Since Jemez...Lake City on the Horizon

Well, the last few weeks have flown by! As I look back at Jemez I couldn't have asked for a better race. I brought the "A" game, Sr. Clark brought the "A+" game. I had a ball bombing the descents- I feel like a kid in a candy store when the angle steepens and the terrain is technical. Nothing more fun than thin singletrack for 50 miles. Jemez was also the fizzled end to the Burch vs. Clark race series for 2010 with Clark sweeping it 3-0. Dinner is on me! I had hoped this would have gone the distance with us battling it out to the final race... Pikes Peak will be the "goose egg prevention race" as I hope to catch up during the downhill second half."

The following weekend Meg and I did Aid Station work at the 3rd annual Sage Burner 50K. Despite not running I felt the effects of standing in the sun for a solid 8 hours! Congrats to Parr and DC for solid performances on a hot and sunny day. Meg and I also had a great Friday night hosting Bill Dooper at our humble abode. Bill is one of ultra runnings biggest fans and such an inspiration. At 75 years young he is still putting on the action suit and gettin' after it! Congrats to Bill on another finish at the Sage Burner 25K. Age is a number, it's all about your perception of what you can and cannot do at a given age...to an extent.

Since Jemez the training has been solid. It took almost a full week to get all of the 12000 ft of descent soreness out of the legs. I took Sun after the race off. I tried to run Mon, shuffled a few steps and knew it wasn't going to happen. Ridiculously sore. Got on the bike and then resumed the running on Tues. After a 60 mile "recovery week" I had my biggest week of mileage to date when a hit 111 the week after. Thinking of Lake City has got me amped! I love the quote on Jaime's blog from Bowerman that says "No one can coach desire" or something to that effect. I've felt that desire even with a small schedule change at work that had me rising at 4:30 to be running by 4:45AM this past week. There isn't a better M-F morning run from my door than Signal Peak. This last week also marked my 50th Signal Summit. Duncan and I have a goal to each summit at least 100 times for the year.

Our quality sessions have also been solid. Two weeks ago had an awesome unstructured speed session where I would run 100 yard sprints in the infield, jog 100 yards and repeat until pretty tired. Felt awesome to run it barefoot, brought me back to my ultimate frisbee playing days. This past Wed night Scott, Tim, DC, Rickey and I got on the track for four mile repeats followed by 4 by 200M zooms and then some barefooting to cool down. It was a crazy day as a Gunnison local joined our workout and became the quintessential minimalist. This speedster ran only with shoes and socks and clocked the fastest naked mile at the Western State track with a blazing 5:18! Needless to say I was a little shocked as a bare butt cruised by me during my third repeat...

Lake City is next weekend! This is my favorite race and it is a yearly testpiece to gauge my mountain running fitness. Jemez showed me that I can go under 9 at Lake City if the day is right. It will be fast with Jaime, Dakota and a few others that have the potential of going under 9! Here's how my times have looked at Jemez and Lake City:

2007 Lake City 10:26
2008 Lake City 9:45, Jemez 9:45
2009 Lake City 9:45, Jemez 9:13
2010 Lake City- goal sub 9! Jemez 8:31

Looking forward to it!