Monday Oct 30

Proper rest day. Feeling pretty lethargic from the weekend and/or the early AF alarm clock

Tuesday Oct 31, 10 Miles, 420′ 1hr 13m

Pretty cold start to the day — first time busting out the Mandex for the season. Ran to the reservoir and back from my front door with 10x30s strides on the way back (1min “easy” for recovery) before flying to CA for work. I keep forgetting that East generally = downhill and West generally = uphill, meaning that I was running my intervals on a slight incline.. good for the lungs, but not the most ideal for turnover/speed development. Also, JA texted later in the day to bust my balls for actually going for a “real” run (AKA sub 7:30 average) instead of hanging out as a mountain goat

Wed Nov 1, 7.5 Miles, 118′ 56m22s

Super boring/Super casual hotel jaunt. This particular place happened to have a paved cycle path right out back which lead to… well somewhere I suppose. Sea level feels amazing, but strides and flight legs feel a bit soggy

Thurs Nov 2, 10 Miles 177′ 1h13m

Again out onto the cycle path from the hotel. Sea level running seriously feels like heaven, which means I must be acclimating. 8x30s fast with 30s recovery this time around, which felt unusually strong/graceful (as opposed to the first few weeks of feeling like a baby giraffe). Also 7:1x pace feels like complete and total autopilot right now, which is pretty sweet.

Fri Nov 3, 5 Miles, 394′ 40m22s

Out the front door foothills trail type thing. A little run down overall from traveling this week, so it took a few miles for my legs to fall into autopilot pace. For the most part everything feels strong, if not particularly quick today

Sat Nov 4, 11.4 Miles, 3855′ 2h20m

Chat>Green>Bear>Chat via Greenman, Bear/Green, Fern, and Mesa. Snappy-ish ascent up Greenman to tag Green in a 2nd PB split of 54:24 without really pushing on the ascent (note: I’ve never tried to run up this route for time). Hung out on the summit talking to a few hikers for a couple of minutes before a handful of guys came up greenmail after scrambling the 2nd flatiron. I joined them for the descent of green/ascent of Bear (1:39:34 split) before we descended Fern over to the Mesa trail. Other than noticing my quads on the gnarly descent down Fern, I’m beginning to feel like I’m firing on all cylinders.

Sun Nov 5, 10 Miles, 1558′ 1h33m

Spent the gloomy morning inside watching Shalane Flanagan put on a tactical clinic at the NYC Marathon before heading out the door on some pretty lazy legs. I’d been talked into checking out the Lions Lair (AKA Swoop) route up Saints from the Centennial TH, so I ran from my front door to the TH, figured out some small navigational snafus (my own idiocy) and headed uphill. Legs felt pretty good, and I hit the summit in 1:05:17 from my front door. I continued down the northeast side of the mountain towards Wonderland Lake before pushing out the prescribed 4x30s strides and calling it a day. Legs were feeling less snappy than I would have hoped, but everything felt comfortable/controlled.

Summary: 54 Miles, 6522′ 7h56m

Overall another solid base/economy building week. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m laying the groundwork for long-term goals, and to not compare my efforts to folks at different ends of the training cycle. After all, it’s all about the process right now.