Quad Rock training week five recap

I ran 5 days this week, one less than last week. My back-to-back long runs were longer, 25 miles for the weekend. I kept up with my strength and conditioning workouts, did a tempo run on the bike trail, and went up and down the Towers Trail for a mid-week workout: 1500 feet of climbing in 30 minutes of hard running in the snow. I didn't intend to do any segment sniping, but got the 2nd fastest time ever in my age group on The Shining. 1/7th of a mile with an average grade of 14.3%. The ability to run uphill fast for a small fraction of a mile is the closest thing I have to a natural talent in this sport. I had an audience for that segment, a herd of 15 mule deer browsing on both sides of the trail, with little concern about my going up and down multiple times.

Here are the numbers for the week.

• 8 hours, 49 minutes

• 42.1 miles

• 7677 ft D+

Saturday, I was feeling pretty good on the climb up Mill Creek, the fifth of Quad Rock's six big climbs, and I went a little bit harder than comfortably hard all the way through the top of the climb and didn't suffer for it on the way back to the car or on my second weekend long run today. I'm more fit than I was early in 2020 and am feeling good about it.