Week of 12-12-11

Monday: 13 miles, 2000' gain, upper Campus to 5-way and back + 2 miles of extra jogging to and from work, with Holly (whose first birthday is on the 22nd, which I guess makes her almost 7 in "people years"), and Adrian Shipley for main run.

Tuesday: 16 miles, 2000' gain, far end of research park to 5-way and back + 2 miles of extra jogging to and from work, solo.

Wednesday: 16 miles, 2000' gain, 5 miles of literally running errands by foot + upper campus to 5-way and back, with Adrian for main run.

Thursday: 10 miles, 8 on treadmill at easy pace (high 7s pace) + 2 miles jogging to and from work, solo, obviously

Friday: Off, spent the night at a Christmas party preparing for the next day's long day (ie, eating Christmas cookies and drinking cognac... hah...)

Saturday: 30 miles, 7000' gain, about 4 1/2 hours (ie around 9 minute pace, so nice and easy), + 2 1/2 hours of skiing, first 72 or 73 minutes with Adrian Shipley, before he turned around to get to work, solo after that, with no music or anything else. This day was obviously a bit on the long side. Upper campus to city creek canyon via shoreline to top of city creek (using as much trail as possible instead of roads to gain an extra mile on both the way up and down in the canyon), back down the trail, and back to upper campus. The climb out of City Creek to the 5-way (around 1500' or so) was pretty tough after the previous 22 miles, but I made it through OK. I think the main reason for toughness of the climb was the intentional calorie/hydration semi-deficit (no breakfast before-hand and only 600 calories + 15 ounces of water for the 30 miles). Finished feeling a bit hungry, but satisfied with how far my metabolism has rebounded since the whole mono incident that trashed it. After running, I went up to Brighton and skied for 2 1/2 hours with old HS cross country teammate Bill Mennell. Overall, this day proved to be really useful for making sure my mental fortitude was where it needs to be as I go into a 24 hour race in a couple weeks with far less than ideal training. I was not happy to have to go up a big climb after 22 miles of minimal calories and hydration, but this is the type of challenge that, when passed, makes me feel ready to tackle the big stuff.

Sunday: 5 miles, super easy, treadmill. Shaking out the legs after quite a bit of physical activity the day before.

Weekly Total: 90 miles, 13000' gain. I was originally thinking I'd do around 100, but didn't have a chance to get out on Friday. I thought about doubling Saturday/Sunday, but figured that the recovery was more important than an arbitrary mileage goal. 2 1/2 hours of pretty intense non-stop skiing (ie, skiing moguls and then bombing the groomers as hard as possible) probably gives my legs the same workout as the extra 10 miles anyway. Pretty satisfied with the week and as of Monday, I got a nice start to this next week with fresh legs.

The next week will probably be a little bit more miles, but with a lot less gain, due to flying home to Minnesota tomorrow. The goal is to once again hit the miles feeling fresh and rather than one long day, I'll probably shoot for back to back longer days on Friday/Saturday. That's still up in the air depending on Christmas Eve plans, etc, but I'm looking forward to a good week on my favorite Minnesota routes.