I started this week with vacillating ideas of mileage. With my first marathon only 12 days away, I needed to taper my mileage, but coming off of a encouraging 60-mile week, it was tough to wean myself from such a high mileage benchmark. For a fleeting moment, I had considered putting in a mid-50 mile effort, though logic soon prevailed and I decided a 40-ish mile week would be the best course of action. The results are as follows:
Wed (9/21) – 6.5 mi (1:29, 600’) Doudy, Spring Brook, Mesa (front ascent), down Towhee, up Homestead – At the Spring Brook junction, I met up with some mule dear and we checked out the stars together just before the sun was to begin its morning ritual rise. After I climbed the first ascent up Mesa, I stopped at the old cabin and just stood watching the sunrise. At that point, I dashed all hopes for making this run a meaningful workout. I instead decided to play around and check out Towhee and Homestead – both trails I rarely travel.
Thurs (9/22) – 9 mi (1:31, 1,000’) Sobo, S Shanahan, Mesa – Nothing special here, except that climbing South Shanahan has become almost trivial it seems. Once I reached the Shanahan/Mesa junction, I just turned south on Mesa and came home. At this point, the low milers were starting to drive me a bit crazy.
Fri (9/23) – 14 mi (2:34, 2,300’) Sobo, Mesa to Skunk Canyon – That’s more like it. The previous two shorter runs got me so anxious to get real miles in that I just tossed the taper idea out the window for one run. Ah, it was nice!
Sun (9/25) – 10 mi (1:58, 1,900’) Blue Sky TH to Towers Trail – I headed up to Fort Collins to do a bit of recon for the race and check out the trails that I have trained the last six months to race on. The race only has an 800’ climb on the Towers section before cutting off onto some other trail, so as I ascended this fairly steep trail, I decided to go to the top. I’m glad I did. This is a pretty serious climb. The trail isn’t technical at all. In fact, it’s basically a fire road, but damn is it steep. Fun little run that sparked some ideas for future endeavors in the Fort.
Weekly Totals:
Miles: 40
Vertical Feet: 5,800
Time: 7:34
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