Awesome Run From Keystone To Dillon

What an awesome run today. It was 15 degrees and a brilliant blue sky. It snowed six inches yesterday so there was a nice coat on the ground. The roads were plowed, but part of the run is on trails so there was plenty of mushy snow to slog through.

I woke up at 11am after sleeping 13 hours. I continue to be tired from the week and I was congested – clearly I was fighting off a mild head cold. I don’t mind running with a head cold so that wasn’t going to slow me down. I did some email, had coffee, woke up, went to the bathroom, suited up, and hit the road.

And what a beautiful road it was. I’ve done this run many times, but I think it’s been more than a year since the last time I did it. The first two miles were sluggish but once I got in a groove I just cruised. I had an annoying stretch on Highway 6 around mile 5 as a few cars (actually SUVs) weren’t very nice and I ate some snow covered gravel. I only had to be on Highway 6 for a mile or so – once I was back on the trails I was in a happy, quiet, chilled out place.

I never felt like I had to work that hard – my HR stayed in the 140s for most of the run. My coach had me doing an 8:1 pattern which is sneaky since that means he wants me to do 9 minute miles on my next marathon (yeah – I’m learning all of his tricks).

The path on the Dillon Reservoir was plowed and sunny so I was able to pick it up near the end. I only saw one person the whole way so it was a perfect isolated run.

Amy met me at Fiesta Jalisco where I’m still the Foursquare Mayor and I gobbled down some shrimp fajitas while I warmed up. Totally win.