I managed to be recovered well enough from last weekend's race by this past Friday. I kicked off my ten day volume block with a ride out to Fort Collins and Back with Marilyn. It was right at 100 miles in 5 hours with some steady, and even hard, sections along the way (followed by a 4 mile run off the bike). I guess the highlight (read:lowlight) of the ride would be a gift shop store owner (on your right as you hit the T in the road in Masonville coming from the south) refusing to let Marilyn_BUY_some water from the faucet. Please, if you ride out in this area; take your refueling business elsewhere.

Saturday brought warm temperatures and another good day of training. It started at Elks' pool with Billy and Dennis swimming 4K+ with a main set of 2 x 1000. I was pretty tired from poor sleep, but I warmed into the set nicely. A couple hours after the swim Billy and I headed up to Magnolia Road for a long run. It was getting pretty warm with strong sunshine that feels much different at 8000+ feet that it does for our flatland friends. I wasn't carrying any water (forgot my fuelbelt) so I tried a different strategy by pounding 50+ ounces of water shortly before starting the run. I felt a bit ill on the way up, but it did seem to do the trick as I avoided any hardcore dehydration. The run felt a bit rough at times, but I still managed to better my time from two weeks ago. Magnolia Road is the only place that I have a lot of data from so its pretty cool to see the progression over the past few years. I've come a long way from when I started.

I finished Saturday with a short one hour spin in the flats. Two days down.