Our anniversary weekend up in the mountains was great. Just a nice time to hang out and not worry about anything (except our puppy, Guinness). We ate a lot of good food, and ran a good amount as well. It was the first time that we have cooked a live lobster! He was pretty tasty, but probably a bit angry about becoming dinner. I will have to see how the crew did out in Florida this weekend at St. Anthony's Triathlon. Steve Pye's Practical Coaching group and Jordan Jones are all racing out there. Hope they did well!
While up in Edwards, I went out to see if I could get to New York Mountain on the West Lake Creek Trail. Well, there is still a lot of snow out there! I got up the trail about three miles and decided that falling into my knees over and over again really wasn't the best way to go for the day. I turned around and flew down the hill eating it every few minutes when my flailing legs found a soft spot and sunk in. After down the trail, I decided to put in a good mile up to the East Lake Creek Trail and see if the conditions were any better. A nice 6:30 uphill mile later and there I was. The conditions were not better, but I climbed to the top of the trail and called it good. Down I came and somewhere over an hour, I was done. The following day I headed out of the house and up the Mesquite Trail. This trail is STEEP and then connects to a fire road that takes me to the other side of the neighborhood at SingleTree. I am not sure how far it was, but I ran hard and felt good. A nice couple of days at altitude in the steep hills. That should be some good training for the upcoming season.
After we got back to Denver on Sunday, I decided it was a good time to hit up the 8mile Mt. Falcon run. Initially, I figured I would take it easy on the way up and see how I felt. I was running pretty easy and hit Turkey Trot at 13:30 so I thought, "What the heck, let's see how the 8mi turns out." I picked it up a bit, but found that my legs were pretty tired from the previous day's jaunts. I hit the Gazebo in a few ticks under 25min. I was pretty winded at this point, but continued on at a bit slower a pace toward the parking lot. I got to the parking lot in 35:00 even, and was feeling much better. I have been working on my downhilling so as not to get my butt kicked in the races this summer. I came back parking lot to parking lot in 23:30. So, 58:30 for the run, and that seems reasonable for a training day. I slowed it up a bit in the last mile or so, because that kind of pounding in training is really not a good idea. I am planning on doing that race in a month or so, so I will see what I can do then. I am pretty confident the whole thing can be done under 55:00, but that is cutting a good amount of time. I am looking forward to racing and it is coming soon! I will probably do Falcon again today, but nice and easy, and a bit longer (13ish). The hills are still a bit rough, but I think I will be a lot smoother by the start of the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment