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Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 1997 2:09 PM
Subject: It’s time!
Well I hope you all enjoyed a month of R&R from a long season, but alas it is time to start building a base for next year. This is the most important step in a running program so do consider coming out!!!!!!!
Starting this Sunday, November 30th, we will meet every Sunday at 8:00am, in the COG parking lot (one lower than the new one by the Incline) for long runs on the Peak. Six of us put together a run last Sunday and had a great time. We put it together late Friday (at the Fall Series awards) so we could not inform the rest of you because most of you get your e-mail at work... I guess I could collect phone #s but hey, that just sounds like work!
At any rate, the plan is alternating runs every weekend with:
1) Go out Ute Indian Trail up to the Experimental Forest and down to No Name Creek (aka French Creek) and then back down Barr trail
2) Up Barr Trail and then take a LEFT about 100 yards after No Name Creek (aka French Creek) to head out toward the COG railway. When we get to the water pipe bridge we will head right and go UP (very UP) and connect back into the Barr Trail and head back down it.
These should be right at 2 hour runs although Sunday we had to run around in the parking lot for 10 minutes to get 2 hours after doing loop 1. Last year we kept doing loop 1 because we got tired of loop 2 from the previous year. However, when Pikes Peak rolled around, several of us felt like we did not know the lower section of Barr Trail well enough hence the alternating runs.
For those that want the long-term plan it goes something like this:
In January we will add onto the loops taking them to 2 1/2 — 3 hours by crossing the water pipe bridge and heading up the COG railway where we do a 20-30 minute tempo run trying to step on every other rail until we reach Mid Mountain Station. We will then head over to the Barr Trail and connect into it by the 1/2 mile to Barr Camp sign where we will then head down... Marchish we will add to the loop again by going another mile up the COG... Aprilish we will be back on the INCLINE on Thursdays however this year we will also alternate that run with tempo runs on Barr Trail to again better prepare for Pikes... Late Mayish/early Junish we will move the Sunday long runs to Elk Park trail and head up to the top of the Peak for the altitude phase of the program...
Over the last several winters we have had some great runs and lots of fun. Often there is ice to make things really interesting and, in fact, it is rare that some of us NOT fall down after we start the December loops.
No FAQ for this run but you are ALL invited! The more people that show the better because the chances of having someone at your pace gets better. However, even if no one else ends up with you, just being on a schedule and starting with people makes the whole process of Sunday long runs a lot easier! We must pay the price now, so that we can be rewarded in August!
Also the run is NEVER cancelled!!!!! Several of us even did the run on that minus 13 degree Sunday last year... Sometimes, in really bad weather like that, it is just a couple of the more sick folk who show but someone IS GOING TO SHOW so why not be the one to get the bragging rights?!!!!!!
Top 3 reasons why it is time to start long runs...
3) Starting to get used to sitting around as a way of life
2) Thanksgiving Dinner
1) Pikes Peak is only 9 months away and it hurts just like having a baby (or since I do not know that for sure--> it hurts just like a kidney stone, which I do know about and am told by those that have had both is the worse of the two...)
Go out hard, when it hurts speed up...
Matt Carpenter
www.skyrunner.com
The tagline is a joke but if you pull it off I promise you will win every race you enter!
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