Week #4: July 2 - July 8
Sunday
Morning Shakeout: 1.9 miles at 7:42 pace. For the afternoon run, we returned to Slate, where I had a really good run last week. This was supposed to be a 4 mile tempo, but we ran in the worst conditions I have ever been in. So far, every day in Colorado has been beautiful, but today the wind and thunder were out of control: 2.2 mile warmup at 7:31 pace, then a 4 mile tempo run at 6:16 pace. I'll do another tempo in the coming weeks, and hopefully with good conditions I can get that average pace much faster.
Monday
Morning Shakeout: 2.1 miles at 7:17 pace in addition to some core work. In the afternoon, we ran Heartmans, a very hard and hilly course. With the tempo and the long run in the past three days, I didn't push the pace too hard: 4.1 miles at 7:21 pace. Felt OK, but not as sore as last week.
Tuesday
Morning Shakeout: 2.1 miles at 7:17 pace. For the 4th of July, we participated in the Crested Butte 4th of July Parade and painted ourselves up. While it was a memorable day, we did our late afternoon run with tired legs after running around during the parade all day. We ran Lower Loop, which is a classic hilly run that we frequently run: 4.5 miles at 7:48 pace.
Felt sore but took it easy during this fun afternoon run.
Wednesday
Sort of a "day off." I still did a lot of core work and a short run during the afternoon: 2.2 miles at 6:50 pace
Overall, I have been feeling pretty wiped out for the past few days. I hope today's light workout will help me recover.
Thursday
Morning Shakeout: 2.2 miles at 6:54 pace and some core work.
The afternoon was sort of an odd workout. Some runners left camp yesterday, and many will arrive tomorrow, so the coaches wanted to give us a break by having a funnish run where we chase two people around the town of Gunnison who get a 7 minute head start but must leave a trail of flour.
I went 4.7 miles at a super easy pace just having fun.
Friday
Shorter morning shakeout to get some recovery for the coming days: 1.1 miles at 6:32 pace, followed by flexibility work. Our afternoon run was on a flat trail in Gunnison (which we've done a few times now), and I was told to only run 25 minutes to reboot: 3.9 miles at 6:28 pace.
I felt great and was able to stick with the top pack for two miles as we went about 6:15 pace and eased out the last half of the run to prepare for the upcoming week.
Saturday
Another short morning shakeout to recover: 1.4 miles at 6:21 pace and then flexibility work. For the afternoon, we returned to Gothic, a run that is mainly downhill but has one massive and steep hill with about 1.5 miles to go: 4.8 miles at 7:17 pace.
I started off a bit too fast, running my first two miles in 6:25 and 6:20. I slowed down as we neared the hill, and then used all of my energy to power up the hill. The final 1.5 miles were slower as I was exhausted from the hills.
Total Mileage: 41.2
-This week was a recovery week after two straight weeks of 50+ miles. I'll get back into the swing of things next week.
