A lot of time to think running today. Any distraction to keep the mind busy so it won't rebel at the task at hand. Basic nonsensical stuff but it came to me that running is just more about numbers than anything else. Of course running is a physical endeavor but after a certain point it goes beyond that is just about numbers... Minutes for miles, hours for groups of miles and even more hours for more miles of running. Today I had a mileage goal of course but what it really came to in the end was just time. Putting in the time. Anyway...
I am officially living in Aspen now. I came up Friday night with the Jeep loaded. It took most of Saturday morning to get things unpacked and put away. It is nice to finally be here. Even though I still have to sell the house, I don't live there anymore.
The training situation around Aspen is like this... Things in town are melting out but up a bit higher there is still snow. So you can't range out too far or too high without running into some serious snow conditions. I haven't ridden up here yet but I got in two great runs on Saturday and Sunday.
But I have been able to make the best of it. Our apartment in town is situated so that I can go out for a bit on a run, come back, refill my bottles then head off in another location for more running. So this was the impetus for my "Spoke Theory." I can get in great distances, I don't have to carry a lot of stuff and I can swing by the house every two - three hours and restock using the apartment as the central hub. The beauty of this is that I will be able to use this same format later on when things melt and I can go out and do different sections like Sunny Side Trail, up Aspen Mountain and of course many other routes.
Running options right now include two - three miles up Smuggler Road (AKA Housewife Hill), up and down 82 about seven miles out of town. Past the gate for the road closure there is too much snow to run on yet. And up Castle Creek Road which is clear the entire eleven miles all the up to Ashcroft. There are other options but these are the ones I am making use of now. That about explains the riding options too. Not a lot of off road available at this time.
A good week training but it was light on the bike but the one serious bike session was a doozy. 15:46 total training time for the week. 11:27 running and 4:19 on the bike. The running though was punctuated with two awesome training runs this weekend. Nearly 22 miles on Saturday followed by a smidge over 30 miles today. As bad as it stormed today it really didn't impact the running much. Maybe 1.5 hours was really bad with wind and snow ripping out of west.
Another cycling video from the movie Seasons.
Tomorrow starts another week. It will still be nasty here so it will be an indoor ride for certain. :)
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