Yup, Spring

I guess if it lasts for a week plus, it's safe to say that spring is here. Of course, there's still a significant chance that we'll get snow, and lots of it in a short amount of time, sometime in the next couple of months, but at least the weather has taken a distinct turn for the better. As a result, I was able to get out and hit some trails last week, which is something I desperately need to prepare for Collegiate Peaks and Bighorn.

Monday - 6.2 AM, 5 PM. First one was on roads, second one was on the Lookout Mtn. trails. Got to try out my new trail shoes, the Saucony Peregrine, for the first time. Felt good. Much more nimble than the Brooks Cascadias I've been wearing (and will continue to wear occasionally...they've still got a lot of miles in em). The trails were pretty muddy, but mostly free of snow and ice.

Tuesday - 8 AM, 5 PM. Same as yesterday basically. Still a lot of mud on Lookout, but it had dried some.

Wednesday - 10.1 with 8x800m intervals. I haven't done a true speed workout on the track since sometime last spring, probably in May. As such, I wasn't expecting much out of this one, so I was actually kind of surprised by how well it went. I was tired as hell by the end of the 8th interval, but I averaged somewhere around 3:10 for each one, which isn't much slower than what I ran these in when I was training specifically for marathons.

Thursday - 5 AM, 4 PM. Whoa. My legs were not happy about that track workout. Had no energy whatsoever in the morning. Felt a little better in the afternoon, but still had dead legs. Kept to the roads to keep the effort as easy as possible.

Friday - 6.5. Just an easy recovery run in the morning.

Saturday - 15. Didn't get out the door until after lunch and, even though I didn't really eat lunch but instead just had a light snack, it wasn't sitting all that well, so I had to deal with a side stitch for awhile. Eventually worked through it and started feeling better. Overall didn't go too bad, although I got pretty hot a few times when I had the wind at my back. This is actually pretty pathetic because it was all of 60 degrees and I was bitching about the heat. I would never make it at Badwater. And, come August, I'll be praying for 60.

Sunday - 19.7. Met Ryan in Sturgis and we ran an out and back (kind of) on the Centennial. We had planned on going somewhere between 20 and 25, but we hit knee deep snow after about 10.7 miles. It was the kind of snow that was almost solid enough to walk on, and in fact would support you for a couple of steps, but then you broke through to your knee (and scraped the hell outta your shin in the process). So, we turned back and then on the return leg decided to explore a different trail we hadn't been on before. It was actually a pretty good trail but it ended up cutting a couple of miles off of the run. I wasn't really complaining at the time (nor am I now) since my legs were feeling the effects of an afternoon 15 the day before combined with an early morning 19+. Still felt okay, just tired (which is kind of the point). Good day on the trails overall.

Total - 84.5. Like I said last week, almost identical mileage-wise, but I did get more trail miles in.

Back to back weeks in the mid-80s, which is pretty much exactly where I wanted to be. I'll be down into the 70s this week before a bigger cutback next week and then I'll start the whole cycle over again. Hopefully, this near perfect running weather holds on for the next, oh.....forever. One can dream...