Week ending 28JUN2020

Monday AM - week 2 of practice has started ... I did 30 minutes with GW prior and then another 30 as the kids rolled out.  Easy easy.  Felt pretty good though.  Achilles is a bit of a whiner but I get over it.

Tuesday AM - 1/2 an hour with GW and SB.  She had some fartlek in there but I floated back on the ups.  Easy day for me.  Another half an hour with the team as they started and then some strides.  8 miles.

Wednesday AM - 10 by 1 minute on Eagle Hill.  Was certainly in the box for the last 3.  Ran over to the school afterwards to get practice rolling.  10.3 miles.

Thursday AM - easy 8 with SB, GW.

Friday AM - easy 5 with SB, GW for part of it.  Strides.

Saturday AM - warm up then four miles at 6:30, 6:27, 6:26, 6:27.  Never felt great - sort of one of those runs that felt like 15-20 seconds faster than it actually was.  But got it done.  Finished with four 200s, 38-40.  Longish warm down as a part of practice.  11.6 miles.

Sunday afternoon - paddled up at Horsetooth with TZ in the AM.  Late in the afternoon I made it over to Green and went up the front.  Most of it was a hike.  Came back down via Greenman, cut over to Flagstaff and then came back via Crown Rock.  7.3 miles.  Saw a flock of wild turkeys.  So wonderfully quiet up in the OSMP when you go at the right time. 

A slightly shorter week on whole but fair quality.

Saturday 04JUL2015

AM – 16.3 miles.  Over Flagstaff, Green (up Ranger, Greenman), Bear and SoBo, and then back on the Mesa.  I was dragging from step 1 and it was not pretty.  But I managed.  It was never really bad, just not great.  Good for another 5k of climbing. 

I saw Bigfoot.

I caught the latest ATC … I get mentioned about 20 minutes in.  Here’s a response of sorts.

Downhill mile results in Superior.  Handful of guys go under 4.  There are those folks wo do that and then go do the 4k a bit later in Boulder.

Mountain Marathon – women’s results, and men’s results.  Not particularly surprised by KJ and Forsburg.  I take away being most impressed with Ostrander.   Not sure how long it is going to be up, but there is a site with video coverage that is excellent (even after the race).  Definitely gives you the feel of how wonderfully local this race is.

Looks like the men won the silver at the long distance championships in Zermatt, and the women took silver.  Men were led by Wacker with a 2nd place, and women were led by Kremer (4th).

A broken leg does not stop Grohl on his “Dave of Thrones”

Saturday 040613

Got together with The Major, Aaron, and Matt H for a jaunt over Flag and Green this AM.  Great to see these guys, particularly so as Jason is just on a pass through trip back from parts all over the world, Aaron is back running again after some pretty debilitating stuff, and Matt H and I have discussed running together forever but never seem to pull it off.

Good chatter in the group, and the guys were easy on the old man this AM.  11.6 miles.

Prince is still awesome.

I am digging this project.

Locally, the Wadsworth connector over 36 is being redone.  Some time lapse over there.

Friday 040513

This was left on my desk by a coworker today
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Believe it or not, I don’t subscribe to any magazines.  I think we have a Nat Geo subscription as a family, but I read enough on the ‘net and get enough via podcasts that I don’t get any “periodicals” in the mail.  This co-worker was kind enough to share this mag with me as I get a brief mention by Bernie in the closing article (so KJ gets a big shot on the cover and I get a small footnote on the last page … seems about right).

But while being mentioned by the legend Bernie was flattering, I found the article on the "8 Legends of the Trail” to be of interest since 3 of the 8 have very strong ties to Pikes (and fwiw, KJ was another legend listed and he is the current champ).  Namely, Carpenter, Bjorklund and Smead.

yeah, I am tickled a bit that the 8 selected for this article included three that have strong ties to the hill.  Admittedly last night as I headed down the Springs, seeing the peak’s profile got me a little fired up.

At last night’s show they were playing Trace Bundy as background music before things settled in.  It just comes across as background music but this guy is pretty amazing.  What he does with looping effects over an acoustic is pretty cool.  He ends up sounding like 4 musicians.  I think I have posted this before but it is worth another listen.

Number 26.  Felt lethargic today, probably a combo of the workout yesterday and the late night.  As I knew I was gonna go slow anyway, I went up the front.  Came back down the back but then decided to go explore over the Flagstaff area.  10 miles.  Most of the trail is clear of snow.

Saturday 102712

Headed out for a run this AM and had the great luck and fortune to bump into Buzz, Bill, Jeff V, Tony K, Burch, Mike H, Brandon F, Tim L, Rob T, Basit, Dave M, Justin M, Homie, Sandrock, Wes T, Kendrick C.  Crazy how that is in here… you can’t head out for a run and throw a rock without hitting someone in the face.  Just another day in this wonderful place we live.


               

I clearly and quickly knew that I had not visited the hills as of late.  I could feel the small of my back give off its tell tale “bark” when I have been away from them (the snow seems to magnify this, along with yesterday’s workout).  No bother at this point.  Flagstaff and Green for the front half and then coming down via Bear Canyon to round it out to 11.5 miles.

All that however was really the footnote to this run.  It was great to share a few strides with so many of the wonderful people in this community.  Common topic that comes up is how folks’ heads are churning on their ‘13 plans.  Interesting to hear the different takes. There are so many wonderful stories.  Yeah, cheesy as Swiss, but it lifts me up.  It might be that I don’t do a lot of it and so it is a novel thing, but it leaves me buzzing for hours afterwards.  I probably am buzzing too much during these sort of runs too, feeling like a kid at Christmas, and talking too dang much.

Couple of shots from a Halloween gig we went to last night.  What is scary is that I actually use to sort of look like this when I had hair.  No, seriously …

Off to Seattle tonight.  Listened to the Endurance Planet show, Ask The Coaches.  This show by Lucho and Tawnee, along with TalkUltra are pretty much the only two fitness, endurance, ultra, training podcasts that I listen to anymore (although occasionally I will queue up Marathon Talk. .  It has been fun to hear how this show has matured, being a bit of ultra, a bit of marathon, a bit of tri, a bit of all the stuff “we” talk about.  I dig it.   When not listening to this “genre” I go with Carolla’s stuff for laughs.  Most the time though, it is purely music – everything from Winston to Foo Fighters to stuff KZ turns me onto.  Go to Pandora when stuck.
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Solid post by Ian S regarding flat 100s.  Without a doubt, I am still thinking about the 100, but I am not focusing on it in 13 (given my Pikes goals).  And without a doubt, I am still amazed at what Bob did at the Boulder 100 in his last lap.  Reading Ian’s post leaves me nodding my head, because it is clearly not how you run the first half but how you can run that damn second half – and really how much from 70 miles to the finish.  As I was crushed to a point of “running” a 17 minute mile in my last couple of laps, I clearly have a lot of possible improvement …
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Started getting back to a little bit of core work.  Mostly push ups, planks and reverse crunches.  I have not done them in a bit so it is leaving me a bit sore.  I imagine that as the weather starts to degrade a bit, I will look to get into the gym a bit more.  Maybe some rope work.  I tend to get a bit nutty with bench press and that sort of stuff when I go to the gym.  It is a left over from the AF days I guess.  I can’t say that I will totally eschew that stuff, but I think I will try to focus a bit more on some core and leg work (dead lifts, squats).  Eh, easily said.   
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While I will be focused on Pikes in 2013, I am pondering the burro thing again.  And I’d like to finally coordinate a Fairplay to Leadville run (and back) with Fuller.  And I am thinking of hosting up a FA type event … my house to Bear and back … whatever route you want with a few checkpoints along the way.  Not the cup of tea for everyone with the flat before the climb, but a good 35 miler (ish).  Pancakes galore at the finish.  Maybe in March. 
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I saw a commercial today while on the plane for testosterone applied via a stick to the arm pit.  Of course there was the list of all the possible side effects at the end of the commercial.   When driving into work, I hear commercials on the sports radio all the time about “low T” this and that.  "Are you a middle aged man who is tired of being tired?”   This is not new of course, but it seems that this stuff is nearly as readily available as coffee (when is Starbucks gonna provide the Low T Latte?).   The question that I am trying to get out of my head (kind of like a bad song that gets stuck in there) is this:  with this stuff apparently being so available, is it really okay if someone just gets a  therapeutic use exemption (TUE)?   Apparently I don’t have low T (but I have not been tested), but if I suddenly did and I got some prescription to bring my levels to some “normal” range, would it be doping if I competed with an appropriate TUE?   According to what I understand from USADA, the answer is no – that would not be doping.  

This sort of sounds like an argument that I hear pro’s who have been caught making:  “I did not use it to enhance my performance, but just to recover.”  Uh, enhancing your recovery is enhancing your performance.   The guy taking testosterone to get it to some level within his TUE is doing it “to just be normal” – but he is also enhancing my performance.   Then again, I enhance my performance too – I drink coffee and I know it will help my performance so it is obviously a performance enhancer … just happens to be legal when I have my two cups in the AM

This leaves me a bit stuck with the conundrum of how everything is a drug of some sort (uuh, yeah, I), and how we legislate and regulate what is normal.  And that is sort of arbitrary.

Monday 032612 Flagstaff, Green and a brew started.

Good thing I got the run in down south yesterday.  Not good down there today.

Met up with Dr. NMP for some easy running.  Well sort of easy running.  Easy in that we would keep the effort easy.  Not so easy as it had a good amount of vert (for me).  I was lucky to catch Nick after a weekend where he did like 50 miles with over 10k.   Legs were a bit tired, but the biggest issue is that my feet are a tired, and my ankles are irked some.  But all good. 

Saw Homie on the Ranger trail and chatted with him some.

Chautuaqua, Flagstaff, Rangeview, Ranger, Green, Bear Canyon (ish), Mesa.  11 miles

Great to catch up with Nick.  No one should be surprised at anything this guy accomplishes in the MUT space.

Got a batch of brew cooked up last night.  Fermentation started this AM.

Evening, dog jog. 4 miles.

Thursday 072910

Mid day – hot to start but cooled as the clouds rolled in.  15 miles, with a jaunt over Flagstaff to start, and then finished with MK up and back Boulder Creek Canyon. 

Saturday Skyline Traverse

Met up with umm … met up with some guys for an evening mountain run – more specifically, the so called Skyline Traverse.  I’d tell you who they are, but just in case the race-Gestapo are watching, I won’t.  Those who were scared off by the early rain – your loss.  Those who came and ran, well done, well sung.  Doing the traverse in the dark is quite a treat. Got to meet some new folks – always a treat - and catch up with some old dawgs as well.

In any case, as the sun was setting, we headed south out towards the Mesa, then up South Boulder.  After a bit of time on the summit (where we checked on WS100 results), it was dim enough that we had to fire up the torches (really, we did not carry torches, but I think UK folks call headlamps and flashlights “torches” and I am so damn impressed with Nick Clark today, I am going to try to use British slang). 

Over to Bear, where we sat and watched the sky turn from purple to black.  Beautiful.  Then in total darkness, the run over to Green.  After a short stint on Green, we headed down over to Flag.  I rolled my right ankle/foot again before the four way junction.  This makes downhill running very careful and slow.  Any sort of odd side to side lateral motion on it in the right combination sets me up for wincing, gimping, and walking funny for about 2 minutes.  Up, because the foot plant is more passive, is not nearly as bad. 

Then Flag.  I gimped down off of this, and while the rest of my parts were feeling great, i was glad to drop Sanitas from the agenda because of the bad wheel.  In past years, this run itself would leave me worked, but I felt fine (other than the foot).

I think my GPS data is a little off because mine came up short (I think I turned it off for some segment).  Based on what I am reading from the other mountain secret service agents it was about 14.25 miles, with about 4500 feet of climbing.  A bit more than a half mile to jog to the headquarters / start – so I will take this as 15.



Up the Bluestem trail
 
A very green basin with runners in it.
 
 
Getting ready to check WS100 results – really!
Long’s Peak in the distance
A portrait of the whole crew on the top of Green

Friday 061110

MK (prior multiple time 2:20:xx marathoner, now a 50yo who runs for fun, and just to see where he was at did a 2:18 altitude 800 meter run recently) dropped me a note last night that he was interested in doing Green.  He had never been up it, so I was glad to join him for his initial ascent.

I snuck in a round up Flagstaff (five miles, 1200+ vertical) before meeting MK, Brett and Clarence at the Library.  Rock was also supposed to be in the mix but he was a no show.  I felt sluggish going up Flag.  The legs were a bit tired from the last two days, and I ended up going a bit harder than I wanted in the second run last night (to get away from electricity flying out of the sky)

We took it expectedly easy, and stopped to explain the various views, turnoffs, etc.  The guys were stoked (probably very different than my first run up Green).  Took them up the Gregory Ranger route and down the Greenman-Saddle-Amphitheater route.  It is incredibly lush up there now.  Green meadows, rich trees and TONS of flowers. 

On the way down we ran into Tony and JV.  So, there were two guys who have probably collectively done Green over five hundred times next two guys who just lost their virginity.  After leaving Tony and JV, I did some explanation to MK as to who these two icons of the mountain were.

7 miles (2700 vertical +).  12 on the day, nearly 4000 feet gain.   Was getting hungry towards the end as I did not bring any food.

Green’s profile (starting from the Library).




Calories … according to Matt F, 1 in 5 come from beverages.

A Skyline traverse with no pants at night coming up.

Played around with the music playlist, adding some of KZ’s favorites from the Wicked soundtrack that I have heard only 359 times in the last week.

WEDNESday 111109

Got out with MK and DocJ this AM.  We celebrated MK’s birthday.  He had completed 50 circuits around the sun  DocJ got us up Flagstaff via a route I had not hit – and I bet that JV might not even know.  Nah, I take that back.  Great conversation, great views, even some deer.  It is such an honor for me to run with these guys of such great passion and wisdom.



I got in some mileage ahead, and a bit after.  The Garmin kept shutting down on me, so I did not get a good reading regarding mileage for the Flag trip.  MK’s read 7.7 – so I will use that and my “e.c.” to get to 11 miles over 2 hours with 1600 feet plus climb.

But it was steep.



I need to pause for a moment and post a bit here about Jerry Lynch.  The dude is SIXTY SEVEN.  67.  And he is running up these hills.  I compare him to EVERY other 67 year old I know (or folks in that ten year category) and he is something TOTALLY different.  About a month ago I was running with him up at Heil Ranch and as we finished the downhill stretch, he was leading me – aggressively, and rolling it– and I was going 5:05 pace (and not for a short segment).  67.  That is just absolutely BEAUTIFUL.   He said to me today that I reminded him of himself when he was 40 (mind you, he was a lot faster).  I hope I can be a reminder of him when I am that age. 

I was pretty annoyed that Garmin kept shutting down.  I started it up at least 20 times through the run.  The good news is I sent in a service request via email last night and got my RMA# this morning – all under warranty.  Will package it up tonight and get it sent out.  My personal theory is I have jacked the buttons by sweating too much on the dang thing.  But here is something interesting:  the ZoneFive software I use seems to “glue” the gaps together pretty well.  It actually calculated that I went 11.5 even though the watches read out was less than that.  So it compensated for the “downtime” errors.  Pretty cool.

Over the weekend I ran into Bill Wright at a soccer game.  Spoke with him a bit.  Afterwards Tracy asked … “who’s that?”  “Bill Wright,” I reply.  She looks at me with the “umm, who?” look.  I say, “Bill Wright … Open Space Pirate Extraordinaire”  “Oh, him.” 

Roes finds the zone … Rick plays with fixed rate training

The Gothic show of RCPM has been posted.  Recording is not as crisp (a little bass-ey) as I’d like it, but I will keep it anyway.  I am 100 percent certain it is me you hear yell “YEAH” at 3:25 into Nada.  I sound pretty damn good.  Also found the opening act (who’s front man, Jim Dalton, went off to become the guitarist of the Peacemakers), the Railbenders up as well – now that is some good stuff too.

Friday 061209

 

Made a game day decision to not hammer Flag – just did not feel up to it (my mind was just out of the game … other stresses, work … ).  I geared it back a notch.  Warmed up with jogging down from Chautauaqua to Broadway (1.1 miles), then back up to the Flagstaff Road (2.6 miles) and then Flagstaff.  My PE was easily a notch or two down, but the HR still hovered at high 160s (av – 168).  Nonetheless, I hit the summit split in 43:24 … on a “moderate” run (all the splits were about 20 seconds slower) Whatever.  Bio break and then came down five miles in 28:28 – not hard but pushing the pace a bit above easy (so I guess more “moderate”) and doing more familiarization with pounding down.  HR climbed over the descent (av was 160, although it took about two miles to get to that HR … pushed the end a bit and it climbed 176), pace stuck around 5:40-5 … Added on a cool down mile.  13 miles, 1:40. ~ 2500 feet of climbing.

Tuesday 060909

• DD and DJ posted a predicted top 50 for Mount Washington. I personally love the one sec diff they predicted b/w themselves. ;) The field looks much stronger than I would have guessed it. I have been thinking a sub 80 for me would be a good showing at this time.
• I forget if I posted this before … I have heard folks say things like, “if you had the head of such and such (insert sucessful runner here) on your body, they would run such and such faster at such and such distance.”  This is implying that those folks are mentally tougher, or have mentally broken barriers that the accused has not.  While I appreciate that mental toughness is very significant in this sport, I think you could also make the opposite statement just as well:  put Haile’s head on my body and he quits 5 minutes into a 5k because he can’t figure out how he could be working so hard to move so slow.  Anyway, a post on the head …
• Got out to Flagstaff again.  Warmed up via Baseline from Broadway (14:23, super easy) and then got to work. 
  • Mile marker (missed this last week in the fog), 3:56 (.46 miles up)
  • 2 mile marker:  12:26 (split 8:30) (last week 12:17)
  • 3 mile marker 21:02 (split 8:36) (last week 20:37, split 8:20)
  • 4 mile marker 29:54 (split 8:52) (last week 29:15, split 8:38)
  • 5 mile marker 40:45 (split 10:51) (last week 39:49, split 10:34)
  • top sign:  41:24 (split 0:39), (last week 40:29, split 50)
• I was not surprised that the time this week was slower.  I felt pretty amped last week, stoked to get after it – as my legs had bounced back post three easy days.   This week, I just did not feel bad, but I did not feel great either.  As long as I have the excuse shovel out, I was also carrying a full Camelbak this time too (5lbs of stuff) … and there were tornadoes.  AvHR was 172, (higher than last time) and max was 177 (also higher).  In addition to not feeling “A” I wonder if this is because of the “evening” component of this?  And if being at a lower elevation for a few day has any effect.  I have read that it does not (for as little time as I spent) but I have heard a lot of others subjectively say otherwise. (and as JP mentioned, no Lucho this time). In any case – no sweat (or, well there was).  It was a good workout.  Generally, I think I am a little ahead of where I was on this workout last year.  Of course, JV did it in 38 (actually 37:59)  the next day.  :)
• After a bio break at the top, I took the west ridge up to the top of Green (side note … the grade on this back side of Green is not nearly as ridiculous as the front/east side approaches … it only averages 5% from the road, but with the last section above the 4 way junction at 20% – but that is only for a little less than a quarter mile.  This last section, I have titled the “Elliott Stairs” as Scott does them as a Pikes Prep workout – to prepare for the last section at Pikes called the “Golden Stairs”) and came back down Green Bear, into Bear Canyon.  Bear Canyon was really slow going as the creek was high and moving – making for several slow crossings (I was in flats).  Picked things up a bit when I got back onto the Mesa.  And then edged it up more as I got to the Enchanted Mesa (6:30 pace) – just to continue familiarize the legs with hard downhill running.   HR was generally in the 150 to 160 range throughout the descent but would drop on the slower sections.  In retrospect, I probably would have gotten a better workout descending the road, and then climbing back up it again (either the full distance or part way).  But my head appreciated being out in the canyon as the sunset, and a light rain came in.   All told this came out to be 14.5 miles of running over 2:22, with just over 3000 feet of vertical.   The Garmin elevation correction had the gain as 3036.  The Alterra had it as 3116.
• Most likely I will NOT run the SoBo TT on Thursday night.  JZ has a game and that is where I will gladly be!

Wednesday 060309

• Chuckie V has a bunch of posts on tapering that I need to dig into.
• More excellent video of Mount Washington past races … couple with Carpenter including a sub hour finish.
• Met up with Lucho at Broadway and Baseline for a jaunt up Flagstaff.  I wanted to TT this again to on whole how I was progressing, and more importantly if I was starting to get some semblance of “my legs” back.  We jogged easy up to Chautauqua, did a loop around the meadow and met Bill W.  We then jogged up to the Gregory Canyon turnoff where we met JP.  Bill took the Gregory Canyon/Long Canyon route, and we started up the road.  I wore a HR monitor this time.  I last did this work out back in May.  The morning was incredible, with fog and clouds filling in the nooks and crannies of Green Mountain.  Tim ran easy (he was never pressed) while I busted my ass.  I quickly got to a HR of 170 and stayed there for the duration of the run.  I missed the split at the mile marker (and I have been inconsistent to this point how I gather splits on this run … at this point I am going to just take them at the mile markers – if I remember them!). 
  • 1 mile marker (which is probably closer to .6 from Gregory because I think this marker is from Chautauqua) … missed it in the fog.
  • 2 mile marker:  12:17
  • 3 mile marker 20:37
  • 4 mile marker 29:15
  • 5 mile marker 39:49
  • top sign:  40:29
• Doing some playing with the dataset in Sportstracks, the miles up the hill took (regardless of marker) 8:29, 8:14, 8:25, 10:14, 5:08 (last section).  Compare to 8:44, 8:30, 9:02, 11:12, 4:30 (now I am not sure if that is right..  Whatever the case, it marks a time  improvement over last couple times.  Will continue to wear the HR monitor on these efforts to see how it compares in the future.  Average HR over the hill was 169.  I saw 174 as a high towards the end
• .
• We enjoyed seeing the biker who stayed 20-100 yards ahead of us the entire time.  He kept looking back so at one point we waved.  At the top Bill emerged from the woods from Long Canyon … so he nipped me via that route.  We circled back for JP and then made an honest run of it down (averaging just over six minute pace).
• On whole 12.5 miles, over 96 minutes
• PM – easy 4.5.  37 min. AHR = 145

Tuesday 051209

Met up with Brandon and did Flagstaff Road.  I did this a few weeks ago and wanted to get another run on it to see how things were progressing, and to continue to get road work at grade to prepare for Mount Washington.  I did not feel so hot at the start, and thought that perhaps I had not truly recovered from my Sunday night escapade on the mill.   In any case, the effort is an effort … just a grind and not really drilling.  Here is a comparison of the two runs and the mile splits from the base of Gregory.

9:14	8:44
9:23	8:30
9:20	9:02
11:24	11:12
5:41	4:30

So! 

That is a pretty good improvement!  45:02 versus 41:58 (I am going to double check the data when I get home tonight). Still want to get this bugger under 40 and that will come soon enough.   Some of  this improvement is familiarity with th

e run, some is getting back some fitness post the Achilles, and some is probably a bit more focus on improving on this course itself.  I could feel that the more shallow areas were places where I could stage little recoveries and then get the pace moving again.  I still struggle above the 3 mile mark on this run – the course pitches up much higher and it comes at a time deep in the workout.  It is just a grind.  Grind, grind grind. Jogged back down to Brandon, then back up with him. We then jogged back down around 7 minute pace.  It was good to meet the guy (I had never run with him before this).  Saw all sorts of folks absorbing the gorgeous day out there. Brandon’s write up from the run on his blog … 12 miles with 2500+ of elevation gain, 1:42.   Post of the day …