Monday, June 16, 2008

Back at it

Not sure what lead to it, exactly, but I seem to be back in form, if not shape entirely.

On Saturday, I went for a trail run with my friend Mark, who unfortunately will be leaving for Boston at the end of June. So in honor of his last couple weeks here, we went up to Walker Ranch Loop for a run. It's about a 8 mile trail, rife with mountain bikers, and with two considerable climbs. Not sure what the total elevation gain was, but it was reasonably significant. (according to one source, around 1200' over the course of 7.8 miles).

I don't know what it was about that run, but when I got back, even though my legs were exhausted, my will to run, and desire, was back.

Today, as an aftershot to the run above, I opted for Mt Sanitas. As usual, I went up Dakota ridge to East Ridge, and then down the main Mt Sanitas Trail. If I remember that one correctly, it's 1300' of vertical and the loop (from my house) is around 5 miles or so. Both the ascent up East Ridge and the descent down Mt Sanitas are technical and difficult (not sure I've ever managed to keep running the whole way up East Ridge).

After those two runs, my legs are a bit tired, a bit sore, but ready.

I'll have to figure out a way to take my camera on more runs. The views on most of them are quite incredible.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

2 months on

It has now been precisely 2 months since my last post. Unacceptable, I know, but posts about the daily drudge of training are not all that interesting, to write or to read.

That, and grad school really got in the way this spring. In early May, during finals, I think I got overly stressed, and my right leg completely tensed up. It was bad enough that I did not run for three+ weeks, and have only been running at this point for a week and a half (about four times a week). But I seem to be doing a fair bit better, so there's hope for this summer yet.

That said, this summer I am not doing my normal training group. I've decided to focus more on trail running and racing, and not do many road races any more. The only road race I have on my schedule at this point is the Pearl Street Mile at the beginning of September. One of my coaches has thrown down a challenge to race him, and hopefully that will be interesting.

Outside of that, my racing plans are: July 5, the Leadville Heavy Half Marathon, August 1-3, the Wild West Relay, September, Golden Leaf Half. We shall see what else comes up this summer. At this point, I'm not even sure I'll be able to do all of those, but we'll see what happens. The key for me right now is just to not run too much. I wore myself out once, and it's not worth it to me to do so again.