Thursday 082610

Irunfar interview with Kilian before UTMB.  35 hours a week of training?  Crikey.  His English seems to be getting better.  I particularly like his comments about learning from losing.  And apparently he is coming back to WS100.

Final Mountain Cup standings.

Amazing Keith Wood finishing the Ascent … breaking his own age group record.

The big races in Colorado this weekend were, of course Pikes, Leadville and then Transrockies is going on.  There was a new ridiculous race however – the Warrior Dash.  Check out the obstacle course – including a fire leap at the end. 

Deena Kastor is apparently out of the NYC marathon, as she is pregnant.  Given she is 37, and some of her recent performances in the marathon, you’d have to suspect this closes the book on her competitive carreer.  That said, women seem more likely to remain competitive in the distance events much better than men at later ages.

On the way home from Manitou on Sunday, I called Timmy G and discussed the PPM race.  We covered the pluses and minuses, but as we wrapped up, I joked, “yeah but by Thursday it will have become my worst performance ever.”  This comment was a nod to how almost all of my post race thoughts go.  In the past, Tim and I would finish a race, and on the warm down do the “what went well, what did not go so well, and then I saw a stick and decided to surge yada yada yada” breakdown of the race.  Usually, we’d feel more positive about the whole affair.

Until three days later. 

Typically, over that period, my thinking would change and the whole race had become a demonstration of how poorly I had executed, how weak I was mentally, etc, etc.

I don’t feel that same way about Pikes, but I do recognize places where I can improve.  Again, this may seem like a subtle shift in the mentality but it is significant.  I know I performed as well as I could there on Sunday (and I really knew this when I hit Ruxton down), but I also recognize that there are plenty of places I could do better.  I know that I may never race the PPM better (if at all) than I did on Sunday, but the seeds to dream for future efforts are already taking a bit of root. 

I still feel that I could climb this thing in the marathon sub 2:40, and while I hesitate to say it, yeah – I do dream about making that sub 2:30 list.  I know I could descend a lot better than I did.  I could dial in the nutrition better so I don’t deal with cramps as much.  I could do … umm… yeah, and then the mind takes off a bit thinking of what things I could do. 

I am not sure that I will do though.  I am pretty stoked that there is a fire there to think about it.  In any case, I will let that sit for a bit … because everything could change in an instant, and there are a lot of instants between now and then.

Separately, interesting video.

PM  - 5 miles easy.  Legs feel about normal again other than that blister.