Fri 4/25 - double, 75 minutes total

AM - 25 minutes very easy, Cheesman Park. Quads sore as expected from yesterday's descent off the mountain. Took it slow as a result not that it wouldn't have been slow anyway.

PM - 50 minutes, Washington Park. Started out slow, gradually picked up the pace in the middle stages of the run and finished at a relatively decent clip. Calf not a problem and hamstring stiffness at a relatively low level as well.

Thu 4/24 - AM 3.5 hours, Barr Trail

Much more enjoyable and hopefully worthwhile than my last few visits to this particular mountain. As usual though, the lower steep section of the trail was a slog, with the stiff right ankle making it more so. Unlike a year ago, there was very little snow until Barr Camp. Continued on up after a long break with the snow getting deeper and covering more of the trail with each step it seemed. Checked out the Bottomless Pit trail briefly but it was much less packed down by foot traffic and as such nearly impassible. Turned around a short ways above the BP turnoff, as I was unable to run any further and hiking to A-Frame had zero appeal. The trip down was incident-free, only a couple of near misses on protruding roots and rocks. Moving as well as I could on the Ws given my limited skills when it comes to descending. Right hamstring held up to all this which was much appreciated. Only a few pics this time:

 Time to turn around

view from Bottomless Pit trail

Wed 4/23 - double, 95 minutes total

AM - 50 minutes, North Cheyenne Cañon Park. Started at the 4-way intersection, up Gold Camp to Capt. Jacks, back on High Drive. Scenic as ever, and once off Gold Camp, hilly as ever too. A good chunk of the half marathon course I did two years ago, without the climbing up and down the Columbine trail.

 tunnel #2

 there aren't trails like this back home

Right ankle quite stiff and the short sharp ascents not helping it one bit. A little better after some post-run flexibility work but it still makes popping noises I'm not so thrilled about.

PM - 45 minutes easy, Red Rock Canyon Open Space. Got turned around and ended up going longer than I would have liked. As seems to always be the case when I visit this place (2x year tops) I forgot how the north-south trending trails are situated on a tilt. Makes for some long grinding ascents. Very windy as seems to be the case every afternoon of late. Right leg feeling relatively decent.

Tue 4/22 - double, 1:50 total

AM - 65 minutes easy, City Park. Ran most of the mile high loop. Passed through Cheesman Park. on the way there and back. Overall went at a dawdling pace with multiple brief stops, mostly waiting to cross streets. Hamstring as good as it's felt lately the day after any kind of faster running, but rolling on it afterward was still worthwhile.

PM - 45 minutes, Cheyenne Mountain SP. Blackmer and Cougar Shadow trails, which are as twisty windy and undulating as they come. Started just in time for the afternoon's t-storm to roll through, it poured for five minutes as it passed by. Right ankle somewhat stiff from all the uneven terrain but other than that a mellow effort. Weather approaching:

Well, it looked more impressive at the time looming over the mountain

Mon 4/21 - AM 65 minutes incl. repeats

To and from Washington Park. The workout I thought I'd do on Saturday delayed just a bit. Specifics weren't finalized until about 10 minutes into the warmup jog over to the park, decided to go with a mixed bag of threshold and turnover. Two six minute buildups with a three minute recovery, then almost 5 minutes of jogging before doing two sets of 80 seconds hard, 80 seconds jog, 60 hard, 60 jog, 40 hard, 40 jog, 20 hard. Three minutes between sets of that. Felt as good as I could hope for given the fact I'm not at all fully acclimated. Right leg more of a concern, it held up although the calf twinged a bit when I started in on the faster running. Cool and delightfully dry, with a breeze.

Sun 4/20 - double, 60 minutes total

AM - 25 minutes easy, Cheesman Park. Slowly coming around from the long day Friday and the late bedtimes that preceded it. Right hammie pinched.

PM - 35 minutes, Cheesman Park. Two laps this time, moving better from the get-go and feeling like an actual runner for a change. Right leg feeling better as well. This after an afternoon hike up Mt. Sanitas in Boulder as well.

Sat 4/19 - double, 90 minutes total

AM - 30 minutes very easy, Cheesman Park. Barely awake for this one. Cool morning but nothing like the soul-sucking cold recently left behind. Leg feeling somewhat tweaked of course, but better after some rolling and compressions.

PM - 60 minutes very easy, to and from Washington Park. The full measure of fatigue and exhaustion from yesterday finally did come due as I was flat as a pancake from the first step to the last. Bike ride into town earlier in the afternoon didn't help but still the tiredness was a surprise. I had plans of doing timed pickups which is totally laughable in hindsight. Leg stuck and stiff, bike ride not helping so much in that regard.

Fri 4/18 - PM 30 minutes

Cherry Creek Path in Denver. Another vacation, another bout of travel nonsense. This time the flight was delayed for 5 hours, leaving me quite fried by the time I finally arrived. Despite running on fumes and spending hours crammed into the plane seat the run itself ended on a relatively uptempo note, right leg feeling far better than I expected it to. Warm and dry of course, a good chunk of why I came in the first place.

Thu 4/17 - PM 90 minutes easy

Lincoln woods with drills on Pine Hill. Eagerly anticipated bit of waldeinsamkeit that became a trying slog thanks to the right leg being stuck. Compressions on both the hamstring immediately afterward and the glute/piriformis later on were helpful and something I should have done beforehand. Continued cold conditions, more so than yesterday in fact.