I have enjoyed a rest week. I exercised every day, but nothing intense or long,
with double easy workouts on Thursday. I did a short bit of tempo pace running
on Thursday, 8-8.5 effort out of ten. It felt great.
16.3 miles running
7 hours, 16 minutes all training
981 ft D+ running
Next week I'll be diving into tempo runs for real as I get into my second
eight-week training block.
A pale brown concrete bike path rises in curves toward snow-covered Rocky Mountain
foothills under broken low clouds.
I brought running back in week eight. I ran five times, and four days in a row
for the first time since early June, 2024. The numbers:
31.9 miles running
12 hours, 12 minutes all training
5,171 ft D+ running
Tuesday I did hard running and hiking intervals on Towers road, 5.5 km of 10%
grade. 30 minutes at 9/10 effort, my biggest single workout of the season.
I'm only a minute slower on the climb than early season runs in 2020 and 2021.
That's very encouraging.
Today I went back to the hills for an easy long run. It felt easy until mile
eight, where I boarded the struggle bus for the last two and a half miles.
Still, I enjoyed the entire run, saw lots of hikers, and the season's first
wildflowers: sand lily, clematis, pasqueflower, and springbeauty.
Close up of white Sand lily blossoms with a dirt trail and high plains in
the background. Lower Timber trail, Lory State Park, Colorado.
Conditions are very dry in our foothills. The creeks in Well Gulch and below
Arthur's Rock often have running water into May, but have none now. It's not
a good sign.
Poor weather last week complicated my training plans. I ran more than I did in
week six, but not much more. I did some indoor intervals, a tempo run, the
usual yoga and pool HIIT, my favorite bike loop of Southwest Fort Collins, and
a great trail run in the hills of Lory State Park on Saturday. All together,
here are the numbers:
24 miles running
9 hours, 32 minutes all training
2,313 ft D+ running
My body is holding up well, so I'll be doing even more running in week eight.
Spoiler alert: I've already had one solid running workout, the hardest of my
season so far.
A sandy trail along a partially snow-covered ridge approaches a stand of
pine trees under a blue sky. Lory State Park, Colorado.
I'm not the first person to make a sandwich with fried eggs and pastrami, but
I think I may have come up with a name for it that could stick. Served hot with melted
cheddar cheese on slices of grilled sourdough bread, I call it the
"Poulletier" after François Poulletier de la Salle, the
discoverer of cholesterol.
A grilled sandwich, cut in two, on a green plate.
Hash browns would be good in this. As would a thick smear of pesto sauce,
suggested by a person in a reply to my Mastodon post. I'll try one or both of
these additions next time.
Tuesday, April 1, Ruthie and I, and a couple of friends, drove to Denver to see
The Bug Club at the Hi-Dive on South Broadway. The Bug Club have become one of my
favorites over the past two years, since I first heard them on a WFMU show.
I can't remember if it was Joe Belock's or Todd-o-Phonic Todd's. I was
extremely excited to see them, and to see them with Ruthie. We're going to
Denver to see music less frequently as we get older, so this was a special
occasion. The Breeders at The Ogden in 2018 was our last show in Denver, if
I recall correctly.
The Hi-Dive is a small club with a modest stage and no seating, only an open
floor in front of the stage. I don't think there is any backstage, either.
Bands enter and leave the stage using steps at the front of the stage. It's
unabashedly no-frills and I liked it.
Ducks Limited were nominally the main act. I've listened to them a little and
they're good, if not exactly my cup of tea. The opening act was Denver's own
Mainland Break. Like Ducks Ltd., they play a jangly 80's pop, but also channel
the Replacements on stage. I enjoyed their short set.
The effect of putting The Bug Club between these bands was a bit like giving
the Minutemen a long set in the middle of an REM show in 1983. They tore
through 20 songs in a little over an hour with humor and grace but otherwise no
break. Every song from The Intricate Inner Workings of The System, minus Actual
Pain and Cold Hard Love (which I love), a new single, and from earlier albums:
Marriage, Cheap Linen, Short and Round, It's Art, and Little Coy Space Boy.
There were songs I didn't recognize, including one with dueling spiels
between Sam and Tilly, that especially reminded me of the Minutemen, what with
their physically imposing and proficient producer Tom Rees driving the
drumbeat, Sam's buzzed head, and it being D. Boon's birthday. Uncanny!
The Bug Club setting up at Denver's Hi-Dive club.
I'm looking forward to my next chance to see The Bug Club. They really did put
on a satisfying show.
That's not a lot of running, but it's the most I've done in a week since last
July. I did two hill workouts outside on a 10% grade stretch of single track
above Pineridge open space, Tuesday and Thursday. Today, Sunday, I did an easy
long run from my house to the same dirt climb, and went up to the bench one
time. My left Achilles, which has been nagging me, feels better. Weather
permitting, I'll run 3-4 days next week, and increase my mileage to 25-26.
My week 5 was a light one. I did some indoor workouts early in the week, some
telemark skiing on Friday, and then short and easy trail runs Saturday and
Sunday. Saturday's was my first run above 8000 ft elevation this season, on
some very nice trails outside Nederland, Colorado. Here are the numbers, not
including my skiing, which I didn't record.
Week 4 was light on trail running, because I'm letting my irritated left
Achilles tendon settle down, but it was still a pretty good training week.
I logged 34 minutes of max intensity intervals on an elliptical trainer, a new
weekly high for me. I also did the usual yoga, weight training, pool exercise,
and some biking.
4.5 miles running
10 hours, 3 minutes all training
36 ft D+ running
The highlight was a long ride along creeks and rivers in Fort Collins and
through the valley trails of Lory State Park. I'm getting more comfortable on
the steep road descents between my house and Horsetooth Reservoir and am
feeling more fit on the steepest climbs. I didn't set any records climbing up
from the Blue Sky trailhead or up Centennial from the reservoir, but I was able
to stay below my aerobic threshold. Last fall I was blowing apart on the same
climbs.
A blue gravel bike next to the orange colored dirt singletrack of Colorado's
Lory State Park.
I just noticed that the original URL slug for last week's recap blog post was
"beer-training-weeks-1-2-recap.html". "Beer" instead of "bear". I'm fixing that
now. I'd be down for a beer mile, but not a beer 100 miler.
In week 3, I got two interval workouts in, but developed a knot in my left calf
and some Achilles tenderness. I ran twice, and did long bike rides instead of
long runs. They were quality rides, though, and so I still got a good
mix of intensity and long easy effort.
11.3 miles running
11 hours, 50 minutes all training
476 ft D+ running
The highlight of my week was a long Sunday ride on the Poudre River Trail east
of Fort Collins, stopping by a taco truck and tap room, and ending up at
Hoedown Hill, which might be Colorado's easternmost ski hill. It's a bar and
restaurant on top of a 200-foot tall butte, with a north-facing slope beneath.
A blue bike parked in soft snow next to orange inner tubes at the bottom
of a small ski hill.
It's time for the first training recap of my 2025 season. I'm training every
day, but only running 2-3 days a week because I'm cautious about stressing my
Achilles tendon too much. When I do the numbers, I'll report
running distance and elevation gain, and the time for all training, including
cycling, weight lifting, elliptical or stationary bike, and yoga.
Week 1:
11.3 miles running
5 hours, 40 minutes all training
1,112 ft D+ running
The first week of my 32-week season was a little light. The highlight was
running at Cougar Mountain Regional Park in Issaquah, Washington with my
sister-in-law. Even in winter, it's green, with moss and ferns everywhere.
Week 2 was complicated by back pain. Instead of skipping workouts, I did a lot
of chugging indoors. Going easy on my back early in the week let me recover and
get out for a solid long run today at Bobcat Ridge, my longest run in seven
months. In all, this was one of my biggest weeks since April, 2024.
17.8 miles running
10 hours, 18 minutes all training
3,199 ft D+ running
As a side project, I'm doing some physical therapy on my left hip flexor
muscles, which are much weaker than those on my right side. I do seated
single-leg raises, supine marching with a resistance band, and Joe Uhan's
skaters. I'm making slow
progress.
