Where the Hell Did the Last Month+ Go?

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a month since my last post. However, due to running three races (Estes Park Marathon, Leadville Trail Marathon, Leadville Silver Rush 50) in five weeks the last few months of training have either been tapering or recovering, which no one really wants to hear about anyway. With this race schedule I’ve been lucky to even get in a 60 mile week—far from my typical training week—and I honestly just wasn’t too thrilled to post about those dinky weeks. So I didn’t.

That being said, I have enjoyed some great runs over the past month. I’ve explored new areas like Indian Peaks Wilderness, tagged Grays and Torreys for the second time, raced in Leadville twice, and ran my familiar Boulder trails. I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves on what I’ve been up to the past month or so…

Sixth place finish at Estes Park Marathon (Photo: Michael Hodges)

Camping at Twin Lakes the night before the Leadville Trail Marathon (Photo: Rob Timko)

Fancy rainbow (Photo: Rob Timko)

Pre-race beers to calm the nerves (Photo: Rob Timko)

Lucho dropping some knowledge on the Leadville 100 course (Photo: Rob Timko)

Finishing the Leadville Trail Marathon...Miserably (Photo: Rob Timko)

Still miserable...But check out those damn quads :) (Photo: Rob Timko)

Leadville Trail Marathon

Indian Peaks Wilderness on 4th of July

Indian Peaks

Indian Peaks

Indian Peaks

Leadville Silver Rush 50

View from top of Grays

View of Torreys from Grays

So now I’m entering my big training push leading up to the Leadville 100 on August 18^th. This has been my goal race for the year all along. I feel that the Leadville Marathon and 50 have taught me a great deal about how to prepare, what to expect, and how to succeed in a 100 mile race at that elevation. Let’s just hope I’m right.

Over the next four weeks I’m essentially doing a total overhaul on everything from training to my diet. My training is naturally going back to what I’m comfortable with; 100+ mile weeks with ~25k feet of vertical (these weeks have been gone for some time now due to races). I’ve started spending my weekends around the Leadville area in order to get comfortable pushing my body above 10k feet. Each run feels more and more natural and effortless.

My diet is definitely an ongoing experiment. I’m trying to adhere to a total vegetarian diet and almost vegan diet (with the exception of some dairy and eggs) in an attempt to finally get back down to my ideal racing weight of 150ish pounds. I’m not certain that I’ll stick with this diet after Leadvillle. I guess that all depends on training and race performances. All I know is that after Week 1 of this change in eating habits five pounds melted off me with little effort.

I’m hoping that everything comes together for the Leadville 100 and leads to a solid finish. Of course, until August 18^th gets here I just have to take things as they come and prepare one day at a time. I’m pretty excited to spend more time up in Leadville. That town just keeps growing on me.