Monday, March 10th
PM—10
Miles—1:35—1,400’—Last Dollar Road and Aldasoro Road
Parked at the Valley Floor TH, ran up-and-over Last Dollar
Road to Deep Creek, turned around, and added a few more miles on Aldasoro Road.
Really easy pace the entire time. Legs felt a bit lethargic today.
Tuesday, March 11th
AM—8
Miles—1:16—1,250’—Last Dollar Road and Aldasoro Road
Another easy day. Ran from the Valley Floor TH up Last
Dollar Road to where the pavement ends near the airport. On the way back I got
in a few extra miles and some more vert on Aldasoro Road. The climb up Aldasoro
is a little steeper than Last Dollar Road, but it’s still 100% runnable even on
tired legs.
Wednesday, March 12th
AM—8
Miles—1:02—1,100’—Last Dollar Road
Parked at the Valley Floor and ran an out-and-back to Deep
Creek. The first mile was painfully slow (9:45) as I shook out my legs. During
that first mile my plan was to just have an easy run around 9-10 minute pace.
After my legs loosened up I picked up the pace; hitting 7:53, 6:57, and 6:11
minute miles heading to my four-mile turnaround at Deep Creek. My pace for most
of mile 4 was sub-6 minute, but as I neared Deep Creek the mud, snow, and ice
conditions worsened causing me to ride the brakes a little. I took the first
mile or so of the climb up from Deep Creek pretty easy at 10:06, but then got
back to cruising as I neared the top. Miles 6, 7, and 8 were 7:51, 6:39, and
6:43. When I reached the top of the climb from Deep Creek I just coasted the
last two miles back to the Taco rather than push them. I’m at the point where I
can comfortably run sub-6’s here, but I wanted to run a pace closer to what I
hope to run on the descents in Salida this weekend. With the exception of the
first mile, the entire run was pleasantly comfortable in terms of perceived
effort. I guess it’s time to think about starting to taper now…
Thursday, March 13th
AM—6
Miles—0:59—1,050’—Last Dollar Road and Aldasoro Road
This run marked the official beginning of my taper for
Salida. Just a mellow three mile ascent followed by a coast back down the hill.
I’ll never understand the people who taper for races but completely abstaining
from running. I still need to move on my easy days or I feel like death.
Friday, March 14th
AM—3 Miles—0:28—400’—Shavano Trailhead Road (Salida, CO)
Easy shakeout run after
driving all morning. Legs felt really tight throughout, but loosened up a bit
in the last half mile or so. I planned on running about five miles, but saw a
couple of coyotes that looked like they were developing a strategy to flank me
and have me for dinner. So, I turned around sooner than anticipated.
Saturday, March 15th
AM—26.2
Miles—3:43—3,500’—Run Through Time Trail Marathon (Salida, CO)
I met up with Peter and Tara Friday night for my first official
night of camping as well as my first campfire of the season. Such a great
feeling! After a solid night of sleep I headed into town for a pre-race coffee
or two and half a muffin. It was nice to have a quick chat with Nick, Joe,
Mike, Matt, Peter, and others before taking off. The morning air was a bit
brisk. Joe and I talked about not wanting to carry a bunch of extra crap with
us from the start and just sucking it up for the first few miles until we got
warmed up.
We went out at a decent pace for the first few miles—somewhere
around 6:30 or so—before beginning a generally upward trend for the next twelve’ish
miles. I emptied the water from my handheld about a mile into the day since it
was freezing my gloveless hands. From then on, I just ran with an empty water
bottle. Shortly after beginning the ascent Nick and a few others took off,
never to be seen again. The long, gradual ascent passed by pretty effortlessly
with the only hiccup being some stomach issues around mile 11. I followed a
group for most of the singletrack portion of the ascent until we reached a stretch
of smooth jeep road and dispersed. Somewhere around the twelve-mile mark was a
brief out-and-back where I was surprised to find ol’ Leadville Bill spectating.
Of course, I had to stop for a quick chat with him before continuing.
Around the half-marathon point, which I reached in 1:52, we
hit a few miles of snow and ice on the trails. It was never really bad enough
to do anything other than slow me down slightly. The rolling nature of the
second half made for a much slower pace than I anticipated based on a quick
glance at the course elevation profile on the race website. However, I found
this constant up-and-down pattern to be much more enjoyable than 13 miles of near-constant
descent. I noticed that my muscles were seamlessly changing gears from the
descents into the ascents and vice versa.
During the snowy patches I ran along with Mike H for a while
and chatted. This was probably the easiest stretch of running I did all day in
terms of effort. I probably could have covered the snowy stretches a little
faster, but I didn’t want to risk being totally wrecked later on down the road.
Eventually, Mike stepped aside and let me pass.
After the snow/ice subsided we were treated to some
delightful technical roads/trails for several miles. I was pleased to find that
even after a winter of smooth jeep road and snow-covered trail running I could still
descend the rocky stuff at a decent pace.
I can’t remember exactly where, but somewhere along the line
I was passed by Patrick. In passing, he made a comment about sub-3:35 still being
within reach. I had one more bout with stomach issues around 21.5 miles, which caused
me to veer off-trail again. Fortunately, this was the last time. It took me
about a half-mile to get my legs turning over again after this bathroom break. A
while after getting back on the trail I passed Patrick in the midst of an
end-of-race bonking session. I don’t think he had 3:35 in mind any longer…
Not long after passing Patrick I noticed a guy in Green
behind me. By this time I had been passing half-marathon runners left and
right. This guy appeared to be moving much quicker than the half runners. So, I
assumed he was running the full marathon. Regardless, I decided that there was
no way he was going to pass me. I had several miles to hold him off; Not too
long at all. The last aid station was around 3 miles or so from the finish. I
blew right on through it. I hadn’t consumed any water or calories up to this
point, why start now? Green Shirt Guy stopped here for aid allowing me to put
some distance between us.
The last three miles was super-fast singletrack, but the
ridiculous amount of half-marathoners that I had to pass made it nearly
impossible to maintain any sort of rhythm. I would run low 6-minute pace
briefly only to slow down to a crawl while waiting for an opportunity to pass a
line of five people or so. Oh well…
The last fraction of a mile was probably the worst part of
the entire day. It was flat and into a headwind. I managed to hold off Green
Shirt Guy into the finish for a time of 3:43. Not bad considering that I spent
about 10 minutes with stomach issues and chatting with Bill at the halfway
point. Those 10 minutes would have put me pretty close to my goal of 3:30. It’s
hard for me not to be pleased considering that I only started trying to get
faster about three weeks ago. One of the big positives from this race was that
no pace felt uncomfortable. Running 6:30’s on the flats felt just as good as
going sub-6 on the descents and sub-9 pace on douche grade jeep roads was just
as comfortable as an 11-minute pace on a steeper climb.
I can’t wait to see how my next “speedwork” session goes.
Sunday, March 16th
AM—5 Miles—0:50—600’—Last
Dollar Road
Easy shakeout run. I had some tightness/soreness in my
calves, but everything else felt great. Decided on a short, easy day to fully
recover before hitting another 3-4 week stretch of ramping up my running
volume.
Miles—66
Time— 9 hours 55
minutes
Elevation Gain— 9,300
feet
Prior to this week, the last four weeks were spent ramping
up my weekly mileage and vertical. The Run Through Time trail marathon in
Salida has been on my calendar for a few months now. So, I arranged my schedule
so that a low-volume recovery week coincided with the marathon. This set me up
perfectly for a bit of a taper and an overall low intensity week. I think it
paid off since I ran 100% of the marathon, never had a low patch (other than
stomach issues), and my legs felt fresh throughout the day.
Next week begins another 3-4 week cycle of pumping up the
weekly volume with the goal of another low-volume/intensity recovery week
during the second week of April. This will be one week before I run the Free
State Trail Runs 100km in Lawrence, KS on April 19th. In the long
run, I’m hoping I can figure out how to taper in a way that doesn’t make me
feel like I’m about to die or something.
My current plan is to string together 3-4 100+ mile weeks
during this cycle. We’ll see how it all goes…
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| Scenery along my usual Last Dollar Road route |
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| Starving artist in Telluride, CO |
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| Staring down river to Shavano |
.JPG) |
| First campfire of the season! |
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| I had to stop for a photo of some 14ers that look runnable |
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| First few miles of Run Through Time (Photo: Russell O) |
Really strong race! Obviously your speed work is working - I'm sure you will break 9h at R2R2R.
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