June 8th- June 14th

  "Fatigue, discomfort, discouragement are merely symptoms of effort." - Morgan Freeman

--  Seemed like a great quote for this week with all the changes happening between life shit and getting up high for a while.

Monday:

6AM: 5.3 miles w/ 1300ft of vert averaging 11:30pace.  Super chill lap of Mount Santias before work. Tired from the weekend but all good.  Had 2 hours planned today but needed a little bit of a down day with the bigger weekend I just had so moved the workouts a round a little bit this week verses what was planned. 

4:30PM: 50mins VASA lift class with Paula. Leg day with lots of back squats. Went super light at 95lbs and worked on full range of motion to build this wonky knee back up. Feeling better and better every day!  No pain in the knee during the squats today, first time in a while. 

Tuesday:  

6AM:  8 miles w/ 2800ft of vert averaging 14:15pace.  Easy jog up Shadow Canyon yet again today. Great way to get in serious vert in a short time frame. Felt like I went easier but was moving faster than last week so that is a plus. Feeling okay and chugging along in this training. Did see 4 huge male elks grazing on Homestead, 3rd time I have seen them in the same spot over the last week.

-- Nice surprise at work today.  They bought out the In-n-Out semi out for us.  Work does this about once a year, one of the small benefits I guess.

Wednesday:

6AM:  8 miles w/ 2800ft of vert averaging 13:45pace.  Another day and another lap up Shadow Canyon. Quickest one yet by 4 mins since I started doing this route over a week ago. Think I am finally starting to find my trail legs after all that flat running I have been doing the past year. Also knee is getting better by the day, did not feel it at all today and I am starting to trust it more and more every day.

4:30PM:  50mins VASA Lift class with Paula, might be the last one for a bit since I am heading to Fairplay tomorrow night to get ready for Hardrock. All upper body tonight.

Thursday: 

7 AM:  9 miles w/ 3300ft of vert averaging 16min pace.  Took the day off work today....  Easy run up South Boulder Peak and Bear Peak with Donnie early in the morning before heading down south to help Don move some heavy stuff. Super chill and great to catch-up with Donnie, it has been to long. Heading up to the cabin this afternoon as well to start getting acclimated for Hardrock.

Friday:

9 AM:  8.5 miles w/ 900ft of vert averaging 8:20pace.  First run of camp at altitude at about 10,300ft heading up to 11,000+.  Easy run on dirt roads that turn into a double track that heads up Loveland Mountain. Super chill today to get used to the altitude some. Going to take a week or so to get used to it I think. No headaches or anything, just felt super sluggish and slow.

--  Some exciting changes on the life front happened today which I will share next week, need things to be finalized all the way first before talking about it.  

Saturday: 

7 AM:  18.8 miles w/ 7200ft of vert averaging 14min pace.  Decalobronma as Don calls it. Basically the Decalobron which is four 14ers outside of Alma but instead of starting at the trailhead 6 miles up the dirt road at 12,000ft you start and finish in Alma at 10,400ft, so add the ma to the end to get Decalobronma. LOL... will probably do this at least one more time before Hardrock. Super slow today due to the nasty winds up there. They were so strong that it actually knocked me over between Bross summit and Lincoln summit. Crazy, probably in the 50mph with 70mph gust but did die down as I was coming down of course after the 4th summit. Made for a challenging day above treeline. Overall super happy with this first real high long run on challenging terrain. Of course, broke another pole. Second set in 2 weeks... sigh....

--  Finished book 17 of the year, only 7 more to hit the yearly goal of 24.  Found a book called How of The Hardrock.... If you get it for free it is worth reading, I would not buy it.

Sunday:  

7AM: 13.7 miles w/ 3700ft of vert averaging 12:20pace.  From Alma up to the summit of Loveland Mountain and back. Came back a different way than I have in years past just to explore some and loved it. Might start coming back that way every time. More runnable and less loose shit to run down, more of a dirt road most of the way instead of loose crap on a double track. Only took one bottle with me for just under 3 hours of running, misjudged how long it would take. Spent a lot of time above 13,000ft taking breaks, taking photos and just chilling so was actually out there for about 5 hours but on only running for about 2:45 of it. LOL.

Total Weekly Numbers

Been a hell of a week.  Busy as they come between training, work, helping someone move and getting up to Fairplay to start the altitude camp to get ready for Hardrock.  Was surprised that I got in this many miles and vertical this week.  I thought it would be more a challenge to get over 60 miles and 15,000ft.  If I can get 2 more weeks of this I should have a decent shot of finishing Hardrock without super focused training all spring like I have in the past.  Yes the only goal this year is to finish, in the past my A goal was to get as close to 30 hours as possible which got me a 34 hour and 36 hour finish.  This year is just to get it done for finish #3.  Plan is to head back to Boulder on Monday afternoon/evening to do laundry, spend a day in the office on Tuesday and Wednesday morning then head back up here Wednesday afternoon/evening for another 5 days.  Think that will be the plan for the next few weeks.  Home Monday night through Wednesday lunch then up high the rest of the week.