Go slow to go fast.

A muscle in my foot started feeling constricted and tight in the first mile this morning, and my hands were slightly chilled without gloves.

So I took my shoes off, and put my socks and shoes on my hands.

Presto, foot and hands felt better instantly!

Then I ran over to Fairview and did a couple miles around the track so I didn't have to hold my shoes on my hands the whole time.

So glad its spring so I can ditch the shoes more often.  It feels so good to run bare foot.

The best though, was as I was running home, a 75+ year old lady out for her walk saw me with my shoes on hands and bare feet trotting down the sidewalk and instantly started laughing hysterically.  It was awesome.  Most people just give you weird looks and look at you like you're an idiot or crazy or something.  This lady just laughed hysterically, and kept on laughing as I ran past.  I'm glad I made her day.  And she nearly made mine, although the barefoot freedom topped her reaction just slightly.

Solid workout with Nan and the RRB group this morning.

Started with 2.5 minutes steady uphill and 2.5 steady back down.

Then we did 4 X 2.5 min steady rolly terrain. - 90 sec rest.

Then 2 min hard up hill and 2 min hard back down.

Then 4 X 90 Seconds hard - 60 sec rest 

The paces varied based on going up and down hill.  But I averaged exactly 5:30/mile for the 4.6 miles of speed intervals.  So I feel pretty good about where I am fitness-wise.

My current goal is to do a sub 17 minute 5K on April 30th.  The pace I need to hit is 5:28/mile to do a 16:59.  So I've got my work cut out for me.  But I'm pretty confident that I can get there with 6 weeks of focused workouts based on where I am currently.  I think if I can do 5 to 6 one mile repeats in 5:20 pace or below on the track, then I should be able to hit my goal.  Last time I did 4 x mile my splits were 5:33, 5:36, 5:26, 5:36 - but that was a couple months ago now.  I think I can get those down to the 5:20 mark within another 4 weeks or so. 

5 miles really easy - ~50 min.  440' vert.  Glad the 50 mph wind from yesterday was not there this morning.  Gorgeous spring morning.

I got lost in some of the Shanahan cow fields trying out a new trail that ended and I bushwacked for half mile to get back to the road.  Slow going.

Did pushups, pullups, and 15 minutes of core exercise after.  That has become my mon/wed/fri routine.  Easy run with core work.  It's feeling good. 

Nice run up Flagstaff from EGF park on canyon road in Boulder with Schlarb and Levi.

It was my first sustained uphill run since Moab over a month ago and I was quickly shown that I had lost something there, as Jason and Levi casually, chatting the whole way bounced up the mountain while I huffed and puffed and lost them half way up.  

I definitely lost some uphill fitness.  But that's OK, it will come back as I ramp back into it this month.  My flat speed I haven't lost at all, which is nice.  Also, I those two guys are crazy fit and so I can't really even judge whether I lost anything when running with them up hill because I'm not even in their league...especially if they were trying.  We're going to start hitting weekly green mtn. ascents soon again and Jason will beat me up that thing by 7 or 8 minutes or more when he's trying.

After getting down, I ran back up 1.5 miles and back down again because I had some more time to kill. 

11 Miles - 1:53 - 10:15 pace - 2700' vertical

Looking at the profile of Flagstaff from that side, it was 1531' vertical over 2.73 miles.  560' per mile or about 10.5% avg grade.  Which is a really nice grade in my opinion.  I really enjoy that grade.  I can keep up a pace that is much more 'run' like than the 1000' per mile stuff, but still get pretty solid vertical.

Easy run up Skunk Canyon and back

5.35 miles - 47:48 - 8:58 avg - 800' vert 

Pretty epic point to point run this afternoon.  I'll post pics and more later...but I just went out running for 15 miles planned on an out and back, but couldn't resist the urge to explore a new peak I had never been too once I got out there.  Don't even know what peak it was, but it was at 8350' and 11 miles away from my house.  I descended the other side of the peak and called Nan half way down to come pick me up since I was now 20+ miles away from home and didn't want to run all the way home into the evening so much.

In the morning I rode my bike for about 20 miles, the last half of which was supporting Nan on her 20 mile long run. 

15.3 Miles - 2:48:00 - 10:59 avg - 4050' ascent - 3000' descent

 Weekly Summary:  50.85 Miles - 8 hrs 18 min - 8500' vertical.