Monday 080210

Slept in.  Needed it.  We were up late Saturday night because of the RCPM show, then over to Fairplay pretty early on Sunday.  Add in a run and chain sawing up there for a day, and then the drive back down and I was beat.

So, four guys broke a record of rowing across the Atlantic.  "This is one of the most amazing days ever. We are so happy to be here," said 37-year-old British skipper Leven Brown, from Edinburgh.  Yeah, I think after 43 days on a flipping row boat with three other guys I’d be pretty damn ESTATIC to be done.  (By the way, they all encountered food poisoning the trip, and one guy ended up doing minor surgery on another dude’s infected toe).  Crikey.

And now for some disjointed training thinking about the races coming up …

With August arriving, the buzz of the late summer races is growing in volume.  Pikes, Leadville of course, and everyone knows that there is only about six weeks before the high country starts to get hit with some white stuff.   I also see count down timers to race day on Facebook, and people starting to itch to be into the taper, wanting their key race to be tomorrow or even done with racing for the summer.   Prediction contests, figuring out who is in and who is out, getting out on the race course for some last minute recon, tweaking of race plans, concern over the little details of what to wear, splits, the weather, etc.

I LOVE IT.  It is fun to watch and read … the culmination of training, the build up, all the run up to that moment of execution … for some folks over the course of several years, and to engage on something that will challenge them in a life moment.

But, in any case, I don’t expect to get to Pikes before race day this year.  I have implicitly adopted a soft policy of trying to keep my running a bit more “invisible.”  There are no firm rules on this “policy”, and evidence of that is that racing a burro is rather visible in a large way.  It does mean I am less than comfortable to drive 200 miles RT to do a 12 mile training run on the Peak (and yes, I understand that does not fit with driving 200 miles RT to do a 29 mile run with a pack animal).  Doesn’t mean I won’t do it … just not expecting to.

I feel good about the build up and training I have done unto this point.  I had 2047 miles last year through July, and I have had 2471 through this year.  I think that shows a good amount of commitment and consistency to base miles – which I think is key for performance at longer events.  I feel really good about July – as I raced well at Barr post a week with nearly no running, and then was able to get in two weeks (last two) with some hills, good volume and a nice mix of quality in it all. 

In the past, I really tried to dial in the last couple of weeks of training.  There is certainly a temptation to do this, but I think I have been doing well on running off how I feel from day to day – rather than being particularly prescriptive.  That said, I do need to balance the feel with a taper over the next couple of weeks.  Unloading the burden I have put on the legs in the last couple weeks is important enough to take into consideration.  So I need to balance the “run by feel” with a bit of forward thinking.

This run by feel is a bit different than what I have done in the past.  I guess if you look at the logs, things are not hugely different in terms of miles, types of miles, etc but mentally I am not tied to the result of some specific workout like Lindens.  I have been looser about specific training days, or being super disciplined about elements of diet (like beer).

In fact, I am a bit less tied to the result at a race like Pikes.  Sure, I’d like to do well there but I completely recognize that maybe that does not happen for a variety of reasons.  Heck, I might not even make it to the line.  I certainly have a couple of goals (possibly a future post) outlined in my head, but I recognize how little importance they are in the bigger picture.  An odd paradox I guess, and probably not one I am logging well here.

I think all this points to a thing about myself – I love the journey, and the build up to an event / race like Pikes or Leadville – maybe even more than the event or the result itself?  Yeah, in fact, one of my favorite moments in life is that moment just before a race starts, where you feel that energy, that nervousness and anticipation, and all that humanity coming to an electrically charged moment (like this shot, picture courtesy of Bernie Boettcher)

Mid day … Felt good today in the head, but the legs had some remaining blahness from the weekend, last week.  Pressed for time, I got out for an out and back (Last did this particular style in April), where I was steady the first half, and then half marathon to 10k effort in the second half.  Little hard to compare (to the last time), because I felt good enough in the second half that I started to go after it a bit.  So it was faster and as you’d expect, HR was up as well. 11 miles, about four and a quarter minutes faster, but with an AHR 4bpm faster, and MHR 7 bpm faster (it was 35 degrees warmer today than April though).

Umm, so whatever.

Today’s run:

and here is April for reference.

 

Tony is pretty much on for Pb.