Tuesday 033109 11 miles

• I slept 10 hours last night!  My body has definitely been doing two things over the last couple of days:
  • the Achilles is getting markedly better.  Each run is a bit better than the last.
  • protesting about running in general.  In other words, it is letting me know that "hey dumb ass - we have not run in 8 days."  And so I have felt things I have not felt in a bit:  like being tired in the evening, soreness (hamstrings) and being hungry.  All good and I expect it to pass in a few days as I re-adapt to load.
• 11 miles on the treadmill.  Started at 8.3, and then upped it .1 mph every two minutes through 10.1.  This brought me to a little over 5.5 in 36 minutes.  Backed it off to 8.6 for six minutes and started the ramp up again through 10 miles.  Warmed down with a mile.  72:30.
• March - 203 miles on  March.  1517 minutes; Year 800 miles, 5924 minutes.  9 days off on the month, but a lot of days where mileage was much lower than typical.  Surprised that it was as high as it was on whole.

Cross Posting: 10 Things We Can Do To Ensure Running Longevity

Again, stealing from Pete ...  please comment at the original post.

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• 10 THINGS we can do at age 40 to make running at age 60 the new 50 ... or we can do at age 50 to make 70 the new 60 ... or....
  The best thing that can possibly happen to any of us is that we get older.
  It certainly beats the alternative.
  But the worst thing about the "best thing" is that as we get older we "age." Which in running terms has become equated with slowing down, suffering more injuries, and ultimately enjoying our running and racing less.
  Don't believe it.
  Because this is the truth: the best thing about the "worst thing about the best thing" is that we can directly impact the way in which we age. It's true. Effective training and lifestyle strategies can in large part offset many of the negative consequences we've previously associated with "age."
  And while we're at it, let's toss out that term "age" altogether. It gives the wrong impression. It implies irreversible decline in ability. It implies Greek tragedy: predestined human suffering due to a reversal of fortune - in our case the reversal from being better runners when we were younger to becoming broken-down old nags as we add candles to our birthday cakes.
  But there is no tragedy here. There's only a hurdle to be overcome. The same as when we were 20 and couldn't run 150 miles a week like the NCAA All-American down the street. Or when we discovered our time in the local 5K wasn't fast enough to qualify for the Olympic Trials ... but we kept running and racing anyway. It's a challenge to be met. Not a physical disorder to be mistaken for a pink slip. And certainly not an excuse for accepting the negative consequences of ineffective training strategies - previously mistaken for "age" and resulting in (you guessed it) slower times, more injuries, and less enjoyment from our running.
  Put simply: The problem with our bodies isn't age; the problem is the way we train.
  Here then, are 10 effective strategies for ensuring happy, healthy, and hopefully-speedy running longevity ...

10 THINGS WE CAN DO TO ENSURE RUNNING LONGEVITY

• 1 Go Long

If we want to maintain our endurance, we have to train endurance. Studies have shown that we can retain our aerobic capacity well into middle-age and beyond. But we can't retain it by sitting on the couch, channel-surfing with one hand and assembly-lining snacks with the other. So step one in our training has to be the actual act of running. Lace up your Nikes, head out the door, and go long - remembering that "long" is not a set distance. It varies from person to person, and from day to day. And while you're going long, think about this: a recent study out of Stanford University confirms that older runners have fewer disabilities than their non-running peers (and those disabilities we have are delayed 15-16 years), are 7 times less likely to require knee replacement, suffer fewer cancer and neurological problems, and can expect our health benefits to increase as we enter our 70s, 80s, and even 90s. Which is lucky, since we're only half as likely to die early as non-runners.

• 2 Maintain Your Stride

It all begins with our stride. Our stride is the single most important determinant of our future training and racing success. When we talk about "stride," we're actually talking about 2 things. The first is "stride length," which is how far each running step carries us. The second is "stride turnover" or "stride frequency," which is how quickly we move from one stride to the next - if we were an engine, stride frequency would be equivalent to "rpm," or "revolutions per minute." Studies over the past 20 years have all come to the same conclusion: As we age, our stride frequency remains essentially the same, but our stride length decreases. In fact, by the time we reach our 80s, our stride length decreases by an average of 40%. That means we'd need almost twice the stride frequency to maintain our mile pace from age 40 to age 80. The culprit here is declining range of motion in our hips and knees. The solution is to reintegrate and strengthen the muscles involved in this range of motion. How do we do this? Technique drills and hill running are good places to start! A session of drills once a week combined with regular sessions of hill repeats can go a long way to halting - even reversing - the shortening of our stride.

• 3 Run Hard

If we want to continue running fast, we must continue to run hard. No less a runner than Earl Fee, who holds dozens of age group World Records ranging from the 300 meter hurdles to the Mile, has stated, "It is well known that to stay young, intensity of exercise is more important than volume." At age 76, Fee still had a maximum heart rate of 190, a resting pulse of 43, and 5% body fat. This is a man who knows what he's talking about. Studies predict that we'll lose 10% of our muscle mass by age 50, then up to another 45% by the time we're in our 70s. To stop that loss in its tracks, we run hard. Intense exercise stimulates the release of elevated levels of Growth Hormone (GH), which in turn helps us to maintain that essential muscle mass. What qualifies as running hard? Try intervals (at 5K effort or quicker), Fartlek, hill repeats, and races. As an added bonus, all these activities help us to maintain our stride!

• 4 Reduce Your Impact

Every running step we take creates an impact that our body must absorb. And a 2003 study out of The Netherlands indicated that older runners suffered much higher impact forces than younger runners - presumably due to a loss of "shock-absorbing capacity" in our musculo-skeletal systems. While our knee-jerk response might be to buy heavily-cushioned running shoes, there's a simpler solution: Let Mother Nature provide the cushioning. Run on trails, grass, and other soft surfaces. Pool running's a great idea too. And here's another way to lessen impact: Slow down on recovery days. If you've planned an easy distance run, keep it easy! We get maximum aerobic benefit at a very leisurely pace anyway, so why push it? Your joints will love the lessened impact, your muscles will love the recuperative effort level, and you'll love the injury-free training.

• 5 Incorporate Resistance Training

Really, it's common sense: if we lose lean muscle mass as we age, then we'd better do something to build lean muscle mass as we age. Enter resistance training. A 2007 study on older adult men and women found that 6 months of resistance training could substantially reverse muscle weakness and mitochondrial impairment ("mitochondria" are the energy factories of our cells, and they're very important to us runners!). But before you break out that weight set in your garage, remember that we're not looking to become Arnold Schwarzenegger. A couple sessions a week addressing both upper and lower body training is all we need. And 30 minutes is plenty of time to spend on each session. Also, let's keep the reps high and the weight relatively low. Pick a weight that allows you to reel off 8-10 reps without a huge strain. Weight training helps to maintain our stride and increase our speed. And do you know what else it does? It provides a terrific line of defense against bone density loss. And against tendon and ligament weakening. All of which leads to this: lessened impact when we run. You see, good training strategies tend to reinforce one another!

• 6 Keep Your Balance

Our ability to balance is essential to training injury-free. And it's also one thing most runners take for granted. As long as we can walk a straight line without toppling onto our keisters, we figure we're okay. Well surprise, we're not. One consequence of lost muscle mass is a loss in our ability to balance. Add in an accompanying loss in our ability to control nerve-to-muscle connections due to long-term neglect (see above reference to sitting on the couch and channel-surfing), and it's no wonder we're suddenly having a hard time running downhill on trails, negotiating 180 degree turns during road races, or tracking down our kids or grandkids during games of tag on the front lawn. The solution is to incorporate simple balance-training exercises into our regimen. A recent study found that football players who balanced on each leg for 5 minutes, for 5 days a week, for 4 weeks, could reduce the incidence of ankle sprains by 77%. Imagine what the same exercise can do for your downhill running! This and other balance exercises are essential to both healthy and speedy running. And once your balance is up to par, you'll be able to add plyometrics (bounding, hopping, etc.) to your resistance training, increasing your return on that end too!

• 7 Remain Flexible

I know, I know, we've all heard that stretching before we run has gone the way of the dinosaurs. And it has. But that doesn't mean that our focus on remaining flexible has gone with it. Every training strategy we've discussed so far relies upon the implicit assumption that we're working to improve our flexibility. It's just that the idea of "static stretching" - holding a stretch to the farthest point possible for a prolonged period of time to elogate our muscles - has been replaced by the practices of dynamic stretching, active stretching, ballistic stretching, and other various forms of stretching. For our purposes as runners, here's what we need to know: yoga and pilates are good, techique drills are a far more effective addition to our warm-up routine than traditional stretching, nice relaxed passive stretching (static stretching without the effort) is great for relieving muscle spasms post-exercise, and all of the steps previously discussed in this "10 Things" list will aid in making Step 7 a reality!

• 8 Watch Your Diet

If you want to get into better running shape without actually running a single step, then lose weight. Your VO2 max will go up, the impact to your body will be lessened, your stride will lengthen, and your flexibility will increase. But of course, there's more to it than that. Where to begin? ... Okay, right off the bat, a Swedish study has shown that people who lose weight and keep it off for 10 years live a lot longer. But since we runners are already going to live a long time, there's also this: simply being overweight triggers our body's inflammation response, which increases our disease and injury risk.

But it's not just about our weight.

It's also about our nutrition. And it's about carbohydrates. As runners, we'll need at least 50% of our calories to come from carbos. For elite distance runners, the percentage runs as high as 80%. And here's a tip: if you want to recover your energy stores faster after a run, eat 50-100 grams of carbos in the first 2 hours post-exercise. Your body's ability to store those carbs as muscle glycogen is ramped up during this post-run window.

We should also talk about antioxidants, which have been the craze in athletic recovery for the last decade-plus. In short, antioxidants are theorized to protect our cells against free radical damage. This leads to faster recovery and less muscle soreness following hard workouts. And darned if studies don't seem to support this. But studies also show that antioxidants work best when obtained by adding fruits and vegetables to our diet. The data on antioxidant supplements is less conclusive. When in doubt, get your antioxidants the old-fashioned way, through Mother Nature.

Before moving on, one other commonly overlooked aspect of our diets needs mentioning: hydration. Yes, water is important. Unfortunately, as we age our thirst mechanism gets lazy. I've long suspected that running plays a role in this. We runners spend decades training our bodies to accomodate ridiculously large amounts of water loss for prolonged periods of time. I'll lose up to 6-8 pounds of water weight during a long run in warm weather. Consequently, we sometimes we put off hydration in our daily routines. But good hydration gives us: mental clarity, better delivery of nutrients to our cells, an improved ability to handle stress, a reduction in joint pain, and better overall flexibility. Hey, I'll drink (water) to that!

• 9 Don't Stress

Seriously, chill. They say "stress kills," but before it kills it can do a lot of damage along the way. It lowers our immunity, increases inflammation throughout our body, slows healing, decreases bone density, decreases muscle mass, increases fat, increases blood pressure, intensifies blood sugar imbalances, and - let's face it - messes with our minds. We all know that running is a great way to relieve stress. But we also know that stress can keep us from lacing up our Nikes. Stress about work. Stress about our finances. Stress about family and social and community obligations. Stress about how out-of-shape we've gotten while stressing over everything else. So find ways to help both you and your body relax. There are some great physical therapies: yoga, massage, even playing games like touch football and tennis. And there are great mental outlets: meditation, reading a book, listening to music, or seeing a good play. There are creative outlets: writing, painting, and dance come to mind. And there are hobbies. And vacations. And there's that old standby: sex. Mostly, there's a lot of life left to live, and a lot of good reasons to enjoy it stress-free ... one of the best being all the stress-free runs we've got left to log.

• 10 Get Some Rest

If there's one thing we need to understand about training, it is this: it's not the training we do that counts, it's the training from which we can recover. For us older runners, it's an undeniable fact of training that we need more recovery following hard workouts. A workout that demanded a single day of recovery in our 20s requires 2 days in our 40s ... possibly 3 days in our 50s ... and might be our only hard day of the week in our 60s. So easy does it. Recovery makes us better runners. Forcing workouts before we've recovered only breaks us down. Remember, when it comes to running: slower is faster. The quickest way to become better runners is to take our time getting there.

But recovery isn't just a matter of training strategies. It's also a matter of sleep. A 12-year study in Great Britain found that people who got between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night were less likely to die. That's right: sleep more, live longer. And then there's this: sleep allows our body to repair cell damage and keeps our immune systems strong. It also lowers our stress, increases our flexibility, and keeps us alert and refreshed. And do you know what helps us sleep better? That's right, a proper diet, daily exercise, and all those great activities we mentioned in our discussion on relieving stress. You see, it's all just one big circle. Everything we do to improve our running longevity helps everything else we do to achieve the same goal.

It truly is about "living the life" - about incorporating effective strategies for running longevity into our training in order to meet our larger goal: improving all the mental, physical, and social experiences that define our lives.

Good luck!

Monday 033009 3 miles, 7 miles

• AM - easy, in the snow, wake up run.  3 miles.  25 minutes.  Achilles continues to slowly make its way back.  I am feeling the "love" of not running for eight days though ... 
• PM - treadmill.  7 miles 50 minutes.  Started loosening up a bit so I played with the pace up to 6:18 (started at 8 mph).  I have definitely lost a touch of the go from some of my mill workouts last month, but no sweat. 

Sunday 032909 5 miles, 3 miles

• Local  Buzz Burrell gets some pub on Runner's World
• Our house sump pit actually pumps water out.  We use it to pump water up and out into the yard.  It started pushing water out nearly every 15 minutes today ... (first time this year).
• AM - easy five miles, 39 minutes.  So the good news is that the Achilles was not pissed off this AM.  I think the best way for me to describe how it feels is this:  there is a small range of motion when it is most stretched where it complains a bit.  Of course, on a run, this occurs at the push off point with every stride - so I feel it.  It is not nearly as bad as it was say two weeks ago but it is not 100% healed.  I feel that I am in a bit of a situation like I was last year.  I got to a point last year with the sports hernia where I concluded additional rest would not really be helpful and I just started training again.  (side note, that injury has slowly gotten better ... I'd say 85% better ... I can still feel that weakness in certain positions, mostly squatting).   So I am going to lean on this bugger a bit and build back on it ... carefully.  Again I was tempted to do more today ... but I need to be careful. 
• Some stats ... waking HR was 44.  Weight at wake up was 139.5.
• A bit sore in the lower back from yesterday's shoveling (there were large chunks of ice that had melted under the snow).  Got in core again today (like 40 minutes .... solid stuff).
• 20 weeks until Pikes as of today.  I want to build back into the program I had originally outlined, but I expect it to shift a bit as I work on getting back into the groove.  I will look to compliment the program / return with a good amount of bike work (probably stat bike).
• Snow bathed the legs for 15 minutes.  This definitely garners crazy looks as people go by.
• PM - picked up a new pair of shoes and figured I give them a spin.  The legs were feeling good so I was curious to test the Achilles a bit.  About the same ... easy three miles, 23 minutes
• Month / year so far (with 12 miles / 91 minutes this week) ... , ... Month 182 miles, month 1370 minutes; Year 779 miles, 5777 minutes

Matt Carpenter Interview

• I am going to do something that I have not done on the site to date - and that is copy somebody else's post verbatim to this blog.  Nearly all the time, I am fine with throwing up a link and leaving it at that.  This blog however IS my training log.  Really.  I don't have another log (unless you count GPS data in other recently acquired tools).  I'd print this bugger off and slip into my log if it were a notebook.  Similarly, I am going to paste in here.   Comments really need to be directly to Peter Magill's site at the original post.
• And oh yeah, I am clearly a fan of Matt's.  Not only is he incredibly talented and hard working, his brings his passion for racing to race direction, a running club, and providing training advice - pretty admirable.  I know that he has been out spoken to many on quite a few occasions, and has definitely pissed some people off.  Sometimes you need to break a few eggs to make an omlet.

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HIGH ALTITUDE MOUNTAIN RUNNER MATT CARPENTER HAS WON ON PIKES PEAK 15 TIMES & HAS RUN A 2:52:57 MARATHON AT AN ALTITUDE OF 14,350'
"Go out hard, when it hurts speed up!" - Matt Carpenter
Quick Facts:

Matt Carpenter
Age 44
Height: 5'7-1/2"
Weight: 118 lbs.
Resting Pulse: 33
VO2 Max: 90.2 (highest ever for a runner - recorded at 6,100')
Residence: Manitou Springs, CO
Family: Yvonne Carpenter (wife), Kyla (daughter)
Occupation: Are you kidding? Just read his resume!
Author: Training for the Ascent and Marathon on Pikes Peak
Running PRs at Non-Altitude: Marathon-2:19
Running PRs at Altitude: Marathon-2:52:57 (at 14,350') ... Marathon-3:22:25 (at 17,060') ... Pikes Peak Ascent-2:01:06 ... Pikes Peak Marathon-3:16:39 ... Leadville Trail 100-15:42:59
Achievements: 15-Time Winner on Pikes Peak (6 ascents, 9 marathons, course record holder for both races), 8-Time Winner of Vail Hill Climb (course record holder), 7-Time Winner of Barr Trail Mountain Race (course record holder), 6-Time Winner of Imogene Pass Run (course record holder), 5-Time Winner of Everest SkyMarathon Tibet (4 at 14,350', 1 at 17,060' ... and course record holder), 5-Time Winner of the Triple Crown of Running Series, 4-Time Winner of Leadville Turquoise Lake 20K (course record holder), 4-Time Winner of the Aspen America's Uphill Snowshoe Race (course record holder), 3-Time Winner of Mount Washington Hill Climb (only American to break 1 hour), etc.
*see link to Matt's site at end of post for more results and achievements
(Photo from Skyrunner.com: Matt Carpenter runs the "Incline," his favorite workout.)
Matt Carpenter knows hills. Carpenter is to mountain running what Lance Armstrong is to cycling. What Tiger Woods is to golf. What Michael Jordan is to basketball. Other mountain runners win races and set records. Matt Carpenter wins races over and over, and he sets records wherever he runs. He's simply one of the greatest mountain runners of all time.
Sir Edmund Hillary said, "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." And Matt Carpenter is the incarnation of this philosophy, running 15 hours a week, ignoring age as an impediment to winning big races, and confiding in this interview that when it comes to success in mountain races, "a large part of the genetics involved might be from the neck up."
While Matt's career has been well-documented (a dozen magazine covers & numerous magazine, newspaper, and Internet interviews), Younger Legs tracked him down to ask some questions the others missed, like "How did you manage to run thousands of miles in remote Third World countries without getting mugged?" and "How much spaghetti do you eat in order to run 2 to 3 hours a day?" ...
Younger Legs: Let's begin with how you got started as a mountain runner ...
Matt Carpenter: In 1984, when I was going to college in Mississippi, my Aunt invited me to Vail, Colorado, where she was attending a nursing convention. There happened to be a race that weekend called the Piney Lake Half Marathon, with the moniker, "Get your hiney up to Piney." The key word there was "up," as Piney Lake sits at about 9,800 feet - which is 1,600 feet above Vail. With each corner I negotiated up the winding dirt road, I was sure of only 2 things - one, the hill had to end soon, and two, I was going to die. Well, I didn't die, but the hill kept going and going. And I was hooked.
I took a picture from the lake back to Mississippi. I looked at it almost daily and set my sites on moving to Vail. I spent two summers there while attending college, before moving there in 1987.
YL: You've run more miles in your life than most good running clubs will run in a year, and you've won more races than most of us will ever run - Is it about the running or the winning?
MC: For the first half of my career, I raced a lot more and with a lot more variety - road races, tri's, bike races, etcetera. And I often jumped in "low key" races. But in 1993, I signed a contract to run with FILA Skyrunners - then two weeks later broke my ankle running in a "low key" race. Had the bone [head of the 5th metatarsal] broke instead of just cracking, it could have been a career-ender. So for the most part I started sticking to more meaningful races.
Next, when you look at the type of races I was doing for Skyrunners, they were very draining affairs, especially with some of the travel involved. So this really cut down on the amount of racing I did.
After that gig ended in 2000, it took me awhile to adjust to marriage, a daughter, and just generally to "find my feet." But once I found them, I discovered that at this point in my career I actually enjoy the training side of it more than the racing side.
(Photo from Skyrunner.com - Matt marries Yvonee during an Incline Club workout.)
I've reached a point where I know where I'm at to such a level that a good workout is just as - if not more - satisfying than the race. It is the process of getting to the race that I love. Riding the line for months on end. Indeed, if the training goes right, sometimes the race becomes an anticlimax.
I don't have to race or win too often to enjoy my running. In fact, for the last 7 years I've only done about 4 races a year.
But to answer the question directly, the common thread has always been that it was about the passion to run and be the best I can be. Out of that came the miles and the wins. Not the other way around. But of course I want to win. To say otherwise would be a lie.
YL: You spent 7 years traveling the world with Fila, training and racing in some very remote Third World locations. When I was young, traveling, and trying to train, a big concern of mine was the daily run - how to get in 5-15 miles from the hostel, hotel, or tent without ending up where I shouldn't be, and then ending up back where I should - at the start. How did you manage to put in all the required training without getting mugged or lost?
MC: There were some major uprisings in Kathmandu one time that was pretty scary, complete with people getting hit with sticks. But we drove beyond that to get to where we were staying. So really, I can't say I've ever run in a place where I was scared for my safety.
The Skyrunners took care of us, and often we were in such remote villages that you almost felt part of the family. If there was any concern, they would load us up in vans and buses and drive us to other locations to run. Or on the other end, we would stay in $300 a night lodging like the Mt. Kenya Safari Club, which I think was highlighted on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
But that's not to say I haven't done some crazy things to get in a run. Pollution has always been the biggest concern for me in some of these locations. So while other runners would go out in the streets, I would do laps down the hall, up the stairs, back down the hall on the the next level, down the stairs, and then the whole thing over and over to get in my training.
But I never got sick on those trips, and I can't think of any other runner who could say that. Indeed, getting to the race healthy was half the battle!
As far as getting lost, I am pretty proud of the fact that I just don't do that. I have a good sense of direction and a pretty good memory. I can run a route once, then go back years later and run it again and get it correct. That is not to say I haven't gone off course in races, but that's not the same as getting lost.
Now, I will say that my first run near Everest base camp was a lot longer than I planned. It was such an awesome setting that I kept saying to myself I would go to the next ridge - much like I do here at home. But then it dawned on me that if I kept doing that I would end up on top of the mountain, as the ridges just kept coming and coming. I was out for far longer than I'd planned and had to run back in the dark. But again, I knew exactly where I was.
(Photo from Skyrunner.com - Matt Carpenter running with Mt. Everest in the background.)

YL: Your signature line is, "Go out hard, when it hurts speed up!" Does that still work for you at this age, or have you had to modify it at all?
MC: That has never been meant to be taken literally. Indeed, if one could pull it off, they would by definition never lose anything! But it is a philosophy of mine more along the lines of - "When things are tough or you are down, you still have to get up and keep trying."
But my personal favorite take on the line was the guy that responded, "Go out hard, when it hurts fake an injury and call it a day."
YL: Your running streak of 5 years & 57 days ended on the day that your daughter Kyla was born. Was ending the streak a relief at that point? Depressing? What?
MC: I think the word is "needed." Somewhere around 4 years, I crossed the line of streaking as part of my training versus streaking to streak.
I don't believe in streaking to streak, and I just had to admit that's what I was doing. It was during that period I mentioned before, where I was trying to "find my feet." So I used Kyla's birth as a perfectly reasonable time to put running on the back burner and "start over" - if you will.
But putting aside that 1-year period, I have always believed that streaking per se can be a very important tool. In fact, the first 4 years of that streak was a very good period for me, as far as my racing goes. Basically, I learned early in my running that if you miss 1 or 2 days a week, you ended up with a good chunk of wasted days at the end of the year. And for me, if I miss a day, it's easy to turn that into 2 or 3 or 4 days. So I just started running every day, and the funny thing is I started getting better.
I no longer have to think about if I am going to run, just where and how long. I still routinely go almost the whole year without missing a day. But when I started throwing the occasional Ultra in the mix, I started having to take some time off after them - both planned and out of necessity.
YL: Okay, you have the highest VO2 max ever recorded for a runner at 90.2, you carry 118 pounds on a 5 foot-7-1/2 inch frame, you thrive on mental toughness, and you train a lot of volume - What do you think accounts most for your success as a runner, or do you think it's a combination of all three?
MC: It's true that you can't take out any of those components and be at a very high level. And I try to avoid the whole genetics versus training thing. I know firsthand that if I don't train I start going downhill pretty fast. Yes, my "downhill" may still be higher than others' "uphill," but that's true across any sport.
But I've worked with enough runners and seen such huge improvements in them that it seems obvious that training is the biggest component - at least until a very high level. And not just training but smart training. I've seen a lot of runners do a lot of stupid things. They blow their races long before the gun goes off. So as pompous as it sounds, a large part of the genetics involved might be from the neck up.
You have got to be smart to stay in the game as long as I have. And yes, I've done a lot of stupid things myself, but the difference is that I try to learn from my mistakes.
YL: It's been reported that you run 3 hours every other day and 1-1/2 hours on your "rest day" - what the rest of us call our "long day." Do you worry about things like mileage and pace on these days, or do you just run?
MC: That's from the New York Times piece [NYT - February 24, 2009 - read it here]. I have no idea where he [reporter Michael Brick] came up with that. I do 2 hours a day, and I try to get in a 3+ hour run on the weekend or at least every other weekend. But I guess you're still thinking that might be a lot since I call 2 hours a "rest" day.
(Photo by Buzz Burrell - Matt Carpenter during 2006 Pikes Peak Marathon.)
So to answer the question, I never worry about mileage. I run by time. In the mountains, and especially at altitude, mileage is irrelevant. If you dwell on it, you are either going to feel lousy because you are doing so little, or you are going to get hurt because you try to do higher mileage - and it will take all day to do it.
For example, you might run for 20 minutes and only cover 1 mile. But if that mile is up the 68% Incline, then that 20 minutes is a harder effort than doing 4 miles on flat terrain at 5 minute pace.
Plus, I find going by mileage is counter-intuitive. If the schedule calls for 10 miles and you feel bad, then you're going to be on your feet longer - which can make you more tired. And if you feel good, you spend less time on your feet when perhaps you could go more.
On the other hand, if I go for a 2 hour run and feel bad, I go slower. That way I don't put in more time on my feet. And although I do less distance, I am actually recovering more.
As far as pace/effort, I don't worry about it on recovery days. I go just hard enough so that I'm still recovered for the next hard day. On the hard days, I worry about everything - especially pace/effort. But again, I keep in the back of my mind that I can't go so hard that I can't recover in time for the next hard day.
Basically, every run has to have a purpose. It must set up the next run.
YL: How much spaghetti [Matt's favorite food] does it take to fuel all those hours of running at high altitude in the mountains?
MC: I don't track it. I eat a lot, but not that much. I mean really, 2 hours equals about 2,000 calories, I guess. Bottom line, one of the things I like about running so much is that I don't have to worry about how much I eat!
YL: Okay, how about telling us a story about Matt Carpenter that we haven't heard?
MC: I got second place in a naked race in Switzerland. It was a two loop race. We did the first loop in our underwear to scope out the course. We ran right in front of storefronts and restaurants. You would look over and see people eating for gosh sakes! The second loop you did butt naked, but carrying your underwear lest you return to find them gone.
The guy that won had obviously done this before. He had perfect form and took off his underwear on the run in 3 perfect strides. I had to stop and never made up the time. Plus, I was probably spending a little too much time looking back at the female runners to put in my best effort. But the loss still hurt.
Five years later, after the 1998 Pikes Peak Marathon, I bumped into some folks from England who said the race had been taped and they'd seen it. Oh well, at least it was dark....
Younger Legs would like to thank Matt for a terrific interview.
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MATT CARPENTER'S WEBSITE - AS WELL AS THOSE OF THE RACES WHERE HE SERVES AS REGISTRAR/WEBMASTER:
Matt Carpenter's Site - http://www.skyrunner.com/
Garden of the Gods 10 Mile Run - 6/14/09 - http://www.gardentenmile.com/
Summer Roundup Trail Run 12K - 7/5/09 - http://www.summerroundup.com/
Barr Trail Mountain Race - 7/12/09 - http://www.runpikespeak.com/
Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon - 8/15-16/09 - http://www.pikespeakmarathon.org/
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn." - John Muir

 I am adding this interview from Pikes Peak Sports on 041713 and 042613

Matt Carpenter bounced through the doors at the coffee shop in Manitou Springs. A celebrity of sorts, he moved through the room and greeted the locals who extended their hands.

Carpenter is 48, but take away some faint lines around his eyes, and he's easily mistaken for 25. He still has a child-like energy. Of course, he'll tell you that his 120-pound body doesn't feel young. Aches and pains that don't subside are common among the world's greatest mountain runners. And Carpenter admits that 25 years of running hard at high altitude, pounding away on rugged singletrack trails almost every day of his life, has left some marks.

He hasn't raced in almost two years, and he is satisfied - for now - to run for fun.

Twenty years ago, he set the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon records, charging to the summit on that August day of 1993 in 2 hours, 1 minute and 6 seconds. He then turned for home, dashing back to Manitou Springs to complete the roundtrip in 3:16:39. Other runners have tried to track him down, but none have really come close to those marks.

He has won the Pikes Peak Marathon 12 times, and has six Ascent championships.
Carpenter holds records in mountain running's most difficult races, including the 50-mile San Juan Solstice (7:59:44), the Mount Evans Ascent (1:37:01), the Leadville 100 (he was 41 years old and ran 15:42:59), the Everest Sky Marathon in Tibet (3:22:25 at 17,060 feet.), and the North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler.

He is a Manitou Springs city councilman, business owner, husband to Yvonne and father to daughter Kyla.

He founded the Barr Trail Mountain Race, one of the area's best running events, and the Incline Club, a training group for trail runners, and has helped raise thousands of dollars for high school cross country and track teams.

It is for these accomplishments that Carpenter becomes the first runner selected for induction into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame. The Induction ceremonies are slated for Oct. 29 at the Colorado Springs World Arena.

"You just made my day," he said when informed of the selection. "This is a real honor."

Carpenter is quick to voice his opinion, shooting straight and honest with all who engage him. He insists on giving 100 perent of himself, whether he's running to the summit of Pikes Peak, or giving an interview.

At the coffee shop, I turned on my recorder. With little coaxing, he began to talk. This is the first part of "Matt Carpenter: The Interview," lightly edited for clarity.

You set the Pikes Peak records 20 years ago.

I would have never thought it would have lasted that long. Oddly enough, that was still one of my easiest ones. It's the one that I remember the most details, like passing a certain tree or a sound that Ricrado Mejia (who finished second) made at the start of the Incline switchback, I remember certain details about that race that I don't remember with a lot of them. I don't know if I was in a certain zone that year. Just really intricate details still stand out for some reason, so it was special race.

Did you ever get close to those times again?
On the uphill I had some good ones, 2:05, 2:07. Then for lack of a better word I became a professional athlete and started travelling the world getting a schedule that wasn't always condusive to making that (Pikes Peak) a prime race. Then the competition started going down at Pikes. I think two of the years that I was most fit I actually boycotted the race in protest that they would fill it up and not let anybody (elite runners) in. It got to the point where it was being won in times that hadn't been seen since the 1960s.
The only way to run fast is to have fast competition. I was 40 something not long ago when I ran 3:33. It was competition that brought me back even remotely close to that.

In your Pikes Peak record year you must have been in impeccable condition.

If you look at the history of my running, the record year wasn't really in and of itself. The record year happened because the year before I got beat. If you look at a lot of my races like the North Face 50-in miler 2008, well I got beat the year before. Same thing in Leadville. I tried the Olympic Trials in marathon and totally got waxed and came back and got it right the next time. For me, the record year was kind of more about redemption than anything else (he had lost to Mejia in 1992). There was a letter in the paper asking 'why can't the locals win in our race?' A lot of out-of-state people were winning. That kind of impacted me. For a year I was running and having to look up at that mountain. At that time I lived clear on the other side of Academy and I would run downtown to get to the Business Journal (where he worked) and I would see that peak all the way in on my run and think, only the Ascent (he held the record at 2:05:05 at the time) is mine. And that bugged me for a year. I'm driven by that type of thing more than records.

You hate to lose more than anyone I know.
This is true.

Where does that come from?
You know, I'm not sure what engrained that in me. It's always been with me. Whatever pool I went to when my mom moved a lot (she had lupus), I always wanted to set the record for who could hold their breath the longest under water, or the laps record. I would set goals for myself. I'd say, I'm not going in until I hit 10 free throws in a row. I'd be out there for five or six hours and not give up until it got dark. There is a very obssesive part of me.

What brought you to Colorado Springs?
(He lived in Vail) and I came down for some testing in 1990 at Olympic Training Center and I posted phenomenal numbers for my VO2 which is the engine. But the other part is the economy. I had really pour economy (could not run fast for long periods), which is like the gas mileage. So I had a Porsche engine and Porsche gas mileage.

Dr. Peter VanHandle who was at the Oly training center at the time hypothesized that it was because I lived at 8,000 feet, I only ran very slow, I ran uphills on trails.

So I was very efficient on the slow stuff, but the fast stuff I hadn't done. And he offered to work with me and the Olympic Trials were coming up and I couldn't do the trails in Vail with the snow cause the trials were in February.

So Peter VanHandle agreed that he would work with me. So I moved here to work with him and train for the trials. But then the airplane accident happened (United Flight 585 crashed in Widefield, March 3, 1991) and Peter was one of the people killed. But I moved down here and I made the trials. So I moved here for road running. But it's funny, you miss what you don't have anymore. I was out of the mountains and gravitated toward Palmer Park cause that's where I lived. But I took a lot of the things that I learned through his hypothesis - very specific workouts (and applied them to mountain running.)

It's kind of funny because the other part of my career, besides redemption, is people telling me things can't be done. When I was in college I tested with a low VO2, and they were like, 'it's genetic, that's the way it is.' Well I did specific workouts to improve that and they said, 'well, it's genetic that you were able to train your VO2.' With economy they told me the same thing at the Olympic Training Center, that's just genetic, you're stuck with that. Well, VanHandle gave me these workouts that improved my economy, and the first thing they said ... 'it's genetic that you can train your economy.' So everything is genetic. But I always tell people, unfortunately, it's the genes above the neck that count.

I took a lot of what I learned making the Olympic Trials and applied it to the Ascent and Marathon. Because I think a lot of trail runners, they are so enamorred by trail running that that is all they do. I win Pikes Peak down on my treadmill and on the track. I don't necessarily win it on the mountain. In fact I spend a lot less time on the mountain than a lot of runners. Because Tuesdays and sis where you get fast. And that is down here. The altitude is importanat, but without the speed, you're not going to be able to run fast.

I set that record in 1993 and the Skyrunners called and invited me to run a flat marathon at Everest. I got signed on with them and the road stuff went out the window and I never followed up on it. That's kind of how it all transpired.

You set the Leadville record when you were 41. That doesn't happen every day.

That was something where I had paced my friend way back when I was living in Vail. I fell in love with the concept of the race because when you are pacing and waiting for your runner to come in you see these other runners running in the dark and coming in and I said, 'someday, I'm going to do that.' I set it as a goal. I was going to do it twice. I was going to do it at 39 and 40. That way I'd get two different age groups and the masters. You know I always have these little reasons for doing things. It worked out that I did it when I was 40-41. When I set the record, I broke it by 90 minutes.

That must be a source of pride for you, especially considering how popular ultra running has become.
What I'm more proud about on that one (Leadville), and what I get more comments about to this day, is the year before. Because most people will drop out and quit. I got more e-mails from people I never heard of who said, 'that was really big to just do the death march in like the rest of us. That's because I don't quit. If I'd have quit then I would have had to go back (he did return to win the next year), so at least by finishing I could mark it off.

But again, the next year, it was insanely easy. Cause I did it right and I trained right and I learned the secrets to the ultras ... and once you know the secrets it's not really hard.

What are the secrets?
Fuel is the secret to the ultra. And I guess you could call me an experiment of one, but my long run was 23 miles. Some of these long runs these guys do, just break your body down. They wear you out and don't teach you anything. Running an ultra ...if you can find something you're comfortable with for four hours that works good with the fuel, it's just a matter of repeating that all day long because it's calories in and calories out. You look at all the races, people crash and burn because of fuel issues. And that's the bottom line.
You look at your average ultra guy and they eat regular meals day in and day out and then come ultra day they expect to somehow survive on liquid GU's. I took days of my life and had only GU. Every run I would drink every 10 minutes so I got 50 calories, so I got 300 calories an hour, which is about the limit a body can absorb in a given hour while you are doing exercise. Instead of going and depleting myself and then getting some kind of food ... 10 minutes into the 100-mile run I already had 50 calories in me that nobody else probably did.

that same thing worked at the North Face 50. Of course my issue there was I wasn't prepared for the steps on that course and the way they do their trails. So it was a whole new thing I had to learn and get right for the next year. And I went out to Waldo Canyon and did repeats on that first section where they have all the little stairs and went up and down and tried to figure out how to run them smoothly. I just tore my quads up in the first 30 minutes of North Face ... going down stairs.

And you have the record at North Face.
Well they have changed the course. I have the record on this course.

And you still have the record at Leadville, too.
It's kind of funny. After I set the record they had the helicopter crash up there and diverted the course and made it much simpler by 20 minutes. And now they've changed it again and everybody talks about it being longer. Whatever ... it's a 100 miler. I wish I wanted to train again, I'd go back and set it (the record) on the new one.

I though you might consider that.
You know I am never going to say never, Cause I turn 50 next year which may open some new excitement for me. I'm at the point where I'm not going to deny that I have talent. But I won the races not on my talent, I won on my training. And I'm at the point where I don't want to train to the level that it takes to win these things. I didn't do any races last year, but I haven't missed a day (of running), I haven't gone under (ran less than) an hour a day since September of last year. I run every day. I enjoy it again.

It has probably been 10 years since I actually enjoyed running. I mean, the pressure that I put on myself. It's not a fun season when you spend an entire year running because you got beat the year before. That's what drove me and kept be going, like North Face. But the time I put into that, the runs I would do from my house, run out Ute (trail) and do Waldo and Longs Ranch Road up to Barr camp and then down Water Pipe Trail and down the Barr trail and then go up the Incline and down and then go half way up the Incline all in one run? That's work. I'm not convinced I want to do that.

I'm at the point ... it's the silly phase because I know I can do it, but knowing you can do it isn't worth jack, so I just try to distance myself from the whole sport as much as possible in a way. Cause I read a result and I think 'I can do that' and I think about going out next morning and what I can do to focus and go win this again. And I get up the next morning and think, I don't want to train hard, I don't want to hurt.

Enjoying running is important. But it sounds like it's the next step to getting back into competition.
I think it's the most important, because if that step doesn't come there will be no more competition. But to be able to get up and look forward to going and running an hour just because it feels neat to breathe and be on the trail, that's the part I had lost in the competitive phase. When I signed on with the Skyrunners, every race I felt like those other people are out to get my sponsorhsip and my stipened and my records and my times, which is part of it, cause I was after theirs. But I took it personally. I took getting beat personally.

I remember things like when Paul DeWitt set the record  for Leadville a few years back. And he tells the story, he was at the May Queen (campground on the Leadville course) and he new he was ahead of the record so he took a little more time to eat pizza, or whatever he did. Or Tony (Krupicka) is running something and he says something like 'I was cruising and felt good.' I never had those moments. I was always thinking how much faster can I go even if I had the record. I never really enjoyed it. Even after (the record run on) Pikes, the next day I was thinking I should have gone faster, I should have broken two hours. I was so afraid of what happened the year before when I crashed and burned. I played it a little conservative in an area to save something for the downhill, cause you're thinking next year I'll get it. But there was no next year as it turned out. The race quickly went to shit. It started getting won in 2:24 for God's sake.

Do you think a lot about the two-hour mark?
Constantly, to this day I wish I could be back at A Frame, knowing what I know now. Knowing that because of the way things unfolded with that race director, that that would be the pinnacle, and that I wasn't necessarily going to get another chance. I would be in that good of shape, there wouldn't be that competition to push and stuff like that.

Why hasn't anyone beaten your records?
Really, it has to do with these guys aren't doing what's required on the track. You have to be fast. It's getting to the point now where people are realizing there is something to be made from the sport of mountain running. But I don't think they train right. I look at one of ultra runners and Mountain Runners ... one of most successful now is Max King and he's a 2:13 marathoner if not faster. It didn't equate to him for the altitude (King was third in the 2012 Pikes Peak Marathon with a 2:29:58 Ascent.) It's going to have to also be somebody who trains at altitude. But you look at other races and he tears them up. You look at Sage Canady ... what he did at Mount Washington (won national championship), but look at his speed. One (speed) doesn't come without the other (altitude training). They both translate, but you have to have an even mix. I think what happens to a lot of the guys is they switch over (to mountain and ultra running) and forget what got them to that point.

The 12-time winner of the Pikes Peak Marathon, Matt Carpenter has been selected for induction into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame. The induction ceremonies are slated for Oct. 29 at the Colorado Springs World Arena. 

This is the second and final part of our interview with Carpenter. You can read Part 1 here.

Your sign off or motto, "Go out hard, when it hurts speed up." Where did that come from?
It started out as kind of a joke. I think Walt Stack had one like "Start out slowly and taper" and I wanted the antithesis of that. It was kind of a joke on how you could win a race, cause if you went out really hard and then sped up when it hurt, by definition you'd win every race. It's not practical and I love the jokes people play off of it, like "Go out hard, when it hurts fake a hamstring injury." I get all kinds of those. It just kind of stuck.

I still have a huge ego, I mean, I'm an athlete. But there was a time when I was younger and my ego was even crazier. It was just kind of brash, in-your-face sign off. It makes people go "huh?" It's kind of my approach to life. Whether running for city council and knocking on every door in town, or shooting the basketball, whatever I've tried, I've always tried to excel at it.

You're going to be inducted into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame.
That's a big honor, especially when I look at some of the names. Who hasn't heard of Goose Gossage? And Justin Armour, from right here in Manitou Springs. (The list of inductees) is very diverse. And It is kind of neat to be the first runner.

You've talked about high school and becoming a cross country runner ... it was the only thing you were good at. 
It was a way to fit in. My mom had lupus and she made it clear that if I was going to go to college, I had to get scholarships and stuff like that. We moved a lot, so I didn't really fit in. When I heard that announcement to go out for cross country, I was stupid, I actually thought we were going to run across the country, I was going to get out of school a lot. It didn't turn out to be that, it was local golf courses, but very quickly I fit in with a group of people for a change.

But it (running cross country) was still individual. I was a wrestler before and there is a lot of team stuff in that, but wrestling is individual as well. I first started running for wrestling. I remember the coach had us running up the hall and down the steps. And I remember that next day having the worse case of shin splints I've ever had, but what I also remember is passing all the other wrestlers and they were making fun of me "listen to how hard he is breathing." And I was thinking, it's because I'm running faster.

It was just another thing to see how far I could take it, so I started running on my own. I could have been a really good high school runner a couple of years after high school. Same with college, I could have been a good college runner a couple of years after college.

I started running basically as a senior in high school. I was good but by no means very good. But I think because I started late, I was always into it more for my reasons vs. the guys who had been running when they were so young. And so many of them quit after college.

What were your best times in high school?

I'd have to go and look them up. We ran three miles in cross country. I know my senior year I broke a 5-minute mile. It was 4:59 and I got third in a photo finish. I'm not fast (like a sprinter), my fastest quarter mile to this day is 1:01. My thing right now is I'm trying to break 30 seconds for a 200. I've gotten a 30.2. I still go out to the track and try to work that down. But I would estimate I was in the 18's (ran the 3-mile in 18 minutes and change).

Your mom (Judy) committed suicide. Athletically, how did that change your life?
You know, when part of the suicide note is "just keep running and don't let anybody tell you can't accomplish anything" ... You know, she died and left me with two grand and I was on my own with that in college. It's a lot to take on. And running ... in high school it was a way to fit in. In college it became a way to cope, because it was the only thing that was in my control. To this day, running is the only thing that's in my control. I decide how far, when, what time, where. There is nothing else in our lives that we get that much control over. It was an escape.

She had lupus. What is that?
Basically it's when your white blood cells attack your body. Her joints would swell up to the size of baseballs. She couldn't hold a job very long. But you asked where I get the hard-headed stuff from, she was hard-headed, too. I mean one of the best ways to control lupus is to stay out of the sun. She'd go out sunbathing all the time, she was like, "I'm going on my terms."

Even the suicide thing, she told me she was going to do it. And I told her, "if you were going to do that you would have done it when you were flat-lined in the hospital." She was like, 'you know me, I'm not going out when I'm down. I'm going out when I'm happy, and when it's on my terms.' And that is exactly what she did.

She told me she was going to do it, I knew it was coming. You know, you make a series of decisions. Do you try to intervene, or not? And you have life decisions when somebody does that. Do you blame yourself, or not? Or do you move on? People handle decisions differently. Why do two people go out into their backyard, or in my case we snuck into a pig stye when my friend stole his dad's cigars, he tried a cigar and I tried a cigar. I puked and got sick and never touched another thing, but he became a smoker. What determines those things?

The decisions after my mom passed away I feel were good decisions ... to not pity myself or get down. At the time, I thought, OK, she is gone. I have the ability now to see what's out there. I went to Colorado and I saw Vail and I saw mountains and that's where I wanted to be.
Starting then, every summer I'd drive from Mississippi to Vail and live there in summer and then go back to school. I skipped college graduation so I could get to Vail a couple of weeks earlier. I got my degree, but I didn't go to graduation.

I kind of say that in some ways her death opened up possibilities. Who knows I might still have been in Mississippi.

So right now, you have no plans for any racing, but you are going back to Pikes Peak someday, right?
I don't know that. Twenty years from now will there be any difference if I've won 18 Pikes Peaks or 20. I'm not ever going to say there is such a thing as too many wins, but there might be such a thing as enough. And maybe I'm satisfied. I'm at the point now, where there is not a lot to be gained. It might be fun to see if I can do it when I'm 50. I've already set the records for the oldest guy to win it.

Before I came along, I don't think anyone had won it in their 40s, and I did it in my 40s six years in a row. There are always new guys coming around and all this hype. I mean look at all the hype around Killian (Jornet) last year, and there was all this talk about, "Oh, the record is going down." He came close to my record ... my 45-year-old record, the age-group one (Jornet won the 2012 Pikes Peak Marathon in 3:40:06. Carpenter's 45-49 age-group record is 3:37:02. .

I get just as much press by not running the race as I do when I'm running it. That's going to be the standard. I run it and I'm expected to win it. I don't run it and I get all kinds attention. When I do things, there is a reason why. I'm going to do it (Pikes Peak Marathon in 2011) because it would be six (wins) in a row. So I jumped in even though my weight was low. There was always a reason. But I haven't been able to find a reason (to race on Pikes Peak again). I'm hoping that when I turn 50, that would become a reason. That would be neat.

But if I don't race again, ever, I think I would be comfortable with that. I've had a really good career. I'm not going to say I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish, because I was never satisfied. But I feel comfortable with what I've done, because I've finally realized there is always that next thing, and that would never stop.

I learned that lesson when I went to Everest, and I'd say, 'well I'll just run to the next ridge.' And I realized that if I kept that philosophy I'd have to run all the way to the top of Everest. You have to draw the line somewhere. So when I got to the Khumbu Icefall I stopped my run. I saw the crevasses, I was like, "no more." So, that's where I get back to reading race results, and say 'I could do that, but I don't want to.'

You hold the record for the Everest SkyMarathon (3:22:25 at 17,060 feet.)
Yeah my training runs would be out and back to Everest Base Camp. But the race was on the Tibetan side. It was totally flat, they made it flat by going out and back, 5K, several times. And even that had a little dip in it. As little as it was, the uphill at that altitude was so insane, because your fingernails were blue and your lips were blue.

How many were in the race?
There were supposed to be several dozen of us in the race, but at the end there were only seven or eight, because races over there are more about who can get to the finish line healthy. Guys would go over there and get sick. Rob and I were running one day, and we ran by some kind of trash heap and within 15 yards, we both had spontaneous diarrhea. We went running into this shop and we we're like, "bathroom, bathroom" and they were looking at us all weird because they don't know how to speak English. So I'm not proud, I ducked down like (he's squatting to defecate) and they were like "Oh!" and they pointed us the right way. And we went back there and we were wondering, 'where is the toilet paper?' And we see this basket and think 'that's a weird way to keep the toilet paper.' And we're wondering, what the hell smells, and we realize they recycle the toilet paper and we're wiping our butts with .... and it made me appreciate living in a country where we have a place to go to the bathroom and water you can drink and food. It was very eye-opening to be able to experience that and travel the world. It was amazing.

What is the best piece of advice you've received about running?
My high school coach (Terry Delcuze) engrained on me pretty heavily about consistency. Because when I first started out, I would miss a day in the week, and then I'd miss two the next week. We'd have to turn in our logs and he'd show where I had missed two weeks total over a three month period. That's a lot of time. But then, boom, I became a streak runner. Or I wouldn't miss a day. I would go five years without missing a day. I had lots of year streaks. I would just be consistent.

You know you look at the magazines and things like that ... they can't sell magazines by telling people that running is really simple. Every month, Runner's World comes out with how to run like a Kenyan in 20 minutes, the best way to do 800s, how to run a PR. The reality is, it doesn't matter what you do. If you do it consistently, you're going to get better at it. Now it's true, it makes more sense to do the right thing consistently, because you're going to get better at it faster. But you can do the wrong thing consistently and you're still going to get better.

That's where people mess up. They do this one week, and something else the next week. I kind of have a five-week rule. I won't change something, unless it goes bad, for five weeks. Then I know I've hit a plateau, or that I need to change to one on and one off, to tempo runs, or move up in altitude.

The other thing he taught me was train to your weaknesses and race to your strengths. So many people, they train for what they love. But that doesn't help you so much on race day. I train for what I hate. Speed was always my issue. Like I said, I was a 1:01 guy (61 seconds in the quarter mile), but I got to where I could do 24 quarters in 1:06 (66 seconds each) at altitude, with 54 seconds rest. My weakness was speed so I trained to fix that. When I found out I had a pour economy I trained to fix that. I didn't train to improve my VO2, it was already one of the highest recorded, what's the point?

(On Pikes Peak) I didn't train my up-high time, I'm pretty good at altitude. I did train to get to Barr Camp in one piece so I could use my ability up high. Pikes Peak is a long and complex race, so you have to figure out where you're weak. That's where I use the pace calculator (on his website Skyrunner.com). I don't use the pace calculator on race day, I use it more in training. I'll run up and then go back and look at the pace calculator and see that I was behind down low. I still ran good on top, so I know I need to work low. Or, I was behind up high, well I haven't been at altitude enough, so I know I need to adjust that. And then race day comes along and you reverse it, you race to your strengths.

Your high school coach played a big role in your life.
He was my de facto dad because my mom was divorced. He's the one that came up to college and told me my mom had committed suicide. She Fedexed him overnight a letter of where to find the car and a detailed map, and what to tell me. I mean, my mom had this planned out, down to how much duct tape to put on the windows to keep the carbon monoxide in, letters to police, funeral home stuff. This wasn't a wake up and do it thing, this was planned for probably years.
But he was an ultra runner, he got me into the long stuff early, the value of long runs and the strength that they build. Because everything is a cycle. You do speed workouts so you get faster, so that you can do your long runs faster. And you do your long runs so that you can do more of your speed workout.

And it all relates. If more people did their training like they were doing the double on Pikes Peak, they'd all do better because people who do the double learn that they have to be smart on Day 1 to get through Day 2. Too many people run for just that one day (The Ascent), so they go out and thrash themselves. I learned that I have to go just hard enough to get better, but still be able to recover for the run that's coming up in two days. You can't go so hard on your long run, or so long, that it prevents you from having a good Tuesday (speed work). You get the balance right with consistency, you can't help but improve. Running is simple and people make it far too complex.

You've done some good stuff in the community.
It's a very important part for me, starting the Incline Club and the Barr Trail Mountain Race and giving back. You know, you look at the thousands of dollars the races I've put on have given back to high school running teams, and 100 percent donations from the Barr Trail Mountain Race. Or when I took over Garden of the Gods (10 Mile Run), and the first thing I did was put in the high school challenge, and took the race from 900 to almost 2,000 runners. The giving-back side is just as important to me.

To see people heading up the mountain to do an Incline Club run, to see the guy that quit smoking and has lost 100 pounds, or somebody that just found trail running. That's important to me. And I've given countless talks at schools on career days, because for me it's the sharing of this that has been more important than what I'm doing myself.

Someday all of my records will go down. I don't know who it's going to be, but I hope I'm alive to see it. But it's the giving back that I think and hope will live longer. The fact that I fought for those competitive spots (comp entries for elite runners) in the Pikes Peak Marathon is more important to me than wins.

When it comes to running, is there anything else you want to explore?
No, in fact it would have been so simple for me to go into coaching as a great way to make money, but I bought a custard shop because it's not related to running at all. I really am an all-or-nothing type person. After bad periods, I came back to running because I wasn't satisfied with just doing something half way. I'm at the point where, like it or not, I'm too old to do my best and I'm not sure I can settle for that. To be around the sport kind of hurts in a way. So I don't know if I'll continue.

You're not going out to win age-group awards.
I don't believe so. I never learned how to lose. That's why I don't do good on teams. It's just that I was always in it for myself. I'm glad that I could take people for the ride. I love it when I'm running down Barr Trail, and somebody says "Do it again for us old guys!" That's what I got during that six year streak (six consecutive Pikes Peak Marathon wins while in his 40s). The most inspiring thing to most people, I think, is the fact that I was old.

But there was a guy in the Barr Trail Mountain Race ... I'm running down and he says, 'How does it feel to be old?' And that enraged me so much, that I came back the next year and set the record (1:29:33, since broken by Ryan Hafer, 1:29:05). At some point age is an excuse, but not in your 40s. It's just a matter of being willing to put the time in. Jobs aren't excuses, kids aren't excuses, families aren't excuses. City council. I was elected to city council and they said he'll never win (on Pikes Peak) again ... I have two wins since then. If you are willing to put the time in and be consistent, it's there.