This was an ambitious week on tap for me, not just because I had 70 miles for the goal, most miles in a week for me ever - but to also do it in 4 runs.
Sunday: 12 miles. Was a snowy morning with the foothills covered and flurries when I started. From Northgate on Santa Fe up through Monument at an easy 8:55 pace, turned as the snow and wind picked up and came back at an 8:05 avg (wind and snow assisted). Just a run, nothing to really work on aside from getting miles in when I could.
Monday: Happy Birthday to me (46, groan). Off to Mt Herman, expecting to see snow from the day before, but very little evidence of it. Fresh off a 9 1/2 minute PR on it just a few days prior I was curious to see if that was an anomaly. Friday's PR also included a summit PR for me, but of course I had forgotten what that was by Monday - only remembering the lap time. So when I summited in 33:46 I knew it was a decent time, just couldn't remember if it was a new best. Turned out upon checking it out later that I had sliced about 30 seconds off Friday's time to the summit.
There was a little residual snow up top but nothing slippery so I was able to keep tracking at a decent clip. As I was passing by a few other marker points along the trail where I did remember the previous run and the accompanying times I realized I was real close to Fridays effort. Cool. Mental boost. I kept at it and low and behold ended up taking about 3/4 of a minute off Fridays time. A new PR of 1:39. Looking back at this run I think I could of actually made the summit a bit quicker, not just because I stopped to pee on the way up, but because I was expecting more snow and so I held back a bit to conserve for when snow may come and trail conditions would have slowed me down. That never really happened.
So, all that to say, I think I could beat my summit and lap time still. But that is for another day.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: Double Falcon. 26 miles. Was a breezy and sometimes quite brisk run with temps not really threatening to get over 40 - especially the wind chill not getting up there. First lap I went clockwise, not pushing hard, just trying to be steady - ended up with a 2:06 lap, which was about a minute faster than last time I did a Double Falcon a couple of weeks ago. Lap 2 I was a bit more fatigued than I wanted to be, both physically and mentally - I'd like to blame the wind, but it was more me than that. So, lap 2 in the counter clockwise direction was closer to 2:10. So a combined 2 lap total (along with a few laps of the parking lot to bring the total up to 26 miles) was 4:16. About a minute slower than 2 weeks prior. I'll call it being consistent rather than a run that shoulda, woulda, coulda been better. Will look to do better next time in a couple of weeks when I have another crack at it.
Thursday: rest and recovery day.
Friday: From Northgate on Santa Fe Trail, up past Monument, then through Palmer Lake and connected on to the Greenland Trail. Followed that North to Kipps loop, where I went a mile up the saddle before turning and heading back the way I came. Went out at an easy 9 minute average and then came back a little quicker because it was more downhill than up. 12 miles out and back makes 24 for the day and a time of 3:32 ish. It started out cool but by the time I was done the temps were getting toasty.
So, 70 miles for the week. Felt like a good achievement to get 26 on Wed, then 24 on Friday. Hopefully that will help build up the endurance-o-meter. These next few weeks I am looking to work on that along with getting some more vertical in (Double Herman in the mix). Speed / tempo? Not likely. Lots more miles? Yup. 70 on tap again for this upcoming week.
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