Sunday, April 19, 2015

Somehow Kept It Together This Week

This was to be a 70 mile week with two days off. Really not that big of a deal but the weather... the @#$#@@!!%$ weather had other ideas.

Tuesday was nice enough and actually the nicest day of the week. 10.5 mile run in 1:22:33. All in all it felt pretty good.

Wednesday things started to change... for starters it was COLD and the wind was actually ripping which for around here is rare. Turned into an epic 14 miler with 3563 feet of gain and I was out there for pretty much three hours.

Thursday, not too bad with the weather yet. Not as bad but windy with it being a cold wind at that. Another 10.5 in 1:25:51. Slower than Tuesday but a much more substantial headwind on the way back.

Saturday.. ugh... It is winter all over again. We probably got 15" of snow between Thursday night and Saturday. 25 miles was the goal for the day and I pulled it off but I had to do it in two segments.  11 miles and then a 14 miler later in the day. Total time for both runs was about 3:52.

Sunday was actually nice. Lots of snow but nice. I was joined by a runner who was not officially here and we had a lot of fun just out exploring more than just running. Super slow run, lots of picture taking and goofing off.

It only looks like I am doing what I am not doing.  Actually I am looking at a pine squirrel to my right. Lots of snow.

So I put down 70 for the week with 11K of climbing.

I really hope that this is the last storm as this last change in weather wrecked my motivation and spirits. I am ready for DRY trails which we were just starting to see segments of, and just running in warm weather in general.

Going to rego for the Power of Four 50K Trail Run in July. This will be a fun run with some other local runners. Our plan is to go out slow and hold it there. More of a training run than anything else.

9 Training weeks until the Aspen Backcountry Marathon.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Still Here... Still Running...

There has been a lot going on these past few weeks. The week after Salida I took it easy but still managed a 63 mile week. My time in Mexico allowed me to get two good runs in but I bailed on the third one later in the week for two reasons:

1. I was tired and fatigued from two hard days of running mixed with two long days of spearfishing.
2. I think I was coming down with something.

And come down with something I did... I spent my last Friday in Mexico never far from a toilet. I thought it cleared up but my little intestinal souvenir came home with me and gave me grief all the way through last Monday. Knowing that the good bacteria in my stomach and digestive system were probably all wiped out I ate a ton of yogurt on Monday to set things right and thankfully it worked.

Tuesday I started running again and logged 60 miles for last week. I did make one mistake and that is that I had a meeting that was supposed to happen on Friday get moved to Saturday morning. So because of that I ran ten on Saturday then twenty on Sunday rather than the 20 and then the ten. I was definitely feeling Saturday's run during Sunday's run but it all went well.

I have found myself presented with a very unique professional opportunity here. It has been in the works and has been gestating for well over a month now but something has found me and given me a new direction in life that I could never had planned on. In short, it's a job, and the funny thing is that it found me... 

I will not go into great details for now, but for me it feels like everything that I have done or learned in my adult life has built towards this and the bonus is that I still get to focus on helping and coaching people. That is what my meeting was about on Saturday.

Today I guess was my first day on the job in a way. Some of the things we are doing will be doing will be contract based and we are in the process of doing a lot of proof-of-concept types of work as well as defining processes and procedures. On the surface, very simple stuff, but at the same time very exciting to be a part of.  I promise more details in the future as things progress.

12 Weeks until the Aspen Backcountry Marathon. Now that the weather is getting nicer, training for it will be a lot easier than it was for Salida.