sunday 8/29

Ran 4 mi earlier in the week and otherwise took it easy post-Ascent.

Got up and took the dog for a mile jog around the park. Dropped him off and was back out the door on a 10.5 mi run with some decent rollers and climbs. Been a long time since I ran that long. Achilles started barking about 10 mi in and I walked a couple hundred yards to quiet it down. Generally lazy day around the house until I cooked up a flat iron steak and sliced it up for fajitas and washed it down with a couple Gubnas from Oskar Blues.

Heading to San Diego for a much needed vacation on Wednesday. Looking forward to completely unplugging from work for a solid week. Obviously looking forward to getting a couple good runs in at sea level to offset some of the In n Out burger.

Poking around with a new (to me) site to upload Garmin data to and it seems light years ahead of the Garmin Connect site. RunningAHEAD is what garmin connect should have been.

PPA recap

Ran a 5:01:39 today. 1:40 short of my goal. I've already identified about 3 or 4 places where I could have made that time up but hindsight is 20/20. Pretty pleased with the run even though I came up a little short.

Ran the W's a minute faster than last week and made it to No-Name in 1:21. Was at Barr Camp in 2:23. Things kinda fell apart from there on up. I had about 30 min to click off each of the last 3 miles and was unable to make it happen.

In the end, it's a nearly a 29 min PR so I'm ok with that. I'm sure the mountain will still be there next year.

I'll get a few pics up tomorrow from the start and finish and see how the result is settling then.

tuesday 8/18

Ran 2.5 mi around the house when I got up. Felt OK.

As of Wednesday afternoon, legs feel heavy and stiff. Might run something Thursday morning to loosen up.

sunday 8/15

Got a few runs in during the week last week and then put the last of the proverbial hay into the barn on Sunday. I wanted to try a little experiment and see just how much of the W's and balance of the trail up to No Name I could run. I set off from Memorial Park at 7:30 and jogged down the empty streets of Manitou toward the mountain. I had no disillusions about running the first switchback starting at Hydro St up to the turn away from Ruxton Creek. For me, running that stretch during the race or training would be pretty disastrous. I settled into a nice hike when I hit the climb starting at Hydro. Once on the singletrack connector to Barr, I found a slow but steady jogging pace and managed to hold that all the way to the top of the W's. The only walking steps I took were to navigate a couple of the rock fields and a couple step ups.

I hit the top of the W's in 56. That's only a minute or two better than I've done when just hiking it so I don't think the gain there is worth the additional effort. The first couple of switchbacks ater the top are in realy bad shape. The runoff has left a trough in the middle of the trail that is now full of about 2" of loose scree. On the sides of the trough it slopes up so dramatically that it's really tough to pass. I almost fell into a couple folks as I jumped up on the slope to let them pass on their way down.

After the break there, I found a comfortable running pace again and made my way towards No Name Creek. I never really noticed how much of the course there is runnable and it made the same old trail a little bit exciting. I hiked the final pitch up to the Rock Arch and also the last couple hundred feet of real steep stuff up to No Name and stopped the watch in 1:22. That's at least a 4 min PR up to that spot so I felt pretty good about the run. I'm sure the nice, cool weather played a hand in aiding those times but that was an effort that I'd never really gone for after always getting HR up way too high while running in the W's and just settling for a hiking pace the rest of the way.

So I learned that there is still no need to run the W's on race day but I will start picking up the pace immediately after the top of the Ws and really take advantage of some runnable terrain and bank a little time where I would usually just follow the pack.

This is one of those runs where you do something you've never done before and it goes well. The timing couldn't be better due to the shot of much needed confidence with respect to what kind of shape I'm in. Two more easy runs this week and then the big show on Saturday.

tuesday 8/10

Traveled back home on Monday so no run.

Got up this morning and seriously considered not running until I jumped on the scale. Weekend at the in-laws always means lots of good food and this past weekend was no exception.

Geared up for 4 mi around the golf course loop. Took over 2 min off my time from last Wednesday. This will probably be a staple of the runs going forward since it's easy to get to and provides a nice baseline. 4mi; 46:30.

sunday 8/8

Was in Roswell, NM for the weekend with the in-laws. It's well over an hour to the mountains from there and the family had plans to go to the lake Sunday so I had to find a route to run closer to town.

I thought about going out to Bottomless Lakes State Park and running a few laps on the mountain bike trail and then later decided to hit the urban trail from one side of town to the other and back.

Slept right on through the 6am alarm and finally got out of bed at 9am. It was already well into the 90s at that point but that's my punishment for sleeping in I guess. I threw on as little clothes as possible and headed to the zoo where the trail starts. It was nasty hot to start but once moving there was enough breeze to cool things off. I made my way across town moving from street level and then down into the Spring River drainage every few blocks and then back up. When I finally reached the golf course, it was mostly exposed around the perimeter of the property. About a mile later I reached the end of the trail on the west side of town. The heat had really started to take its toll at this point and I mixed in a few walking breaks on the way back but managed to run most of it. Probably some of the hottest weather I've run in but I was glad to get in 8 miles in those conditions.

Enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at the lake in the cool water.

wednesday 8/4

Legs felt pretty beat after the weekend so I took Monday and Tuesday off. Wednesday is typically an incline day but I didn't have the time to get over to Manitou and back so I ran the golf course loop CCW. 4.1 mi real easy. Thought about extending it but the dog was getting tired and I was too. Didn't pay much attention to HR but when I did, it seemed lower than previous runs on that loop so that's good I guess.

sunday 8/1

Hit Memorial Park at around 6:30 and was on the PPA course by 6:45. Never felt like I was moving very quick at all but was hitting splits for a sub 5 hr ascent. Took it fairly easy between No Name and the 7.8 sign, but by the time I hit the foot bridge to make the last climb to Barr Camp, I was in a bad way. Calves and hamstrings just felt real tight. I finally hit camp in 2:35 after crawling the last half mile. Drank some Gatorade and started back down. Legs just felt stiff and sore for the most part. I jogged a few stretches but never could get comfortable. Just past the top of the Incline, Bucky came down behind me and we jogged down for a while and chatted. About halfway down the W's, we both decided we'd had enough and walked the entire way back to memorial park. Will be in NM next weekend but I may try to get to BC the last weekend before the Ascent.

saturday 7/31

Got up on Saturday looking for redemption on Blodgett Peak. Slept in a little but still got to the Open Space parking lot early enough to get a spot and headed up. It was real muggy due to all the rain the night before but I settled in heading up the trail before the real climbing starts.

I reached the mouth of the valley and then headed straight up the trail determined not to leave it early and end up in the boulder fields like last week. I passed a group coming down on the other side of the creek and continued up. Not long after I reached a rock wall at least 12 feet high and I was closed in for the most part. I pulled out my phone to try to figure out where I was. I had reached the "extra credit" waterfall feature and could not go anywhere past this point.


I backtracked down the drainage and finally spotted what looked like some trail across the creek. I managed to get over there and I still think I was a little high, but finally stumbled across a rock cairn. Must be trail! I scrambled up the scree slope and was passed by another dude so I figured I was still on the route. I reached the top of the ridge, jogged through the flat before beginning another steep climb to the top of the saddle. Trail was pretty worn here and nicely marked with cairns. I threw stones on a few to make them a little more conspicuous where I had trouble finding them. Eventually I reached the saddle and it was just another 1/4mi or so to the summit. Once on the summit, it was well worth it. Got some awesome views of the clouds dancing around above the city below my feet. Snapped a couple pics and then settled in for the treacherous descent back down the mountain.