Thursday 31DEC2015

AM – got out with JZ over to practice (a half an hour or so with him) and then added on for a total of 10.7. 

It is that day of the year to reckon up with the stats – not that they mean much, other than I suspect I will look at them some day and wonder how or why I did this.  Sort of like this.  Then again, it will never look like this.

2015
3451.5 miles (averaging 66.19 miles a week)
236,905 vertical feet
478.53.15 hours (averaging 9.18 hours a week)
40 days off

Comparing it to prior years:

	2011	2012	2013	2014
Miles	3629	3367	3493.6	3436.9
Vert	264848	236110	272300	172005
Hours	543.37	529.92	512.06	459.7

As a side note December was 273.6 miles, with 13795 feet and 41.5 hours … sort of representing getting back to some semblance of good habits after challenging months of September through November. 

Also, 65 travel nights for work (18%) and then 14 nights of camping.  There are probably another 2 weeks of vacation nights on the road in there (the Baltics), so I was sleeping somewhere other than home at least a quarter of the year. 

I really want to get away from the general thinking about miles, vert and time this next year.  I will still track it and there are times when I think chasing numbers might be right for me as part of some overall goals but with 17378 miles over the last five years, and the changes that come with aging, I probably don’t need to pump the base much, or at least not as much as the fact I could get more benefit from working on other things.  Maybe stuff like this. Or maybe this.  But basically, " You can love an idea, but don’t be married to it. "

Strava users get this fun at the end of the year

2015 as a year of running for me … awesome.  Leadville .. My second run at 100 miles and while slower than my prior attempt at the distance, a much better effort for me.  I learned a lot from the Leadville race, particularly when all the little weaknesses caught up to me at the top of the Powerline and plagued me to the finish.  I don’t know if I will ever look to do that sort of thing again to see if I can overcome those flaws, but I am thankful for the opportunity I had to do that run, and that so many loved ones were around me throughout it.

Of course, the highlight of the year was winning the Triple Crown with Jack.  Now that there is a little distance in tinme from it, I recognize how in each of those races I had lost a belief we could win, let it go, and then was in amazement how Jack made it happen each time.  While it was three races this season, I feel it was a building over many races since 2010 that came to culmination this year.  There are so many to thank for that effort, including Bill, Brad and his family, Justin and Yukon and my family.  While I have run hundreds of more races outside of burro racing, winning this series with Jack seems to have branded me as “the guy who runs with donkeys” probably for the rest of my life.  It is a tat I wear with a grin.

No specific resolutions for 2016, but certainly with the down time over the last two weeks there has been a fair amount of thought as to what is next in terms of running, recreation, family, work, and self.  Now, at this stage of my life, there is a growing realization that the people around me don’t care about my personal productivity. They want to see me happy and serene.  Beyond this half I am doing with KZ in a couple of weeks, I have no specific race plans.  But as good man Brownie (despite his post high school education) points out, the best thing to remember for themes or resolutions or whatever …

I urge you to notice when something is awesome, as it often is, and exclaim or murmur or just make a mental note of it. Isn’t it just goddamn fantastic that you have your health, for example? Or running water, or electricity? Or that you have enough money to actually pay someone else to make you a cup of coffee? Or if you want ice cream, you are at any time in America probably only 5 or 10 minutes away from a place that sells some form of it?

Or maybe what Andy sez. 

This is worth 20 minutes of your time (again).

Wednesday 30DEC2015

Joey G has an interesting post on PEDs and pledge sites

I would make a trip to the Springs for the FA this year but I will be in California instead jogging a half with KZ.

Wyatt hits on a variety of topics, including the self indulgence of blogs like this one.  I will just say – yes.  This is something I do for myself.  What of it? 

Catching up on this reading.  Trying my hand at this is something on the possible list for 16.

Quite a list of things read.  I need to see this guy soon. 

We spent the day in Fairplay.  I got out in the afternoon with Lucy and Hans.  It was like negative four without the windchill.  For whatever reason this sort of cold … I am welcoming it this season.  In past years, I have found that I have long for the days of summer when we get this sort of cold snap … but this year, I am sort of enjoying it.  I am not gonna stand around in it for hours on end or anything, but I am digging getting out in the quiet beauty of the crisp days.

Hans and Lucy almost seem to never care what the temp is.  They never complain.  Cold, hot, wet, dry, windy, whatever – it is always, “let’s effing go man!” with great joy and excitment.  Dogs teach us how to be better living beings.

This shot is looking up the Breckenridge Estates climb.  Even though it is not even in the same county as Breckenridge, that is what is called.  It is a helluva climb at 10000 feet.  You are looking at what is pretty much a straight shot up for a mile.  I love it.  It was a slog in the snow today once we got past the part that was plowed.  But it was fun nonetheless. 

5.5 miles.  Obviously I am looking to emulate JT in this post as there are pix of dogs, not kids.

Tuesday 29DEC2015

We headed over Cooper to get some skiing in for the kids.  I suck at skiing, and end up puking half the time I do it (my kids enjoy this part however) so I decided to explore some of the area around Tennessee Pass. 

There is a pretty cool memorial to the 10th Mountain Division right there on the pass / continental divide.

I did a few miles on the snowshoes on the Colorado Trail to start.  The shoes were probably not necessary because the trail was so hard packed from skiing and previous use. 


I came upon a few of the Divide Cabins that are run by the hut system.  I might need to explore these a bit as possible family adventures, things to do with the Scouts.

I buzzed back to the Lodge at the ski hill to catch up with the family for lunch.  I decided to head out on the Colorado Trail the other way for after lunch.  And I dumped the snow shoes.  This meant I was buzzing faster on some sections, but then on others I was much slower.  I did a bit of stuff off trail and was post holing all the way to my crotch.






Four and change in the AM, six and change in the afternoon.  Slow!  First return to Leadville since LT100 (kids asked me about that when we passed Sixth and Harrison … “do your legs hurt when you go by there?”) and the air has not got any thicker.

Monday 28DEC2015

AM  - did the AM dawn walk with TZ and then got over to the off season practice with the boy over at the HS.  Single digit temps, but a good crew out.  I jogged with Greg, discussed doping (as that is what every runner talks about these days), and then did some strides in the parking lot with the kids.  The boy decided to buzz by me on the strides and told me that my days of giving him a lead were done, but he’d be okay with giving me one now.  I added on some miles once I got back to the house.  10.3 miles.

Today is the last day KZ is 17.  Yeah, that went fast.  In many regards it is clear how she is an adult now, but also very much a kid and a still figuring some pretty basic stuff out.  I wonder if I will feel that way about 40 year olds when I am 70.  Anyway, we have been having a LOT of conversations about her next steps … college, which one, how much, gap year, scholarships, looking at information on the web (collegedata.com for example).  It is a project. 

JZ is keeping us busy too with his new endeavor.  The college conversations seem logical to me.  This activity however … this makes me feel real old real quick. 

Nah.  It ain’t so bad.  Maybe it is less so this second time around.  He has a bit more of a spirit to buzz the car, but he seems to have a healthy respect of it as a death machine too. 

The ads are annoying but there is a good video in here regarding body weight exercises.

I started eyeballing my annual stats from 15 compared to 14.  Nearly the same about of miles and hours.  About 50k more vertical this year.  Distributed pretty differently though.  I think I really need to get away from thinking about the log that way altogether and weigh my weeks instead on the success of my workouts versus my miles.

End of an era … Balch Field House.  My 1500 PR came at Balch in one of those efforts that felt almost effortless … I almost thought I had miscounted the laps.  I recall doing a few dozen workouts there, including one about 15 or so years ago where I met Marty K the day after Christmas.  We had the whole thing to ourselves and were doing 400s indoors on the day after Christmas when there was a foot of new snow outside.  Nutty.

I ran a 600 meter race there once in 1:29.  I went out in the first 100 in 13.x.  I was rigging so bad in the last 100 …  I remember a guy stuck his face into the lane as I was tying up and he said “relaz yo’ face man.”  It was funny.  Later on I heard him talking to one of his college team mates.  His team mate got smoked in one of the heats and this guy said, “yuz were seeing nuthin’ but ass cheeks in that heat.”  It was a crack up.

Evening … snuck up to Fairplay.

I get this a lot.

Sunday 27DEC2015

AM – I figured I needed to get back into whack and so I asked TZ to wake me when she got up.  She bumped me out of the rack at 6, and so I was able to get out with her at 7.  It was chilly.  Not quite single digits, but pretty close.  It was a beautiful morning nonetheless.  I woke up feeling sore and lethargic again, but the run – even though it was slow – snapped me out it.  I felt better after it than I have in a couple days.  4.3 miles of running.







In the afternoon, I got out with the boy and the dog.  7 miles. 

55 and change miles on the week, with a day off and a fiver day.  It was a bit of mess of a week with the weather, the holiday, the time off and not feeling well.  I was glad to get something out of it while getting through it.  Even if that something was just basic slow movement. 

Bitter’s 100 mile ride on the track.

Andy is on TV!

MW HOF nominess thus far.

Saturday 26DEC2015

9 miles crunching through the snow, ice and seeking plowed side walks.  I was really lethargic today.  I went to bed last night at 9, woke up at 7:30, took an hour plus nap mid day and was really tempted not to run because I just felt tired.  I felt a bit better after the run. 

I slipped over 3400 miles on the year today.

Five things I could do to shift up my running significantly:
1.)  drink less (this probably means don’t drink – and by that I mean beer, because when I have one I will surely have two … and then possibly three).
2.)  less quantity,
3.)more quality
4.)  more general strengthening, particularly in the legs
5.)  more running with people

Been sort of checked out of the net, blogs, etc … but …

Move over Steve Spence.  Shaheed has a 50 year sub five mile streak.  Anyway, an article on Steve’s daughter.

Scooter D gives his inside skinny on Lance and his recent race.  Lance … always the lightning rod figure.  He has done incredible things, he has done horrible things, he has done good things, he has done bad things.  He was the best of the best, but when the whole game was rigged.  He dragged people through the mud when they came at him.  He has lifted people up when they are dealing with life threatening cancer.  And he won’t go away.  Hero, villian … human. 

Lots of links to check out via Jay Johnson.

It is nutty how much track can debate the 1500 or the mile.

Some recent pix … on the run the other day, I saw these cattle pushing each other around.  Of course they were not doing it as much when I took the video.

JZ working the cookie making

Obligatory Xmas shots.

Grandpa was happy with his KSU colored blanket that KZ made.
Bart tried to smile his way out of this when he was caught at the table … he thought we were not looking.

Someone working the grunge look and they don’t even know it.

The dogs had to be in the middle of all gift opening

Various items from JZ’s pottery class.  I particularly dug the eagle plate because of the claw, and the Stonehendge bowl.

Lucy and a rawhide.  There is no rest until it is gone.
Rare pic I got before JZ made goofy faces.

Cooler temps this after noon meant a little bit of the ice beard.