Mesa Trail

Tuesday, August 22nd

Warmed up, then did 30 mins @10%, at 15:00min/mile pace. Felt pretty good - I think my calves and ankles are finally getting strong enough to sustain this pace at steeper grades.

Sunday, August 27th

Somehow I managed not to do anything the last 4 days. This was my longest rest period (other than our vacation) since March. oops. I blame the airlines. I was going to work out on Thursday, but I was feeling pretty tired, and figured I could just workout Friday afternoon instead. My flight was supposed to get in around 1:00pm, which would give me plenty of time to go to the gym before Molly got home from work. Well, due to some freaky weather in New York (tornadoes), and poor airport management (we sat on the runway for more than an hour), I didn't get home until almost 5:30.

On Sunday morning, Molly and I met Rachel, Nick and Cade in Boulder. Nick and I went for a run, and the other 3 went for a hike. Nick and I walked up the road to the start of the "trail" part of the Mesa trail, and started to jog from there. We made it to the top of the Bear Canyon service road in ~31 minutes, and Nick turned around. I continued on for another 15 minutes to the South Shanahan junction, and then turned around. I was able to run the entire way back, which included some climbs I had never been able to jog before. I made it back to the parking lot in just over 44 minutes, including the last .6 miles in 4:13 (7:00min/mile pace). I felt pretty good when I finished. This was my last long (ok - "longish") run before the race. Now I start the tapering.

Total mileage: 7
Total elevation gain: ~600ft.
Total time: 1:30