Quad Rock training week ten recap

First, the numbers.

• 13 hours, 32 minutes

• 64.0 miles

• 10,522 ft D+

Over 100 kilometers distance and 3200 meters of elevation gain. That's a solid week. A lot of my favorite local singletrack was wet and closed, so I did more running on flat pavement and compensated by going on steeper back-to-back long runs on the weekend.

Today I woke up with little enthusiasm for running. I'm a bit sleep deprived. I expected crowded trails and scarce parking. My right knee has been feeling brittle and I crashed and scraped it on Saturday. If there had been two or three more little things, I might have bailed. But, I've got an annual Horsetooth pass now, there was enough gas in the minivan to get to the trailhead and back, the weather was fine, and my gear is all in good shape. And next week is my scheduled recovery week, so I would have plenty of time to rest and recover from another long run. To keep it simple, I planned to do two trips up to the Towers and back via the service road. No route-finding would be needed, no slipping or tripping would happen, just a long run/hike up a steady grade with freedom to enjoy the views instead of watching my feet. It was a good plan and I felt better as I went. I even managed to get my legs to turn over quickly on the descents. Going up, I hiked every stretch of trail with a grade over 5 percent. In other words, most of the climb. I'll probably do the same at Quad Rock.

This week's steep routes helped me to fourth place on the local club leaderboard for most elevation gain.