Weeks ending July 15, July 22

Monday: 12 miles, Foothills trail, 2000ft of gain; 4 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain. Felt a bit tired and groggy the whole day, but I managed to slug out the mileage I wanted.

Tuesday: 10 miles, Foothills trail, 1250ft of gain; 6 miles, Foothills trail, 1000ft of gain. Okay, feeling much better after I decided to eat more - imagine that, eating more food gives me more energy!

Wednesday: 12 miles, Foothills trail, 2000ft of gain; 4 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain. The last run of the day was more like 2 miles out, take cover, and then 2 miles back. I got caught in a pop-up thunderstorm and hunkered down in a ditch for about 10 minutes.

Thursday: 12 miles, Foothills trail, 2000ft of gain; 4 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain; 8 miles, Towers time trial, 1750ft of gain. Whoah, what a day. I don't know why, but I kept thinking next week was the triple-T, so I did my normal routine for the day - morning and lunch run. I saw Nick's email reminder when I got back and decided to head out later tonight, anyway. Despite the heat I managed to PR again and knock my time down to 29:17. I foresee myself breaking 29 minutes come the cool evenings of fall.

Friday: 8 miles, Foothills trail, 1000ft of gain. Not surprisingly, today's run was on tired legs. I kept it short and sweet to save myself for tomorrow.

Saturday: 20 miles, 4000ft of gain, Continental Divide in RMNP. Started at Bear Lake, summitted Flattop Mountain and then cruised on down to Haynach Lake. On the way back I tagged Hallet Peak before dropping back down to the trailhead. I kept my head above 10,000ft for almost the entire run - Leadville is coming and the last thing I want is to feel inadequately prepared for the altitude.

Sunday: Off.

Totals:
Mileage: 100 miles
Elevation gain: 17,250ft

Ah yes, the magic 100 mile week. To be honest, this feels so much easier after the past 6 months of training, even though they've been interrupted by the occasional injury or extended post-race recovery (read: Badger Mountain 100).

Monday: 25 miles, 5500ft of gain, Quad Rock 25 course (clockwise). Got up super early to crank this guy out. I felt quite good on the entire run until I hit the climb up Howard trail on the inbound leg. I put my right foot on a boulder and lofted myself up, only to fall to my hands and knees. Feels like I pulled something in my arch area. Iced the bejesus out of it afterward.

Tuesday: Can't walk without pain. I ditched today's training to massage and ice the arch. I don't think I've ever had an acute injury like this from trail running.

Wednesday: 12 miles, Foothills trail, 2000ft of gain; 4 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain. Well, it feels a bit better and I was able to complete my runs without significant pain or altering my gait. If things keep improving I'll just keep training.

Thursday: 12 miles, Foothills trail, 2000ft of gain; 14 miles, Foothills trail, 2500ft of gain. I can't tell if it's much better or not, but again, running isn't being hampered.

Friday: 12 miles, Foothills trail, 2500ft of gain. Added the extra climb by the Laporte dam and cut out the tagging of the big A. Foot feels about the same.

Saturday: 15 miles, Long's Peak Keyhole, 5000ft of gain. 2:25 up and 1:35 down for a roundtrip of ~4 hours. Got held up behind a mass of humanity trying to navigate the Ledges and the Trough. I passed almost all hikers by the time I got to the top - and I started at about 6:30. Lots of strange reactions from folks.

Sunday: Off.

Totals:
Mileage: 90 miles
Elevation gain: 20,250ft

Monster elevation gain this week, especially for the mileage. Long's Peak was great fun and I'm looking forward to heading back sometime.

 Long's Peak nestled between Mount Lady Washington on the right and Mount Meeker on the left. To the notch!

Above treeline on the way to Granite Pass.

  

Scrambling through the boulder field up to the Keyhole.

 

 Looking back along the Narrows. To the left is a nearly-sheer drop.

 Another view of the Narrows.

The Palisades from the Homestretch. This is where the Loft route joins the Keyhole route on the final ascent.

Long's Peak summit - flat as a pancake, as large as a football field. And quite lonely when you're one of the first ones up!

 Getting ready to bomb down the Trough on the way back. Summit to Keyhole took 25 minutes.

Cruising over the tundra just past Granite Pass.

 

Wild views up here.

Weeks ending July 1, July 8

Monday: 12 miles, Foothills trail, 2500ft of gain; 4 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain. Reservoir Ridge run plus a quick jaunt up to the top of the ridge. Damn hot out, son.

Tuesday: 8 miles, Foothills trail, 1000ft of gain; 4 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain. Out-and-back to the Laporte Dam plus a repeat lunchtime run of yesterday. I figure as long as the heat is here to stay for the foreseeable future, I should get some heat training.

Wednesday: 11 miles, Foothills trail, 2000ft of gain; 5 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain. Slightly modified the morning run to exclude the trail around the Laporte dam and instead just ran across the dam. To make up the mileage I tagged the big A in the afternoon. Got done with the latter run and got the shivers as soon as I stepped inside. 100 degrees will do that to you.

Thursday: 12 miles, Foothills trail, 2500ft of gain. Back to the normal Reservoir Ridge tagging route. The Ridge is really growing on me - supremely runnable hills on the west side, rock-laden scree-like trails on the east side.

Friday: 8 miles, Foothills trail, 1000ft of gain; 8 miles, Foothills trail, 1000ft of gain. Did the even split today, which I probably won't do again. I think a longer run is more beneficial.

Saturday: 19 miles, 5500ft of gain, Mount Alice and Wild Basin extravaganza.

Sunday: Off.

Totals
Mileage: 91 miles
Elevation gain: 17,750ft of gain

Saturday was pretty wild - some choice photos below. I think I've picked up the peak-bagging bug; scrambling over boulders at 13,000ft and running off trail on the tundra is liberating.

 Chief's Head and Longs Peaks and Mount Meeker, left to right, from Mount Alice.

 Pete crossing the saddle on the Mount Alice summit.

 Chris and Pete running across the tundra on the divide.

 One of many possible routes down to Lake of Many Winds (unseen, to the right) and Thunder Lake.

The trail snaking back up to Lake of Many Winds and the divide.

Monday: 12 miles, Foothills trail and Reservoir Ridge, 2500ft of gain; 4 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain. Did the Reservoir Ridge out-and-back plus the trail around the Laporte dam, plus a quick run up to the Foothills trail junction at noon. Heat training, baby.

Tuesday: 9 miles, Foothills trail, 1500ft of gain; 5 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain. Took it easy today, with an out-and-back to the base of the Laporte dam. I finished the run with some minor soreness below my second metatarsal in my right foot. The soreness increased throughout the day. I've either dislocated my toe or I have capsulitis, the latter of which I've had before.

Wednesday: 11 miles, Foothills trail and Reservoir Ridge, 2000ft of gain; 5 miles, Foothills trail, 750ft of gain. RR out-and-back sans Laporte trail, plus a quick tagging of the big A in the afternoon. I was going to do the Firekracker 5K but I decided not to, given the notable pain in my metatarsal. The first several miles of the run, especially the uphill section, was painful - it felt like my second toe was being stretched on push-off. I hit a rock on the downhill to the beach and felt a pop, and suddenly....no pain! This whole episode sounds suspiciously like a dislocated toe.

Thursday: 16 miles, Foothills trail and Reservoir Ridge, 3000ft of gain. No pain in the metatarsal so I went ahead and did a nice medium-length run - multiple laps around Reservoir Ridge plus the Laporte dam trail.

Friday: 12 miles, Foothills trail and Reservoir Ridge, 2500ft of gain. Same thing but with one lap around the ridge.

Saturday: 16 miles, Foothills trail and Reservoir Ridge, 3000ft of gain. Same route as Thursday. The forecast for the mountains looked ominous, with "likely" thunderstorms (all but guaranteed) all day, morning to evening. Not wanting to risk my life for altitude training, I stuck around the home trails. After I finished up this morning a small thunderstorm rolled up from Denver - just in time.

Sunday: Off. Lots of research needed to get done today; I'm presenting a poster at our department's 50th anniversary next week and I just had what might be a breakthrough. In other words, I need to triple-check everything.

Totals
Mileage: 90 miles
Elevation gain: 16,750ft of gain

I feel pretty rested despite putting in, what is for me, a lot of mileage. I'd like to make this my "base" mileage and start pushing my peak mileage towards 120 mpw.