Weekly Summary: May 24-30

05-24-2010
Mon-AM: 30 miles (4:40) Green-Bear-SoBo-Chat-Green, 7500'
Ran 34:50 up the front of Green and then after tagging Bear and SoBo dropped down Shadow Canyon and took Mesa back to Chautauqua to climb Green one more time via Gregory-Ranger in 38:40.  Finished up with 3mi of barefoot at Kitt.  Knee was encouragingly good all day except for the 2000'/1.5mi descent off the top of SoBo and down Shadow.  Ridiculously steep and technical stuff there.  Great quad-crusher, though.  Soaked in Boulder Creek afterwards.

05-25-2010
Tue-AM: 16 miles (2:19) Green Mt up Flatirons down Bear Cyn, 3300'
Legs actually felt good today, but I went easy.  That Flatiron trail is a nice find that I wish I'd explored sooner.  Knee was pretty tight today.
PM: 8 miles (1:01) Creek Path+4mi barefoot at Kitt

05-26-2010
Wed-AM: 15 miles (2:10) Green Mt. up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000'
Ran early (5:30am) for no good reason other than that it's a great time of day.  Legs felt more recovered but I just took it easy and enjoyed the swirling clouds on the summit. Knee felt a lot better.
PM: 7 miles (:55) Creek Path+North Boulder Park
After an acupuncture session with Allison, I ventured up to North Boulder Park to explore some new scenery for my barefooting. However, NoBo Park is too busy and the surface isn't as nice as Kitt Field, so I abandoned it after only one lap. I forgot what madness the Creek Path is in the summertime. It's so busy that it's nearly unrunnable. It's inspiring that Boulder is that active, but it's not exactly my ideal running environment.  Kind of a dissatisfactory run, especially since my stomach was significantly jacked-up for the first time in a long while.

05-27-2010
Thu-AM: 25 miles (3:38) Mt. Evans (14,264'), 3700' vertical
Started from Echo Lake (~10,500') with Jeff and Brandon. On the long traverse over to Summit Lake the wind was so absurdly strong that it was stopping me in my tracks quite often--pretty miserable running conditions.  On all the switchbacks to the top the wind would alternate between throwing me up the hill and almost knocking me over backwards.  Struggled to the top in a very casual, just-keep-moving-forward-without-the-wind-hurtling-me-to-Kansas 2:17.  Descended directly off the top on a ~0.5mile/1300'-drop snowface with Jeff that happily cut off about four miles of downhill road and then jogged easy with Jeff back down to the car, chatting the whole way.  Much much more pleasant with the wind at our backs.
PM: 8 miles (1:00) Creek Path+4mi barefoot at Kitt
Decided to take advantage of the 90F temps to get in a little heat training. Legs felt good and knee was rock-solid all day today, which is very encouraging.

05-28-2010
Fri-AM: 15 miles (2:11) Green Mt. up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000'
Took it relaxed and easy. Knee felt good. Hot (90F+) later in the day.

05-29-2010
Sat-AM: 43 miles (6:20) 2xGreen-Walker-Eldo-Green, 11,000'
Two laps up Green were 34:30 (Amp-SR-Greenman) and 37:45 (Gregory-Ranger), and the third ascent was via Bear Canyon in 36:30 (from Mesa). Nice hot-ish weather all day (80s) was a step in the right direction in terms of acclimation. From the beginning I didn't have great climbing legs, but my quads were rock-solid all day, still feeling plenty fresh on the final descent off Green. That is very encouraging. Also, my knee never hurt the entire day. No barefoot, but soaked for 10min in Boulder Creek afterwards.

05-30-2010
Sun-AM: 15 miles (2:12) Green Mt. up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000'
Nice easy run; super casual 38:50 ascent. Slightly sore quads and glutes. Nice to see that no one's out on the trails at 6:00am on a Sunday morning.
PM: 15 miles (2:12) Green Mt. up Front down Long Cyn, 3000'
Ran up the hill in 32:41 (6:30, 18:50).  I wasn't planning on going very hard, so I just kind of eased into the climb with no expectations.  By time I got to Greenman, though, I could see that I had a decent time going so I kept the pace steady and then really pushed the last 3min (from the top of the log stairs) to make sure I got under 33min. Descended Long Canyon and then Flagstaff to Viewpoint and the Creek Path. For some reason my quads were incredibly tired on the downhill--not pounded or sore just really really weak and tired.  Which, I guess, is why you put in back-to-back big days--to beat down your body like the second half of a 100 miler.  Long Canyon is a gem of a trail that I haven't been on since last fall.  Beautiful singletrack without another soul on it.  Soaked in Boulder Creek afterwards.

Total
-Miles: 197
-Hours: 28h 38min
-Vertical: 37,500'

2010 Summits (Day 150)
Green: 153
Bear: 8
SoBo: 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This week ended up being a bit bigger than I'd planned because of last week's long run being bumped up to Monday and because of the Mt. Evans run on Thursday.  Right now, though, if I want to do any running at high altitude, it's going to be on the Mt. Evans road, which is long.  This is actually the biggest week I've had since the last time I was preparing for Western States, two years ago.  I need to be sure to not get carried away these next two weeks and just focus on maintaining a reasonable schedule of running.

The second half of the week also saw a marked improvement in the health of my knee.  Right now I'm very hopeful that I'll be able to race 100 miles on it without needing to take a ton of time off afterwards.  In the next month I'll continue to look to get a fair bit of running above 10,000' while still getting plenty of time in Boulder in hot weather.