Week in review and "Can I get some sleep here?"

So I haven't written anything about the running I've done this week.  It's been vanilla.  Kind of preseason running.    Short and sweet, not too hard.  I'd intended to run Sunday, but with the heat and much cooler forecast for Monday, I switched days off.

It was during my run Monday that I first saw the evidence of the fire myself.  It was pretty darn remarkable.  That sucker is big and bad, still burning, but 30% contained.  It is the most costly fire in Colorado's history with over 170 structures torched.  Crazy stuff.

On Monday, I ran 7 miles:  4 miles in vff, and 3 barefoot with Holmes.  Tuesday, I'd hoped to get a run in with the Max Muscle Longmont group at 7:30 pm, I'd even cleared Homey's participation, but couldn't make it all the way to 7:30.  I really prefer to run in the morning, at lunchtime or immediately after work.  Sitting around and waiting for a couple of hours and then running smack dab in the middle of dinnertime isn't going to work for me.

Oh well, at 6:50 I slipped on my vff, put the leash on Homey and set out the door.  Suddenly we were flying.  I didn't have my Garmin on, so I have no idea how fast we were going, but it felt super quick.  I really didn't want to be going hard, so I checked my effort by keeping my mouth closed and breathing through my nose the entire run.  It still felt fast.  Mid-upper 7's I think.  Anyway, we kept the distance down, 3 miles.

Yesterday was another day off.  I was going to take today, but like Sunday, favorable weather today encouraged me to change my run.  I'll get 5 in tonight.  Will have my GPS and keep the pace real low: 9-9:30.

Photo courtesy of the Ouray Chamber of Commerce

The big deal is the Imogene Pass Run on Saturday.  It's keeping me awake at night. I think I've lost sleep 5 of the last 10 nights because I keep thinking about it.  I guess that means I really want something out of this race.  Given that, I've decided to give it a go.  I don't care one whit about my time at Steamboat, but I can't stop obsessing about how long it'll take me to finish Imogene.  That means, I'm going to go for it.

Last year, I was just under 4 hours to the finish.  This year, I'm hoping I take at least 20 minutes out of my time.  My preparation hasn't been ideal.  I was gimpy after the Steamboat Marathon and I decided I'd do the Run Rabbit Run, so I focused more on long endurance efforts rather than raw climbing power and weight loss.  Still, I think I'm much more fit than last year, and last year I felt like I could turn around and run back to Ouray after I finished, so 20 minutes might just be doable.  We'll see on Saturday.  In the meantime, I hope I can sleep the next couple of nights.

Thanks for reading,
J