Week 18 was my biggest, most social, most fun, and most satisfying week yet. I did a gravel ride with a friend on Wednesday, hiked to the alpine tundra in Rocky Mountain National Park with my daughter on Thursday, ran in 35 °C heat on Friday, and then treated myself to a fast run up and down Horsetooth Mountain early this morning.

Outside of training, I quit taking Naproxen, continued passive and active heating training, and started seeing a physical therapist about my Achilles tendinopathy. I learned that part of the solution will be loading my calf muscles, but without lengthening the muscle and thus stressing the tendon. The therapist also reassured me that I can run when it feels good. I don't need a boot or crutches or anything like that.

Here are the numbers for the week:

• 20.3 miles running (and hiking)

• 14 hours, 59 minutes all training

• 4,187 feet D+ running (and hiking)

The hike to Flattop Mountain in Rocky was super fun. I loved the chance to spend all day with my adult kid and help her kick off a "couch to Fourteener" program. It was my first trip on foot this season to treeline and above, and I felt good. I was also impressed at how well my Salomon Ultra Glide shoes served on an alpine trail. I'll feel confident wearing them at Never Summer or The Bear, as long as conditions are mostly dry.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went for a nice long bike ride in the heat of the day. Today I got out of bed early to run in the coolest part of the day. I took just one handheld bottle (2 scoops of Tailwind) and hiked and ran to Horsetooth Mountain via the Spring Creek Trail. I went pretty hard and was just a little off my personal bests (from 2021) for some of the long uphill segments. I'm very excited about this. Consistent training, even if not in my favorite form, has been working.

Coming off the summit, I met a friend and chatted for a while, and then headed down, down, down to my car. I had to take a short walking break after a sharp rock strike on one of my heels, but was otherwise able to run three miles to the bottom without riding my brakes.

Next week is a scheduled rest week. I plan to do some high intensity workouts of shorter duration, some recovery rides, short easy runs, yoga, Pool HIIT, and sauna sessions.

I didn't do a lot of running in week 17, but none of it was flat. I did a solid uphill treadmill run on Thursday and a hot trail run at Lory State Park on Saturday.

• 12.8 miles running

• 10 hours, 40 minutes all training

• 3,667 ft D+ running

In addition to those two runs, I did a hard elliptical workout and rode a bike three days. I did some weight training at home and at the gym, and did two sauna sessions. I'm trying to do 2-3 20-minute sessions a week in June to get ready for potentially hot weather at Never Summer. Andrew Huberman has a nice long podcast episode about the science of deliberate heat exposure that I found super interesting. If you haven't heard it, it's well worth a listen.

I went out for 2.5 hours in sunny 30 °C conditions yesterday and felt warm, but okay. The modest amount of heat training that I've been doing seems to be working. I'm going to stick with passive heating in the sauna a few times a week and one hot run every week. As much as I enjoy hearing about David Roche's extreme heat traing regimen, I won't be buying a heat suit or core temperature sensor.

Like I said last week, I've found it hard to adapt to downhill running when I'm not doing much downhill running. Today my quads are quite sore after yesterday's three miles of steep descents. I need to do more, that's all there is to it!

Week 16, the end of the first half of my trail running season. I started out sick, but was able to get back into training pretty quickly. I had a nice gravel ride Wednesday, some tempo treadmill Thursday, a 2.5 hour ride on Saturday with a significant amount of comfortably hard uphill pedaling, and a 90 minute uphill treadmill run on Sunday. I avoided my usual group classes at the gym.

I continued with the therapeutic dose of Naproxen, iced my left Achilles tendon every night, and did no running on pavement or trails. Walking felt better all week, I'm happy to report.

It's seven weeks to Never Summer. It's weird to approach it with a base, a solid base, of cycling, and uphill treadmill and elliptical sessions, without the hundreds of miles of real trail running that I've done in the past.

My fitness level is pretty good. Based on my perceived level of exertion during workouts, my resting heart rate, and my body weight, it seems like I'm back where I was at this point in 2023. That's great, I'm pumped! I'm eager to do some fast downhill running before Never Summer. That's the thing that's hard to simulate in the gym, and I've been feeling soreness after my rare downhill runs this spring.

It'll be interesting to see how I fare on an alpine run like Twin Sisters, for sure. I'm planning that outing now.