Closing Out the Year

Running-wise, the last two weeks of 2011 had their ups and downs. The ups...some very nice runs. The downs...helping Santa unload a table tennis table and tweaking my back. He better get his truck lift fixed before he tries to deliver something heavy again here at Chez Jim P.!

The highlights:

Fairview High School Track - Boulder - hit this track late afternoon on December 20th before heading out to dinner with a good friend. Arrived feeling flat, not sure what I wanted to do. Thought about mile repeats and 800s. Problem was I felt tired, and miles seemed too long and 800s seems just a little less so. Settled on 8x400.  Ran them all fairly strong, but started seeing stars at the end of the last few. Still, ran 'em all at a consistent pace (75, 75, 76, 76, 75, 75, 75, 74), which is something like a 5:00 pace.

This run was followed by some really, really good food at Pizzeria Locale on Pearl Street. Highly recommend this joint.

Bergen Peak - Evergreen - the annual Adamowski Christmas Eve run actually took place on Christmas Eve this year. Once again, a large group of runners from across the Evergreen area and beyond met up Saturday morning for a variety of local runs. Groups split up based on time/speed/interest. The nearly three feet of snow we got a few days prior made this an interesting run. I joined up with a group of eight heading up Bergen Peak. By turn-off for the Bergen Peak trail, we were down to six people off the front, with a pair of snowshoers leading the way, including Travis M. and Jason P. (let the Hardrock training begin!), as well as a few other locals. 

Mid-way up the mountain the deep snow was taking its toll and I was starting to think snowshoes would have been the way to go. Meanwhile, the snowshoers and Jason were a couple minutes ahead and out of sight. After gaining the upper ridge and running along a bit, I saw the snowshoe tracks heading left directly up Bergen's flank. I opted to stay on the barely tracked trail and slogged my way to the overlook near the summit. I saw some snowshoe tracks there, but no people. I finished things up by making first-tracks over to the summit sign at the true summit. 

After tagging the sign, I retraced my steps back down the mountain and ran straight home to jump into family stuff. Fortunately, our plans for the day weren't too vigorous because the slog through all the snow up Bergen Peak wasted me. 

Beyond those two memorable (for me, at least) runs, it's been a series of road and treadmill runs here in Evergreen and from my dad's place in Kansas. 

Looking forward to staying healthy and working hard in 2012 in the build-up to the Leadville 100 in August.