Go slow to go fast.

Nice and easy cruise around the neighborhood in the evening.

Listening to a new Album by Arcade Fire: suburbs.  Decent stuff, not sure how much I like it yet, it will take me a couple listens to decide.  Not bad though...and 3.99 for an entire album is hard to beat (as long as it doesn't totally stink I guess) 

 Was planning to just run an easy cruiser on some trails this afternoon with a friend Rob.  We warmed up together for 2.5 miles, but then he needed to slow down for a bit, so I decided to go ahead and do an out and back section to the top of goshawk ridge and had a chance to chat with Rob more.  It was nice to kill two birds with one stone, talking some business a bit in addition to getting a nice trail run in.  I guess most 'business people' go golfing for their business meetings...I like the trail a lot better.  (Rob's a colleague real estate investor who I do deals with sometimes)

Then it turned into a tougher run than I planned.  Because the out and back section was a mile out and a mile back.  So to try to catch back up to him was going to take some serious effort.  I put it into higher gear as soon as I left him.  And it took me 5 miles of running to catch back up.  He did  just over 3 miles before I was able to catch him.  I was pushing pretty hard to catch back up to him, but it felt good to get a tempo workout in the middle.  Then the last 2.5 it felt great to cruise in the last section of rolly and then down hill back to the cars and catch up with Rob. 

These were my stats for the middle 5 miles - 42 minutes - 8:24/mile pace - 5 miles - 750 Feet ascent/descent.  (Looking back at monday it took me about 45:30 - 9:06/mile pace to run that section)

 It was basically 2.5 miles up to the top of a ridge gaining about 300 feet/mile.  Really fun quick pace runnable trail, but pretty hot out.  Then 2 miles down hill, with about a .5-.75 uphill grind at the end which is where I finally caught Rob at the top of.

Super fun run, felt great, glad I was able to squeeze a run in with good company this afternoon since it wasn't happening during my morning service duty hours (On the home stretch...just 9 more service days til I relinquish my service master title.) 

total today: 10.2 miles - 1:33:54 - 9:13/mile avg. 1100 Feet ascent

Well...its Leadville 100 cram time...starting today.  This week I think I'll be mostly a mt. biker.  Then back to running next week.  I need to get at least some semblance of some biking legs before saturday...we'll see how that goes.

I did 30 awesome single track trail miles today in the Buffalo Creek Area by Pine, CO.  It felt great.  Wasn't really hard at all actually, so I think Leadville is going to be fun.

I definitely don't have a very strong biking legs right now though, so I'll be taking it pretty easy next saturday.  It takes a lot more than 300 miles over a 6 month period to actually be strong on a bike.  But my fitness is good, and the mountain running has definitely helped.  Its just not the same though.

Todays ride was 3:28 - 30 miles - 3400 Feet ascent/descent.  Probably about 3:10 of riding time.  We were taking it pretty easy, stopping at the top of the climbs to eat, and swap bikes, and stuff.  

The area down there is absolutely phenomenal for fast cross country non-technical riding.  It's got some nice climbs, but nothing too steep, and really, really awesome 5-7 mile down hills of superb, smooth single track.  It is exactly the type of mountain biking I really prefer.  I'm not a huge fan of ultra technical mt. biking...its fun, but I like the smooth faster stuff better.