I've been debating about the best format moving forward for this blog. It's going into summer and I'm spending more time actually running, less time blogging.
So I'll summarize my workouts in a quick list, and then elaborate on the more interesting days down below, and/or share photos.
I'll try to update every 10 to 14 days or so, but might end up doing bi-monthly.
Week 1:
- May 14 - Sun - 16.2 miles run
- May 15 - Mon - pushups & calf raises
- May 16 - Tue - 5 miles tempo run & 20 minutes on the row machine
- May 17 - Wed - chest dips
- May 18 - Thu - 11 miles run (including intervals at the start) & chin-ups
- May 19 - Fri - 5.6 miles run
- May 20 - Sat - 6.8 miles run
Week 2:
- May 21 - Sun again! - 21 miles run with ~6000 feet elevation
- May 22 - Mon - side lateral raises
- May 23 - Tue - interval ladder, 5.3 miles total
- May 24 - Wed - pull-ups
- May 25 - Thurs - 11.3 miles run (including ~3 miles tempo)
- May 26 - Fri - rest
- May 27 - Sat - rest
Week 3:
- May 28 - Sun - 30 miles!
- May 29 - Mon - 6.8 miles
- May 30 - Tue - 9.5 miles (including ~40 minutes tempo)
- May 31 - 8.1 miles
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On Sunday May 14, Pippin and I set out and met up with Sharon. She hadn't expected me to drag her 11 miles with us, 😂, but she was a good sport about it. I have a tendency to make runs a little bit longer at times, so beware. 😉
As we entered the Garden from the Valley Reservoir side, the clouds were streaky above us.
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We ran through the Garden and up Dakota Ridge and then out of the Garden on the Dakota Trail.
As we passed by the classic overlook spot along Mesa Rd., the dark clouds amassed over the mountains and created a dark visual backdrop for the red rocks.
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Pippin and I made it home before any storms got to us. With a total over 16 miles, this was Pippin's longest training run yet.
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| 5 mile trail tempo loop on May 16, ending at the Siamese Twins. |
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| 90-second intervals with the Sunrise Striders, followed by an extra jog up past the National Forest gate on Rampart Range Road. May 18. |
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On May 19, I was happy to meet with Bailey, and her dog Fireball, for the Section 16 loop!
The weather was drizzling, rainy and misty. It felt a little bit like an early morning run through a rainforest.
It was really nice to catch up with Bailey ☺️! And a good day for a nice misty run.
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On Sunday the 21st, Dionne and I set off from the Barr trailhead. Since it snowed more in the summit before today, we decided to head up to treeline and turn around at A-frame.
It was a really good weather day. I got an additional 3 miles jogging home from the Legacy Loop trailhead, bringing my total to 21 miles for the day.
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On May 23 (Tues), I met Sharon for our short interval ladder in the morning.
I didn't keep track of exact times so well this time around, but my intervals were all near the 7:10 pace. It was nice to see Sharon as we both have busy weeks ahead!
In the afternoon, we took the family to visit Guffey Gorge.
This unique natural swimming hole was a fun location for everyone!
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On Thursday, May 25, the Sunrise Striders morning workout was a road tempo run. The tempo distance wasn't quite a 5k, (about 2.8 miles) but I realized afterwards that I would have been on pace to break my 5k PR by over a minute! Maybe I'll have to run a 5k race this year to set a new lifetime PR.
It was such a lovely and amazing morning. After the tempo run with the Striders, I added a few extra miles of easy jogging on Rampart Range Road.
A huge column of clouds came off the mountains as I descended the road.
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On Sunday the 28th, for Memorial Day weekend 😃, I planned to do a big solo 29+ mile loop. I planned out this simple course on COTREX:
https://trails.colorado.gov/routes/95275
The route I ended up doing varied slightly as I took High Drive up to the saddle and then took 667 all the way from there, rather than taking Bear Creek Canyon.
My general plan was to try to keep a pace of 20 minutes per mile on the uphill and 12 minutes per mile on the downhill. The course is roughly 10 miles up and 20 miles down. According to the GPS, taking this route was around 4700 feet of elevation and 30 miles total.
I began my run just before 5am, so the light was beginning to fill the sky and I didn't need a headlamp. Soon the bright sunlight was illuminating the mountain world.
Wildflowers popped out as I climbed up Bear Creek Canyon on trail 667. Then I joined Pipeline trail (668) at the junction. North Cheyenne Creek has a massive flow right now, and I took a photo as I came around the corner at Nelson's Camp.
I kept pressing upwards and onwards.
I reached Frosty's Park after 9.6 miles and right at my goal pace of 20 minutes per mile uphill.
I was already at the top of my climb! The remainder of my run was a long, gradual downhill. And I was ready to go fast and get this done ✅!
There were tons of people camping up along FS 379 for the holiday weekend. I waved as I descended.
Soon I joined Gold Camp Road and passed by the Penrose-Rosemont runoff pond that I always love to see.
I continued my descent and passed by all the classic sights like Devil's Slide, continuing onto the closed section of Gold Camp.
I felt a little fatigued by the time I reached 20 miles, but really not bad. I kept pushing so to make my goal pace of averaging 12 minutes per mile on the downhill.
The aspens in North Cheyenne Cañon are beginning to bud and filling the hillsides with the bright green shades of spring 🌱.
As I descended the very gradual downhill along the comfortable dirt, I tried to keep my pace as consistent as possible. It was motivating to listen to my average pace dropping as I tallied up the downhill miles.
Finally I reached my starting point, and the GPS said 29.92! This time I figured that running a small loop around the parking area was worthwhile, bringing my total up to 30 miles.
This run was so simple, yet so successful for me. I had an idea, I set out to to do it, and did it with no fuss. And I felt very consistent with my effort output. I also find that my water is lasting longer. I brought 2 liters for this run and it was sufficient.
Then I got home in plenty of time to rinse off and head out to Territory Days with the family, 😁 checking out all the vendors and walking around the loop a couple times.
I felt good for having just run 30 miles, not ready to crash out or too sore to participate in the festivities! 👍
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On Monday the 29th, the day after my 30, I felt good enough for a recovery jog with Pippin!
It was still pretty quick for a trail recovery jog! We did 6.8 miles.
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On Tuesday May 30, I went to the Sunrise Striders workout. It was the Rampart Range Road tempo that I enjoy, but I knew I'd be fatigued from the big effort on Sunday still, and the "recovery" run yesterday.
So I brought Pippin to help me along!!
He pulled me all the way to Rampart and the first mile and a half up the road. Then I think he began to get a little bit more tired and ran beside me, but we still put out a good effort 😊.
On the way back, we traveled along Straussenback trail and saw some cool views of the rocks.
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Overall these last couple weeks have been a lot more running and very minimal weight lifting and bodyweight workouts.
As summer is around the corner, I don't expect that to change very much. If anything, I'll be running even more. I'll try to at least do some minimal bodyweight work in coming weeks, just to maintain a base level of strength.
But I'll happily go forth into summer with more running and time in the great outdoors!
The summer is coming, and it's begging for adventures!!! 😁
