Saturday 27 September 2014

One more to go

So my incredible summer has all so quickly come to an end and I now find myself sitting at home in Scotland. The summer was easily the greatest I have ever had. I managed to somehow see so much of Colorado and run in so many spectacular places I am kind of lost as to what was the best. All of my running days were amazing in their own way. There was only one day in 3 months that it rained all day and luckily I had scheduled a rest day then anyway. Boulder , Steamboat , Aspen , Leadville , Crested Butte , Silverton....... and so on. All incredible places I could explore forever. I have way too many highlights with Run Rabbit Run being the obvious although I think the run that sticks out the most in my mind is the afternoon I ran Longs Peak. I left late in the day not expecting to summit but felt so strong the whole way and made it to the top all on my own in a good time. I just loved the speed and style that I got up there. Carrying next to nothing and just giving it a bloody good go and it all paid off. I don't think I have ever been happier on a summit than I was on that one.

An amazing end to my summer
seeing the fall colours in Aspen
Looking back on the race and like all races it really hasn't sunk in what happened. The highs , the lows and everything that goes with that kind of distance. The race went so well for me and even though most out there with think that was the normal outcome due to the summer I had to put in it was still bloody hard work and I trained so so hard to be able to feel like this in the race. I went out to the states to train and improve on my long slow flat running but to be honest although I think I improved a little on it I believe I actually got stronger on my climbing and descending which I was already decent at anyway, Apart from the Leadville 50 miler I really did not do any huge training runs over 20 miles. Most of my training was up and down 14'ers and that kind of shows on my race splits when I got to the climbs and descents. I am feeling really strong right now sitting home back at sea level with the odd little ache and pain here and there after some short runs but this is normal I guess. I do however have one more race to go.
The day after I returned. Running Curved Ridge.
Car to car in 1hr 06mins and to be honest , it felt
so easy running at this low altitude.
I head off down to the Lake District tomorrow for a week to recce the course for the 3x3000 80km.  It's a stunning looking course which is 99% single track and takes in the summits of Scafell Pike , Helvellyn and Skiddaw and has 4000m of climbing. I am really unsure what to expect here. There is no chance I will get a placing like RRR. I just hope my legs can handle that distance just 3 weeks after a 100 miler. I hope I can feel strong and have a nice injury free finish to my summer. Woody is going to be running this as well so I hope to run with her for the entire race unless however she(like she always does) has a blinder and disappears but I will do my best to keep up and if she has a bad day then I am happy to stick with her and help her through assuming I am feeling good. I am a little nervous about it though. I ain't superman and 3 weeks is not really a huge time for recovery from a 100. I haven't really run much since RRR. A few little 5 milers and 6 milers in Scotland but that's it. I will just see how I feel on the day.

My local Largs Hill run. Always good fun.
I am leaving this blog short and sweet as I am off to pack and check I have everything that is on the stupidly huge kit list for the race. Race report and more thoughts on Colorado will be up next weekend once I bring my running season to an end.

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