The Running Falcon: Weekly Summary: Jan 21-27

Monday: 3.5 miles, 500’. Short shakedown run looping up through Red Rocks from work. Tossed in a little scrambling in the middle for fun.

Tuesday: 6.5 miles, 1000’. Anemone from work. Tempoed up the Anemone hill from Settler’s park, up and over the top, to the fence where it hits private land. Hit 13:40 for the ascent, which takes two minutes of my prior best.

Wednesday: 5.5, no real vert. BRC fun run.

Thursday. 5.5, 750’. Went about halfway up Flagstaff. For some reason my legs were absolutely beat, so I left it at that. Swam Thursday night.

Friday and Saturday: off. Decided to let my legs rest a bit after upping the mileage three weeks in a row.

Sunday: ~12 miles, ~3000 feet. Flagstaff and Green Mountain.

Sunday was easily my favorite run this year. The contrast from my last run up Green couldn’t be much greater in the span of two weeks. From single digit temperatures at the top two weeks ago, it was probably 55 on Sunday.

I started at the Gregory Canyon trailhead up Flagstaff, and hit the summit road in an easy 23 minutes. Despite, and maybe in part because of, my two days off, my legs didn’t feel very sharp on the first uphill. But I still hit a decent time up this section (for me).

I dropped down Range View, where the range view was mostly hidden by clouds, stopping briefly on Flagstaff road to chat with a cyclist about y UD pack, and cruised down to the Ranger Trail Junction at 32 minutes.

After a brief pit stop, I turned my sights uphill again and took Ranger up the side of Green. I started to find my rhythm here, and tagged the top of Green at 58 minutes for a 25 minute ascent. Again, it felt easy, even though it would put me inside the top 10 on Strava for that section..

Dropping down of Green, I ran into Dakota Jones, running at a pace that for him looked easy, but would likely have me struggling to keep up. Taking the new Green Bear trail, buffed out and full of switchbacks as a stark contrast to the old route, I was easily ticking of 7 minute miles, feeling smooth and easy despite the climbing already behind me.

Just after hitting the Bear Canyon trail, I passed another runner I had seen on Green earlier, who promptly shouted “You’re rockin it, man!”

I shouted back “Thanks, I’m feeling good!” And just as I got out the “d’ in “good,” my toe caught a rock (it was my first run in my new Altras, which I’m pleased with so far) and I went flying off the trail, to a muffled “Oh” from a couple hiking up the trail towards me.

Some instinct from my old Aikido lessons must have kicked in, because without thinking, my arms went out, my hands connected with the ground just enough to direct my momentum down over my right arm to my shoulder, over onto my back, and I flipped up and sped down the trail, barely breaking stride.

It was easily my best fall ever.

After that, the rest of the run felt smooth and easy. I cruised back to the start just over two hours (2:01:26) after I started for a solid 12 miles for the day.

Over all, this was a lower mileage week, with more elevation than this work. I think my training is going fairly well. I already feel faster and stronger on the uphills. The next step is to increase my endurance by lengthening my weekend runs. Primarily I will focus on time out on the trail, rather than distance and/or elevation.

As another note, adding just the little bit of swimming in for the triathlon training has made a disproportionate change in my fatigue. I think I'm adapting now, but the first week and a half were a bit shaky.