Bighorn Training...the Final Countdown!

Bighorn 30K Trail Run...2011

Saturday, June 18th

Less than 3 weeks away...

May 30-June 5:

• Monday:  Working the Bolder Boulder today.  Have to be at Boulder Ops at 0500 and will be driving a wheelchair van, resupplying the other EMS crews along the course.  Today was so much different than running the race the last 4 years.  And although I enjoyed running the race with my family...the slip 'n slides, belly dancers, drummers, dorrito chip aid station, bacon aid station, water balloon aid station, squirt gun aid station definitely enhanced he running experience...the 50,000 runners converging at the end of the race out of the CU stadium and into the field house for our cloth lunch bag full of goodies and into the narrow breezeway to the race expo had me feeling trapped and claustrophobic.  I would start to freak out and make my family get me back to the car as quickly as possible.  

• Today was an entirely different experience.  I showed up at Boulder Ops, listened to the morning briefing for all the various EMS crews that would be assisting sick and injured runners and spectators for the day, adorned myself with the mustard yellow event polo shirt, signed out my radio, located my van...I was officially Shag Wagon #2...and yes, every time I responded to comm ("Shag 2 go ahead") I had trouble not cracking a smile...who comes up with these designators??, waited for the EMS Aid Station crews to load their gear into the back of my van, then navigated the closed roads and finally slipped through a barricade to get my crews to their designated mile markers, dropped all four crews off, tried to get off the race course as the Wheelchair Race would be starting in minutes and they finish 6 miles in record speeds, got out in time and found my way back to the start of the race where Micah and Maddie were waiting for their wave to start, and I waited until Comm called "Shag 2" to go bring gear to any of the crews.  Comm finally called me right before the start of the final race, the elite men's race, to pick up the EMS crews along the course.  I watched the elite women and men warm up, then the women started and 10 minutes later the men were off.   I followed behind the elite men's race along the course and picked up the EMS Aid Station crews.  Then we proceeded to the crowded expo behind CU stadium to pick up the gear from the MASH tent and Stadium crews.  Back to Ops for pizza and debriefing of the day.  My family came and picked me up just as the meeting finished and we headed back to Fort Collins together.  Not too bad...I'm hoping next year I'll be promoted from Shag 2 to Bike Medic.

Maddie was determined to beat her previous years' times of 1:34...
this year she ran the 10K in 1:29!!

• Tuesday:  I know the plan is to take today off, but I'm inclined to run up to Horsetooth Rock tomorrow morning...OK, change of plans...rolled out of bed at 0930, ate some sugar cereal (one of my weaknesses), then went for an easy 6 mile run with Alex in Pineridge.  Decided to make it a little challenging by running several 10second all out sprints up the steep hilly sections.  It was a perfectly lazy way to start summer (Alex and the kids are officially on summer vacation now that school is out).  The temperature was a nice balmy 65 degrees with a mild southeasterly wind, bright blue skies, the smell of sunscreen on my warm skin, the sharp, yet melodic trill of the Meadowlarks, soft dirt and hard rocks underfoot....ahhh, perfect!  

• Wednesday:  Off...working a 10 hour shift on the wheelchair van today.  My legs are sore from the last two runs so I'll give them a rest today and tomorrow.

• Thursday:

• Friday:

• Saturday:

• Sunday:

June 6-12:

June 13-19:

6 week Training Plan...courtesy of my coach, Alex May

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
May 30-June 5	Bolder BOULDER	off	Pineridge 6 mile fartlek- run all up hills hard	off	Easy 3 miles in Vail	Teva Mtn Games	Teva Mtn Games 5K Trail Dog Race
June 6-12	Pineridge 6 miles easy	off	Pineridge with Down Hill Mile and park cool down 6 miles	off	Park 3 miles	off	Hewlet Gulch 8 miles
June 12-19	Pineridge 6 miles easy	off	Park 3 miles	off	off	Big Horn 30K Race	rest