Week ending 31MAY2020

Monday AM - easy 6.8 with strides around Broomstock with GW.
PM - with KZ, chatting on her training, goals, etc. Very nice. 4.6 miles.  Will pretty much always say yes to these mi

Pics of recent bee swarm in back yard.



Tuesday PM - warm - in the 80s.  8 x on Eagle Hill from the trash can to the top (so a bit longer than the last couple of weeks).  69 to start and down to 67 at the end.  Probably an 8 effort, but one of those ones where I went steady on number one knowing that by number 4 it would be work.   7.7 miles.


Wednesday AM - an easy 8.1 that was surprisingly at 7:30 pace even though my legs felt a bit heavy from yesterday.  Middle part was with GW and EC as they warmed up for their workout.


Thursday - well, the PPA cancelled.  There is still a chance that PPM will happen but it seems pretty unlikely in my opinion.  Could be a summer of trying to get 5k fit.

Vid from this week's virtual open mic night

Still working on the sound.  It is rough.  I'm gonna see if I can punch it right into the computer the next go around.

PM - 8.5 miles - strides at the end.  Oh yeah it is snake season.

Friday PM - a bit rough.  Wanted to progress over 30 minutes from 6:30 to 6:10 pace but sort of got stuck at 6:20 pace in the second half.   Still better than 2 months ago though.  Hot, I'm probably gonna need to shift to mornings soon.  10.1 miles.

New addition to the fam.  Meet Sage.

Saturday AM - 8.2 with GW round Lac Amora through the hospital.  Pretty tired. 

Sunday - contemplated the hills but the legs were pretty beat so I did 13.2 from the house.  Got moving pretty well once I woke up a bit.  Glad to get it done before 10:30 as the heat was starting to crank up.

Good week on whole.  Month ends with 290.7 miles, almost 40 hours, and almost 19k feet.  On the year I sit at 1455 miles, 60k feet and 196 plus hours.  187 runs on the year, 2 off days.  Still on 28 travel nights because of the shut down, but I am clearly enjoying some benefits from that in terms of fitness. 

Week ending 24MAY2020

Monday - long work day, as long as if I was actually on site.  7.2 miles after I pushed back from the desk.  Easy.  Ran into NE out there and we jogged most of the La Amora loop together.  Good to catch up.  Good dude.

Tuesday AM - early, again almost as if I were on a road trip.  6.2 miles with 8 x 50' on Eagle Hill.  I stopped looking at the watch after number two, and just ran from the trash can on the bottom to the line I drew about four telephone poles up.  Solid.
Tuesday PM - an easy 30 minutes with GW.  3.8 miles.  Tired.

Wednesday AM - pretty tired in the legs so just an easy hour early.  It is good that I have full days this week as it forces the run/motivation to be performed early.  I sort of like that.  7.6 miles.

Thursday PM - feeling pretty good and might have rolled a bit quick for an easy day.  7 miles, with last 2 minutes a bit uptempo and 4 strides.

Friday PM - ugh.  A workout that sort of came unraveled and in retrospect, I should have punted a day out.  Wanted to do three miles in 19, take rest and then do a mile in 6.  I came through the first mile in 6:15 (after starting at 3:05), and was a bit of a mess.  It was hot (80, which ain't really hot but I also ain't summer acclimated yet) and windy and I was feeling it.  I peeled off for 15 seconds, and considered bagging it.  I got my crap together and got back on it but I was already in the hole.  6:23, 6:22 for the next two.  I guess I could rationalize it with the wind and heat but whatever.  Walked a lap and then did the mile in 6:01 (also started dumb, 87) but I looked like I was running with a fridge on my back.  8.9 miles.

Saturday AM - pretty worked.  6.3 on the Lac Amora loop with GW.

Sunday - up the Mosquito Pass road to the split and back. 13 miles. Hoo boy, long time since I have been to runs at high altitude.  And it was snowing too.  No - it really was - but that is what things do in the Rockies in May at 11000 feet.  Fun though.



Just over 60 miles - so the lowest I have had in a while but that goes with the work schedule this week.  Glad I got in three key efforts (the altitude longish run and the two workouts0>

Week ending 18MAY2020

Monday afternoon  - cooler day, but a bit tired today.  An hour and some strides.  7.7 miles.

Tuesday AM - misty chilly ... 6.1 miles with 10 x 40' hills (Eagle Hill).
Tuesday PM - easy four along the ditch.

Wednesday mid morning.  8.5 miles easy.  Felt better as the run went on.

Thursday afternoon - 8.2 miles.  Tired.  Easy and it felt like a slog but it was actually marginally quicker than yesterday.  A few strides at the end.

Friday PM - longer work today.  4 x a mile on the track on a lap rest.  Goal was 6:10-15.  Actual was 6:05, 6:05, 6:03, 5:55 with most that 55 coming on the last lap (and sort of looking silly, breaking down doing it).  Good workout.  10.2 miles on the day.

Saturday - easy miles.  5 with JZ in the old neighborhood as we waited on an tire repair.  I got a few more post.

Sunday - 3 peaks - Bear via Fern out of Cragmoor, then over to SoBo, then over to Green and then back down Bear Canyon back to Cragmoor.  13.6 miles with about 4500 feet of gain.  So a long run and finally some mountain vert.  I had JV and Homie for escorts this AM.   The run was a bit more than I was planning but it was a beautiful enough morning and the effort was in check enough that it was manageable (although I had to slurp some water at Bear Creek).  I am certainly not in "mountain" shape but I managed ok given the length of this effort.

Showing how little I get to the big hills anymore - it is the first time I had been to Green since going there with GW and Gabby last July.  Bear?  Got to go back to 2018 for that. SoBo?  Yeah - 2015.  For me it is mostly the "time tax" that I have been less than willing to pay over the last few years.  I might need to be more willing to eat that if I want success in a hill race.

Solid week - 2 quality workouts, a climb/long run and overall good miles (67.3) and the biggest vertical run on the year yet (although it is hardly enough). Actually on a gig remotely on a different time zone next week so it might be a bit more challenged that has been the last couple of months.

Apparently the rumor is that Pikes will make a call as to what they are doing June 1.  I'm fine with whatever that call is.  I sort of feel I can take a crack at some so-called 50yo PRs (as I am still pretty freshly minted in that decade) for the mile and 5k if Pikes pulls the plug, and I sort of think I could possibly take a long shot crack at a sub 5 effort at Pikes if that plays out.  It is all good either way.  I am thinking with Leadville canceled for that same weekend, Pikes will likely do the same but that is just a guess

Week ending 10MAY2020

Monday AM - gorgeous morning.  Rained on the overnight and it is that time of the year where everything is greening up nicely.  Cool and beautiful sunrise along the Bobolink trail.  8.3 miles with strides.

Tuesday afternoon - one of those days best not to compare myself to my past self.  12 x a quarter.  The track was pretty well buttoned up so I did these on the quarter mile stretch of Main in front of the high school.  The southbound ones were a bit quicker as it might be slightly downhill that way (and slight uphill northbound).  I figured mile pace so these went (starting southbound) 84, 83, 81, 84, 81, 82, 81, 84, 79, 81, 80, 81.   Rest was equal, mostly inactive around the corner.  This one felt a bit more on the edge than other recent workouts - which means it was good in that it tagged me a bit.  I was definitely flayling a bit on the last couple.  10.2 miles total.

Got to be honest ... upper end of speed these days is just under five pace.  I might be able to nudge that a bit but it ain't like the sub 30 200s are around the corner.

Wednesday AM - legs pretty spent, expectedly so.  8.3 miles easy.
Wednesday PM - sat in the office way too much this today.  Got out at the tail of the day just to shake it off a bit.  3.2 miles along the ditch.

Thursday - afternoon, just as the winds wound up.  8.3 miles with some strides at the end.

Friday PM - 10.1 miles.  Tempo work - 4 miles averaging 6:33 on the roads.  I have run the tempos a bit quicker on the track as of late of course, but this fair for me.  Legs still felt a bit heavy but once ya get rolling, you go with it.

Saturday AM - 7.3 miles.  That does not include the two miles I went around and around trying to get Cheeto.  It was a pretty tame run but we did do the last click under six pace.

Sunday - didn't get out until the afternoon.  I didn't feel up for paying the "go-to-Boulder" time tax and I figured I could get some hills out in the 'stock without having to deal with crowds and hence the mask issues (they are now required on Boulder OSMP).  11.6 miles, with about 900 feet.  Not quite a Flagstaff but the pace made up for it anyway.

66 something miles on the week, a couple of quality workouts, etc, etc.  Solid week of running for me these days.

Official word that Burro Days is cancelled this summer.  This comes a few weeks after the announcement that Leadville also cancelled Boom Days.



There is some scuttlebutt that there will be some other race of course.  I am not sure how that will play out at this point.

Last two Rails Open Mics.

Everytime I do one of these mics, I feel a bit of mixed feelings -  a bit disappointed with my level of performance, a bit satisfied with the fact that I did it, a bit overwhelmed by the quality of the other musicians that participate, a bit motivated to dial up my game and my equipment mix more effectively, a bit thinking I'll never do it again, and a bit recommitted to get better. 

I did my first open mic just over a year ago when Charles took me to a bar in Centennial.  Shortly after that I did what I think was my first real one - a post wedding party at Rails.  I call it the first real one because the one in Centennial was like five other musicians.  I didn't know the open mic at Rails was going to be a post wedding party affair, and there were something like a 100 people.  Since then I think I have done four or five live ones there and then four of these "virtual" ones.  It has clearly been a significant factor in my music education  - a lot has changed over that year (a couple of new guitars, the number of songs I can go to, the wiring in my head on what I hear, and even a tune or two of my own) but I have a lot more to learn and do.   

Week ending 03MAY2020

Monday AM - 7.5 with strides out at Bobolink.  Started at near 9 minute pace and finished feeling "opened up" at near seven minute pace.  Beautiful morning.

Tuesday PM - 8 x "broken quarters" or 250 on/150 off/150 on 300 off.  The 250 on was supposed to be at 5:20 pace and the 150s on were supposed to be at 5:10 pace but I ended up getting ahead of that.  250s started 49 high but cut down to 46 and the 150s were at 28 and moved down to 26.  10.5 miles total.

Wednesday AM - 10 miles super easy.

Thursday AM - 5.6 with Cheeto.  Took about 40 minutes to cover that with the last mile and a half at 6:40 or better.  He hit sub 4:50 for a bit in the middle of it which was a bit of a wake up at 7:30 in the morning.

It only took 45 minutes to actually get him out though - the early morning back and forth creek crossings were perhaps as much of a wake up as the rich pace a little later.

Thursday PM - easy 3.7 miles.  A bit sore actually.

April wraps up with a hair under 280 miles, 37 and a half hours, and 12k of climbing (which about a fifth of that came in one run).  No days off.  It was a good month in terms of getting after some quality (8 sessions), but other things lapsed (long runs, vertical).  I just am not sure I can juggle all of those in there at this point.  On the year 1164.x miles, 156 and 2/3rds hours, and 41k+ of vert.  2 days off.  No travel in April for obvious reasons, but 28 travel nights on the year.

Friday - PM.  Warm (80).  5 x 800 on 400 jog.  Been a long time since I did these and was a bit concerned my mind was in the wrong place (thinking about how my legs felt like crap) coming into them but was fine once I got going.  Goal was to be right at six minute pace for these and that worked out:  2:59, 2:58, 2:59, 2:56, 2:53.  In the game of woulda coulda shoulda I almost sort of feel that had I had to do 10 of these at 2:59 at equal rest I woulda been able to manage that.  10.2 miles.

Saturday PM - cloudy, humid but a bit cooler.  8.1 miles easy.   A bit fatigued in the legs but not bad.

Sunday AM - Flagstaff.  I'll flip these over to actual trail runs soon, but I do enjoy the grind of Flagstaff at this point.  10.5 miles, 90 minutes.  Overall I climbed it a bit better than a couple weeks ago, with what felt to be about the same effort (just a consistent run, not hard to start but it then feels pretty effin' hard in that last mile up).  I really struggled with "the wall of pain" segment this go though - that 16% average grade seemed to kick me a bit harder than typical.  Even with that, I got up about 40 seconds quicker than a couple weeks ago - and my best climb on it in 5 years (where I was about a minute faster than today).  Not great, but given the

66.2 miles on the week over 8 runs (155 runs on the year now), in just under 9 hours, and 3600 vertical feet.  Happy with the two quality sessions this week as well.  And a hill.  And a donkey run.