short is what long used to be

Back when I was beginning to train for collegiate nationals over the winter I would usually do a long run over the weekend. Since we are fortunate to have a ton of open space trails in Fort Collins, but these are mostly 10-15 miles away, I would bike to the trailhead, get in a run, and bike back. Usually this ended up being a 2.5-3 hour workout, which would be the longest of the week.

Today I went to Coyote Ridge, which has an elevation profile that looks like this:
Basically it's either up or down, with a couple of stairs thrown in just to keep you from getting lazy. Oftentimes I'll pass (going up hill) or get passed by (going downhill) mountain bikers on the first couple of ridges, but I rarely if ever see anyone on the middle ridge which is a little further off the main path. As tough as it is going up and down those ridges, it was beautiful to see the hillsides finally turning green, which will last for about a month before the grass turns yellow/brown again. There was also plenty of wildlife out and about such as prairie dogs, which were friendlier than most I've encountered, and a couple species of birds. I even think I heard some rattlesnakes in the grass but they stayed off the trail which is fine by me.

Anyway, I realized that while this workout used to be my long run, it seems short now that I'm doing 4-5 hour bike rides on weekend and 15+ mile long runs during the week. So far I seem to be handling it well, but one thing I have noticed is that I have to be very careful about when to go hard, because I will feel it the next day. That means swimming tomorrow!