Tuesday 08MAR2016

Lip service is plentiful. Folks always claim they are all in. They talk and dream about being at the top, yet few study those at the top and note what it truly takes to be there. Elite performance involves deep study, endless efforts, honesty on all fronts and accountability beyond the norm.

Mid day – got together with Shad, Kendrick and Bob and did some work over on the Sweeney Mesa.  I had contemplated bagging the whole workout because I felt just generally banged up – a bit sore, a bit tired and the Achilles was grumbling.  But when the watch started, I rolled with it anyway.  And was glad I did. 

We did 3 miles on the outer loop and then came back for another couple after that.  I did these at about the pace I was doing the outright Harper Lake laps a few weeks ago, so that sort of bodes well, but still it was only 6:30 pace for the 3.   The lungs were fine for the first two miles but then I was starting to feel how I was working a touch (even though this was race pace for a half just in January).  I cheated the follow up two mile a bit – in that I did the first in 6:30 and then took a break for a couple (I was soft) and then did the second in 6:15.  All in all, nothing special but I was glad I did something rather than bag and do nothing as I had been considering.

As always, running with a group is beneficial in many ways:  the banter and fun of it, the running a little more quickly than you would if you were on your own, and how the time slips away quickly when in the group. 

Shad is rounding into shape nicely.  It is cool to see a guy rising through his fitness week over week.

Sort of geeked out on this fan movie.

Okay, so I will venture into the political.  Thanks to Shad for this one

And from Kieran:
None of this is to say that one political philosophy is right or wrong. That we should choose to ally with those who would wish to promote our interests is perfectly natural. But if it seems like the rest of the world is gunning for our jobs and for our quality of life, it’s because they are. The fact that you have had success for a period of time just means that everyone else is going to come even harder for your share of the pie in the next iteration of the game. And regardless of what any politician promises you, that’s not going to change.

I have been having some entertaining conversations with my kids regarding politics, elections, etc.  KZ will vote in this election and a lot of our conversation comes down to the root question:  how much should government be involved?  Consider any particular issue and that is a question.  Gun control, abortion, gay marriage, health care, national parks, public education including college, physician assisted suicide, marijuana and the war on drugs, the 1%, corporate off shoring, bank regulation, food and medical device management, environmental protections like fracking and climate change, and of course, taxes baby.  And that is just a handful I thought of in 10 seconds.

It is a fun conversation because in some cases KZ think there ought to be government involvement, and then in others, not so much.  That is probably the case for all of us, with a bit of a difference in alignment on the issues.

Later in the afternoon – 5 miles with Greg super easy (8:30s) and then 4 100 meter strides.  I timed the last two to get an eyeball on that and it was 17 and 16 mid.  Sigh.  Rolled through 600 miles on the year today.

It is really fun to yap with the kids at the HS.  They have dreams of PRing or earning a letter or making state.  It is just very inspiring to see that culture of “hey I want to improve” regardless of what that goal is. 

Evening

Tuesday 23FEB2016

Around the 22 mile marker I realized it wasn’t going to happen.

I really enjoyed this race report from Dave D, particularly the back and forth in the race between him and Nate J.  His splits are impressive too.  Has me wondering if I ought to do a variation of the Pre-30-45 workout to 41-60.

Scary stuff.

Hans is not buying in.

This is fascinating.

Mid AM – got out with the constantly improving Shad, Neeraj, Bob and Kendrick for some repeats around Harper Lake.  I knew this was going to be less than stellar for me because the muscle between my ears has not been focused well, but I figured I needed to jump into this … because it was yet again a start, because it would force me to stay on top of my Tuesday commitment, because it would be good to see the guys and all that makes the muscle between the ears … well, get better focus.

On tap was 4-6 laps around the lake on 2-3 minutes rest.  A lap is about 1500 meters.  We figured we better keep it just to a lap because we’d all get into some sort of gripe fest if we had to land on what a mile was (our GPS units would all come up with something slightly different).  And when we tried to land on running for time two weeks ago we still screwed that up.  So a lap it was.  There was the typical warm up and yammering at the start and knowing I was going to be the arse dragger on the day, I got on it.  I was quickly passed by the rest of the crew.  I figured if I was not going to go fast, I could accomodate to some degree by shortening the rest some, and so I kept them all to 2 minutes or less (I think as short as 80 seconds).  I was struggling through all of them, but at the same time I could sort of tell my ability to get in and do the work and the get to the level of hurt that Shad was reaching was … was well, not really there or desired.  Hmm.  But it was good work.  I managed through six even though I had told myself five would be enough when I was at four.

Admittedly, one of my favorite aspects of these runs is where we start debating some topic – and amazingly it is usually a scientific topic.  Recent topics have included what mechanical advantage is gained, if any, by a bike; if the salinity of sweat is constant (and sweat rates), what is a normal diet, and if time is collected on GPS watches from satellites or managed locally on the watch.  There is no lack of opinions, cursing, and emotion in these otherwise very well thought out and articulated conversations.

JV was in the ‘hood in the afternoon, so I got out for an hour with him.  It was easy but that ended up being 7:50 pace (as opposed to if I he had not been around I would not have gone out at all or if I did it would have been 8:50 pace).  Another great set of conversation:  siblings that have passed, kids (long days, short years), and how we tend to get worked up about things that are really not that important.  It has been too long since I have run with that guy.  Screwed up and did not bring a camera for a pic.

I am a pretty lucky dude to get to run with so many cool dudes.

Tuesday 09FEB2016

One of my friends once told me that there are two types of people in this world: 1) those who walk in a room like “Here I am!” and 2) those who walk in a room like “There you are.”

I had my annual set of wellness tests at my work this AM.  The blood work will take a bit to get.  The BP reading was 122/82, or about what it has been for the last five years or so.  Or what the corporate wellness program would consider as “pre-hyerptensive” but when I visit my doc they say is completely okay.  Good news is that I grew an inch and am now 5’9.”  Gonna need that to make the BMI calc work for them because I put the LT belt with my knife and cell phone hanging on it to see if I could get listed as obese. 

This is a fasted test meaning I eat nothing AM.  No coffee either.  I mentioned to TZ that a dozen years ago that probably would have been a test of some sort of will, but now it is a “whatever” moment.   Maybe that means I am fat adapted?  My weight came in at 155, but the morning scale at home had me at 149 in my birthday suit.  I am about 10 pounds over what I showed up to summer races at last year.  The lowest I have seen this calendar year is 148 and most the time it is above 150.  It ain’t just the beard.

Listened to this podcast between Prager and Pinsky on the daily slog yesterday.  Excellent.  Not running related but thought provoking on many fronts.

Mid day I was able to sneak out with Shad, Bob, Neeraj and Kendrick.  After some quibbling about what we’d do for a workout, modifying that and the quibbling some more we got to work.  2 minutes, 3 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 4 minutes, 2 minutes.  It was supposed to be a 2-3-4-5-4-3-2 ladder (on 2’ minute easy rest) but someone screwed up the 4 on the way up and made it a 3 instead.  So we made up for that on the down side of the ladder.  I felt a bit gimpy with my right Achilles still a bit angry but I managed under six pace for all of the reps except the two longer slightly uphill reps.  I was breathing a bit but this was more about the legs turning over.  Good work and with good guys. 

Shad looks to be continuing his climb in fitness.  I give him crap on these days but I am excited to see what he is going to do at Boston.

Not overly worried about it but I noticed a lot of older blog posts are missing pix.  Not sure why.  If anyone has a bead on that I’d appreciate it. 

Recent interaction with KZ on FB.

Wednesday 24JUN2015

Yeah, I can’t stop watching the train wreck:  Alberto’s response is out.  Even better might be that the USATF hired Dennis Mitchell.  Yeah, a guy who was a known doper.

Afternoon  - hooked up with Bob for an easy effort on the Mesa (mostly).  10 miles.  it was good to go easy just to work out some of the beating I have given myself (from falls) over the last couple of days. 

I noticed that I have already had 8 days off this month, surpassing the number of days I have had off in all the prior months collectively.  But despite that I am getting a fair amount of vertical.  I am at 23k feet on the month, which is not a far sneeze from my highest month total (April, nearly 30k).  

After the run I swung by and saw Dave Mackey.  Kendrick was also visiting.  Yes, he is out of the of the hospital and home.  And each time I have seen him, he is doing markedly better.  You can just see it. 

He still has the X-fix in his leg, and unlike when he was in the hospital and it was all dressed up – you can see it.  And the bolts going into his leg.  It is quite a sight  But Dave says that he is pain free at this time and only taking antibiotics to help combat the possibility of any infection.  His upper legs show where he has given skin grafts and where there is skin growing back from where they harvested some thigh muscle to bring to the shin area.   He says his sleep is poor (I can imagine it is challenging to sleep with that x-fix thing on) but he is in great spirits.

We took him out on his front lawn a bit, drank some lemonade that Ellen brought us, and shot the breeze on Kendrick’s trip to South America, a line of 14ers in the Elk Mountains, his recovery, and whatever else.  He did some exercises with a stretch band on his good leg.  It was good to see him continuing to mend and continue to progress forward down this long road.  He still has a significant surgery ahead of him to remove the x-fix, and to harvest bone and marrow from his good right leg (by going through his hip) to create a bone matrix that can be used to rebuild the tibia.

I have to hand it to Dave – he seems to be in good spirits and truly thankful for his fortune in light of what it could have been.  I can’t help but contemplate if I could have such an attitude if I were in his place.  I think I’d be certainly thankful to be alive, to have such amazing medical care, and even more incredible family to help me – but I think there would be an element of me that was truly pretty pissed.  I recognize that probably would not be the healthiest of mindsets, but I can see how it could be easy to be dark about it.  If Dave has that, I am not seeing it, hearing it or feeling it.  The guy is truly strong. 

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.

BRR Track meet 071912

About 15 minutes after JT’s finish at HR, we were in the Silverton Brewery.  He declared he would make the trek from the Springs up to the People’s Republic to race the mile and the steeple.  On the track.  5 days after doing the toughest 100 miler in the US.

In my one feeble attempt at such a distance – one in which there was maybe 12 feet of vertical gain over the entire run – I was barely walking 5 days after the stunt.  Mile?  Maybe I could run one, but I’d be lucky to break 12 minutes downhill.  Steeple?  I’d rather belly crawl on razor wire.

But the mayor of Old Colorado City was up for it.  Heck, I was not even sure I wanted to do it and I only had 42 miles in my legs from pacing Tim L.   Now I just had to make sure that I did not get my arse beat by him, as the stream of taunts would never be ending after that.  I ain’t gonna lie – I was not sure getting to the line before him was a gimmie.

Showing up to watch the fun was Mike H (who also ran the mile) Patrick G, Kendrick, Rob, Jeff V.   TZ and JZ also swung by to have a laugh at me in the later event (the steeplechase).

I got to the mile pretty close to the start – a bit too close.  I managed only a one mile warm up, and one stride.  My legs felt like bricks.  While the pacing duties in the San Juans did level me to the ground like they may have a decade ago, I certainly was not feeling spry or full of pop.  While I had put down a 4:51 in the 1500 a couple of weeks ago, I was seriously wondering if a sub 5:30 was in the cards.  Whatever, we lined up and went.  Video courtesy of Patrick G and pics from Rob.

I sort of forget how MUT dudes have no idea as to what is occurring on a track.  Things like where the start of the mile is (it is 9 meters behind the regular start finish on a 400 meter oval), or that you don’t say 1:20 for a split but “80.”  The opposite holds true as well when track guys go to MUT races and they try to use trekking poles and look like they are throwing a javelin at themselves.

Anyway, I got out in 78 (I actually clicked the first split about 5 meters pass the 409 spot at 80, so I am guessing 77, 78) and it felt way too fast.  Mike had got out into third and I thought those guys were flying.  I looked back at about 600 yards and made uncomfortable note that Brownie was not disappearing that quick – and so cruising was not an option.  I hit the half in 2:36, which I found surprising because it felt like I had slowed significantly.  The third lap is always hell, so I tried to focus a bit because I was not sure how close JT was and I did not want to have to face the roar of the crowd in a last lap kick off (3:55 so a 79).  I heard a guy right behind me the whole way – and managed to muster in a relatively stronger last 100 and not get caught.  Mike H ran 5:01, I did a 5:12, and JT came in at like 33 minutes or something (nah, 5:21, which is nuts considering his weekend). 

I think the guy behind me kicked me down two weeks ago so I felt good about that.  I am still a good distance from a sub 5, but I feel with some focused training (versus exercise), I could get there. 

After an hour of coughing our brains out (typical post the mile), we lined up for the steeple.  I had no goal here other than to not get beat by the guy who just did a 100.  After a lap of stepping up on the hurdles, and jumping off them, I elected to “hand vaulted” over all of them (which was actually probably quicker for me).  Knowing there were folks up at the water pit, I tried to have a good time with it.  On the first lap, Brownie gave me a tap at the water pit that would not have impacted any normal person, but my lack of coordination did not fail me – and I bit it in the water.  (By the way, according to prior agreement, I did this race in Hokas). 

Not very pretty, my first steeple in 20+ years, but worth some good laughs.


I think Brownie actually tried to cannonball into the pit on one of his laps.  I ended up catching some guys who went out way faster than me.  I caught one kid with a lap to go and was putting some distance on him, but I gave a good amount of that up when I did a self elected full submerge on the last water pit.  After the last hurdle I could hear the click of his spikes picking up.  I tried to outkick him, but I was laughing at the prospect of a 42 year old in Hokas in his second event of the night outkicking a kid half of his age.  As would be expected he nipped me for third at the line (I should have made him go wider to lane 3 or 4 rather than just 2).  13 minutes something I guess.  I have no vertical in me whatsoever and it showed.

       

Guess where the hurdles were …

More video to be posted later.

All pix from Rob from the event.  Good time.  Warmed down with JZ for a bit and then joined Rob for an après track party at his pool.