1/21-1/27

Jan 21
5.5 miles easy w/ six maximal hill sprints on CR 140; cold w/ cross wind. Felt sluggish but way better after doing the hill sprints.

Jan 22
Woke up to another 3-4 inches of snow, and news of another foot up the pass.

This did not help with motivation, but I did manage to get out for 3 x 15 minutes “tempo effort,” with two minutes rest in between. Ran on CR 220 in screw shoes. I tried to keep my HR between 155-168 (about 82-88% of max) during the tempo efforts. With the snow, it was just slow slogging. Uphills were at nearly 8-minute pace and downhills never faster than 6:40 pace.

9.91 miles total on the day, in 1:19, including warmup and cooldown.

Hard enough effort, but I don’t think I felt as drained at the end as I would have if conditions were better, if only because I was running so much slower. Conditions kept my effort in the middle of my target HR range, even when I tried to push.

I have yet to do a single run outside in 2019 that wasn’t at least partially on snow and ice. In 2017, I wore screw shoes maybe a half dozen times. In 2018, I think I broke them out once or twice. This winter, I’ve been wearing them on the vast majority of my runs since frickin’ November.

I like to run in snow more than anyone I know (with the possible exception of Tom). But I also, sometimes, like to run outside not in the snow. That has not happened yet in 2019.

Jan 23
9.4 miles in 74 minutes on CRs 165 and 160. First two miles were on 165, which is a dirt road that was covered in snow, next 2.7 were on dry roads to Franz Lake. Out and back. This is a nice runnable route when it’s not windy, which is basically never. But this morning it wasn't bad. All of it is next to the Arkansas River with great views of the Sawatch and Sangre de Cristos.

I usually prefer to avoid running on asphalt, but it felt good to just get out there and go for a run at a relaxed pace on a dry surface.

Easy-moderate effort

Jan 24
Lots of snow up the pass. None here. No running, am ski.

Jan 25
Woke up to a dusting of snow. Figured the track wouldn’t be usable, so I found a dry stretch of road on CR 140.

2 mile warmup, plus strides and plyos, followed by 4 x 200.

First one was in 31.x, which felt hard, and then my watch pooped out on me. Suspect the others were more in the 33 range.

If you want to test how comfortable you are with yourself, do plyos in spandex on a county road in rural Colorado on a weekday. I got some looks.

Est. 4.5 miles total

Jan 26
45 minutes easy with strides on CR 210. 5.5 miles. Roads are starting to clear up.

Jan 27
17.4 miles on CR 45 in 2:16.

Wanted to get a good 90%-ish effort in preparation for Moab. Did the first 8 miles in under an hour keeping the HR down. Started to feel pretty good about myself, until I noticed there was a tumbleweed dancing down the road in the same direction as me but going twice as fast.

So the first 8.7 were with the wind at my back and the last 8.7 with the wind in my face. Probably a 15-20 mph wind. Trying to do 8:10s on the way back was infinitely harder than doing 7:20s on the way out. Average 7:49/mile.

Hard effort

I might be the world's worst photographer, but here are some pics of CR 45.

The Arkansas River with the Sangres in the background

My favorite part

Not my favorite part

Choo Choo!

With the long run, this ended up being one of the bigger mileage weeks of the past 16 months. Still not super confident in my fitness going into Moab, but starting to get closer as these long runs accumulate.