End of First Week in August

KZ visited Beethoven’s house.  Like in Germany.
 

Running – Thursday …a little over an hour on my feet.  Did 10 soccer diagonals in the middle to mix it up some.
Friday … a touch sore from the sprints yesterday, but not bad.  Around 50 minutes but then a half dozen harder strides.
Saturday – took the day off in prep for Boom Days race.

Good stuff.  Thanks Shad.

Ultimately, it is not about the race, how fast or slow we run, it is about the people and the shared experiences, and that togetherness is for me what makes running in the mountains so meaningful.  Just catching up on the typical Hardrock carnage articles.

Headed up to Fairplay before buzzing over to Leadville for the Boom Days Pack Burro Days Race.   Before heading out of town, we stopped in at the send off for Emma Coburn and Jenny Simpson before they headed to Rio.

Once in the mountains, JZ got a bit of work on the stick on Grandpa’s old Jeep.


We headed over to Leadville to stay at Chauteu Bob.  His million dollar views have been upgraded with burros in the backyard.

The ride home from the weekend.

Amazing summer weekend in the Rocky Mountains.  I will get a post up about the Boom Days race separately.

Saturday 09JUL2016

Bob, Boog, Jack and I headed up to Fairplay to get some eyes on the upper loop of the Fairplay Burro Days course.  It was a beautiful can’t ask for better sort of day.

Bunch of running, walking, climbing, descending, burro-ing and enjoying time up high.

Thursday 07JUL2016

AM – 40ish minutes with Greg and BrHS team.  Afterwards, slightly uphill strides and ABC drills.  Then hit the gym for slightly weighted squats, planks, pull ups, box jumps, other core work.    Half the fun of the weight room is watching the strength coach work the kids.  It is all comical stereotypical stuff they say, but it still is a crack up to me. 

While I remain a reluctant but always suckered in fan of T&F, I can’t help but conclude for all but the geeks of the sport (guys like me, Bob, Lucho, Greg), it is a dead game.  Most people who run these days are more likely to recognize Anton or Killian (nothing against those guys at all) than Galen or Ryan Hill.  Well, with the latest ESPN Bodies Issue they might know who Emma Coburn is, but Olympic elite track athletes don’t hold the sport cred the way they use.  Everyone knew who Jim Ryun was, Al Oerter, Jim Thorpe, Bannister … mix in that TF is a sport riddled with PED issues everywhere, corrupt agencies, Nike bullying everyone, and that major media can only show 20% of a 10k (instead spinning to the shot, swimming, and commercials) – there is really not broad audience for it.  Add on that Rio seems to be setting up to be a complete charlie foxtrot affair and people already have their fun in sport with football, baseball, basketball and even hockey … yeah, some guy who has not even enough meat on his bones to make chicken soup hurling around a track with tape on him with little blades on it that make him supposedly makes him aerodynamically faster …

Nope.

Afternoon – a couple of hours with Bob, Jack, and Boog. 

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.

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

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.

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.

Tuesday 07JUN2016

AM – 50 minutes, including about 15 minutes with TZ to start.  The mornings are beautiful now.  I do need to get back into the habit of starting the day with the run, simply because it will soon be stupid hot to run for any length mid day, it is much nicer in the AM, and it is a great way to kick start the day. 

The Achilles was a bit irked this AM so I upped the heel wedge back to the three insoles. 

Local runner Todd Straka just ran 4:20 for the mile.  He is 49 years old.  Damn son.




News stuff:

• McDonaldlization of process.
• The Berian v. Nike case is interesting.  Reduction clauses, ugh.
• Mario’s “Morning Shakeout” is a good read.
• Good read on basic tests or checks for runners.

Afternoon – got out with Bob, Boog, Jack and JZ for what might have been one of the best runs I have ever had with Jack in what was not a race.  We trailered the burros over to the washed out road off Dillon, and ran on the trails from there.  They performed excellently.

Saturday 28MAY2016 Georgetown Burro Race

Did the first burro race of the season.  A quick video recap:

A few things I did not mention in the video and a few other items to reiterate:

• Bob had a good first race with Boog.  He and Boog along with Justin and Yukon were WAY off the front to start and I thought the race was over.  They slowed up and a good number of folks caught up (including Jack and me).  If those guys could keep 1/2 that momentum though they’d be the class of all the field.
• Good on Justin and Yukon for making a great race of it.  We were in all through out the day until the town / roundabout / highway underpass slowed us but those two cranked on it until the very end to get a victory.  Really Justin and Yukon have to be considered the faves going into the rest of the races given how they ran and rallied today and the experience they have.
• Huge thanks to TZ and JZ for running the start, running the times, getting the awards assembly going.
• Thanks to Bob for porting Jack along with Boog up to the race and back today.
• Thanks to Dave C for continuing to make this farm set up we have possible.
• Thanks to Brian M for brining in close a dozen new racers.  We had some fast folks – including Shad (2:44 Boston recently), Brandon S (Nolans 14 finisher) and Anita O (winner at Pikes in the past) running today.  It was fun to see them have fun even if they were not crushing the race.
• Thanks to Tim and Steve for all the saddling they did.
• All the best to Brad (who is now home) as he recovers from his crazy near three weeks in the hospital with who knows what. 
• And thanks to Bill Lee for making this race happen.
• I was pleasantly surprised at how my grizzle held up.  I thought it was a very distinct possibility that I would not be able to finish this race outright because of a complete failure of the Achilles.  I wedged the back of the foot WAY up by cutting up several other insoles (3 of em) to make a heel lift.  It still hurt but it was manageable and I kept it together.
• My fitness is certainly a bit behind where I am used to it being and I was feeling it a bit on some of the climbs were were running.  Admittedly, I was even lagging on them a bit rather than pressing as I am just in that sort of shape.  If I can get the grizzle to hold though, I think I ought to be able to round into fitness well enough for Fairplay.  But that is a really really really big if right now.  This was my longest run in probably three weeks … and as expected, I felt it!  And that was sort of fun and good.  A little sore from a lack of training, a little rattle in the lungs from a lack of running hard at altitude.
• Doing all the saddles, getting burros up there … yeesh.  It is a lot more race day stress.  Some of that is good because it keeps you busy.  But when it is 20 plus burros … that is a bit more than I am used to.  I missed Brad.

Monday 23MAY2016

Extensive read on Semenya from Ross that I need to dig into.

Recently JT commented how this blog and his are no longer about running but broken guys who used to run and now are learning how to ride a bike.  A little sad, but somewhat true.  I ran today with Bob and Boog and Jack for six and change, with the miles as slow as 18 minutes a mile, and as fast as 7:30, with some sections even under 5.  But the Achilles was barking the whole time even though I had not run on it since Wednesday. 

While I have a fair degree of confidence that I can get through the Georgetown Pack Burro race this weekend (8 miles), there is significant doubt at this point if I could swing through 29 miles at Fairplay.  Part of that is the Achilles but increasingly because of the Achilles, as I am not running I am losing fitness.  With a solid set of connective tissue I could manage my training up based on my history, but as I have been struggling with this for six weeks now, I am not sure that is likely to happen.

All good on that because I have been focused on so many other projects, and a realization that I am just talking about running.  Slowly.  With a donkey.  And compression gear and a HR monitor.  Maybe a visor and most definitely old man pull over sunglasses.   Not pretty anyway.