Back to Academy and the Foothills to end January

Likhaya couldn't make it again this week, he was a bit preoccupied with the arrival Monday of his baby boy Nehemiah. For any ladies who might read this I know I have to add details, 8 pounds, 10 ounces, 21 inches long. He sent me a message yesterday telling me and didn't tell me not to blab so I hope he doesn't mind this going here.

I left work a little after 2:00 this afternoon and headed east. Yes this is becoming a Thursday afternoon habit and I love it. As long as the weather is nice and boy was it today. Thank goodness we finally did get a little snow in the mountains but I hope we get lots more, and soon.

The temp was upper 40's with a light breeze, not as much in the Foothills as on the westside when I left work thankfully. I started with a short warm up walk after parking at the Albertson's at Academy and Tramway then crossed under Tramway in the tunnels and headed up along Simms Park Rd toward Elena Gallegos. I followed the same route I ran with Likhaya a couple weeks ago but slowed the pace just a little so I could do all the first uphill, over a mile, without stopping like I had to last time.

I attacked the hills very hard so the pace after that slowed a little also but I definitely noticed improvement. The whole route seemed to take a little less time today and was an absolute blast. I enjoy this more and more all the time. As always the road section was my least favorite but that's part of it.


Tomorrow I have to leave early again but this time I am going to climb on two wheels for a little cross training.

I do run in a beautiful place!

Busy week

Along with a shower my office has a pretty nice view

It's been such a busy week, end of month always is for me, that I forgot that I promised myself to keep up with my runs here. Monday morning it was warm enough to get in a couple road miles so I ran to work. It is so nice having an office with a shower!! Run to work, my lovely wife brings my clothes when I don't take them the night before), take a shower and get to work.

I wasn't thrilled with my speed/pace but I seldom am on the road. I will get better but only by continuing to do it. Which I will do. It's about 2 miles so that's not a bad way to start the day and week.

South Foothills trail running with Jodi

Up 125', down 400', up 400' down 125'

I LOVE trail running and I LOVE the Foothills. We waited for the temps to rise and the wind to subside, a little, then headed to the other side of town for a very enjoyable run.

Sadly, I did not find one thing I thought for sure we would, mud! I thought surely after the rain yesterday there would be some but nope, no mud anywhere.

I so hope we get more rain and the mountains get snow.

Track time, first since high school

I read more and more articles about the benefits of speed training on a track. I haven't been run on a track since high school and what I did then was really not called "speed." If first felt like it was going horribly but when I looked back at the times it wasn't as terrible as I thought. I am going to try to keep up track work a couple times per week to see if it will improve.

Tomorrow morning I am going to try to drag out of bed early enough to run to work. I need to get there early anyway so why not do it the fun way.

Bring on Valles Caldera

  After today's FANTASTIC run I feel much better about the possibility of me being able to run the Valles race. But, more important things first.

Very hard to hike this time last year due to snow

  You all hear me bitch and moan and complain about cold weather and snow, well today I'm worried about snow again. This time, the serious lack of it. Two years ago in February I hiked to above 9,000' on the same trail I did today. From just over 8,000' I was in a lot of snow. From 8,300 to over 9,000' I desperately needed snow shoes and the lack of is why I turned around that day. Today, at almost 8,300' there was practically zero snow. Normally that would be fine with me but that forest is far, far too dry! We're in trouble in 2013.
  In the summer of 2011 I bought a road bike because all the trails closed due to fires and fire danger. I will have to resort to road running by early spring I would say. I just thought of that, I may do all this training and not get to run because the trail will be closed. NOT, that running, this race or anything related to these is the important part. What is important is that New Mexico is going to burn up this year  I'm afraid. Very afraid.
  But as far as the run today goes. WOW!!! What a workout. The LaLuz trailhead is at 7,024' according to my GPS. I wanted to do this run today because 1) Likhaya was busy and couldn't run with me, 2) I knew it would be a nice hard training run and 3) the Valles run has a LOT of downhill and is entirely over 8,000' so I wanted to see what that felt like.
  The climb I won't even try to deny included a lot of walking. I would say 35% / 65% running/walking. MAYBE a little more running but I doubt it. Now the return is a different story it was 100% to )% run/walk. And it felt good. I definitely have to keep losing weight and work hard on those hill climbs. I am very pleased with my downhill form and performance, but of course it will improve also as the climbing does and as the weight goes down.
  I am SOOOO stinking fortunate to live where I have any training format I need from 5,000' and up to almost 11,000' right here in town!!! And very, very fortunate to have a team that I work with that doesn't complain about me putting in my hours early in the week so I can take Thursday afternoons off to play.

7,024' at trailhead, 8,256' where I turned around

  They're talking rain for Saturday, possible thunderstorms even, in January!! I hope we get rain all day. I will gladly give up a training day to get some moisture.

 Not even close to the top here. Another 2,400 feet to go. I will do the whole hike this year then run down. I have never done the entire LaLuz Trail.

 I have loved my Saucony Peregrine shoes since the moment I put them on my feet but today that appreciation was elevated greatly after they absolutely stuck like glue in the this snow!!!

Needless to say there is a mix of trail surface on this run. I LOVE trail running. Have I said that before?

Short but sweet speed training

  "Coach" Likhaya told me I also need to pick up the speed for short runs. Short is a relative term. Short to Likhaya is longer than a long run to me but he told me I needed to do short speed intervals to work on picking up the pace on my short runs.
  This morning I woke up about 5:30, warmed up hard in the house with some moves Jodi said they have been doing in the classes she's been taking at the gym, including running in place lifting my knees as high as possible then running in place lifting my feet as high behind me as I could. Yeah, I was warmed up when I headed outside.
  I did a 1/2 mile just as hard as I could go finishing in 4 minutes 20 seconds. For some reading this that isn't a "speed" run but for me I was quite pleased. Admittedly I wanted to keep it at 4 or under and maybe I could have a little later in the morning but this was my fastest 1/2 mile I know since high school and I think ever. It felt good and gives me a benchmark to build on.
  Tomorrow I am leaving work early and since Likhaya let me know today that he can't make it tomorrow I will probably head up to La Luz and see how that goes. The Valles Caldera run has a lot of downhill so I think practicing on LaLuz could be a good idea. Hopefully it will be warm like they predict.

More cross training.

Yep, walking is cross training. Today, other than running up and down the stairs a few times (42 stairs to my office), I stuck to walking home, approximately 2.5 miles. In a chilly headwind. This weekend I was thinking about the more running I'm trying to do and trying to get back on the bike more but with the cold weather I haven't been walking enough. That's going to change.

My wonderful director Melanie told me today that I can continue taking Thursday afternoons off when the weather is nice so Likhaya and I can run, or if he can't I can see if I'm improving on my Placitas time.

I printed a copy of the profile of the Valles Caldera run today and put it up right next to my desk so I can see it all the time and remind myself how hard I have to work.