Goal for 2019: Sub- 4 hours in the Pikes Peak Ascent

I will admit, most people don't have a decade's worth of exercise planned in advance. I'm not most people. You may recall last year, I posted a list of goals for the next six to seven years. Check here if you missed it.

Now that it's 2019, I've decided on the goal for this year. I will be pushing some speedwork and hill repeats in order to go for that sub-4 hour Pikes Peak Ascent!

Certainly one of the lower mileage goals, I still don't expect it will be easy. My ankle still hasn't fully recovered from the painful fall I took in July of last year. I'm getting some physical therapy to help it out, and including lots of cross-training in my typical training week.

I will need to focus on more speedwork soon (maybe some track repeats tomorrow) but I'm still running long on weekends. I haven't been able to make it to the club runs much this season yet, but I had a great run with the club two weeks ago. Here's a photo of the group by the 7.8 miles to summit sign on Barr Trail.

This last weekend, I ran part of the Legacy Loop on the urban trails in Colorado Springs. If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, you should. They've done an excellent job with the underpass at Uintah on the west side of the trail, so you can now run the loop without needing to cross at the light. Very convenient!

Now that it's mid-January, the sunlight hours already feel much longer than they did a month ago, and the snow is sporadic, so I am hoping to get some good training in on the trails soon.

I look forward to seeing many of you this year during our common Ascent and Marathon goals! Happy 2019.