Thursday 30JUN2016

AM – 50 minutes including some time with the BrHS team.  Slow to start but then got some nicer paced stuff in.  Hit the gym for about 25 minutes of planks, push ups, pull ups, squats, myrtle, and lunge work.  Follow up with 30 minutes back to the house.

Symmonds looks to be out of the OT 800 this go around, meaning that the race is going to come down to guys who take it out hard (e.g. Berian, Brazier, Solomon) and hold on.  I think it might be shaping up (along with the women’s 8) to be one of the best races of the Trials.  Certainly the 8 in the 2012 trials was pretty exciting with Symmonds mowing the field down (as he has multiple times).

Side note - It drives me nuts that guys finish the 8 and don’t seem to be breathing hard.

Side note 2 – given all the FUD articles I have seen on Rio as of late (like this one), maybe the Trials are about as far as we get.

If you run a five-minute mile in high school, you’re doing pretty well. If you run five-minute miles in college in a 10K, you’re doing pretty well. If you run five minutes per mile in a marathon after college, you’re doing really well. You’re whole life is to run five-minute miles over longer and longer distances, and you move up the ranks really quickly.  It doesn’t take a lot to run a 1:04 half marathon.

Kids these days.

Pretty cool article on Emma C in the steeple and what that takes.

Doping …

Wednesday 29JUN2016

Slept in a bit.  TZ was supposed to get back from dropping KZ off on the east coast (as she starts her excursion to Germany) around 5:30.  Her flight got delayed out of ATL because of storm there.  She then got delayed coming in her because of storms and got rerouted to CoS.   We got her back home around 11.  Walked with her for a bit in the AM.

• URP Walmsley interview.  Admittedly, I do wonder how a guy goes from an AFA scholarship to “running to pay rent.” 
• Good interview with Koop by Tawnee.  His take on the skipping strength training and instead run is probably gonna draw some fire.  
• I got a ping to hit LR … I try to avoid it, but this is almost too fun to miss.
• Lee says some women runners may be angry about racing against, or losing money to, a male-to-female transgender, but she wants to race against the best.

Late AM – an hour, wilted a bit in the last third because of the heat.

Afternoon – a bit overcast so cooler, got in another half an hour. 

First 300 mile month of the year.  Actually, first one of those in a YEAR (last one was July of last year).  Last year at this time I had about 500 more miles on the books than I have this year.  And that running last year was with a lot more vertical, and coming in more doses of single runs than breaking it up like I am now. 

Tuesday 28JUN2016

AM – 50 something minutes with BrHS team. 

Links

• Mario’s Morning Shakeout hits on some good running topics.
• Mount Marathon Vid from Salomon:

Afternoon – met Bob over at the farm and we did a very very easy run with the burros.  It was pretty hot.  Bob is getting good enough that he can get his burro to run backwards.

Monday 27JUN2016

No early running as I had some work calls.

Link stuff:

• The three words you need to hear to keep you motivated in whatever.
• I had no idea that Walsmley was at the AFA.   Sub 14 5k too.
• Good wrap on MUT from Justin (as always).
• Lot of good WS takes in here, and I agree with him on the dude that got across the line by carrying him in 30 hours and change.

Mid day – pretty warm.  Actually, hot.  About a mile into my jog, I came upon an elderly guy sitting on his bike, not going anyway on the trail.  I asked if he was okay and while he stated he was fine he pointed off the trail to a dead dog.  He explained he came up on a kid that was with the dog and it was overheated.  The kid ran off to get his parents and the old guy agreed to stay, but the dog died within a minute or two of the kid leaving.  That just sucks.  Shitty day for the dog, hard lessons for a kid.

Afternoon – took up JV’s call to hit Green.  I had to check because the last time I was up this hill was back in November.  Wow.  Scott J joined us and thankfully these guys were super easy on me. 

I’ll admit, I do still get a bit star struck around guys like Scott and Tony, but I was pleased to see we talked more as three Dads and the raising of our kids than about ultras.   In fact I think we talked more about cycling than running.

Sunday 26JUN2016

Mid day – a day that would have seemed hot a few weeks ago is pretty well par for the course and not that hot a day.  I headed out with Jack and got some time working with him.  Along the way, we spotted some pretty large snapping turtles.

After jogging Jack, I tacked on another 42 minutes. 

Links

• WS course in 10 minutes.
• The Strava file for Walmsley at WS yesterday.  Yes, go to the bottom.  The Irunfar interview with him is interesting.
• Browning is a badass.

Week – in terms of pure miles and minutes, it was the biggest week for me on the year.  There is good in that as it represents progress of where I was at even a month ago, but I also recognize that I did that with a lot of little runs.  I just need to keep building in terms of miles per run, and speed in a run … but as it makes sense.  I can feel the load but that is also appropriate. 

I was recently asked by someone how they should approach doing a hundred miler as they had never done one.  My response was quick:  “you shouldn’t do it.”  It was not a ding against their character or their desire or their ability … I just don’t think 100s are a healthy endeavor for nearly most of us.  Certainly some of that is based on my personal experience but you can “see it” in a lot of the runners who do them, particularly many of them.  For every long careered “Karl Meltzer” there are five Timmy Olson, Geoff Roes, Mike Wolfe, Jez Bragg, Kyle Skaggs types.   I recall as a teen runner, it was understood that a marathon (26.2 miles) was a distance that most runners only had a handful of good runs at (as in maybe five) before the distance sucked away your speed, and did longer term damage into turning you into a old man “plodder.”   While there are exceptions (like Meb to the marathon), and I think the damage associated with these events and in the training leading up to them is significant enough that one ought to take a long pause before plopping down their credit card to sign up for one.  That sounds easy, but I don’t think it is for many:  I think we jump in because of the culture, the buckle, the fun of the game, the challenge of the experience, etc. 

That said, I was not going to convince this person not to do a hundred miler.  And so with that, I shifted in my feedback to more directly answer their question.  Because heck, I might just do one again someday too.

But probably not.

Saturday 25JUN2016

AM – 40 minutes with a handful of kiddos from BrHS on the Ridgeview Trail. 

Afternoon – 70 minutes.  I dropped JZ off at Tahosa (he is staffing there for a week at the Scout NYLT camp).  Left Canyon is jacked so I wandered back via Nederland and then down Boulder Canyon.  On the way up, I considered Chapman Drive, but is closed due to trail work.  I opted for the Betasso Preserve.  I had never actually done this area.  It is quite nice.

I am clearly not in climbing shape, but that is not surprising as I have been doing no climbing. 

Link items

• Brexit stuff:  This is fascinating.  I find this political leader to be more balanced and grounded in this one 10 minute speech than most I see here on a daily basis.

Today’s listening:

Friday 24JUN2016

Yup, she starts the next significant chapter today.  There is definitely an odd mix of feelings on my part.  Concern and worry as  the parent who sees their child going so far away for so long, but also clearly understanding she needs to “leave the nest” to take those next steps in life.  Going to miss that kid.

AM – 6.1 miles, jogging, strides, then weight room work.

Links stuff:

• The email I got tipping me to this one simply said, “welcome home Floyd.”
• Today’s listening:
   
• Crappy break for HS phenom Drew Hunter.
• Nike got its head together.
• I was poking through Running With The Buffaloes recently and started wondering where some of those guys ended up.  Remember Brock Tessman?  I then lost time considering not just runners in that book but loads of runners that have been a big names and just disappeared.   
• Latest ATC. 
• I was asked for my take on WS.  I have been pretty much not paying a ton of attention to it, although I am interested to see how Wyatt does.  Beyond that, I am not really attuned to it.  Or HR.
• Wassdoc blog … long overdue to add that to the roll to the right.
• Venturing into the political, a good balanced LRC podcast on Brexit.

Afternoon – the 40 minute loop.

You can learn pretty much any menial thing off Youtube.  KZ tagged the passenger side mirror backing out of the garage and we had to replace it.  Ordered the mirror on Amazon, it showed up the next day, watched a 3.5 minute Youtube video and then replaced the mirror with JZ. 

Thursday 23JUN2016

AM – 40 minutes with BrHS with a handful of strides at the end.

Got in some 20-25 minutes of gym work post.  Again – screwing around:  planks, push ups, ab work, lunges, squats, etc

Link stuff:

• Here’s how you take a beer mile and suck the life out of it.
• No Ritz in Rio.
• Good HOR, covering the recent PED track news
• Quick listen on the brain and performance (sort of).

PM – little 40 minute run.  Used the phone for Strava, and it was completely wonky.  Here is a picture of the map of the run how it normally looks on the left.  On the right is today. 

 

So today’s route measured over a mile what the distance actually is, and in turn translated that into a pace that I was clearly not running.

Wednesday 21JUN2016

The whack on my head is healing nicely but it has translated into a pair of light black eyes.

I did not get out early with the team because I had work obligations so I had to bear some of the heat of the day.  That said, it was not as bad as yesterday.  I headed over to check in with Jack.  We ran back to the house, then ran back.  On whole, a great run with him.  We struggled a bit on some of the road stuff in the CTC, but he was rock solid on the trails.

Linky stuff.

• Thorson was one of my favorite profs when I got my geology degree back at UCONN.  He was pretty irked at me when I did not continue post grad studies in that field.  His love of rock walls was storied back then and this article reflects that.
• Nice wrap on Mount Washington.
• Fun read on pacers.

Tuesday 21JUN2016

I banged my forehead pretty good last night at the pool.  It looks worse than it is.

AM – 51 minutes.  Heat is back with a tad bit more humidity than usual.  I did the last mile-ish on the track doing in and outs on the straights and curves (that is stride the straight, float the curve).  These were about 20 seconds for the straights.  I did note a slight twinge in the Achilles as I did those so I ain’t out of the woods there yet.

Link stuff.

• Great write up by Mario.
• I am getting around to JT’s bike ride report.  Entertaining.  His filling of his bladder in stagnant cow paddy infested water had me thinking of people who say “I’d never drink that” or “I would never eat” such and such.  I am glad that in most cases we don’t need to do that but I hold no illusions:  if hungry or thirsty enough I would eat or drink that.

Afternoon – 97 out and the sun was up high.  So hot.  I just gear down and relax and see how long I can roll without breaking too much of a sweat.  45 minutes.  Afterwards TZ and I biked over the local farmers market.

Evening … JZ on the far left of this shot.

Monday 20JUN2016

AM – Got out for a walk with TZ and Jack.

I buzzed over to BrHS practice after this and got in 50 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of core, etc work.

News stuff

• Sooo much racing this past weekend:  just read Justin’s stuff. 
• “I’m a big guy; my race weight is 203 pounds.”
• The video interview of Aish.   Macy, the current Leadman course record holder, put up a faster LT Marathon (although the courses might have been different between these years and maybe even faster this year?  I really don’t know) by a couple of minutes.   It is interesting to look at the 2013 Leadman results because you see a.)  the last three cracks at the record came off guys who did the 50 bike (Macy, Africa, Waggoner) – we can guess that Aish won’t do that, and b.) Africa was ahead of Macy by about 37 minutes in the 100 run, but still was second in the Leadman standings by … 37 minutes.
• While researching that, I found this sweet picture.  Check out that lid!
  
• Dunham’s MW report and all of his splits.  Evah.
• Parr’s LTM report

PM – the hot temps we had yesterday generally vanished today as we got some reprieve via thick clouds.  I got the dogs out in the afternoon for 40ish minutes.

Weekend 18-19JUN2016

Saturday AM – easy and with a handful of kids from the team.  55 minutes.    I got home and added on another 20 minutes with TZ.

Saturday PM – down in Lakewood at a Scout event for JZ.  He had it handled so I go in another 43 minutes.  Pretty hot.

Apparently Aish is going to retire after this year, but he is going to take a shot at the Leadman record. 

Sunday – busy most of the day and so I did not get out until the late afternoon.  It was still 99 at 5PM.  I jogged easy down to Jack’s meadow and thought I would run back.  TZ and JZ pulled up and so I decided to take the easy day and not fight the heat.

A few weekend pix.  This first one was in the Denver Post.




A good week of continuing to up the ante for me with about a 10 percent increase in miles.  It probably would have been a bit more but I chickened out today with the heat.  But on whole I feel like I have slipped into some good habits.  A few weeks of this and I will be ready to get to work.  Well, maybe.  It is also the time I will head off to canoe for a couple of weeks.

Friday 17JUN2016

AM – slept hard last night, which is not surprising as it was my biggest mileage day in a while, and there was some biking and walking on top of that.  I started the run with Greg and the HS kids very slow but I was able to wake up into it over the course of 40 minutes.  Finished up with some strides and then had a pretty good weight room session.

It has been a couple of weeks of getting back into good habits and my head has started to get the itch to get into formal training and have a goal.  I found myself thinking quite a bit last night about the fact that there was a track meet just over in Boulder or that the LT Marathon is happening this weekend.  I could make a go at either but I recognize that I am just not ready and would probably set myself back with such an effort.  Part of the impatience comes from the local races firing up like Mount Evans and LT and the BRR stuff, but also because it is that time of year … OT, NCAAs, Mount Washington, folks escaping off to 100s like Big Horn or Western.  But, simply, I need to be patient with my getting back on the burro …

Fellow burro racer Hal W has a new indie book out.

KZ got home today from a several day outing backpacking in RMNP.  I must admit … I was a bit fretful about how it was going, as some of the kids she went with had not gone before.  All went well and they had a good time.

PM – a good nice hot slow jog for 42 minutes with JZ to the library and back.

Thursday 16JUN2016

AM – 80 minutes.  Got out a bit before the BrHS XC practice and added on a bit after to get the running done in one shot.  All pretty easy, but a bit longer in one shot (even if there were little breaks at starting up and finishing with Greg) than what I have been doing in a bit.  I could feel a bit of the effort from yesterday (good) and the overall increase in load I have been managing over the last week (also good).

With today’s run, I have done more miles in June than I did in all of May!

PM – pretty warm, but met up with Bob for a jog with Bob, Boog and Jack.  About 45 minutes.  Decent jogging.  Even did some work with them in the CTC for some road familiarity

Wednesday 15JUN2016

AM – over to the BrHS group.  Kids are jogging an easy 25 minutes this week, and getting in the basic drill of plyos, strides and some weight room work.  I got in 40 and actually pushed the strides up and it felt fine.  I think I can say I am officially past my Achilles issue.  Now for the basic fitness issue.

PM – pretty warm (90+) but I got out anyway for 40 minutes  In a weird way, I love running (well, for 40 minutes) in this sort of stuff.  The heat actually feels good … you are “warmed up” and can just cruise.  I played on the local trails and did a bit of a fartlek on some of the local hills, including what my kids call “Death Hill” (it kills sleds).  Nothing great compared to what I have done on them in the past, but not hugely far off and it represented actually a bit of an effort – and that is progress! 

One of the kids asked me today if I was training for anything.  My immediate answer was “nope” as I don’t have a big race on the calendar scheduled.  Of course there is the burro thing, but nothing like a Pikes or Leadville as there has been for the last decade.  And given I am just two weeks back from turning the corner on this injury, it feels a bit too soon to throw my name into any hat for an “A” race. 

But … cruising around this afternoon, I was considering that I could establish something of my own course that I’d chase times on for a bit.  I was thinking I could do something like an out and back on the Lake Link but specifically hitting all the little hills in it and just off of it hard.  It would be a nobody nothing course, but it would be a measure of sorts for me.  Not a new idea of course, but one that seems to be the right time for me.

Timmy: I found my own tool bag with hammers and started dropping them. It was time to race!   I met the guy at Hope Pass outbound at Leadville and he was incredibly helpful and attuned to the runners needs. 

Tuesday 14JUN2016

AM – 39 minutes, some of it with the BrHS team/Greg, some on my own on the track doing a pick up on the straight and a float on the curve.

PM – a bit of a frustrating session with Boog/Bob and Jack.  I thought it was going to be a stellar session as quick as Jack came up to me in the meadow, but he wanted nothing to do with any sort of running as we headed out east on the trail.  Once we turned back though he was content to run me off my feet.   55 minutes, but it was a lot of work other than running at times.

Been watching videos (or rather listening) over on this Youtube channel.

Monday 13JUN2016

First day of summer training for the BrHS team.

It looked to be about 65 kids, but it is a bit hard to tell because some are post grad seniors who drop in to keep some fitness as they prep up for their college programs.  There are also some kids who are not here yet because they are on vacation or in some other sport.  In any case, a great initial turnout. 

Being day one, it is an easy short run, followed by some strides and plyos.  For the returning veterans, this is easy and they know the program.  For the newbies, it is a learning curve on two fronts:  learning the program and learning how to manage effort.  For some, they have never run continuously for more than 10 minutes and so someone asking them to do at least 2x that is quite a challenge.

Most kids have also engaged in the weight room program.  Coach Jimmy Z takes that on.  I was yapping with Greg and I decided to jump in.  It was an ass kicker.  Squats, butterfly kicks, push ups, lunges, burpees, mountain climbers … I was cooked.  Good stuff.

My podcast rotation regularly includes ATC, some Lean and Agile and business related podcasts, and HOR and the Adam and Drew show.   In one of the more recent Adam and Drew shows Adam gets on talking about how we have become very accustomed to instant gratification and how that is not necessarily a good thing.  I think one of the appeals of a sport like XC is that it is not set up for instant success.  You have to do the work.  It is likely to scare off some folks, but for those that stick with it, they realize that THEIR efforts over TIME create dividends for them.  It ain’t something you can just buy on Amazon.  And there is a lot more value in that.

I got forty-ish minutes of easy running with Greg and the team, and I even attempted a half stride or two just to test that out.  This run was also done (like yesterday as well) without the heel lift.  The Achilles continues to progress in the right direction. 

As a side note, I pretty much don’t listen to any ultra running podcasts anymore other than ATC.  Once in a while if I am really interested in the guest I might “tune in” to something else but generally not so much.

News stuff

• Report on Todd’s very fast old guy mile.
• And another old guy’s mile.
• Nice read on the mistrust of science.

Evening – 38 minutes.  Touched the gas a bit once I got moving.  Not quick as I am out of shape, but that will come.  By touching the gas.

Brad put up a video of Jack and me on Facebook at the Epilepsy 5k with some kind words.  Another friend proposed that we ought to go run the Bay to Breakers as running with a donkey would be pretty novel there.  Maybe … but it has already been done by Curtis Imrie.

Got a cool new duffle from the Wanns.  This bad boy hold’s Jack’s saddle, halter, rope, combs, pad, fly spray, and pretty much anything else I need for a burro race other than a burro.

Weekend 10-12JUN2016

Friday -Mid day – 87 minutes but I completely wilted in the heat.  I ended up breaking several times, sitting in the shade of a tree to get back to some manageable state.  So not great but on whole, moving forward.


Friday night we headed to the mountains.

And so we camped some.




Bart was very alert to a packrat situation.  And was motivated to destroy the wood pile to get to it.  Sadly it appears packrats probably destroyed a fair amount of wiring to the cabin from the solar cell

On Saturday, we headed up the Mosquito Pass Road.  Once we got above the split on the road, the family hiked and I ran back and forth for about an hour.  11k feet is still 11k feet.

Running this road, even a little, reminds me of how freaking long it is.  I mean it is stupid long.  I was contemplating how when I got to this part of the race I’d have already been out some 3 plus hours and still have 10 miles to go. 





I made my way back to Denver for the Epilepsy 5k with Jack.  I did this race with him back in 2012.  It is a good social out going for him and it got us to practice roads, hard turns and the like.  I had the added benefit of trailering Jack and driving him down.  At one point I was thinking, “here I am in a borrowed truck (Bob’s) with a borrowed trailer (Bill’s) with a borrowed burro (Brad’s).  How did I get into this?”

Our first mile was slow, but I was being pretty careful to not let him romp over anyone.  A dude seriously came and line up right in front of us just before the race with his baby carriage and his kid in it.  Things like man hole covers and street crossings were giving Jack some start and stop fits.  The second mile was pretty much an open roll and we clicked that under seven with little issue.  Our last was a bit slow again because of the turns and distractions, but we ended up clocking just over 24 minutes.  It is about exactly what we did when we did the race in 2012. 

There were a ton of people interested in Jack after the race.  Most people say “you don’t see that every day!” or have little understanding of a burro or a donkey or a mule or a horse … we simply just don’t have that sort of thing these days, particularly in a major city. 

After the 5k, I got Jack around the lake in City Park for a few more loops, cheering folks on in the first one, getting weird looks in the second one because the park had cleared out.  I buzzed Jack back up to his meadow near home and then ran out to catch up with Bob and Dave – who were doing their own burro run from the farm.  All the running gave me a nice little training day.  Good day with Jack, some good running on my part, and a warm feeling in my heart on whole.

Second week of being back sort of over the Achilles.  Actually, I am not really over it, but I am past the crap show I was dealing with a few weeks ago.  This past week was a nice little bump of about 10% in terms of miles and minutes over last week with a mix of easy stuff, some runs a bit longer in the heat, some good runs with Jack, a little altitude, and even a touch of quicker stuff.  I am still way off top form but I am swinging back into getting a fair foundation.

Congrats to Tawnee and John for tying the knot.  PS – latest ATC is excellent, particularly focusing on MAF adjustments.