It's Summer Roundup week. To me, this 2nd leg of the Triple Crown of Running is the hardest of the three races. It's the shortest but I feel packs the biggest punch. As daunting as the Pikes Peak Ascent is, it's done at a lower intensity level. At my age, the longer stuff that has more aerobic running is much more in my wheelhouse. The Summer Roundup is just hard the whole way. High heart rate, punchy climbs on loose footing and congestion makes this a personal sufferfest. The course has changed for 2015 and I'll test it out tomorrow but I'm guessing it will be just as hard. With all of that being said, my focus is on the Pikes Peak Ascent and my 100 mile race in September. As a result of that thinking, I am not resting this week as I normally would for an important race. I don't want to take a mini taper and miss out of almost a weeks worth of high end training. I still expect to run well at the Summer Roundup but could be missing the ability to dig deep at the end. To me, this is an acceptable tradeoff for the extra fitness I will gain this week that will be applied toward my finish time on Pikes Peak. Bring on Bear Creek!!