24 miles up City View

City View is a route we often ride. It encompasses doing Highgrade and then going a little farther. Today we ran up City View. It's been such a hoot to run up all the places that we usually ride. Gives you a new perspective. About to Leave, Troy is SAG today in Steve's big green truck.

Leaving the neighborhood

Kim, Tony, Steve and I left from Steve's at 8:45 this morning. We ran through Chatfield and over to Deer Creek and Wadsworth. There, waiting for us, was Michelle, Beth, John, and Tyler. As we refueled at our "rolling aid station" (AKA Troy driving Steve's big truck with Annie in the passenger seat) they took off. We spent the next mile catching up to them.

Running through Chatfield, giddy and excited for the day

The two groups

Steve seemed on fire so instead of running with them for awhile, he cruised on by. It was one of those moments that I had to decide: "Are you feeling good, today? If so then go, if not then stay with the group and make it fun". I went. I was feeling strong. Our rolling aid station was at mile 9 and although we didn't plan to stop, Steve, Kim and Tony headed over to the truck. I gave out a few kisses and walked through. Steve caught up with me and we started running. Kim and Tony were still at the truck, and just like that, we split up. Steve and I started pushing it. We passed the group once again (who didn't stop) and by then we both had our headphones in and were taking 1-2 minutes pulls leading.

Running with the group for a little.

It's always intense and fast when Steve and I run this way. He loves it, I dread it, but today it was ok. I felt stong, I felt good, so I went with it and I didn't worry about it. I wasn't in a super chatty mood today and so I was content to do the work, and play the game.

We hit the aid truck at 12 and spent maybe 15 seconds there. We were both anxious to not loose our steam so we booked it out of there. We continued to pull and the pace continued to pick up. It got a little past a comfortable place for me and I started to fall off the back of Steve. At one point he turned to me and I said "This is a bit faster than I'm comfortable with, go if you need to." With a nod of the head he was off. Usually when we seperate it's a little strange, but this went as perfect as it could have.

I tried to back off, but just a little bit so that I stayed strong and didn't loose my momentum. I cranked up the tunes and just ran hard. I knew Kim and Tony would be anxious to catch Steve and I knew they probably didn't run as hard from miles 9-12. Soon enough, on the Highgrade switchbacks they passed me at a solid clip. It really didn't bother me one bit. It was nice to see them for a few seconds, but I was happy to go it alone today.

I started feeling some stomach distress and I knew it was the Perpetuem in my water bottles (it has protien in it) and going too fast. When you are going faster, carbs only is a good bet. When you are slow and keeping the heart rate low, you can take some protien in your drink. I've got to learn these lessons.

I knew when I got to Troy that I needed to switch to water with some Hammer Gel. I did that, and I'm happy to report that it worked. I felt good about diagnosing the issue before it got bad, and doing the right thing to change it.

Up up up highgrade I went. Reaching the school house was weird. I am so used to stopping here, but there was 4 more miles of hills up City View so after 15 seconds of stretching I pushed on. The downhill felt great and was the first of the day.

On City View

The last miles were hilarious. I got a bit giddy and took to singing whatever was playing on my iPod at the top of my lungs. I was having a blast out there. The three hills of City View were fine. They are steep and you feel like a hard core chick running up them with 20 miles on your legs. It was great to see the truck at the finish, and nice to not have to run 24 miles back downhill to Highlands Ranch.

Nicole and I in the car afterwards

Great Run. Everyone in the group did well today. Some went less than they hoped, others went more. It was nice to hear about everyone's experiences of the day. Troy did a really fantastic job of SAG support. He had to manage taking care of runners of very different abilities. He missed Steve at the top by 10 minutes b/c Steve was so fast today. Troy has that quiet strong demeanor and I think most of the Practical Coaching folks feel that they are in good hands with his support. Thank you Troy (again and again and again).

Here is the video, please excuse my singing, but I could not bear to leave it out, because it made me laugh.