Weekend 24-25FEB2018

Saturday – cold and windy – a very easy 11.2 miles, with the first half being with the XC boys.

Sunday – 10.1 miles.  Mid run I got word that KZ’s singing group, the ISU Women’s Choir was doing a webcast of one of their concerts there.  I listened in during the jog (and windy again!).

Last week the travel sort of set me back.  This week my lame-o excuse was work and the weather.  I got a fair number of miles (66.7) – although not great.  I got some workouts in, but also not great.  Sort of felt like a week where I was treading water versus moving forward with the training.

Friday 23FEB2018

Another cold day.  It didn’t snow until later though so we had that going on.  7.1 miles with some hill work

Thursday 22FEB2018

Afternoon – 7 miles.  Easy plus.  Felt pretty good.  Snowing and cold again.

It is Girl Scout cookie selling season and with that, I was reminded by some friends from my past about my rant about people selling cookies at their offices. 

I don’t tend to rant like that on this blog anymore.  I still hold that feeling on cookie sales – that parents selling cookies for their kid defeats a good number of the goals of the program – but ranting about it here on the blog seems unnecessary.  Maybe because it is I am not in such a corporate environment anymore and I don’t have that sort of thing in my face. 

Then again, I do travel enough, and through airports, that I see ridiculous self absorbed unware about anything but me behavior.  But ranting about that is sort of like fishing in a bucket … it has been done and it does not lead to anything positive in my head space – just being disgruntled.  So I try to rant less (although TZ might disagree).  So it is probably a combination of trying to be more positive, a bit lazy to blog about that stuff, and recognizing that I am not drumming on any great material.

Wednesday 21FEB2018

10.2 miles … on the treadmill.  I decided that rather than slog around in the snow and cold again today, I’d take advantage of access to a treadmill and get some work in.  In the run, I did 3 at 10% grade, and I finished the last 3 miles sub seven.  No biggie, but I did have that reminder that I sweat like I am in Iowa on a summer day when on a treadmill.

Treadmills … sort of like Strava for me:  a tool that can be useful but one that I went a bit too bonkers in.  When I owned a mill, I ended up doing things on it that I could not replicate outdoors and hence building some false confidence, as well as pushing potential injury.  ‘Mills ain’t the problem … my approach to them was.  Properly used (similar to Strava) they can be useful. 

Anyway, the climbing was not so bad.  Climbing on a mill is not the challenge that an outdoor trail is because I have yet to find a trail that climbs as cleanly as a mill (think rock step ups) but it still gave me a touch of some vertical work.

Tuesday 20FEB2018

Not snowing today, but cold and with the snow down, humid.  There was definitely a bite in the air.

10 easy miles.

I found myself slightly amused and annoyed on my reliance on Strava.  For decades I ran without knowing a true number of miles I ran.  I knew I ran some amount of time and I made a guess at how many miles that was.  I typically guessed it at 7:30 a mile pace and that was probably a fair guess.  There were days certainly slower than that, and there were days that quicker than that.

But then came the foot pods, and then the early GPS watches (that did altitude off of barometric pressure).  And then Garmin.  And Garmin Connect, and then Strava.  And with that I became a bit addicted to making sure I got some number of miles a day.  That is not the fault of Strava, it was a construct I made up in my head. 

I have enjoyed Strava in using it to find routes in locations, or even to create some effort workout based on someone’s FKT.  It has caused me self induced angst when I have seen a segment fall to someone’s bike ride, or a legit performance but that performance is in a geography that I won’t get to for a while.  And I have even had someone specifically look to “roll down” any and all local segments I “had.”  I’d love to say that didn’t bother me but when I saw four days of “GZ segment takedown” emails come in, it was a bit of a tweak to my ego.

I’d say Strava is a fine tool for simply tracking and occasionally motivating but it seems one in ten my runs are not accurately captured anyway (GPS error, my error, gremlins, whatever).  So I sit with mixed considerations for GPS watches, and sites like Strava.  Amused and annoyed.

Monday 19FEB2019

Afternoon – cold and snowy.  7 miles easy. 

Later afternoon – still cold and snowy.  4 miles.  Wind chill at –2.

Weekend 16-18FEB2018

Not an ideal weekend for running or training … Friday we headed out to Ames to visit KZ. 

When we got there I thought we’d be able to run at the field house but after much to do to get prepared to go there, we learned JZ – as a minor – could not run in the field house after 6 as a minor (even with us present) (but he could the next day from noon to five).  We went to dinner. 

JZ showed more discipline than me by getting on treadmill for 35 minutes at 10 at night.  I made my way to the bed instead.

We did make it back to the field house (Leid) on Saturday.  The big 300 meter oval was tied up with folks shooting hoops, so after a warm up, JZ and I went to the upper track (yes, there are two tracks on top of each other in the building).  The upper is a touch smaller (5.5 laps to the mile so 292 meters ish versus 300 meters) and not as well curved but it was very nice (given the pretty cold and icy temps outside).

There are something like 36k students at the university.  Amazingly I ran into the one from Colorado that broke Brent Vaughn’s state all comer’s record for the 3200, Tanner Norman.  It was good to chat with him for a bit. 

JZ and I got in a tempo (25 min) and I felt pretty good about managing 6:20 pace through that.  We spent a good chunk of the day walking around the university.

Sunday was back to CO.  And while I had aspirations to get a run in when I got back, it was definitely one of those cases where the trip back was significantly longer feeling.  Fried when I hit the door at 7:30, I was in bed within the hour.

A low volume training week but I got in some workouts.  Still with Pikes on the radar, 50 mile weeks ain’t going to cut it.

Catching up on the week 15FEB2018

Monday – 10.2 miles, easy.
Tuesday – hill work locally.  8 miles total on the run.  Mix of paces but definitely faster than 5k pace on everything.
Wednesday – 10.2 miles, easy
Thursday – 7 miles outdoors.  The snow began to fly and so I headed in.  The weight room at the school now has a few treadmills, so I did a mile an a half on one at 15% for hahas. 

Runs have varied in pace from under five pace (some of the hill stuff) to 9 minute pace. 

Weekend 08-11FEB2018

Thursday – 13 miles easy in the afternoon.

Friday – 7.5 with Greg in the morning, jumping on 5 minutes on, 2 minutes off over four sets.  It was cold with freezing fog, and I felt the slightly bigger day more than I cared to admit.  I got in another three and change in the afternoon before coaching the kids through a workout.  The weather had degraded enough over the course of the workout that I was seriously thinking of bagging it.  JZ told me afterwards that he was glad I hadn’t.

JZ and I then headed out to Tahosa, for our fifth year at Okpik, and third year of staffing it.  It was a good weekend playing in the snow, digging caves, instructing younger Scouts, and enjoying a sub zero night.  The drive to Ward was pretty much a white knuckle affair the whole time and took an hour forty versus the typical hour … but we made it safely.  It was worth it.

JZ is such a trooper at these events.  It is truly an ass kicker of a day with the hike with the pulks at 9k feet through the snow, piling the snow, then carving it back out … dealing with the weather … and he just loves it.  It is a real privilege to get to share it with him.

Of course, I get nothing for running on that day.  I get some sort of workout but it ain’t running.  First day off on the year.

Sunday – I always forget how trashed I am from the Okpik event when I think about what I will do Sunday afternoon.  This year was no exception.  6.6 miles just to wake up some stiff legs.

A solid week on whole with a hill workout, some threshold stuff and a fair number of miles given the day off.  Going to have to get back to being rigorous next week. 

Wednesday 07FEB2018

Mid day between calls – 6 miles.
A few hours later – 5.1 miles.
Tired. 
TZ has the flu.  Hoo boy.

Tuesday 06FEB2018

Afternoon – the last couple of days Greg and I have been talking some smack to each other in front of the team as to who could beat who in a mile.  Last night I put up a Instagram poll.  The kids really seemed to have enjoyed it.  While I got 68 percent of the vote that I would win in the poll, today’s workout would indicate otherwise.  Short version – Greg kicked my ass.

Greg and I did hill work today – 8 x 45 second segments and he just chewed me up.  I was getting out well, but about 2/3rds into the hill I was losing the drive, feeling it up in the arms, overstriding … so good efforts, but work to be done.  He was striding away from me some 10 seconds in on every repeat.  5.3 miles.

Greg and I sitting at some guy at Nike’s dining table.

It is good to se Greg getting into shape.   It is coming back really quickly, and the guy who I could regularly whip even a month ago suddenly has a higher end gear that I can’t touch on the shorter stuff.  It is occasionally frustrating, but it is great to have a motivating training partner. 

Tight day so not much running but I got some quality.

Monday 05FEB2018

AM – Greg gave me a boot in the tail that got me out first thing in the AM.  This was good because I probably would have not done that or run as quickly when I did run.  Group stuff is always better.  We are better together.  I felt sort of crappy but it was a good 8.3 miles.

PM – jogging just over 8s with the team before the weather blew in.

Weekend 02-04FEB2017

Friday AM – got the buzz from Greg and we got out early for some.  8 miles.
Slow in the afternoon – easy 4 around the track as the kids headed out.

Saturday – 6.5 with strides at the end.  Cut miles in prep for the Sunday race.

Sunday – woke up and everything was locked in fog.  Then it was snowing.  And it was icy.  Around 9:30 the town put out the word that they had cancelled the race due to hazardous conditions.  Bob, Shad and I agreed to meet over at the park and get some work in anyway … it would not be great but given that I had scheduled a race for the day I needed to get some quality in. 

It was slick (Shad took a good digger, and I almost slipped into an on coming car) but I got around the park in the cold in 20-21 for a 5k.  Not ideal, but better than slogging through ten miles easy.  We tacked on another half dozen at the end to get in a 10 plus.

On whole – not a great week of training with the travel and the weather botched race.

The weekend was fun though … Friday night we got over to CU to watch the miles, where Buff athlete Perrin took the mile in 4:03 just ahead of Saarel.  Dani Jones put up a powerful 4:36.1 – the fastest time in Colorado by a woman ever.  On Sunday I watched 50 year old Todd Straka almost get one of our assistant coaches – Ryan Parker in a heat of the 800.  Todd ran 2:06.  That is ridiculous for 50.  It was also really cool to see former Broomfield Eagle Ethan Gonzales post a 8:16 3k.  I love me a track meet. 

Thursday 01FEB2018

Tired.  I got in around 1, had to be back at it on for work at 7.  Sleep was not great but adequate.  A full day, then 7 miles in the afternoon with some fartlek.  I have not had any substantial quality this week with the travel and the long days – and with a race this weekend, I am not going to press it now/before that.