Friday

Beer is a better way to hydrate than water.

Micah’s death: not really new news but not what we like to hear that as endurance athletes.  I don’t run to extend my life but I do like to think it helps my chances of achieving it.  But even if I don’t it does help my health.  I get to do stuff today that a lot of folks can’t do.   That website by the way seems pretty decent.

Transvulcia preview of sorts.  When this interview started, I was scrunching my forehead – but I thought it played out pretty well.

*might* get in a burro training run this weekend.  TBD.

Tuesday 062811

There has been a bunch of racing as of late that I have been excited to hear about but I have not commented much on.  I have simply been a bit too busy to drill in to it as much as I’d like.  Certainly KJ’s win at WS100 is in that mix – along with the end of Geoff’s undefeated 100 miler streak -- but AJW pulling through a PR to nail yet another top 10 spot feels like it steals the thunder there.  The boxing match between Rickey and Manning at MW sounds like it was epic and I am looking forward to seeing video from that.  CU had some impressive steeple wins at NCAA’s and the USATF named the USMRT at Cranmore. 

A little better on the sleep last night, but I was still up at 4 AM local without an alarm.  This sort of behavior has effectively predicted that I will get to 2-3 this afternoon and feel like taking a nap (that I don’t take).  I got out this AM, after calling home and chatting with the family at JZ’s last baseball game of the year.  Ran farther north today than I had yesterday.  The waves for some reason are really cracking today so there were a lot of surfers out.  As most of my runs have been on or near the promenade, I am seeing some of the same faces now every day.  I typically give runners a small wave or a hello regardless of where I am at.  On day one, the runners here looked at me surprised at the gesture.  Today, some smiled and gave me the nod or a finger point back.

AM - 12 miles.  Felt pretty sluggish to start but I guess because of the air here that still ends up being sub 8 minute pace very easily within a few minutes.  Opened up a bit after an hour and so I finished off with twelve times a minute on, a minute off.  I thought I had done ten but I kept losing count (and so assumed a lower completion while running).  The GPS data showed that I did a dozen though (so a nice bonus).  Not super zippy but I was working those minutes – but still trying to remain smooth to some degree (not fighting the speed).  (note – later in the AM I could “feel” this run a bit more so, I guess I was successful!).

Tel Aviv notes … Today’s cab ride to the office included a heated Hebrew exchange between our driver and a scooter driver.  The highlight was that while rolling at 40 mph, these guys found a way to be within a foot of each other and yelling loudly.  The spitting towards each other at the end was a nice capstone.

Seeing conference rooms that double as bomb shelters in offices also remind you as to where you are …

More media fun from TWK.

 

Same menu … different views …

Monday 062011

Back to work for the first time in over a week …

Karl’s WS odds.  An interview with the guy behind those odds.

I might need to put this race on the list.

Waaay back in 1998, I was on a team that set a pretty obscure WR – that is the record for 10 x 10km, co-ed.   We ran 6:03:48.4 at Potts Field … I think that stacks up pretty well to the latest cut of this record.

AM – wake up 3 miles.  Felt good.  Drank too much IPA with many amazing and wonderful people last night – and so I probably flapped my lips too much, but I felt good physically this AM.  Fresh snow up on those peaks.

A 42 minute 10k by a guy who 80 …

Roes video over on RT.  Great shots in this … about 13 minutes long.  His recent blog entry goes well with the video: I find myself thinking more about what run I'm going to do tomorrow than the run this coming weekend… It would be pretty awesome if we could get Geoff to scream a little less in these interviews though.  I mean the guy obviously has a lot of anger issues.

PM – felt absolutely the opposite of this AM … heavy legged and tired.  Curtailed this to 8 miles.  Surely this was last night’s debauchery catching up with me.

Tuesday 011811

Registered for XC Nats and the Mission Gorge run today.  I don’t have high expectations for the Mission Gorge race, being the day after XC Nats.  It will be a tall order for me to effectively contribute to that team effort with Ames, Robbins, Johnson, Straka, Hegelbach, Bromberg and Miller lining up (five score).

Video from last week’s BTR talk with Roes, Anton, Jurek and Mackey.
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Good quick read from Byrn.

I have no true aspirations to do a tri, but I would say that I am a  far observing “fan” of the sport.  In that vein, I have enjoyed several of the recent Macca podcast interviews post his win in Kona.  I have found the way he approached this year’s race in regard as to how to race Crowie to be very interesting.  He knew Crowie is a better runner than him, and so he outwardly approached other racers that were strong on the bike and said - (not an actual quote but in the spirit of what I have heard him say in several interviews) “we need to get away from this guy.  We can’t be coming off the bike with him or he will win.  He is weaker on the bike than us so we need to get away from him or make him hurt on the bike to make it a race.  Are you with me?”  Some saw this approach, and his comments afterwards as arrogant.  Others see it as smart. 

Some good vids interviewing with Macca over here … and a good interview with him here … with lots of comments on his motivation, his next steps in regards to family … I love his transparency.  When you race somebody, like with Andreas, I think I got to know Andreas in Kona, better than many people know him.  Because you suffer next to him, you know … you don’t say a word.  But you feel you learn their character and you learn a lot about the person.  I think that is the bond you have as athletes.  Some will never understand that point.

PM – 10 miles, treadmill.  Did 3 mile warm up (super easy) and then ~25 minutes of tempo (starting at 6:30 pace and building to 5:45).  Was definitely feeling the mill out a bit as I have not done that sort of work at that pace in a bit.  Took a bio break at the end of this and then warmed down, with 7 x 30 second strides in there.

Food log – AM – bagel, cream cheese, and some cookies.
As a side note, I probably had too many Odell’s last night.
Dinner – salad, bread

The Lance story is flaring up again.  I certainly have no idea if he took PED’s or not, but the story is interesting.  Either this guy is incredibly hated because of his success, or he has pulled off an incredible deception and … maybe because of the good he has done, there is some thought we ought to look in a different direction.  Ah, sports … the original reality TV.

Monday 011011

This is a great read.

Good post from Liz H on her Bandera win.  Mackey’s write up.  Geoff’s DNF.

Food log – AM, coffee, breakfast burrito, bagel w/cc.
Afternoon – apple, banana and some OJ
Dinner – sausage, peppers, onions and corn bread
Some mint choc ice cream

PM – mill, 12 miles, 1.5 percent – started super easy (9 min/mile plus), and built to steady but never challenging.  88 minutes.  I was expecting to join Schlarb for his weekly jaunt up Green tomorrow, but I am currently thinking that I need to get some turn over between now and February (XC).  Plenty of time for Green February on.

Got in some 20 minutes of some weights, planks, ab work before the run.  Not surprised – but I am a bit sore from the Sunday session at the gym.  This is good.  Worked shoulders with the weights today (I did not do that Sunday).  I am huge.  Nan posted this drill work yesterday.  Just watching this makes me dizzy.

Sunday 010911

Mackey takes the win at Bandera with a new course record.  According to comments at Geoff’s blog, he dropped near halfway – ill.  Bummer for Geoff and I hope he recovers soon.  Mackey earns a spot to WS here … hmm, will last year’s pacer to the winner take another shot at the 100 there?

Liz Howard takes it on the women’s side, also a CR.

I was trolling for the Bandera results and I found this little blurb instead (as the race is a USATF championship race).
Championship Restrictions...
1) No Pacers
2) No Ipods
3) No GPS
4) No Heart Rate Monitors

Interesting.  In any case, I do find myself a bit irked that results for this event, a USATF event, are yet to be posted.

P.F. is barking a bit this AM given the work on it yesterday.

New inch of snow here this AM.

Some good notes from Hocking that he picked up listening to a talk by Vigil.

Been kicking around doing a 100 miler this fall.  My first.  No expectations in this, and would hope to finish.  I tentatively scheduled in the Boulder 100 and have received a lot of scrunched questioning faces about that.  “Why in the name of Buddha would you want to do that?”  And I don’t mean from the folks who wonder why someone does a 100 miles.  This question is from seasoned 100 miler folks who think doing the 7.14 mile loop course would just suck.  My “rationale” on this is that it gives me a course that is close to home (easier to get pacers), aid every hour(ish), a bit more of a window of time post Pikes, and pretty much a guarantee that I will not get lost.   In any case, my largest concerns with the hundred are getting to the line, and holding up structurally throughout.  For years, I thought a hundred was outside what I’d be able to do – simply because I would break down structurally over the course of the run (my structure ain’t always the best with this hang nine thing I got going on).  I still have those concerns but not as much obviously or I’d not be considering this.

More rambling … it seems to me that something I ought to be doing to address yesterday’s performance (or this general decline in performance) that may not be as obvious (the obvious is to do work that specifically addresses that sort of race distance) is to run with people.   I was thinking a bit as I was heading off to sleep last night about what factors were in play when I was running my fastest 5ks and 10ks.  Some of the things that you’d expect were there:  a fair base (but hardly what it is now), an out and back tempo run, interval work at pace or faster than pace (something I am not doing now).  But I was also much more aggressive in running with people.  And that set up for all sorts of other stuff:  interval work was more likely to be done.  Paces were likely to be pushed to be a bit quicker.  I am more likely now to just go out my door and bang out a 10-12 miler on my own rather than pay the tax of getting somewhere to run with people.  Because, yes, that is a tax:  getting there, coordinating it, etc.  More time – and often time I rather be doing something else.  Back to ought to do versus want to do.

Week in review:  I got in an hour plus of alternative exercise, and I hope to continue to get that in with getting to the gym.  Right now I am just trying to establish the habits to support that, and then will later look to tweak it for specific goals.  Yesterday I was wandering a bit through the weights and machines, recalling some of the stuff I did back in the service.  So – it is good to get back to that (we will see how sore I am tomorrow though).  In terms of the food log, I got that all days but one.  I can see that I tend to eat more than I probably need to (seconds, snitching snacks), and don’t stay on the hydration as well as I need to.  I am thinking I will continue to keep the food log for the rest of the month to continue to dial in awareness.  I thought I could begin to see how I felt based on things I ate – a bit more consciously than I have in the past because of the log. 

(will update this post the Sunday run but these are the stats through Sat)
Week = 76 miles, 12 hours, 2.6k ascending feet
Month and Year = 97 miles, 16.5 hours, 7470 ascending feet
Green Summits = 1 this week, 3 on the year

Week was not great as I felt I was getting my routine back in getting to work, the kids back to school, etc – but managed the basic discipline of getting out there.  Playing with the Training Peaks software, but also keeping the stats sheet.  The race was a good wake up call, and getting out for a session on Green with others was good.  I will look to try to keep that up and join them on the track periodically as well.  Need to be careful with the p.f. in the next week.

AM – four mile dog jog, easy easy with TZ.  Snowing at a decent clip.  PM – 8 miles easy easy on the mill.

Food log
AM – coffee
Brunch - decent sized breakfast, 3 eggs over easy, with peps, onions, canadian bacon, everything bagel and some toast.
PM – dinner:  couple of brews, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce. 

I missed the RCPM show last Thursday at the Soiled Dove – but no worries:  it is ready for download.

Wednesday 120810

Yesterday was apparently the earliest sunset of the year.  Good.  I realize that the days get shorter (via later sun rises) through the equinox, but I am glad to be getting more light at the tail of the day.

AM – 5.5 miles, easy.

Bryon continues the post NF50 conversation over on his blog today.  Good stuff

Okay … three new things I am going to yammer about in this blog between now and the end of the year:

1.)  goals, expectations, and things I ought to do (call them resolutions) for next calendar year (GOALS 2011)
2.)  highlights from 2010 – both personal and ones I observed (HIGHLIGHTS 2010)
3.)  predictions, questions and prognostications for next calendar year. (CRYSTAL BALL 2011)

Let’s get started then shall we, and for fun … the crystal ball …

CRYSTAL BALL 2011:  Who the heck beats Roes at 100 miles in 2011?  This guy is a machine, a true freak.  I mean he has a wikipedia entry.  He has done seven hundreds and has always reached the finish line first.  Along with that he has a couple handfuls of course records, and podium finishes at shorter distances.  In an event where a slight off day can mean you are not just out of the hunt but you are done – this guy has had NONE at the big distance (Unfortunately, UTMB fell apart last year so we did not get to see how that played out).   Even at WS100, when the twitterverse thought he was done, he came roaring back to take the win.  There appears to be only a handful of guys with the pedigree and the training credentials to make it happen.  No surprises here as to who the candidates are:  Anton, Killian, and now maybe some other Europeans if they decide to toe it up.  Does that happen at WS100 this year?  Or at UTMB?   Or does Geoff continue to do his thing, race his race and just get to the finish lines faster than everyone else for distances of hundred miles or more?

PM – running into the darkness … but honestly, if I had woken up from a long sleep and you told me it was 9 PM in August versus 5 PM in December I would not have known the difference.  Shorts, t-shirt, a little cool, that epic mountain backdrop, and of course that feeling that you are moving much faster than you actually are when you run at this time of day.  6.5 miles (12 on the day).

I finally put my order in for my winning shoes from PPM, and they arrived today.

Doing a little end of the year number crunching tonight in the Sportstracks tool …

Sure, I may get 4000 miles but it is a helluva lot less vertical than many – with it probably coming in around 250k on the year for me.  Interesting to see the HR on whole drop.  Makes me think of Lucho.

Brandon’s NF race report is up.