Monday; May 30: A day off due to work.
Tuesday; May 31: Up an at 'em quite early and down to Barr Trail. Starting in Memorial Park in Manitou, it was the long up hill to somewhere past Barr Camp, about 7-8 miles of nonstop climbing. Not being concerned with time, this was not a fast effort but a solid, continuous run excursion...oh there was slight digger when I tripped and ended up in the dirt; no damage but those little deviations from vertical always take the momentum right out of the run and force a few deep breaths to get going again.
Barr Trail is one of the reasons these ole bones ended up in Colorado. Many years ago I met a fella named Mike. He had just run the Pikes Peak Ascent and was raving about the adventure. Having heard of the Pikes Peak races, my interest was in full gear and so after many visits I eventually moved to Colorado Springs in the mid 90s. Many, many miles have been logged on that beautiful trail, including a few Ascents and Marathons. Favorite part of the trail? It varies, depending on the season. In mid summer, it is the area leading up from No Name Creek since it is full of green grasses and wild columbines. Usually when running the upper half of the trail the area just above A frame is a favorite with its' twisted bristle cone pines. Oddly enough, Jim, the husband, has never been on Barr Trail!!! Hopefully this summer we can make it happen.
A total of 16 miles today.
Wednesday; June 1: Yesterday's run was a wake up call! After climbing for the 7-8 miles on Barr Trail, these ole legs are trashed! Very sore today and no pep in the step. Even though many of the runs are done on hills, Barr is one of the few trails that presents a continuous uphill challenge; therefore, the legs/body are not used to that continual climbing. And I didn't even push the pace!
Today's run was a slow, painful (in the legs only; the rest of me was fine) effort of 20 miles. Even though the mileage and effort were not what had been hoped for, this was a good training run in forcing the body to do what it did not want to do......more head work than anything..... It would have been easy to cut the run really short at 5 miles, 10 miles, or ? but sometimes running just isn't easy and sometimes those rough days happen on race day. By pushing through an uncomfortable run, the confidence is stronger so that if the rough day happens on race or on a day where I really would like to complete a specific run in, on specific terrain, then I know I can make the head and body accomplish the goal. Could I have run more than 20 miles today....well, yes, but it would not have been pretty and it would have been counterproductive. I knew it was time to call it a day.
With plenty of time off from work in June, there will be several more runs on Barr Trail.
Thursday; June 2: Up n at 'em quite early today. Weight lifting with abs, shoulders, and triceps and then out the door with Traysen. Amazingly, the ole legs are still trashed from Tuesday!!! Maybe it was the downhill on Barr? Anyhow, we slogged through a 9 miler and then off to work.
Friday; June 3: This was an appreciation run. After weight lifting (chest, back, abs), I was really wanting to venture outside for a run (the gym/treadmill area was a sauna). Being in downtown Indy, IN the options were going to be limited but sometimes these downtown areas have paved trails nearby, often along a river. The nice fella at the front desk said to go out 'that' door, turn right, go three blocks, past the museums and turn right; the canal trail is right there. Sounds easy enough, right? No museums, no canal, no trail....just concrete side walk with several stops n starts to cross streets. I did find the Lilly (big drug company) complex and was able to run laps there without stopping and without getting mowed down by a motorized maniac on a cell phone. A couple of laps around the Lucas Oil Stadium parking lot and it was back to the sauna treadmill to round out the day at about 11 miles. Luckily, there was some opportunities to do some intervals around the Lilly complex and those went quite well.
I say this was an appreciation run because when forced to endure the chaos of a city, I truly appreciate our beautiful, quiet, peaceful, natural trails of Colorado. We are really blessed to live in such a perfect place.
Lilly complex; actually quite a few blocks worth of buildings, lots, etc. Being about 75 degrees and almost humid, that fountain almost had a visitor!
The Indy Colts know how to build a stadium; this thing is huge!!!
Ahhh, now this is a running paradise; Garden of the Gods with Pikes Peak in the background. Easy to appreciate.
Saturday; June 4: Still in Indy this morning and it was an early start on the treadmill. A good warm up of 3 miles and then it was 5x 3/10s of a mile intervals with a 2/10s recovery. These went well and it was good to get the run done early in the day.
Sunday; June 5: Spending the night in Salt Lake, it was a sleeping in morning and out the door at 7am! lazy girl! This was a good effort of 10 miles on the paved (yuck) roads. As the run progressed, the day was heating up and it was good to start getting used to the warmer temps and bright/blinding sun. This was also a bugs n breakfast run......the area is in the flat marshes just west of the airport and as such it is covered in grasses, water holes with lots of bugs and birds. So, while running here I usually ingest a few bugs along the way and of course, one or two has to zing the eyes. How do they aim so well as to hit the eyes?
Running along the roads near I-80 and near the hotel, the views of the marshes with mountains in the background are great.
Summary: Not a bad week of running....a good run on Pikes Peak, two weight lifting sessions, and one good interval session. Even though the 30 miler didn't happen, the ole head was able to slog through some runs with some very sore legs after the Pikes Peak/Barr Trail run. As I have mentioned many times, running these high mileage weeks if often at least as much mental conditioning as well as physical conditioning.
Total Miles for the week: 72.0.
As I was running on Sunday morning, I was thinking of a running friend who is training for Leadville 100. He has a family, a full time job and lives out in the flats of Parker, CO. He is also a high mileage psycho AND he is also fast! (ran a 24:00 hour Leadville last year and a sub 3:00 hour marathon) He too finds it difficult to juggle the mileage (and get the quality miles in), family and work. Hopefully over time he can come to terms with doing the best he can given the wonderful life he leads (Yes, he realizes he has a wonderful life but he also expects to be able to get the training in to run a high quality race time.) I often have to remind myself of this fact.....I am a pilot, not a paid, professional runner and as such my running is limited by work and my family always comes first. (Luckily, they (husband/dogs/parents )realize that I need to run to be worthy of being around and they allow me the time). I also have to remind myself that to run well, I cannot dog train/show, go to grad school (and make As), keep a big house clean, volunteer at races, work, take care of 4 dogs and one wonderful husband.....it is a matter of putting what is important in the forefront for now. For my friend, running Leadville 100 is most likely on his front burner and it takes a serious commitment to train properly for that race. No doubt he will do what it takes to get the proper training in and succeed in his goal of a sub 20 hour Leadville 100. Personally, Leadville 50 is on my front burner.
So, the point of all of this: We sometimes have to remind ourselves of our own personal reality and then remind ourselves of what we can do with that reality. Also, we often have to remind ourselves of our personal and immediate goals and make adjustments to our lives in order to meet these goals.
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