Getting Serious?

A lot of training, racing, and fun has occurred since my last post.  I entered 2 races, the first one was a 10K which I ran easy the first half and then put the gas on in the second half, and still knocked 2 minutes off of last years time.  I also entered a 15K and knocked 10 minutes off of last years time and was still recovering from a Grand Canyon run I did a few days before.  The fitness is paying off in many ways.

Weekly mileage is now creeping up into the mid 60s, with a variety of running including fartlek, threshold, and long runs.

I did a long back to back last week with no problems which means I am almost there.  This week Joel and I are finally on the same schedule so are planning a bunch of runs together.  We started with an awesome run this morning up Schultz Creek trail with Aaron, Eric, and Scott.  Tomorrow we are doing a trail fartlek, followed by a real easy 6 mile run with NATRA on Saturday, and then the biggy of the week is a 20 mile long loop over the San Francisco peaks, starting at 8000 feet, climbing to close to 12000 and then back to start.  This should be in the neighborhood of a 4 to 5 hour run and test our endurance.  Joel and I are coming together in our training both physically and mentally, which will make for an awesome week at TR.

I also took a trip to southwest Colorado to get some sustained running in above 10000 feet.  Based just out of Silverton, I ran an 8 mile easy run with 1500 feet of climbing, and then a 10 miler the next day with close to 3000 feet of climbing, its a whole different game when you are climbing above 11000 feet.

The vistas in that area are incredible and rejuvenated my running for the homestretch of training.

My oldest son went with me and allowed us some fun times, hiking, rock climbing, sitting in the hot springs, and the daily waffle cone.

I usually update Mike about my weekly progress, this last week I was at 61 miles and 9 hours of running, to which he replied "Great, now we can get started for real".  Yikes!  Except for the occasional solo long run, the training has been fun and I feel that I will be more than prepared for a great race.

mw