I'm retired from racing. Really.

Am 8

Lunch 10 in a drizzle plus BUBW

Am- BW with Dan. Ran on GE track, 3 x 2 miles (well, 2.05 or so is 3 laps of the track). Times were 11:51, 11:39, 11:19. Going for memory. 16 miles total.  Definitely fastest miles on a workout in a long time, 5:48 to 5:40 avg.

Lunch- 7 of us went very slow for 6 miles.

AM- Had to be at work at 5 am, so finally got out for one run at 9 am.  Calves were very sore from yesterday and I'm tired from running and not sleeping, so I wanted to run as far as felt good then xt.  Ended up running 7 miles, then biked for a while.  Running was bearable only because of the Hokas.  Those things are a miracle on sore and recovery days.

Am- planned 10-12, ended up with 14 ez. Felt very good.

Lunch- 8 miles with the guys. Just a high mileage, easy recovery day.

Lunch- slept 8 hrs last night, it was heavenly.  Ran with a group of 5 at lunch around Shannon Lake (couldn't do Oak Grove lake cause the tunnel under the freeway was closed due to a fatal accident- scary).  8 easy miles.  BUBW.

Doing a nutso trail run as training for Barkley tomorrow.  Probably 5 hrs and as much vert and nasty trail as I can find.  It's supposed to be below freezing and rainy/snowing.  Like I said, Barkley training. 

AM- Pretty epic trail run today.  I was gone for over 8 hrs.  Goal for today was 20+ miles with as much vert as possible as Barkley training.  I normally don't like Jones Gap as it's too steep and technical, so it fit the bill for today.  Picked up Justin and he modified the plan by starting at Oil Camp Creek.  Temps were about 38 and none of the rain/snow predicted to start at 6 am- looks like the weather would be great.  We ran up .5 mile to Pinnacle Pass trail and ran up and over it (plus up and over and up and over- lots of ups), then very steep down to Jones Gap.  Then we ran up the steep Hospital Rock trail, climbing 1700 ft in less than 3 miles, half in one mile.  We then ran along Cleveland Connector.  It started snowing a bit at this point and we were excited- the most snow we had seen in a two years.  Little did we know that it would change from a touch of snow to huge flakes that quickly accumulated, just as we descended the most technical trail of the day (including several roped sections) to Rainbow Falls.  This 2 mile section dropped over 1600 ft and was quite interesting with tons of snow-covered rocks.  By the time we reached Jones Gap trailhead 40 minutes later, about 2 inches of snow had accumulated.  We decided that running back up Pinnacle or Rim of the Gap trail would be crazy, as they have some exposed, off-camber portions that are bad enough when dry, much less when snowy/icy, so decided to run the 4 miles back to the car.  It ends up the park was closed, too, due to the trecherous conditions.  We ended up hitch hiking with a guy in a gator, so I had a fun (cold) ride back.  The total run ended up at 16.5 miles (Ambit- 15.2, Garmin- 16.4, Sporttracks- 16.5) and about 4300 ft climbing (Garmin put it at 5600 ft) with 4.5 hrs running time and just under 5 hrs total time.  Didn't get my 20 miles, though.

Stopped by the store on the way home to buy some wool gloves for Barkley, as I was reminded today that fleece gloves are cold when wet!  Then played and went sledding in the snow with my kids!  Here's a few pictures of the adventure:

Some of the off-camber exposed rock to cross.  Weather looked very nice. 

Nice vista from Pinnacle Pass 

We would drop down to the left and ascend the ridge across the valley 

Just starting to snow- can hardly see it 

Descending the snow-covered-rocks with rope assist 

Rainbow Falls visible in the background 

 Snow everywhere