Go slow to go fast.

Nan posted a really nice report here of her race at the Cross Country Club Nationals last weekend.

Was going to head to the track this morning...but Bryce's post knocked some sense into me and made me realize it would be a LOT more fun to do a fast run through the hills on the trails than running in circles on a flat track.   It was a good decision...it was fun to run those trails fast for a change.

I decided to do the exact same loop as I had done yesterday and see how much faster I could do it.  Yesterday I was purposely going really slow, and I thoroughly enjoyed the leisurely pace.

Today I did the same seven mile loop in about 28 minutes faster.  Whoa!  I must have either been pathetically slow yesterday (yes), or really fast today (by my own standards, yes, not by many others I'm sure).  I did cut out 60 feet of vertical today though by bypassing one hill by the cemetary.  That would have added a minute or so to the time I bet.

I did the 7 mile loop today in 51:10 - 7:19/mile avg - 1025' vertical - 162 HR avg  - I felt really strong, and feel pretty dang good about that effort, since that is faster than I usually run a flat 7 miles.  But I was definitely pushing hard from about mile 1.5 on.

Yesterday my time was 1:19 - about 11:17 avg/mile with 1085' vertical.

Here's the profile of the course, its a pretty nice little course with a 1 mile flat warmup to the trail, then up for 2 miles, and mostly down for the rest with a couple minor hills toward the end.  I ran up skunk canyon, across the mesa trail, and down McClintock trail.

Did 2.5 miles afterward to cool down bringing the total for the day to 9.5 miles and 1150' vertical.

I think I'll do easy running the rest of the week to save some energy for Chubby Cheeks this weekend.

Nick C really knows how to throw down a cool get together.  Thanks a ton Nick for planning/hosting that run today.  I had a really great time cruising the trails out your doorstep.  Such awesome and plentiful miles of singletrack...stunning views, really cool day!  And what kind of magic trick did you pull to prepare such amazing Dec. 18th trail running weather?  And thank your sweet wife from me for allowing her home to be ransacked by a horde of stinky runners.  Really great running and hanging with you and everyone else today.

Here's the re-cap from today's Chubby cheeks 50K:  A perfect day of running amazing trails with a bunch of cool people.

I didn't end up doing the whole 50K because I was a bad navigator.  I picked up Tim and intended to get us up there for the 8:00 am start, but we missed a turn and didn't get to Nick's house until 8:20 so we ended up starting with the 9:00 am group.  We opted for the 'marathon' route instead so as not to arrive back when everyone was heading home...I was fine with that actually, because 25 miles would be sufficiently fun.

The 9 am start group was Tim and I, along with Dakota, Scott J, and Justin.  Also, some other locals from FoCo, Nick, John, Kyle, and one more dude I can't remember.

It was fun running up to Horsetooth Rock with all those guys.  Of course Dakota was taking it easy, but also of course, after a few miles and about 1200 feet of vertical, his easy pace was becoming a little too hot for me, so Tim and I backed off and let Dakota, Scott, and Justin get ahead to the first summit.   I was happy to ease off into a slightly more sustainable pace for me for the rest of the day.

And since I'm now wanting to end this post already and hang out with my wife, here are some highlights of the day:

• Meeting cool new people and hanging out with them and other cool people I already knew.
• Running amazing single track and feeling really strong for close to 5 hours of running
• Having good company to run with and enjoy the day with for a majority of the time
• Outrunning Tim on a couple of the climbs - (I have to really soak in the glory of that since it will probably never happen again because he is barely starting to run again after a month off and probably wasn't even trying.  But hey, that dude hangs out on web pages of his sponsor with the likes of Dwayne Wade...so you have to feel totally cool if you're ever running faster than him up a hill...even if he does end up beating you by 3 minutes at the end of the day!)
• That Maple Bar afterwards...still enjoying that one now just thinking about it.  Donuts taste better post 5 hour runs for some strange reason.
• Feeling really good and solid after the run...no aches or pains, a nice cap to another great week of running.
• My incredibly cute kids and wife smothering me with hugs and kisses when I came in the door after a day out and about...so grateful for them more than anything in my life.
• Winning a pearl izumi hat for having the largest rear end....or at least being only 1 of 2 eager beaver enough for a free hat to enter the contest...whatever works!  Thanks to the judges for judging my butt the largest.
• The drive to and fro with Tim, great conversation and company...immensely more enjoyable than driving solo...thanks for going Tim.

Stats for the day:

• 24.5 Miles - (Four of us accidentally cut the marathon course by a couple miles, then I inadvertently added .5 on toward the end)
• 4:47:22 - 11:51 avg - including tons of time stopped chatting on peaks, waiting on peaks, other random stops at junctions chatting etc.  It was a pretty low key run, just enjoying the day.
• 5865' Vertical (according to sport tracks)
• avg HR 143
• 58 miles for the week with 9100' vertical.

The 9 am wave courtesy of Nick Clark, Me, Dakota, John, Justin M, Scott J, highschooler, Tim long, Kyle - from left to right.  Can't remember who the two at far left were.