60.6

Hit the 60 mile mark this week, mostly due to the strength of my Saturday long run, but also had some good speed and hill workouts in there too. That's three really good weeks in a row for me.

-My long run on Saturday gave me a huge boost of confidence. Finished the first loop in 2:00:48 (9:43 per mile) in really crappy conditions. Pinned on my race number, wolfed down a powerbar and some gatorade, jogged about half a mile, then ran the second loop in 1:46:27 (8:33 per mile). Though the snow and wind let up on the second lap, it was still icy as fuck out there. Was able to run the entire thing too, no walking besides the quick break I had to take between laps. Have about 2.5 more weeks of good training before Salida, and after this run I think I have a good shot to go sub-4 hours there (4:28:26 is my current PR for that course).

-My Sunday run with the Incline Club was a good one too. Despite the soreness from my 25 miler, I was able to run the entire way up to No Name Creek for the first time this season. Hit the Creek in just under 64 minutes, certainly no speed record but not too shabby either. Could have kept climbing, but didn't want to push the mileage too far this week.

-Good week for lots of other folks too. Congrats to Katie for finishing her first 20 miler on Saturday. She did an eight miler in the shitty weather before finishing the Black Forest 20K. To top off the weekend, she did her virgin run up to No Name Creek on Sunday. $100 only decided to do the Salida marathon about a month and a half ago, she's come a long way since then.

-Kudos to BLOS for finally discovering his manhood and blowing off the fun run for the real distance challenge. He actually did pretty well in the 20K. He's part of a group of us who have been working pretty hard this winter, hitting the track on Tuesdays and doing the Incline on Thursdays, and that seems to be paying off for all of us.

-Despite having every Incline Club piece of schwag available, and having a self-made profile on the IC website, Susan finally got her ass out to run with the club. This moves her up from "poser extrodinare" to "poser." So congrats to her! To move up from poser, one has to do either the Pikes Peak Ascent, Pikes Peak Marathon, or Leadville (their rules, not mine).

-Lots of hashers out on the dirt roads of Black Forest on Saturday: