Week ending Jan 28

Sunday: 8 miles, 1500ft of gain, foothills trail. Did a little shake-out run after my long run yesterday. It only took the first climb to loosen me up; it also helped that I did this at noon. I find I run better at midday; I'm sure this has something to do with the diurnal cycle of hormones and such. Unfortunately, I only get to do this on the weekends...

Monday: 12 miles, 2500ft of gain, foothills trail and Reservoir Ridge. Honestly, if I could do this run every day for the rest of my life, I'd die a happy man. A little gray and windy, so I busted out some new gear from Christmas - the Better Than Naked jacket and a pair of Nike Dri-fit running tights.

Tuesday: Off. By noon I'm already groggy and depressed that I won't run today. Heavy is the runner's burden.

Wednesday: 12 miles, 2500ft of gain, foothills trail. Great day to run - clear skies and warm temperatures. I felt a little sluggish until the turn-around - I feel like it's a lot of work to get going again after a day off.

Thursday: 8 miles, 1500ft of gain, foothills trail. Cold. Cold, I say. Otherwise, a supremely uneventful out-and-back on the ridges above Fort Collins; not another soul on the trails, which sort of creeped me out.

Friday: 10 miles, 2000ft of gain, foothills trail. My right ankle felt a little sore going down the foothills trail near the dam at Laporte (it's rather steep and the footing is very poor). I didn't sprain it, but about a week or two ago I took a bad step and inverted my foot a little too far. These things happen, it's just a matter of time to heal.

Saturday: 23 miles, 4500ft of gain, Horsetooth Mountain and Lory State Park. Yikes, man, talk about cold. It was about 11 degrees at the trail head, and as usual, was much warmer at the top on Westridge - good motivation to get to the top, which I did in record time today. Lots of slick spots remain - partially shaded areas that never completely melt and then refreeze into layers of hard ice. The dusting of snow we got yesterday concealed a lot of these death traps; I didn't make it out unscathed, though. I was rounding a switchback on Sawmill when I fell down. Let me tell you, I don't go down often, but when I do, it's like the Titanic - long, drawn out, and spectacularly devastating. I took a total of three skidding steps before my feet slipped out from under me and my butt and elbow slammed onto the black ice. My elbow hit so hard that it took me a good five minutes to regain sensation in my hand. Despite that, I recovered quickly and destroyed the out-and-back in the meadows. I survived on two Gu's and about 20oz of water, still managing to finish strong.

 Running on black ice is no bueno.

 

Looking east up Spring Creek Canyon.  

Miles: 73
Elevation gain: 14,500ft
Time: 10 hours (?)

Feeling pretty good; it's been a while since I've been able to put in a 70 mile week - IT band issues for the last year and whatnot. The semester is picking up, but my class load is lower than last semester so I've got plenty of time to crank on research.

Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow and a nice, low-mileage week to recharge and focus on strength training.