I'll be seeing a lot of this trail in the next year

I am incredibly fortunate to live within running distance of the South Boulder Creek trail. The main trail is about 3 1/2 miles long, but it also connects with trails along the foothills for, hopefully, way more trail than I'll ever need. This morning was decidedly crisp (I think it was about 35 degs when I left) but still a beautiful fall morning. Heck, all fall mornings are beautiful when it's not blowing 85 mph gusts.



And with that cold front gusting in, elevations above 9,000 ft got some snow. Here's an incredibly bad cell phone picture of Long's Peak. See that white blob above the blue foothills?



I have several different loop options with this trail and today I did my hour loop. I ran 5.7 miles in an hour, keeping my heart rate at a reasonable 155 bpm average and not turning off my watch for a couple of pictures and stop lights.

And in other random workout news:

1) I met with a trainer at my gym on Wednesday. I only did it because when I joined in May I got two "free" seasons and I hadn't used them yet. I met with Nate, a pro-cyclist turned triathlete. I had wanted to set up a winter strength program but we spent more time talking than lifting. I'm hoping this wasn't a waste of time but it didn't seem productive to add another coach/trainer/expert opinion on Ironman training. One issue with Ironman training is that it's a relatively new sport and sport science itself is constantly changing so there's no one "right" way to train for an Ironman. In fact, there are some very differing views like Endurance Nation espouses not swimming or lifting in the winter and only working on run and bike speed. Other programs suggest backing off the bike. I think Nate was a bit doubtful of my ability to do an Ironman anyway, but he did have opinions on my training.

2) Thursday workouts - stroke development with Eney in the morning. This is a much different swim class than I've ever done. Eney stresses strength and power in the water and does a lot of pulling/skulling/kicking. I'm certainly more sore when I'm done than after a regular master's class. And later in the morning I did a quick 5k run in 30:24. I'd like to consistently run these in under 30 minutes without working too hard.

3) So the 5430 series that I did this summer was sold to Ironman. I didn't think this would effect me too much as Ironman has promised to keep the races the way they were, but change is already coming. Their first order of business was to change the 5430 Long Course to the Boulder Ironman 70.3. The name change is not that big a deal, but to promote this race the way they do their other 70.3 races, they put it on sale yesterday. In the olden days, the 5430 series went on sale Jan 1st. The sprint sold out in January, the Peak in mid-February and the Long Course, I think, sold out in July. Now, who knows? The Long Course Boulder Ironman 70.3 has become a Hawaii qualifier, which will probably make it sell out quicker. And getting back to how this affects ME - I would like to do another 70.3 race next summer as part of my Ironman training. I don't think I want to do the Long Course Boulder Ironman 70.3 as it is only 5 weeks away from IMMOO. So in the next month, I'd like to nail down and register for the race I do want to do, and right now I'm looking at Kansas 70.3 or Boise 70.3, both in June. And, sooner rather than later, I will have to decide if I want to do the Peak or not as well.

I'll leave you with an Adam funny of the day. We were at the mall looking for jeans* and he saw a Bronco shirt and immediately asked for it. I asked him if he even knew what the Broncos did and he said, "Play soccer." I laughed and told him to try again. "Basketball?" Oh, my poor children.

*And my jean story... I was trying to buy new jeans for the family. My freaky husband needs 33x36, which doesn't even exist so he shoots for 34x36. And apparently 36 is very rare because I only found two pairs in Old Navy, and Gap and AEO said it had to be special ordered. I wanted to get Alex 7 slim regular cut and only found 2 in the whole store. And I wanted something in a short for me and could only fine 1 pair. Gah. Oh, and Adam found a football in ON and asked me what kind of ball it was.