Summit junkie!

4 in the hood. No big woop. 

View Benchmark with Jun:

Perfect day for a run. I met Jun at Ann's trail and we had a very fun run up to View Benchmark. Jun had a pretty good pace all the way up and I just tried to stay with him. The sun was out and we enjoyed chatting most of the way up. We took a new route to the top that I really enjoyed. We hit the summit in 44:40 which is a new PR for me on this route. 

We spent a few minutes on top checking out some mountaineering routes on Timp that we will hopefully get on this spring and then we cruised back down. We picked up the pace on the descent and it seemed like each mile was a little faster. The last few miles we had a fun cruise at a fast pace back to the cars. It was awesome out there on the trails today.

PM- I hit the gym to lift for 45 minutes.

View Benchmark solo:

I had another incredible run on VB today via Ann's trail. There is a reason why I have been hitting this route so much lately. Actually more than one reason. First of all it is awesome. Second, it is close to my house and near the area where I have been working lately, so I can do a fun mountain run without taking up much extra time traveling. I have not even come close to getting tired of these trails. Today I only saw two other people the whole day and the trails are in excellent shape. 

My hammy was a bit tight today, so I didn't push it quite as much as I did yesterday. I just put on some happy tunes and had a nice cruise to the top. It was warm again today, but a little breezy and when I got close to the top it cooled off a lot, but I never got chilled at all. I reached the summit in 48 min, which was 4 minutes slower than yesterday, but it was still a good effort.

The run down was fun. I stopped at the benches to dump some rocks out of my shoes and stretch the hammy, but otherwise I had a nice cruise all the way back to the car.

PM- Weights at the gym for an hour.

Spin class with the ladies + one older dude in super tight biker shorts. Hot. Maybe I need to invest in some of those. Tons O' sweat again today. 

With the crappy weather I hit the track at the gym. I ran a mile with my friend Nate and then he hit the weights. I got into a really good groove and was running 7:00-7:30 pace for most of the run. It feels easy not running up a hill. 

I didn't have much time to run today, so when I found an extra 30 minutes I ran 4 in my hood. AP: 8:15. I ran down to the Apline Hwy and just turned around at 2 miles. There was a headwind on the way back, but the run still felt easy. I enjoyed it. 

7.1 solo around the hood:

The weather had been strange all morning. We had sunshine, rain, wind and clouds. I knew that the trails would be muddy, so I figured I would run my standard Alpine Hwy route. There looked to be a small break in the weather, so I grabbed my gear and ran out the door. As soon as I turned north on the Alpine Hwy the wind blasted me and I battled it for the next 2.5 miles. I took a slight detour in Highland to a park to use the bathroom, but it was locked. Dang!

At Kohlers I turned left (west) and I noticed that the wind wasn't as bad, but it started to rain a little bit. The next mile the rain went from a sprinkle to a downpour. Oh well, I was having fun anyway... ummm I was until I turned on 6000 W. (south) and noticed my tummy doing back flips. Ahhh man! The next few miles back home were horrible. I needed a POP. I was getting soaked and my glasses were fogging, but the tummy distress was the only thing bothering me. I picked up my pace a lot and was running in the 6's. I barely made it home. There were a few scary minutes there. Haha.Whew! I still had a blast out there even though some of it was crappy.