My doctor convinced me to try a two week course of Naproxen and more PT before jumping into steroids. I'm following her advice and also sticking to low impact exercise. I did manage 115 minutes of comfortably hard treadmill running and elliptical pedaling in week 15, which was a big bump up from the previous week. Otherwise, my numbers continue to lack luster.

• 4.9 miles running

• 7 hours, 1 minute all training

• 0 ft D+ running

That 4.9 miles was on a treadmill at a 7% incline. That would have been 1,800 ft of elevation gain on an actual trail. And I went hard on the climbs on my one hilly bike ride.

Friday I felt fatigued. I attributed it to more hard workouts. Sunday I was definitely feeling sick. Sore throat, sinus congestion, headache. Today (Tuesday) I'm feeling 50% recovered from this cold. I hope to get some real exercise tomorrow.

Thirteen and fourteen were another two weeks of tempo-focused training with minimal running. The 13th included a long day of hiking and trail maintenance work. Lots of time on my feet in the company of other trail runners. It was a bit like a trail race in that way, but much easier.

• 4.5 miles running

• 13 hours, 51 minutes all training

• 289 ft D+ running

Week 14 was a planned rest week, and somewhat lighter.

• 4.5 miles running

• 8 hours, 8 minutes all training

• 361 ft D+ running

Even though my left Achilles tendon won't let me run much, and working out indoors isn't very effective or satisfying, I've been managing to increase my training volume by doubling up on workouts. Both weeks were similarly structured. I biked and did a heated "power" Vinyasa yoga class at the gym on Monday, with some hot tubbing afterwards. Wednesdays I did a short tempo run outside at Pineridge Open Space and then went back into the gym for another tempo session on an elliptical trainer and some sets of back squats or box step-ups and jumps. This was my biggest day each week. Thursdays I paired an hour long lunchtime bike ride with an evening Pool HIIT (high intensity interval training) class and a sauna session. Fridays I went back to the gym for an hour long tempo workout on the elliptical and more soaking of my lower legs. This all adds up to 75 minutes of effort at 8-8.5 out of 10 RPE (rate of perceived exertion). I'd like to be at 90 minutes, but I'm doing the best I can.

I'm going to see my doctor tomorrow and inquire about an intervention for my chronically inflamed Achilles. The steroids I took last fall to treat my pinched femoral nerve and associated back pain also cured, as a side effect, the last nagging irritation in my right Achilles (that flared in July 2024 and ended my running plans for the year). I don't believe my left is seriously injured, and that it can bear more stress if I can get the inflammation down. I may be referred to a specialist about this.

The other specialists I'm seeing soon are the folks at a local eye wear shop to get sporty, photochromic prescription sunglasses. I tried and failed with contact lens in April. I can get them on my eyes easily enough, but I can't get them out by myself for the same reason that I have always struggled with opening produce bags at the grocery store: faint fingerprints. I just can't get a grip on the contacts. If the local shop doesn't have what I need, I may try sending my prescription to Julbo, the French company. I've been considering the company's reactive glasses for a while, and Bryon Powell's recommendation here is convincing.

I'll wrap up this longish recap with more about the trail work day. There is no trail running without trails (that would be fell running), and trails need regular care and maintenance. If trails are eroded, not passable, or persistently muddy, people will route around them and create new social trails. This leads to trail "braiding" and degradation of the natural landscape and ecosystem damage. Here in arid Colorado, vegetation grows slowly, and the landscape recovers slowly from injury. In Lory State Park, the situation is compounded by soils that turn into peanut butter when saturated.

Gnar Runners, the local running events org that manages Quad Rock and other races in Lory State Park, organizes a trail work day at Lory each spring and fall. I've been participating in the spring one for the last five years. As more and more trail races require proof of trail work or other volunteering, the number have grown. This year there were 24 of us. Ten were meeting requirements of the upcoming High Lonesome event in the Sawatch Range. The Bear 100 also requires eight hours of trail work or volunteering. A lot of us would do this even if it was not required. It feels right and good to take care of a place that you enjoy and depend on.

It's also fun to make new friends and share running stories and plans. Brad Bishop and Nick Clark, the Gnar team, have directed and run more ultra marathons than I ever will and I always learn something new from them. Nick's a legend of the sport, after all. It's like I'm cleaning trail drains with Larry Bird. And some years, like this one, elite contemporary racers come out to work alongside the mere mortals. It'll be extra fun to follow the Western States Endurance Run this year, knowing somebody who is aiming for the podium.

I did no outdoor running in week 12, so the numbers are a little sad.

• 2.5 miles running

• 10 hours, 26 minutes all training

• 0 ft D+ running

I had one good tempo workout on an elliptical trainer, the usual yoga and pool HIIT, and 70 miles of biking with a good amount of climbing.

Saturday I rode my bike over the steep hills alongside Horsetooth Reservoir to Lory State Park to watch runners at the Quad Rock 25 and 50 mile races. 300 meters before the 25 mile mark (and finish line), the route crosses Lory's main access road. I stopped there and hung out with two volunteer course marshals for an hour and a half.

I missed seeing the eventual winner, David Roche, by two minutes. The runners in second and third place came through fifteen minutes after I arrived. After the first three 25 mile finishers came in I got back on my bike and pedaled home.

My left Achilles is feeling pretty good after this week-long break. I was overly enthusiastic about icing one evening and gave myself a touch of frostbite and a blister. No serious harm seems to be been done.

Week 11 was light on running. I balanced workouts, my nagging left Achilles strain, and an extra gnarly project at work. Almost all of my tempo effort was on an elliptical trainer or stationary bike. The level of effort was better than the raw numbers, so I'm not concerned.

• 7.8 miles running

• 7 hours, 22 minutes all training

• 335 ft D+ running

Today I got up extra early to start the Colorado Marathon's 5K event with my family. We parked downtown, took a shuttle bus to the starting line, and ran down the Poudre River Trail to the center of town. My effort was a little disappointing. Heel pain, a massive bout of hay fever, and an unfortunate need to visit a port-o-let held me back. Nonetheless, we had fun seeing the half marathon leaders and cheering other runners from the finish line while waiting for the first marathon finisher to arrive.

Week ten was a fun and productive one. I ran five days in a row, one on the treadmill, with 80 minutes of tempo and hard running or elliptical pedaling.

• 33.5 miles running

• 10 hours, 30 minutes all training

• 4,304 ft D+ running

Sunday I logged my biggest elevation gain and longest run of the season in Horsetooth Mountain Park. After a few days of rain and drizzle, there was water in the creeks, no dust on the trails, and the scents of damp soil and pine bark were in the air. The sand lily and springbeauty continue to bloom, and I saw the first flowering larkspur. At the end of the last long ramp on Towers Road, aka Creeping Death, I found some mountain ball cactus with bright fuschia flowers.

My friend John Bender came along as I was photographing the cactus and we ran together for more than an hour. He has lived adjacent to the park for almost 40 years and is one of the founders of the local trail running community. I'll be cheering him on at Quad Rock in two weeks.

Week 11 will have more tempo running, and instead of a weekend long run, a 5K race with my family, all four of us in the same running event for the first time.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

I'm looking forward to my next chance to see The Bug Club. They really did put on a satisfying show.