Week ending 17MAR2024

Not the greatest of weeks for training but got something in.  Coming off of Ireland, I was spinning a bit with living with a 6 hour time change for three weeks, catching up with a bunch of work, a big Colorado storm, band practices to catch up for a weekend gig, getting back to altitude ... I had all the excuses.  But managed through the week ...

Monday - of course I was up stupid early because of jet lag.  8.7 miles to start the day.   Slow.  Barely managed sub 9.

Tuesday - 6.1 around practice and it was a complete poop storm of a practice for me.  But a handful of miles with some strides in the middle.

Wednesday - 7 miles on the day, a few with the coaches before having to bail for band.  Easy running but getting back into the swing of the schedule in Mountain Time.

Thursday - a typical spring storm blew in.  March means heavy wet snow and usually a lot of it.  We'd finish Friday at close to 2 feet.  I got in a lot of shoveling and clearing of trees.  The stuff by the street is the best.  Greg and I slogged through the huge street puddles for some.   8 miles.

Friday - the snow stopped and it actually got nice out.  All the roads were still a mess but got out with Shad for a bit.  We did 7.  I did take a step where I slid on the snow for a few feet that sorta jacked my left knee for a bit (still so on Sunday when I write this).

Gig at Mother Tuckers on Friday night.  It went great,

Saturday - AM with GW, RP and RT as a part of team practice.  10 miles total.  Tired from last night's gig.

Sunday - JZ was home so we got out for 8, and then we came across Neeraj, so I tacked on another handful with him (13 on the morning).  All easy.   Inaugural trip in the Speedlands that Shad connected me up with.   

60 miles on the week.  Clicked through 600 on Saturday sometime.  

Week ending 24DEC2023

It was a good week.  60 miles plus of running, with a couple of days over 10 (doubles) and some fartlek stuff.  I almost felt like I was "getting ready to get ready" again.  

Most the runs were AM outings with the kiddos at BHS. 

Highlight run of the week of course was the Solstice Slog.  Has to be at least 10 years since we started this thing.  We kept is shorter and more tame on the miles and the stops this year but it was still an epic great conversation with the boys.

With stupidity following ...

KZ (who adamantly refuses to allow social media pix to be posted) got home on Saturday from Japan.  She will be here (ish) for two weeks before returning.  It is nice to have her home.

Got in a good Sunday AM run with Greg as the snow came in.

Week ending 22OCT2023

Coming off the low miles of Puerto Rico, where it was frankly a chore to run in the heat and the humidity, I got back at it a bit.  Last Saturday and Sunday were 8 mile days, and I kept at it through out this past week.  Everyday was an 8+ miler with the exception on Tuesday (a 6 and 4) and Sunday (a near 12).  It is good to be home in the low humidity air, the cooler temps (even if it is a re-summer of sorts at the moment). 

On Friday, the local HS team competed in the regional meet.  Both teams earned a berth with 4th place showings.  It was definitely a nice surprise on the girls side, who got that by 4points.

This one has been hanging about as of late.  

On Sunday, JZ and I hit NCAR and headed out on the Mesa Trail.  We made the call at the Bear Trail break to head up that way.  And then we decided to do Green when we got to Green-Bear trail.  It was a bit more than I was looking for with it being 12 miles and near 2500 feet, but it was great to be out with the "boy."

Saturday 17JUN2023 Back to Green

I took the dog for a walk up the hill from the house around sunset the other night and looked over the Front Range.  I know the profile pretty well from looking at it for years, and in many cases, having tagged many of the high points (or having JV point out to me the ones I had not done).

I looked at Green and wondered when, if ever, I'd get back to it.  And then I realized I couldn't remember when I last did it.

I texted GW and told him I was going to do it Saturday morning and he immediately responded with agreement that he was also in.  I wasn't expecting much other than to get my ass kicked.  I mean it always kicked my ass but this would be an ass kicking that would just take longer than it used to.  I was curious as to how my ankle would hold up, and recognized I might need to pull the rip cord early if I was jacking it up.  

As a bonus, JZ came home for the weekend last night and so he joined us.  We took the ASG up and Gregory down.  It was mostly a slog hike up, but with some slow running where we could manage.  JZ took off on the down - but I took it careful.  6.1 miles.

It had been 51 weeks since I had last hit this hill.  Definitely kicked my ass, but that is because I have not done this in a long time.  I am happy with how the ankle held up.  It was sore, but no more so than it has been the last week or so.  

Also was good to get this done early - it was turning into a bit of Disney Land as we finished up.  

Monday 21FEB2021

Monday AM - jogged over to the HS with TZ and then another half dozen with the kiddos.  Super windy morning.  

Afternoon - 5k with GW and JZ on the ditch.  First time in forever that I can recall getting over 10 in a day.  Ankle is pissed but I feel good.

Week ending 21JUN2020

Monday AM - first day of practice.  Limited size groups, face masks, screening questions and temperature taking.  Fun stuff.  Easy easy ... 6.1 miles.

Tuesday AM - jogged over to high school and ran with Braun on her warm up.  Continued jog with Greg and AG as the kids headed out.  Strides at the end.  9.1 miles.

Wednesday AM - 50 second repeats on Eagle Hill.  Maybe a C+ or a B-.  Meh.  Got it done but never felt on it.  Jogged over to HS after to run with the team.  11.4 miles.

Thursday AM - 8.2 miles, made up of jogging over to the school, getting in some with Braun, Parker and Greg before practice, some with the squad, and then a jog home.  Easy.

Friday AM - cooler morning with some raining spitting at the start.  Met up with Greg and Syd and agreed to run with Braun on her tempo for 15 minutes.  Then jumped into practice.  8.5 miles.

Got word Friday morning that the Pikes Peak Marathon was gonna happen with some modifications (wave starts, no awards assembly post, etc).  Time to get a bit more aggressive with the hills and the altitude.

Saturday AM - JZ and I took a jaunt up to Mosquito Pass and then pushed on to Kuss Peak.  7.3 miles with over 2k of climbing - just some exposure to 11.5 to 13.5k of altitude.





Sunday - another run up at altitude (10.2-10.5k).  10.5 miles, with about 1100 feet - so a bit more of proper running (v. the slog/hike yesterday).  First four with JZ.

Good week on whole - 60 plus miles, 6k feet of climbing, with most of it coming on the weekend.  Gonna need to shift a bit more to hills and altitude while also trying to keep in touch with the basics now that Pikes Marathon is a go (until it is not a go, right?).

Week ending 12APR2020

Monday - headed over to Mayhoffer to check on the situation there and then got Cheeto out for about an hour.  Coal Creek is crowded!




He is a good donk.  Definitely easy going, and there are a few new things we are working through ... bridges, turns, etc.  8.3 miles with a few strides at the end.

Tuesday AM - 20 minute warm up, four opening strides, then 2 sets of 5 x 1 minute, with the first set at a 7 PE on 60 seconds rest and the second set at an 8 PE with the rest at 90 seconds.  About a 15 minute warm down.  7.4 miles.  Good workout.

Decided if Pikes cancels, I'll just focus on a mile - see if I can get under 5:20 again.

Afternoon - 3 easy miles with KZ.

Wednesday - 10 miles, out and back to Mayhoffer to check on the donks.  JZ joined me.  Easy day.


Thursday- 8.1 miles along Coal Creek with strides post.


Thursday night did the Rails End Virtual Open Mic again.

In case I needed a reminder of how amateur I am at this ... check this out.  

I have been shifting a tiny bit on my music - and will likely take a break from regularly posting on-line "shows" (it sounds a bit weird to call them that), and focus a bit on some tunes I am writing, and  building out some other tunes I have been working on.

Friday - 3 mile warm up with strides, then 20 minute tempo on the track.  Covered 5100 meters on the nose.  10 minute cool down.  Was a bit apprehensive coming into this but figured I'd just try to start at 6:40 pace and carve down from there.  First mile was probably just under 6:30, and I slowly picked it up.  Felt really controlled and on top of it and only had to "think" about it a bit at maybe 3 minutes to go.

Saturday - 10 miles with Cheeto, getting this in on Saturday before the snow blows in on Sunday.  Took almost 90 minutes to warm Cheeto up to the halter ... a complete shift from where he was earlier in the week.  JZ finally sweet talked him into it.  Once we got going it was a fine run, but I did start to feel a bit of the work from yesterday in the last couple of miles.



Sunday  - 10 miles - super easy in the snow.  Tired.  Yeah, it was one of those typical Colorado spring things - a 55 degree swing in a day.



64 miles on the week, but two good workouts on Tuesday and Friday.  Also got in two burro runs, which usually means a little less mileage for the per minute buck, but a different workout in its own way.   The Friday workout was probably one of my better ones in the last year or so.  Normally I'd say that a 6:20 mile is no biggie but I have not really run that fast for three in a long time. Rolled through a 1000 miles on the year this week too.

This next week should be more of the same - a little less quantity and bit more focus on the quality of specific efforts.  Third winter is here so it will be a bit of more of a challenge then the perfect stuff we got dealt last week.

Clearly some of the turn in my fitness as of late is because of some more time.  This is not directly because of the current pandemic events, but indirectly - I am not focused on coaching the HS kids and so I get to focus more on my training.  An interesting ripple.

I have totally done crap for any sort of upper body work since the start of March because of this turn of events, so I need to get to doing something on that.  I was giving thought to heading to Boulder next week for some Green Mountain, but apparently the scene out of Chautauqa is rather nuts - so I may avoid it for a bit and if I hit any hills, they will be elsewhere.

Been doing some work related podcasting too.

Week ending 05APR2020

Monday - 10 miles, playing on a few of the hills in the area.


Tuesday afternoon - windy out of the west and so I did 10 x 300s on 200 rest at the MS track leveraging the wind as much as I could.  Slowest was 62 (5), and fastest was 57 (last), with nearly all the rest coming right in at 60.  Fun workout and a bit better than I expect.  I was sort of thinking I'd be around 65-67 for these.  8.8 miles when all done.  JZ was out there doing quarters and so he did part of his work to coincide with mine.  More fun.



That finishes March - with 311.4 miles, 41 and a quarter hours, and just about 10k of vert.  All the weeks were pretty solid.  The travel to California week was a bit of down week on whole.  I had 2 decent long runs in the month, and managed to start to get in some quality (3 in the last two weeks and 4 on the month.  In some regards, current events have helped training.

I hope to start to shift some of the training up in April - a few more trails, some more vertical, a bit less focus on miles as the measure and a bit more on minutes and vert.  Other stats so far on the year:  885 miles, 119 and a quarter hours, 29k of vertical, 2 days off, 28 travel nights, 2 camping nights, and an average velocity of 7.4mph.  I have gone running 119 times so far this year.

Yeah it is probably a bad coin flip to consider that even August races like Pikes are gonna happen but I'll train anyway.  It just feels good.  Oh, there may be some more donkey running soon.

Wednesday - 10 miles.  Got out mid day on a shirtless sort of day.  Wonderful.  Legs were tired but I was just moving well.  So good for the head.  I had a biker flip me off though.  I think it is because I passed him and he got pissed off.


Thursday AM - 5.2 slow miles in a freezing mist before heading to Edwards for a post op review with TZ.  Her review went well - and the doc is happy with her progress (although it has only been a week).  PM - 4.3 miles in the snow, back in Broomstock.  Easy easy.

Friday afternoon - sort of tired but rolling pretty good once I committed to it.  11.3 miles, with a 25 minute progressive sort of tempo, 6:45 down to 6:20 pace.  Felt solid.



Saturday AM - 10 miles.  Tired and slow.


Sunday - 12 miles at RFNWR.  First time there and it is pretty nice.  And I went on a first date with Cheeto.  He can move.




A run with a donkey like this might be the purest form of fartlek ... you go slow, you go fast, except you have very little control over it - the donkey decides.   I was nicely worked at the end of our first outing.  There will be others.

Good week.  70 plus miles, 2 workouts and a run with a donkey that sort of was near a long effort in terms of time.  Need to get to the hills soon.

Week ending 22MAR2020

Spring is coming.  Not yet but not far from now.

Monday mid day.  12.5.  Timed JZ at the end as he did some stuff on the track.

Tuesday AM - 6.6, most of it with Greg.  Slow to start in the morning mist but we eventually got awake enough to get moving some.


Afternoon - with JZ 4.6 miles on the Ridgeview Ditch loop.

We got KZ back from Germany.  She is a bit heartbroke but putting on a good face.

Wednesday - 10 at Teller with Braun and GW.  I needed it.

On Monday I started doing Facebook Live sessions with me playing some tunes.  It was mostly just to break it up the noise of everything else.  Whole new layer of fun and anxiety.  It was something I was thinking about and of course Sean P beat me to it.  And so I just jumped on it.  I screwed up a lot of tunes.  But it was fun.

Kids are beginning to lose it.  Or have been losing more than usual. 


Thursday - absolutely walloped with a big wet March snowstorm.  I was soaking from the knees down in the first 10 strides.  3.5 slow miles in the slush and snow.  Took a couple of diggers that got me nicely soaked.  Klutz.

Friday - 11.1 miles.  Snowing lightly.



Friday night I did a FB Live.  It ended up being 17 songs.


Saturday - 10.2 miles.  Tired but seemed to roll pretty good.


Sunday - 13 with more than 11 of it with GW.  Felt pretty good after about a 45 minute wake up.


71 plus on the week. A weird week ... no quality, and not a real long run, and sort of messed up with a 3.5 mile run in the middle of the week because of the spring snow.  More than that, I had a messed up head - probably like most who breathe - for a good portion of the week.  I was happy to have a solid volume week.  I fell back into some less than stellar habits (a bit too much brew), but am circling the wagons on that too.