Thursday 013113

Fairly unmotivated to get out and hence a bit stalling in the AM.  Just a bit rough when its dark, windy with some rain. 6.1 miles.

Evening.  6.1 miles.  I started to venture a bit west but hit a highway that would have been ridiculous to try to cross, even through the under pass.  TZ said to me on the phone tonight, “better alive and bored than interesting and dead” (referring to running routes here of course).

January ends up at 303 miles and change (Strava has me at 299.8 … guess that run at Detroit airport really didn’t register …) and just over 40k of vert (Strava has me at  43k and a few bits).  50 hours total, 12 Greens, and 10 days of business travel.

Lots I have learned on this trip (again) about tackling business travel and exercise.  More on that in another post.

Wednesday 013013

AM – 4.1 easy miles to wake up.  Nice weather – 60ish, but pretty windy.  I actually saw (first heard) a pine of significant size collapse and crush someone’s fence.

PM – 5.2, easy.  Meh. 

If you collapse at the line, expect to be stepped on.

Tuesday 012913

Trouble getting up today (2nd travel crap I guess).  AM – 4 miles.  Found a stretch of road that I might be able to run without having to dodge cars all the time – so if I summon the guts I might do some turn over work this week.

Glad to see this up for reconsideration – again.

I want the teddy bears to rise up here and make sidewalks.

This is nuts.  Thanks JV.  Speeds in excess of 180 mph on a bike.  DAYUM.  You have to have a pair made of steel to do this.  And maybe a separation of your brain from the rest of your body.

Evening – last week I posted on Facebook, “where should I run while in Glen Allen?”  I got a comment back from a guy I knew all through elementary school, middle school and HS, and ran with while in HS.   “See me, I live 20 minutes from there.”  Consider that done.  Yeah, I have not seen him but once in last 20 years and that was 10 years ago but no doubt about it though:  friend.   More stories to share with this guy than should be.  Awesome to see Steve, and lucky to know him.

Snuck in a few miles before we connected, including 10 x oh – about 200 meters (maybe a bit longer) in a local parking lot.  Started at just a hair under 6 minute pace but carved these strides down to sub 4:50 pace.  Not zippy really, but the on going start

Monday 012813

AM – dark, rain-ice, narrow shoulders in Virginia.  5 miles.

PM – dark, windy, narrow shoulder in Virginia.  5 miles.  Ugh.  The shoulders here are tight so this borders on dangerous.  No, it does not border on it, it is dangerous.  There is some big industrial building parking lot I found.  I might need to take advantage of that. 

I have been on a Muse kick. I am not sure if I am happy about this because I am enjoying this music my daughter got me into or if I am not happy about it because it sounds like Radiohead meets Queen meets Floyd meets U2 in a totally overproduced sort of way.   Or if that is why I am happy about it anyway.

Sunday 012713

AM – 13 miles.  Felt sort of like it would be a slog, and never felt great so it was gearing into an easy effort for the run.  Was surprised to see that it was sub 8 pace after the first mile (8:27), because it felt a lot slower than that.  Had a few pit stops (damn kids and their pizza desires last night!).  One of those mornings where there was some sort of half melted frost on the roads and sidewalks that would occasionally cause for a little slip.  Nudged the last two miles a bit just to finish it.

Off to VA for the week.  Looks I will finish January with a dozen Greens, or half of what I accomplished for the full year in ‘12.  I am enjoying the climbing for a bit, but I can see my somewhat ADD nature getting board with it and wanting to go back to running on the oval.  70.4 on the week, 263 and change on the year.  14855 of climbing on the week, and 39710 on the year.  Still overall – while the mileage seems normal, it is a fair bump in volume for me when considering time – I am at 44 hours on the year.
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Stair climbs.  Not my gig but interesting.  There is that snow shoeing thing too.  I heard the interview with Joe Grant on Talk Ultra (marathontalk link since the TU site does not appear up to date but I got the interview in Itunes) the other day, as he prepares to drag a sled some 350 miles in Alaska.  Rupp’s mile yesterday is impressive.  Doing a tempo workout after that mile however, at 4:40 to 4:50 pace, is mind boggling.  Yeah, just when you think you are starting to get a handle on some stuff, you see ya’ t’ain’t really doin’ anythin’ a’tall.

I got to think about this (the interval length up to 3 minutes between repeats) but I think something is being missed here.  I think the point is that if you shorten the rest, the ability to continue to execute the repeat at the same pace or faster becomes more challenging.

Quote of the week might be from TZ who saw me putting on some arm warmers I recently got as race schwag.  “Why wouldn’t you just wear a long sleeve shirt instead?”
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The Girl Scout Cookie season has opened, which means in corporate America, many parents go at great lengths to sell cookies for their kids.  They put up sign up sheets, they send a lot of emails to everyone in the building, etc etc. 

My perspective on this is simple:  while I appreciate the parents looking to support their kids’ troop and funding, the event also is a possible lesson for their kids to learn on marketing, selling, etc.

When these parents ask me if I want to buy a box, I let them know that a.) I have little personal interest in the cookies but my family would love to eat them and so b.) if they want to sell me cookies, I will be glad to meet them with their kid who can sell me the cookies and I will buy them. 

This apparently puts me into the realm of PITA co-worker because they a.) look at me like I asked them to allow me to beat their kid with a baseball bat and b.) nobody has ever taken me up on this offer.  Of course corporate America has not made this easy.  We can’t have kids come into the office and sell cookies because then that means anyone could come in an sell Avon or Amway or Bibles or whatever – so nobody can come into the office ever (except on Halloween when we have people come in so we can give them candy).   So I have to meet the kids in the parking lot or something, yada, yada – and so the logistics get too rough.  My kid is asked to sell popcorn for the Scouts every year.  I ain’t putting up a sign up sheet for him in my office because of those same logistic challenges.  

If your kid made cookies by the way, I’d buy those for 5 bucks a dozen if they came to sell them to me.  Cash and carry too.

Probably grumpy old man attribute 217 in there somewhere. 

Saturday 012612

11 miles in the flats. 

I think I go through headsets a lot faster than anything else that I use running. 

The most common cause of failure is a break in the line of some sort, usually at the point where it connects to the jack.  This makes it so that usually one ear is dead.  Second most common cause is they get left in a jacket pocket and so end up getting trashed in the wash.

JZ had a basketball game today.  After being down 10-2, they rallied back to win 21-20.  Nail biter.

Got on the music project a bit.  Broke a B string.

Friday 012513

No surprise, I am a fan of the Lucho and Tawnee show on Endurance Planet.  They hit a nice combo of school of hard knocks outspoken mountain man who is an endurance freak meets So Cal girl with super science smarts.  I am glad to see their podcast is working and has extended beyond ultras but into the multisport arena as well.

In their latest show, I get a mention … or rather my home brew EPO IPA gets a nice endorsement from Lucho.  Certainly hearing this on the way into work this AM made me smile.  And for what it is worth, another local beer snob, Scott Jaime had the brew listed on the blog for a bit as one of his three favorites.   I’d like to think that these guys were saying the brew was good because they really thought and not just because they were being nice.  As in nice like they are actually thinking, “holy crap, this taste like donkey urine.  Maybe if I say it is good he will go away, I can dump the bottle and I will then pretend to be too drunk to drink any more."

But assuming that what I shared with them was good, I sort of recall that batch or string of batches I shared with them.  It was good.  Nice hops, good floral, smooth mouth feel, clean finish (whatever the heck all that means, but that is what beer snobs say when they like an IPA).  Lately, my last couple of batches … not bad, but not hit it out of the park like some of those prior sets. 

And what tortures me is I am not sure why.  Until this last batch I was sort of doing the same thing but things were just off.  Again, not a bad beer but not the sort of brew that I would stand up against any other IPA out there.  Just fell a bit short of awesome.  Still I drank it. 

Anyway, this last time I decided to break out of the mold and just look to up the ABV (alcohol by volume) by cranking up the sugar (maltodextrin) in the fermentation process.  I did a sampling of the brew around Christmas and as expected it had a bigger kick – but it was just not ready yet.  It takes time for them to bottle condition and since I was taking my sample out of a mason jar (yeah, that is how we roll!) only a week after bottling, things were still working themselves out.

Best thing I can do now, is sit on those bottles and let them condition out for another few weeks.  Whether they will be awesome or not is still up in the air.  But I am sure I will drink it.  Just a bit nervous to share it unless I know it is great.  Or I can share it if we have already buried a few of something else.  Lucho, I owe ya.

… as a side note this sort of reminds me of running (as nearly most things do).  I’d like to think that I could run training like an experiment.  Do A, don’t do B, and bam – there is your C performance.  Tweak A this way and you get this.  But training and performance is sometimes like making homebrew.  While we all say doing the same thing over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, what makes me insane is that doing the same thing can often create a very different result (ridiculously true in various relationships but that is a whole another rant).
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I have been a bit reluctant to sign up for any races yet.  Sure, I know I am doing Pikes, and I am likely for some of the burro races, as well as the BRR stuff.  Maybe the Leadville Trail Marathon too simply because Mosquito Pass is fun.  Because of work, family, I have been a bit slow to throw my name into the hat for things like Clark’s 50 or CP.  Some of these might work though (the Louisville and Westminster ones are close).
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Pretty lethargic today.  Over Flag and then Green.  Down Ranger Gregory.  Strava has me at 41k plus vert on the month.  Yeah, I think I could swing the 50k month project if I got around the travel.  But actually, I like the swings that provides (from a training perspective).  It means when here I might be able to get a bit more of the vert.  When on the road, I get a break from that and can work on other stuff.

My music project however (learning several new songs on the guitar) is a complete failure thus far. 

Thursday 012413

Pikes entry details are up.  The only significant change is tri-folks can’t use run times from IMs or half IMs.  I will be at the keys a’ready come March 1.

Middle route today.  Apparently my best on this route is 43:17 but I need to go back to 2011 to get that.  That is a FAR cry from many who have gone faster.  I can’t find a full segment on Strava for this route out of Gregory, so I might need to create one.   Last year, I managed to muster up a 43:36.

I tend to forget all the splits on these runs, and so I can never really tell if I am ahead of some particular pace or not.  But I knew I did not feel great in the legs from the early go today.  I guess perhaps I was feeling the greater climbing of yesterday.  I glanced at my watch at the 2nd bridge and saw 6:05, and then I recall seeing around 17:30 near the ranger cabin.  I was at 28:30 on the turn back to Green.  I also tend to look at my watch at the creek crossing right near 2 miles and today it was just under 26.  I think I have been under 25 when getting there at points in the past when I am tagging it.  In any case, without knowing the splits like I do now, I knew that my head wanted to get after it but my legs were not having a lot of it.  I really blew up on the upper stretches, walking most of the steps.  46:18 (so Strava thinks the segments that it records on this are my best).  Still, I was satisfied with the effort a day after a larger one (and in part because I think the little patches of snow still slow me down too). 

While a PR is three minutes away, that difference is not as big as it sounds.  It is hard to describe.  There are days you can be out there busting it and it is as if you are fighting the mountain – going nowhere or at least not up much for all the work you are doing.  Then there are other days where you are still working but the times click and you can dig even deeper.  The flats you can pour it on.  The ups hurt but you are riding the line of 2 beats of the heart just like a surfer hitting the perfect wave.  Screw up and you blow it, but you can just ride it a little longer.  The blow up (like I encountered today) does not come until you summit in a sweat and spittle covered tunnel visioned haze of self induced oxygen deprivation and leg muscles screaming for a reprieve (this has a great impact on the college aged ladies at the top … nothing like a middle aged shaved head man with no shirt but a bra strap on sounding like he is about to die as he crests the hill to make them want to get the hell out of there quickly).

It dawned on me  in writing this that I am just assuming I will run faster on this route.  I just need to assume that still.  I mean, I guess there are some PRs that I have that I am fairly certain I won’t beat now that I am older, but these don’t fall into that category.  Yet.  Maybe that is foolish, or short sighted, but I sort of feel that if I concede my best days on climbing Green are behind me, then my best days in climbing Green will be behind me.  No need for that.

Wednesday 012313

Broomfield's Open Space and Trails Advisory Committee (OSTAC) will meet tomorrow night at 6 p.m in the Zang Spur Room at the City & County Building.  The open meeting will cover a discussion of public art in open space.  Ought to be interesting.

Strava article covered in Outside magazine.

10, a lap with JV on the front side both ways and then various exploring.  Biggest vertical day on the year for me thus far actually (about 4k) but pretty easy throughout so no biggie.

Tuesday 01213

AM - *yawn* – 4.7 miles to wake up predawn.  Easy.

JJ’s article got me thinking and researching a bit.  If I had that stellar PR day, I could crack the top ten times for the marathon at Pikes as a 43 year old (age year ranking).  Along the way, I could probably nab a top 20 Ascent time for that year age.  And a top 20 descent time age.  That is a lot of maybe’s.  My marathon last year ranked 21 for 42 year olds, with 75th ranking on the Ascent (ouch!) and number 16 on the descent.  Anyway … lots to think about in training.

JZ and I got these tonight …

… but I really want the indoor mile challenge badge from JT.

I am particularly pleased that I have avoided the mill so far this year.  I am not going to totally rule it out, but I am looking to avoid it.  Last year in January, I had 5 runs on it in the month.

PM – up Gregory Ranger - up in the fastest time I have record of, but I am sure I have gone sub 40 but I don’t know when (so it don’t count).   Even so, walked portions (powerline part just past the bridge, the granite slab, some of the big step sections on the south heading part of Ranger before the switchbacks and some of the Elliott stairs). Need to put this one where it belongs for me at some point soon.  Down via Long Canyon to avoid some of the ice and to level things out a bit with it (shallower grade).

Strava has me at 31,650 feet climbed this year.  I go off my Sportracks numbers which are a bit more conservative:  30,015.  In either case, I feel that I am getting some benefit from the climbing.  I am fairly certain that if I could put the right string of days together I could tag my 50k in 30 days project.  Last week with the travel to a sea level location, I got only 2500 and change.  No big deal – that is my lot and so when I go to such locations, I am going to make the best of it (exploring, turn over). 

Monday 012113

AM – Green (#8 OTY) at dawn.  Up and down via the middle route.  A bit chillier than I expected (teens) but not bad once I was generating some heat.  Felt a bit of fatigue from yesterday’s long run but not bad.  Coming down was slooooow.  The trails are in that condition where most of it is dirt, rock, but there are long exposed ice sections that a klutz like me needs to negotiate very carefully, particularly since I not only elected to not go with any traction but brought the Nike Lunar road shoes (super flat).  This caused a few issues on the way up, but many more on the down (I only hit the keester once however).  7.6 miles.

Any Strava users want to tout the benefits of the premium program?

The Fruitarian on Outside mag. 

Solid interview with Amby B over on MarathonTalk.

Sunday 012013

20 miles, went fairly well.  A bit tight to start, so I eased into this one.  Split about 39 for the first five, then 38 for the next (just ticking at a few clicks above 77, AHR 146).  Started to have to deal with some headwinds that were coming up as I headed back east but decided to see if I could make a negative split of it.  Nearly 36:30 exactly for each five coming back for  just under 2:30 on the 20 (HR climbing steadily throughout).  Took a gel at each hour.  Not quite ready for this sort of progression but getting there.

On a separate note, I was just notified by Strava that some course that I held the CR was broken.  First, it was not something I was trying to CR on but Strava decided that it was worth noting that as I had a bit of a climb to it.  Second, the guy who broke it apparently was running up hill at 45 miles an hour (no, seriously, he had a 1:34/mile pace going according to Strava).

More “ho hum” from Tony.  Keiners in the winter.  Jeez.  Then I see Joe dragged a sled for four hours.  Very much got the "holy crap I ain’t do shit” again feeling after feeling good about the run today for a few minutes.

Saturday 011913 The Jet Lag Chronicles II

Travel chronicle:  Started my day at 430 Greenwich time, or 2130 the night before Mountain time.  One of my colleagues gave me a short lift over to the local tube station (Hendon Central) and then took a series of trains to the airport, then flew from Heathrow to Detroit from 930 to 1230 (both local times)..  Drank a fair amount of coffee on the front end of the overseas flight but skipped all alcohol.  No sleeping whatsoever, and really never felt compelled to.  Clearly flying the big leg at the front of the day and flying west is just easier for me.  Sort of like waking up super early for an all nighter. When looking at the need for an all nighter in college, I never was one to stay up all night.  I’d hit the rack, get a few hours of zzzs and wake up earlier to get it on.

Regarding the trains, well yeah, I could have taken a cab.  But I opted for the train.  Which was actually 4 trains.  I dunno.  I sort of dig the train system over a cab.  I am not wholly sure why.  Maybe it is because I feel like I have a bit more authority in where and how I go.   Maybe I like all those tunnels connecting too.  And this morning, it seemed that it would take me about the same amount of time a cab would anyway.

When I got to Detroit, and through Border Control and Customs, I had some time to kill.  A bit more than usual.  I took note of the long length of Terminal A and decided to get some jogging in.  It was a little challenging with the carry on backpack, but once I got moving that was okay.  Supposedly the terminal is a mile long, but I think that might be some outside measurement.  I tried to get a measurement on it with a GPS (and/or Strava) but I could not get and hold a signal (airport wireless cells).  Anyway, I did 3 full laps and then some, and this took me just over an hour.  Calling it six.

 

Definitely one of the more nutty runs I have done, but I have to say I sort of enjoyed it because of that.  It was not so much to run, as much as it was just to move a bit after the overseas flight … and not sit in the lounge eating and drinking and surfing the net.

On the flight I watched Pitch Perfect (kid flick but my daughter has raved about it so I watched it and enjoyed it from her point of view) …True Grit (I really enjoyed this one, it has been a bit since I have seen any western and Bridges is awesome) and Trouble with the Curve (a bit rich in the last 30 minutes, but I enjoy Clint).

Great interview by Joe Grant with Bill B.

Definitely not a cat guy but this one cracked me up

Friday 011813

Slept well last night.  Solid 8 for certain.

AM – cold and damp.  It was not snowing yet as they had predicted, but there was a good breeze in the air.  I found a decent park (Sunny Hill Park)nearby and ran there.  After a good three mile something warm up, I found a good hill.  I did 10 x 20 second repeats on it, going all out on the 20 seconds and then slowly jogging back to the start.   No problems with the butt, but I was feeling the work in that way that you do with this workout (muscularly).  I’d pass under a lamp on the path and I’d get sight of my form via my shadow.  I could see how it was breaking down (going side to side on the up versus powering forward) so that gave me something else to work on. Definitely was getting into that “flaying” mode so stuff to address here.  6.2 miles.

Traveling back tomorrow if all goes well.  There is like an inch of snow here now (later in the afternoon) and it seems to be bringing the country to its knees.

With the long flight, probably won’t get anything in on Saturday, so I will look to do something longer and building on Sunday (probably flippin’ crazy early since I will be up anyway).

JZ ran for a leadership position in his Scout troop.  He did not get the one he wanted (Quartermaster) but instead got a different position (Service Project Leader).  Apparently he was a bit miffed on it.  I see it all as a good thing … I feel it is important for him to deal with little bouts of adversity where the stakes are not high so that he learns the skills to deal with failure and to embrace it as a learning opportunity … so that he is able to manage as part of life when he is older and the stakes are higher.

Todd covers the indoor scene back in CO for the spring pretty well over here.  I can’t make the Balch meet tomorrow because of the travel, but I might be able to make some of the meets at Balch and at Mines later in the month and in February.

Thursday 011713

This makes me seem a lot less grumpy.  Got to say I enjoyed it though.

Beware DHMO

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Warning – self talk psycho babble ….

I sort of feel that outside of a few sessions here or there, I have been sort of treading water on the training front for the last month or so.  I felt I was making some progress while getting on with some regular turn over sessions in October and November, but then sort of got stuck when I pulled something in my rear in early December.   There are days I get out and I am just slogging, and I find myself thinking “how the heck am I ever going to do __________ (fill in the blank with some running related goal).“  The cold and windy days, the travel, the holidays … they don’t do much to help these thoughts.  The interwebs probably don’t help either (every day there is someone there who’s workout I read and I think “dayum … really?  20 miles at sub 7 pace easy?”)

I seem to have this sort of stretch at some point in the winter almost every year.   It seems to also occur actually on a smaller scale throughout other parts of the year.  I don’t really have a defined off season, so these sort of patches may be some sort of inherit manifestation of it.   Sure, I’d like to go out and have every run be great:  fast and effortless, or fast and crushing myself to break new ground.  But that ain’t life or training or anything as I have experienced it. 

So why am I recognizing these thoughts now?  I think it is because I have a bit of a clarity in my head as to what I want to accomplish this year in terms of running.  I think that I might be seeing that sort of clarity is not exactly aligned with what I am doing every day.  I have been in some regards “unfocused” and hence not really training but exercising.  And I think because I am ready to turn a corner.

Truth is though I don’t need to be crushing it at this point in the year.  Yet.  Yeah, ideally, I’d like to be playing a bit more with some speed work (as I see that as a bigger weakness than general base fitness for me), but I have been bringing this arse around on the mend.   That has meant that “unfocused” approach and stuff all over the place – some long runs at an easy pace, a few tempos but not really rolling it up (playing the Strava game I guess), dabbling with a few days of altitude running, a few days in a row of vertical play.   With the butt coming around, I can feel that I am ready to get back to some structure. 

Really my challenge will be to get to that structure.  With the weather.  With the travel.  With more important obligations.  It can be done, but it will require some discipline.  I think that is what is actually most interesting to me about this whole process – how much discipline can I really show in the journey?   The destination is simply a result of that (well, mostly).
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AM – pre dawn.  7.5 miles.  Got lost for a little bit.  Slept like crap last night.  I actually woke up at 11. And then I was up for few hours.  Mind just going on everything and anything.  Finally got back to sleep but was back up after a couple more of snoozing.  I expect that I will be pretty beat this afternoon.  Nonetheless, a fair run this AM with that lack of sleep and the cold.  Supposed to get a good amount of snow tonight!
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Wednesday 011613

Foggy, chilly.  10 miles. 

The Jet Lag Chronicles no. 1

Logging the jet lag chronicle here so that maybe I can better manage it in the future.  So this is what I did to get here:

• Woke up Monday at 5 AM and then ran at 6AM in the CO for a little less than an hour.  Just past 8 headed to DIA.  Got a breakfast sandwich about 9 AM (bagel, egg, sausage)
• Flew from DIA to ATL from 10:30AM (mountain) to 3:30PM (eastern).  Had a chicken salad on the flight .  Flew from ATL (eastern 5:30) to LHR (Greenwich 6:30).  Had the beef dish for dinner around 7:30 with a couple of glasses of wine.  Couldn’t sleep on the flight really and watched the horrible movies, Prometheus and Abe Lincoln, Vampire Killer.  Tried to sleep at this point, but found that I could not “let go” and my mind was working some numbers (related to work).  Wrote them down on the back of a magazine.  Then watched most of Real Steel (nominally better I guess but it is really Rocky meets Transformers meets some movie about a father son united that I can’t remember the name of ).  Did the breakfast of eggs on the “wake up.” 
• Got to the hotel around 8:30 and of course the room was not ready (no fault of the hotel, I mean who checks in at 830 AM?).  Operated out of a co-workers room and went for a wet and little cold run.  As would be expected, I felt pretty awake on the run mentally, but a bit sluggish physically.
• THEN – around 11 – I was fried.  I met my colleagues for about 20 minutes and we agreed that a couple hour nap would be good for all of us.  I slept fitfully, but it was greatly needed.  We then worked for a few hours, and went to dinner.   I got a burger (of course) and skipped the beer.
• Took a melatonin and hit the rack at 9.  I woke up at 1, and was up for about 2 hours before falling asleep at 3 and then waking at 7.  It was a bit hard to wake up.

So …. what does that mean?

• I still think that my strategy of staying up as long as possible to get here, so that it forces some sleep when I get here is best.
• Ideally, having a day like yesterday (our Tuesday here) where we get to transition through some of it is best – but my past experience is that I will have a tough go of it on Thursday (hitting 1PM and being shot).  
• Increasingly I wonder if fasting through most of this is the best idea.  It is a challenge to do that, particularly when provided a business class seat and a meal.  At least this time, the meal came at a regular hour; on some of the flights to Tel Aviv we get a full meal at 11PM.  Who the heck eats a full meal at that time?  In any case, I have the typical American flaw:  when offered something “free” I have to take it.
• I am not sure the melatonin helps or not.  I am not really interested in taking some other sleeping pill, OTC or otherwise.  I hear that some folks who take Ambien get hallucinations.  I am really not interested in having pittbrownie dreams.
• I guess if I wake up at odd hours here I could go for a run, but given the colder temps of winter and the fact that I did not pack appropriately, I am not hugely incented to do that.  Yeah, I packed wrong.  Maybe the first time ever.  I forgot some basic stuff like my stretch hat, and looser but warmer tights.  I have enough of the basic gear to make it work, but I feel sort of like a rookie.  They don’t have a gym in the hotel either, so no options there (although I did find the time and brain to pack a freakin’ tank top that I won’t need in these 20 degree days).
• And of course, flying west (back home) always seems easier to transition back.

All that said, I would probably sleep better if they stopped playing the Adele, 21 CD over and over and over and over in the lobby of this hotel.

Tuesday 011512

AM – pretty much didn’t sleep at all on the plane (and watched some horrible movies).   We got here shortly after dawn.  I took advantage of the time we had free before needing to meet up this afternoon and slipped out for a jog.  I was pretty punchy with the lack of sleep.  Multipliers to my stupor were ice, mud, and some cooler temps.  Oh yeah, I also I forgot to pack some running tights.  That must have been the outcome of packing quickly coming off the Scout weekend.   So, it was a mess of a run, but it was good to get out.

The mud was pretty epic in some place – almost like running in a frozen bog.  Nonetheless, despite being in London, I actually found some trail and open space park in pretty short order.  10 and change.

Most of this area is what I thought London to be really like.  Tight.  Messy.  Small homes on top of each other.  Streets that go in crazy directions.  Gray.  It is going to be tough to get longer sessions in over the next couple of days with the schedule, but with the butt feeling a bit better, I might try to test out some turn over.

A bit of a mess now … I got about a 90 minute nap this afternoon, but I don’t dare much more than that.  Pretty foggy in the head so I am going to try to stay up now through the evening so that I can function tomorrow.

Monday 011413

Off to the UK for the week this AM, so a quick jaunt … 6 miles, 5 degrees with a light snow and about 50% humidity in the dark.  Fun once I got moving.  Kind of hard to complain about the chill when Joe Grant is doing stuff at serious negative temps.

Weekend 0112-313

Saturday – running back and forth between the camp and the Ootpik’er’s on the west side of the lake at Tahosa. Nuthin’ zippy just back and forth over the 16 inches of ice on the lake a bunch of times.  7.4 miles.
The cold started to build up a bit of a snotsicle that my daughter, despite her appearance below was otherwise mortified about.   
It got really bad over the course of the afternoon.

As I am off for some business travel this week, I figured I needed to clean up a bit.

Took it all off at the end because I am tired of the frozen beard more than anything else.

Of course my beard, and then facial hair fun is weak arse shtuff.  Last week in the comments, I thought I’d put up a true ultra runner contest that mattered:  who had the best beard.  Joe Grant referred me to Leon.  Leon, while not a top MUT guy, has such a badass beard, it put the contest to bed.  Nonetheless, for ha-ha’s survey posted on the right.  Enjoy.

I don’t think I have been on a Boy Scout trip where a Scout has NOT puked.  Well maybe one.  But it seems like every trip some kid hurls.  Usually in a really bad spot like in the middle of the dining hall while 200 other kids eat and then they all get freaked.  Or in bed in their sleep.  Top bunk of course so that it gets on the kid below them.  Or in a tent all over the other kids.  Or for some bizarre reasoninto some other kid’s clothing bag.  Awesome stuff.  Also, without fail, once the kid pukes they are able to move on as bright eyed and bushy tailed as a completely happy and healthy kid.  No really.  Like they don’t even think of rinsing their mouth.  You ask them if they are okay and they look at you like you are a moron for even bugging them.  Anyway, huge props to fellow parent Seth who over the weekend happened to catch out of the corner of his eye that a young man in the upper bunk was about to burst.  This kid had crawled up there saying he just needed a little rest.  Well, maybe so, but he had more of an agenda.  In a swift “play of the day” motion Seth grabbed a trash can from one side of the room, side stepped the blazing hot wood stove and had the can up around the kids face just as he erupted with spew.  It was truly a beautiful save.  There should be some adult merit badge for that sort of work.

Stuff out of my recent health check at work:

Another underpass project possibility.

Gassed after a weekend with the Scouts with some pretty tough chill, so nada on Sunday.  55 on the week with 8k of vert.

Polar Bear Badge

Spent the weekend up at Tahosa with the family.  Last night, JZ and a buddy of his camped out in a tent so that they could earn the Polar Bear Badge.  There are a variety of requirements, but amongst them is that they have to overnight outdoors in a temp at –1F or colder.  It can be done in a tent or an igloo (quinzee here in CO).  Several scouts did it as part of the Ootpik program at Tahosa in quinzees.  Those actually are warmer than tents … once you are in there they stay around 30 degrees.  JZ and his buddy (and of course yours truly in  a separate tent so that I would not be shown up, dealt with some chilly temps.  According to the Scout weather station they had a couple of handfuls of degrees lower than the required –1F. 

JZ and his pal dealt with it like champs.  No issues, even though they were up to the gills with hot chocolate and had to head out for some relief a few times throughout the night. 

 

Friday 011113

New header via a photo from Brandon F, and some mods by Larry Linux.

Met Bob over at the Greenbelt Plateau (where you can park for free) and ran out of the Flatiron Vista (which is 200 yards away but you cannot park for free).  The winds were kicking pretty hard out of the west, and almost immediately were were fighting to keep going at even 10 minute pace up the hill and into the gusts.  We agreed to give it a go at least to the trees – hoping to take some refuge from the wind there.  It indeed did die down a bit in there. 10.3 miles.  Definitely some weather coming in though.   Spotted some wildlife.

Justin pointed me to the “TROY” awards.  These choices seem to resonate a bit better with me but that might be that it is easier to nitpick UR mag’s voting sequencing.   In any case, these contests are some sort of subjective measure of an athlete in an otherwise objective set of competitions.

Tony’s list for next year is ballsy.

Off to the hills for some negative temp camping. 

Thursday 011013

Stupid little things I am doing to shift things up …

… I have started to drink my coffee black.  Yeah, I have been one of those guys who has made their coffee more like a milkshake than coffee.  Figured dropping the sugar from that is a good idea.  Time to stop eating (or drinking) like a kid.  Plus going with black coffee helps perpetuate the stinky grumpy old man mystique. 

… Elevator.  Not taking it.  Or at least for 2013.  I am on the fourth floor of my building so that ain’t bad.  This might be more of a challenge when I travel on business and our meeting is 20 floors up.  I have a self granted exception if  have to haul a suitcase for a week full of travel 6 flights up  but it is my game so I get to make up the rules.  I might have to make up a story to my colleagues of how I was stuck in an elevator for six hours with (… I have come up with several “withs” here, many that I find funny but are in some regard inappropriate).  Ski lifts of course are different thing.

… this one I have not figured out entirely, but it is to break away from the net a bit more.  This is a bit interesting because I work in the IT world, so the internet is where I work.  I get feeds of data (emails, posts, podcasts, alerts, text messages, voice mails, conference calls, meetings, webinars, etc) all the time.  So to say I am not going be on the ‘net is a bit ridiculous.  And obviously I am here blogging.    I see my writing here however having some sort of therapeutic benefit as it helps me focus, commit, and hence grow.  But on the other side, I have already started to get away from Facebook and Twitter.  Interesting but a bit too consuming like a bad TV show.   For the one nugget of interesting stuff I find there I have to wade through fifty something posts of … crap.  Its wheat to chaff ratio has titled to a point where its value has greatly diminished.  I might do a Timko esque project and just not sign into those for some extended period of time.   Then again, it does give me a bit of insight as to some of the stuff my daughter is doing … ;)

Yes, you know where I got this picture in the first place.

And yes … I realize it is blaspheme to some, but I do see that I will give up brew at some point in my season as I prep up for Pikes.  In addition to it being just a place to drop calories, I see it simply as a way to measure an internal seriousness and discipline and focus.  Probably post spring break.  That said, I expect to make a bit of progress on the burger front with some of the travel I have coming up.

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I feel that I have been peppered lately with a bunch of “big data” related to health.  Videos like the one I posted yesterday.  Or how long term rigorous exercise is bad for you.  Or how alcohol is really deadly.  Challenging stuff.   Sort of reminds me of the old comic routine where the comedian says, “alcohol is bad for you, cigarettes are bad for you, (etc) … what is there worth living for?”  More seriously, I see myself (and others) engaging in behaviors based on some justification that is not evidence based.   I like to say that I run because it makes me more alive now than not running.  And that is true.  But I also think it makes me more healthy.  That appears to be less true.  And then I often use my running to justify other behaviors.  I just ran 20 miles.  Awesome.  Let’s have a few beers.    Not a good idea. 

Seriously, how many runners do you know that are running and training just for the health benefit?  I know maybe a handful, if that.  Alternatively I know a lot of runners that are running and training for something beyond the health benefit and into a competitive consideration, even if that is competing beyond their current capabilities (versus winning a race).  There is nothing wrong with that as far as I am concerned (duh), but they don’t seem to embrace that what they are doing could have health consequences.  But most of these same folks I know will talk about some behavior that they won’t engage in because it is too risky, that they are a parent, etc.  Yeah, I know there is some balance there to the risk / reward.

I am not saying that I am changing any of those behaviors outright to get another lap around the sun yet (latest mental justification is that it all depends on your genetic disposition anyway!) but I am hearing the messages a bit more this week.

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I have been interested in the Parkrun movement over in England.  With Nick posting about it recently, I have wondered about the possibility of such an event here.  I certainly don’t have the time to set one up, but it is one of ideas that is sitting in the back of my head for a retirement maybe someday project.  5k run, in the park, free.  I suspect that there is some sort of liability permitting crap issue that serve as too great of hurdles to really get something like that going in the US, but I have not researched it.  Coincidentally, as I run in Cork periodically I subscribed to the “Running in Cork” blog, and see that they are considering such run there as well.  The post gives some insight to some of the set up considerations and “other” concerns about such an event (see the comments).

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Couldn’t get out until later in the day and that means if I head to Green, I fight nasty traffic back from Boulder on 36.  Decided to check out Flatiron Vista instead.  10.2 miles.  It is a bit muddy, but not too bad.  Nice little loop that has a nice play of dirt, and up and down and some flat. 

For the bigger vertical stuff in the spring, I might need to break down and get the pass for South Mesa as that will save me the traffic of heading all the way up into Boulder and Green (but allow the climbs of South Boulder and Bear … whenever they open South Boulder again … or take that pilot parking fee off that lot that has been in a pilot phase for almost two years).

Wednesday 100913

What Green looked like Monday

(that is the Ranger Gregory route up, and the Greenman, Saddle, Amp theatre route down).

Clearly an instant hit in CO.  Alternatively a little later in the year, the UROC event … registration opens up next week.  200 bucks for a 100k.  Hmmm.

Had the biometrics test that gets me a good amount off my insurance premiums for the year this AM.  That meant a fast starting around 9 last night – which is not a big deal, but my appointment was not until 9:40.  That too was not a big deal, but my morning routine – or rather habit – is the cup of coffee.  Or two.  Or three.  Not doing that took a bit more thought.  Good experiment.  Not doing that tomorrow though.

My BP measured high on this again, as it did last year.  136/80.  I have measured on my in-laws home cuff (which is arguably not super accurate) and it comes in fine, perhaps even low.  I don’t feel an angst when taking it here, but I wonder if a.) I am actually pre-hypertension or b.) the fasting situation puts me a bit high.  Need to explore this a bit.

Looks like I may not be running a ton this weekend as I am heading out with JZ’s scout group.  It is winter cabin camping, but there is the chance that we can go tents if it drops below 0 (to earn the coveted Polar Bear Camping Badge). 

Good watch on the “fat pandemic.”  (sets up for a series of videos).  Some of the research proposed in this by Lustig are contraversial.

My nickel on the UROY … I still sort of think it does not matter, but I have been told that to the folks at that pointy end of the stick, it matters.  Okay.  Glad to see Morton got it as I thought his performances over the year shut the door on that (although I think they are wrong in their press release because I think he had one DNF).   Masters runners get it on the guys side the last two years.  That is interesting to me.  And the fact that Max’s JFK did not get a single first place vote for POY is interesting to me as well.  Keep in mind, that record being broken last year by Riddle was the POY … and it was further put down by King this year.  Jay Aldus popping sub 19 at Leadville at the age of 51 seems insane to me.  Finally, the Grand Slam gets votes for POY (look in the “also receiving votes section).  That seems a little weird to me as it is not an event.  It is four.

Mind felt good but body felt like crap from the get go today.  Training?  Giving blood?  Fasting?  All of the above?  Eh, just took it.  Decided if I was going to go slow, I might as well take on ASG on the way up, and then I came down RG.  SLOW.  Just felt sluggish all around.  Whatever – some days like that.  Messed up the start of the watch, so I missed like the first mile of running (hiking).  Actually ended up taking some calls that came in.  Most of the snow has melted but there are some sections in the shade that are icy that can be a bit surprising.  Supposed to get some more snow this weekend.

Related a bit to my work, but an article on corporate taxes some of you might dig. Or, given some its tone that you might not.  Or the simple picture version.

Tuesday 010813

Got out with Bob today over on his mesa.  Yeah, it is his mesa.  We debated a bit who has run it more.  He has run the crap out of it since moving their a few years ago, but I was running it for about a decade when my office was over there.  I can pull completely old school and say I was running it before they went and crusher fined the whole thing. 

Shortly after starting, we ran into Carl K, a guy who I have not chatted with in a bit – so it was good to catch up with him.  Of course, Carl first came rolling by Bob and I – as  were lounging to start at 8 minute something pace (yes, I know it is all relative, but this is a bit pedestrian for us even in our advanced age … although I know under certain conditions it would be quick).  Without thinking we dropped to 7:30 as he went by and then we all ran together at sub 7s for a bit.  Carl kindly slowed for the old men.  I think we might have grumped enough that the next time he sees us, he will run even faster or run in the other direction.

More seriously, the increase in pace … that is the very reason why I need to run with people.  Sometimes. 

For a lot of folks the opposite is true – they run with folks to the point of getting caught up in other people’s runs all the time.  And so, they can end up not running their own workout, or running their easy day not so easy. 

Not so much the case with me:  I run alone 95% of the time.  And unless I am on it, I will easily slip into the the drudgery of slower miles.  Not bad.  But not good day over day over day.  Getting out with folks like Bob periodically will keep me honest. 

And keep me laughing. 

And yes, and even though we were on the ultra flat Davidson Mesa, Bob brought me off the north side a bit to get “at least a 100 feet of climbing” (it notched up to about 500’).  13.5 miles.

Oh yeah, locked my keys in the car.  This was because I was driving the van and I took the Element key off the ring like I do every day when I go for a run.  Then I locked the car and realized I had a different car.  Bob was ready to have me run home and back to retrieve a key but TZ saved me by bringing a key over from Broomstock.

Listening to this podcast from the BBC on how active folks should be for health.  Not really deeply related to running, but interesting from a general public health perspective.

Monday 010713

The race report from Joe Fejes is fascinating to me on several fronts.  3 days.  And the dude lost 25 pounds in a month.

Got this from Mike H and working my way through it:  Chris Davenport - Ski the 14ers.  NUTS.  Couple of Hardrockers in there too. 

These numbers are impressive.

“The pain is always there.  There is a point in marathon running where, even if you are fit, there comes a point where your fitness is gone.  If you have trained well you may run 50 or 60 kilometers without pain.  Maybe 70 or 80 kilometers without pain.  But after that everybody has pain.” YK

Galen talks about Strava.  Got to admit, I dig it.  I have trips coming up to the UK and to VA and I am eyeballing some of the local segments there to see if there is anything I can poach.  And on that front, looks like Sage is now posting to Strava.  Anyway, my FKT lists might not be necessary really … or even accurate.  And maybe time to put those to bed?  I added some screen shots for the Gregory Ranger route over here.

Not my gig, but interesting to see the cost to climb Everest.

Slept in this AM.  Figured it was the right thing (and easy too) to do off the bigger day yesterday.  Middle route both ways today, no traction up or down.  Moved fairly well up for going easy (the lower HR – both average and max compared to when I did this last week might be that it was a nicer day today or it might be that I was wearing less clothes including no spikes … but I will gladly take it as a sign of progress).  Took it pretty careful on the down (like the rock granite slab about 3/4 of the way up Gregory) so that was fairly slow going.  8.1 miles.  Listened mostly to the Adam and Drew show on the way up.  Probably not for everyone … Tool on the way down. 

I did a little calculating and have 24970 feet over the last 15 days … so the little jaunt at altitude over the Christmas break where I got some climbing but not a ton, and then the assaults on Green have me on pace for the 50k in 30 days.  I can see the UK trip messing that up a bit so … Been thinking about the mill and … looking to avoid it.  I think that I have overly embraced it a bit in the past, and now I am probably swinging a bit too hard the other way … wanting to stay away from it altogether.  But intelligently, I  might need to embrace it a bit when I am on the road and looking for some vert.

Sunday 010613

Got over to the FA just before 6, but I think I must have been the first one out there.  Dark and a wee bit chilly (certainly single digits).  I did various laps, loops as folks trickled in and out.  After about an hour of this I headed west on the route, until getting to the junction down to the Dowdy Draw lot.  From there I doubled back and shortly bumped into Bob.  He kindly agreed to run back with me for a bit.  After bringing me back to 93, he headed back west.

Of course I did that stupid step with the watch that I do:  I stopped my watch to talk with him for a minute and then forgot to get it going again when we started running.  I discovered this a half mile later (calculated by the distance shown when I finished up).  Of course, I had to correct this error.  Even though I had run that segment, I needed to reconcile my watch to show that.  Add on half a mile.  20.5 on the day.   Pretty slow to start (9s) but once I started heading west if dropped to low 8s.  All very relaxed.

I feel good about the week.  78+ miles, 16k+ of vert coming off the 6 Greens in the week.  So, I have shown that this load is somewhat manageable without any sort of significantly quality in it.  I could feel the Greens getting easier as I worked through the week.  Whenever I am up for it, and can manage it – I could increase the volume here or inject some quality.  Good place to be.  The numbers on the year are obviously a touch less with the one day difference – 5 Greens and just under 14k of vertical.  Also, the last TEN days have been 117 miles, with 19660 of vertical.  That means on this pace I could hypothetically get the 50k in 30 days with some breathing room.  Again, it is about the discipline of getting to a bigger (2k plus) climb a day.  Physically, I can handle that, but the half hour over, back to and fro for the Front Range hills, etc is the challenge.

The true challenge to all of this is … time.  This past week was in excess of 14 hours.  Good stuff when I can get it, but I am not sure that my broader life style choices are going to make it easy for me to get 2+ hours a day every day.  The discipline work there will be getting out in the AM. 

At some point, I will read these pictures on CDV.  Also checking out this on line mag from the east coast.

I get crap for my treadmill antics, but I am sure I have never done this.  I am actually more impressed that the folks next to her are not losing it.

A step that seems to be bringing the 470 connector around.  Mixed feelings on this.

A 1 mile steeplechase, indoors?  Awesome.  Where was this when I could still lift my legs up a bit?

Former course record holder Mike Morton is in Western States 100 '13.  Thanks for the heads up Justin.

Saturday 010513

Was considering not doing Green this AM, but Dr Nick (this is the younger better looking Nick versus the more venerable older Sir Nick from the Fort) asked if I was up for continuing to run my streak.  I got the “green” light and took the bait.  I am not specifically looking to streak, but given with this AM’s run I have matched in 6 days 25% of what I did in 366 days last year, I will admit I see the allure.  My mind does wander to certain goals, like a 100 Greens in a year.  That would be nice, but I am willing to punt on that, because I want to keep focus on certain goals and projects versus just having a bunch of them.  Pikes being my focus, I see not only a small horde of Greens under my belt but also a good number of longer tempo hill runs, some downhill efforts, flat speed work, and time at altitude (which Green is not if you live here but is if you are from Connecticut).

Great to get out with Nick, catch up with him on his ‘13 plans, and have a great morning on the trails.  We went without traction up (Ranger Gregory), but both opted for microspikes on the down via Bear Canyon – until the top of the climb out of the drainage below NCAR.  It has been cold enough that there has not been a lot of thaw freeze, so where there is snow, it is still snow.  There is a Southside FA going down tomorrow and sorather than another slog on Greenie, I will partake in the social event and get some miles in before the sun cracks the horizon.  And then a bit more (but probably not the full loop)

Not going to be around for this but this movie showing looks solid.  Although Boston Billy might be more a crack up in with his “Jedi Master” comments.  Apparently also some stuff on MW.

Interested to see where Sage takes the training talk videos he seems to have started.

XC results over in Europe caught my eye.  I know most runners I know (outside of ultra guys) have these roots in XC and talk about how they love to get back to it.  I like the fun of it, but if I am honest, I never was much of a mudder.  I sort of thrashed up and down in it rather than moving forward much.  Really, I did a lot better on the track at HS … more of a rhythm runner I guess.

mmm … try not to stray into politic topics on this blog, and this reference clearly crosses that line, but probably like a good number of folks, I have been reading a lot stuff regarding violent crime, proposed solutions, constitutional rights, etc on the interwebs.   I certainly don’t profess to have solutions, but I found this video to be one of the more interesting pieces I saw on the topic thus far.

So … what will you be like in 10 or 20 years?  Same person or someone who looks back at these days and thinks what a putz you were?  I might take a bit of issue with the referenced article.   I really hope I have it figured out a helluva lot better in ten years.  But I also hope that is not too late.

Lucho set me up with a B&W from yesterday.  Looks like the Jogdaddy is getting back on the horse.

The foundation and cornerstone

I realize my highlights from 2012 were focused on running.  That is a bit backwards.  Any success of highlight I have in running comes off a foundation of a wonderful family.  And the cornerstone of that family is this lady …

I met her almost 30 years ago now.  Pretty much melted at the sight of her, told her that within a week of meeting her and it effectively kept her from dating me for close to a decade.  I like to joke that she finally lost enough sight, hearing and nerve endings to consider a relationship with me.

The highlights I have with this wonderful person in 2012 are usually centered around a laugh about the kids or the dogs.  We continue to grow with each other, push each other, support each other, and love each other.  There is little doubt I am the greater benefactor from all this.  One of my “projects” for 2013 is to find more ways to better balance that in my mind.  Unlike a running highlight, where I can pick an event, we are in the ultra of ultras together and are each other’s crew in all regards.  She is truly a human that lives a lifestyle where she thinks of the benefit of others first versus herself.  I have much to learn.

Some pix … the unit.
  

TZ’s parents in this shot from the WC race in Fairplay.
 
 
This shot became our Christmas card this year.  Apparently the kids were not super stoked about it.  Not sure why.   

This is a shot from the Hand Hotel, just after the race.  I like the colors.  But maybe this should be a black and white shot.