Training week three recap

Mild weather continued this past week and running remained a pleasant chore. I did my first intervals of the season and two long runs. Yesterday I drove to the Arthur's Rock trailhead in Lory State Park and ran a route simulating the third and fourth summits of the 50 mile Quad Rock route, which are the same summit in opposite direction. I ran up and around Arthur's Rock and down the Timber Trail to the race's turn-around point, then back up the Timber Trail to Arthur's Rock and back down to my car. 12 miles and 2600 feet of elevation gain. The weather was beautiful, calm and balmy, and the trails are much less icy than they were at the end of November. Today I did another long run on nearby singletrack at Maxwell and Pineridge in shorts and a tee shirt.

For the week:

• 7:47 total time (hours and minutes) running

• 41.2 miles

• 4167 feet D+ (dénivelé positif in French)

This is half of what will be my peak training volume at the beginning of April 2019. I'm daunted but it is starting to feel more and more feasible.

I got on the web and registered for the Quad Rock 50 mile and a trail marathon in Salida in March last night. I'm looking for some other local events this winter. There was a "fat ass" run at Horsetooth Mountain Park today, but I didn't hear about it in time.

On Tuesday during my interval workout, I hit a milestone: 1000 miles of running for the year. I'm going to be training much harder in 2019 and will be running more than 200 miles in each of February, March, and April. I might hit 1000 miles next July if I don't break down.

Next week is an easy week and I'm looking forward to some quality time with my family and my foam roller.