Back to School

School started this week and is off to a good start. I'm teaching 7th grade this year which means I have many of the same students that I had last year which is nice since it means I don't have to start from zero in building relationships and teaching expectations and classroom procedures. Kids seem glad to be back at school and although I had a great summer of adventures, it is nice to get back to a routine.

I have not been running any significant miles for the last several weeks since I was tapering and recovering from Grand Mesa and then tapering again for Lean Horse. I ran the Eldora 11K trail race a week and a half ago and although I wasn't incredibly fast, I felt good and had funon the trails. I had a dissapointing run at the Mountain Ave. mile last Thursday with a very painful 5:40. It wasn't that long ago that I ran mile repeats faster than that, but I really have been doing no speed training for the last couple years so I shouldn't be too surprised. I had a couple of good runs this past weekend. Ean and I ran the Indian Summer loop on the Blue Sky trail on Saturday and I went out and ran a semi tepo run on the Bacon Strip 10 mile loop (1:16:54) on Sunday.

My plan is to just keep running easy for the next week and a half and hope that getting to the starting line at Lean Horse pays off. Last year I ran Pike Peak the weekend before Lean Horse and was part of a 6 x 6 ultra team at the Wild West relay the weekend before that. I think all the downhill running in those two events took a lot out of my legs and I paid for it in the last 17 miles of the 100.

My mom is coming out to be a part of my Lean Horse crew again and Ean is in great shape to pace me through the final miles. I'm looking forward to the trip to South Dakota with the family and the run through the Black Hills.

Maddie ran the Mini Muddy Buddy in Boulder on Saturday (that's her on the left flying over the wall in the front of the 9 year old wave in the picture above) and we all had a good time cheering her on. There was talk of all of us running the Muddy Buddy next year with me and Micah as one team and Ean and Maddie as another.

Cross Country starts next week and I'm excited to coach the Blevins team for the 3rd year. Fall is a wonderful time in Northern Colorado and I love the afternoon runs with the team.