Week in Review: March 12-18

Monday, March 12^th

AM—10 Miles—2:22 —3,200’—Flagstaff and Green

I had to work until 6PM today so I took the opportunity to shimmy up Green before work. I ran up Flagstaff, down Rangeview, and up the first part of Ranger pretty casually after yesterday’s PR ascent up Flagstaff. Ranger turned into a mix of dry, exposed rocks with occasional snow/ice. I hiked the remaining ascent from the Greenman trail junction and took the descent at a casual run.

PM—6 Miles—0:59—1,650’—Flagstaff

I got home from work and suited up for a run with the intent of a flat, easy shake-out run. However, my legs were feeling pretty lively so I decided to head up Flagstaff with my roommate. The pace up was pretty relaxed and then picked up the pace a little on the descent. I’m still not hammering out the descent like I used to before my ankle injury. Hopefully I’ll get back to the balls-to-the-wall descents before too much longer.

Tuesday, March 13^th  

AM—None

PM—10 Miles—1:44—2,450’—Flagstaff and a Mesa

The run up Flagstaff didn’t really start feeling good until a few miles in when I finally got my breathing in check. After that, the rest of the ascent was fairly easy so I decided to head down to Mesa and get in a few more miles. The remaining climbs were all done with relative ease.

Wednesday, March 14^th

AM—3 Miles—0:27—200’—Creek Path and Red Rocks Area

Decided to run an early morning shake-out run today. I woke up to some sore/tired legs and figured a few flat miles would help loosen them up a little. Casual pace all the way.

PM—10 Miles—1:53—2,600’—Flagstaff and Mesa/Chautauqua Area Trails

Nice and easy run up Flagstaff. Descended to baseline to try to meet up with the Wednesday night BTR group, but ended up running into Eric Lee on the way and talked for several minutes. I headed down to the Mesa trail and took it to the Enchanted Mesa junction where I caught up to the BTR group at the same time my co-worker Alex was running by. I decided to head off with Alex since he was going in the direction of my apartment. We hit up some of the Chautauqua area trails and made our way to the Gregory Trailhead before parting ways. Took the rest of the run pretty easy.  

Thursday, March 15^th

AM—None

PM—7 Miles—1:13—1,700’—Flagstaff and Rangeview/Ute

I took the run up Flagstaff pretty easy and hit the four-way in a little under 0:33 and then took Rangeview down to the parking lot before looping back on Ute. My intent was to head down to Chautauqua to tack on a few more miles, but a few minutes into the descent I began to have, uhh, stomach problems (likely a result of the pork carnitas, rice, and beans I had for lunch). So I just headed back home and called it a day.

Friday, March 16^th

AM—None

PM—10 Miles—1:44—2,100’—Viewpoint/Mesa/NCAR Out-and-Back

Had to work late today so I decided to take a long lunch and get in a run. My legs were feeling a little blah today so I headed down towards Mesa rather than taking my usual jaunt up Flagstaff. Once I hit Mesa my legs came to life a little and I was able to tackle the few small climbs and hold a decent pace. Loving the awesome weather we’ve been having.

Saturday, March 17^th

AM—31 Miles—5:29—5,050’—Viewpoint/Mesa/Doudy Draw Area/Eldorado Canyon Area and Back

I was pleasantly surprised at how good my legs felt as I made the climb up Viewpoint trail. My legs continued to feel great on the southward run on Mesa. When I reached the south Mesa TH I decided to divert from my original plan of a double out-and-back on Mesa and instead go across the street to Doudy (which I had never ran). The trails around Doudy were nothing particularly special (mainly flat and fast), but the views were pretty amazing. I loved the Goshawk Ridge Trail and will be back there for sure. I ventured down the Fowler trail into Eldorado Canyon (another first) for more spectacular views. I completed the outward portion of my run with a climb up the Rattlesnake Gulch trail. The run back just retraced the previously described path. My legs started feeling a little tired and I was forced into a hike on a few of the climbs. Overall, the run felt great. No real bonks to speak of and no major issues. Another beautiful day in Boulder!

PM—None

Sunday, March 18^th

AM—6 Miles—1:08—1,650’—Flagstaff

My legs were still a little sore from yesterday’s long run. So I decided to take it really easy this morning. Once I got a few minutes into the climb up Viewpoint my legs started loosening up a bit and the rest of the climb up Flagstaff wasn’t too bad. My quads seemed to be a little trashed from yesterday, which made for a slow descent.

PM—7 Miles—1:09—1,650’—Flagstaff and Creek Path

The legs felt much better this evening than they did this morning. That being said, I still used this run as an opportunity to shake out the legs and give them a little rest.

Miles—100

Time—18hours 11minutes

Elevation Gain—23,150 feet

Overall, a pretty decent week of running that included beautiful weather and some exploration of trails I’ve yet to run. I think taking last week as a recovery week helped quite a bit with hammering out some of these runs. Some of my early/mid-week runs have me feeling pretty confident that a week or so taper for my race will have my legs feeling pretty good. This was the first week in my second big increase in weekly running volume leading into my 100-mile race on May 11^th at Zion. My plan is to increase volume the next two weeks, take another recovery week, increase volume for two more weeks, then begin a slight two’ish week taper.

I focused a little more on some flatter, faster running this week than I have in past weeks. My average elevation gain per mile was only 230 feet/mile this week versus the ~300 feet/mile it has been in previous weeks. This running should be much more useful at Zion as there is only about 8,000 feet of vertical for the entire 100 miles.  

Sunrise view heading up Flagstaff

Snow finally starting to melt on lower portions of Ranger trail