One assumes that after a race like Salida, it'll take a few days for your legs to come back to you. Hell, when I was younger, the thought of "training through" a marathon was unfathomable. It's good news then to feel that I have bounced back faster than I did after Austin. That's a testament to the evils of concrete if you ask me. Anyway, I was a bit conservative with throwing in more work and waited until Thursday to test out the engine.
Warmed up by climbing to the reservoir. Goal was 8 x 1000 @ marathon pace(6:15/mi) with 200 recovery. Instead of hammering this stuff out on the track - I'm a believer in avoiding the track unless you're racing on a track - I make a couple of modifications. 1)I do a loop on hardpack around one of the Stratton reservoirs. It's 1000-"ish". My garmin measures it out to be .60, so probably a few seconds short. 2)I do them on the 5:00 and don't worry about how far I run in between, but again my garmin suggests I'm doing about a 200 shag. 3)I only allow myself to check my garmin once during each repeat, as I like trying to work on 'feeling' the correct pace. It was extremely windy yesterday, so I expected variability, which I got: 3:40/3:36/3:46/3:38/3:41/3:38/3:44/3:36, HR between 150 and 158. Felt not great but good.
Going forward, I'm expecting to start feeling tired as I do work. I've managed to keep that pre-season feeling in the legs, but looking ahead, I think there's gonna be some real work to do. 8 days until my 36th birthday run, 5 weeks till Cheyenne Mtn, and 7 weeks till Collegiate Peaks.
Today is a staff development day, then we're off on Spring Break. Should be some solid training. New Rise Against came out on Tuesday...the whole album is still growing on me, but definitely a few good "get off your ass and do something about it" tracks on it.
Hill repeats up the face of the South Suburban Reservoir. Reminded me of track practice back in high school - short, intense, made me wanna puke. I kinda liked the feeling.
14,042' Mt. Lindsey - Sangre de Cristo range
Talked to my old HS coach this morning. Colorado Trip 2011 is a go - this will be the sixth year in a row that kids from Wayzata have come out for some good ol' altitude and camping. I think I'll take them up Lindsey, which is a class 2+. It's not like JT is coming, so I think they'll be fine. I've taken them up La Plata, Humboldt, Pikes, Uncompahgre, and Massive in the past.
To tell you the truth, I just wish Saturday would hurry up and get here. I'm kind of itching to get this marathon out of the way so I can focus on Collegiate Peaks. A lot of the same characters will be at both races.
Old-school punk on order tonight. Just for you, macho.
