Go slow to go fast.

Easy, virtually flat run - 8:40 pace - 5 miles - 200'

Did Green Mtn via Amphitheater/Saddle/Greenman with Schlarb.  We're on the same routine as far as our hill days/speed days/long days so its been cool to be able to head out a few times in the past week, and we'll probably keep the Tues/Thursday workouts going and increase the group that joins as time goes on.  Its fun to run with Jason, and motivating because he is an incredible runner.

PR'd the ascent even though I power hiked most of it and had no intention of trying to PR.  I guess power hiking the steep stuff is indeed more efficient. 

39:35 for the ascent.  Jason did it in high 33's today for his first time up that route.  To give you perspective, Tony K's PR up that route is just under 31, so 33 anything is pretty dang fast.

Cruised really easy down Bear canyon.  Another gorgeous morning in Boulder...(starting to sound like a broke record I know...and it looks like December might pass entirely without any snow on the trails...odd.)

8.5 miles - 1:43:30 - 2900' vertical. 

Really Easy 6.5 miles - 1:07 - 1050' vertical

Went up bear canyon, across to shanahan trail to the south via about 3/4 mile of following deer trail or no trail through a cool tall grass slope below the mesa trail ridge.  Came down some unnamed trail through a valley north of the shanahan trail.  Ran in my old inov-8 roclites out of curiosity and decided those are probably going to be retired at this point.  They were good while they lasted, but I don't like running in them as much as I do in the mt101's.  

Speed workout on the wonderland trail with Jason. and Marcus.

Debated yesterday on whether to do a hard workout today because I was feeling a bit off, but after some ART in the afternoon I woke up feeling really good so I went for it.

That first 2 minute hard interval was a huge slap in the face/welcome to reality though...felt a lot longer than 2 minutes.  Then beyond that I was all over the map on the intervals...mostly though I was hammering the down hill intervals and sucking wind on the up hill intervals.

It felt good to do the workout, I think regardless of pace, it tends to feel good to push yourself.  Even though I was all over the map, I enjoyed the feeling of finishing off with 3 really fast 30 second intervals to make me feel faster than I really am.  

Here are my pace splits with elevation change below for the 7 X 2 minute intervals:

5:49, 4:49, 5:46, 6:19, 5:05, 5:35, 5:16

+35,  -89,   +4,   +45,  -48,   21,  -4

 Pace splits for the 3 X 30 seconds:

 4:09, 3:57, 4:15 

-12,  -10,  0 - flat 

I had no business out running Jason on the 2nd interval, but it was down hill so it felt good to open it up...but it came back to bite me on the next 2 intervals where I felt pretty flat and weak.  I got back to feeling better again once we started going back down hill on the 5th.  He still killed me on all of them but the 2nd.  Except we stayed stride for stride on the 30 second intervals.  

Snow started dumping within 30-40 minutes of finishing the workout...it's finally winter here in Colorado. (at least for a day or two) 

9 miles - 1:09 - 7:40 avg - 550' vert -  HR: 142 avg - 174 max

I feel really fortunate to be able to run so consistently lately, to have fast friends to run with, and great weather and trails, and to have an incredible ART therapist who works out my minor issues before they can escalate into problems..  I'm excited about 2011.  I will start off the year in better running shape than I have ever been.  I hope to remain injury free so I can keep running every day and enjoy a bunch of cool runs throughout the year.

It finally snowed in Boulder! And I found a great use for my inov-8 roclites this morning.  I put about 10 screws in the bottom of each of them, since they are my only shoes that actually have thick enough soles to be able to do that without the screw poking through the insole.  It worked out pretty nicely to have the extra traction on the icy snowy sidewalks and trails this morning.

I ran around the NCAR hill via skunk canyon up, across mesa, and down bear.  I had fresh tracks all the way up Skunk canyon and across mesa all the way to NCAR in about 6 inches of fluffy powder.  It was a really cool change of scenery and pace on the trails.  Skunk canyon was especially cool with a bunch of deer just hanging out throughout the canyon.  Then coming down bear canyon road it was deeper, about 8-10 inches.  And that was really fun, because its just a steep, smooth, gravel road, so felt like I was just floating down it in the mid 6's for a mile and a half as a I passed a few people on cross country skis going up.  

Even though it was below 10 degrees out, I hardly noticed the cold with how beautiful it was out. 

6.5 miles - 1:13 - 950' vert. 

8.5 miles - 2:01 - 2800' - running the bottom half, postholing through windrifts up the top half of Green mountain - super fun running down through the powder.

Ousted Tony K, Geoff R., AND Jurek for the glory of the First Ascent for 2011...they were good sports though...see details here.