Peter Fleming is the only masters runner to run under an hour in the Garden of the Gods 10-Mile Run. Photo by Rob Lucas

Peter Fleming has a love-hate relationship with the Garden of the Gods 10-Mile Run. He never really wanted to compete in the tough - but beautiful – race with its battery of hills and famous scenery. Then he tried it, and he suffered, but he came back for more. And in 2014, at age 53, he became the first masters runner to cover those iconic 10 miles (on the current course) in less than an hour, clocking 59 minutes, 32 seconds. Craig Young, 41 clocked a blazing 54:28 in 1998 on a different course layout.

A Scottish-born runner with a thick accent and sense of humor, Fleming lives in Colorado Springs and works at the Colorado Running Company. After two trips in the Garden 10, the masters’ record caught his attention.

“It kind of put the carrot in front of me,” Fleming said. “Or, in Scotland, the pint of beer in front of me. It was all downhill from there, really.”

He earned his spurs as a marathon runner, posting a personal best of 2:13:32. With the 40^th running of the Garden of the Gods 10-Mile run and 10K set for June 12, Fleming talked about his training routine leading up to his record run.

It all started in February: I built up a lot of strength in my legs over the winter. This was a one-time goal for me. It wasn’t like I started training a month before. So I did a lot of lunges and squats to build up the quadriceps, build up my glutes for the hills and pavement. Basically just very light reps in the gym. No heavy weights. Things like single-leg squats, clam shells. All of these things helped. I wasn’t doing it every day, but maybe once or twice a week for eight weeks.

Video interview following his record run in 2014

Early season running: And then I was running a lot of trails at the time. I was running in the Garden, Ute Valley Park, Palmer Park. Then I slowly converted that trail running over to road running and more, kind of, speed workouts.

You have to (move from trails to pavement) really gradually, but you have to do it. There is no getting around it. I did a lot of my basework on trails to keep my legs from getting sore. The last six to eight weeks I did more running on asphalt. Mostly downhill running, just to get eccentric contraction muscle breakdown. I did a couple of good hard races. I did the Bolder Boulder, which is not an easy course, and I did the Take 5in the Garden, which is a good warmpup. It's only five miles, but it gets your legs ready.

And the head, you have to be thinking right because the Garden is one of these places where it plays with your head a little bit. All of these things contributed.

The hills: For me the worst hill is the big one (beginning at about Mile 4 near the intersection of Gateway Rd. and Juniper Way Loop.) I don’t care who you are, whether you’re the best in the world, or you’re on performance enhancing drugs, it’s still really tough. I kind of focus on that one mainly … to get up that one as best I can. If you can get up that one and feel fairly recovered and fairly fresh, the second half of the Garden is actually easier than the first half.

Hill training: Mostly, I did reps up the big hill (at Mile 4.) I would maybe do four of them with a three-mile warmup and three warmdown. I did that about four times and it seemed to help. I didn’t really focus on any of the other hills, the one up to Balanced Rock, or anything like that. I just worked on the main one because it comes at a difficult point in the race. That first five miles is pretty taxing.

Racing on hills:  A lot of races I ran (while building up to the Garden,) I focused on climbing the hills really strong, and then floating, I call it floating. There is really not a lot you can do running downhill. You can’t really increase your cadence. You can try, but you’re over-striding, you’re going to do some damage, so for me it was all about working the uphills as hard as I could and then cruising the downhills. I mean you’re breaking on the downhills, so you have to be consistent with what you’re doing.

Mileage: I was running 30 miles a week. Two pretty hard 10-mile runs, and then two fives and the rest was on the elliptical because my legs can’t take 50-60 miles a week anymore. Believe it or not, you can do the Garden on 30 miles a week. It just needs to be high-quality stuff. It’s a good idea to run the course, but don’t run it at race pace. If you are going to run (the whole course as a tempo run), run it four weeks out, then don’t run it again. You don’t want to risk injury. I would do a max of 30 miles a week. The key thing is consistency, running at least four times a week, at least one long run. It doesn’t have to be in the Garden. The key is just getting time on your feet.

Peaking: One of the things that is hardest to learn as an athlete is to peak. That’s something I learned through my running career, is how to get ready on the day. You have to do cycles of training so, eventually, you are ready to click on the day. Even then you can never be guaranteed that everything will work out. But fortunately everything clicked that day. If your legs are fresh for the race, you are probably going to be OK. If you are already beaten up, by seven miles you’re going to be pretty much shot.

Tapering: Sunday (a week before the race) do six or seven miles, then take a day or two. You don’t need to run, you can do elliptical or cycling. On Tuesday, maybe five miles, Wednesday five miles. All the running during the week is easy jogging. Friday, three miles, then call it good. There isn’t anything you can add that is going to make you any better on the day except for rest and recovery. And a little bit of focus on the race. You don’t want to go to the start line like ... whistling. You want to be a little nervous about it. If you’re not, then I don’t think you’re going to run a great race.