Aug 19-25

August 19
Think I need to do one more pure recovery day per week, in addition to Friday pool day. Think Monday’s a good candidate.

4.4 miles super easy w/ strides @ Big Bend to 163. Felt great and I feel great after the run.

40 minutes total

August 20
Am: 2 miles up, quick plyos and strides, followed by 5 x 3 minutes at CV pace with 2 minutes jog. Averaged 6:24/mile on the intervals. On the trails around the Arkansas River in town. Solid effort without emptying the tank. 6 miles in 55 minutes total, including cooldown and drills.

Pm: 4.2 miles in 34:40 on CR 220. Very warm. Felt sluggish. Some soreness above the right knee.

August 21
Am: 4.5 miles in 48:40 on the Rainbow Trail from 285 toward Mt. Ouray. This didn’t feel great. Actually, it felt pretty terrible. This is a moderately technical trail that gets bad erosion from dirt bikes. Wasn’t a great combo for my right ankle.

Pm: 4.8 super easy in 51:40 along the river w/ wife and some friends. Today was the worst my ankle had felt in a while. Easy run felt fine, though.

August 22
Am: 4.4 on CR 210 in 37:10. Ankle feels way better today. I love to run on mountain trails, but I don’t think my ankle is ready for it yet. Will try to stick to the soft dirt roads as much as possible for now.

Pm: Fartlek w/ the XC team. Worked hard staying w/ the lead pack for the first few reps. A couple of kids fell off the pace, and I decided it prudent to lay off the gas and stick with the second group.

Salida’s boys are ranked #1 Class 3A going into the season, according to the coaches' poll. That and $1.25 will get you a cup of coffee at McDonalds, but they’re a great group of kids putting in the work. Nice to see them get some recognition. It’ll be fun to have a front-row seat to watch how it all unfolds. 7.1 miles total

August 23
35 minutes pool jogging.

August 24
2 miles up, light plyos and strides, 20-minute tempo on CR 220. 6:40, 6:27, 6:23 miles on a slight net downhill @ 8000 ft. w/ some good rollers. 5.7 total. Good workout for me.

Got home and watched the results for the Pikes Peak Ascent with some interest. I had signed up for it in January and then deferred my entry to 2020 when I hurt myself.

In January, my back-of-the-napkin goal was master’s podium. What could I have pulled off there if fully healthy? Who knows? Easy to speculate when you’re sitting at your computer. Hopefully next year I’m healthy enough to find out.

August 25
Brief trip to Arvada to visit my brother, sister-in-law, mother & niece. Brother and family just moved from Sunnyside in Denver to Arvada this month, so figured we’d visit while my mom was in town.

Got in 6.3 miles easy in 48:50 around the Jim Baker reservoir. One of the flattest runs I’ve done in I don’t know how long. Also one of the hottest.

Aug 12-18

August 12
Am: 6 miles easy w/ XC team; .3 Warmup, .5 worth of strides barefoot

Super sore from the 200s yesterday. Body is just not used to running fast.

Pm: 3.8 on CR 220 in 32:09; crazy DOMS from yesterday

97 minutes total

August 13
Am: 3.69 easy w/ the team. I took it easy and ran with some freshmen today. They did a tempo, but the tempo effort barely cracked 8s, so nice and easy, which is what my body needed today.

Pm: 3.58 easy on CR 210 in 32:17, about 300 ft. of gain

69 minutes total

August 14
Am: 4.67 easy w/ the team. Started off w/ the freshman and caught up with the lead group. Some of the senior boys decided to go swimming in the river. Oh, to be 17 again.

Really feeling the back-to-back-to-back days on asphalt and concrete. I’ll run w/ the team again tomorrow, but after that, I’ll cap it at 2 days a week. I can handle running a decent amount on soft stuff right now, but hard surfaces are still too much for me.

38 minutes

August 15
Am: 6 x quarter-mile hills w/ the XC team. Tried to run w/ the lead guys again. Got dropped like a bad date. Good news is, the Salida XC team looks strong this year! Tight pack of 7 all doing 5:40 pace on a solid incline at 7,000 ft, with the last interval at 5:20 pace. Quick enough to leave me in the dust, that’s for sure. 5.11 miles

Pm: 3.77 miles on CR 250, 35:18, about 600 ft. gain. Hottest run of the year so far, I think.

93 minutes total today

August 16
43 minutes pool running and movements

August 17
Am: Fartlek on CR 220 toward Maysville, 14 x 1 on/off. Rolling hills at 8k-8500 feet. Wanted to average sub-6 on the hard sections and got there, but just barely. 5:54 average. That’s 33 seconds faster per than I was able to do a month ago (plus with 4 extra reps).

6.05 miles in 55 minutes w/ warmup and cooldown. Tossed in a couple of strides at the end.

Pm: 4.3 easy miles in 34:20 on CR 203, avg. elevation 8600, rolling hills.

(90 minutes total)

August 18
Am: 4.2 miles in 44 minutes on Colorado Trail near CR 224. Avg HR 133. Avg elevation 9600. Had my first trail tumble since the big one in February. This one was much more a more gentle fall on singletrack while running 11-minute pace uphill. No harm done. Still trying to get that proprioception back.

Finished with 1.2 mile hike w/ wife & dog

Pm: 4.37 easy in 37 minutes on CR 210. About 350 ft. gain. Second run felt recuperative with the soft dirt road compared to the rolling singletrack.

468 minutes running total plus a pool jog

Aug 5 - Aug 11

August 5
Am: Another dirt road run in Paonia. 3.69 miles in 34 minutes w/ 400 ft. gain. 4 strides right around 5-min pace avg.

Noonish: 1.3 mile hike w/ wife & dog at the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Never been out there before. Holy crap it’s beautiful.

Pm: Back in Salida. 4.45 miles easy w/ Chaffee County Running Club along the Arkansas Hills trails. Sand Dunes to Backbone to Tenderfoot to Burnpile to Chili Pepper. 53 minutes, 500 ft. gain.

August 6
Am: 5.18 miles up Pass Creek to Windy Ridge. 56 minutes, 1600 ft. elevation gain. Steep and rocky up to 9500 ft. Super baby easy on the downhill. Still tender on the ankle.

Windy Ridge, facing Shavano and the Sawatch from the South

Pm: 3.89 miles on CR 220, 32:16, average HR 141. Funny, did back-to-back doubles, and this afternoon’s run was the best my ankle has felt so far since I started up again.

August 7
Am: 6.03 with the Salida XC team, just over 8-minute pace. I’m going to be taking a light volunteer role with the team this year.

We mostly ran on local roads with some trails sprinkled in. Today was their easy day, but as is often the case w/ HS kids, easy days have a way of picking up steam a bit. I kept up w/ the front guys, if only to show them that I could (at least on their easy days)!

I felt the roads a bit afterwards.

Early pm: .3 miles on treadmill during PT super easy. Officially done with PT!

Pm: 4.01 miles on CR 163 in 32:47 average HR 139. Felt ok, but not as springy as yesterday. Stiff headwind on the way back.

August 8
15 up, light plyos and strides, 3 x 8 minutes tempo effort w/ 1-minute rest, along Arkansas River trails, with light rolling hills. 10 down. Averaged about 7:05 pace for the tempo sections.

Definitely felt worked this morning. Will take the afternoon off and just go to the pool tomorrow.

6.4 miles total

August 9
40 minutes of pool running.

In April, pool running was my only form of aerobic exercise, and so the emphasis was on deep end, intense pool running, trying to get my heart rate up. Now, pool running is my main recovery day, and I don’t much care about the aerobic stimulus; I’m more interested in recuperative movements on the pool floor. I mostly spend my time shuffling around in the different planes of motion in the shallow end and then in the heated pools.

August 10
Am: 5.5 miles in 58 minutes on Columbine/Rainbow Trail. Another one of my favorite stretches of trail. Met up w/ the wife and dog for a half-mile hike at the end.

Pm: 4.01 miles in 31:42 on CR 163 near Big Bend. 7:54 avg pace on rolling hills near the Arkansas River, avg. HR 142. First time with the pace below 8 on a purely aerobic run since the injury, and it came on the second run of a double.

Less than two months ago I averaged 10:23 pace on this exact route at a similar intensity level. If I continue to improve at this rate, I should have no trouble dispatching with Kipchoge and Farah in spring marathons next year.

August 11
Headed over to the track for some turnover work. 2-miles up, plyos, 3 in-and-out strides, 3 max 30-meter sprints on full rest, followed by 6 x 200 on 3 minutes rest.

The goal of the workout was to run some at a fast-ish pace on the track (for me, at my current level of fitness) and not hurt myself. The 200s weren’t fast, but they were remarkably consistent, all between 37.44 and 38.27. Still, much less encouraging for my plan to out-sprint Mo Farah next spring.

I could definitely feel the ankle in the first 5 seconds of every interval, but I don’t think I did anything to set myself back today.

10-minute barefoot cooldown in a light rain.

5.4 miles total

51.7 miles on the week, which is fairly high mileage by my standards. And I feel good, all things considered. Definitely not 100%, but I don’t feel like I’m pushing myself to the edge, either.

I’m thrilled with how the aerobic development is coming along. I’m at 90-95% of my MAF-type aerobic fitness pre-injury. The pointy end is going to take longer, as my tempo paces and speed paces are more like 80-85% of where I was pre-injury. I’ll try to park the mileage at between 50-60 miles a week and continue to work on tempo efforts and light quick speed work.

Drip, drip, drip.

July 29-Aug 4

July 29
Uncle and aunt arrived from Ireland last night. I had expected a light day of physical activity, but I should have known better.

Despite being flatlanders in their mid-60s and having never been higher than 3000 ft., we did a 5-mile hike with 2500 ft. of elevation gain up to the continental divide on technical terrain. And they were not bothered in the slightest. They loved it.

We came home and my uncle then proceeded to thrash me in a backyard game of horseshoes.

July 30
Am: Another short but vigorous am family hike around O’Haver lake. 2 miles.

2 pm: Aborted run. Only went .9 because of a quick-moving thunderstorm.

4 pm: 2 miles more light & easy on the mill

Weird day because of the visitors, work catch up, and the weather

5 miles total – spent a lot more time on my feet than I normally would have preferred on my easy days, but it was great to spend time with family.

July 31
40-minute subtempo run, 16 up and 15 down; CR 203, 8.53 miles in 71 minutes total, rolling hills between 8500-9000 ft.

5.2 miles on the subtempo section. About 25 seconds a mile faster than two weeks ago at the same level of intensity, running five minutes longer.

Aug 1
Happy August!

5.67 miles in 61 minutes on the continental divide trail near Monarch, between 11,300 and 11,900 ft. Lots of rollers that knock the wind right out of you. That and running at nearly 12,000 ft.

Easy day ridge running at its finest. First time running above tree line this year. Love this section of trail!

Happy August from Monarch Pass!

Aug 2
42 minutes at the pool. So nice.

Starting next week, I’m going to move up to six days a week of running. But these pool days are here to stay.

August 3
20-minute tempo run on the track, Avg. HR 163, 6:58 pace, 2-mile warmup and cooldown plus strides. 7.25 miles total. 62 minutes total running.

Was hoping that a tempo effort would have been closer to 6:45 pace. But I am where I am. You can’t force fitness.

August 4
Went out to Paonia for the weekend, just to eat a bunch of fruit and hang out. Found a dirt road, because there wasn’t much in the way of trails out there. Ran 5.15 miles in 44 minutes with about 700 ft. of gain. Avg HR 139.