~8 miles
~2,600 vertical
55:20 up
1:50 RT
After a flatish 4 miles on Tuesday and a trip up/down Green with Allison yesterday with no pain whatsoever in my suspect IT band, I decided to take my first real run in a few weeks up Green via Bear Canyon. Since this route is one of the more gradual trails up a peak that I know of in Boulder, I figured it would be a good way to ease back into things.
I invited Tim at the last minute and as usual, he was game. It was nice to be out, but I was a bit tentative, not quite sure how my knee would hold up while hoping for the best and fearing the worst. Our "warmup" pace had me huffing it a bit. My knee was fine, but I was feeling the last month+ of erratic workouts.... easy hikes, half assed runs, days off, bike rides etc.....
Even though I thought I have maintained some fitness, I still felt sluggish as my legs, lungs and brain were all trying to get back into sync. Once in Bear Canyon, I started to get into a groove, feeling a bit better, but still not particularly good. I was careful to keep my effort at moderate and not do too much too soon, although once or twice I found myself at the high end of moderate, a few heartbeats from flirting with what I consider to be going hard and quickly backed off.
As the terrain steepened, I walked the bigger steps and just geared down for the remainder. Arrived on top in 55:20 from the car and took about a minute to take in the views and bundle up a bit. Tim was not far behind and I started gingerly picking my way down, knowing that he would quickly overtake me.
On the steeper/more technical sections of the descent, I could feel my knee talking to me a bit, nothing too bad, but I did not want to push my luck, so I alternated walking and jogging my way back out. Made it back to the TH in 1:50 total, getting down just a shade faster than I went up, so I was happy with that. All in all a great day, although I was hoping to run down a bit faster without favoring my left knee. Oh well, I am making progress.
Clear of all snow and ice? Thinking I need to hit it this weekend. Didn't get any uphill this week due to work.
ReplyDeleteYou steadily pulled away from me on the ascent (as usual). As soon as I couldn't see you anymore I knew you were feeling good and pushing it a bit. Very glad to see it. I think today's particular run snapped me out of my funk too. Been slogging through 7-9 milers the last couple days and asking myself why I even like running. Today was fun. Thanks for getting me up there. Let's test that IT out this weekend. I have a feeling this is all going to work out to where we are mentally fired up for the Grand Canyon run.
ReplyDeleteTell Allison (and Sierra) hi.
Brandon, no snow or ice to worry about.
ReplyDeleteTim, I don't know about feeling good, but it was a real good feeling to be out running again. Thanks for joining. I'm still hopeful about RRR, but of course being realistic and taking it day to day.