Wednesday 103112

How’s your blog rate?    472 bucks here.  Guess I ain’t quitting the day job anytime soon. Wait, maybe I should have not given JT that link love.

From a dude that has gone pretty damn far … There is a difference between embracing life and embracing health.

PM  - 11 miles.  I felt pretty good so got after it a bit, and did 5 x 3.5-4 minutes, 2 minutes rest in the middle of this to break it up.  Pace varied from 5:30 to 6 minutes per mile. 11 miles.  Couple of lessons learned (or perhaps relearned) on this today …

… yesterday’s workout was not that hard.  That is part of the nature of hill workouts.  Since you are not beating yourself up as hard, you are able to come back at it a bit more quickly.  But it is a reminder that you can probably also do a bit more in a hill workout than you think – particularly if you are an old guy like me that has done a ton of them.  It takes a bit more to get a great stimulus out of them.

… I used to KILL workouts.  I’d sit in my car afterwards and not be able to drive, thinking I’d  pass out on the road if I tried.  Some of this is because I was fitter.  Some of this is because I was dumber.  Some of this is because I ran with other people more often in those workouts.  In any case, I seemed to out perform myself in workouts when compared to races.  That seems to have flipped.  I seem to struggle to break six minute pace in intervals in a workout, but I ran under a 5:10 mile in a race this summer.  I am okay with that but I’d like it to be a bit closer on the workout side than it is now.

… generally I am a big wimp.  I am sort of scared of the workouts now – which is part of why I ran this one today.  I don’t want to run hard for four minutes.  That sounds like hell.  Running steady for 60 minutes sounds pretty okay though.  So I need to attack the weakness.

Tuesday 103012

AM – travel day back to Denver coming up, so it was up early to get at it.  I was greeted with a decent rain out the door.  I headed down 6th and then cut down the stairs off Pike, past the market, where I could continue the warm up a bit under the shelter of the viaduct.

Then it was back and forth on the Madison hill.  Pretty much 10 x a minute (just a little less) up on the hill, and whatever the recovery was on the down.  I think it was probably near 15% on the steepest stuff … it sort of seemed like the road above the Cog.  Except in a city.  And paved with brick and concrete.  And wet.  So the same.  But different.  Occasionally, I needed to extend it a bit as I dodged the traffic where Madison crossed 2nd.  Not really worried about it because it was a bunch of efforts in a place where I probably won’t be again in the near future.

Just tagging the hill enough to get the burn in the legs.  Given the rain, and the pretty steep grade between 2nd and 3rd street, I was glad the sidewalk bricks were “rumble stripped.”  6 miles.

Monday 102912

A few years ago, I had put a race in New Mexico on my schedule.  “La Luz” is a hill climb, with grades similar to Pikes, but as it only goes 9 miles, and it starts at a lower elevation, the summit is not nearly the oxygen deprived pace.

I recall talking to a local runner about it, who had done it before.  At one point this person said, “well, you should get down there on the course a few times to get it dialed in.”  Get down there?  The thing is 8 hours away by car.  “Well, if are serious …” he trailed off.

I have referenced this conversation when describing this particular person I was conversing with.  Usually with the theme being, “’Well if you are serious?’ That dude is crazy!” 

And there is some element of that is sort of true.  Sort of.

But the fact is, what we do is often seen as crazy.  “You ran up Pikes?  And down?” “You ran 100 miles?”  “You run a mile how fast?”  “You ran how far (usually followed with the obligatory statement of how they don’t drive that far)?”  So, what we often do is seen as really serious.  So much so that it is not unheard of for people to ask if we are training for the Olympics.

But I think some of us question if we are serious enough.  Or if we are too serious.  “Should I run more?  Should I take a rest day?  Should I do core work?  Should I get a coach?  Should go sleep in my car at altitude?  Should I get a massage?  Should I diet?  Should I fill a tire with a bunch of sand and go the extra mile?”

So much of what I see runners trying to figure out is how serious they are, how serious they want to be, and the results they want.  There are of course those who are just in it for the fun of it, regardless of result (pretty rare though).  Most of us have some thought to improve, or at least stay in the same place as we age (which is sort of like improving anyway). 

And so for me, I find myself often asking how serious I am or how serious I want to be.  “Hokas?  Drop beer?  Vitamin supplements?  Travel to Lucho’s place to get my ass kicked every week?  Skip that desert at the corporate weenie dinner?  Grapple with my schedule to get out for group runs or races more?  Should I skip running 10 miles today and only do 4 because I have a key workout tomorrow?”

And there is the question of how much of a difference any of these things make.  Does that beer tonight make much of a difference to me at over 8 months away from my goal race?  Probably not.  But if it is four, does that make a difference?  If it impacts my workout tomorrow, does that mean I lost an opportunity to improve towards my goals?

Maybe going to La Luz was too serious.  Or maybe it wasn’t.  It depends on how serious you are.  Eventually you determine that you are indeed serious, or you could be more serious.  If you could be more, you either come to terms with that, or the that comes to terms with you (at the point of performance).

It is easy to be serious the week of your race.  Actually that is not serious at all.  That is scared.  Fear can drive a level of seriousness even in those who claim not to be (you know, the guy who says they are just doing this for fun but gets pretty damn serious about getting their name on a Pack Burro Racing Burro board in Fairplay in the last 5 miles of such an event because they are scared of getting run down – just saying).

We look at seriousness with a bit of awe.  Tony running 20 hours and 50k of vertical a week.  Dakota living in Silverton for the summer.  Carpenter running Pikes everyday.  Elliott living at Barr Camp for a month before the race.  Sir Clarkie being Clark.  Honnold living in his car so he can climb all the time.

So I put a pretty big goal out there a few weeks ago:  PR at Pikes.  I know how to train to do that.  Question is with that goal, if I am really serious.   Some of the three of you who are reading this might be thinking, “damn he is crazy.”  But I see a lot of places where I am not serious.  I see all these little bs decisions I make that are where I fail to be committed.  And it drives me a little crazy. 

And this just ain’t with my running.  It is with all sorts of things in my life.  Little decisions I make that seem to undermine my drive towards a goal as a father, husband, and friend.

Why the hell am I doing that?  Usually it is about some sort of short term perceived gain versus taking an imperceptible step towards a bigger more fruitful one.  When one can choose the right one there, that is wisdom.  Note – I said the “right one.”  Not the longer term one all the time.  There is a time to save the pennies, and there is a time to break the piggy bank and spend it on something.  I see the man who always saves ending up as poor as the man who never saves.

I really need to figure out how serious I am and where I want to be so.

(By the way, I post the above video a bit in jest, because I see those two as guys that have a sandbag ton of wisdom)

AM – 5 miles.  Raining and windy.  Joined the RAPS group run.

This is pretty cool.

Evening – easy 4 miles.

Sunday 102812

AM - Seattle.  Headed down to the Alaskan Way area and ran along the sound.  7 miles in the dark.  I came back up Madison Ave, and as it gains something like 200 feet in a quarter mile, I might have found my interval workout for next week.

PM - back down to the Sound side for some running.  I guess sea level does have some effect because I was suddenly magically clipping sub seven pace for a bit with a HR below 150.  8 miles.

62 on the week, again around 9.5 hours.  Certainly not an idea week for training but not bad given the travel constraints this week.  Got out for the turn over stuff in the dark on Monday, a good tempo back at home in CO on Friday, a longer run (2.5 hours on Saturday).

This represents completion of the third week that I have taken to the 5k, 10k focus and I feel it is coming around pretty nicely.  I might need to get myself out there for a test soon ... if I can find the time.  :)  I'd say I'd just do a time trial on my own, but I know that won't go as well as an actual race.

Saturday 102712

Headed out for a run this AM and had the great luck and fortune to bump into Buzz, Bill, Jeff V, Tony K, Burch, Mike H, Brandon F, Tim L, Rob T, Basit, Dave M, Justin M, Homie, Sandrock, Wes T, Kendrick C.  Crazy how that is in here… you can’t head out for a run and throw a rock without hitting someone in the face.  Just another day in this wonderful place we live.


               

I clearly and quickly knew that I had not visited the hills as of late.  I could feel the small of my back give off its tell tale “bark” when I have been away from them (the snow seems to magnify this, along with yesterday’s workout).  No bother at this point.  Flagstaff and Green for the front half and then coming down via Bear Canyon to round it out to 11.5 miles.

All that however was really the footnote to this run.  It was great to share a few strides with so many of the wonderful people in this community.  Common topic that comes up is how folks’ heads are churning on their ‘13 plans.  Interesting to hear the different takes. There are so many wonderful stories.  Yeah, cheesy as Swiss, but it lifts me up.  It might be that I don’t do a lot of it and so it is a novel thing, but it leaves me buzzing for hours afterwards.  I probably am buzzing too much during these sort of runs too, feeling like a kid at Christmas, and talking too dang much.

Couple of shots from a Halloween gig we went to last night.  What is scary is that I actually use to sort of look like this when I had hair.  No, seriously …

Off to Seattle tonight.  Listened to the Endurance Planet show, Ask The Coaches.  This show by Lucho and Tawnee, along with TalkUltra are pretty much the only two fitness, endurance, ultra, training podcasts that I listen to anymore (although occasionally I will queue up Marathon Talk. .  It has been fun to hear how this show has matured, being a bit of ultra, a bit of marathon, a bit of tri, a bit of all the stuff “we” talk about.  I dig it.   When not listening to this “genre” I go with Carolla’s stuff for laughs.  Most the time though, it is purely music – everything from Winston to Foo Fighters to stuff KZ turns me onto.  Go to Pandora when stuck.
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Solid post by Ian S regarding flat 100s.  Without a doubt, I am still thinking about the 100, but I am not focusing on it in 13 (given my Pikes goals).  And without a doubt, I am still amazed at what Bob did at the Boulder 100 in his last lap.  Reading Ian’s post leaves me nodding my head, because it is clearly not how you run the first half but how you can run that damn second half – and really how much from 70 miles to the finish.  As I was crushed to a point of “running” a 17 minute mile in my last couple of laps, I clearly have a lot of possible improvement …
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Started getting back to a little bit of core work.  Mostly push ups, planks and reverse crunches.  I have not done them in a bit so it is leaving me a bit sore.  I imagine that as the weather starts to degrade a bit, I will look to get into the gym a bit more.  Maybe some rope work.  I tend to get a bit nutty with bench press and that sort of stuff when I go to the gym.  It is a left over from the AF days I guess.  I can’t say that I will totally eschew that stuff, but I think I will try to focus a bit more on some core and leg work (dead lifts, squats).  Eh, easily said.   
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While I will be focused on Pikes in 2013, I am pondering the burro thing again.  And I’d like to finally coordinate a Fairplay to Leadville run (and back) with Fuller.  And I am thinking of hosting up a FA type event … my house to Bear and back … whatever route you want with a few checkpoints along the way.  Not the cup of tea for everyone with the flat before the climb, but a good 35 miler (ish).  Pancakes galore at the finish.  Maybe in March. 
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I saw a commercial today while on the plane for testosterone applied via a stick to the arm pit.  Of course there was the list of all the possible side effects at the end of the commercial.   When driving into work, I hear commercials on the sports radio all the time about “low T” this and that.  "Are you a middle aged man who is tired of being tired?”   This is not new of course, but it seems that this stuff is nearly as readily available as coffee (when is Starbucks gonna provide the Low T Latte?).   The question that I am trying to get out of my head (kind of like a bad song that gets stuck in there) is this:  with this stuff apparently being so available, is it really okay if someone just gets a  therapeutic use exemption (TUE)?   Apparently I don’t have low T (but I have not been tested), but if I suddenly did and I got some prescription to bring my levels to some “normal” range, would it be doping if I competed with an appropriate TUE?   According to what I understand from USADA, the answer is no – that would not be doping.  

This sort of sounds like an argument that I hear pro’s who have been caught making:  “I did not use it to enhance my performance, but just to recover.”  Uh, enhancing your recovery is enhancing your performance.   The guy taking testosterone to get it to some level within his TUE is doing it “to just be normal” – but he is also enhancing my performance.   Then again, I enhance my performance too – I drink coffee and I know it will help my performance so it is obviously a performance enhancer … just happens to be legal when I have my two cups in the AM

This leaves me a bit stuck with the conundrum of how everything is a drug of some sort (uuh, yeah, I), and how we legislate and regulate what is normal.  And that is sort of arbitrary.

Friday 102612

Afternoon, back in Broomyville … mile warm up and then a five mile tempo:  6:14, 6:11, 6:23, 6:18, and 6:32 (or 31:38 for the five).  AHR of 173, max of 180. 

Felt okay in the lungs, but the legs never felt too good.  Still a bit of an improvement over the four miler from a couple of weeks ago.

Finished it out for 12 on the day.

Thursday 102512

Nada.  The week caught up to me a bit and I slept in rather than face the drudgery of another creaky morning in the dark in the industrial technology park of Windward.  Zero. 

These caught my eye … the rarely seen Nick Pedatella.  I might need to create a blog and post as if I were him. 

But I really couldn’t be Nick because he understands these sort of paradoxes and they just kind of make me feel stupid. 

Or he talks about this sort of thing and then I feel small.

But I do understand the soccer offside rule.  Apparently many don’t. 

Wednesday 102412

AM - tired.  A few beverages last night, but a light salad for dinner.  Very easy this AM just to get up and going.  AHR - 131, MHR 147.  7 miles.

Tuesday 102312

The business travel challenge came this AM.  Early start, short time frame, could I get out and get a turn over workout?  Can’t say I aced the test but I did okay.  First, skipped any brew last night.  Minor victory but one that I felt a bit better about.  Out the door of the hotel at six, knowing I had to be back at the hotel at 7, to be ready for a 7:20 start.  After a bit of a warm up, where I felt particularly creaky (heck, my body thought it was 4 AM something), I got rolling with a quarter on, quarter off.  Not ideal, but I figured the pace would be surprising to the legs enough that I would get something out of it.  Road and rolling so the pace on them varied from 79 to 93.  Eh, got something I guess – as the pace on a good number of them dipped to sub five.  For a road trip, none too bad.  Hardly perfect.

On one of my “rests” I saw a guy jogging the other way – and, wait – IS THAT A PIKES PEAK ASCENT shirt?  I had to jog back.  Turned out it was a SVP in the company I know from Lafayette.  Gave him the hello and got back to work, a bit motivated that the mountain sent me a reminder here in ATL.  7.5 miles.

I received an extensive email from the Denver Area Council on their response to youth protection issues, in light of the recent release of “perversion files” in Oregon.  I can’t find an online copy of it, so I am tempted to post the letter in its entirety here. 

Monday 102212

AM – Alpharetta, GA.  Out on the Greenbelt “trail.”  Pretty dang dark there in the woods as sunrise is not until 7:48 here.  9 miles easy.

Sunday 102112

15 miles this AM, and it went well.  Just rolled along comfortably and progressed a bit as the run when on.

That is the Sportstrack data from my Garmin 305.  According to Strava via my Iphone, I am a bit fitter.

Strava put the run at 15.3, with 511 of climb, whereas Sportracks/Forerunner put it at 15.03 with 458 of climbing. 

Meh, they both agree it was 1:50 minutes ish of running.  The variations are not large on any one mile, but they add up over the course of a run.  No biggie.  For the sake of my records, I will stick with the Garmin thing for now.

Good run.  I started it feeling easy – really not sure of what I would get.  I started easy (naturally falling into a 145 to 150 groove, but also sub 8 pace).  I never really went after it, but after the hill climb on 120th (in the mile 6-7 segment), I decided that it would be okay to roll a little bit.   Ended up being a good steady work – with the average being something under 7:30.  AHR on the run 156, with a max of 175 (some of those hills have some bite!).  Nothing killer here, but a nice run for me given many of my solo Sunday efforts in the past have ended up being slogs instead.

Good week with the run today, a longer tempo on Friday and the turn over on Tuesday.  72 miles on the week – nearly all flat, and so just 9.5 hours.  Next week I head to Atlanta so I will “roll with the punches” and look to exercise some greater discipline over the “travel diet.”

Saturday 102012

8.  Dog jog.  Easy.  AHR 143.  Max 158.  Felt compelled to keep going after the dogs.  But decided that there was little to be gained from that other than padding miles.

Okay, it might be hero worship, or maybe it is dripping with drugs … but was there a track race better in 2012?  Nope.

Symmonds finish is pretty impressive (as a sub title). 

The whole thing is nuts to me.  It actually drives me a little insane.  The guys finish in the last 200 in 25.  And they are not even breathing hard at the end.   Unreal.

Who remembers Bengay?

Good counsel on middle distance training.

Some shots from today:
JZ prepping for a Denver area shelter feeding and then participating in it via the BSA.
 
Later in the day, his soccer coach works the side lines … on multiple fronts.

Longs Peak in the distance.

And Audobon.

KZ had a voice recital.
 

Friday 101912

A tale of two races … I did some comparing of Bob’s race at the Boulder 100 this year to mine (as the splits for this year’s race are now up).  Look who started quicker and cratered versus the guy who cranked it up on the end.

Basically, I was “ahead” of Bob through 50 miles (by 10 minutes).  I get as much as 31 minutes on him – through the 5th lap and then the tables start to turn.  He passes me in the 8th lap and puts 11 minutes on me.  This continues until he “beats” me by 4 hours plus.  I “give” him a full hour on the 13th lap. 

The datasheet that I manipulated has a handful of the other split times, etc in it if you want to look at it.

Great listening yesterday, caught up on the last two episodes (ATC, ATU) of the Tawnee and Lucho show.

Jeff kept me up too late after he refered me to the pretty cool Gooney Rider site.  Impressive mountain biking.

For the folks itchy to get their ski bug on. I ain’t a ski addict but this is pretty bad ass. 

Late afternoon – tempo run.  Thought I would extend last week’s tempo run by one whole mile but then thought, whiskey tango foxtrot?  10 miles.  Went fairly well.  The 8th mile required a bio pit stop so it was 7:30 but all the rest were at 6:40ish or under (you can see the break in the HR data below).  I really had no idea what the pace was throughout … as the watch was still on metric (kilometers) and so I really ran on a tempo feel.

Never felt great, never felt bad – just putting in the work.  Since I ran more miles at nearly the same pace I did last week, I guess that is improvement.  For what it is worth I learned that it is nearly exactly 5k around the Commons.  That is great (unless you are doing 10 miles, because when you get to 15k, that last kilo and a tenth is a bit of an issue).

Fired up Strava … after I remembered to at 2.5k.  Some of the GPS discrepancies between my Garmin and my Iphone are … interesting.  Of course the miles don’t quite line up because of the late start.  But I noticed this the other day too.  I had 13 miles on my Garmin and 13.2+ on Strava.  I guess I could upload from the Garmin and compare it directly … side interest.

Thursday night

Seriously … 16 candidates for president, and we can only talk about 2?  Even when one of them is Roseanne Barr?

I got 10 miles this afternoon.  I said last week that I was not going to do that before a Friday workout, but it just worked out that way.  We are juggling some of TZ’ parents’ dogs … so getting all the dogs out, well the miles add up.  But not quickly.  This was an easy 10, that ended up averaging 8:30 pace, but with a break in between each dog (to do the transfer).  Running Hans is probably most like running a burro.  It is a bit out of control.  And when he spots a squirrel running a fence line … holy core workout.

So, almost two weeks ago, I posted a tiny bit about my goals for next season.  As it is like 10 months to that, I can’t focus on that exclusively.  So the focus will be through the remainder of the year (ish) to improve my 5k and 10k times.  So far I feel that I am off to a good start with that but I can “see” all sorts of things I could do to help me move towards these shorter term goals. 

A conversation I have had with Lucho on a few occasions is the number of things we could each do to improve some percentage.  We often harp on the training itself, and of course that is important, but there are a lot of other things we (I) could to improve. 

Let’s say I am currently in 38:30 shape (based on what I did at the Great Pink Run in Ireland).  I’d like to think that I am in a bit better shape than that as I did that off a 7 mile warm up and goofing off a bit, but it is a recent result.  That is 2310 seconds of work.  A five percent improvement would be a reduction of about 115 seconds, or about 2 minutes.  Breaking 36 minutes would be 2059 seconds.  Moving from 38:30 to 36:59 would be just under a 11 percent improvement.

So the question becomes – can I do that?  Can I move the meter 5%?  8%?  12%?  How much of that can I get from training?  And how much of that can I get from other activities that help?

Anyway, this thinking, and the conversations with Lucho in the past got me thinking “what ten things could I do that would help move the meter?”  I have no idea if each of these things are good for a percent (or 22 seconds over a 10k), but hypothetically if they were, it would drive a 10% drop.

So here is a list of things that I could do better.  Frankly I am not sure if I am going to do those things better (but I have ideas on how I will track and grade that over the remainder of the year). 

1.)  Drink less beer.
2.)  Eat better
3.)  Run with other people
4.)  Do strength work
5.)  Stay focused on the three run events of the week as primary (versus a mileage goal)
6.)  Not be a chicken shit with my workouts

Some commentary … 1 and 2 really come down to something folks don’t often want to talk about and that is:  lose weight.  A pound is about 2 seconds a mile by many estimates (to some end).  I am about 5-10 over where I was for Pikes (and I was about 5 above what I’d say is my best race weight there).  If it is 5, that is10 seconds a mile.  Or about 50 seconds for a 10k.  Significant.   I have been enjoying a few too many cold ones as of late, and frankly – my diet sucks.   I eat whatever the hell I want, when I want, and with little concern about the type of fuel I am putting into my body.  This is something I can actually do if I choose to. This is actually probably the biggest mover on the list up there, but the toughest for me to exercise effective discipline on over and over again.

3 would most benefit me for tempo runs.    Frankly this is not likely.  I get some social benefit out of it on the easy runs, but it might actually be a detriment if it turns into a sausage fest (an easy run that turns into  a show down that in turn messes up another key workout).  It might actually be better accomplished if raced a bit more, but I have yet to even pick a race that I would do to get after the 5k or 10k time (there are broader excuses for this … mostly things like the cost of the races in terms of time and $ and things I rather do).

4 would be good if I strengthened  the core some, did some jump rope, and some other plyo work.  Frankly I suck at this too.  Given a choice to run or do some general strength work … I nearly ALWAYS choose running.  This one is going to be hard for me to break.

5 … heck it has been discussed here like 2800 times (nearly every post).  I feel I am getting a better handle on this though even now with the focus on the 5k, 10k stuff.

6 is there because I am still pissed that I chickened out on what I had planned for Tuesday.  Actually, that is sometimes okay (and Tuesday might have been one of those days), but I can see this being a problem habit if I don’t attack it.

Okay, so that is only six.  That is because 7, 8, 9 and 10 are really things that are not about the 10k but are things that I thought of in terms of the Pikes goals (hills, altitude, runs at 4 hours in the hills, and better listening to the recovery buttons inside the head).  In fact, focusing on those few things above beyond the basic training represents a good chunk.  No need to pile 10 on right now. 

So those things above … yeah, they are loose and require some refinement.  I will get to that.  This is the start of that.  Again.  if they were 1% each, do I get 6% out that?  Let’s say five.  Maybe four because some don’t really seem to move the meter much. Do I get five more percent out of an effective training? 

Only one way to find out.

Thursday 101812

I have found so much of the news lately too be a bit too close to home and …disappointing? (probably not the right word, maybe depressing?)  The Jessica Ridgeway case being 10, multiple recent cases of athletes in endurance sport ‘fessing up to lying, the BSA release of “perversion files,” just to name a few (there are a good number of others lately it seems).

I think to balance these, my brain seeks the positives in life in some way.  Lately that has been considering the relationships with people I have in my “IC” or “inner circle.”  The inner most part of the IC is my family.  While obvious, it cannot be understated.  There is the relationship with my wife Tracy.  And my children.  I gain so much from so little from these people.  Our relationship comes with bumps, twists and turns, but I gain much from it emotionally.  We are each other’s “croo” in the biggest ultra of all.

Then beyond that there are the people I hear in my head.  Some of these folks are people I see regularly as well.  Some are people I have not seen in a long time.  Some are dead and so I will never see them again.  But all of them make a chorus of voices in my head that guide me and provide me feedback.  Sometimes one’s voice will rise above the din specifically.  Other times they mutter in a collective.  It is people I have met running or gone to college with or served in the service with or worked with some place years ago. 

When I started this thinking, my mind was going through who those people were and naming them.  Some of those people are reading this.  Some have no idea how to get onto the internet (or as alluded to before, never saw it in their lives). 

The circle might be more a funnel.  There are the folks who I’d trust without question.   The folks who I have said that “if it was necessary, I’d hope I’d be brave enough to take a bullet for.”  They are pretty tight in the circle.  Certainly, it is a much tighter circle than those who are “Facebook Friends.”  These people are ones whose star dust or whatever frequency they are on seems to be more closely aligned to mine. 

There are those I look to for parenting advice.  Or counsel about work.  Or how to be a better father, husband, friend, community member, co worker … human. 

In all the cases, I feel I gain more from the relationship than I get.   Logically, part me knows that they probably feel the same, but I get a positive thought (and hence balance to the conundrum above) that I have an opportunity to provide back to these wonderful people in my life.

There is a lot more to it than that … but that is a start.

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Excellent post by the Sock Doc called “are you on drugs?”
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There is a discussion to place a piece of art, similar to what is pictured above, in the the Ridgeview Open Space (just east of 287) to serve as a “gateway” piece as folks drive into Broomfield.   At this point, it is just a discussion between certain committees (Open Space Committee, Public Art Committee) – and neither of those are a deciding body (that is ultimately the City Council).  My current opinion is that I am opposed to this idea.  I just don’t see open space as a place where we ought to put art.  There is a distinction in our language in Broomfield between open space and open lands.  Open lands include items like parks, greenway belts (so the concrete trails between neighborhoods is how I interpret that), public playgrounds and golf courses (the open lands distinction is important as Broomfield has a goal of having 40% of the city/county property as open lands – versus open space).  I am fine with art in open lands … just not in open space.  I realize that the art folks, and probably some other folks think art in such locations is okay … I just don’t think we need to be putting this sort of stuff in a place that was specifically acquired to preserve to some degree.  I am not anti public art.  I am just not up for art like this in these sort of locations.
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Mmm … catching some video that Rob T posted of Jimmy P in Zep had me thinking about Gibson Les Pauls … love what local axe shop Wildwood does …

Wednesday 101712

13 miles steady in the mid day.  Wind was pushing pretty good on the way out (heading west on rte 128). Pace was all over the place because of the wind.  Had a 8:37 on the way out (out by the hill heading up to the windmills) and a 6:13 on the back.  Ended up averaging 7:36, with a HR anywhere from 145 to 170.  Like I said, Steady. 

Was listening to a podcast from IMTalk so I turned the Strava thing on.  I can see the data geek draw.  Anyway, the IMTalk podcast from the day at Kona is excellent.   The interview with Jacobs is money - “when I was feeling bad, I would just tell myself, I love this.”  His positivity … and hearing the athletes that struggled out there and their reactions … really really solid stuff.

Burch posts on his recent BMT.  The Drill Sergeants shook their heads. Who was this old man who didn't eat meat that was leading the pack against teenagers nearly half his age?

This is a trail connector I have been itching for the last five years.  It requires some intergovernmental work between Boulder County and Broomfield.  It is getting close.

Tuesday 101612

Not trying to kick an already flogged horse, but I know a good number of people will want to check out the LA documentary that has posted.  Pretty eye opening. 

I failed to put the best video of all in the post from pacing Bob the other day.  I have updated that post, but here it is if you missed it.  (not for the weak of stomach and if you have sound playing at work, you might want to mute it).

I post the above video not to make fun of Bob … sure, we had a bit of a laugh at it – but more to reflect how flippin’ tough the dude is. 

On contrast …

I had my speed workout today.  Last night I posted what I thought I would do.  But today, feeling a bit cruddy, seeing the wind pick up, and frankly – just chickening out, I changed it up.  I went ahead and decided to do the same thing I did last week.  I dunno, maybe because I had done it last week, I knew I could get through that versus dealing with the tougher workout I had originally prescribed. 

Of course I was mulling this over during my workout and how comparatively I was lacking the toughness demonstrated above.  Of course, it would be stupid for anyone to go to the well with the frequency of every workout, but Bob has an ability to make himself suffer in a way that I am in a bit of awe of.

Anyway, did the same workout as last week (200-200-400) but instead of doing four I felt compelled to do a fifth (although I did not decide that until after the fourth).  Looked like this – with the 200s and 400s coming in under 5 minute pace.  Probably a bit faster than last week, but I relaxed the rest a bit more on these.  Still not a lot of diff between 200 and 400 speed.  Just need to stop being a scare-ty cat.

Ugh.  I felt it though.  Anytime I push above 180, I am working.

The Green Monster.

JZ’s BSA troop has a big military “MASH” tent that we use on some of our bigger campouts.  We call it “The Green Monster.”  As part of the Jessica Ridgeway search, the troop provided it at one of the search centers in Westminster off of Wadsworth.  We took it down tonight.  It went from this …

… to this …
 
… in about 25 minutes with five of us.
Another great CO sunset.

Monday 101512

The confession of a sub elite runner to using EPO is not surprising to me.  However, his admission along with the associated coverage stories do reveal a couple of things:  it is pretty easy to get the drug (he carried across the border from Mexico in his pockets), and it is not particularly expensive (supposedly 400 bucks a month – probably expensive to some but not really in the grand scheme of the typical “motivated” American).

It does raise the question for a “sub hare” guy like myself – who amongst my competitors are engaged in such activities?  Truly, like the self admitted guilty party referenced above, it is not a stretch to imagine a middle aged corporate weenie spending a few bucks to acquired banned substances and fly beneath the radar of testing while winning a few bucks.  Heck, by some measures, I have had my most winning year ever and I have never  been tested for anything. 

I find this stream of thought to be a bit maddening.  Suddenly I wonder who is “clean,” who is not – with little evidence to support either.  And so instead, I have decided to take the following line.  It is not completely logical, but it sort of works for me.
1.)  Generally, I have less interest or concern about the elite of our sport (namely T&F and associated high end road racing).  Given that the front edge of the sport is more plagued with these issues, I chose not to worry about it.  And really – I don’t know those people, so why should I care?  I don’t really know Ritz or Alberto or Hersch or Lance or Alan or Shalene or Kara or any of those folks.  I create stories in my head about caring about their performances … but it is really just made up television crap for my own entertainment. 
2.)  Given the above, I am more interested in seeing the people I know and care about perform.  Do I care about how Bob does in a 100?  Hell yeah.  Lucho in Leadman?  Hell yeah.  Tim Long in Firetrails?  Hell yeah.  THE Timko in some field in NJ?  Hell yeah.  Jeff at Pikes?  Hell yeah.  My daughter in an XC meet?  Absolutely (sorry dear, you are not old enough yet to get a hell yeah).  Seeing those folks engage in a journey to dream about a result, dare to do the training and make the sacrifices to do it, and then pull together on race day and execute to it – OR NOT … yeah, that I dig.  And knowing these people, I can cheer for that in a way with LOVE and no concern for the crap of PEDs.  It is way more fruitful.
3.)  Okay, so maybe I am pushed out of a result or two by somebody doing PEDs.  I guess that could leave me angry or feeling like I have been short changed.  And I can understand folks that feel that way because of that.  But at the end of it, I guess I am glad that I don’t have to make that choice to engage in such activities to boost my performance.  It has become increasingly clear to me that the life of the elite, or even the sub elite is not all that it is cracked up to be.  Great – you are a kick ass cyclist.  Now you get to decide if you are going to do something unethical if you want to really make it.  Great – you are an awesome runner.  Now you get to decide if you are going to live the life of a race horse where ever meal is planned for you, every waking (and unwaking moment) is decided for you in terms of calories, massage, core exercise, recovery run, cryo-sauna … forget the spontaneity.  And if you don’t make it, you are a failure.  I find myself glad that I have enough short comings that I can enjoy the sport, the training, some gains, and failures … and have a broader richer life outside of it.  And not have to worry about taking PEDs.

Or … an ordinary life is an extraordinary life.
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Initial results for the Boulder 100 are up.   I am interesting in seeing the split times when they post those.  Certainly the whole thing was a helluva lot faster this year.  It is not the most attractive course for many, but I have to admit – it has a draw for me and I can see that it is getting to be a bit more of a draw for others.  I hope that it stays relatively small – so that at least race day registration remains an option (and the prices remain cheap).  I can say that there was definitely a desire to be doing it when I was out there Saturday night.  Next year?  Maybe … or maybe pacing somebody else.  Or somebody else.
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Sort of thinking about Ignite 19, but I am on the fence about a few topics.  100 milers … nah, I have tried that and in Boulder it is too regular.  Burro racing?  Maybe. 
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Evidence that active life means you extend life.  Alternatively, you could expend no more than 4000 calories a week towards cardio exercise according to food-primal guru Mark Sisson.  Meh.
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Between Brownie’s video, and this one … I am getting the itch to get back to the desert.  And the ditch in particular.

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PM – 6 miles.  Specifically decided to cut this run short.  Got in a bit with the dogs, and then some on my own so it was short and slow.  Figured I go super easy today to see if I could muster a better effort for tomorrow’s workout.   Nick Clark’s recent track workout looks as good as any (although I am not gonna hold 5:20 pace for even 2 miles at this point).  Looks to be a good mix of shorter stuff and longer stuff.    Drill list is “4x400 (w/200 jog between reps), 600 jog, 2xmile (w/400 jog between), 800 jog, 2x800 (w/400).”  I think I am probably around 18 flat 5k shape (ugh) at current.  Arguably the next target ought to be a sub 17:30, particularly as that would be a PR (current PR is 17:37).  So, getting down to 5:40s for the mile would be a pretty big accomplishment right now.

Sunday night

Week in review – 80 miles, with 2 solid workouts (speed stuff on Tuesday, tempo stuff on Thursday) a hidden long run via getting time in with Bob on Saturday night and Sunday. 

I had hoped that I’d be able to bounce back after Friday and feel like I wanted to go moderate – as I had done on Wednesday after the speed work on Tuesday.  I did not feel that way, but it didn’t really matter as I set up to head out with Bob Saturday night.  But, my “plan” of hard-moderate-easy – repeat may need to be modified, uh, will need to be modified as the body feels up to it (or not).

I also might have been a bit overdoing it on Thursday … sure it was an easy 10, but it was 10.  Need to back that stuff off the day before key workouts to assure I get more out of the workouts.

More of the same next week.  

Books on the “to read” list:  Waterlogged by Noakes.  The Longest Race By Ayers.  Training on Empty by Brittan.  I SUCK at reading.  I use to do it a lot, crazy amount.  And now I don’t read nearly as much (variety of reasons, ultimately my choices). 

I sort of like JDF’s classification of pain (I think that is NMP – who went 17:35 at Oil Creek for second - in one of the pix too).

Some recent pix …

Somebody stole her license plate.

Dogs tuckered after an aggressive round of frisbee.

JZ getting ready for a game.