Monday- 20 min. This was a short run to feel out the head cold and knee injury. Started feeling good but not 100%. That night I saw Brent and had the Graston. The knee instantly felt better.
Tuesday- Am 3.25 hours. Pm 35 min. This was a solid day of training. Got two laps on Green and one on Flag. Knee felt solid and it was great to be back in the mountains. That afternoon was an easy shake out followed by my "Belgium" recovery (10 min in the hot tub, ice cold shower, 10 min in steam room. Repeat 3 times) This is a great recovery. The hot tub and steam room open the blood vessels while the ice water constricts them. This helped shock the inflammation out and circulate the blood.
Wednesday- 1.15 hours. Just cruised around the flatirons and tried to stay out of the mountains. I need to spend more time on the flats.
Thursday- 30 min. Lesson learned! After a late night run on Wednesday I hardly ate anything for dinner and pretty much skipped breakfast. I estimated something like 1500 calories consumed over the last 24 hours. Due to a lack of calories I was forced to stop running way early today. Big mistake with my eating and a valuable lesson learned.
Friday- 2.00 hours mountain biking. Pulled out the mountain bike and ripped the trails. Gotta love bike driving!
Saturday- 4 hours. A long loop up green and then a lap on Flag. This run took the "long way" up and pretty much consisted of running super flag then cutting into the mountains. With a combination of trails and road I hit the top of super flag then cut east to Ranger trail and up. Took this loop up and down (with a few small loops in between) then ran flag. The last 30 min hurt! I'm pretty sure I was highly dehydrated at that point.
Sunday- 1.30 hours. Hit the rollers in South Boulder in the snow! Pure Blizzard...it was amazing! It cleared out all the douche bag college kids (event though they don't know about these trails- this area is my secret stash) and was epic! Was the first person on my super secret trail. This trail is off the side of a side trail and it totally epic! I only know 2 people who know about it (one of whom I showed) and it is a great run. For now the location of this trail is going to be my little secret! Awesome run! I wanted to go another 30 min or an hour but was utterly spent from Saturday's effort.
All in all:
Run- 11.30 hours
Bike- 2.00 hours
Total- 13.30 hours
This week was utter indulgence! It was so great doing these long runs and being back in the mountains. I look forward to this summer when I can train around 18-20 hours per week. Ideally I would like to hit 17 or 18 hours running and 2-3 hours on the bike. I found that my ideal training for cycling was between 18-24 hours per week and I am excited about getting up towards those hours again.
As many of you damn well better know today was the Ronde Van Vlaanderen! Today and next Sunday will always be two days of great joy and great sorrow in my life. Although today's run was amazing, it was overshadowed with sorrow. All my training on the bike, I mean all my training, was geared towards winning the Ronde and next week's Roubiax. All the way back to high school, on days I didn't want to train I did it because I wanted to win Roubaix. I didn't give a damn about any local races, I did them to turn pro and win these two races. These two days a year I usually get depressed and wonder what if. What if I hadn't chosen grad school and decided to continue to race bikes (I probably should have stayed on the bike). My biggest regret in life is not winning these two races. It's something I have to live with daily and I will be eternally sorrowful. Its hard to understand but those races are my life. Nothing, not even winning Mont-Blanc can compare to them. Is this healthy? Probably not. C'est la via.
I would like to take the time to congratulate my old friend Steven Van Vooren for his performance in the Ronde today! Way to go Steven, I will always cheer for you!
All regrets aside, I am still enjoying running and am excited to see how far I can push it. I can't say this is healthy but it's what I do. I would like to take the time to introduce you all to my old training method of "puke-er-vauls" Back in the day, I used to do 3x hill repeats until I either dry heaved or threw up. Not sane in the least but it showed me how hard and long I could endure. If you don't over tighten the screw you will never know how tight it can go.
The Ronde and Roubaix:
The two most beautiful things in the world. Period.
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