I spent a long last weekend in Colorado where my cross training days were covered by skiing Breckenridge and Vail on Friday and Saturday respectively. I also went for my long run (5 miles) on a treadmill at a 24 Hour Fitness location in Denver before I flew home on Sunday night.

My ski weekend was excellent since there was no traffic, good snow and no lines at any of the chairlifts. The only downside was the cold – it was in the low 20s on Friday and the high 20s on Saturday but since we were dressed for the cold it was not too bad.

Since my last ski experience was over a year ago, I had forgotten what a good workout skiing can be. It was fun to ski some of the harder stuff at both Breck and Vail – especially the backcountry runs with lots of trees. The runs with bumps seem to take two to three times the energy of the regular cruser runs but we did plenty of both.

Thankfully the Sunday run was only 5 miles since I’m unaccustomed to the thin air in Denver. I started at 6.9 MPH on the treadmill and worked my way up to 7.3 and then back down to 7.1 depending on how fast the music was on my iPod. I finished the last mile at an 8 minute-mile pace (7.5 MPH) and felt pretty strong at the end. I finished the workout with a good stretching session and 3 sets of 10 pushups for good measure.

The mid-week runs remain the same this week … 3 miles today, 4 tomorrow, and 3 on Thursday. I get a rest day on Friday and have a 9 mile run on Saturday which will be my longest ever.

All-in-all I feel good now. My toe isn’t bothering me and I feel rested and relaxed. I hope this is true after this weekend and going forward when the mileage really starts to increase. I hope I can run outside on Saturday morning since 80 minutes on a treadmill does not sound like fun (see post below on Tutenstein).