Week Log: April 21-27

Mon-AM: 16 miles (2:10) Observatory Mesa in Flagstaff w/ Kyle and Ian
Bruised my foot wearing some old 152s on the rocks...still tired, too.

Tue-AM: 23 miles (3:03) Pipeline to Mt Elden Trail then down Elden Road
Wore brand new 790s, but the foot was still very very tender.
PM: 5 miles (:40) Walmart out and back through NAU campus
Nice and easy; wore the 152s

Wed-AM: 17 miles (2:15) Fisher Pt. out and back
Foot still had some soreness and I was still sluggish. Haven't had a good run all week.

Thu-AM: 8 miles (1:05) FUTS out and back towards Ft. Tuthill
Still feeling tired...hmmm...

Fri-AM: 8 miles (1:05) Rio de Flag out and back
Wore some more padded shoes and I'll probably race in them...the foot is just not ready otherwise.

Sat-AM: 52 miles (8:10) Zane Grey 50 in 8:02:33
Had a very solid 35 miles and then paid a little for the quick early pace, plus it was hard to stay motivated running all by myself all day. Very very complacent the last hour.

Sun-AM: 16 miles (2:10) Phoenix Mts Park
Tired, but not horrible. Climbed a couple of the small mountains in the park. Good heat training at 90+ degrees.

Total: 145 miles (20:38)

This was kind of a rough week. My foot didn't throw off the volume of my running--I did a typical half-taper--but my legs just didn't feel right all week. Once I get back to Colorado I'm going to make sure to start taking some iron pills. I was happy enough with the Zane race, especially considering that I was probably still tired from the Double Crossing the weekend before. I'm excited to take a few days easy and then really get down to some good, solid training.

Week Log: April 14-20

Mon-AM: 18 miles (2:30) Oldham-Brookbank-Schultz Pass Rd in Flagstaff w/ Kyle
Wore FFs, but it was a bit too rocky for that.
PM: 5.5 miles (:43) Rio de Flag out and back w/ Kyle

Tue-AM: 25 miles (4:02) Zane Grey Course out and back w/ Kyle
Ran the first ~12 miles of the ZG course. Almost stepped on a big rattlesnake.

Wed-AM: 21.5 miles (3:01) Schultz Pass Rd to Weatherford Trail in Flag
Felt pretty terrible. Just tired. Almost got to 10K' on W'ford trail.
PM: 5 miles (:40) Downtown Flagstaff
Felt better after a 2hr nap.

Thu-AM: 12 miles (1:40) Buffalo Park-Upper Oldham to the top of Mt. Elden
Feeling a bit better, still a little tired.

Fri-AM: 31 miles (5:10) Hermit's Rest-Tonto-South Kaibab in GC w/ Scott
Awesome awesome run, and I felt great on the climb out.

Sat-AM: 46 miles (7:31) Grand Canyon Double Crossing (South/North Kaibab-Bright Angel) in 7:24
Started with a big group and ended up having a wonderful day in the canyon. Bonked really hard on the climb back up Bright Angel because I was stupid and didn't bring enough gels (only ate 7). I can see now why the R2R2R is so alluring.

Sun-AM: 14 miles (1:52) Fisher Point in Flagstaff w/ Scott, Ian, Kyle
Tired--happy to be done.
PM: 9 miles (1:11) Rio de Flag to AZ trail in the FFs
Feeling nice and chipper.

Total: 187 miles (28:20)

A very very solid week of running. It was great exploring the non-corridor trails in the Grand Canyon these last couple of weekends and then to cap it off with a fun double crossing. I look forward to doing more in the future. I think it's time to taper a bit for Zane Grey now.

Week Log: April 7-13

Mon-AM: 18 miles (2:22) Garden+Mesas in FFs
PM: 5 miles (:47) North Loop w/ Jocelyn in FFs

Tue-AM: 23 miles (3:02) Buckhorn+Duck Pond
PM: ER visit in the middle of the night because of the Staph infection in my big toe

Wed-AM: 24 miles (3:06) 666-Kinneo-Buckhorn
PM: 5 miles (:41) North Loop w/ Jocelyn

Thu-AM: 25 miles (3:00) Buckhorn+666 add on+Duck Pond
Hit my head hard on a tree branch and had a big headache the rest of the day.

Fri-AM: 32 miles (5:02) Bright Angel-Clear Creek out and back w/ Scott and Kyle in the Grand Canyon
Great run except for the huge headache I still had from knocking myself out yesterday.

Sat-AM: 38 miles (6:00) Grandview-Horseshoe Mesa-Tonto-South Kaibab w/ Scott and Kyle
Excellent fantastic run.

Sun-AM: 15 miles (2:00) Grand Canyon Rim trail out and back w/ Scott and Kyle
Tired and sluggish.

Total: 185 miles (26:00)

It seems I recovered pretty quickly from AR in the first half of the week and then the second half of the week was awesome running in the unparalleled environment of the Grand Canyon. The Tonto Trail is way better than I expected.

Week Log: March 31-April 6

Mon-AM: 16 miles (2:05) Garden+Mesas in the FFs
PM: 8 miles (1:07) Shooks easy w/ Jocelyn in the FFs

Tue-AM: 27 miles (3:22) Buckhorn+North Loop in the FFs

Wed-AM: 16 miles (2:06) South out and back + duck pond in the FFs

Thu-AM: 7 miles (1:00) Sout out and back w/ Jocelyn

Fri-AM: 8 miles (1:02) Monument Loops in the FFs

Sat-AM: 52 miles (5:58)--American River 50 in 5:42:37

Sun-AM: 6 miles (1:00) Bear Creek w/ Jocelyn. Slow.

Total: 140 miles (17:40)

American River 50 mile

The months leading up to AR were a bit tumultuous. I hadn't had a serious race since Leadville last August, and my training since August hasn't exactly been consistent. However, after lots of help from the great people over at Champion Health and the magic healing powers of the Gila Wilderness sunshine and streamwater my shin started cooperating five weeks ago, which left me with a perfect amount of time for a solid block of training leading up to AR. A four-week sequence of 131, 201, 182, 184 (which included some of the best speed sessions of my life) followed by a mellow half-week taper and I was ready to go realize some goals in Sacramento.

What were those goals? I was basically running this race with the express purpose of gaining automatic entry into the Western States 100 this June. Way Too Cool was Way Too Early and Way Too Short for me, while I feel that Miwok is too long and too close to Western to run hard. Plus, it filled very quickly this year.

In addition to "place" goals, I had some time goals for the race. Initially, sub-6 hours seemed like a nice, round benchmark for which to shoot, but that didn't seem ambitious enough. At the least, I liked the fact that sub-7 minute pace (5:50) at AR was also the qualifying criteria necessary for me to be thrown into the USATF 100K World Championships selection pool. Next, running faster than Carl Andersen (5:44:something) always seems like a good thing, and finally, there was Tom Johnson's highly-esteemed 5:33:21 course record from way back in 1994 to keep in the back of my mind.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do any sort of course reconnaissance other than what meager photos and descriptions that the Internets had to offer---there was only one set of splits to be found (2005--when Phil Kochik won in a respectable 6:06). As a result, I went into the race only really knowing that A) The first 20-30ish miles or so were essentially on a perfectly flat, paved asphalt bike path and the next 17 miles were on rolling singletrack along the American River, B) the final 3 miles contained the only real climbing of the race (ascending 1000' feet to the canyon rim) and C) almost everyone cautioned against going out too fast in the first half of the race so as to not let the trails eat oneself alive.

Not much to go on. But, what can you do?

Of course, several other folks had the same idea as me, i.e. that AR is a great race for one to go and take a shot at qualifying for Western States! With lottery spots becoming more and more scarce each year at Western, AR was bound to be hyper-competitive this year (for the men, at least), and it certainly lived up to this expectation. This was by far the deepest ultra I've had the pleasure of participating in.

The main contenders (as I saw it going into the race) on the men's side were going to be (in no particular order): Lon Freeman (Miwok CR), Oz Pearlman (5:31 at Chicago Lakefront), Erik Skaden (I could go on and on, but he's won AR twice), Jorge Pacheco (ditto), and Todd Braje (2:2something marathoner and Way Too Cool champ a month ago). As it turned out, the only one I really mistakenly didn't take into account was Jeremy Redding (beat Dave Mackey at the Headlands 50K a few years ago). Also, Billy Barnett was a key (and welcome) player for more than half of the race.

I roomed the night before the race with Jenn Shelton and Billy and had a characteristically restless few hours of sleep before the alarm went off at 4am Saturday morning. Alas, a little sleeplessness was nothing compared to all the congestion and hacking that Jenn was dealing with the day before (and, day of) the race.

The race start was dark and cool so I opted for a black Colorado Running Company singlet, black shorts, Moeben bamboo fiber sleeves, and some sweet carved-up black and yellow New Balance 790 trail flats (sub-7 oz.). I also started the race with 4 gels and a full water bottle. Even though I wasn't anticipating draining the water bottle for at least an hour or so, I wanted to try and hold off having to stop and get water for as long as possible---I knew the bike path pace was going to be fast and furious and it's never fun trying to make up even a few seconds' gap at those speeds.

With 600 runners and chip timing, the start felt like a road race. Immediately, some jokester shot off the front followed closely by Lon Freeman and a fellow in compression shorts and t-shirt who I later learned was Oz. I hung back a short distance in a quickly-forming chase pack that consisted of myself, Billy, and eventually a bunch of other dudes. By time we'd looped back to the start (~3 miles) we'd caught Lon and Oz and a very enjoyable group of dudes coalesced as we hit the first aid at Watt Ave (5.9 miles) in 35ish minutes. The low-6min pace felt quick but doable so I was content to just go with the flow and trade turns at the front with the likes of Jeremy, Todd, Lon, Michael Buchanan and Billy. By this time, Jorge and James Bonnet had caught up with us and largely just hung on to the back of the group.

It was also about this point that we gradually let Oz go off the front and put a small gap on the main group. I was comfortable and all the right people seemed to be present, so I just tucked in and focused on running the tangents on the incessantly winding bike path.

We cruised through the 9.4 mile William Pond aid station in 56ish minutes. The weather was pretty humid but still nice and cool. I was having some slight stomach issues, which is typical for me, but other than that was completely content with the way things were going. Shortly after the aid station Erik Skaden suddenly came zooming up from behind with his incredibly powerful stride and bellowed, "Is this a race, fellas? We racing today?" With that, the pace immediately kicked down a few notches to the 6:20ish range (we'd been doing maybe 6:30s) as it seemed Erik was intent upon eating into Oz's lead.

Eventually, however, this slight disturbance mellowed out and for the most part everything settled into a comfortablish rhythm. I hit the 15.6 mile aid station in ~1:39 (I think) where there were a lot of people cheering, and then the next 3 miles were where the race finally started thinning out to some extent---thinning out the pretenders from the contenders. I timed some more miles through this section in the mid 6:20s range and when I noticed the pack begin to thin out stretched my legs to drop Jorge and James and close the small gap that had opened between myself and Erik and Jeremy. I was pleased to find that my legs felt just as good at the quicker pace (they were getting tired of the flat pavement), but also noted that Oz's lead was probably the largest it had been so far, about a full minute or so.

Suddenly, finally, the trail inclined up for a decent-ish hill as it climbed up and over the Nimbus Dam at 19 miles. On this short incline, with zero increase in effort, I caught right up to Erik and Jeremy (who had gapped me again), took off my singlet and sleeves as we curly-qued under the highway (and Todd caught up to us), and then was delighted to feel tons of pep and spring in my legs as I filed onto the short, single-track, switch-backed climb up to the Nimbus aid station.

Jeremy and Erik stopped at the station (19 miles, ~1:59-2:00) to fuel up while I scampered after Todd through a chain-link fence and then whooped and hollered down the rocky descent on the other side, passing Todd and reveling in the trail instead of the freakin' bike path. I was feeling so good that I very nearly made up the entire gap on Oz in that (very) short section of trail, but once it flattened out Billy and Todd caught up to me, Oz took off again, and we enjoyed cruising the next little gravel road section over to another section of single-track.

I had taken my first gel at 1hr, another at 1:45, and then another one on this section at ~2:15. I also took my first S-cap just after the 2hr mark because I wanted to be sure to stay on top of my electrolytes as I was sweating so much in the humid air. I kept up this nutrition strategy for the rest of the race: a gel every 30 minutes and an S-cap every hour.

The next section of single-track up and over to Negro Bar (23.5) was a huge confidence boost for me. I could feel a slight lag in pace and since no one seemed to want to take the initiative (Billy and Todd were running with me at that point) and took the lead on the single-track and led us at a comfortable clip up onto the bluffs above the American River where I actually caught Oz on a short downhill section and assumed the lead in the race for the first time.

The short Nimbus climb combined with this short section of trail was the absolute turning point in the race for me. Whereas immediately before Nimbus the bike path pace had felt comfortably strained, when I hopped on the trails I felt completely in my element and was shocked at how quickly I caught Oz and how timid he was being on dirt. The whole time on the bike path I had been looking around, trying to assess how everyone was feeling, how smooth they looked, who was running easiest, etc. (incidentally, Billy looked the most relaxed and smoothest on that section while Erik ran with the most confidence, I thought), but on the trails I just knew I had it and that--barring any major catastrophe--I was going to win the race.

At face value, that might seem somewhat presumptuous and cocky, but that's just the kind of stuff that goes through my head in a race. Back on the bike path on the way up to Beal's (27.4) Oz had opened up his usual gap again but I found myself taking the initiative more and more in the chase group that now only consisted of myself, Jeremy, Todd, and Billy. We cruised through Folsom prison and then up to Beal's in 2:55-56. At this point, I thought that Todd was the strongest threat but on the big curve around the point I could still see Erik lurking a few dozen seconds back and I had no idea what had happened to Lon. Jorge and James were way off the back at this point.

After Beal's the route heads out towards the shores of Folsom lake and contours around on a wide gravel path that I ran with Billy, Jeremy, and Todd. On this varied terrain I was by far feeling the most comfortable I had all day. I was mostly just trying to feel Jeremy and Todd out and see when a good time would be to make a break. I never really try to force a break or surge in a race, rather, if the pace lags and I'm feeling good I just let it happen naturally---there's really no way to tell when it's going to come; I just instinctually felt that I would be more comfortable and on the trails than the other guys.

Somewhere in this section before the Granite Bay aid station (31.5) the route turned into true single track again. By default, I took the point here again, started to feel the groove of the trail, and that ended up being the decisive break in the race for me. I wouldn't see Todd and Jeremy again until the finish line. I hit 31.5 in 3:26 and then just concentrated on cruising to catch Oz. Someone at the station had said he had a 60 second lead, but I was confident that with the winding, sometimes technical nature of the trail he'd come into sight soon.

The Buzzard's Cove aid (34.5) caught me off guard, but I hit it in 3:48 and kept on trying to run the trail as efficiently as possible while still running as quickly as I could. Shortly after Buzzard's Cove I caught sight of Oz around a bend and within a few seconds I'd passed him and almost immediately lost sight of him behind me. It was shortly thereafter that I had to make a quick pit-stop (luckily, it seems I avoided the poison oak).

From then on it was a focused crank to just try and run the best time I could. I hit the Horseshoe Bar aid (38 miles) in 4:14 and was psyched on the volunteer there who filled my bottle with ice water. My god, that hit the spot. I was sure to listen for any cheers/cowbells as I ran away from the station and didn't hear any until I was another 3 1/2-4 minutes down the trail---a fairly comfortable gap.

The trail over to Rattlesnake Bar (39.9) seemed longer than it should have, but I arrived in 4:33 and then a short while later was surprised when I came upon another aid station that I assumed was the 43.2 mile Manhattan Bar (but I guarantee I didn't run 3.3 miles in 17 minutes...but the 36 minutes that it took me to go the alleged 5.2 miles from Horseshoe to Manhattan seems plausible). The rest of the way on the trail I just focused on drinking water, maintaining a high cadence (my tired hamstrings have a tendency to make me feel like I'm plodding) and making sure not to make any stupid mistakes.

Soon enough (5:16) I was at the end of the single track and was instead grunting up the steep road leading to the top of the canyon. It leveled off after a short bit and I hit 3 miles to go in 5:20. I grunted up the steep stretch right before Last Gasp (47.6, 5:24), refilled the water bottle and then just did my best to crank out the last couple of miles pretending I was on High Drive cranking up Mt. Buckhorn back in Colorado Springs. For the most part, that worked and I hit the 2 and 1 mile to go signs in 5:28 and 5:35.

It was at this point that I realized I could get under Carl Andersen's time of 5:44 and the rest of the climb to the finish was pretty uneventful; I crossed the line in 5:42:37.

I don't know if it was finishing on an uphill or what, but immediately afterwards I felt the best I have at the end of an ultra. I took my shoes off and did a quick barefoot 1 mile cooldown and then enjoyed the rest of the afternoon chatting, drinking sodas, and lolling around in the California sun. American River was a perfect introduction to the rich Northern Californian ultra running community that I've heard so much about.

Week Log: March 24-30

Mon-AM: 15 miles (2:01) Water Tank Hill+Bear Creek w/ Jocelyn
Longest run ever in the FFs.
PM: 8 miles (1:05) Water Tank Hill+Monument
Wore the FFs.

Tue-AM: 20 miles (2:28)~5 mile tempo in 28:14 (5:41, 5:43, 5:38, 5:23), 1.5 mile in 10min, 1mile in 5:10
Not really feeling it today---tired.
PM: 5 miles (:43) North Monument Loop+ w/ Jocelyn, Megz, Ben
Wore the FFs.

Wed-AM: 24 miles (3:03) Mt Buckhorn+2 miles barefoot
Absolutely gorgeous day. Had a photo shoot on the top of Buckhorn for Westword News.
PM: 4 miles (:33) North Loop
CRC run w/ Julian in the FFs.

Thu-AM: 28 miles (3:27) Mt. Buckhorn-El Diablo Loop+barefoot stuff
High Drive to Buckhorn hillclimb tempo in 28:54 (PR), then, through Bear Creek and finishing on the track: 3x1mile in 5:21, 5:35, 5:07 (79, 78, 77, 73) w/ 1 mile in 6:45 recovery jogs (5 miles continuous in 29:33).
Great great run. The tempo up Buckhorn was very solid and then I felt very good on the miles, too. The last one was barefoot on the track.
PM: 5 miles (:41) North Monument
Easy in the FFs. Felt decent, actually.

Fri-AM: 11 miles (1:31) Monument-Mesas-RR Tracks
Freezing drizzle this morning--27 degrees. Still, I had a great little jog in the FFs and my NB Storm Striker jacket. Legs actually felt really good. Feeling good on Fridays is a great indicator that I'm on top of my training.

Sat-AM: 32 miles (4:06) Buckhorn-Jones Park-7 Bridges-Buckhorn+barefoot and extra in Monument
Feeling very solid. I had to really hold back in order to not really crank all morning.

Sun-AM: 32 miles (4:07) Buckhorn-7 Bridges-Jones Park-Buckhorn+duck pond loops

Again, feeling very good.  No gels, no water, and still able to feel totally on top of it the whole run.  The 7 Bridges climb was great and almost fully melted out.  I'm going to go up that hill more often because it's REALLY steep in some spots.

Total: 184 miles (23:45)

An excellent week in terms of both quantity and quality.  The Tuesday workout was a bit of a grunt, but the rest of the week I felt so good (especially Thursday's workout) that now I'm feeling like that I'm just a couple of 12-14hr weekends away from being in killer 100 mile shape. So, of course, I'll do my best to stay away from those for the next month and a half at least.  The last two weeks my fitness has improved so much; I'm definitely in way WAY better shape than at Moab--not even comparable, really.  Time to taper and have some fun at AR next weekend.

Week Log: March 17-23

Mon-AM: 15 miles (2:04) South Santa Fe Trail out and back w/ Kyle
Feeling pretty wiped from the weekend, so I had to take it slow.

Tue-AM: 23 miles (3:06) High Drive-GoldCamp-Stratton
Ran early before work---nice to see the sun rise. The climb was still super snowy and slick.
PM: 5 miles (:41) Downtown+barefoot
Ran down to the bank and back in the FiveFingers...feeling tired.

Wed-AM: 20 miles (2:31)~3mi-2mi-1mi in 16:18 (5:17, 5:34, 5:27), 10:35 (5:23/5:12), and 5:10 (2:37/2:33). 10min and 5min recovery jogs.
Felt very solid on this workout. The 3 mile was tempo effort while the 2mi and 1mi were definitely anaerobic.
PM: 5 miles (:42) CRC Run
Ran to Mountain Mama's and back in the FiveFingers. Somehow I found a great little area of trails I've never been on before...even after 7 years...

Thu-AM: 24 miles (3:05) Mt. Buckhorn+barefoot
Feeling good this morning but I took it easy in the beautiful weather. Finished up with 2 miles barefoot on the grass.

Fri-AM: 43 miles (6:00) Garden-RRR-Williams-Waldo-Cascade-UPT-Pipeline-Manitou-Garden+barefoot.
Last long long run before AR--mostly just wanted to get the time on my feet. Got up at 5am to get the run in before work so I was treated to a sunrise and alpenglow on Pikes from RRR--man, that's hard to beat. Finished up with 2 miles barefoot on the grass to get the full time.

Sat-AM: 32 miles (4:25) From Pott's Field in Boulder: through campus to Chataqua, Mesa Trail to Bear Canyon to Bear Peak back down to Mesa Trail then Mesa all the way over to Eldorado Canyon back on Mesa to Potts where I finished up with 2 miles on the Boulder Creek Path.

The last 10 minutes up Bear Peak were a hike because of steep snow but the views from the top were incredible.  I really rocked the pace all the way back from Eldo to Potts on the Mesa Trail feeling great---I might have to spend a serious length of time in Boulder sometime soon.

Sun-AM: 15 miles (2:06) South Santa Fe out and back w/ Jocelyn plus a North Loop

Ran nice and easy in the new snow...definitely needed the easy day.

Total: 182 miles (24:40)

I was very happy with this week.  The Wednesday workout and Fri/Sat back to back long runs are exactly what I need right now---I'm starting to feel pretty fit.

Week Log: March 10-16

Mon- 35 miles (5:10) Kyle's house to Whitewater Mesa to Gold Dust to Main Fork Whitewater to Daloche to Mogollon to Powerhouse Rd to Catwalk and back. ~6000' climbing

Tue- 30 miles (5:16) Pleasanton to Holt Gulch to Camp Creek Saddle to South Fork Whitewater up to Nabours down past the dump and back to Pleasanton. ~8000' climbing

Wed-20 miles (3:00) Gold Dust Trailhead to South Fork Whitewater to Tennessee Meadows and back

Thu-AM: 20 miles (2:30) 4x1mile in 5:17, 5:10, 5:10, 5:09 (3min recovery jog)
PM: 5 miles (:40) North Monument in the FiveFingers

Fri-AM: 11 miles (1:31) Bear Creek and Monument
Raging snowstorm, but still ran in the FFs.

Sat-AM: 43 miles (5:11) Rampart Range Overlook and back+barefoot
Cranked solid with Kyle. Kept a super solid pace even with the 3000'+ climb up to the overlook.

Sun-AM: 37 miles (5:10) Bear Creek to Section 16 CCW to Buckhorn to Gold Camp Connector to High Drive to Section 16 CW to Intemann to Red Rocks to Garden and back.
Another very good run, but it was foggy and snowing all day. The New Balance 790s have proven to be a great shoe...very versatile.

Total: 201 miles (28:28)

Ended up being a bigger week than expected because of the four 5hr runs. I was very pleased with the speedwork on Thursday and was especially pleased with the fact that my shin is now clearly 100% healthy.

Week Log: March 3-9

Mon- 16 miles (2:10) Stratton Open Space w/ Kyle
Ran nice and easy and explored the plethora of sweet little singletracks hidden in the trees there. Had a nice climb up to Gold Camp. My shin cramped a little the last mile, but I just walked a few yards and jogged it in very easily and it was never a problem again. Got some Cold Laser.

Tue-AM: 16 miles (2:35) Barr Camp from Memorial Park w/ Kyle
Ran to Barr in 1:19 from Hydro (4000' climb) after getting to No Name Creek in 36:18. The trail was basically clear to NNC, but then Kyle and I were breaking trail through some fresh snow and drifts all the way to Barr Camp, so it was slow going but still a glorious day in the mountains. Shin never hurt at all.

Wed-AM: 18 miles (2:45) Memorial Park to Williams to Waldo CCW to Longs Ranch Road to No Name and back to Manitou
Ran easy with Kyle until he bailed onto the UPT. The climb up Longs was tough because of ice and snow but totally worth it. Shin was great. Snowing at the top. ~4000' vertical
PM: 4.5 miles (:34) North Loop CRC Run w/ group
Ran easy and felt good in the FiveFingers.

Thu-AM: 18 miles (2:10)~4 mile tempo in 21:59 (5:47, 5:24, 5:31, 5:16)
Wore my new New Balance 205 flats (Khalid's shoe) and felt good. Shin tightened up some on the cooldown, but Jeff did some ART on it when I went to get lasered later and it felt fine. Very pleased with my ability to pull off a run like that right now.

Fri-AM: 11 miles (1:30) Mesas and Monument w/ Kyle
Easy in the FiveFingers.

Sat-AM: 30 miles (4:00) Buckhorn Mt to Seven Bridges to Jones Park down 666 and back to Nevada.
Finished up with 10 minutes barefoot running. ~4000' vertical

Sun-AM: 10 miles (1:35) La Luz Trail in Albuquerque w/ Kyle.
Great trail up to ~9300' or so and then it was knee-deep snow, so we turned around. A nice moderate, switch-backed climb, but still ~2000' gain.
PM: 8 miles (1:04) Amos Trail to Whitewater Mesa in Glenwood, NM w/ Kyle.
Felt great to shake the legs out in the FiveFingers.

Total: 131 miles (18:23)

This was an encouraging week of running. The shin twinged a couple times throughout the week (Thursday and Saturday), but overall I was disciplined and kept it under control with icing and cold laser and by Sunday it felt 100%. Sunday was the beginning of a nice little trip to sunny New Mexico and the Gila Wilderness.

Week Log: Feb 25-March 2

Mon- 10 miles (1:20) South out and back w/ Kyle.

Tue- 8 miles (1:01) South out and back w/ Kyle.
Shitty. Legs felt great, but I walked the last 2 miles or so because my shin was sore.

Wed- 0 (got some Cold Laser at Champion Health)

Thu- 5 miles (:41) North Monument
Shin felt fine.

Fri- 8 miles (1:05) South out and back w/ Kyle

Sat- 14 miles (2:04) Section 16 Loop w/ Kyle
Ran from John's house in Manitou (where Kyle, Jocelyn, and I were house-sitting), through Red Rocks, up the steep side of Section 16, down the mellow side and back the same way. It was an incredibly sweet run on a nearly 80 degree day. Shin never hurt.

Sun- 23 miles (3:01) Buckhorn-Gold Camp via connector trail, back through Stratton
Today was snowing and windy as hell---spring in Colorado Springs. The shin felt great until the last few miles when it tightened up a bit and I actually ended up walking in the last mile as a precaution. It wasn't an issue at all, though, so I'm confident I didn't hurt it further.

Total: 68 miles (9:12)

This was a good first week back after taking so much time off. I'm keeping with the Cold Laser treatments and just trying to listen to my shin very closely. I think I got it this time...

Week Log: Feb 18-24

Mon-AM: 2 miles (16:00) Monument

Shin was still a bit sore.  Not too bad, so I just turned around and decided to give it an extra day.

Tue-AM: 16 miles (2:11) South out and back w/ Kyle

The shin was a little bit tight every now and then, but it never got worse.  Great weather.

Wed-AM: 23 miles (3:00) Buckhorn Mt. plus barefoot w/ Kyle

Shin twinged every now and then, but I felt great towards the end.

PM: 4.5 miles (:37) CRC run in North Monument with big group in the FiveFingers

Shouldn't have done this run; shin was tight by the end.

Thu- 0

Fri- 0

Sat- 0

Sun- 0

Total: 45.5 miles (6:04)

Hmmm...obviously a bit of a mistake of a week on my part.  I can never seem to learn; however, this shin is proving to be frustratingly tenacious and somewhat unpredictable.  I'm going to bag the Mexico trip and just focus on being healthy and fit for AR.  Mostly, I'm getting tired of not being able to be out on the trails every day.

Week Log: Feb 11-17

2/11 Mon-AM: 16 miles (2:09) South out and back
Ran nice and easy with Kyle. He was a little tired from hammering with Matt yesterday and I was pretty tired from my biggest weekend in a while. Great day to get the shirts off and just chill out and get a tan.
PM: 6 miles (:51) North Monument
Easy cruiser in the FiveFingers. I felt really good for some reason.

2/12 Tue-AM: 24 miles (3:07) Buckhorn Mt.
Solid, semi-tempo effort up the 3.5 mile climb in 32:25 and then dropped a 5:35 mile on the way back through Bear Creek just to test out the legs. Hamstrings still tight, but a great day all around.
PM: 4.5 miles (:41)
Nice easy run w/ Jocelyn and Kyle after work.

2/13 Wed-AM: 24 miles (3:20) Buckhorn Mt.to 666 Loop
This was a great run on a shirtless-warm day w/ Kyle. We were actually able to complete this loop, but there were some significant drifts up on the ridge. Kinda tired by the end. Great morning in the mountains.
PM: 5.5 miles (:44) CRC Monument Loops
Ran easy w/ Kyle and Greg from New Balance in the FiveFingers. Felt good.

2/14 Thu-AM: 23 miles (3:03) Up High Drive and down Gold Camp
It was snowing this morning and that made the ice on High Drive super slick. I fell twice--once skinned up my hip and the other was while cranking down Gold Camp. I fell so hard it knocked the wind out of me. Tired by the end of this run, but I felt no need to taper for Moab on the weekend.
PM: 5 miles (:41)
Easy w/ Jocelyn in the FiveFingers.

2/15 Fri-AM: 11 miles (1:32) South out and back plus North Loop
Nice mellow run with Kyle and Jocelyn in some great fog. Legs felt good. Drove to Moab after the run and slept right on the starting line for the 50K.

2/16 Sat-AM: 35 miles--Red Hot Moab 50K+ (34 miles) in 4:03:02
Ran with Kyle. Did a mile easy cooldown w/ Jocelyn, Kyle, and Anna.

2/17 Sun-AM: 0 miles

Total: 154 miles (20:21)

This was a solid week. I had some big mileage until Sunday because I didn't do any speed. I held off the speed because I was feeling pretty stressed from last Thursday's workout plus the weekend distance. Plus, I still feel like I'm just trying to get into shape---I love consistent daily 3hr mountain runs for building basic fitness.

The weekend was pretty good--I was pretty heartened about my fitness considering the quick pace we took it out at and especially considering the way Kyle and I were able to respond with a huge surge when we needed to the last two miles. That showed me that we truly were running easy up until that point. Averaging 7:09 pace fairly casually on a technical course with ~4500' of vert makes me confident about my fitness as I begin my major build-up for American River. Right now, I think 7 minute pace should hopefully be doable there.

Finally, that last downhill surge in the race did tweak my shin again, though. That, combined with all of the downhill slickrock running that was in the race. The shin caused me to take Sunday (and the following Monday) off, but it really was just a slight setback and I'm just glad that I'm getting smart enough to listen to my body and not try to run through little twinges like that. It's all about remaining disciplined enough so that I can be consistent in the coming weeks.

Moab Red Hot 50K+

This weekend Kyle, Jocelyn, and I drove out to stunning southeastern Utah to enjoy the desert weather and do some running amidst the surreal red rock landscape. Simply put, no matter the time of year, it's hard to resist the allure of Moab's canyon country.

I had missed the Rocky Raccoon 100 because of needing to take three weeks completely off from running to heal a shin injury, but with a week of incredibly helpful treatment from the folks at Champion Health and two solid weeks of running under my belt I felt ready enough to go put in a sub-maximal 34 mile effort with Kyle. Much to race director Chris Martinez's credit, he allowed me entry less than a week before the race. I was number 295 at the packet pick-up, so I'm guessing that approximately that number of people started the race. That shows astonishing popularity for a race that is only in its second year.

The entrants list revealed a solid field on both the men's and women's side. Karl was back to defend last year's win, as was a much more fit version of last year's runner-up, Torrid Torrence. Additionally, Steamboat 50 mile champion (and former CU All-American) Zeke Tiernan and Leadville 100 top-10 finishers Charles Corfield and Duncan Callahan rounded out the field.

For the women, 8th place finisher in the 2004 women's Olympic Marathon Trials Susanna Beck probably sported the quickest marathon PR in the entire 50K field with a 2:34. Such road talent was backed by considerable trail experience in savvy mountain runner Anita Ortiz, defending champion Darcy Africa, veteran trail racers Emily Baer and Helen Cospolich, Wasatch 100 champ Liz Irvine, Leadville 100 champ Tammy Stone, and Leadville 100 runner-up Michele Jensen. Wow. That's quite the depth for such an early-season race.

The Red Hot course is quite unique. It consists of a run through a gorgeous canyon wash, a rolling lollipop loop on top of a mesa, some challenging climbing and descending on pure slickrock on Poison Spider Mesa, and then finally a screaming descent to the Poison Spider Trailhead on Potash Road on the Colorado River. All in all, it climbs ~4500', almost all of that in the first 25 miles or so. Throw in some moderate altitude (between 4000' and 5000'), the two dominant surfaces of loose sand and cement-like slickrock, and you have a challenging bit of trail racing.

Just as the desert sun rose, we all took off from the Gemini Bridges Road starting line and attacked the initial icy climb part way up the mesa. Kyle and I set a quick pace right from the start. We were most concerned about Zeke Tiernan's short distance speed because he was largely an untested unknown in trail ultras. Karl stayed close through the first couple of miles of climb and then descent, but once the track flattened out in the bottom of the canyon our quick pace soon whittled away everyone but Zeke.

At this point, the pace definitely felt quick and certainly not maintainable but I think pride got the better of Kyle and I. I'm sure Zeke would've followed whatever pace we set, but I think we both mostly wanted to be rid of any company as soon as possible. With that in mind we attacked the shortish, very steep climb up out of the wash and onto the Metal Masher trail. We hit the first aid station at 5.5 miles in 35 minutes and both shed our arm warmers as we were now fully in the sun on top of the mesa. At this point, Zeke was only 100 yards or so back.

Here the course continued into a lolli-pop loop on jeep trail that was largely rolling over a mixture of soft sand and slickrock. Eventually, we climbed up to the rim of the mesa and then enjoyed a nice downhill to the 12.8 mile aid station, which we reached in 1:28. Kyle and I both grabbed a gel here. I'd taken my first gel an hour in and took the second one on the down/flat back half of he lolli-pop loop. Kyle and I kept a solid pace through this section. The effort was mostly comfortable, but we were definitely still moving.

We hit the 17 mile aid in 1:56, so were still on sub-7 pace, grabbed another gel and were on our way. At this point we decided to mellow out the pace a little because a sub-4 hr finish time seemed a little unlikely. My legs were still feeling pretty good through here, but we had a lot of climbing to do once we hopped on the Gold Bar Trail and got up on Poison Spider Mesa.

The trail here quickly turned into pure slickrock with pink flagging to show us the way. I spaced out the need to get a gel down before we tackled the technical slickrock climbing, and by time Kyle and I had crawled our way to the 22.6 mile aid in 2:36 I was at a definite low point.

However, I sucked down a gel on the descent and pretty soon things were all fun and games again. The sun was brilliant, the view across the valley to the snow-covered La Sals was magnificent, and the toughest thing was not running too close to Kyle so that we wouldn't step on each other as we picked the best line on the technical descending.

There were a few times in this section that we came to a complete stop as we searched for the next pink flag and I commented to Kyle how this race was necessarily "Euro-style" in that you basically ran the straightest line across the slickrock from flag to flag. It also got pretty warm the last hour of the race and I ended up taking two S-caps in the last hour and a half or so of the race.

We were happy to finally spot the last aid station (mile 29) from about a half mile out because we'd both drained our bottles. However, the last little bit into the station was really sandy and I started whining a bit about how vile a surface sand is to run on. After a quick fill of the bottles we departed the station at 3:28 and decided to just chill it out to the finish because it didn't seem like we had much chance of breaking 4 hours. Sub 4:10 would be fine with us today.

The next two to three miles were pretty boring, sandy, muddy, and flat jeep track running across the top of the mesa. Finally, at about 3:45 or so the road started the descent down to the Colorado River with switchbacks and a lot of those big 3-4ft rock drops that plenty of misguided folks in the Moab area think are perfect for crawling up in a Jeep. Neat.

Just after Kyle and I were commenting that "Geez, I sure wish Chris had found a way to make this race a true 50K and not 34 miles because we'd be cracking a brewski now instead of bonking and trying to decide if I want to take the trouble to suck down one last gel", when some dude in road flats came blowing by us on one of the more technical downhills.

After ascertaining that yes, indeed, this fellow was running the 50K (and not the 33K; we'd been passing dozens of 33K runners for the past 10 miles or so) Kyle and I immediately shifted gears from the dawdling, complacent eight minute pace we'd been running to a (much more painful) low five minute pace. Within a quarter mile or so we'd gapped the runner (Justin Ricks) and spent a frantic 10 minutes or so blazing down the final switchbacks to the finish line to tie in 4:03:02. We were 22 minutes under Karl's inaugural course record run from last year.

Because we'd had to run so hard to the finish, Kyle and I put in a 10 minute cool down with Jocelyn and Anna Pichrtova (relaxing after her easy 33K win) and then spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in the sun, chatting, and drinking milkshakes. A pretty great day.

Week Log: Feb 4-10

Mon-AM: 15 miles (2:03) Garden of the Gods-Rampart Range Road-Intemann-Red Rocks w/ Kyle

Nice easy cruiser run with Kyle in some great sunshine.  Did some bouldering in the Garden afterwards before it clouded up and started snowing.

Tue-AM: 21 miles (3:00) Section 16 Loop

This run was pretty rough because of all the new snow up in the mountains.  I was plowing through ~6" of fresh powder up on Section 16.  Wore the Crosslites on this run, and they worked pretty well in the snow.

PM: 5 miles (:41) North Monument

Nice easy jog in the evening after work.  Hadn't planned on running, but once I stepped outside it wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it was so I put the shoes on and cruised around in the dark.

Wed-AM:  23 miles (3:00) From Red Rocks: Up Gold Camp to the top of High Drive, down High Drive and back to the house.

This run began horribly.  It was a gorgeous warm day, but I felt like death, so I just told Kyle to go on without me.  Ended up feeling better after the first hour and cranked solidly the last hour or so at sub-7 pace.  Finished up with 10min of barefoot...the first of the season!

PM: 4 miles (:35) North Monument CRC run.  Felt good.

Thu-AM: 25 miles (3:00) 20x2min hard/1min easy on Gold Camp Road

Great workout.  I cranked pretty solid on these, and of course, got moving well on the way back down.  Felt good to get moving again.

PM: 4 miles (:33) Monument and downtown with Jocelyn.

Felt good and wore the Vibram FiveFingers the whole way, which were awesome.

Fri-AM: 10 miles (1:28) Mesas w/ Kyle

Ran nice and easy, but could've gone even easier.  I was sore from the workout yesterday, and I like to go easy on my easy day.  Had to pick it up at the end to get to work on time.

Sat-AM: 35 miles (5:03) Section 16-Intemann-Williams Canyon-Rampart-Garden+barefoot.

First actual long run in a while and I could tell.  It was a beautiful warm day and I was moving quickly all day despite not feeling that great.

Sun-AM: 35 miles (4:40) Navigators-Rampart-Stanley Canyon-Air Force Academy-Falcon Trail

Ran all the way up Rampart Range Road and then down Stanley Canyon to get to the Air Force to watch Jocelyn run at an indoor meet there.  Got a ride back with Kyle.  I was moving fast again today even though I didn't feel that great, mostly because this run was almost all road.  I found a sweet little trail--trail 713--that saved the day when the canyon boxed up and the road ended.  There is not much snow around here.  I would bet that I could go up and run Rampart Reservoir in a couple of weeks if we don't get dumped on.  There is so much less snow than we got last winter, which is good because that means I'll be able to get on Pikes a lot earlier which Kyle and I might have to do because Silverton is getting pounded this year.

Total: 177 miles (24:03)

This was a great week of running.  I didn't feel that great all week, but it was a solid week of getting back into it.  Now, I just need to string together about 10 months more of weeks like this and I'll be really happy with 2008.  This much running is completely sustainable--it's not too much, yet it satisfies all of my desires of being in the mountains.  Now, it's a trick of remaining disciplined enough to not increase it from here.

Week Log: Jan 28-Feb 3

Mon- 12 miles (1:30) Mesas w/ Kyle

The shin felt great for the first 1:10 or so, but then it tightened the last 20 minutes and felt like I was basically back to square one.  Not encouraging.

Tue- 0

Wed- 0

Thu- 5 miles (:40) North Monument

My shin never hurt at all and I finished optimistic about it's health.  I felt absolutely terrible otherwise.

Fri- 8 miles (1:00) Mesas and Monument

Felt good and the shin never hurt at all so I was super-psyched.

Sat- 13 miles (2:00) Longs Ranch loop backwards w/ Kyle

Barr Trail was incredibly slick, and this was compounded by the fact that I was in my Nike flats.  So, instead of trying to descend that ice luge without screws, we decided to keep climbing and go down Longs instead.  We kept a solid pace up the whole 3000' climb, though, and then bombed the super-steep downhill through a bunch of powder.  My shin absolutely never hurt, and it was a blast to be cranking through the snowing and foggy mountains.

Sun- 17 miles (2:22) UPT-Waldo Loop+ w/ Kyle and Matt (Incline Club)

Matt started off cranking, but it was a beautiful day and he calmed down some once we got to Waldo and the pace was more leisurely.  I'm trying to be smart, so I turned back on the UPT while Kyle and Matt went up Longs, but I added on some at the end to make it a full 17 miles.  I wore the Crosslites w/ screws on this run and I'm pretty psyched on these shoes.  They felt suitably low-profile and light and I think the extra bit of forefoot protection will be welcome once the snow melts some more.  Great run.

Total: 55 miles (7:32)

I think I'm finally back.  This injury was incredibly unfortunate timing for me (with missing Rocky), but with the help of all the great folks over at Champion Health (including the cold laser treatment that I'll post about later) I think I'm definitely on the trail to good things once again.  Time away from running makes one appreciate it so much more intensely, that's for sure.

Motivation

The Way Too Cool 50K entrants list was posted recently.  I'd been considering doing the San Juan 50 miler in June instead of Western, but now, with the possibility of Matt possibly being at Western, I'm pretty resolved to run the American River 50 in April and hopefully be on the starting line in Squaw Valley on June 28th.

I'm highly anticipating the results of WTC as Kyle's brother Erik, Matt, and Galen Burrell all go head-to-head...it should be a very exciting show-down if Galen is in shape (I know Matt and Erik are in shape).  Of course, Matt was most likely just testing Active.com's ability to handle a high-traffic registration process to see if it will handle the Pikes Peak registration on March 1st, and might not even be running WTC at all...

La Sportiva Loveliness

Ever since I started running for La Sportiva a year ago, Buzz, the mountain running team manager, has been telling me about the new lightweight shoe that the Italians had/have in the works--the Skylite. I began running for Sportiva because of my preference for the Slingshot, but the Skylite was supposed to be even lighter than its 308 gram predecessor. However, not only is Sportiva coming out with the Skylite in a couple of months, they now have available a very similar shoe--the Skylite's fell-running brother, the Crosslite--which is the exact same shoe as the Skylite except for with a much, much more aggressive (read: heavier) outsole.

Nevertheless, after having my appetite whetted at the Summer Outdoor Retailer Show back in August, and then getting another preview when the Colorado Running Company (the store I work at) brought in a couple (very small) pairs of the Crosslite, I was finally able to get a closer look at the Skylites and actually try on a pair of the Crosslites this past week when Kyle and I took a visit to Boulder for a little ultra running get-together with the Boulder Trail Runners.

All of this anticipation may seem a little ridiculous, but trail running shoes are very important to me. First, since shoes are the only really (mostly) necessary piece of running equipment, and because I am a huge nerd of the sport, I naturally am very geeky about my shoes. Additionally, my particular (minimalist) philosophy of running and running footwear lends me to be even more interested in my shoes.

Second, trail running (and especially, trail racing) footwear is an industry and technology in relative infancy. Trail shoes have only been around for really no more than 15 years, and in the beginning they fell into basically two categories: either brown/black road shoes or a glorified hiking boot. Obviously, neither of these categories really did the job.

In the last few years, though, many companies are understanding that a trail shoe needs to be fundamentally different from both road shoes and hiking boots, and Sportiva (along with Inov-8) has been an industry leader in this idea. With shoes like the Raceblade, Fireblade, Slingshot, and now, the Skylite and Crosslite, Sportiva has shown that they realize a trail shoe will deliver more effectively if it has a lower profile (but more dense than a road shoe) midsole, and that the virtually bomb-proof upper of a hiking boot is simply overkill--and hugely detrimental when running uphill--for a trail running shoe.

Most importantly, they are showing deliberate efforts to manufacture actual trail racing shoes, which probably arises from their European, short, fast, hill climb/mountain running roots, as opposed to the American trail ultra running roots of a company like, say, Montrail. (Although, this season Sportiva has obviously made a concerted effort to start significantly supporting the trail ultra running community in earnest through new sponsorship of many of America's top ultra trail runners and of more ultra-distance trail races.)

After meeting with Buzz and Jonathan (the president of La Sportiva, North America) and picking up a couple pairs of Crosslites to take home and try out, I am quite happy with the shoe. The Crosslite is listed as a men's US 9 (sample size) weighing in at 12.42 oz or 352 grams. That is light for a trail shoe, but actually pretty heavy for a road shoe. The Slingshot was advertised as being 308 grams (previously Sportiva's lightest shoe) and the Skylite has been advertised at both 250 grams and 268 grams (depending on the website). That is a legitimately very light trail shoe. The only other shoe on the market that compares is Inov-8's F-lite 250 (250 grams), which is being updated this year with the lighter F-lite 230. When I took my pair of size EU43.5/US10.5 Crosslite's home, they weighed in at 12.5 oz on the CRC's mail scale.

But, then came the time for my personal modifications. After some extensive carving (which I will get into in detail soon), I now have my size 10.5 Crosslite down to ~8.2 oz. Considering that the the size 9 Skylites are supposed to be ~100 grams (almost 4 oz) lighter than the size 9 Crosslite, I hope to get a pair of Skylites down to the high 6, low 7 oz range...even lighter than Inov-8's F-lite 230s. (I haven't seen a pair of the 230s, but my pair of 250s were already so stripped down that there was basically nothing I could do to them to make them much lighter without significantly compromising their structural integrity---plus, I really believe in the value of supporting/representing a company (Sportiva) that I've already developed a very positive relationship with (Buzz is great) and is doing a ton to positively support the sport of trail running in North America.)

On to the modifications (if I can scrounge up a camera from some body I may post some photos in the coming days):

Week Log 1/7-1/13

Mon-AM: 15 miles (2:05) Garden
PM: 8 miles (1:05)

Tue-AM: 30 miles (4:05) Gold Camp
PM: 4.5 miles (:41)

Wed-AM: 30 miles (4:21) Buckhorn-Intemann-Red Rocks-Garden
PM: 4.5 miles (:40)

Thu-AM: 30 miles (4:10) CRUD Tempo
PM: 5 miles (:41)

Fri- 10 miles (1:31)

Sat- 42 miles (5:34) Rampart Range Road Overlook

Sun- OFF (left shin)

Total: 179 miles (24:53)

I was very pleased with this week until the weekend, obviously. Even without getting a speed session of any kind in on Tuesday, I was very excited with comfortably getting the mid-week volume that I did. The ice and snow definitely hindered the quality, but I'm not too concerned about that---I run to run in the mountains, and I got to do a ton of that this week so it was great.

We'll see how big of a deal the shin turns out to be. I'm fine with taking a few days off--it's not ideal, but preparations rarely are--and I'm just going to try to remind myself to not force anything. If the shin disallows Rocky, so be it; I'm not going to try to get too worked up about it.

Finally, I'm excited about having Kyle in town for the next couple of months---it's fun to get up in the mountains with some company.

Saturday Jan 12, 2008

AM- 42 miles (5:34) Rampart Range Overlook out and back through Manitou (Roclite)

Ran with Kyle and jacked the anterior tibialis in my left shin. That's the short version, I guess.

I woke up this morning and the shin basically wasn't an issue at all, so Kyle and I set out with him planning on 4-5 hours and myself hoping for 7-8 hrs. It was a beautiful morning, so we dropped our long-sleeves right before heading through the Mesas and actually spent a little while later in the day running shirtless. Ah, January in the Springs.

Rampart Range road ended up being a slick, icy, packed snow-fest. Eventually, we just had to accept the slower pace and settle into the rhythm of slipping with every single step. After nearly getting shot up at the shooting range, the road improved marginally with a few gravel patches and the views improved significantly with great overlooks into both Queen's and Williams Canyons.

After almost 3 hours, Kyle and I got to the overlook, ate a gel, packed some snow in our water bottles and then headed back down. Running down was, of course, much faster but with just as frustratingly poor footing. Kyle's Montrail Highlanders seemed to be getting better traction than my Roclites and after a half hour or so I definitely noticed that my left shin was starting to get a bit aggravated and tight.

By time we got back down to the harder packed road by the shooting range I was slipping and sliding everywhere and the shin was getting more and more angry. I thought maybe just the downhill was causing the issue, so Kyle and I parted ways back in the Garden like we'd planned, but when I encountered the next uphill down in Manitou Springs my shin complained in a big way and I simply limped to the nearest pay phone to call Jocelyn to pick me up.

However, somehow Jocelyn and I missed each other and I ended up running the 5 or 6 miles back to campus on the streets; my shin didn't seem to get any worse on the flats, but it was definitely already pretty inflamed. I finished up with a couple extra miles to get my discarded long-sleeve shirt and finally limped back to the Recovery Room for copious amounts of icing.

Needless to say, the shin was swollen and the anterior tibialis tendon was remarkably inflamed. I'll almost certainly take tomorrow off.

Friday Jan 11, 2008

AM- 10 miles (1:31) Monument Loops+Rail Road Tracks (PC II)

Ran really easy with Kyle and Jocelyn. By the end of the run my left shin was a bit sore/tight on the front, which is weird because it was such a low-key, short, easy run. I spent a lot of time icing it in the evening, so hopefully it's better in the morning. Also, a pretty windy, blustery day, so I hope tomorrow isn't a repeat of last Saturday's hurricane run.