Flying High

It is now almost a full two months into 2012. Normally this time of year I am primarily skiing (Tele-style) and not running so much. This year is decidedly different. I have not gotten as much skiing in as I might have liked, but my running is going decidedly better than it usually has. In fact, my mileage and general fitness right now is better than it was in the weeks leading up to my Leadville race last summer.

I realize I keep coming back to that race, but it was my major goal last year, and a major milestone in my running over all. As they say, you never forget your first.

Several happenings in the past week or so have made me much more confident in my running (tracing a previous theme). My disastrous (results-wise) race last Wednesday was a big blow to my confidence. I began to wonder if I no longer had the focus and determination to race the way you have to in order to get a good result. I had pushed it hard up the first hill, feeling pretty good, but then eased off. A mile or so later, I found myself running easily through the woods, looking up at the stars. Then it hit me: I was running along easily in the middle of a 4k race! I managed to push it a bit from there on, but the damage was done and I came in 4 minutes after the winner, who also happens to be my training partner.

Obviously that was not the result I would wish for.

As I said, I wondered if my will to race, the will to push myself hard enough to get a good result, was gone. My answer to this question, decidedly a no, came on Tuesday.

On that day, I left from work at my normal time to head up Sanitas Valley. I decided on the warm-up run to the trailhead that I would push the valley, both up and down. The goal was just a bit of tempo to see how my legs were doing.

It felt good. I pushed the uphill at a reasonable tempo, though nothing more than half-marathon pace, and bombed the downhill, hitting a sub-five minute mile for the first time in several years. Even though it was on a downhill, I took it as a sign that I still have some turnover in my legs, if I just have some fun with my running.

On my way back through Eben G Fine park, I ran into the Boulder Trail Runners Tuesday Tempo Runners (TTR). A friend of mine from the local running community happened to be with them, and I decided to run their tempo portion with them. The tempo bit just so happened to be up and down Sanitas Valley, twice.

Unsure of whether I would do the whole workout, I took off with about 6 other runners up the trail, which up the valley more resembles a one-lane dirt road than a typical Boulder trail.  Having already done one stint up and down the valley, I started out a little slower than the rest, coming to the top a little under a minute after several of them, and turned to bomb the downhill.

I again hit a sub-five minute mile, this time throwing in a 2:15 800 for good measure. When I hit the bottom, I decided "to hell with it" and turned around to head back up. It was hard, and I didn't push as hard on the downhill this time, but I completed the tempo portion and ended up doing 12 miles for the day (6 up-tempo). This was definitely a confidence booster, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The other confidence boosting run (this week) was yesterday (Saturday). I generally take Saturday off, since it is the only day both my gf and I have off, but I had opted out on Friday to go for a short hike with said gf, so I went on Saturday morning instead. The plan was to go for about 5 miles easy. About halfway through, I glanced down at my watch to see that I was going (easily) at 6:45 pace, which is a good 45+ seconds faster than I generally consider my truly easy pace. And it felt comfortable. It felt like I could keep that up for ages without slowing.

Suffice to say that was a confidence boost as well.

Today's longish run was not so enjoyable. I headed up Flagstaff easily enough, hitting 23 minutes without ever pushing myself, then donned my microspikes and dropped over to Green. Green, though, was a mess of ice, with a steady, 20+ mph west wind making the ascent generally miserable. It also brought to my attention that it might be time to get new spikes (or to sharpen my old ones), since my current pair no longer grip very well in icy conditions.

The descent into Bear Canyon was a trail-hunting trial, as people had wandered seemingly all over the mountainside following what may have looked like a trail at some point. At this point, I decided Bear was out for the day, and headed down Bear Canyon back to Mesa. Bear Canyon, however, was ice the whole way down. Not flat ice, even, but ice full of frozen footprints from the people hiking during the warm spell yesterday. I was concerned enough that I was putting in 12 minute miles on the downhill.

Not a pleasant run, all told, but I was out there. And the entire way, I had this song stuck in my head.