Tuesday 093013

News stuff:  Good RunJunkie video covering recent run news.  Yet another good TAL (this one on regulation, so more work than running related).  Liza blogs on a recent race that was suspended mid race due to weather.  And Drew Graham from Adam State is recovering from what I assume is a diving accident.  Check out the video in the lower right of that page – the kid had some faith in that kick. BHS XC boys, despite going from 4A to 5A this year are climbing in the 5A ranks.

Jog around the lake that started easy, taking pix/  It went to steady because as the trail merged with another trail this guy came in from the left and eyeballed me.  He decidedly picked up the pace to be ahead of me.  After about a minute, he picked it up again, but then slowed so I started to come back at him (remaining at about the same pace).  He was looking over his shoulder now and then, acting as if he was looking at the trees and flowers, so it was sort of funny.  On the next rise he really started going, so I decided to roll with it and we were under six for a short stint.  He finally relented and I came up next to him and had a conversation with him for about a mile before he turned off.   Nice kid.  Training for a boxing match he has in Dallas next month.

And of course it appeared as if I had gone for a swim rather than a run. 

11.2 miles.  I end up with 365 on the month of September (with 1 day off), which is the largest month of running I have done this year or last (interesting September was big month for me last year as well at 320).  Understandably, that is not a huge month for some, but it is a nice step for me.  I feel good about the month – getting in a of steady runs to build on some small back to backs (30+ miles over 2 days).  October will be a smaller month for me but I will look to see if I can edge in some opportunities to build on that back to back thing a bit.  Of course, this is all occurring with little climbing for now. 

Monday 092914

AM – tired legs.  GPS missed the first 3/4ths of a mile.  Lot of runners out there.  Saw Andrew Letherby (I recognized him, he is sort of hard to miss) and the UT Women’s XC team (really hard to miss).  7.5 miles.

I was rereading the post by Canova regarding Berlin.  I was staring at that split chart and of particular interest was how the splits go all haywire after 30k (18 milesish).  Kimetto and Mutai continue to plug sub 15 minute 5k pace, but Kuma  slows to 15’10”” (and it looks he must have been in fourth for a bit).  This drops him to at least fourth but he rallies back for 3 as Kipsang can only rally 8’06’ over the last 2.2k (the top three all were sub seven).  The marathon has certainly changed over the last decade, but it is still a run of attrition, and it is about what you can do after 20 miles.

Evening – 5.7 miles.  Tons of runners around the lake.  Humid as Tel Aviv.

Sunday 092814

JZ got sealed his Order of the Arrow membership in Scouts, and he enjoyed watching me go through my Ordeal. 

Yeah, I know I am another proud parent.  The kid is a helluva lot more than I was at that age.  Or this age.  I still blame the mother.

Probably one of my best nights ever truly under the stars (no tent) down there at PV.  The conditions were just awesome – cool but not cold, incredible stars and the Milky Way just popping out.  Coyotes screaming in the distance as Orion rose and the rich sage of smell filling my nose.

No running on Saturday as I was on a service project for the day.  Mostly moving various rocks at Peaceful Valley.  Got a nice finger crush between two pieces of concrete.  The gash on the other side was what I initially thought was the issue.  After a couple of hours it had swollen pretty black purple.  Fairly sure the tip bone is not happy in there, but nothing you can really do about that,

As I came out of the woods, I learned a WR was set at the Berlin Marathon.  I realize the terms in which people look at this tend to get overplayed, but … I got an email from a friend who made it clear that it was 104 x 400 meters in 69 seconds.  With no rest.  Uh, yeah, maybe I could stick for 200 meters?  Maybe?  Here’s Canova’s take.  But the big news of the day in the running world might be the train that blocked the marathon… sort of.

I also got some sad news about a friend unexpectedly and tragically losing a couple of burros.  Heartbreaking.

Off to Austin for a couple of days. 

Latest ATUC, and I have tons of podcasts to “catch up on” but I am not sure I ever will.  Probably will as the latest iOS is jacking the sync of my music to my phone. 

I was fairly determined to get 80 on the week, even with the day off, and so I did the requisite miles today to make that happen (16.8 today for 80.1 on the week).  5 weeks at 80 plus and I feel I can handle that for flats now.  I’d say I am ready for a bump up, the issue will be more about time than physically adapting to it. 

Apparently the Strava stuff in Austin is real shit.

Friday 092614

News stuff:  Latest on McCandless,  Allie M’s bronze, and Shalene looks for an AR in Berlin this weekend (I say she gets the win at the race but not the AR).

Got out in the mid AM, later than I wanted so it was a bit hot.  Fartleked a bit, chasing some Strava segments, with some degree of success.  Came back to the house to water up after about 8 miles, and then headed out for another 6.  Thought I would get out for some more but the heat had left me a bit cooked and the obligations were piling up.

Off camping with the boy for the weekend, and then turn around right away to head to Austin for a few days for a conference.  Today sort of represents a bookend of a block of training of me.  I start some travel now and a natural break will be built in. 

Thursday 092514

Had team #GOM going this AM.  Conversation was like this (NSFW).  13 miles. 

News stuff – this might be the closest thing that Dr. Nick has to a blog post (and no – a race that has finish times in the hundreds of hours is not a race for me in even the darkest corners of my imagination), and an excellent PPA write up by Peter M.  And again, no.

I have been kicking around a theory.  Or maybe it is a hypothesis.  Or even a hunch.  It is around the once a runner types I have come across.  Most that I knew in high school, or even college, don’t do it any more.  And in fact, most are probably a far cry from navigating around a local track in anything other than a walk.   Sure there are exceptions.  But most hung up the shoes and don’t even hobby jog anymore. 

So why did they leave?  And why do some guys stay with this competitive running thing?   A lot of these guys who left were pretty damn good at some point.    And then, they were good-um-okay.  And then maybe just another “C” level runner.   They went from being the big fish, to not such a big fish.  And the structured competition (HS, college) faded away, life crept in and they let it all slip.   Age plays in there as well of course. 

The hunch?  Maybe they let it go because when the limelight faded, the sport was not as appealing.  And so perhaps it was less about the sport after all.   And perhaps some stuck with it because they never had that benefit (curse?) of being quite that good.  Maybe back to yesterday’s musings on ego tie in here as well (and the things I am still chasing).

Of course, there are a lot of stories, a lot of reasons, but there is theme I see in there.  It ain’t some unifying law of running, but it some stereotype I can draw from (and yes, I do make those judgments even though my daughter tells me coming to such conclusions on little evidence is really a wrong thing to do and I tell her it is the benefit of getting old).

Wednesday 092414

Got this for some fall reading.

I run for a variety of reasons, and no doubt - ego is one of them.  I see my ego step up when I get a notice from Strava about some obscure FKT somewhere.  I feel my ego do some mental calculus when considering if I would be beaten or if I could beat the kids I see race HS XC.  I look at race results and even though I did not run the race, I mentally slip myself into some place based on people I think I would beat to the line versus those who would get there before me.  My ego wanted my name on the board at Fairplay when racing with Jack.  And my ego wants that badge of saying “yeah, I did Pikes so many times, Leadville, etc.” 

There seems to be a tendency to look at ego like it is some sort of bad thing.  Sure.  It can be.  But generally I see it as a good thing.  It drives you to want to be something more than what you are.  Run or live long enough and you probably get vision into how putting too much stock in this with running may not be particularly healthy or smart.  But the opposite probably is worse.

Got this in the mail today. 

So my ego does want to do that again next year.

Looked to take advantage of Bob again this week by getting him to run in the hottest part of the day, in the least treed location I could find.  I figured this would put me at the advantage but I could tell even in the first mile of the warm up that my legs were still working through the load over the last couple of days.  We hit the climb over on Lac Amora.  I thought we’d manage five but it was one of those days where I was ready to be done after one.  No legs from the get go.  I managed to fake it through 2 with a bit of a push at the end, and then on the third, I just jumped on it from the get go, figuring I’d pop somewhere in there anyway. 

Bob had a good quip:  “you need to stop muscling up that hill and just dance up it.”  As I was rigging on the third, it was clear that I was just fighting myself with a longer less efficient gait versus rolling up the hill on a shorter quicker stride. 

I shuffled through a fourth.  4:11, 4:08, 4:07, 4:21 for these near kilometer sections (averaging 4% grade, but with a lot of flat in there)  but the Strava segments are all like 20 seconds faster as they start and finish shorter than what we ran.  10.2 miles on the day and I was tired. 

Sort of good that I am managing some of this stuff with the load but at some point if I want to maximize these days, I will need to manage the day(s) before a bit more effectively.  Or something like this.

Working on getting the band together for an AM run…

Trying to find a 100 that makes sense in the winter, sprint that won’t interfere with USATF XC or be too late … not sure if I will find one that fits that I am willing to travel to.  Might need to do a 100k instead.  Could be a trip to Collegiate Peaks again and maybe I will see if I can stay on the course this time.

Tuesday 092314

Got this from Wes:  Max King competed in the 'Spartan Vermont Beast World Championship' last weekend.  The run course profile is rather sick, particularly when you look at that you are having to drag rocks and sandbags and do over 100 burpees.

Of course, maybe that is really nothing when you instead decide to combo an afternoon of sky-diving, snowboarding, mountain biking, bungee jumping, speed boating and helicopter rides.

I was chatting with a woman at work today.  She is a mountaineer type, and so typical conversation includes what her next adventure is.  She has done all sorts of 8000 meter peaks, etc.  So I ask her what is next and she tells me that this year is different, well most folks don’t know but she is coming through all the procedures she had for breast cancer.  She found a lump in her armpit when climbing and then boom a week later she was in chemo, etc.  Holy crap. 

Working getting an OTC (over the counter) tag for elk hunting this fall.  I have never done that and so it looks to be a learning experience, and will look to the sage wisdom of my father-in-law.  The CDOW big game hunting brochure is more difficult to wade through than federal regulations for medical devices.

Coolest thing I saw on the internet today.

Today’s listening:

13.7 miles, easy to steady in the subdivisions.

Monday 092214

AM – early.  Connected up with Tim for hard jogging (hard to believe my mancrush started some almost seven years ago now).  Great to see him as it has been too long.  Man is inspiring on many levels, athlete, father, man.  Gorgeous sunrise while a light rain blew in.  Coyotes, strong smell of sage and deer and stuff.  Conversations on calculus and ego.  Can’t beat it.  12.5 miles. 

No harder stuff for me today – a slight break over the last couple of Mondays but I feel it was baked in yesterday’s run to some extent. 

News stuff:  a post on FKTs on various long stuff.  Nice read on Laura Thweatt.   A coffee focused interview (?!) with Tony.  The Denver Post takes on the Nolans runs.  Some recently posted cool photos from the Fairplay race.  Strava has an interesting view of stuff if you look at your training log. 

Various folks have asked me how KZ is doing at XC.  Usually somewhere in the conversation, a question like this comes up:  “is she running varsity?” or “do you think she will run competitively in college?”

No, she is not running varsity and she is probably not going to run competitively in college.  KZ was a kid who would say to me (before HS) “why do people run?  It seems that is something you do when you are being chased or chasing something – like a ball.” 

And then she came to me the day before the actual season started of her freshman year and said she was going to run XC. 

Not the summer program where you prep for the season.  No, she came the day before the season actually started.

I didn’t really need to say anything.  I figured the lessons of running themselves would be strong enough.

And they were.  Sore legs.  Deep fatigued.  Not being able to discern between an easy pace and a hard pace because it is ALL hard.  She went through it all.  It was not easy for her.  Her first race 5k, which required some walking on her part, was 45 minutes.

And that is where the lessons came back to me.

See – I took to running because it was something I enjoyed, and from the get go had some modicum of success with.  It was EASY for me to run.  Sure, it hurt like anyone else when I was running hard, but I could pin on a result of some time, or even ego of beating those kids who all played soccer or football.  Those were sports I quit because I sucked at them.  I stuck with running because it clicked with me.  I dropped other sports because they kicked me in the teeth.

KZ got that shot to the mouth with running and stuck with it.  That is pretty ballsy to me.  She carved her 5k down to under 40 minutes and then under 35.  She was hugely upset when she failed to crack 30 in her last race of the year last year. 

Now, of course, she is a kid.  No Rocky story here.  She did not get up at 4AM every morning after XC to put in 3 miles and come back to win state.  No, she went back to the other aspects of her life and let running go.  She even skipped the summer training program again before her sophomore year.  But she still ran XC.  She struggled, she learned.  I felt that odd juxtaposition of pride when your kid does something like that, concern when you see them in pain, frustration when you see what you can do to help them and helplessness because you know they need to find their own way. 

I chose never to push her into running.  I’d encourage her, but I was not going to drive her. 

This year she decided to do the summer training program.  And for the first time, at the Saint Vrain meet, she broke 30. By. one. second.  And then at Liberty Bell she crushed that by running 27:27.   The glee on her face was palatable.  It is no varsity time but I could not give a crap about that in the slightest.  She was happy.  She is learning about some basic life principles in this sport.  Maybe she will forget them, maybe they will cement something in her head for life.  I dunno. 

But I am still amazed by her sticking with it when it was not easy. 

She won’t read this.  She does not read my blog.  But maybe she will.  Love you and proud of you crunch and munch.

When I was in the USAF in ME the kids would miss school this time of the year to go harvest potatoes. I was telling my crumb grabbers about this (after the were grousing about how hard school was, and how early they had to wake up)  I even sung the "Tater Raisin' Man" song to them and they thought I was making it up. Had to show them ...

Every morning the ONE radio station would play that song and then they’d go into telling everyone where they needed kids to head to harvest.  And Dick Curless, the Baron of Country … a one eyed cowboy.  Wow.

Sunday 092114

Equinox, right?  Bring on the dark.

Good on the Rock n Roll group for offering to take up the botch Boulder Marathon registrations.  Smart business too.  And the Boulder XC group is offering a free beer at their gig in February to anyone who got stiffed.

AM – 17.1 miles.  Decided to mix this one up a bit and see if I could press a bit on tired legs (tired from the on going volume, the race yesterday), and went 2+ hours mixing in an easy float mile (7:30-7:50ish) to something faster but not driving really hard (6:40-7:20ish).  Went well, and it broke the run up mentally pretty well (versus just doing mile after mile).

87.9 on the week, holding together and absorbing well with some volume, some turn over, and looking to run on legs that are a bit beat up.  Work to be done still, but a fair start over the least few weeks.  Next couple weeks will be a bit of a tougher swing as some work and other obligations start to edge in.

Two reads related to philosophy of endurance sports – 1, 2 (hat tip to P for the second)

Interesting podcast on autism.  Also on the run this AM, listened to Orlando Jones and Drew Pinsky go back and forth on topics such as race in this country.

Kastor smoked all the other US women, running 5:28 pace for a 69:36 at Philly.  And yes that is a 40+ AR. On nearly the other end of the age spectrum, Deakins Roche won the USATF 50k.  Girl is on a tear.

Saturday 092014

AM – decided to jump into the second closest to my house 5k, the Broomfield Days Mayor’s Cup.  Given I had not really rested up for this (including the bike yesterday), I did not have high expectations but I was interested to see if I could hold sub 6 pace.  5:43, 5:53 and then slogged it in for the win at 6:15, not feeling any pressure (18:55 on 3.2 miles).  A guy got out pretty hard from the start and probably had 40 meters on me and Pete D. by the time we turned onto the trail by the church.  He came back by Main Street and was breathing pretty hard.  Pete fell off a bit and I went into protect mode versus attack.  Last year went 5:32, 5:52, 6:11 (18:20).  Jogged around quite a bit after, ending up with 15.2 on the day. 

They actually had a tape at the finish to break.  That is pretty rare I think.  I think the number of races where I have had the chance to do that is probably less than a handful.  I guess it could be a lot of races, but obviously I am not in that position that often.

Not a straight up week, but today puts me at 91 miles over the last seven days.  I am feeling that volume – but there is a positive side to that feeling too.

Here comes the parade.

Brought Bart over to Broomfield Days and there was this setup where the dogs could chase a lure.  Bart went bananas watching other dogs doing it, so we set him up.   

Saw some of the kids from KZ’s XC team and yapped with them a bit, including the young man who won the varsity race yesterday.  I asked him what he dropped the last mile in and he thought it was around 4:50.  He came through 2 miles in 11:22, which means he was 40 seconds behind the leader at that point, and ran the last 1.1 in 5:20.  Solid.

The car show at Broomfield Days is always awesome.

Another highlight of the day was getting to yap with one of my favorite people in the whole world.  Maybe even the whole country.

Good news in the otherwise ugly Boulder Marathon cancellation:  Rock and Roll steps up.  Good on them and smart move.

Friday 091914

News related stuff:  Kastor presses on as a #GOL, the Boulder Marathon cancels on short notice, Nan gets a spontaneous high five,  and a new episode of ATUC.

After a hard morning of attacking the sprinklers, Bart takes a siesta in the sun.  Yesterday I thought the great dog squirrel war had reached its pinnacle because he was barking insanely.  It was actually at the hot air balloon floating just over our house.  Airspace to him over the house is important.


She is getting better.  Either that or my senses have dulled.

Mid day – hot again (I actually lit the sprinkler back up after shutting it down after last week’s snow).  10 miles.
I love watching cross.  Today I had the added benefit of being the lead bike on all the races.  The only real challenging part of that is that, well, I can’t bike for crap.  So when I hit the grass sections or the one significant hill I had to work a bit to make sure I was not overtaken by the kids.  Ended up with some 14 plus miles on the bike. 

Greg had the guys run as a pack to start, holding back his best kids to help move the pack along.  At two miles, he let his kids go, and it was off to the races from there.  The top Broomfield kid was not even in site when I hit two miles on the bike.  At 2 and quarter, I could see his blond head in the crowd moving up.  And then with 400 to go he was third.  He kicked for the win.  Awesome stuff.   He must have been 200 meters down at the mile to go mark.  Amazing. 
Why amazing?  Obviously it illustrates a kid who has some talent and has done the requisite work to take advantage of that.  It also shows something we can all learn from.  WANT.  This guy WANTED to win.  He did not WANT second.  Or even third.  He could have walked away from this race with 10th and been content with that as it was a race his coach set up as a workout.  No.  He wanted to win it and was going to find the way to make that happen.  Rock freakin’ on.

Shots I got of KZ before her race. JZ showed up to watch. 
I was riding the bike so I asked if he could take some pictures of the races.  This is absolutely the best part of having a digital camera.

Thursday 091814

And like that … Ritz is injured.  Sheesh. 

I had been toying with the idea of the Boulder 100, just to get in another 100 and learn from that before a long ramp to Leadville next summer.  That came off the table with plans to be out of town at that time.  I briefly considered the idea of doing my own self supported ultra, but I have abandoned that idea.  Something about “pining on a number” makes a significant difference in the head, and thus what I can perform.  I did notice that the 100 mile champs for USATF are a week after the XC championships (I am assuming it is Rocky Racoon), but I am not too sure on that due to work commitments.  Maybe though. 

I have contemplated how my last 3 and a half weeks of running probably would have served me up a nicer Pikes had I done this in June rather than the month after the race.  But I don’t sweat that.  I was just not there to do that, and that is done.  I have also contemplated that my refound enthusiasm could fade before next summer.  Yup.  It could.  I could get eaten by a shark too I guess.  I don’t know.  I will ride the wave while I can.

For now, I will look to bump my mileage up (as I have for a few weeks) to see how I can handle that, but while maintaining some semblance of quality in the mix (namely a session with Bob once a week, and something else solo where I am picking it up).  I want to have a consistent long run in there (2 hours plus) as well.  I can build around this in a variety of ways:  picking up the pace of the long run, back to backing the long run, increasing miles, adding vert, gym work, whatever.  But I will also go with the flow in what life deals me:  work, weather, other circumstances and looking to avoid getting hurt.

Slow roasting on the run today.  Hot and easy, 12.1 miles.  It ain’t mountain running out here in Broomstock but I love the big sky and fields.

I listened today to the latest EPlanet podcast.  It had Mark Allen and Phil Maffetone and so it was an interesting show.   In other shows however, Phil is a bit too out there for me.  Yes,  he knows some stuff really well. For example, his assertion about eschewing speed work has never made sense to me.  He made statements in a recent podcast interview that a sub 2 marathon is more likely to come from a barefoot runner (and tying it how the  lack of shoes mean faster time because you are not having to deal with shoe weight).  Based on what is that determined?  What number of the top 100 or 1000 times in the marathon or the 10k have been run barefoot?  I’d be surprised if it were one.  

I will be off to the Broomfield Invite tomorrow.  Go XC!  Apparently I will be biking my ass off to not get caught by kids running.

Wednesday 091714

Wednesday and I put the call out to Bob to see if we could keep our weekly beating going on.  He was glad to oblige.  Any jump I had on a somewhat post 100 beat up Bob has been fading week over week, although I have been able to keep him a bit within arm’s reach.  We did miles today that climbed a bit on the way out, and then came back down for about of a 1/3 of a mile on the way back.  5:48, 5:55, 5:58, 5:49.  They got pretty ugly on the climbs out.  On each I eyeballed on the Garmin the average pace was 6:01, 6:02, 6:06 and 6:09.  While I held Bob at bay on the climb out on the first, he was solidly trouncing me on the rest.  I managed to catch him on each on the drops back, but he certainly made it look a lot prettier than me.  13.1 miles.

Bob and I were yapping about Hall firing God as his coach, and bringing on Jack Daniels.  We slipped into talking about Ritz, Webb, US Marathoners (and how we seem to become more a middle distance power), etc.  I can’t see Hall making the next Oly marathon team, but if Ritz is healthy, he’d have a pretty solid shot.  He seems to be prepping up for Philly pretty well.  At this point, I’d give the other two men’s slots to Vail and … hell, I got to say it … Meb.  Or maybe I should just say there is no way Meb makes the squad so he proves us all wrong again.  On the woman’s side, well Flanagan named her pacers (Vail, Watson) for her AR attempt at Berlin.

Colbert breaks down the Scotland as an independent country vote that is on tap for tomorrow.  I wonder how many times this sort of stuff has been used as part of the campaign for an independent Scotland?  Not surprising, at play in this vote is money, and taxes.  But really, if you want the true skinny, it is all in here:

Tuesday 091614

Excellent episode of This American Life this week.  You really should listen. 

Sometimes, as Sage points out, the math of your pace versus your competitor, becomes really evident.

Mid AM – 10.1 miles.  I am in the routine over the last few weeks where I can go easy longish on Sunday, and then some sort of other work on Monday.  I don’t quite get crushed by the long run (of course I probably could if I picked up the pace of it but I am not there yet) on the following day … so I look to double back on Monday a bit.  But Tuesdays I am usually a bit tired.  I was in the legs today as well, so an easy run but trying to keep some semblance of volume as well.

Interesting read from Esquire on Scouting.

Cool video of Tony from UTMB.

Monday 091514

Nick Clarke is a freak.  He did a 100 on Saturday and then came back to RD the Black Squirrel on Sunday.

Other weekend action … here, and that includes a link to an article that shows you how age works:  Scholl taking it to Ames on a hill climb.  I was contemplating this age thing after I saw kid after kid run under 16 or low 16s in the Liberty Bell 5k on Friday … and thought how I was really never that fast, and I still had what was considered a pretty fair HS run.  Although there was that 10000 hour guy going under 5 at the age of 51 this past weekend too.

There was also the WMRC this past weekend.  I guess there is something cool about running in a quarry, but I am pretty sure it is not the spot I would pick I were hosting it.  Lots of CO all over those teams, and the women’s senior team brings home a bronze.  I find it interesting that there is not a lot of talk about how Uganda has become the power house in these mountain races. 

Today’s Pb reading.  Ouch.

In the arena of #GOM, I almost can’t believe it – the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has started a campaign encouraging “awkward eye contact” between drivers and peds.  Are we really so adverse to interacting with people that we can’t make eye contact with them from our car before we mow them down?  ;)

Today’s listening.

Late start which was really just screwing around most of the day … then my stomach was off once I got out.  During the warm up I was not sure what I was going to do.  I knew I wanted to do something as the Sun-Mon-Wed thing has been rolling okay for me for the last few weeks.  I started to see some markings left over from the Howl At The Moon 5k and checked that out.  I decided to eyeball the course with a minute on, minute off thing and I got a fair but not an overly hard workout.  Moved well up to tempo for the supposed warm down.  10.3 miles.

Sunday 091414

AM – 20.2 miles, easy.  I probably should have brought water as I started getting pretty thirsty around 13-14 miles. Week ends up with 88 miles.  Biggest week of the year, all singles with a couple of sessions pretty solid.  Still not a lot of vertical, but I feel good about what I am absorbing for now.  September will be a month where I chase it a bit, and I expect October to be a bit more lax on the running front because of some travel  have. 

Secret to PRs

Seriously, that is some cool engineering.

Saturday 091314

10.1 miles, easy to steady with some pickups and one chasing of a segment (small measure of success here as I got it 19 seconds faster than I have before).

Ate dinner at the place where the kid is working and then went over to the secret pub to do some England trip planning (just to get into the spirit).