Coming off of the 40 miler last Saturday, I was surprised to feel as good as I did this week.  I know my log entries mention being tired quite a bit, but I really should have been more crippled after all that pavement.

It was a super busy week in all aspects of life, and I didn’t quite make my mileage goal.

I am backing away a little bit from the idea of running the 24 Hours of Boulder in two weeks.  Every time I think about pulling the trigger on registration, I have an overwhelming feeling of – meh.  My birthday is the following Saturday, and the idea of coming up with some sort of cool/crazy/stupid run for that instead is becoming a more attractive alternative.  Maybe a DIY 100 miler is in order?  The wheels are turning…

Lots of fun with the camera as I took over 1,000 photos this week including my first serious attempt at portraits, and first time spending the day shooting a trail race/ultra.  I spent both Friday and Saturday evenings chasing the moonrise, which would have been spectacular if not for a thick layer of haze/smoke on the horizon which killed the best views.

Monday
6 miles

Boneyard with Stu. Felt really good considering the 40 miler on the weekend. Almost unsettling…

Tuesday
10 miles

Highline Canal. First 4 were rough, then felt better. Thinking I will target 70 again this week and try to keep it at that level up through Boulder.

Wednesday
11 miles

Strange day. 1st attempt to run was thwarted by a work call that led to being slammed most of the day. Thought I would stop off at Chatfield on the way home and get in an easy 5 or so. Felt very slow and tired, ran out onto the dam. Turned around at 2.5 and there was a very nasty storm that sneaked up behind me with lots of lightning that basically cut off my retreat. To my immediate south, the skies were clear and sunny. I decided to keep going and run around the south end of the lake before turning back north to get to my car. I was dragging pretty bad, but finally made it.

This was looking away from the storm, much worse behind me.  In any case, not a good place to be with lightning around.

Went out later that night to try and get some night shots of the lightning over the city.

Thursday
11 miles

Included 10 miles in the high 7’s. As tired as my legs were, it forced me to work a bit to hold that pace.

Found a GREAT spot for shooting portraits and my daughter was a good sport and let me practice taking some shots.  It’s not an area of photography that I’ve done much with, pretty much favoring the landscapes, but I liked the new challenge.  Most of all, I was happy that she was happy with how they turned out – teenage girls being somewhat hard to please in that way…

Friday
12 miles

Very tired again (theme for the week), but put in some good work at the Boneyard.

Made a pretty big effort to get a moonrise shot from Chatfield State Park.  Didn’t quite get what I was after, but had a fun evening running back and forth alternating between moonrise and sunset.

Saturday
12 miles

Really felt broken-down today. I think that is my cue to start letting up. I’ll abandon the goal of 70 for this week and be content with what I’ve gotten so far.

Spent the evening chasing another Harvest Moon shot.  Mostly thrwarted by a super thick layer of haze/smoke on the horizon that spoiled the moonrise, but did get a couple shots I liked.

Sunday
OFF

Spent a fun day at the Bear Chase Trail Race cheering for the runners and taking a bunch of photos.

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See the rest here.

Total: 62.6 miles / 10:06

Good week of training capped off by a fun day pounding the streets of Denver.

I spent Sunday afternoon hiking around the mountains with my camera and tripod.  Man, I love that kind of day.  Just wandering around looking for nice scenes to shoot.  Legs beat up and tired from the day before.  Perfect.

Monday
7 miles

Pretty decent run. Far better than I thought it would be after the hard 20 on the weekend. Calves were a disaster, but loosened up after about 5 miles…

Took the kids over to the high school spirit week bonfire.  Thought my face was going to melt off at one point.

Tuesday
7.5 miles

Turned out to be a great day at the Boneyard. Plan was to jog over, run a lap easy, then 2 laps at a solid pace, then jog back. I got a little carried away on the 2 lap effort.

This place is not a place to run for run. It is a vacant lot with weeds and the trail is narrow, lumpy and bumpy. It is a great place to train, though. A few small climbs keep things interesting. A ‘lap’ comes out to exactly 1.2 miles.

My previous best avg pace for a single lap was 6:55. Today I came through the first lap with a 7:15 pace and it felt easy and controlled. The hills were no problem. I pushed hard on the second lap with a 6:45 average and brought the overall pace down to 6:59. Pretty happy with that unexpected result.

Wednesday
10.5 miles

Rough first 2 miles, then settled in and felt good. Went a couple miles further than planned.

Caught a nice sunset at Chatfield.

Thursday
5.4 miles

Boneyard. Pretty tired.

Friday
0 miles

OFF

Saturday
40.2 miles

Denver Marathon.  And a Half.  Report to come.

Sunday
OFF

Leadville!  Went up to hang out with my son for the day, and spent some time walking around the hills.  Felt good to work out some of the soreness from yesterday and to breathe the nice mountain air.

Total: 70.6 miles / 10:24

Why is it that I feel like every race report I read has a variation on a theme – “Some course markings got sabotaged so the trail we were on came to a dead end.” ??  (via Cory).

Stay tuned for…  How to Vandal-proof an Ultra.

After a long hot summer, with mostly lackluster running, I am finally feeling somewhat back in the saddle.  The Leadville Rebound took a couple weeks longer than usual, but has been in full swing lately.

I am at exactly 2200 miles for the year, only 25 more than this point last year.  Fail.

I have taken approximately 22,000 more photos than last year.

Probably some correlation there.

Speaking of photos, I randomly came across two of me from races earlier this spring.  It was a little funny because I distinctly remember being photographed in each case, but the pics never turned up in any of the usual spots after the races.  Then 6 months later I stumble across both of them in the same week.  This one back in April was a pretty good race for me (other one is Copyright so I’ll not post it here).

Looking serious at the Earth Day 50K.
Credit: unknown (sourced from Michele Hartwig’s blog)

This week was my first 70+ total in a while.  70 used to be the default, now it is the goal.  My how things change.

I am signed up for the Rock and Roll Denver Marathon this Saturday.  Going to use it (possibly along with some extra miles) as a long training run.  I have been toying with the idea of another 100 miler this fall, and there are several I would love to do.  Boulder is not at the top of that list, but it may prevail simply due to logistics.  Also looking at the 24 hour option.

Monday
10 miles

Boneyard. Includes 4 laps @ 8:42 pace. Felt decent. Much better than last week.

Tuesday
10 miles

Out and back on east west trail. Felt a lot stronger than I thought I would.

Wednesday
14 miles

Awesome trail run at red rocks with Tim. Im not feeling 100% yet, but 80’ish is amazing compared to what I have been used to.  Really felt strong today.  Cool and misty weather helped a ton.

Thursday
8 miles

Easy jog.

Friday
7.8 miles

Boneyard. Lots of txt messages. Had to play catch-up with Stu and ran fairly hard on tired legs.

Saturday
20 miles

Figure-8 loops on the East/West trail. Test driving the New Balance MT1010s. Pushed a little beyond comfortable from the start, trying to set up for a good effort. First 10 went well, but probably dug a bit too deep passing and then staying away from rattlesnake-guy who made an appearance around mile 5. Monarch was tough, legs were toast. Feet killed me from mile 6-14, especially the left. Not the shoes fault.  Spent some quality time with the knife digging out the callous afterwards.

Sunday
OFF

Chased the sunset instead of running. Could have used a little more pop in the sky, but I found a sweet location.  It’ll be awesome in another week or two when the leaves change down here.

Total: 70 miles / 11:24