Treadmill Climb:
10 min warmup
30 minutes @ 10 % grade @ 10 min pace
5 minutes @ 10 % grade @ 8:30 min pace
5 min cool down
1,910'
This is becoming a staple of my winter workouts. Eventually I plan to get to 60-90 minutes of uphill running on the treadmill, by late spring. It is hard to get in a continuous climb for anything lasting an hour or longer in the area. Once the summer rolls around Rocky Mountain National Park offers some nice trail options if you are looking to get in a decent climb...but thats a ways out from now.
Tuesday - 12/06/11
Track Workout:
Ok, so it was 11 degrees outside after work and getting dark, and the first 3 lanes of the track had an ice/snow crusted slickness to them. Despite these conditions, I still wanted to try and stick somewhat to the schedule as this is my "track workout" day of the week. Although I was at the track, this workout was by far the "easiest" track workout I have ever done, due to the frigid temps and iced over track. It went like this:
1 mile warmup (laughable in 11 degrees)
20 minutes of straights and curves. (Basically striding out on the back stretch and home stretch, and a simple jog on the turns. Ran in lane 4)
1 mile cooldown (I was already a frozen popsicle..but hey, its an extra mile in the books)
...then hopped in my truck and proceeded to defrost.
Wednesday - 12/07/11
Horsetooth Mtn Park. With the consideration of running the chubby cheeks 50k this upcoming weekend I wanted to check out the trails, since most of the trails lately have been pretty sloppy. And by sloppy I mean packed snow and ice, knee deep trenches, slip and slide mud pits...and the occasional "dry spots". Seeing the trail conditions of a section of the race course one last time would either make or break my decision to run 30+ miles on Saturday.
Workout went like this:
Horsetooth Liquor store > Main TH > Rock trail > Soderberg > Spring Creek > falls > TH > back to truck
50 minutes
After running the trails, I decided to opt out of the chubby cheeks 50k for Saturday. The trails, for the most part, were runnable. Icy in parts and 2-3 foot snow drifts here and there, with the occasional dry patch. But I really wanted to run this one hard and open it up on dry terrain, not on crusty packed snow/ice mix. Nice to jog on. Not nice to race on.
Thursday - 12/08/11
Maxwell TH > foothills trail. easy 33:30
Ran up the hill behind the stadium and then turned around when I got to the road. Ran in the dark on the way back with a flashlight in hand. Trails were packed snow in most areas and cold, 20 degrees.
Friday - 12/09/11
OFF - deep down I was still undecided about the 50k on Saturday, so took the day off in case I changed my mind last minute. I wanted to be rested for the 4-6 hours of running that might be on Saturday.
Saturday - 12/10/11
At 6am as I sat in my warm cozy bedroom I stared at the nicely folded pile of running attire I layed out for myself the night before, which was stacked alongside a pile of GU's and my hand held UD water bottles. Contemplating the idea of running 4-5+ hours in the snowy mountains....then with a "sigh", I rolled over and went back to sleep.
That night however, I figured out how make 25,000 people disappear. Run through campus at night the weekend before finals! Not a peep in sight.
At 8pm I ran from our house to campus via the mason street path, then ran a lap around the oval and cut across campus to Moby and back down Shields to Horsetooth > back home.
Cold and dark. 25 degrees.
1 hour even (well...1 hr 40 seconds to be exact)
Sunday - 12/11/11
Pineridge. Starting from the dog park I ran a lap around Pineridge. Rolling snow covered trails are fun to run on. Not easy, but fun.
An easy day of jogging in the snow...44:24
A few pics of Pineridge trails covered in the snow:
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A good week of running. Its been cold and icy/snowy everywhere as of late which made the track workout feel like I was running laps in my freezer. But the treadill climbs have been a good consistant hard effort each week.
I am looking forward to the 2.5 weeks off work during Christmas and New Years.
Time to relax, reflect upon on the year, look ahead into 2012, and of course...get in a few quality runs!
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