Sunday, June 20, 2010

Bakerville to Loveland Ski Area - 11 Miles

Ran from the I-70 Bakerville exit up to Loveland Ski Area and back and then added on another mile on the frontage road to give me 11 miles today. Matt ran with me.

I picked up Matt at 7:30 and we got out to Bakerville Exit parking area around 8:30 and were running by 8:38. It was a crytal clear blue sky day in the mountains. Beautiful day. Temperature was 65 degrees and no wind when we started.

The 5 mile run up on dirt road trail has 1000 feet of elevation gain over some rolling hills. This was my first relay leg of last year and the 3rd time I've run it in that direction. It took me 52 Minutes today. I ran it in the relay in 43 minutes. I had to stop and walk quite a few times today, I took my time going up. Matt ran ahead of me and finished going up a few minutes ahead. We stopped at the ski area and talked about the relay legs and I had a Gu.

Running back down is the first 5 miles of Slacker 1/2 Marathon which is next week. I wanted to go at a 7 minute pace all the way down, but I didn't even come close. Matt did though as he ran ahead. I took a couple of water breaks on the way down at a couple of the uphill peaks. I ran down in 43 Minutes. They've improved the road quite a bit, only about 1 mile of it is rocky and trail like now, but they are still working on it.

When we got back to the parking lot, I dropped off my shirt and water pack and Matt and I ran the hill up the frontage road. The only real hill on the Slacker Half Marathon. We ran up to the hill peak about a 1/2 mile and then back down. Gave us 11 total. Matt hasn't run that many miles in a while, but he did great, kicked my butt on all 4 legs and finished about 9 minutes faster on his watch than me. Thanks for the run Matt, it was fun. Nice Work.

I was pretty disappointed with this workout. I thought I'd do better in the altitude and really crush the downhills but I struggled with the uphills and had no gas or leg push for the downhill. This doesn't give me a lot of confidence for a sub 1:30 at slacker on Saturday. It was good to go over the top part of the course though, so I'm familiar with it for next week. I think my best strategy would be to get some rest days in next week and show up on Saturday with fresh legs and a positive attitude.

When we were at the car break, we talked to a guy who was training for 4 100 mile races coming up. He was running from the parking lot up to Grey's / Torre's peaks (14ers) and then back down for a training run. He had done a lot of ultra distances and had stickers all over his car.

Garmin Watch Data for Run

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