Monday, January 17, 2011

Weekly Summary: Jan 10-16

01-10-2011
Mon-AM: 12 miles (2:14) Green Mt., 3000'
Up and down Gregory-Ranger.  There was a solid foot of fresh snow this morning and it was +3F.  These things mean I had the mountain all to myself, breaking fresh trail the whole way and not seeing another soul the entire time I was out there. Absolutely stunning scenery with the new snow; one of the bluest skies I've ever seen. Finished up with a couple miles on the snow-packed streets.
PM: 14 miles (2:14) Green Mt., 3000'
Met Joe and Scott and headed up the backside of Green again in the fading light.  It looked like only a couple more people had been up since my run this morning, but it was still incredible to be out in the snow.  Chatted with Jeff briefly on Ranger, who was descending.  Switched on our headlamps once we were on the ridge then.  Had a raucous descent in the powder and finished up with a trip to the grocery store.

Gregory Canyon
Indian Peaks

01-11-2011
Tue-AM: 14 miles (2:23) Green Mt., 3000'
Up back and down Bear Cyn.  Heavily drifted on Ranger ridge. Sub-zero temperatures this morning, which is always pretty notable.
PM: 9 miles (1:11) Goose Creek Loop
Legs felt good.  Just cruising easy in the dark and ice.

Green summit
01-12-2011
Wed-AM: 14 miles (2:17) Green Mt., 3000'
Up back and down Bear Cyn. Some kind of feathered creature was slaughtered by something with paws right at the mouth of Bear Canyon. Feathers and entrails everywhere. Legs felt good but the snow is still slow.
PM: 13 miles (2:04) Green Mt., 3000'
Up back and down Greenman-Gregory.  Great run in the dark.  Legs felt good but the trail could still use some more packing.

01-13-2011
Thu-AM: 12 miles (2:03) Green Mt., 3000'
Up back and down Bear Cyn. Slow, mushy snow conditions enforced an easy pace.
PM: 13 miles (2:00) Green Mt., 3000'
Best run I've had up the mountain in a while.  Snow melted a ton today and my legs felt good.  Got this in quick before the Boulder Trail Runners talk at Sherpas.

01-14-2011
Fri-AM: 14 miles (2:00) Green Mt., 3000'
Ugh. Tired run up the back with Joe. Lots of street running afterwards.

01-15-2011
Sat-AM: 45 miles (6:32) Mt. Buckhorn+Ponderous Posterior 50K, 8600'
Left Boulder early and was running from Bear Creek Nature Center in Colorado Springs by 7am. Ran the 2000' Mt. Buckhorn climb (via High Drive both up and down) and then ran through Red Rocks to get to JT's in time for the 9am start of the Ponderous with an extra 13mi/1h45 in my legs. This run was a total blast. I absolutely love the COS trails and it was a lot of fun sharing them with a group of friends old and new.  By starting last we benefited from a moderately packed trail on the 2000' Longs Ranch Road climb to 9200' and then Joe, Jacob, Scott and I enjoyed a splendid descent of the classic lower three miles of Barr Trail. The timing of the waves in the morning worked out very well as we were catching runners all along the Intemann Trail and through Red Rocks Canyon Open Space into the finish. I was particularly pleased with the route that JT picked through Red Rocks and the new trail on the knife ridge ending at 31st Street.  Legs felt good all day until I stubbornly suffered through a healthy bonk the last 30min or so due to only four gels on the day.  Loaded up later at Jocelyn's and my favorite restaurant in town: Ricos/Poor Richards.

Headed up Rampart Range Road with Tom and Scott in the first half of the PP50K.  Pikes Peak towers before us much as it would all day. Man, I love running in the Springs.  Photo: Alex Nichols.
01-16-2011
Sun-AM: 14 miles (2:08) Green Mt., 3000'
Definitely tired from yesterday's run, but the trail surface was very tacky with the Microspikes. Took the long way up Gregory-Greenman and came down Bear Cyn.
PM: 8 miles (1:04) Creek Path+Kitt
Easy in the dark; 2mi barefoot.

Total
-Miles: 182
-Hours: 28h 10min
-Vertical: 35,600'
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Great third week of training in this cycle despite the very heavy snow we received early in the week.  The fatigue accrued from four Green's over two days was dissipated by an easy day on Friday and I was able to have a very satisfactory long run on Saturday as a result.  I didn't get in a speed session during the calendar week proper due to the ice/snow and frigid temps in the first half of the week, but I did get after it this afternoon (Monday) down at the BHS track.

My legs were still a bit tired from Saturday's long run, so after my usual 2hr tour of Green this morning I modified my planned afternoon session of 3x2mi (with a 3min/1-lap recovery jog) by chopping off the final mile.  The (mostly arbitrary) goal was 5:30 pace, so I was pleased enough with splits of 10:59 (5:31/5:28), 10:53 (5:27/5:26), and 5:14 (2:40/2:34).

Later in the week I will look to build on this past weekend's long run by adding another hour or so to my final truly long session before the Rocky Raccoon 100 on February 5th.  I certainly won't be at peak fitness for Rocky, but that's fine this early in the season and I just look forward to putting in an honest effort down in Huntsville.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow .. i cant think of anything that i could say now that can accurately capture my awe of the insane mileage that you seem to be clocking ...

Of course, cant wait for the next race to see you and the other big guns tear up the trail ...

Unknown said...

By the way, congratz on your runner-up finish for UROTY ... the way i see it, there is very little to play for between you and Geoff ...

I remember in one of your earlier posts, you had been threatening to run a road marathon ... when and where man????

Jay said...

Tony,

Thanks for doing the talk at Sherpas. It was really cool to hear the four of you speak in such an intimate setting.

Best of luck with the upcoming season. See ya on the trails.

Anonymous said...

Tony -

Just wanted to thank you, Scott, and Joe again for giving me an incredible tour of some of the best mountainous terrain I've ever run. Cali has its gems, but Colorado blew me away in a drastically different light. Enjoyed the great company you all provided for the entire duration of the run for sure; look forward to coming back in the future and hopefully for a more extended time:) That weekend totally blessed my soul, thanks man.

Jake

David Hill said...

I had to bust my hump last week to run 100 miles in the flat Midwest. What you do is just sick man, sick! Good luck at RR.

Forest Bethell said...

Haha I think Wayne & Garth summed it up very well for me when they met Alice Cooper in the film Waynes World..."NOT WORTHY, NOT WORTHY!" :P

There's training and then there's TRAINING! With a regime like that you should indeed be riding the winds across Mont Blanc in August.

I truly admire your complete dedication and passion for running. Long may it continue :)

Brandon Fuller said...

My daughter (7) got concerned about hiking in the woods and getting pounced on by a mountain lion. I explained that Tony will be the first to be hit based on statistical percentages of time spent out there. And he is still OK. So she should be fine.

Unknown said...

Hello Anton,
I'm Fabio Menino and I'm your big fan. I am writing this mail, if you like, because on the Internet portal www.distanceplus.com, I spoke about you.
I made a comment of the 2010 season in the U.S., with the Ws100 your performance, I wrote a news on the possible challenge UTMB 2011, between you, Kilian, Geoff roes and Karl Meltzer.

I would be honored if you'd like to read what I wrote. If you connect to the site, you can see the D + News and D+ Awards section, where there are seasonal comments.

my mail is fabio.menino@yahoo.it

Thank you very much and congratulations.

Dragonkik55 said...

wow...lot of miles¡¡

your trainings are very interesting, thank you for share it

See you in WS100, i´ll be pacer for 40 miles to help a spanish friend.

Texafornia said...

Tony - Hey, it's Brett from the ZenTri podcast. I'll be running the Rocky Raccoon as well and would love to get a super short interview with you the night before the race. Just a couple minutes to hear about your training, the course, and any gear you'd like to promote. Give me a shout back at zentriathlon at gmail dot com if you're interested. I got a few minutes with Jorge Pacheco a few years ago the night before he almost broke the world record and people loved it. Thanks, man - you rock. :)

Elliot said...

Good luck at RR!

Wyatt Hornsby said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Davy said...

It will be great to see you guys at Rocky this year. It will be great fun.

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