The Week that Was - January 1 - 7, 2012

Ah yes...a new year. The time when many make new resolutions, big plans and look back to take stock of the year that just ended. I am definitely a big fan of that stuff. Thus, my resolution is to make some big plans as soon as I finish reviewing 2011.

Until then, I'll try to keep up the daily ultramarathon of work, family, running and volunteering.

So, the week that was:

Monday: Steady - 10.38 miles; 1:38; 1,105 feet o' elevation gain - Hiwan - the Ridge - Kittredge. Met up at DW's house and ran through two local 'hoods and snuck over to the dirt road that leads down into Kittredge. Ran down to Bear Creek, east down Bear Creek Canyon. Climbed back up via Kerr Gulch. Took the upper sneak back into the Ridge and retraced our steps to DW's house.

Tuesday: Tempo - 8:59 miles; 1:16; 384 feet o' elevation gain - Upper Bear Creek Road.  Met up w/ Steve F. for this one. Two mile w/u jog up the road, then two miles of uphill tempo (6:31; 6:20). Actually, I did about 2.25 miles of tempo because I missed the prominent mile marker post. Turned around and did a mile easy, then two more miles of tempo (5:56; 5:55). One mile c/d.


Wednesday:  Climbing - 5:12 miles; 1:06; 1,513 feet o' elevation gain - Flagstaff Mountain. Started late afternoon from Eben G. Fine and climbed up the trail to the sign that marks the loop atop of the mountain in 33:24. Trail conditions were decent, with constantly changing mix of snow, ice and dirt. Most of the descent was in the dark. Naturally, I had no light. Took me 32:50 to get down (a whopping 34 seconds faster than the ascent).


Thursday:  Easy w/ hill fartleks - 9:23 miles; 1:18; 1,279 feet o' elevation gain - Ran a slightly abbreviated version of my 10-mile loop through the Soda Creek subdivision. Got in an extra mile on the bike path around Bergen Park. Toward the end of the loop my right knee started hurting - a very noticeable ache on the outside. Walked the last quarter mile.


Friday:  1 mile; 8 minutes - treadmill, Buchanan Rec Center. 6-7 miles was the plan, but my right knee objected. After some tense negotiations, I relented and headed to the weights. One and a half sets of squats was about all the knee would allow, so I scrapped that too and setting for a series of core exercises on the soft floor around the climbing wall where jP and CP were climbing. Frustrating, but was able to watch a lot more of the kids rock climbing that I would have otherwise.


Saturday: 23.25 miles ; 3:32; 2,137 feet o' elevation gain - Hooked up with CB for some early morning jogging. Started at the dirt parking lot at the Morrison exit of C-470. We headed north to Green Mountain running on the bike path along C-470, noting that the mountain ahead looked tantalizingly free of snow. As we drew even with the mountain, we called an audible and hung a right and did a loop around the southeast side of the mountain. We continued along to the snowier/icier north side before climbing steeply up to the signal towers (after I made a rather unglamorous butt slide down a steep, icy section of trail). We descended the west side of the mountain and ran the C-470 bike path back to the cars. I bid CB adieu (family commitments) and headed out for a nine-mile bike path/road loop through Bear Creek Lake park. My knee felt a little twingy now and then, but held up fine.

Lakewood's Green Mountain in the distance. From near Mt. Carbon. 

Road down from the Bear Creek Lake dam, looking southwest.

Total:  67.49 miles; just shy of 10 hours; 7,253 feet o' elevation gain. Overall a very solid week. The knee issue that cropped up Thursday, and forced the day off on Friday was frustrating, but seems to be manageable (as it held up OK on Saturday's long run). Fingers crossed that it was a fleeting protestation.

On Sunday I sweated my way through my second-ever yoga class with JP. I sweated so much over the hour-long class that my fingers were pruned and I regularly found myself laying in my mat's very own private sweat pond. I feel like these sessions are great for long-run recovery. I felt so much better post yoga work-out than before. Hope to make these a somewhat weekly affair. After the class, I went home and read the NYTimes Magazine article on the injury risks of yoga. Good reminder to take it easy.