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.