Monday 30DEC2024

Jimmy Carter was the first President I knew as a young kid.  I was six/seven in 1976. I recall the school staff wheeling a TV into the classroom to watch him get inaugurated.  And, while I didn't understand it, I recall hearing the swirl of Nixon and Watergate in Ford's loss.  It was one of those moments in your young life where you start to get visibility and some understanding of your country and government.  It came on the tail of the 1976 Fourth of July.  That was a big deal too as it was the 200th birthday of the country.  

I also remember, going through those last few formative years before becoming a teen, the frustration the country felt with Iranian Hostage Crisis under Carter.  It was a weight on the country every day.  I recall seeing a full center fold spread in the New York Daily News of all the hostages.  I remember the failed rescue attempt.  Of course, the lens of my experience was through my home, my parents, and they were definitely not Carter fans.  Regan was someone who they saw as saving the country.  

Even if Carter had not ever been President, the life he lived in the last four plus decades is one worth admiring.  He could have taken to staying the public spotlight, but he moved back to a two bedroom one bath home with his wife (who he shared marriage with for 77 years).  It is said the Secret Service staff cars associated with his protection were valued more than that house.  He remained committed to the community, building homes for Habitat, teaching Sunday School, fighting disease.  He won a Nobel Peace Prize.  

He was a man from another time, certainly not representative of the politicians of today.  His passing at this time comes at a painfully obvious time of contrast.  

Here is a picture of him with a guitar that was built from a tree he planted earlier in his life.  

2 mile walk in the AM.  Winds were already rolling.  

I did get a bit worried about the winds last night.  I recalled the circumstances from exactly 3 years ago and was wondering if we'd be dealing with something similar.   

Obviously it was not as bad.  The winds actually died down to just a typical breezy December day (after some AM muscle flexing of 60mph gusts locally).

I ended up on the stat bike internally.  My legs get something out of this but I can't really elevate my HR up to a typical 140 I get out of a run.  I sit around 80-100.  And it does make my butt hurt.  I am getting something out of this but I don't think it is much.  I wonder if the stat bike is better in some ways than the regular bike in that there is no coasting indoors.  

Anyway, I guess I could push the pedals harder.  Or crank up the resistance.  The machine said I did 17 miles in 62 minutes.  

Last week was my play into push ups, doing 100 a day for the seven days.  Seeing the need to get some discipline with some other daily workout other than running, I have decided to go with at least a half an hour a day of something.  Yeah, undescriptive, but frankly - doing anything is good enough for me.  I am so functionally weak, it is all work.  I will try to keep some focus on working the strength of the legs because of the knee issue, but it will be all the way around.  

Today I torched myself with the simplicity of a 15lb kettlebell.  Curls, extensions, squats, shoulder work, etc.  And some crunches, legs raises, etc.   

    

Sunday 29DEC2024

15.2 mile ride in the afternoon.  Seems unlikely that I will get out tomorrow with the winds predicted to be super nuts.  

2 mile walk in the AM.  

100 push up.  That is a week of that.  I can see the challenge in making this a habit.  I need to get into a better defined routine if I am going to do this workout thing.

Another 2 mile walk in the afternoon.

Saturday 28DEC2024

I have been listening to Stephen Wilson Jr most of this year, enjoying tunes like Year to Be Young 1994 and Grief Is Only Love.  With his recent interview at the Print Shop, I am fairly convinced this will be a guy that takes off like Billy Strings did - meaning, see him now because it is gonna be nuts in a few years.  

A couple of shorter walks in the earlier part of the day (1.8, 1.5) and then a 17 mile ride in the afternoon.  Downwind and out towards 25 was clipping along well, hitting over 20mph in some sections.  Paid for it on the uphill and wind back with that being 7 or 8 mph and work.  All good.  

100 push ups (35, 35, 30).  Had to do the last set before bed because I had forgot otherwise.  

Friday 27DEC2024

Fourth day off of running.  How many to go? 

4.1 miles of walking in the AM with TZ and the dog.  These are good.  The walk is a backdrop to good conversations.  

I can feel the crap still in the knee.  Not that I am expecting it to be magically better in four days, especially since I haven't done anything to address that.  It is just a note that I can feel its problems, coming down stairs, when I turn weird, or sometimes when I stand up.

The time off from running is easy physically.  It is more the mental challenge of not having that time to do that and figuring out what I want to do alternatively.  This is a good challenge - recognizing how habitual I have been with good and bad behaviors (running, alcohol, not reading items outside of work, etc.).  But I do need to establish some other routine ... otherwise I will do nothing and that seems wasteful.  

Broke away from the desk twice mid day for two ten minute sessions.  Sigh - I recognize that sounds so light.  It is.  But it is where I am at.   Got in a handful of kettlebell exercises, including upper body and squats, and the experiment of 100 pushups lives on (30, 30, 25, 25).

Separately, started watching Breaking Bad about a half decade after everyone else, started reading Red Rising on request of JZ, and have been trying to figure out the differences between diminished, half diminished, minor flat 5 and minor 7 flat 5 chords.  

Thursday 26DEC2024

Biking doesn't seem to aggravate the knee so I guess that is good news.  I can occasionally feel it twinge with walks, especially on the downhills.  Got in a longer walk this AM (4.5 miles).   Rode in the afternoon, swing a loop down to the 36 trail, over to Coal Creek, then Rock Creek - 17.4 miles.  Was pretty chilly by the end. 

I'm riding around on an old Trek.  Old as in older than my now adult children.  Functional but not state of the art.  It works and that is good enough for now.

100 push up (4x25 post the ride as I defrosted).

Wednesday 25DEC2024

Well, sticking with the not running plan but admittedly it is not enjoyable.  Anyway, got in a couple miles of dog walking in the AM, did 100 push ups (5 sets of 20), 100 body squats (33, 34, 35) and an hour bike ride on the stat bike (as it was raining out).  The watch told me that riding the bike for an hour killed 250 calories, so I guess it is sort of equivalent to a walk if I am not pushing it.  

Tuesday 24DEC2024

I have mentioned the concept of taking an extended break on running to a few folks.  Their reactions typically include:

a.)  "Wow.  What will you do instead?"
b.)  "That seems like a really good idea."  

I took today off from running.  Not sure if is the start of an extended break or not.  100 push ups (30, 30, 20, 20), 100 body squats (50, 50), 16.2 miles on the bike and 3.2 mile dog walk.  

Monday 23DEC2024

My recent experiment with dropping alcohol for a bit got me thinking about running several other similar sort of trials.  Rather than think, "hey, I am going to do this thing forever" it was "what if I tried this for a week?  Or maybe a month?"

Like what if I did some set number of body squats every day for a week?  Or wall sits for some time every day for a month?  And then the thought extended to other possible experiments outside of just physical exercise.  What if I spent 15 minutes every morning for a quarter working on writing songs?  Or what if I gave up social media for a month? 

Would I see a change?  I can't say that I have seen some sort of profound physical change in dropping beer:  I still have oddball sleep, I haven't dropped 10 pounds, and I sometimes still feel lethargic.  Mentally, however, I do take some satisfaction in that I have been able to manage a small amount of discipline in making this choice.  That certainly means something.  So I wonder if I will enjoy that with other experiments.  And maybe I will also be able to see some other benefits.  

I quickly penned out thirty possible ones the other day - everything from physical disciplines to mental ones to "art" projects to, well, frankly things I have thought I could do but for whatever reason I have put off.  I'll start this week with 100 push ups a day (not in one shot, likely sets of 20-50).  It is an easy start.  I should be able to push away from the desk at some point, not look at the phone, drop and do them.  No harder than saying no to a gin and tonic, right?  

The bigger objective here is to make little changes over time to make larger improvements.  Some of these experiments will work.  Some will fail.  I might falter.  I might hate it.  I should learn a thing or two in any case.  

7 miles in the afternoon, slow (9:15) with a lot of breaks.  100 push ups (20, 20, 25, 35) over the day.

Sunday 22DEC2024

Finished the week with a 7.3 mile run, and so 45.6 on the week.  Missed Monday this past week.

On the year I am just a handful of miles under 2300.  I can't seem to immediately find my post of where I added up miles on the lifetime so I will put it around that 90k mark from a murky memory.  Most of the miles came in the front half of the year before the knee went wonky.  

I expect miles to be significantly less than 2k in 2025.  I am actually contemplating a true break - multiple months off of running with focus on other physical activity.  Some of this comes from realizing how much I have over indexed on this sport over 40 years, to the point of ignoring other functional movement, some of it from recognizing that I don't have any competition planned, some of it inspired by guys like Shad and Andy doing other things.  

Saturday 21DEC2024

Solstice day.  Got out with GW in the AM and got 7.1 miles, 8:45 pace.

There have been a handful of reasons why my general fitness has declined in the last few years.  One part of that story is the pulmonary blood clots I had a few years back.  I "feel" that the scarring in the lungs that came as a part of that still impacts me today, and overall oxygen uptake.  I'll still often wake with a cough / hack for the first part of the day.  

Friday 20DEC2024

Last night was more fun at Rails at their monthly open mic.

I have probably played 100 open mics or shows by now. I started in May of 2019, so I am at 5 and half plus years and so thinking 20 a year is not a far stretch.  

But I am still learning.

7.9 miles in the afternoon.  Ridiculously warm for December, 65F+.  Some of it was with LF.

Thursday 19DEC2024

30 days.  

I woke up on a Wednesday morning in Redmond last month.  I went for an "in the dark" jog, enjoyed listening to some new music (it was Alter Bridge and I found the song "Blackbird" to be excellent). 




But I felt like shit.  

The night before I had gone down to the hotel restaurant, had some brussel sprouts and a couple of beers.  A typical night.  But on this jog, I determined waking up like this meant I needed a bit of a break from the alcohol.  

Today is 30 days on that.  Not a big deal for most, many - but a significant shift for me.  "Seeing" my brain call for a beer or something else at an open mic, a holiday dinner, a get-together ... it is a seeing that is a habit.  When does a habit become an addiction?  I am sure there is some clinical definition of that, but in my day-to-day, that is a blurry line.  With this there is a recognition that "none is easier than one."  

I can't say I wake up feeling great.  Nor am I going to say that I won't ever drink alcohol again.  But the pause has me considering that set of choices, self-control, and to some extent, other similar "experiments."  More on that to come.  

Fly on blackbird. 

7.2 miles.  9 min/mil pace on the east Lake Link side through Commons

Wednesday 18DEC2024

Spinning slowly around 40 miles a week.  Knee slowly degrading again as the cortisone shot wears off.  Playing music as I can.  

As has become a bit natural for me with the wind down of the year, the longer nights, I get a bit more contemplative about what to accomplish in the next round of the sun.  I've been thinking about rebooting this blog to cover that.  

02DEC2024 Check in

Short of it ... the cortisone shot to the knee was starting to wear off.  And then the gracilis lit up again.  I was plugging away with 50 mile weeks but then spun down to 40 and now I am taking time off again.  The hammy is just that bad.  

It wasn't like I was getting into shape or something and this is some new unravel.  It is this on-going unraveling that I have been working on for the last five years.  Lungs, knees, hammies.  It is where I am at.  

I did have a trip to Redmond.  It was nice. 

I am on a break from alcohol I guess.  That is about two weeks in.  Frankly, like many, it is easier to have none than to keep it to one.  Been plenty of opps to enjoy a beer and I have wanted to, but I am playing the game for the minute to see if I can maintain a stance here for a bit.

The Pinebox Sleepers project had a gig at Rails on Saturday.  It was a blast.  

Sitting around near 2200 miles on the year.  

Week ending 10NOV2024

 Coming up November 30

A good amount of snow this week, so my running felt a bit diminished because of that.

Monday - 6.3 with GW in the AM
Tuesday 7.2 solo at lunch.  Lac Amora loop.
Wednesday - with the snow coming in - 4 miles
Thursday  - still snowing!  10 miles with about half of that with GW
Friday - and yes, still snowing.  Split it up with a 3 and a 5 later.
Saturday - out towards Interlocken on an out and back.  30 out, 28:30 back.  7 miles.
Sunday - slow jog with JZ around Cherry Creek.  10.5.

Ended up with 53 on the week.  

Week ending 03NOV2024

Monday - early before off to the airport.  4 miles
Tuesday AM - some with LF along the Bay Trail.  10 miles.  

Wednesday - 5.1 miles.  Oof.  Feelin' the evening before a bit but the run helped.
Thursday - back in CO, later in the afternoon, 6.1 miles on the Lac Amora, Sterns Lake Loop.  Slow.  Last mile with KZ

Friday - 7.1 miles.  Much of it with GW.  

Saturday - 10.1 miles with CB, LF, ED on the Coal Creek Trail, easy.

Sunday - 11.1 miles with GF, her sister TF and GW.  TF was doing some half marathon pace work on miles with 90" recovery, so that was a good bump for me.  

53.4 on the week - not bad for a travel week, with 3 of the runs at 10 or more.  Strava has me at 1993.5 on the year.  

It feels really good to be running a bit more regularly again.  I am not sure if I am just running on borrowed time on a cortisone injected knee but I guess I will go with it for as long as I can.

I didn't go to the State Meet yesterday.  I haven't coached this year due to other commitments.  It has been a fine shift.  I really enjoyed the 8 years that I did it, but also happy to move on.  

Week ending 27OCT2024

Happy with the running week.  First time in a bit where I was well placed in that happy column with running.  That is not saying I didn't take some pleasure in running over the last six months.  The knee "grind" has often been enough of an issue that was frequently less than stellar.

Caught Lukas Nelson on the Last Waltz tour on Thursday night.

Monday - AM, 5.1 miles.  PM - 3miles on the ditch
Tuesday - super early AM, 7.5 miles including 5x4 min on the track where I managed sub 7 pace. 
Wednesday - long day at the Denver office, so this didn't come until late and dark.  5 miles
Thursday - AM 4 miles, PM - 5.1 miles
Friday - 7.1 miles in the later afternoon
Saturday - 15.1 miles with LF as he did 30.  First time doing something that long in ... gosh, this year?  Handled it well.  It was a slow romp.  Didn't bring any water or food so I started to feel that as we wrapped up, but I did fine.  
Sunday - 7.1 miles.  A bit tired from the day before but an enjoyable jog.

Ended up north of 58 miles.  That is the most since April/AZ.  Was pleasantly surprised at how I felt with the 15 (especially since I had singed up for 10).  Happy that I got that, the workout and a solid week of other miles in the week.  

Snap crackle pop but we haven't stopped

I got a steroid shot in the knee on October 8.  Two weeks later and it still feels pretty good.  I am running pretty close to pain free.  It still clicks and pops weird occasionally.  I have been wearing a brace (not while running but generally) and that seems to help, and I am doing some hamstring strengthening.  

My miles were down last week because I traveled.  China.  First time.  That is a series of posts unto itself.  

Rolled through 1900 sometime this week.  On Tuesday I even managed to do 5 x 4 minutes at under seven minute pace.  That is not great but it pretty decent for as horrible as I have been

Okay, let's start some catch up - Xrays from October 8

Running was continuing to be difficult.  The knee hurt.  

I finally got my head out of my tail and decided to take advantage of my health via my health care benefits and go to a doctor.  In this case, I went to the doctor that TZ used for her knee surgery a few years back.  

The right knee (looking up from the bottom) and the one that is acting well.

The right and the one that has been singing.  Also from the bottom.

Doesn't take a med degree to see that is a problem.

Here is the both of them from the front.

And from the side.

I walked out with a steroidal shot for now.  More to come on what this all means in future posts (yeah, I am getting back on the blog wagon I think ... I have a good amount of content worth posting from recent trips, this knee thing, etc).

Pikes can do better

Some music on Thursday night ...

Pikes.  Sigh. Look I get it.  Weather in Colorado is unpredictable, and the mountains don't care.  I understand that managing all the folks and logistics for an event like Pikes is an incredible operation on a good weather day.  Doing it on a day where there is rain, snow, etc magnifies that challenge by an order of magnitude.  It makes sense in some cases to say, "ok folks, we can't run to the summit and back today, because the risks associated with someone dying have increased with these conditions."  

I also think it is natural to be disappointed, even a little pissed, at that as an outcome.  Each of us can deal with how to reconcile that ("it is about the journey, not the destination" or seeing how much your fitness has progressed or maybe going and doing the mountain on your own some other time, etc).  

But I'll put this out there:  I think the race could do better than "just" a run up and down to Barr Camp.  I can't look at the result of the Pikes Peak "Marathon" and say it is "America's Greatest Challenge" when the race time on the Marathon day was over 20 minutes faster than the Ascent time.  

How about the Barr Camp ascent double?  I mean that sounds like an ass kicker to go up to Barr Camp and back TWICE.  But you'd get your marathon, you'd get 7000 feet of gain, and you'd have a story of how effin' damn hard that is (dare I say harder) compared to the "regular" PPM.  Nobody goes above treeline, easier to coordinate?

I know, I know ... it ain't that easy.  But it is better than the exaggerated BTMR that went down yesterday.  I don't expect everyone to agree with me on this and I am sure I am missing some obvious problem with the idea, but what people got dealt yesterday is a definitely a short stick.

52 miles last week.  Got some time up in the hills.

Got to see an old friend at Broomfield Days.

Monday 16SEP2024

AM - 8 miles, some with LF.  Started at 6.  It is never great to get up this early, but it is always excellent to have this as the way to kickoff the day.

Took some pix with the Starseer last night.  

I am not a Ingebrigtsen fan, but frankly, it is easy to be critical of him.  He talks a big game and thenfails to execute in the races that are perceived to count the most.  But I'll give him props for jumping in a half marathon 36 hours post a 3:30 1500.  He came through 10k in 27 and change before going to a walk.  He apparently walked several times and he still posted a 63.  Dayum.

Week ending 15SEP2024

1 week from Pikes.  Bummed I won't toe the line this year.  But I know I can't do it this year with my current physical condition.  

43 plus miles this week.  All sixes and a seven and change with GW on Sunday.  Some of the runs were stupid hot.  I didn't set myself up well on those.  I should have got out early in the cool of the day, but I enjoyed sleeping.  So, I paid the PM heat tax.

The week included a trip for work to Seattle.  I wandered around a bit downtown, and found the gum wall.  It is exactly what you think.

1668 on the year.  

Week ending 08SEP2024

First time I had a week over 50 since mid April, back when I was in AZ.  The week lined up for it with some nice jogging in Seattle for a couple days.

Knee is still yelling some of course.  I need to get around to seeing that seen too.  

1625 on the year.   

Double nickels

Turned 55 this week.  

Not a big deal for me really, but when I look at that number it grabs the attention some.  I feel it is one of those ages where if I were to suddenly drop dead for natural causes, people wouldn't be surprised - myself included.  But when you look at yourself in the mirror you don't think that could be you.  It's always someone else, until it ain't.  

I do think a consideration of your own mortality, at least a little bit, with some degree of frequency, is a good thing.  I think, when that thinking is managed in a healthy way, can get you to be a bit more focused on this moment.  And hopefully with that seeing you can realize what is important.  

Been running some.  Knee is still a POS, but manageable.  Runs are still 8 to 10 minute pace, but last week I did do some stuff on the local track for 200-400 meter repeats that were around six minute pace.  It didn't aggravate the knee anymore but lack of work at that pace was quickly realized.   Miles have been adding up to about 40 miles a week, even with a little bit of business travel in there.

No race aspirations.  I did 10 on Saturday and it was fine, but I knew that I wasn't ready to roll or to do a mountain marathon.  I do think I can get back to that though.  I am not sure if that is naive thinking or just habit (which might be the same).  

Looks like, since I am at nearly 1600 miles on the year currently, I should hit 2k this year.  I guess that is a goal of sorts now.  

New music crew is The Pinebox Sleepers.  And despite the name, we are not a bluegrass band.  We have played a few "on the short" gigs, and there is a bunch of possibility there.  I fell into a gig with a handful of musicians who are super talented and I am just trying to keep up.  

The running scene has been ridiculous, right?  I mean, a US guy runs 1:41 for the 800 and doesn't get a medal and it's considered a bit of a bummer by some because of the fact that men medaled in all the other track distance events?  You could pretty much take the last handful Olympic highlights for the US and put them into one rollup film in Paris.  And then, Matt Carpenter's record at Leadville falls to David Roache (I am impressed but not surprised at the respect that David pays to Matt in episode 220 fwiw).  Now "old schooler" Anton kills another FKT.  

Breathin'

Buzzin' along at 40 miles a week, 8-10 minute pace, maybe an occasional dip below 8, but nothing fast.  No speed work to speak of.   No race expectations, just runnin' for some basic fitness and mental release.  Knee is still a POS but it has some bad days and some more bad days.  I enjoy getting out because I tend to see interesting things when I do.  

I have noticed that I sweat a lot on runs these days.  Maybe I see it more because I wear a shirt more now than I did in the past.  You can't hide a completely sweat soaked shirt, but I guess it was easier to ignore that when I went suns out / guns out.  

So sun spots appear to move.

Nothing really new to report other than ... well, it is interesting to notice how unimportant things are when you choose not to focus on them.  The easiest example I can think of this is when you go on a camping trip where you are really disconnected.  Suddenly all the noise of life changes and you don't care ... I mean, you don't give a rip ... about the topics that are thrust into your face and that you then fret about.  You tend to notice then when you come back.  "huh, it has been 2 weeks since I thought about that ... " 

I have made some shifts on the items that I focus on, and it is interesting to see how the "old" items are not items all.  Not epiphany there in as much a Re-realization.  Again.

Played the 8th Birthday show at Rails End with the Pinebox Sleepers.

Anyway ... enjoy what you see around you.