Tuesday 053111

Photo of the day.

AM – six and half miles. Wore the PIs to ease up the PF.

Cool vid of yesterday's BB Citizen's Race. Seems like Jesus led a bit longer than the gorilla normally does.

PM - 6.5 miles easy.

Monday 053011

AM – TZ drove me the short distance over to Boys Town, and I registered for the 5 miler.  I learned when I was over there that there was also a mile run, and was bummed that I did not know about this before.  JZ and KZ would have probably jumped in that race.  Also learned that the start was not at 8, but 8:45 so I found a tree, laid down and put my feet up for a bit. 

After a bit I started a very slow, easy warm up (like 9:45 pace) for 3 miles.  It was warm (80), humid (80 percent) and windy (20 mph winds, gusting to 30).  Not ideal conditions for a fast time, but my legs weren’t feeling ideal either.  Whatever.  Ran into my recently married cousin, and chatted with him for a bit. 

I thought that it would be a fair stretch for me to get under 30 minutes, even with the altitude adjustment – simply because the training has NOT been geared to support that.  Played out a few possible race strategies in my head – go out and hold on knowing I’d fade …  go out easy and pick it up, also knowing that I would fade … or just run and not care too much about it.  Door number 3 it was …

Got out easy, and in the crowd well behind the typical fast starters.  I was being passed A LOT.  A LOT.  Went through the mile in 5:49 and then folks started to come back.  The first mile had been down wind, and perhaps a bit downhill.  In the second mile, there was some up and the “yuuts” started to come back.  In fact, for miles 2 (5:51, 11:40) , 3 (6:19, 17:59) (saw 18:40 at 5k)  and 4 (6:19, 24:15), there was a lot of this.  On the up hill, up wind sections I roll up some body and bring them back, and maybe even put some distance on them.  On the downhills they would blaze by me as if they were kicking.  The course was not crazy hilly, but had a few grades in excess of 5 percent, which is a decent hill for a road race.  Still while rolling folks up hill and up wind, it was clearly slowing the whole field.  A dared a glance at the GPS and saw high sixes in the pace and decided not to look at it again. 

In the last mile I saw a gray hair that I had spotted earlier in the race, but who was way ahead at that point (I talked to him after the race and he had gone through the first mile in 5:30).  I started to work to see if I could roll him up, but he held me off by tick or two at the line.  I finished in 30:40 (last mile at 6:07, but then some “correction”).  Not great, but not bad – and certainly not surprising given what I have been doing.

Later I learned that had I caught this guy, I would have got the top masters spot.  Eh, snooze, loose.  11th overall, 2nd master.

Ran back and found my cousin in the crowd.  At least three folks were down and getting medical attention in the mile I jogged back to find him.  One guy was getting an IV.   It was humid for sure – definitely not loving the NE humidity, and slime that goes with that.

I lost my cousin as I peeled off for his finish and so I decided to head back to the hotel (versus hanging out extensively for any post race festivities).  I did the quick shower and superman switcheroo so that we could hit the car and head back to the high holy ground of Colorado.  12.5 miles on the day.

Other things from the weekend …

… at the wedding, as they introduced the wedding party in the reception, it was a bit of a roast, a little sarcasm at each of them.  Nice touch. 

… I had a salad at lunch on Sunday and the locals thought I was some tree hugging, vegetarian, communist, Boulderite, hippie, left wing, health food nut.  I guess I might be some of those, but the salad did have chicken.  They all got the chicken fried steak or the chicken fried chicken.

… Plantar F is not happy sitting here in the car as I traverse middle America.  And the wind is blowing the van around fairly good.

… This week coming up is Dirty Thirty 50k.  Yet another attempt for me to get a ultra race completed.  Again, not high expectations given what sort of training I have been doing, but looking forward to a day of jogging.

… thinking of folks at the Bolder Boulder today for sure.  Hope everyone had the race they wanted!

… the clouds in eastern Colorado sure were … interesting!

Sunday 052911

So apparently now you can be sued if you are a seismologist and don’t predict earthquakes.  Brilliant.

Fittest cities in America …

What are you doing July 23rd?  I might do this if I am around … never have done the Incline.

Caught wind that BRR standard bearer Dr. Irving Weiss passed away.  Glad I got to run with this fine gentleman.  He was amazing to see running with us at Purple Runner in his 80s.

New single crossing of Grand Canyon FKT.

5 miles easy in Omaha, somewhere in middle America.  Legs have felt pretty dead again here for most of the week – surely an outcome of travel and associated diet choices.  Platar F is barking too, but that is probably because I was tearing up the dance floor last night in dress shoes.  Anyway – expecting to run the Memorial Day 5 miler tomorrow out here.  Will see if I can hold it under sixes, although there is little reason to think that I can do that since that is a challenge for me at 5 right now.

We are sharing a hotel room with the kids while here.  The close quarters makes for some interesting challenges – for the kids.  They are not fond of the fact that I have running clothes in this single room.  Mix in that those clothes end up wet and sweaty (versus a drier stink in CO) and they are really protesting.

Been using the Pandora app for runs on lately.  The RCPM channel pops up a band that I am digging, Cross Canadian Ragweed.  Might need to check out more of their stuff.

I end the week with 71 miles, with 61 of that coming on 5 days.  Not quite the week I wanted, but I am still working through what I can do and better discipline on these weeks with travel.  Solo business travel I might be able to swing a 100 mile week, but when I travel with my team, I have yet to demonstrate the ethic to get up at 4AM to put in bigger miles, or to push workouts.  There is a part of me that sees that I am not doing that work and I realize there will be a price to pay for that, but there is a (significant) part of me that does not really care or get worked up about this (hence the results).  It is a back and forth in my head: 
Hey, no sweat – I can turn the screws in June and July and it will come.  Yeah, you said that about April and May too.  Well, I have a good base.  Of road miles and nothing really working hard.  Well, I am keeping a balance better between work, family and running.  Fine, just don’t expect running to be significantly better in terms of performance.  I think I am okay with that.  I mean, really, I think I am okay.  Except when you think you can do … Whatever, there is plenty of time.  Sure, but will you use it? 

I think I have 355 miles on the month, and 1557 on the year.

Saturday 052911

In Nebraska for a weekend wedding.

 

Got on the Big Papio trail for an easy 11. Looks like this alot ...

 

 

Might be a down day tomorrow (Sunday) because there is rumor that various wedding attendees might be doing the Boys Town Memorial Day five miler. Not sure if I will run that hard, with the groom, or with JZ (or at all) yet.  Or we may need to bolt home today because of pending pups showing up.

Actually, down time might be more the aspect the various family events.  Like how many spoons you can get on your nose contests.

Friday 052711

Off to Omaha later today.

AM – got out and headed off to Lullwater, but this AM it was not Lullwater at all.  It was highwater.  There were a serious of strong thunderstorms that blew threw the area last night.  There were branches, mostly small, but some pretty large blown off trees on the roads to Lullwater.  As I came down Houston Mills Road, the road was taped off with police tape.  As I was staring at it a Dekalb Sheriff drove up.  I lifted the tape so that he could drive under and he rolled down his window to thank me.  He shrugged, “Sure.  I don’t know what is going on down here so go at your own risk.”  Ran down and there was a gang shoot out going on a tree across the road. 

In Lullwater, one of the paths I have been running has a water pipe that you run across.  Typical 18” pipe, about 3 or 4 feet off the ground at its highest– and extending maybe 8 or 10 feet across a small gulley.  In any case – it was invisible today – completely underwater.  Most of the park had flooding in many places.  The trails being as they were, threw me off and I ended up traversing through someone’s backyard to get back.  11 miles.

Thursday 052611

McDougall gets off a bad charge (thanks to Tim for the tip).

257 miles in 2 days. Or 130 miles a day. Seems pretty solid.

AM – sluggish this AM, but back down to Lullwater. 11 miles. PF barking because of the effort yesterday.

Wednesday 052511

AM – got a good night sleep, but yet another too wonderful dinner. I am sort of in shape but sort of not. The meals I have been enjoying a bit too much of as of late ain’t helping. II don’t do well on tests of character when the beer list (page 1 of 16 – seriously) looks like this. 

I sort of care but I sort of don’t. Anyway …

Got out this morning and headed towards Lullwater. I got a taste of this park the other night, and I hoped to gobble it up a bit more now that I had the route to it dialed in.

About a 1/4 mile into the run the GPS died. Oh yeah, never charged it yesterday.

But it was sort of liberating to be free of knowing exactly how far I went and how fast. This run suddenly became a true fartlek. I ran hard until I needed rest. And then I rested until I wanted to run hard again. Repeat. It was … awesome.

Lullwater is truly a gem. Thick green forests with delicious tasty slurpy single track. The trails of the east – ah, I have missed something about them. Their roots, rocks, lack of switchbacks, lack of grooming, their bugs attacking you (inhaled 3) and the leaves of plants reaching out to sting you. Seriously – loved it. Apparently the Emory College President lives the part of the park that is well groomed (and those big green fields are pretty neat too). Good kicks if you can get the gig.

And then of course you just see stuff here that you don’t see on Colorado trail runs (duh GZ):

Lots of this:

Guessing, based on how long I was out there, the effort pace feel that it was 12 miles.

And oh, yeah … definitely definitely … you sweat a lot here.

Funny read about a guy, a bike and his run in with a cop.

Significant snow up on the peak.

PM – three miles, super easy.  Burp.

Tuesday 052411

AM – felt really sluggish. Had aspirations for a bit more, but shut it down after 5 miles. Was thinking I'd get out tonight, but probably not ...

Some pix from yesterday’s run … The Lullwater Park area is pretty sweet (thanks for the recommendation on that one Laubster)

Interesting read on the this Bonnett kid.

Petzold has some big goals for Pikes.

Rickey has gone 80s hair.

This is cool.

www.simonwhitfield.com - "Yeah but can Cavendish do this?" (@markcavendish) from swhitfield on Vimeo.

Monday 052311

Traveled to Georgia today. Getting through RFP and will review soon.

Podcast interview with Roes.

Have not seen the 60 minute expose on Armstrong but will probably watch tonight.

Nick Clark ... He ain't a dark horse ...

Mock's weekly RT MUT round up

PM - 13 miles. Off toward the Emory campus and in the Lullwater area. Cool stuff. Pix tomorrow.

Sunday 052211

17 miles on the day.  KZ joined me for some of this on the bike.  As I started (8:30 pace), I felt hot and sluggish.  After KZ peeled off I started to open a bit and the miles started clicking around 8.  A bit of cloud cover and I was suddenly feeling very good and and easy 7:45 pace.  Finished off averaging 8:03ish for the 17, and feeling pretty good. 

100 miles on the week.  Yeah, that was a bit of a goal … just wanted to see if I could get a disciplined week in.  More than half of it came in the last couple of days (54 Friday-today), but I feel no worse for wear and was actually clicking sub 7 at the tail of today’s run with little effort, and without a heavy legged feeling. Vertical is lacking but it was nice to get a solid week in, even with the travel – it has been a while since I have done that.  In fact, I sort of enjoyed the “burden” of “chasing the numbers” at the tail of the week.    Plus it makes you sort of beer proof.

Back to GA tomorrow and then NE over the weekend, so another test I guess.  At least it will be hot.

Saturday 052111

Enjoyed seeing the Walshes perform well at IM Texas today. 

More on pack burro racing prez Bill Lee.

I have been hesitant to blog about the entire Lance affair because it is such a lightning rod issue.  It seems that folks either love him or hate him, apologize for him or defend him.  Lance does raise an interesting dilemma:  is his supposed use of PEDs forgivable because it helped fund a significant positive cause (cancer research)?  Look forward to chewing this one through on future runs.

17 miles on the day.

Friday 052011

Neat vid with Geoff. With the WS event getting closer, the chatter getting louder – I find myself in that position where I want to see all these guys kill it, unlike wanting some baseball or basketball team win over another. I have the privilege of knowing many of the top guys, either personally, or having gotten to know them to some extent through their blogs. I can see the time, effort, passion, sweat they put into this, and I can at some level relate to that. And so, I can’t find myself saying I am cheering for anyone of them over another one of them – as much as I am rooting for all of them.

I guess, at the end I’d love a 400 yard sprint on that track in Auburn between the top guys, course records fall, photo finish, IVs administered … The likelihood of that happening is incredibly small of course, but … well, it would be epic.

There will be clearly winners and losers at that race, like any race, folks who have good days and bad, those who make the top ten and those who don’t … I want to see them transcend themselves through the competition with each other.

It is time to pile it on. People have been phoning up the wahmbulance about the weather, and I have my own set of excuses in terms of how training has gone this spring (travel, etc). But there is still time to make a good go of it.

PM - hooked up with Footfeathers in the afternoon over at the Boulder Res. Got in a couple of miles with him and then we did a couple of laps around the res. The weather was perfect, but just as we were finishing up the second lap, Boulder clearly had some heavy duty weather blowing in. Seeing the lightning, and counting out the thunder, I was calculating the storm to be about four miles away. I had about 3 miles of running left. I elected to do the Coot Lake loops to keep it close. The weather really blew in at 19 miles and so I was heading back over to the Tom Watson lot. As I got in there, I saw lightning hit the ground, about a half mile away, and light up the ground HUGE. 19.75 miles and I was done after seeing that. I have a quarter mile from my extra "error" covering on other runs from this week anyway. In any case, this was a very relaxed "20" averaging 7:50 pace. Felt great.

Thursday 051911

Traveled back from GA.

 

Fleet Feet, the  I have raced under and the jersey I have raced with for over a decade is shifting ownership.

Got this from JT on Bolt's celebrations.

Got to feel bad for Gary Robbins. Damn.

WS100 chatter is getting louder. Interesting stats from AJW.

Lize B - interesting post on weight.

PM – felt crappy.  Head was great, in fact I was thinking of a 15-17 mile run but there was nuthin in the pegs.  10 miles, rather slow.  Easy on the lungs – I’d guess my AHR was 130 the whole run, but I was dead legged.  Not surprising, this would align with my general thought on second day travel blues.

Wednesday 051811

AM - Alpharetta, so I headed over to the Greenbelt Trail. Started easy, but enjoying the thicker air and perhaps the carbs from a belly full of Mex from last night, the miles started clicking nicely. 14 miles.

Tuesday 051711

AM - 11 miles.

USMRT for NACAC announced.

Ryan is coming to the Bolder Boulder. He obviously got mixed up with the message I sent him - he is supposed to run Pikes.

Monday 051611

More KJ vid. I am not sure if I find this a bit rich or just fun.

Sammy W's death ... sigh. Matt F seems to have captured an angle that I thought of (although not as eloquently) ... "Wanjiru’s premature demise surprises me less than any other major runner’s untimely death would have. His fatal fall strikes me not as a random accident that came to him with shocking unexpectedness but, sadly, as the almost foreseeable endpoint of the course he seemed to have been on in his life. The same quality that made Wanjiru great may have foreordained his early passing: an almost out of control energy, a way of attacking life and its challenges." Sadly, I have personally known a few folks that this writing could apply to.

PM - Flatirons Vista, and then swung around down along the Community Ditch. 11 miles. Felt good.

Justin's weekly run down of MUT stuff.

I think this is Lucho cross training ...

Sunday 051511

AM – 10 miles, easy.  Clicking along around 7:40-8 for these runs these days on the roads, and Broomfield trails.  No HR monitor as that battery is dead, but I have a pretty good feel for it given I have worn it nearly every day for 2 years.

This gives me 71 on the week, 184 on the month.  Good news is that I bounced back well from the 45, was able to get some workouts in that felt pretty decent (I shook the general bleh that I was carrying for a couple weeks there), and maintained some level of consistency, even with travel to the east.  Still not very structured or disciplined in getting after it right now though.  This might be a good thing – as just being consistent can provide building blocks and then you sharpen the saw … but at the same time I feel (know) that I am not doing the “bigger” training necessary to get a certain level of result.  No sweat though – it is what it is.

Reality of is that my work travel has picked up quite a bit, and there are a lot of other things going.  KZ had her last soccer game of the spring season this weekend.

JZ’s Cub Scout pack had the rocket launch.

 

Decent shot of the launcher (10 pad) with the count down rocket next to it (faces whited out of folks I did not ask to put their pic up of)

The launch went well today. 

This is JZ’s last launch event with this pack so while it went well …. I am going to write down a few things here to consider for improvements to the whole event for future consideration.  No order … just some thoughts …
1.)  We had to cut back on kids chasing rockets when they come down out of the sky because some come down like flaming knives if their chutes don’t deploy. 
2.)  The igniters are the worst most flimsy part I have ever seen produced so that needs to be possibly addressed. 
3.)  The alligator clips, connectors for the launcher need to be replaced.  They still function but many could use the same level of overhaul that the launch rods got this past year (there were ZERO issues with the launch rods). 
4.)  We could consider purchasing some additional launchers (3 pad?) as the 10 pad rarely gets all ten rockets off.  More launchers may mean a lesser queue line. 
5.)  We have kept a general approach of smaller rockets to larger rockets for the younger to older Cubs.  This could be possibly revisited for more of a common rocket … not sure I’d go that route but something to discuss. 
6.)  There is some thought that the voltage on the rocket launcher could be out of kilter (which throws the launches off) but I think it is those damn igniters.
7.)  I had a few fire extinguishers on the site that we purchased this year, just in case something went awry but the weather made it so that was probably not really necessary.
8.)  We parked down on the sidewalk down at the MS field.  After being down there for about 10 minutes, Broomfield’s finest showed up and told us they had been brought there for a complaint about parking.  Not sure who we ticked off by parking down there but we stayed on the sidewalk versus the grass – as the grass was pretty soft.  The police were super cool about it and told us that if they had any more concerns raised they ask us to move our cars but they were okay with it for now.  They were actually interested in seeing the launch but had to get to work.
9.)  Used tarps because of the wet grass, but that collected the trash of the igniters, etc pretty well under the launcher.

Saturday 051411

AM – aspirations to get out, but I needed to catch up on sleep.  I was up from essentially 2AM to 10PM yesterday, and so hit the rack pretty hard last night.

JZ and I headed to the AMT Readyman event for Webelos today.

In addition to finding the CPR protocols that had changed interesting, I was suddenly in a flashback:  the course was at the Lowry campus.  I had not been here in over 23 years.  Suddenly found myself walking a little straighter and taller.  This  is a picture of my dorm.  I lived here for six months.  It does not appear to be in use at current.  Many of the other local buildings are in use by Community College of Denver.

Old class building.  I went to school here to learn navigation systems for B-52s.  I later learned to install some super secret system that was about getting navigational data from satellites in the sky (now know as GPS).

 

Nothing new here, but another article on the brain-body connection in endurance.

Mock has an article up on RT on a couple of ultra ladies that are in the OT marathon.  I never danced with the OT number for the marathon, but I certainly don’t think the standard for women is on par with the standard for men for that distance.  This doesn’t mean a person has not worked hard to achieve either standard though.

Evening – 11 miles, 3 miles tempo out the door (19:15), mile recovery, 3 miles tempo (18:20), mile recovery and then 30 second strides with 2:30 jogging home.  Was drizzling rain when I started and pretty good pour going at the finish.

Friday 051311

Travelled back from PA to the high land of CO.

Good read on how to spot “pseudo-science.”

Excellent Miwok race write up from the current front runner in the UROY race, Dave Mackey.  Regarding Wolfe … “It was like running 80K through an old Italian kitchen with that guy.”

As I age, I begin to see a slow unraveling of my understanding of kids with their new technology.

10 miles easy back in CO.  Tired in the head from the travel but the legs felt good.

Excellent write up on the only man to ever break 8 minutes for two miles.

A pseudo explanation on the blogger outage.

Thursday 051211

Rebuilding this post given the blogger outage.

AM - gorgeous morning out here in PA, with a beautiful sunrise. 10 miles, and I found a hill that was a quarter mile, averaging just under 9% grade, pitching up to under 13%. Did 8 repeats on that. They started at about 1:48, and then brought it down to 1:45. Full recovery as it was an easy jog back down. Started off feeling sluggish but pre-committed to doing a workout like this last night - so I did. Once I got going ... much better. And glad to have done it.

Looks like the HR monitor strap battery died this AM, as it said my AHR for this workout was 66.

Whytomwhy gave me good advice on my IPod Nano that I thought was dead - also a battery issue. He advised me to give it a firm whack on a surface like a counter. I did and it came back to life. Awesome.

McDougal gets fined.  My initial post had me wondering if I ought even bring this topic.  It is not clear to me when OSMP decides they are going to enforce this code.  In McDougal’s case, mentioning group social runs on your website seems to drive enforcement of the code, even though he had a permit for the gathering event at the top. 

Comments:

Kieran McCarthy has left a new comment on your post
I don't know. You beat me on your way to 50 when I was just running 25. Maybe that's just where your heart rate is nowadays.

beth has left a new comment on your post
that's crazy (the nano bang)!!!!
where in PA are you? anywhere near my philly home turf? have fun.

Brandon Fuller has left a new comment on your post
Wet here. Be glad you are there.

GZ has left a new comment on your post

Beth - in Cranberry Township which is north of Pitt. But mostly I am in a conference room without windows.
Brandon - yeah, back tomorrow so turn on the lights.
Kieran - your blog is way too smart for me. How'd the 25 turn out for you? You were pulling away from me on that downhill.

Brett has left a new comment on your post
After reading that entire McDougall story, those officers should be ashamed of themselves. The dude bent over backwards 12 different ways to accomodate and be in compliance...and the dude just hides out and waits to give them a ticket instead of being completely clear on the front end.

Wednesday 051111

Blech. 2nd day travel blues strike again. Second day of travel to the east coast kicks my butt. The time change, the all day meetings, and the dining train.

I felt great yesterday and I should have taken advantage of that. I didn't though, thinking it might be a bit stupid for me to push a bit just coming off the 50 ... umm, 45. Should have listened to the legs and not the head and gone after it yesterday.

Instead, I thought I would get after it this AM, but I felt sluggish from the first step. Figured I'd see if things would open up after 20 minutes, but nah. Take what you get, get what you take. AHR = 135, max was 151, but I was not even watching it. My legs just felt like wood.

Nonetheless, got out for 8.5 miles into some of the PA countryside. There are some pretty good hills here. I forgot about the back roads of the east though ... curvy, no significant shoulders, no curbs ... and people wonder what the hell you are doing running out there anyway.

Oh, forgot to mention saw my first snake of the season on Monday. Nice bull snake on the Lake Link near the parade of homes in Broomfield.

Started reading Dylan Bowman's blog and found this post on ultra sitting to be a bit fascinating.

Tuesday 051011

Overslept damn it. Well, sort of. I got up at 6:30 but that was still 4:30 Colorado time. In a rare feat, I was out the hotel door in five minutes and on the road. Got in six around the Cranberry Woods facility, and ended up moving nicely towards the tail of it (sub 6:30). Nice loop, but I am going to have to find something different than its 1.7 mile length.

Hope to get out again tonight, but the man may make the call.

Had a little swelling under one of the toe nails on my right foot. Only had a screw driver for glasses repair (how’d that get through TSA?) but was able to pop that bugger.

I continue to enjoy the writings of Bevan James Eyles.

This makes my falls look tame. Not for the squeamish.

Some cool cinematography in this Killian vid:

Justin has his weekly post up on MUT.

JT thinks I should not run the Boulder 100 (which I am not sure I would do anyway) and he thinks I ought to up my odds of getting lost by going to Moab.

PM - snuck in 5.5 easy miles.

Monday 050911

10 miles easy.  Felt pretty good.  No soreness, no significant fatigue from Saturday. 

KZ had an award ceremony at her school today where they recognized honor students.  Tyler Hanson, CU Buffaloes QB spoke at it.  Last year the school got CO pole vault phenom Pat Manson.  I think it is pretty cool how they get athletes in from the area that also speak to the importance of academics – and particularly how excellence is a choice.  Stoked for KZ but I thought it was really cool how after she received her award, she went up for a friend who name was omitted from the program and notified the staff of their mistake.

JZ had a piano recital recently.  In the pic below, they list the piece the kid is playing, its composer and the kid who is playing it.  JZ wrote his own piece.  It is a nice little progression in C minor.

Travelled to Pittsburgh and so behind on the blogosphere again.

Some old man won Miwok.

CPTR “45” “report”

On a plane to Pittsburgh, so a variety of thoughts in no particular order.  This is not a pretty or well articulated post – as I am writing it over a few different points, more as a regurgitation of various thoughts than an article or comprehensive post.

Yeah, it is long and I realize some folks find these sort of reports ridiculous and self indulgent.  They are right of course, but nobody is making you read it.  I mean, the short version is that I jogged all day, got off course and ran 45 miles.  In any case … first some perspective.

Results They are on line.  Also the 25 mile results are up too.

Night before:  Hung out in Fairplay at the cabin with Footfeathers and Skatona, which was cool and nicely relaxing.  As a teen something I had a dream that I had a secret mountain lair that I could share with a few friends on such occasions.  It is good that I can do that now.

Race Reports  Winner Ryan Burch, 2nd place Dylan Bowman, Sean O’ Day (really enjoying getting to know this guy), Mike H, Woody…Ream from Fleet Feet also has a report up from the 25 as does Jaime.  Still waiting to see reports from Brooks, Footfeathers and Skatona.  I am sure I am missing a few … still working through a backlog of blog reading.

Winner.  Ryan Burch’s run was damn impressive.  The guy ran the first lap in 3:08, which was only slightly slower than what he did the 25 in last year.  In fact, he beat all the 25 milers to the line enroute to his 50.  The CR he broke was previously held by guys that were not slouches:  Anton K and Andrew H. 

I had only met Ryan once before this race (Lafayette Oatmeal 5k) but nonetheless, he took time to sit with me post run and find out about my run.   I mean, the guy has just won, set a course record, and he is more interested in how I did.  This attitude seems pervasive in the ultra world (and frankly it is a habit I need to get better at … but there you go, I am talking about me again).

Start.  I took the first lap really relaxed.  My first goal in the whole race was the Hippocratic Oath:  “First do no harm.”  I had pledged to myself this would not be a tooth enamel grinding day, and a first lap well within my margins was necessary for that. 

As a result, I got out easy and slow, and then slowed down.  Nonetheless, the first couple miles were clicking off ridiculously easy … mid sevens with a HR in the 120s.

I think that is worth repeating:  mid sevens in the 120s.  Not a step of a warm up (I thought with 50 miles, there was no need to for me to warm up – I had plenty of time to warm up)

Okay yeah, I wore a HR monitor but I don’t use it to determine how I run or race but rather for the data gathering (more post facto).  I find this interesting because I can’t recall seeing that sort of thing ever.  I will get more into this a little later – but I think this generally leads to the body-mind connection thing that goes on (aka Central Governor).  Call it race day magic but on race day, work that would send my HR into the 170s out the door was simple.

In any case, I was way back on the road out.  Leaders had pulled maybe a minute, 90 second lead by the time we hit the trail.  Maybe more.

Once on the trail, I connected up with a few different folks, some doing the 25, some doing the 50.  Todd G, Kiernen (I need to check that name spelling and how he did), Darcy A, Jaime, JT and Mike H.  Some I caught, some caught me.  Generally speaking, I’d catch folks on the uphills, and get gapped on the downhills (more on that in a bit).   Given the large number of folks and grouping out there on the first lap, this made the first bunch of miles just slip by easily.  

Just to assure I was not doing anything over the top, I ran all the moderate hills, but went to the power hike on the ridiculous rollers (I refused walking as an option when I did the 25 a few years ago, but this year, I felt that I needed to be careful).

Water.  I stopped to pee around 12 miles and JT came by.  I popped back out on the trail and tried to grab his hat (stupid because it knocked down his sunglasses).  This was my only pee stop.  JT started calling me Killian Jornet (Killian Georgie?) because I did not have water (and that I was wearing compression tights and socks).  I never felt like I needed water on this course because the aid stations were every 3-6 miles.  Yeah, it was warm but it was 70 degrees – not 90.  Nothing against folks who carried water – I am just saying I didn’t feel I needed it with that level of support / aid.  I was never thirsty all day.  I took my time in the aid stations, often taking two, three of the dixie cups of water, heed. 

Food.  I didn’t take much food … I had two gels on the first lap, and a banana on the second.  For breakfast about an hour before the race, I had a bagel with cream cheese.  Again, I never felt bonkie, but in retrospect, I might have been playing with fire there.

End of first lap.  As I neared the end of the first lap (which essentially starts at the second to last aid station, because it is nearly all down or flat from there), I had to be careful.  Suddenly 25 milers start ramping it up, it is getting a little warmer, you are going down.  It is probably pretty easy to let this go a little too much.  Had to remind myself that I still had 30 miles to go a few times before I got to excited chasing anyone.  For future reference, it is pretty easy to want to get rolling a bit … you can see the town, feel the excitement, and are dropping into the river.  You need to just hold back because … well … you ain’t even half way yet.

It was inspiring to be coming into town and see guys like Burch, Dylan Bowman (2nd), Duncan, Sean P, Brooks coming back out.  Burch came by me around 3:25 I think.  I was around 23 miles which meant he was around 27. 

I was t-shirted, singleted up for the first lap and was debating if I ought to drop that and go shirtless for the second.  Sean P and Brooks coming by as such sealed the deal (JT also joined the skins team and was resembling a lobster at the finish).  Might not have been the smartest thing but it made for a comfortable second lap.

As I came into the 25, 50 loop finish, I hammed it up a bit.  You could go to the right for the 25 to finish or to the left to continue on the 50.  I went back and forth, to the right, to the left, yelling “what should I do?” to the small audience and race volunteers.  I then whooped “Let’s play 2!”  I was truly stoked.  I made it through 25 miles feeling unscathed.  There was a slight bit of building fatigue in my feet, but I felt good.  Tim Footfeathers was in the turn around and I yapped with him for a bit.

In retrospect, I was very relaxed in the first lap aid stations, and this one particularly so.  I suddenly saw folks coming in, going out.  The competitive nature in me put up a flag and gave me a kick to get out of there. 

Downhills.  I have become pretty tentative on the downhills.  There are a variety of reasons for this, some of which I am not going to discuss outright here on the blog (and those should correct themselves) but more generally, I can see an on-going decline to go after it on the downhills.  Simply, what used to be sub 7 bring it efforts on those long downs are now just sub 8.  HR plummets, but my legs are not wanting to take that pounding.  I will look to work on this (current thinking is squats may help).

Feet.  I went with the Racer ST road flats.  This course is groomed enough, non technical enough that there is no reason to wear the AWD type of shoe.  That said I fully expected my PF to be barking significantly because of this choice, and if anything be one of two possible likely factors to drive me out at the turn around.  The PF was fine, but I could feel a growing fatigue in my feet that – well – I was just not used to.  It sort of reminds me when I play guitar for a long period of time.  My hands get really tired and actually feel sore.  Same gig here.  This was not run threatening, but I had to tell myself to stop whining a couple of times as the second lap progressed.

Start of second lap.   It did not happen instantly on the second lap, but my brain started slipping more into an objective mode on the second lap.  I had finished the first around 3:45.  I started slowly reeling folks in as we climbed out of town.  I had been concerned about the climb out of town to the aid station at 33 miles but it was coming without issue.  In fact, it was easier than I thought it would be.  Over the course of this climb, the brain started playing with the numbers … could I go sub 8?  Top ten?  What pace would I need?  What time would I need at that next aid station?  Could get there ahead of that without pushing the redline?  I was not in race mode, but I had slipped into objective mode.  Not much different than many other long runs I do where I play the game (hmmm, 20 miles, can I keep the pace at this on the watch, can I get it under that?).

Pic courtesy of Sean K, I think this was around 30 miles?

I could see Todd G as we climbed to the 33 mile aid station.  I had been gaining on him on the climb but expected him to pull away on the downhill from there given how I was running those.   I hit this station right around 5 hours, and was feeling good.  If I could hold an average of 10 minute miles over the rest of the course, a sub 8 was in the bag.  I started thinking of not taking too many seconds in the aid stations but still getting my fluids.  10 minute miles would not occur on the up hills, but certainly could be averaged with some downs at 8, 8:30.

For the first time in the day, I was now pretty much alone.  I could not see anyone ahead or behind.  Occasionally I would see a stray 25 miler out there and was amazed that – well they were out there.  Right on.

Motivation was now focused on that sub 8.  In what seemed like a contradictory “not long” and “forever” amount of time I got to the aid station 3.  I had picked up on the cue in the earlier aid stations and was sure to show my number as I came in.  And I was off to aid station 2.  That would be 11 miles to go.

IDIOT.  I came around the corner, saw the aid station and … somewhere in the recesses of my brain, it did not seem right.  The volunteers were cheering and then I saw the sign … 5.5 miles to go.  My GPS ready 39 miles and right around 6 hours.  This was not adding up.   I had no idea where I went off course.   I was hit with a wave of trying to figure that out and what to do.  They told me I was in second place and I knew that was most definitely incorrect.

In retrospect, I see the turn on the GPS that I missed.  I probably just zoned out some turn, and without having people to watch, I missed it.  I was thinking throughout the run how well the course was marked, and so – I can’t say this was a fault of the RD or anything.  I am sure it was an error on my part.  Given how close the cut was from one side of the course to the other, I can see why I just kept seeing orange flagging “consistently.” 

In any case, I contemplated for a minute, heading back out and checking in at aid station 2.  At that moment, I quickly threw that out the window.  I did not want this to be a 55 mile effort (looking back it would have been a bit less than 3 miles back to that turn off, and bit more than 3 back, plus the errant miles, so close to 59).  And I knew that in some way, that would still not be enough.  I would need to go back to where I went off the course and run the entire portion I missed to make amends.  And none of that was going to happen under 8 hours.  So what had been a “hey whatever happens, I just want to finish” was in the moment over ruled.

I jogged out of the aid station but within a quarter mile … I started walking.  I was disappointed, pissed, amused, shaking my head, sighing at myself.  I’d start to jog again, but suddenly there was no running the easy nine minute miles.  13 minute miles were work.  There was a temptation a few times to go back and make amends to get the 50 mile, but I felt that would leave me pretty physically thrashed.  I smirked at myself because around 35 miles I thought that perhaps I could “that hundred thing” based on how I felt.  But now, suddenly two of these 50s seemed outright stupid (there were a variety of other words I used for what it seemed but not really blog appropriate).

Dylan B came by and I was inspired to run with him for a moment, but his pace was too fast and I had no fight left in me to stick with him. 

I shuffle jogged walked in the last 5.5 in close to 90 minutes, and specifically took a route through town away from the finish so that there was no confusion at the finish line.  I checked in with the race officials to be sure they were not looking for me out there.

So, a DQ or a DNF or maybe a 3:45 25 miler or a 7:30 45 miler. 

POST RACE.  Without a doubt, a huge draw to these events for me are engaging with the people that do them.  I think that while we all compete with each other, there is an understanding and respect of how we are competing with ourselves.  This drives a level of encouragement, cheering, interest in your fellow runner amongst the participants that I just don’t see at the same level in 5ks, 10ks.

I soaked up the conversation, the recollection of the stories, the successes, the failures, and  the blisters (one very tiny one for me that was not an issue).  I found myself struggling to untie my shoes or hold intelligent conversations because I was either cramping up with such “odd” motions or because I was lying down and did not want to turn over to face the person I was talking to (Dylan – sorry, I asked you like 5 times how your race went … in retrospect it must have seemed like I was not paying attention.  I was but I just did not realize it was you behind me when I kept asking because I was face down or eating a hummus wrap or something).

Great conversations and Mike, JT and his future bride, Jaime, Woody, Matt L, Sean, Brooks, Shaun, Footfeathers, Dylan, Todd, Ryan … many …

And frankly, there is a part of me that wants to bathe in that.  Watching folks cheer for people like Tim, Woody, Mike coming in … at this itty bitty 50 miler in the blue bird sky mountains of Buena Vista … I could run these for the rest of my life.  Test the limits of this vessel we live in.  This machine.  Find its failings and its strengths.  And then go back to work on upgrades … all while enjoying the mountains, the vistas, the trail …

BALANCE.  So I say that, but I also question the balance of these events.  Going off and jogging all day seems sort of ridiculous to me at some level.  I mean, it is really self indulgent – particularly for a guy who is a father and a husband.  Maybe I should have been off at one of my kid’s soccer games.  I think my biggest concern about getting into ultras is if I can reconcile that balance to a place where I am comfortable.  Driving home, with a DQ next to my name in my head, it felt out of balance.  I realize that regardless of the outcome (say I even won the race) my family would be there anyway.  They would just be happy if I had made it home unhurt.  They care, but they also don’t care if I do these or not.  I think about the ridiculous self indulgent nature of how unbalanced a 100 or a 50 is and it sickens me to think I want to be that selfish. 

Not sure where that all lands yet.

RECOVERY – Actually, I was surprised at how good I felt.  I recovered well, even though I had to drive some 150 miles home.  I took Sunday off, but felt very capable of running.  In fact, compared to R2R2R, or House to SoBo and back, I felt much better.  Worked in the yard all day and enjoyed a kids ball game without any issues.

NEXT?  Not sure. 

I am obviously a bit disappointed with the outcome but I am not upset or feeling bad really.  In fact, I can look at it now and sort of sigh and say, “really GZ?”  All good.  Lessons learned on several fronts.

I’d love to go and do another 50, and in fact I’d love to have another crack at this one in particular.  As contradictory as it sounds, even though I am looking forward to the Dirty 30 next month, I am also tempted to drop from all races going forward.  

I probably won’t do that but the thought crosses my mind.  I think more than ever, I’d be content without competitive running as much as I do.  The draw to the high mountain ridge in the summer at a hard effort is very large however and I don’t know if I could say no to that, but  I mean, I could just do this stuff at some level without the actual racing.  

But I love the racing too. 

In any case, I really sort of amazed how the brain changed things when I went from running with an objective, to not.  I suddenly went from 9 minute pace is okay to 13 minute pace sucks.  Amazing how the head works like that.  It tells me a thing or two about how to think about TRAINING as well.  I do workouts where 6 minute pace feels like ass but then 5:30 in a race feels okay.  So, the race makes a difference somehow.

More on all this later, and particularly on the performances of the individuals I saw there (but remember, the self indulgent part of this, and how I need to work on that but then again this post was all about me)  … but I am tired now …

Saturday 050811

Longer report coming but quick update… split the first half in 3:40-3:45 ish and was feeling great.  Headed out for a second lap and was moving well.    Checked in at aid station 3 (3 stations to go) and figured if I could average 10 minute miles, I’d be under 8 hours.  It would be challenging but do-able.  Came up to 39 miles, expecting to see aid station 2 – but it was aid station 1.  Asked how many were ahead of me and heard “one.”  Realized right there I had taken a wrong turn somewhere.  Contemplated for a moment going back and correcting the mistake, but that would turn this 50 miler into something longer.  Shuffled-jogged-walked it in, and suddenly, without the objective of a race in the mix, the 9 minute miles that had felt fine were replaced by 13 minute miles that felt horrible.  Ended up with 45 miles.

Here is a shot of where I made the wrong turn:

Longer post coming – learned a lot out there about ultras, nutrition, my feet, downhills, people, myself, selfishness, the sport, the brain …

Obviously disappointed to not be an ultrarunner yet, but it would not be me if there was not some significant drama to all this.

Friday 050611

AM – easy jog with Lucy – 5 miles.

I am leaning towards the 50 right now.  Earlier in the week I was thinking the 25, because of things on the horizon and the possible impact this run could have towards preparing for that.  But I am feeling now that I need to enjoy this for the moment.  We’ll see how much enjoyment I am feeling after the first lap ending in BV.  I have a lot of respect for the distance, in part because of scary ass (but brilliant) posts like this (I did say that was brilliant, right?).  It would be nice to finish like this:

Rather than like this:

It is a stretch to say I have no idea what I should set for a target tomorrow, but at the same time – I don’t have clear “this is success and this is failure goals.”  I did the 25 there in 2007 in 3:07, so on paper a sub 8 seems feasible.  That said – that was four years ago, and 50 miles is in its own way is more than twice as far as a 25 miles (take that Yogi Berra).  I’d like to think I could run near 10 minute pace all day, or average that with walks, stops, etc.  Biggest concern for me going in, as has been the case with all my long runs is how I hold up structurally with the grizzle, the feet, toes (even though I have less than nearly all folks).  I have kicked around that 9 minute miles all day could also be possible (7:30), but given that guys I respect a lot are calling that out as the ball park, I am cautious.

In some regards, this will be my first competitive ultra if I go the full distance.  Sure – I have done the Grand Canyon (and I wore a race number for chuckles), and the Burro Race last year was a competitive ultra.  This however is a bit more true in the scheme of competitive runs (I think they call those races).  There is certainly a bit of a desire to do this to feel that out. 

I have been a fan of ultra running, but not really an ultra runner yet.  Part of the draw of ultra running, or maybe more appropriately, the ultra community (so I put IM in there)  is the community of people.  Bunch of whackos.  Nut jobs.  Folks you see at a party and you hear people say “well, he is one of them.”  Frankly, I want to be one of them because they are good people.  More often than not they are the people I’d want in the trench with me if I had to do that.  They cheer for you, they jeer you, they will compete with you and fight so that you don’t beat them but they want to see you succeed too.  And afterwards, they want to soak up the glow of all of it, realizing our humanity, how small we are, but how grand the thing we did was.

Anyways … not sure what shoes I will wear.  Probably will go with my road flats (Racer STs) but realize that will leave the PF a bit pissed post the run.  I would go with something else like the but they all cause other issues (Technica’s – still a bit stiff and may cause blisters, variety of PI shoes aggravate the Achilles / Haglund deformity).  Least of all evils.

Thursday 050511

Well, a bit more than I probably should have done today, but I was just having a blast out there.  It felt like summer.  Finally.  Ah, soak up the Vitamin D.  13 miles, 2000 feet of climbing over at the Flatirons Vista. Not too worried as it was super easy, and 500 of that vertical came in about a half mile that I was walking.  Took the downs super easy too to keep everything in check.

I wore the Technica’s that I am testing out and they grip great, but they are bit stiff (new) so I got a little blister (not smart 2 days before a 50).  The climb up towards Mickey Mouse is excellent, and I might go back to that given its beautiful single track, great views and secluded nature (about a half mile averaging greater than 22 percent and with sections pitching greater than 30).

 

Two quotes from the trail today …

Me:  “is that dog a German Wire Hair?
Him:  “Yup.”
Me:  “Good looking dog.”
Him:  “His name is Ugly”

Me:  “Good looking horse.”
Her:  “Thank you.  Good looking body.”
Me:  “Thank you.” (grin)

Booked a ticket to Tel Aviv today. 

Probably an easy 5 or so tomorrow.  Today’s weather had me feeling good enough to consider the 50 more strongly for Saturday.  It really comes down to this:  am I living for Saturday or for other stuff this summer.  I can take this either way.  I should run the 50 on Saturday because I have no idea what is going to come between now and August … and it is new, it is something I have not done.  Or I should not run it to show discipline to prepare for August so I have no excuses then.

Whatever.  It will be a game day call.

Insane PP Triathlon idea.

Heckuva spring.

Wednesday 050411

After 5 years (I think, maybe 4, certainly at least 3), my 8GB flash drive nano IPod seems to have played its last mp3-podcast-RCPM song.  I will have to consider what an appropriate funeral experience will be for it.  I will float with my phone-camera-mp3 player thingie for now.  No biggie.

Interesting interview on fueling here.

Still feel a bit dead, but 10 miles, sub 8s, low 140s HR.  I might just need some turn over to blast this out.

I find this rather epic. 

On a couple of the blogs I read, there have been folks who have been weighing in with some outright, well rude feedback.  Okay, I recognize that most feedback in the blogosphere is “dude you are so killin’ it” and “awesome” workout – to the point it is piled pretty deep.  We tend to blow a bit of too much positive smoke at each other. 

So with that in mind, I am nonetheless okay with the constructive feedback of “umm, dude, you might be overtraining” or “hey do you think maybe you are chasing mileage numbers a bit too much?” variety.  

When the feedback comes laced with outright insulting commentary, and from the behind title of “anonymous” – even if there is something intelligent in the message, you can basically throw the whole message away.  I guess I have been blessed that the folks who have been kind enough to give me constructive feedback have given it directly to my face (or if they are at a distance, an email where they are identifiable), and if they want to lay into me a bit – they do it privately.  For what it is worth, I have called this the “Bridge Rule” of management (not original, but I don’t recall where I heard this ST reference).  You praise in public, you criticize in private.  Even if someone does something outright stupid in public, you don’t call them out on the bridge.  Take ‘em to the ready room to take the gloves off.

Tuesday 050311

AM – 5 miles with Lucy.  From a pace, HR perspective, almost embarrassingly slow.  9 min pace average, AHR at 140.  I just am not awake with these mornings.  Lucy is getting in good (great actually) shape.

Started reading "Relentless Forward Progress” last night.  Easy reading, as I was at page 50 in pretty short order.  I will get a more comprehensive review out soon.

The Ryan Hall interview on Competitor is good.

Another good review of MUT news from the TA.

Yesterday I added back to the post about a result from last year’s PPA … a 16 year old putting up a 2:47 is fairly impressive.   Been thinking about Pikes a bit … but less about performance and more about things I think that could “spice” it up.  Here are a few ideas:

1.)  Team competition.  Last year’s PPA race was a WMRA team race.  I thought that extending this to various other teams could be interesting.  Fleet Feet versus Pearl Izumi versus Inov8 versus Boulder Running Co.  You get the idea. 

2.)  Up the ante on the awards … Comrades has different awards to folks finishing at different intervals (really not much different than belt buckles at some of the ultras).  I’d love to see a PP buckle for different levels.

3.)  Provide longevity awards … provide an award to the people that have done this race, oh – ten times.  I guess that could happen in five years if a person doubled that many years in a row, so maybe it is for 20 finishes.

So of course, 1 and 2 can become its own spin off combination … awards for the fastest team, the fastest couple, the fastest doubler, the fastest parent sibling.  I also wonder what ever happened to Zeb Pike giving out the awards.  He was there the first year I competed but I have not seen him since. 

Question that came up in my head yesterday given Jeff’s comment … should races like BTMR and Pikes actually have entry not open until closer to race day?  I get Jeff’s point that is hard to commit to a race that far out because you may get injured, or other things happen.  Alternatively, a race should open up its doors sooner so that folks can plan (logistics in addition to training) well ahead.  Thoughts?

Been thinking about trying out the Hokas … simply I might be looking for a more cush ride on downhills … because I have become much more tentative on those over the last couple of years. 

On that front, not Hokas but took these Technica  Diablo’s for a spin this afternoon.  9 miles easy.  Legs were a bit dead but the afternoon pace was right … , floating around 8s, 140 HR.  I am leaning a bit (52, 48) more towards the 25 today, and thinking I just push up a general build up this week.  It feels right.  For whatever reason, 2 weeks ago, getting a speed run or two a week felt right and it does not now.