U.S. Pro Cycling Challenge and the Week That Was

Great time today watching the pro cycling parade of color whoosh by up on Lookout Mountain in Golden. A nice capstone to a solid week of running.


It wasn't until about 10 a.m. this morning when I decided to head over to the Lookout Mountain area to catch a bit of the U.S. Pro Cycling Challenge race. I've been watching each stage on Versus (thanks to whomever invented the DVR!). Time to see some of the action up close.

I parked over at the Mt. Vernon Country Club, about 3/4 of a mile from the junction of Lookout Mountain Road and Highway 40, both on the race's route today. I ran pretty hard about 3.5 miles to the King of the Mountains arch, then another half-mile to get down into the crowds. I figured if I was going to watch the race, I should do so among the rabid throngs that line the climbs.

I wasn't disappointed. The vibe was great, the crowd seemingly vibrating with anticipation. As the racers appeared below (great view of the switchbacks below from our vantage point), the spectators limbered up. There was the guy in the gorilla suit and viking helmet, a couple of guys in the now-ubiquitous Speedos, a few guys with their chests painted, a Gumby, a banana and a whole bunch of regular folks out on a beautiful morning watching a first-rate athletic event. Good stuff.

Proof that evolution continues.

I had to tell this guy that the racers were coming from the other direction.

Much waiting for a few seconds of excitement as racers whiz by.

King of the Mountains arch, post-race.

Here's a couple of videos. The first is the leaders blowing by. The second is what was left of the main peloton.

The week that was:

Monday:  Matthew Winters/Red Rocks/Hogback - 1:19, 6.75 miles, 1,182 feet o' elevation gain. Tough day in the heat. Bonked hard.

Tuesday:  Apex Open Space - 1:20, 8.3 miles, 1,210 feet o' elevation gain. Still hot, but was fueled and carrying water. Solid climbing. Good day in the heat.

Wednesday:  Evergreen Mountain - 54 minutes, 5.68 miles, 1,052 feet o' elevation gain. Nice evening dog run. Had to use headlamp for last mile or two. Maya led the way on the climb. Perfect running temps.

Thursday:  Elk Meadow Open Space - 42 minutes 5.18 miles, 579 feet o' elevation gain. Squeezed this one in post-land trust board meeting and dinner.  Nice jog.  Followed it up with short dog park jog with Maya and Cisco.

Friday:  Off

Saturday:  Eccles Pass Loop - 3:51, 15.07 miles, 4,049 feet o' elevation gain. So great to be back in the high country running. Eager to get out into the hills again soon.

Sunday:  Lookout Mountain Road - 1:03, 7.31 miles, 671 feet o' elevation gain. Road run in the heat. Ran solid in both directions. On the out, I was driven by the desire to make sure I found a good vantage point before the riders appeared. Turned out I had plenty of time. Run back was harder (and hotter...thermometer in the truck said 87 degrees...and that's at 7,200 feet!

Totals:  49.23 miles in 9:29 with 8,854 feet o' elevation gain.

A solid re-building week. Very glad to feel like I'm getting back into things.

Weekly Roundup - May 15-21, 2011

An up and down week, to be sure. Had some high quality runs, but was hamstrung by the lingering effects of the bug I picked up last week.  


Sunday - Bergen Peak Summit:  2:12; 10.47 miles; 2,109 feet o' elevation gain. Ran to the summit of Bergen Peak from the house...up Bergen Peak, down Too Long.  A good 5-6 inches of snow up top.

Monday - South Mesa - Shanahan Loop:  1:20; 8 miles; 1,516 feet o' elevation gain.  From South Mesa Trailhead ran up Homestead and Towhee to the mouth of Shadow Canyon, traversed over to the Mesa Trail to Shanahan North Fork and closed the loop via Lower Big Bluestem and Mesa. Lots of variety in this loop: steady climbs, downhill screamers and rolling goodness.

Tuesday - Bear Creek Trail:  1:12; 7.72 miles, 1,033 feet o' elevation gain. Started from O'Fallon Park, a Denver Mountain Park, in Bear Creek Canyon. Ran up to the BCT, hung a left and cruised down to Lair o' the Bear Open Space, then turned around and retraced my steps. Maya was out on this one with me. The last couple of miles were in a cold rain. Thank goodness the run started right next to Bear Creek.  Maya, who is a mostly-white dog was now mostly dirt colored. I think she enjoyed the post-run creek bath.

Wednesday - Off:  Just couldn't get myself out into the rain/snow.

Thursday - Treadmill:  50+ minutes, 7.25 miles.  Heavy wet snow was falling most of the day. Totally unmotivated until around 5 p.m. Finally got myself out the door to the rec center. Wasn't sure what to do today on the 'mill, so I did a little of everything.  The miles went like this: 8:00; 5:42; 8:00; 6:58; 8:00; 6:00; 8:00. A veritable smorgasbord of treadmill fun.

Friday -  Centennial Cone Open Space:  2:30; 18 miles; 2,646 feet o' elevation gain. Took a good chunk of the day off work to get in a longer run since JP was going to be out of town over the weekend. Ran from the Mayhem Gulch Trailhead in Clear Creek Canyon.  This is a great, fast loop with a few modest climbs, lots of rollers and some fabulous views of the foothills and down into Clear Creek Canyon. Had a smile on my face pretty much the whole run, except for the parts where the sky spit bits of ice and water at me, but that was short-lived.

Saturday - Bergen Peak Upper Loop:  1:18; 8.21 miles, 1,733 feet o' elevation gain. Was feeling a bit tired from the previous two days' efforts. Jogged via streets to the lower lot at Elk Meadow Open Space. As soon as I hit dirt, the wind started roaring. It was blowing so hard, I turned off my iPod because I could no longer hear the music. The roar of the wind was drowning it out. I just put my head down and slogged it out, know that as soon as I hit the trees, I'd find relief.

Soon enough, I was out of the wind and enjoying my slow recovery jog pace. Then, just as I was approach the Too Long Trail turn off, I noticed a runner coming up behind me. Damn it! I don't want to be caught from behind and passed!  So, I picked it up a bit figuring I'd be alone again once I started up Too Long. Not many people run up that trail. Wrong. She turned up Too Long behind me.

I gave up my notion of a pure recovery jog and picked up the pace enough to avoid being overtaken. After about half a mile, I started feeling better. In fact, the higher I went, the better I felt.  On a couple of the long switchbacks, I could see her below running strong.  I continued on, past the Summit Trail turnoff and picked up the pace down the Bergen Peak Trail. I was feeling GREAT on the descent, just cruising through the rocks with confident foot placement and a solid pace - even passed a mountain biker who also was going down.  I enjoyed that way too much.

All-in-all, a solid week. The long run was shorter than I would have liked and the day off was unnecessary - the result of a lack of will, I guess. Still, ended up with a hair under 60 miles, 9 hours and 22 minutes of fun and 6,391 feet of ups.

A Week (or weak) in March

The plan for the week was to take it down a notch from last week's 94 miles, knowing that I'm not prepped (yet?) to handle many back-to-back 90+ mile weeks.  Stuck to that plan.  Good thing, because other than the Thursday run, I wasn't feeling very peppy.

Two days off...Sunday (planned: following the previous day's 28 miles) and Monday (unplanned: an overly busy day).  Had a couple days of solid climbing (Flagstaff and Sanitas) and a very good Thursday tempo run (Upper Bear Creek Road).  Saturday's long run was a bit of a slogfest, but got it done.

Miles for the week: 61.94
Time for the week: 9:53
Elevation gain: 8,872 feet

The early part of this week looks like fantastic weather, so I may try to up the mileage a bit and return to Upper Bear Creek Road for a Thursday tempo run.

Picked up a pair of Saucony Peregrines today. Eager to get in some easy miles in them this week. I'll definitely be easing into 'em. I think the heel drop is something like 4mm, a bit different than 10mm drop of my beloved La Sportiva Crosslites.

I also bought a new bladder for my Nathan pack - my third bladder. The first two went down due to the remarkably crappy bite valve.  The new one has a redesigned bite valve. Hoping this one is easier to use and survives at least through the summer.

Really enjoyed this recollection from GZ.

A Rare (and exciting!) Week in Review Post

I don't obsess much over keeping track of my running (no spreadsheets...no notebooks chronicling volume), so I can't say with any degree of certainty what my highest mileage week has been.  Thanks to the Garmin, which does all the math for me, I can say that this past week may well have been my highest mileage week ever.

The stats looked like this:

94.59 miles
Eight runs
14 hours and 39 minutes o' fun
12,697 feet of elevation gain

The reason for the uncommonly high mileage (for me) was that I did long runs on Sunday (the start of the week) and Saturday (the close). Still, it all felt good.  And, I have to admit to having a hard-to-stifle pull last night to go out and jog 5.41 miles to get the mileage up to 100. After much mental wrestling, I decided that was stupid and training-wise totally pointless.  Although the symmetry of 100 miles certainly had its allure.

I was pushing the mileage a bit this week to see how the body responded, particularly given the niggles of late. Happy to say things are holding up well.

The plan is to make this week an easy week (taking today off) in hopes of absorbing a bit of benefit from last week before giving it another go next week. With the trails melting out a bit, I hope to get in some more elevation gain.

Highlight of the week definitely was the long run yesterday at Buffalo Creek. Everything there is completely runnable, so one is pretty much guaranteed a long, steady effort.

Week in Review - November 1-7, 2009

Total miles for the week were 46.19, with two days off. I'm working now on just building a stronger base. Want to get long runs up to about 28 miles by early January in preparation for February's Moab Red Hot 50K. I'm expecting the cold winter days ahead will present some motivational challenges. Hopefully, having a goal race in the middle of the winter will help.