon with Don, Ben, and Brandon. Mount Morrison is a bitch of a climb, first time on it, not only steep which is fine but very loose at the top. Fell a couple of times coming down and even broke my new poles. Good times. Went way longer than I had planned today but could not turn down the invite.

Spent the rest of the day helping Don moving some stuff at his house then he brought over his new puppy and Tasha's dog to meet Venus.  Went super well!!!

Total Weekly Numbers

Solid first week back to trails.  Might have done a little bit much for I am a little smashed this Monday morning as I finish writing out this post.  Was hoping to be over 20K in vert this week and was super close, next week for sure.  Planning on heading up high on Thursday evening after helping Don finish moving on Thursday so should be back in the high country come next weekend. Super excited to head up there!