Week Summary 4/16 - 4/22

Monday              

AM: core strength/stretching

I took a day off from running after a tough week. I was pretty beat from the Incline on Saturday.

Tuesday

AM: core strength/stretching

PM: 4 miles, Recovery, South Platte Trail

Wednesday

AM: core strength/stretching

PM: 8 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

I tweaked my calf last Tuesday while running at Mt. Falcon and I could still feel it a bit. It doesn’t feel serious, but I can feel tell that it’s not 100%.

Thursday

PM: 10 miles, Aerobic, Cherry Creek Trail

Friday

AM: core strength/stretching

PM: 10 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

Saturday

AM: 10 miles, 3200’, Dakota Ridge / Mt. Morrison

I kept the mileage and climbing low for a weekend run. This week is a recovery week, so the goal was just to get some lower intensity miles and enjoy the beautiful weather. Mt. Morrison has potential to be a great training hike for Hardrock. From Red Rocks amphitheater it’s something like 1,400’ of vert in only .8 miles. Hopefully I’ll make it there next week, in addition to the usual Mt. Falcon run.

Sunday

AM: 8 miles, Aerobic, Wash Park

This week was pretty chill, which is exactly what I planned on. The prior 4 weeks I averaged 95 miles and ~18,000’ of vert, which is a lot for me. I’m feeling reenergized and ready for a solid week and a half of running, then it’s time to taper for Quad Rock!

Recap

Time: 9:16

Miles: 50.5

Vert: 3,700’

Week Summary 4/9 - 4/15

Monday              

PM: 14 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

Tuesday

AM: 3 miles, Recovery, South Platte Trail

AM: core strength/stretching

PM: 12 miles, 3182’, Mt. Falcon

I set a new PR for an ascent with a first lap time of 28:53. Second lap came in at 30:47. I ran in my Saucony Peregrines which I haven’t used much. I’m trying to work them in every once in a while to get used to the low, 4mm drop. I can definitely notice a bit more stress on my calves and feet, but I love the response and close-to-the-ground feel.

Wednesday

AM: 14 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

PM: 3 miles, Recovery, Cherry Creek Trail

Thursday

AM: 8.4 miles, Hill Workout, Treadmill

I warmed up with 2 miles, then set the treadmill incline to 15% for one hour. I set the speed to 5.4 and managed to hold it for the entire time, and actually bumped it up to 6 for the last couple minutes. I made it 5.42 miles, which equates to 4293’ of climbing. The cool down mile at 0% incline felt like I was flying downhill.

Friday

AM: core strength/stretching

PM: 10 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

Saturday

AM: 16 miles, 16000’, Manitou Incline

Today I participated in the Inclinathon, an event proposed by friend and fellow Leadville trainee, Brandon Stapanowich. A couple months ago Brandon mentioned to me his plan to run/hike the Incline an unprecedented 13 times, resulting in a marathon with 52,000 feet of total elevation change. For those of you not familiar with the Incline, I’ll give you a little background to show you the absurdity of this event…

The Incline is the old route of the Manitou Springs cog railway which climbs 2,000 feet in just 1 mile. The “trail” up the incline is made up of uneven railroad ties, covered with loose gravel and rocks. The fastest known ascent of the incline was set by pro triathlete Mark Fretta in a time of 16:42…for 1 mile! That’s 3.6 miles per hour. The uneven terrain and awkward footing means that the descent is not much easier. The reward for climbing up is not an easy cool-down mile; it’s 15 minutes of quad pounding where you need to stay focused the entire time of you’ll face plant on some gnarly terrain (as I did).

I was excited to join Brandon, but was not sure how many laps I would complete. As much as I was interested in the challenge, I will be racing in the difficult Quad Rock 50 in 4 weeks and I didn’t want to do a ton of damage this close to a big race. The night before the Inclinathon I tentatively decided on 8 laps. I figured this would be enough laps to gain some respect from the other guys, but not so much where I’d totally destroy my legs. 

According to plan, after 8 laps I decided I did enough damage and called it a day. Huge props to Brandon and Fred Baxter for continuing on for the full 13 laps. Brandon set the Inclinathon record at 11:47! Very impressive.

Here are my splits:

Lap	Ascent	Descent*	Total
1	0:28:31	0:17:36	0:46:07
2	0:30:19	0:18:10	0:48:29
3	0:32:19	0:18:34	0:50:53
4	0:30:00	0:17:41	0:47:41
5	0:29:33	0:16:29	0:46:02
6	0:29:53	0:15:43	0:45:36
7	0:32:57	0:23:13	0:56:10
8	0:34:49	0:20:19	0:55:08
Total	4:08:21	2:27:45	6:36:06
*Descent time includes time spent at aid station

after 8 laps, with some battle wounds

  

Sunday

AM: 4 miles, Recovery, South Platte Trail

Jess ran the Platte River Half Marathon this morning and I had some time to kill while spectating. My legs were sore from yesterday, mainly my quads, so it was nice to loosen up with some real easy miles. Congrats to Jess for a solid, early season race! 

Jess and me after the Platte River Half Marathon

PM: 6 miles, 1561’, Red Rocks / Dakota Ridge

Given yesterday’s effort, I would have normally taken this afternoon off. However, my uncle Mike was in town and I wanted to show him some of the trails around Denver. My brother Matt also came along for a leisurely run of Dakota Ridge and Red Rocks in Morrison. 

Matt, Mike and me after our run at Red Rocks

I’ve had a really solid 5 weeks since Salida, with the average weekly mileage of 92 and average weekly vert of almost 18,000’. I’m definitely in need of an easy recovery week, due in large part to Saturday’s suffer-fest on the incline.

Recap

Time: 17:08

Miles: 86.5

Vert: 25,426’

Week Summary 4/2 - 4/8

Monday              

AM: 4 miles, Recovery, South Platte Trail

AM: 4 miles, Recovery, South Platte Trail

Tuesday

AM: 3 miles, Recovery, South Platte Trail

AM: core strength/stretching

PM: 12 miles, 3186’, Mt. Falcon

We got a few inches of snow throughout the day and it was still coming down a bit when I started the run. Mt. Falcon is a pretty popular place and it’s been really crowded the past few weeks. But the snow and poor trail conditions scared everyone else away and I had the entire mountain to myself for 2 hours. Understandably my pace was considerably compared to the past few weeks, but I was happy with the effort. The first ascent was 32:31 and the second lap was 33:23.

Wednesday

PM: 14 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

Thursday

AM: core strength/stretching

AM: 3 miles, Recovery, Cherry Creek Trail

PM: 11 miles, Intervals, South Platte Trail

I warmed up for 3 miles, then did 4 x 1 mile repeats with a 1 mile cool down between each. My main goal was to keep an even pace throughout the workout. The miles were 5:52, 5:44, 5:44 and 5:44.

Friday

PM: 10 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

Saturday

AM: 30 miles, 7140’, Golden Gate Canyon State Park

This was only the third time running at GGCSP, and the first time since last June. I ran a very similar route to the Golden Gate Dirty 30 race, but started at the main visitor center so I’d have an hour warm up before the climb up Windy Peak. I started around 7am and didn’t see a single person in the first 2 hours (and only about 15 total in the 5 hours). It’s amazing how much solitude you can find in a state park just 30 miles from Denver.

view from Windy Pk

Sunday

AM: 10 miles, Aerobic, Wash Park

I felt really good considering the big mileage yesterday so I tried to push the pace a bit. I ran 4 laps (2.5 miles each) and dropped the pace about 20 seconds each lap, starting at 7:30 and finishing with a lap at 6:25 pace. It was a nice way to break up the monotony of 4 laps.

The mileage was slightly higher than my normal week lately, but for the most part it was a status quo week. My Achilles was feeling a bit tight early in the week so I opted to skip Thursday’s treadmill workout and I made sure I got in to see Dr. Stripling for some ART. Seemed to do the trick. It’s been about a month since Salida and I’m really itching to race again.

Recap

Time: 15:58

Miles: 101.8

Vert: 11,040’

Week Summary 3/26 - 4/1

Monday              

AM: core strength/stretching

PM: 14 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

Tuesday

AM: 3 miles, Recovery, South Platte Trail

AM: core strength/stretching

PM: 12 miles, 3209’, Mt. Falcon

This was the third week of the Tuesday run at Mt. Falcon. Although running the same trail every week can be monotonous, it’s nice to be able to see improvement over time. My average pace for the two ascents has improved each of the past three weeks: 10:48, 10:12, and 10:04.

Wednesday

AM: 14 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

PM: 3 miles, Recovery, Cherry Creek Trail

Thursday

AM: core strength/stretching

PM: 7.31 miles, Hill Workout, Treadmill

This was also the third consecutive week of this workout, with a small improvement each week. I warmed up with an easy mile, then set the treadmill incline to 15% for one hour. I made it 5.31 miles, which equates to almost 4206’ of climbing.

PM: 3 miles, Recovery, Cherry Creek Trail

Friday

PM: 10 miles, Aerobic, South Platte Trail

Saturday

AM: 19 miles, 8689’, Grays and Torreys

After last week’s hike at Loveland Pass I knew that I wanted to get into the big mountains for a hike/run this weekend and take advantage of the lack of snow. I woke up early and made it to the Bakerville exit of I-70 a little after 6am. I had a vague idea of where I wanted to go, but wasn’t exactly sure. I had a map, a water filter and a bunch of food and was ready for a long outing.  Instead of describing the whole route I’ll just add the map. It was such a beautiful day and I loved just about every minute of this run. However, once I dropped below tree line east of Sniktau I encountered some deep, soft snow. This resulted in a really slow last 2 miles (2 hours!). It was actually really annoying, but overall this was a great day. The route was only 19 miles, but had over 8600’ of climbing with an average elevation of 12200’.

Climbing the loose scree to the top of Ganley

View from Grays summit. The ridge on the right was my route.

Looking back up Torreys

Cross country running over to Grizzly

Looking at the Bakerville exit from the summit of Sniktau. I thought I was home free...until I got to the soft snow below treeline.

Panorama shot of most of the route. Photo taken from Ganley.

Sunday

AM: 10 miles, Aerobic, Wash Park
Jess and I went to Wash Park for an easier, flat run. It's always fun to people watch here, and the 2.5 mile loop is just long enough to not get too monotonous.

I feel like I’ve had a really solid three week block of running. Running some new trails has been very enjoyable and I’m going to try to keep adding new trails on my weekend outings.

 

Recap

Time: 18:00

Miles: 95.9

Vert: 16,838’