9/23-9/29, Got the bull by the horns

Sept 23
Am: 3.9 miles recovery on CR 220 in 31:20, max HR 140. Felt appropriately recuperative.
Pm: 3.1 miles on Little Cochetopa trail above CR 210. Probably about a 1000 ft. of gain.

Went to scout out the leaves, but there was a huge herd of cows. Normally not a big deal, but there were a few bulls out there, too. I’ve seen one bull in a field of cows before, but never a bunch of bulls.

Not sure if it’s mating season or what, but they were crazy loud, aggressive, and going at each other. At one point, there were two, full-ton weight bulls with locked horns ramming each other and going to war between me and my car. Eventually they moved, but holy crap, I’ve never seen anything like that before. I was honestly wondering for a while whether I was going to have to abandon my car and bushwhack home in the dark.

The joys of country living.

View from Cochetopa to the Sangres - Fire!

Sep 24
Am: 3.6 miles very easy w/ strides on CR 225/Colorado Trail, 33:50; 800 ft. gain
Pm: 7.4 miles on a prog run w/ one of the middle groups of the XC team, town to spiral drive to to the river to gun club to the blue house and back

Sept 25
Am: 4.4 easy in 41:30 on CR 224 to the Colorado, about 1000ft. gain. Trying to take it easier on my easy runs this week to avoid a repeat of last week where I put myself in a hole.

224 goes up

Pm: 4.6 miles easy in 57:30 on Greens Creek trail w/ the Chaffee County Running Club. About 1200 ft gain. Leaves are starting to pop!

Greens is a fairly technical trail, but my ankle handled it well and I wasn’t too sore afterwards. Admittedly, we were going slow, but still a good sign.

Sept 26
15 x 1 minute on/off fartlek on CR 220. Average 5:36 pace on the up sections.

6.3 miles total w/ warmup and cooldown.

Sept 27
8.8 miles in 83:30 on CR 210 to Pass Creek to Windy Ridge to check out some leaves. About 2000 ft. gain.

Beautiful up there!

September 28
2.5 miles easy trotting around at the home XC meet. I got the emcee the event. Fun stuff.

Boys got 2nd and girls got 3rd, only finishing behind 5A schools Regis and Arapahoe.

September 29th
Am: Track workout, 2 x (6 x 200), 1 minute between reps, 4 minutes between sets
36.5, 38.4, 38.3, 39.2, 38.6, 37.6; 38.8, 39.3, 39.2, 38.0, 39.4, 37.4

This was another workout that I stole from Mike Smith of NAU. That man is a genius!

This workout gives you 2.5 miles of work at or about mile pace, but because there’s only a minute break between the 200 reps, the HR during the sets stays mostly between 140 & 170, which is aerobic to LT threshold range for me. There’s a real aerobic stimulus there. Definitely a positive workout for running economy without sending you to the well. My kind of workout.

5.4 miles total

Pm: 3.8 miles on CR 221 above Greens Greek. 1300 ft. gain.

Lots of gain and loss this week, particularly for a guy who, to the extent that he's training for anything, is training for flat 5ks. Just going to the places where it’s nicest this time of year, and around here, that means lots of vert. 

9/16-9/22, First Air of Autumn

September 16

4.5 miles super baby easy with strides, Big Bend to 163

September 17

Am: Easy jog on CR 210 plus 5 x 20-second hill sprints 4.6 miles total

Pm: 3.3 miles jogging around at BV XC meet

September 18

Am: 6.4 miles steady on Marshall Pass in 49:50, about 800 ft. of gain, between 8600-9400 ft.

Pm: 3.5 easy in 29:10 on CR 250, about 500 ft. gain. Felt sluggish.

September 19

Am: Tried to do an extended session of 80 seconds on/40 seconds off at tempo pace, but after a half dozen “ons,” I felt like I was running in quicksand. Was hoping to have the tempo pace near 6. Started that way and then it started to creep toward 7 so I called it a day. 4.1 miles.

Pm: 5.5 easy on Arkansas Hills Trails w/ friend from running store & a Hoka rep; Avg HR 126

Think I’m a little cooked. Resting HR has been high for a few days. Going to take it easy for a couple of days and see if I can bring it back.

September 20:

Am: 3.5 super baby easy on CR 210 w/ strides, 31:30; avg HR 122

Pm: 3.3 miles on CR 101, max HR 135, 28:30, 500 ft. gain

September 21

3 miles in 23:20 on CR 140, 250 ft. gain, max HR 143

Resting HR finally back down to normal

September 22

Am: pre-dawn 3.1 miles in 24:20 on CR 140 & 250, about 300 ft gain, max HR 143

Pm: 800 @ Vo2, 2 min rest, 3 x 1 mile @ tempo w/1 min rest, 2 min rest, 800 @ Vo2 max

2:43 & 2:42 on the 800s; miles averaged high 6:40s on rolling hills with some authentic Salida wind

7.2 miles total w/ warmup, cooldown and strides

Wore an old pair of Inov-8 Talon 212s. Not the right choice. Was limping a bit toward the end.

I think this song's about getting old. Either way, seems appropriate right now.

Huge fan of the way they weave together their guitar work.

9/9-9/15, On Fire

September 9, 2019
Am: 4 miles easy Big Bend to CR 163 in 32:10, HR max below 145.

Pm: 3.9 miles 41:20, HR max below 145, 1100 ft. elevation gain @ 9300 – 10,400 ft. CR 224.

Still not many leaves turning

September 10, 2019
Am: 2.2 miles up, 4 x 20 second hill sprints on CR 210. 2.7 miles total

Pm: 5.7 easy w/ XC team

September 11, 2019
Am: easy 10k in 49:30 near Mears Junction

Pm: 3.6 easy on CR 225/Colorado Trail in 30:50. 1000 ft. gain.

September 12, 2019
Am: 2 miles up, a couple of strides, 3-mile tempo, 6:46, 6:14, 5:55. CR 210. First full sub-6 mile since the injury! Tried to run so that the first (hilly) mile was slower than threshold, the second mile was right there, and the third mile was faster than threshold pace. Legs are tired from all the doubles. Felt like crap the first mile, but strangely better as I picked up the pace. Will enjoy the easy day tomorrow. 5.7 miles total.

Pm: 5.2 miles in 42:40 on CR 101, 800 ft. gain between 6950 & 7600 ft. Mile 5 was a (downhill) sub-6:20 w/ HR sub 150.

September 13
Am: 30 minutes pool running

Pm: 3.4 miles superbabyeasy on CR 220 in 29:10 w/ 5 strides

September 14
Gunny XC meet; Boys and girls both won, with one of Salida’s freshman girls taking the overall title for the ladies.

5.9 miles running around, including one sub-6 w/ chasing after coach Kenny.

As an aside, Salida’s XC coaching staff has some insanely high-quality runners for a town of its size. Kenny Wilcox, the head coach, ran a 16:13 5k this summer at age 40. Aaron Blondeau was on a DI XC national championship team at CU back in the day with Jorge Torres and Ritz, and he still has it when he’s healthy. Plus, Sarah Hudelson is the mother of the #2 ranked men’s runner in DII right now, and she’s no slouch herself. And there's one more coach who has the chops to keep up with the lead guys most days. I mean, how many towns of 5,000 people have this kind of talent pool to draw from?

In other news, Methodist Mountain just south of Salida caught fire. Here was the view from my backyard this afternoon. Looks like a volcano erupted.

September 15
Am: 6-mile subtempo effort in 40:40 near Mears Junction on rolling hills between 8400-8900 ft. Last two miles under 6:20. Felt strong.

Starting to get cold in the mornings at this elevation. I’ve really been enjoying having the full range of running spots available to me in the summer. Not looking forward to winter when some of these roads are often (depending on the year) unrunnable.

7.9 miles total w/ warmup, cooldown, and a couple of strides.

Pm: 4 miles easy on CR 210; 31:10, about 400 ft. gain.

9/2-9/8, Doubles, No Troubles

September 2
Am: 10 miles on Old Monarch Pass road in 85 minutes, steady-hard. 2000 or so feet of elevation gain, all between 10,400 and 11,400 ft. Pretty sure that’s the fastest I’ve run 10 miles on that road.

Pm: 4 miles easy on CR 163 @ Big bend. 31:50

September 3
Am: 5.7 miles easy on CR 220 w/ some strides 45:10

Pm: 4 miles easy w/ XC team. 40 minutes. They did hard repeat Ks. I hung out with a kid who was coming back from a stress fracture and drew motivational pictures in the dirt on the trail.

September 4
7.3 miles in 60:10, dirt road near Mears Junction, keeping the HR below 145. Still a little worked from Monday, so kept it easy, but still a positive effort.

September 5
Am: Easy four miles plus 4 x 20 second hill sprints on CR 210. 4.4 miles in total, 36:30 running time.

Pm: 5.5 in 44:10 on CR 220. Resting HR high in the evening.

September 6
Am: 35 minutes pool jogging. Legs never feel better than when I leave the pool on Friday.

Pm: 3.1 miles on CR 221 above Greens Creek. 1000 ft. elevation gain in a mile and a half. Wanted to see if the leaves were turning yet. There are a few signs of fall, but things aren’t changing yet in earnest. Much more color this time last year.

September 7
Am: Joe Vigil XC meet in Alamosa. Boys ran well, with 5 guys under 17:45 at 7200 feet. 5th place behind 4 schools with enrollments 5x larger (Salida has fewer than 400 kids in the whole school). Girls did well, with a solid pack of 4, and some promising races from freshman and sophomores. 6th overall.

4.5 miles of jogging, sprinting, and moving doing the assistant coach thing.

Pm: 2.3 miles easy in 21 minutes on the mill.

September 8
Am: Track workout. Been researching workouts to do at 7000 ft., and I stumbled upon the training of Northern Arizona University, 3x defending NCAA DI champs in XC, who also happen to train at 7000 ft. One of their XC bread and butter workouts is a 3 x (6 x 300) @ Vo2 max pace, with 1-minute rest between reps and 3 minutes between sets. I did my own version of that, with 3 x (5 x 300) w/ 1:25 between reps and 2 minutes between sets. Was able to do the 300s in high 61s (about 5:30/mile pace) w/ the last rep in each set below 60 (sub 5:20 pace).

Was swimming in lactate the last set, but it was manageable. Ankle felt good and felt in control the whole time. Hands-on-hips hard, not hard-on-knees hard, which is usually the way I prefer to keep things.

6.3 miles

Pm: 4.7 miles in 38:40 on CR 220, starting at Mountain Spirit winery going up 221.

Good week. Lots of doubles, and the doubles felt surprisingly good. My body is happy with lots of short runs on dirt roads and a couple of workouts a week.

8/26-9/1, Steady Progress

August 26
4.3 miles super easy in 39 minutes @ Big Bend w/ some strides, avg HR 130. Felt fine. Relatively light weekend running wise but still fairly tired from travel. Fun catching up on all the Pikes race reports.

August 27
Am: 5.1 easy in 40:10 on CR 220. Felt great. Starting to get a little cooler in the mornings. It’s already at the point where I need light gloves running at 7 am. Summer is great around here, but it doesn’t last long.

Pm: 6.3 miles w/ XC team; 3 x 5 minute repeats with a group running 7:20-7:30 pace. 3 fast strides at the end.

August 28
7.3 miles easy in 58:50 on CR 200 near Mears Junction. I actually don’t know what road this is. I’ve seen signs that say CR 200, CR 201. CR 201A, CR 203, and Silver Creek Lakes Road. Plus, it splits off in a million directions. I think I’m just going to call it CR 200.

August 29
Am: 2 miles up, light plyos and strides, 6 x 200 on CR 210 on full rest, on a slight downhill. 40 high, 36 low, 35 high, 36 low, 35 low, 34 high. 5-minute cooldown. 4.5 miles total.

I wrote a blog post last fall about how I think this is the area of my training where I need the most work. Simple, raw speed. I still think that’s true, probably even more so now.

Pm: 2 sets of (2 x 400, 200) w/ xc team. Ran w/ the lead girls, so the efforts were between 1:33 & 1:40 on the 400s and 42-ish on the 200s; 4.4 miles total.

Finished up w/ 90 minutes of Iyengar yoga

Today marks the 6-month anniversary of my initial surgery, when the healing process began. 36-second downhill 200s aren’t exactly going to put me in any record books, but very happy with the steady progression.

August 30
35 minutes pool jogging. Not sure if it’s the 200s or the yoga or a combination of the two, but I am sore today.

August 31
Went to visit a couple of friends in Beaver Creek for the weekend. One was a former 14-minute 5k guy and the other was a former 15-minute 5k guy, but on this occasion, we were much more accomplished at swapping stories than running fast. 4.2 miles in 40 minutes around the mountain in Beaver Creek.

Sept 1
Busy day traveling back to Salida and going to a wedding. Zero.