Quad Rock training week 14

I needed my training to begin to peak in week 14. Quad Rock is in 20 days (at this writing), and I won't get much adaptation to workout loading in the last 13 days. Weeks 14 and 15 would be my last opportunities to get faster and stronger before the race. Fortunately, a return to good health and favorable weather helped make this my best week yet.

• 13 hours, 8 minutes all training

• 42.7 miles running

• 8,550 feet D+ running and treadmill

The first block of my training was dedicated to power and pure speed, The second to intense aerobic efforts. This last block is about going up and down technical mountain trails at my race pace or a bit faster. In practice, I push pretty hard for half of each climb, run the downhills as fast as I can, and otherwise keep it easy, but not slow.

I did three workouts like this, plus two shorter tempo runs at Pineridge Open Space, which is flatter than the Quad Rock course. Five days of comfortably hard to just plain hard running, a recovery ride on Tuesday, and a full day off to recover on Friday.

Today I went for a loop in Lory State Park that I did five weeks ago. The loop includes the last seven-mile stanza of the 25-mile QR poem: a 1,000 foot climb up from the Arthurs Rock aid station, some rolling terrain, and a 1,100 foot descent to the finish line. I did the loop in the same time as I did in March, but at a noticeably lower level of effort. I'm counting on being able to run at an even faster pace at a higher level of effort in May.

Thursday I ran at elevation for the ffirst time this season, a loop around Lumpy Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park that begins just below 8,000 feet and tops out just above 9,000 feet. There is no snow to speak of at Lumpy Ridge. If the aspen in the Cow Creek drainage on the more remote north side of Lumpy Ridge had more leaves, you might think it was mid-summer.

I loved seeing water in Cow Creek, even if it was only a July-level flow. At least the birds and mammals have something to drink.