Go slow to go fast.

Easy, slow run around south west boulder, up lehigh st, up shanahan ridge trails in 8 inches of powder for a mile out and back.

6.25 miles - 1:03:31 - 515' vertical 

Accidentally slept in and missed meeting Jason S. at 6:30 for our weekly Green mtn. jaunt.  So I decided to run up the reverse way up Bear Canyon.  Just over half way up bear canyon I met Jason and decided to cruise back down with him.  Ran back around mesa to the gregory trailhead, and then back home down baseline and up broadway. Finally started feeling warmed up and ready to run in the last few miles...kind of sluggish before that.

11 Miles -  1:57:29 - 1800' vertical

Kind of not into running at sunrise in 10 degree weather for the 3rd morning in a row, so I waited to run until the afternoon.

Really sunny, even though it was 26 degrees, it felt nice out.

6 miles - 46:53 - 7:49 avg - 800' vertical - HR: avg 136

Between easy to very light side of moderate pace.  Ran up table mesa to NCAR and back on the roads.  I was pleased with how low my HR was going up the hill and down for the pace I was holding.  

Really good speed work track session with Schlarb this morning.

It was balmy outside at about 30 degrees this am, compared to the 10 degrees the past few days.  But the trails and paths and outdoor tracks are are still snow and cruddy.  Fortunately, Jason has access to an indoor 200m track which came in really handy this morning.

After an abnormally long warmup we got going and did 8 X 600 Meters, w/400 meter jog between.  Then finished with 4 X 200 Meters with 400 meter jog.

Splits for the 600's:  1:59, 1:59, 2:00, 2:01, 2:02, 1:59, 1:59, 1:47

Did all 4 of the 200 Meters right at 30.5 seconds.

Jason was hitting 1:52's consistently on the 600's.  I commented that I thought it was odd that my HR up through the 7th 600 was never getting into the 170's, while in the 5K last week I averaged 172 for 18 minutes, meaning, much of the time in the race it was 175-180.  So I decided to stay with him on the last interval and was surprised by having a lot left in the tank even on the last lap and finished 2 seconds faster than Jason, and 12 seconds faster than any other split.  My HR capped out at 176 on that interval, compared to 169 on the hardest of the others.  

I'm sure I could not have done sub 150's for 8 of those in a row, at least for sure without WAY overexerting myself...but I'm wondering if I was taking it too easy at 1:59 - 2:00 pace at first.  I guess it doesn't really matter that much since I'm training for longer stuff mainly.  And I think I should err on the side of slower out of concern for not over-doing it and injuring myself and keeping it enjoyable.  But it made me wonder. 

Ran the track intervals in my five fingers and enjoyed the feeling of being right on the ground.  I haven't run in them as much lately with all the snow and trails, and it feels good to get everything working hard, including the feet. 

14 miles for the morning - 1:59 running time. - mostly flat - ~300' total incline during warmup and cool down.

Easy, sunny, shorts/t-shirt run up to NCAR and back on the road.  Same run as Wednesday.  Couldn't resist doing it again, its a really nice run for a road run.  Very scenic and peaceful, no traffic, wide running path the whole way, and a solid amount of vertical, but not too steep to make it difficult or slow.   Did it slower today, really casual pace up and down.

6 miles - 54:18 - 9:03 avg - 800' vert - HR: 130 avg

Kind of a blah feeling to end my biggest mileage week ever.

I was looking forward to a fun long run incorporating the mesa trail and flatirons vista this morning...but from the moment I woke up I felt off.  I finally got out the door at 7:30 instead of 7:00, noticeably not motivated.  Kind of weird.

And I just felt slow.  I couldn't find the motivation to push my heart rate even higher than 120 for any sustained periods for the first hour.  Seriously weird.  I didn't feel labored or anything, I just felt tired, and off, and not motivated.  Nan thinks it was because I got 5 hours of sleep Thursday night.  Perhaps so.  Perhaps it is just that combined with a big workout Thursday.  I don't know...its probably just one of those days, and I just need to take it easy for a day or two.

But anyway, by the time I got to mile 15 at the bottom of Dowdy Draw, while I was enjoying myself and feeling fine, I didn't have any desire or motivation to run the 1000' ascent up the Mesa trail on icy/muddy trails like I normally would have.  So I went down the road on Eldorado canyon and back home on Marshall.  Capping off exactly 20 miles at my doorstep in a pathetically slow 3:10:00 even.  9:30/mile average??  with only 1300' of total climbing.  Yeah...I was definitely dragging.  And my groin started to feel some twinges toward the end, I've noticed some knots building up in my right groin area that I need to have Richey target on Monday with some ART (not really looking forward to that, but it should be done).

And accentuating my slowness, I got home to find out that Nan ran 18 miles in under 2 hours...6:41 avg pace!  And I'm truthfully very glad it was me that was feeling off today and not her, because she's got the Houston Half coming up in 2 weeks, and it's awesome to see her so fit and ready to rock it there.  She's on track for some major butt kicking there from the looks of things.

 So, while I was planning to do 2500-3000' of climbing and go out and rock a solid 20-22 miles, I settled for a more plain version of 20 miles.  Some days its there, some days its not.  No big deal.  I still enjoyed the run.  Met a couple of the assistant RD's for the san juan solstice and chatted for a while on marshall mesa.  And got 3 hours of good education as I was listening to 'Parenting with Love and Logic' the entire time.  It has been 3 years since I first read that and I noticed my parenting effectiveness slipping.  The principles in that book work wonders if applied properly I've found.

For the week I ended up with:

63.25 miles - 9:51:11 - 5500' vertical - HR 133 avg