It's a Big Sky: Week in Review: April 23-29

Monday, April 23^rd

AM—6 Miles—1:12—1,650’—Flagstaff

My legs were still pretty spent from the huge bonk during Sunday’s run. I was probably still operating on a bit of a calorie deficit as well. So I ended up power hiking the few sets of stairs on the way up and took the descent really slow.

PM—6 Miles—0:47—150’—Creek Path

Just shaking out the legs a little on this one. Held a turtle pace throughout. I ran into Jason Schlarb as I neared my apartment. He was on his way to soak in the creek so I decided to join him.

Tuesday, April 24^th

AM—5 Miles—0:43—150’—Creek Path

Just another uneventful shake out run.

PM—None—Acupuncture Recovery

Soaked in the creek for 30 minutes. Water felt noticeably warmer than last night.

Wednesday, April 25^th

AM—None—Acupuncture Recovery

PM—12 Miles—1:32—300’—Creek Path

I decided to stick to the routine I’ve developed since starting acupuncture a few weeks ago and did a flat 12-miler on the Creek Path. Held a slow, easy pace throughout and kept from pushing too hard. I had a bit of pain in my left calf throughout the run, but it slowly dissipated. I ran into Jason Schlarb about 1.5 miles into the run on his way to get a massage to work out a kink or two before running the Leona Divide 50 Mile this weekend. With the exception of a fly fisherman, I had a nice soak in the Creek after the run.

Thursday, April 26^th

AM—5 Miles—0:40—300’—Creek Path

Legs felt surprisingly good compared to most of my early morning runs. I decided to start breaking in a new pair of 110’s for my upcoming race in Zion by taking them on the Creek Path up to where it nears Four Mile Canyon. Followed up the run with an eye-opening early morning soak in the Creek.

PM—17 Miles—2:56—2,850’—Modified Mesa Out-and-Back with Towee and Big Bluestem

I met up with Ryan at the Chautauqua TH for a Mesa Trail out-and-back. He’s thinking about going out to Zion to pace me so we wanted to make sure we mesh well together on the trails. Pretty much the entire run was a mellow pace. We diverted off Mesa to take Towhee down to the south TH. I had some, uh, stomach issues on the way down Towhee that proved to be a nuisance. On the way back we veered off to Big Bluestem and North Fork Shanahan before rejoining Mesa. We rode out Mesa pretty easy all the way back with the exception of picking up the pace on the last big climb heading north (the staircase coming from a creek crossing about 1.5-2 miles from Chautauqua). I cooled down with a run on 6^th street back to Eben G. Fine Park and soaked in the Creek.

Friday, April 27^th

AM—2 Miles—0:18—50’—Creek Path

Wasn’t really feeling it this morning. Could be that I only ate a few spoonfuls of almond butter for dinner last night after running 17 miles, who knows? I got about a mile from my apartment and decided to turn around, call it quits, and save my legs for the evening run. Had another nice early morning soak in the Creek.

PM—12 Miles—1:35—1,650’—Flagstaff

My legs felt pretty good going into this run. A little lethargic, but good overall. I took the climb up Flagstaff really easy (partly because I have a big outting planned for tomorrow and partly because I don’t think my legs would have responded if I had tried to push the ascent). Once I hit the Rangeview Trail I started picking up the pace a little. I took the backside down from Flagstaff and hit Canyon at Red Lion before cruising the Creek Path back into town. Once in town, I added a three mile out-and-back and then hit my favorite soaking spot in the Creek.

Saturday, April 28^th

AM—24 Miles—6:55—6,050’—"Run" to Nederland

Today I decided that I wanted to spend a lot of time on my feet and moving. I didn’t really care how this was accomplished so I pretty much just ended up hiking all the way to Ned. Overall, I would say that I ran less than 15-20% of the route, which took me up Flagstaff and Green, down Flagstaff Road, through Walker Ranch, down Lakeshore Drive, CR68, and Magnolia, and on some random trails (Dot Trails, perhaps?) to finally ready Ned. My legs felt noticeably peppy all the way to the summit of Green, but deteriorated very quickly. Maybe this was due to not eating breakfast? Maybe it was due to already logging some decent mileage early on in the week? Who knows? I used this deteriorated state-of-being to stray away from my plans of an out-and-back run to Ned, which I hoped to finish in about 7-8 hours, and instead just make the hike there drag on for about 6-7 hours. Mission accomplished. Before reaching Peak-to-Peak highway I ventured off into the woods on some seemingly random trails. A wise man once told me that if you want to find new and exciting trails you have to get out there and get lost sometimes. He also said that he takes a map, compass, and plenty of water and food. I had none of these and it looked like a storm was rolling into the area. I just kept heading down and eventually reach civilization. Once in Ned I stopped at my favorite coffee shop for a chai and made my way to Wild Mountain for some beer and BBQ before hopping on the bus back to Boulder.

PM—None

Sunday, April 29^th

AM—12 Miles—1:50—2,000’—Creek Path and Sanitas

Even though my legs felt pretty good this morning I wasn’t sure how they would respond after a few miles of running. So I headed up the canyon on the Creek Path for a five mile warm-up run. After hitting the warm up in an average pace of 7:15/mile I decided that my legs were “good-to-go” and headed up Sanitas against my better judgment. I felt like I was heading up the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and kept having to wait on the side of the trail for slow-as-hell mule trains to pass by on the way down. Every weekend warrior hiker in Boulder County (and beyond) must have decided to hike Sanitas today, which made for an unbearably slow ascent. The descent was pretty fun and borderline reckless as I bobbed and weaved around all of the hikers and darted down the technical terrain. It’s fun to zoom past slow hikers. I ended the run with a two mile cool down on the Creek Path where I ran into Dave Mackey and ran/talked with him for about five minutes as he made his way towards Flagstaff and Green. If I hadn’t already ran twelve miles I might have tried running with him to see how long I could hang on. Ended the morning with a nice, cold soak in the creek.

PM—None

Miles— 101

Time—18hours 32minutes

Elevation Gain— 15,150 feet

Not too bad of a week at all. My body certainly didn’t feel like I ran 100 miles this week, which I attribute to all of the post-run soaks in Boulder Creek (thanks for the recommendation, Jason Schlarb). I think soaking in the creek definitely made it easier to get out for a few early morning shake out runs this week. Typically it’s difficult for me to get my legs moving first thing in the morning, which makes it pretty easy to justify skipping those runs.

This will likely be my last big week before beginning my taper heading into the Zion 100 miler. I’ll probably get in a few 15-20 mile runs early on next week and then take a rest day or two after a Thursday afternoon acupuncture session. Honestly, I’m not looking forward to the next two weeks at all. I hate tapering. Hate it. With the exception of injuries, nothing else running related drives me more crazy than just going out and running a few miles a day and not really pushing myself all for the sake of tapering. Oh well…