The Last Run

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

Tags

Boulder Marathon, Flaming Foliage Relay, Manitou Incline, training

Time is speeding up. Days are over before I know it. Years fly by. This year’s running season will be over so soon. Looking back, seven events seem like a full year. Four half marathons, one full, one 10K and one mile. Oh, and the Boulder Distance Classic – I forget exactly what odd number of miles that was. So eight running events. That’s a full year I guess but I can’t believe I have only two runs remaining and that the season will be over after September. It does help define my training requirements though.

Training was a challenge when my focus was to improve my 10K speed but I had to run a marathon the weekend immediately following the Bolder Boulder. Now, I have the Flaming Foliage Relay in three weeks followed a week later by the Boulder Marathon. The relay requires intense distance training so it pairs nicely with the marathon. The relay also will present me with a 12.5 mile trail run over a mountain pass, but the Boulder Marathon has rolling hills so some hill training will apply to both events.

I’m a bit pensive training for my last run. I’m channeling my gloom though into better preparation. The furthest distance I ran training for previous marathons was maybe 12 miles. I ran 18 last Saturday. I’m targeting 20 miles this coming Saturday. I thought I would be running the Manitou Incline but I got my weekends mixed up. That will be the following weekend. So maximum distance and one of Colorado’s most notorious hill climbs. Then I’ll have one remaining training weekend. I expect I’ll run Mesa Trail with my relay team. Keith and Steve ran that before the Epic Relay and they were prepared.

This pic is from my most recent run, the GTIS Half Marathon. I just can’t believe my final run of the year is in only four weeks. Not sure what I’ll blog about after that. I do have a Diana Krall concert a few days later. And two weeks later I’m going to watch the CU Buffs tackle Oregon. That’s right, college football is starting up. Who has time to run?

Cottontail Trail

17 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Boulder Marathon, Flaming Foliage Relay, LoBo Trail, Manitou Incline

It’s time to start training for the Boulder Marathon in September. I officially kicked off my marathon training today with an 18 mile run on the LoBo Trail which included a couple of miles on the Cottontail Trail in Gunbarrel. This is the furthest I have ever run out my door on the LoBo Trail. Maybe one day I’ll take it all the way into Boulder. Cottontail, which winds along the north end of Gunbarrel, is quite charming with Cottonwood lining the creek and trail. I used to live in Gunbarrel, which I guess technically is Boulder, and I miss all the nice trails they have. The White Rock Trail is one of my favorites.

September wraps up my scheduled events for the year. Seems a bit early, maybe I’ll find something in October. Rob and I still need to hike the new 80 mile Collegiate Peaks loop of the Colorado Trail. If I don’t transition to hiking then I might look for a 10K to begin winding down my distance. It’s hard staying in shape for these longer distances. I completed four half marathons this year. I wouldn’t mind maintaining that level of fitness but marathons are a stretch. Interesting point on my four half marathons this year is my pace was extremely consistent. My finish time in all of them was within a 6 minute range. In fact, I ran the exact same pace – a 7:31 mile – for both Moab and GTIS.

I don’t think I need to train any differently for the Flaming Foliage Relay, which is a week ahead of the Boulder Marathon. My second leg over Georgia Pass will present me with 1221 feet of elevation gain at altitude, so I’ll include some hills in my routine. Looking forward to meeting up with my buddy Ken Farmer in Manitou Springs to run the Incline next weekend. The Manitou Incline has been on my bucket list for awhile, and from what I understand it’s no longer illegal to climb. It’s only a mile climb, but can easily take people an entire hour to complete. I wonder what sort of shape Ken is in. He runs the Incline regularly for lunch.

I understand my team is looking for a 10th runner still for the Flaming Foliage Relay. Preferably a woman to add to the estrogen level in the van. Contact me if you’re interested. And really, how can you not be interested in running through the Colorado mountains in the fall?