Or group is growing! I love the winter months when Steve and Andrea send out a mass email to all the folks they know inviting them to join in our weekend group workouts. Lots of people pop in for the camaraderie, and go their way when the season hits. I love getting to know new people and interacting with athletes that I'm not used to. Very Fun.

The run on tap for this weekend was a 7.5 mile loop with 10 sets of the Red Rocks stairs in the middle. Last year I did two sets of the stairs and was in a world of hurt the next day, so I was a little nervous.

We took off up and over dinosaur ridge. I loved this part of the run and would love to come back sometime and run it hard and fast. It would be really fun then! The views are great. Here is a shot of Tony.

The stairs actually went really well. I started out conservative through the first 5 sets and then went for it the last five sets. I was happy with that plan, happy that I stuck with it, and happy to have completed the stairs in one piece. I got this cool pic of some of us after we were done with the stairs. I love this picture.

Top of the stairs

The way back was a hoot. The pace was picked up and I ran hard to the top of the mesa with the boys. I felt good running hard and enjoyed taking the longer way back to the cars. It was super fun to run with Dave today. He is a total rock star and he schooled those stairs today (the poor stairs are still weeping after the wrath of Dave).

There were times today when I just wanted to RUN. I didn't want to hold back and run smart. Part of me today just wanted to FLY, to go as hard as I knew how. But, I kept my cool. When we ran hard up the last hill towards the mesa it got me all excited to go crazy. But, we slowed down from there and cruised home. I can tell I'm ready for Moab, ready to give it a go. I need to develop a strict plan for pacing so I don't use up all this energy in the first 5 miles!

Video of the stairs. Now multiply that by 10!

On tap for tomorrow is a swim clinic and a long swim at DU afterwards. I'm really excited for this one. Hopefully I can get some underwater video footage!