Rounding out July

The Numbers for July:

Miles: 187

Vertical feet: 25,592

Time: 33:45:46

This was a good month in running. I progressed toward building more mileage and vertical feet. In the case of the latter, I climbed 10,620 feet more than June (14,972 ft), which helped me to ascend two of Boulder’s iconic mountains (Bear Peak and Green Mountain) for the first times this month. I’m confident that doubling up the climbing at Teller Farms was key to building a larger vertical base to do this. All I can say is that I anticipate on incorporating ascents of both of these mountains into my weekly long runs and maybe even some weekday easy runs in the near future.

Weekly Update: 7/25 – 7/31

Tuesday – 11 miles (1:45, 1,574 ft) easy run at Teller Farms – This was a really, really slow and mellow run. Coming off of the weekend’s sickness, I was apprehensive about the pace I would be able to maintain on this run, so I took it easy.

Thursday – 8 miles (1:01 w/7:30’s) tempo run around Celestial Seasonings – A bit of a throwback run, but I thought it’d be good to toss in some flat, faster running since the last several weeks have been exclusively on trails with considerable climbing and relatively slow pace.

Saturday – 10.55 miles (4:59, 4,300 ft) Green Mountain Bear Peak via Gregory Canyon – This was sort of a discovery run with a friend check out both Green Mountain and Bear Peak in a single run. The time is crazy slow due to the frequent stops to check out the scenery of the Indian Peaks and Continental Divide, lingering on the summits, and general putzing around. This was certainly not a run worthy of being timed. I will say that with all the casual meandering, we both happened to run out of water a bit too early in the run and with the hot summer sun cresting over the peaks, we bolted down the canyon with a quickness to get to the frosty beverages awaiting us back at the trailhead.

Sunday – 17.5 miles (2:54, 787 ft) – Long run at Teller Farms – I intended to run 20 miles, but after the rather long day on the mountain the previous day, I cut it a little short.