Mount Washington results. (more lengthy results) West certainly represents (with 5 of the top 6 spots going to those with CO ties in the men's race and top two in the women's race). Although Rickey just from Earth. Looks like it was quite the barn burner between Gates and Manning. Good to see Simon back and Dunham pulls off another sub 70.
Kilian gets lost.
AM – little stiffness from yesterdays harder efforts (good!). 7 miles, easy. AHR = 139, max = 148, pace averaged just under 8s.
Coworker who chases storms rhino-lined his vehicle and set it up with bullet proof glass. You can see why.
More Mount Washington reports: Jim Johnson (There is probably no other time that going out conservatively will benefit you more, than at Mount Washington), Scott Mason, Jim P. … Photos by Kristen W and Photos by Scott Mason
More Mount Evans – Jim Mallory.
Bucks on the line for records at WS. Funny thing is when I look at Meltzer’s odds there is a theme to be successful: run your own run, and guys slugging it out with each other or the watch are almost prescribed to fail.
PM – easy 8 miles. Warm.
Archiving this poll … Gates, Blake, Gray make the team. I did not even have Siemers on the list. Few folks picked Manning (I did …).
Evening walk with KZ
In the mountains, and so on limited (by design) connectivity, but I can see the USMRT selectees from the MW race here … http://www.comfortinc.com/cgi-bin/mwresults … looks like the women’s record was destroyed. Lots to guess at with the results. Curious to hear race reports and how things played out.
Some kid ran 1:44ish at Mount Evans, (results are up off a link there) and Bob was second in 1:54.
unrelated side note … I found this picture on the Mount Evans site that captures Carpenter’s football technique with a water bottle pretty well.
After sleeping for two days in the woods with the Scouts, I elected to sleep in a bit – so no morning run.
Justin has a good run down of the weekend action, including mountain running up in Vail. I don’t see Mario on the start list for MW, but he won both races handedly. Gates seems to be shaping up into form well.
Afternoon – started at the Flatiron Vista trailhead … and rather do the typical 10 mile lollipop I added on to make it a nice 12 mile loop with about 1000 feet of climbing. I headed out as typical, but then I cut down the road from the top, to the Fowler trail and then took the road out of Eldorado back to the Doudy Draw Trailhead. On the upper parts of the trailhead I saw a snake (as it cut under me as I ran – it scared the bejeebers out of me!) and several deer. I then took the Community Ditch over to the Marshall Mesa. Again, I was both amused and confounded again by the optical illusion of the trail. As you are running adjacent to the trail, and you see the water flowing down in easterly direction – and you are running that way, it seems very obvious you are running downhill. But optically, the trail seems to be going slightly uphill. The GPS measures that this section drops a very very slight 30 feet over two plus miles. That is more than enough to move water (a negative 0.3 percent grade).
AM – 12 miles. Explored some roads off the Mosquito Pass road. Good stuff. Dehydrated. Even though I am keeping at it fairly well (drinking) , I struggle with this a bit up here.
Excellent podcast interview with Jim Ryun.
65 miles on the week with it at 9.5 hours on the week. 369 miles on May, 1719 on the year and 250.5 hours on the year. Not stoked about the week but it is what it is, and hopefully I learn from it.
Heading to Loveland-ish in the AM for some running.
Mount Washington course in a nutshell, sans the wall
Learning, or probably relearning a bunch of lessons re: business travel this week. I was able to “get back on the horse” a bit today after hitting a preventable, but typical mid week crash in the midst of a week of long days and meetings. 12 miles. Found a nice trail system (this is also a typical event – I find the trail system I’d like to explore at the tail end of the week).
Rickey put up a post of his N-S R2R run.
Double D predicts women for MW.
A new site re: Pikes and activities on it.
Interview with Tony.
Drug cheats … playing a step ahead of the game. "You can use three to four times your body's normal production of EPO if you inject it intravenously and have virtually no chance of testing positive within a matter of hours," Landis told ESPN.com. "So the biological passport is a joke, and I'm fairly certain the UCI knows about it.” A good related read at SOS.
Dave D has a great set of predictions for Mount Washington.
Jurek’s post re: his 24 hour record
Tired – which is the norm on these trips for me. Everything is a bit off … which adds up to a lot being off. No matter – it does not matter and I just look to be consistent.
Got to bed early (8) and got up early and got some miles in the dark, humid, warmth (75 at 4:30). Did an hour with 20 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off in there, and then met up with co-worker Tom for a few additional miles. 13 miles.
Saw two different folks running barefoot on the sidewalks yesterday.
AM – 10.5 miles on the Nada loop. It takes me about a mile to wake up on these runs. Last year, keeping these runs easy by forcing myself under a HR cap of 150, I’d run about 8 minute pace. Now, I end up under that (around 7:45) and my HR is 140-145 for most stretches. For the easy stuff, I am not tempted to go much faster … yet. Today’s listening … the Silversun Pickups
In a typical bonehead Zack move, I lost my camera. I am pretty sure that at the close of my run yesterday, I put it on top of the Element. And that is probably where it was when I took off to go to work. Awesome. Ah well.
I am thinking my elevation goal of 15k this week may not work out – just sizing up the rest of the week with work, family activities. Might need to chase miles instead.
Everyone is buzzing about Floyd Landis today. Sigh. Whatever. Part of the reason why I say I am less interested in pro sports is because of crapola like that.
I put up a poll the other day re: who gets selected for the men’s USMRT. One of the guys I am rooting to make the squad is Kevin Tilton. Coached by Nate Jenkins …
Good stuff in yesterday’s comments re: R2R2R actual races from yester-year. A little bit on the R2R2R at Endurance Planet. Related to all that, the scab on the heel of my hand from wiping out on the Black Bridge is nearly completely healed.
Marathon Talk has an interview with Ryan Hall (23 minutes in).
PM – easy 9.5 miles.
Outside of the longer days and shorter nights, trees popping buds leaves, and the white stuff of snow and ice disappearing, there are other incredibly clear indicators that the burn of summer is arriving.
Namely, races.
They seem to come in drips and spurts through the late winter and spring, but then they flood at you, spilling over the dam. Their flood is intoxicating and inspiring.
This weekend is no exception. Good luck to Lucho and Bret this weekend at the Collegiate Peaks 50, and to Tim and Tony at Miwok (good preview of Miwok here). Plus there is a boat load of other races (Greenland … ). JP and Beth are doing a frakin’ IM in St George Utah!
Shifting gears … a nice short piece, reminder on professional development .
Got out for an early morning jaunt up something I have been avoiding most of the winter: vertical, and namely that mistress called Green Mountain. I hear some guy has been dating this chick most the winter but that he is out of town this week. Apparently she is real popular now. In any case, as she seems to have a love affair now for the long haired young academic types I figured I make my case for the short haired short guy nine toed happily married old man type.
I had not been here since January 18 (a slip fest for me that day as I came armed without traction). Before that, it had been October of last year since I had been to this bump.
My only goal for today was to run the entire distance. At times, this meant I may have been “running” more slowly than if I were power hiking (probably near 3.5 mph for me), but that did not matter. I wanted to get the work in of running to into the adaptation of uphill running. So no “ripping it” from the line today – instead a bit of a re-familiarization of sorts. Taking the Gregory route (it is slightly more shallow) I did manage to run the mountain, although there were a couple of short stretches near the top (north facing) that were covered with snow that were really slow.
Even though I have not been faithful to Ms. Green this winter, she welcomed me with sweet smells of apple blossoms down low, pine covered trails, familiar rock step ups, and that familiar wind once you break the ridge that opens to the West. Gorgeous morning out there.
Went shirtless, so it was a touch nippy at the top with a cool breeze (it was very comfortable at the bottom however, although it might snow again tomorrow – this after temps in the 80s today!). I took in some quick views and headed back the path I came, and then tacked on some Enchanted Mesa goodness to round the run out to 10 miles and 3000+ feet of gain. Overall I felt good. Then again, I was not drilling it. More of this sort of stuff to come.
Eric Morse is a total bad ass.
And on that front, the initial Mount Washington Road Race Hall of Fame inductees have been named.
Happy Birthday TZ (we celebrated last night).
AM – easy 8 miles. Put a cap on specifically not allowing HR to rise above 150. Just curious. 
Beautiful morning. Started before dawn, so saw the moon set. When I get up this early, I often run in the middle of the road – as traffic is not moving yet.
IPOD-less, and enjoyed hearing all the birds waking up, and rummaging over various dust bunnies in my head. I have been specifically trying to not think about running, and more specifically any sort of desired results … other than just getting out for training and enjoying it. I have the tendency to get amped up early, and feel some sort of crazy need to get after it like yesterday. I can’t say that this not thinking about it has not been without some effort … weird. For example, I found that I was not compelled to go hit the entry lists for Pikes … in fact, I was not thinking about Pikes much at all. No count down timers. No trolling the entry lists to see who is in or out. Not circling weekends as days I expect to get down to the mountain. Not sweating that I am hanging out in Moab.
Of course, there are sparks thrown that potentially light my fire a bit. 33 mile runs. Lots of run up Green. And Justin dropped me a note that MC had entered the marathon, and we started to speculate a bit as to a showdown between him and Timmy. So that got me itchy a bit … but I let it go. So, then I let it go. I decide to just go and be boring, lay low.
So I am out being mindless this morning, but then I get a little freaked about going to Grand Canyon in a few weeks. Grand Canyon beta. “Holy crap. Grand Canyon. Shit. I have not done crap for vertical.” (Side note – I have avoided playing on the big verticals … simply because I am not interested in hip deep wades in the snow at 20 m/m … well, that and the calf).
So … the fire is ready to go. Just keeping the dampers down for now. I think. Or at least trying to. 
Still no Mount Washington Lottery results. Really? Post script 03302010 … lottery results are now up and it appears that I did not make the cut. Hmmm … Mount Evans? Go and watch San Juan Solstice? Or some other epic fun run that I make up? A few notes of those who made it from the dominant state of COLORADO: Alex Nichols, Andy Ames, Brandy Erholtz, Rickey Gates, Lisa Goldsmith, Simon Guiterrez, Ryan Hafer, Megan Lund, Tim Parr, John Tribbia,
PM – down right warm. And breezy. 8 miles easy.
Evening – winds died down a bit. KZ at soccer so I did drills and core off the field edge for about 25 minutes, and then did 2 miles super easy, but with 8 (I think) strides at max effort, 10 sec each. Full slow recovery between. Lake nearby, so I was also getting some protein via the bugs.
Good post: Our performances decline when we are no longer willing to do the work required for success, and that happens a lot earlier than the ravages of time.
Pocast interview with Mr. Tony. Kicks around his Pb DNF against “going for it.” Hits on his Green Mountain project, mentions SE … Good stuff.
24 hour run national team announced.
Podcast interview with Ryan Hall
Enjoyed this post on an approach to Leadville
AM - calf still tight. Easy 3 miles.
I will admit … I was a bit pissed post this run. The calf is not getting better really. It has been stuck in its rehab. And I know why.. It is not getting better because I know I am dicking with it. In many cases, my easiest path through an injury has been to work (meaning, run) through it. So I am a bit pissed that this was not working. And I have seen that before. So I am pissed with that too. I am a bit pissed because I had put a silly target in my head of getting a hundred miles in this week. I had been kicking around that I’d just do easy miles for the next couple of weeks, and then have lax week over spring break. This was obviously, not going to work either. I am a bit pissed because the rest of me felt good, except I had this damn flat tire. I was pissed because I wanted to run with folks as the weather warmed. Hearing that all the cool kids (Lucho, Tony, Jeff) were doing miles, running mountains, and reading about upcoming summer races … hell I was a bit pissed and jealous.
Time for me to put my stupidity ego on the shelf – again, and let this rehab. And let the fitness come to me rather than force the issue. Turn into the skid. Let the ball come to me and not chase it. Nu-nu-nu-nu-nu-nu … but yeah, it pisses me off. Mostly because I knew all this. Which is another way of saying – I am stupid.
Got on the bike at work this afternoon. Time to move on. It makes my butt hurt, but the best advice I heard on that was, “push the pedals harder.” 90 minutes with various games to pass the time (min on, min off, min of single leg drills, etc). A woman from my work was on the mill next me with the incline cranked way up. She is prepping for a trek up some hill in Bolivia to 20000 plus feet. Damn.
A smaller hill …
Later in the day I heard of a person who had a pain in their calf and it was a blood clot. Awesome. Love hearing that sort of stuff.
JJ puts up a very interesting post today re: Mount Washington. First it appears that mountain running community will get what many folks want: one selection race. Combo this fact with the designation as National Mountain Running Championship and that it will be the 50th running, and I am thinking it will be challenging to get in. I have a handful of old timers here thinking we’d send a team (I need some redemption after last year) – but not sure we will all get slots!
But – one race to rule them all! Wow. Put up or shut up. I think this is a good move: Mount Washington is one of the premiere mountain races in the country, and its depth of competition is probably the deepest anywhere in country.
Bit of back and forth debate over at Karl’s site on an old topic: roadies stepping up to ultras. I love Ben Nephew’s comment. Complete results for the NF50 are up.
10 miles on the mill. 71 miles on the week with it coming over 575 minutes. December is 61 miles. 3426 miles on the year, 30088 minutes. It is the 340th day of the year so there are 25 days left in the year. To average 10 a day for the year, I would need to get 224 miles, or ~9 a day. I like the ~300000 minutes because that is about 8.5 days of running. Which is sort of saying, I don’t run much at all (it compromises less than 4% of time this year).
10 miles, easy – AHR = 144. Felt a little fatigued in the legs, but nothing serious. Got one of those weird foot cramp tweaks in the right foot towards the end. It seems like I get one of these once a month (they just come and go). In fact, when I run hard (race), I don’t feel it … probably because I am focused elsewhere, thinking about what else hurts But when running easy, I feel it every step. It is not debilitating, but more this gnaw where you wonder if something is falling apart.
Pete M is talking up USATF XC club nats.
I work with a guy who is a software programmer for our company. But in his spare time, he is a storm chaser. He drives crazy distances across Kansas, eastern Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas chasing storms. He told me a story last summer how he had bought a brand new Subaru Outback and it was significantly beat up the third day he had it. Hail damage. He is now trying a new solution. Ever hear of Rhino lining? Yeah, it is that stuff you use to line a truck bed. He is going to line his whole car’s exterior with it.
Justin’s posts called Jared’s People are both sad and comical. Sort of like This American Life.
We are kicking around extending our cellular plan to include our daughter, KZ. She does not clamor for a cell phone but our (TZ and me) have some thoughts that her having one would be advantageous for all of us. Apparently, we can’t get a plan that does NOT allow texting. I am pretty sure KZ would not be a text-maniac (she is just not that sort of kid) but apparently unless we purchase unlimited texting, we need to pay for text messages INBOUND – even if we don’t want them. We rather just have minutes, and no text option at all. Apparently this is not an option. Yeah, I am bitchin …
I saw video from last year’s MWRR tonight. Holy crap do I look bad. Real bad. I forgot – like we forget after all races – how bad that mother hurt. It took 2 seconds of footage for me to remember very clearly. I appear at one point in the race (and it was much later in the pack than I remembered, or perhaps wanted to remember) … my stride is miniscule, my shoulders are slumped, I am looking STRAIGHT DOWN … ack. Some good footage in there though. Rickey sprinting through the tape is pretty downright scary. One of things on the plan for 2010 is to go back, and bring a Masters team.
Enjoyed this from the local paper:
One definition for perseverance is a "steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement." I recently read an article that highlighted how one leader, who was faced with many challenges, used perseverance to prevail. Here are some of his challenges: He failed in business in `31. He was defeated for state legislator in `32. He tried another business in `33. It also failed. His fiancée died in `35. He had a nervous breakdown in `36. In `43 he ran for Congress and was defeated. He tried again in `48 and was defeated. He tried running for the Senate in `55. He lost. The next year he ran for vice president and lost. In `59 he ran for the Senate again and was defeated. After facing those challenges, in 1860, the man who signed is name A. Lincoln became the 16th president of the United States.
Also in that paper, from the police blotter … A man was arrested for trying to steal a Tuff Shed from the 400 block of Hoyt Street. Damn. Now that is perseverance.
Race report from the race site is up … .
Joe Dodge Lodge
View from the top
Top five and interview with the winners
Short of it – tough day and go for me: 81 minutes and change and 61st place. Definitely a very tough road, very tough grind. A few shots. 
A sea of clouds at the top … Dave D on the right preparing for a run down. 
If you look closely in this shot, you can see the road down below and folks coming up …
Back into the clouds on the way down
With 7 time winner, Hodgie San (2:11:52 marathoner) (and NE running legend, and popular poster on the evil message board) post race
The Colorado contingent hydrates (Lisa G and Simon G) 
Rickey G ran 59:58 to win. Apparently he got word of the tightness of the hour barrier and sprinted the last hundred yards to get the time and the 500 dollar bonus. 2nd place and former champ Eric Blake is to his right 
Fellow blogger and 70 minutes today (damn good time!)– Double J (great guy, excellent ambassador for the state of CO) 
I did not run as well as I would have like but I ran. There were two segments where I went to the walk – the hairpin for about 5 yards, and the “wall” (22% – really) with for about 3 seconds before I heard Simon G tell me “NO!” That got me back in the groove. I’d be lying if I said I was not disappointed with the result, but I think I raced where I am at fitness wise. That is about all one can expect. There is no faking it.
I was asked by a lot of folks today what I thought of this race as it was my first time out there. It is, as many told me, truly unrelenting. Well, there might be a spot for about 50 yards at four miles and change that gives a little bit (seriously). But other than that, you grind and grind and grind and grind.
I like to come back and give this another go. Honestly, I think if I could get my shit together, I could be running this thing under 75 (but why it is not together is a different post). I’d like to come back here next year with TZ for the better part of a week, enjoying time with her, the scenery, the race, the hills. That would be a blast. Just need to see if I get in next year. Hell, I might do that anyway, even if I don’t get in.
Mile 1 (this is actually .9 as the miles are measured on the road from US16 – the course starts about a tenth in from that) – 7:15, Mile 2 – 17:12, Mile 3 –28:11, Mid-point - 38:16, 4 miles - 39:21, Mile 5 – 51:23, Mile 6 – 62:47, Mile 7 – 74:06, finish 81:19.
Yes, that means that last 6/10ths of a mile took me over 7 minutes. Ouch.
(Contrast to Rickey G’s splits … M1 6:20, halfway at 28:55, 4M 31:57) (holy crow)
I never felt good. Didn’t feel “bad” (nothing acute that is) either. Just couldn’t really go faster. AvHR was 177 with a max of 185. It looks like I may have got out too fast (the HR data / pace seem to show that) … After the initial rise in HR, I held 183 for about 15-17 minutes, then 176 average for the rest of the race. Yeah, that might be going out too fast. The spike in the blue line (pace) is where I walked the “hairpin.” The drop in pace past five miles is the one place where the course “lets up.” As you can see … it is brief.
Using DD’s Mt Washington Race predictor … based on my BB10k, I fell right in the range of the predictor, but this also confirms I was a bit too fast to start.
Ran back down with Dave D, Eric M, Dave Q … great group of guys (JJ and Kevin T did not run down – too bad because I wanted to shoot the crap more with them). It was awesome to meet these guys.
Post race got to chat it up with Scott M, Justin F (mostly about brewing beer instead of racing), (links forthcoming) and a bunch of the Colorado contingent. Good stuff.
I was chatting with John T (who ran 68 – very nice!) about the NE racing scene compared to the CO scene. It is definitely much more “type B” in Colorado. The club scene here is certainly richer, and I envy that a bit.
Articles on the race … Union Leader (with pic of Kevin Tilton), and the Concord Register. Lots of great photos from Scott Mason. Overall results …
Traveled to Pinkham Notch, NH today ...
When I got here (Mount Washington Valley) I headed to the Eagle House in Jackson to pick up the race packet. I quickly spotted some folks from the blog-o-sphere, including DD, JJ, Kevin Tilton and DQ. … first, all these guys are tinier in real life then what they look like in their blogs. Seriously, internet – blog pictures put easily put 10 pounds on all these guys. 
ted to get a bunch of pix but figured whipping out the camera to ask them to pose for shots would be a little rich in the first five minutes of meeting them. 
