Magnolia Road

Today we ran on the legendary Magnolia road. Bobbie had 60 min, and Wally and I both did a solid 80. Max was feeling pretty sore today so he decided to ride on the bike along with us. The road was actually really close to where we live but this was the first time we had run it. After driving to the 8,000 ft that Mags sits on we begin our run. The first 1200 meters is all down hill but after that it is all pretty much an uphill run with steep inclines thrown in. The effort was what Jeff Bolle told us on one of our first runs out here would be. You just kind of get used to hurting. This has definitely been the case for many of our runs out here. Your legs burn and you breath harder than the body wants to, but you just kind of get used to the fatigue and keep rolling. At 30 min into Mags Wally and I pushed up a hill and Bobbie turned around to finish his run. Finally after a long climb and a small but welcomed downhill Wally and I turned back for home. The way back was still pretty tough, but there were a lot more subtle downhills for us to recover on. We pushed up the final hill and finished the run feeling good and tired. 

Long Run

Jim and Lorin came out to visit us this weekend and thus far it has been ballin. Today we all packed in the cars and drove to the Boulder Rez for our long run. Wally and I had been assigned 2 hours for the first time ever, and both of us were pretty intimidated by this. Max and Jim had 105 and Bobbie had 95 min. We stared the run nice and chill and soon we were clipping right at a smooth 650ish pace. Jim and I talked a lot, but for the most part everyone else was pretty quite. Each loop around the Rez takes about 36 mins so after the first 2 loops you start to know if it is going to be a good and fresh long run for you, or one of those ones when you still have 40 min left and you are already sucking wind. Today I felt like the former. At the start of the 3rd lap Wally and I started to pull the trigger a little bit and brought down the pace to the 640 range. Both of us seemed very comfortable and clicked off some really nice miles. at 100 min we stopped at the drinking fountain for a quick drink and took off for out last 20 min. These last min seemed to just drag on forever. The miles before this all went so quick, but the last 3 miles just took forever. We both were still feeling pretty good and even ran our fastest split of the run (6:33) but the last 20 just seemed to last forever. Soon we hit the final hill until the parking lot and we costed in to finish the 2 hour run with  milage of 17.6 mi. But the really cool thing about today was Jim's run. He is has been in Boulder for one day and woke up this morning at did about 15 miles in 105 min. He has been training at sea level this entire time and I am throughly impressed. He also made it look easy, the kid is nuts.   

Wonderland Lake

Today I did a run by myself before class. I headed up 4th street and to Wonderland Lake Park. Just getting to the park is pretty tough because 4th street littered with steep hills for about the 2 miles you are on it. But once I got to the park I was really pleasantly surprised. The park is really pretty and has a crushed path that goes all around the lake and further into the mountains. I did two loops at a pretty steady pace and finished up the 80 min run feeling fresh and quick. Just getting the miles in now is the important thing, and this nice hilly route was a great place just to zone out and get the minutes  in. Good run, only about 2 weeks left in this beautiful place.  

First Workout

Sorry it has been such a long time since our last blog.... but I feel like none of you are too broken up about it. Today was the first workout of the summer: 25 min warm up, 2x ten min tempo, and 25 min cool down. Wally and I left from the house and started warming up down stream. We fell into a nice quick 6:35 clip during the warmup. We both felt pretty fresh from the easy day yesterday and were ready to do work on the tempo. We started off hammering right way. Our first mile was right in the range of 5:20-5:25 uphill and we felt it. We never really slowed or settled in the entire first interval, and when we finished the first ten min were were feeling it. The next one started in the same way and I told Wally after 3 min that I was going to settle into my tempo rythem and slow down a bit. Wally pressed on. Soon with 4 min to go I saw Wal again but he was walking at look pretty flushed. As soon as I was in ear shot he croaked desperately, "Where is the water?!". It turned out that a bug had flown into his throat and since it was so dry out and his mouth was so dry that the bug stuck to his throat and He was choking on it. He ended up having to take a drink out of a gross-ass pond off of the trail just to get it out. I finished out the tempo feeling pretty strong and surprisingly finding a second gear. We finished the run by cooling down through CU's campus, pretty tired but still hitting a nice steady pace. 

Long Run and Recovery Run

Yesterday Wally and I decided to do our long run because both of us would have a difficult time doing it on Saturday. We drove out to the Rez and decided to do some loops around the water. I drank a little too much water before the run, so I had a nice sloshy package of water in my stomach for the first half of the run. We both ran at a nice and controlled pace and kept rolling off some good miles. We went around the reservoir once and then again about 3/4's of the way and turned back to make it an even 100 min. It was a nice smooth effort and we both felt good. 

Today all of us packed into the car to meet up with Jeff Boele and to do an easy 70 min recovery run. Jeff took us on a cool new route I had never been on in the Rez. We all talked and just let our legs roll off the easy milage. Before I knew it Max, Bobbie, and Sam all were turning back for their respective assigned times. Jeff, Wally, and I kepted up on the loop and it turned out to be 55 min. Wally and I then added on the last 15 min down a side street.