Tuesday 120214

Mid day – 10.2 with Bob.  Always good to run with Bob.  Solve whirled peas and stuff.

News stuff – USATF MUT names their ROY winners.  Cool to see the Roache-Deakins pair make that list.
- this is so Skurka (hat tip to JV for this find). And folks think I am number nutty.  Really I am way more a shoot by the seat of my pants kind of guy. 
- want to check out Canova?  He will be local in a conference soon (thanks JT).   
- apparently Max finds 100ks on the road to be REALLY BORING. 

25 who influence more:  so much of the Colorado ultra runner culture has been built around the legend of the guys who check out, live light, run and travel.  The original vagabond has to be Rickey Gates.

Results – after struggling at CU to make the XC squad, Rickey does his own thing and finds success – winning the US Mountain Running Championships and US Trail Mountain Championships in the same year (2008).  Since then he has blazed a trail in the US, Canada, the freaking SOUTH POLE, and Europe hitting mountain climbs, building climbs, ultras, and road races.

His results only represent part of his story:  he took a year to go work and live in Anartica, he road his motor cycle to South America, he has traveled so much it is almost hard to pin him as a Coloradoan as he is probably more a member of planet Earth than any state.

And he is a writer.  His stuff is regularly in Trail Runner.  While it is not a magazine I subscribe to, it clearly is a platform that influences the thought in the sport.

Wednesday 070214

Mid day – looking to get the legs back a bit before the 1500 meter race tomorrow so I kept it short and easy, 5.2 with Tar and Dave at work.

Scott Jaime going back to Hardrock …

Rickey Gates …

The sandstone running looks cool but I am sure I would wreck myself in there.  By the way, those little jumps people all seem to take on runs now … nope, I don’t do it.  I’d crash.

Bacon is scared of the Incline.

This stuff cracks me up every time.

Friday 120911

9 miles – very easy and slow.  Dog jog in the snow.

Today’s run listening included the MarathonTalk interview with Steve Jones.  I recall meeting Steve face to face on a run in Boulder – probably a decade ago now.  I was a bit star struck, as the guy had set the marathon WR when I was in HS, my formative running years.  After a few minutes of running in a pack with him, I sheepishly told him of how he was one of those guys I looked up at in HS.  And that I recalled there being a poster of some sort up in our guys HS Track team – of him breaking the line with a 2:08:05 (a WR then) at Chicago.  His response was something like, “Ah, that is quite unfortunate.”

Unfortunate?  I quizzed back.  “Yeah, I always had hoped my poster would be up in the girls locker room.”

Good interview. Love the part where he talks about not just beating his competition by 5 seconds, but seeking to annihilate them.

Team Salomon puts up a NF50 vid.  Lot of Rickey in this.

Blah, blah, blah from here …

The 100k thread over at Irunfar ballooned quite a bit, and I tossed my two cents into the comments.  I look at a race like the BTMR, and I see a race that is challenging, competitive, affordable, caters to racers, is on a great course, has awesome aid stations, is relatively close to home and provides me some historical context to other performances.  As a customer of races, I am drawn to a race like that.

If the race committee makes some money off a race – I’d be fine with that.  But from what I know, they don’t and instead they contribute to various community organizations.  The top racers make some prize money as well, and I am fine with that too.  In fact, I support that to some degree because I think it promotes some degree of healthy competition (and heck if I can cherry pick a few bucks, I will do that).  These set of factors (organizers making money, if they contribute to the community, and prize money for winners) can influence me to some degree in my race choice – but I think  to a lesser degree than the factors I mention above.

There are a small handful of races that have effectively driven me away.  I find their combination of factors don’t add up for, particularly against their cost.  And so I don’t do those races.  I take my race dollars elsewhere.  Bolder Boulder sort of falls into this category for me.  It is a highly competitive and close to home race.  And I have raced it at least a half dozen times.  But when I consider the cost of it, and the fact that I have to deal with all those people, it becomes less than appealing to me.

But I don’t expect Bolder Boulder to change.  They have some 50000 people doing their race every year.  Generally, folks are satisfied with the event.  It works for the supplier (Bolder Boulder), it works for the community, it works for the customer.  Most folks are happy.  Don’t like it?  Be like me and don’t do it.  I suspect that if Bolder Boulder suddenly raised their race registration cost to say 1000 dollars, folks would not do it – unless there was a commensurate change of the level of race service provided.  For most folks though, the current cost is appropriate for what they get.

I realize that I could be viewed as a little hypocritical here because I don’t just take my race dollars and move on.  I have grumped a bit (Imogene comes to mind) when a race has failed to meet my expectations.  I reconcile that by thinking here is some room for driving your supplier to change in my mind – but I like to think that can be done in a civil fashion.  If you get a crap meal at a restaurant, you don’t have to just not eat there anymore … but you can let the proprietor know that you were dissatisfied with their service.  They may not know of the issue otherwise.  They might change, or they might not give a rip.

Anyway, reading Bryon’s thread, it is clear to me that some folks put the RD making a few bucks, or whether an elite racer makes a buck, or whether a race contributes to a charity is a much bigger deal to them.  I say if that is the case – pick races that align with that belief set.  If the Steamboat 100 does not align with that, well … there are some 90 plus other 100s in the country and at least 3 others in Colorado.  Have at it. 

Tuesday 080211 part 2

PM - the sun was still up pretty high when I got out for this afternoon run along the beach. I stayed near the beach as I figured that was about the best spot to get a breeze of any sort. 6 miles. Wring out the socks, stuff the newspaper in the shoes and then take a cold shower to get back to normal.

A little article on Rickey G's movement into the ultra space.

Saturday various

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.

Sunday 071810 Barr Trail Race

After being gifted with a stay at Brownie’s palace for the night I headed over to the line.  Got the number, and finished up a 2.5 mile warm up that was RIDICULOUSLY slow.  My purpose in these mountain race warm ups has become less about strides and pace familiarity, and more about just working out the AM kinks.

Enjoyed catching up and meeting with a variety of folks, including Nick, Jesse, Ryan C, Shad, Bernie, Daryn, others.

I had decided to get out carefully, and despite several nudges by folks to go for the prem money.  I think, at least for BTMR, I have finally figured out the front end of this race.  That remains to be proven in the PPA/PPM race, as it is a bit different with the 1.25 lead up.  The trick is simple – go easy (for a race), don’t red line and realize you are still going to feel like arse at some point.  I did cheat and check the HR monitor a few times to gauge effort. 

The start did get out quick, and I was almost instantly transported from my second row start to about 40th place.  On the steep road hill I settled behind Gerald Romero, realizing he’d finish faster than me, and that he runs this race as smart as anyone.

Once into the Ws themselves, I just got into that climb and grind gear.  Positions were exchanged, but for the most part I was picking folks up – and even here being careful in how I passed folks.  I did not want to over exert in getting a few strides ahead.  About 1/2 way up into the Ws I passed Ryan Cooper, but he then passed me pretty aggressively in the last long switch back before where they collect the split.  Just after this, we saw the Kenyan that everyone had been talking about pre race walking back down.

My split (and recorded splits will be posted later) for the Ws was 21:15. 

Coming out of the Ws I hit some of those continued switch backs up to the Rock Arch and I did not feel so great.  But I had good conditions.  I had a group to work with and I could see folks up ahead to work towards.  Laura H and I exchanged positions a couple of times here and there were a few others, as we nudged each other in a tentative unspoken agreement.  Laura passed Megan just before the Rock Arch.

Photo by Christian Alstrin:

I put my head down just before No Name Creek and nearly run over Laura who had stopped to pull a rock from her shoe.  It was no problem.  She swung up past me and put another 15 yards on me before the aide station.  Hit the No Name Creek in 36 flat (14:45).  I was told I was in 24th place (I think).

Our pack reformed as we headed up to Bob’s Road, but as soon as the terrain flattened a bit, I was able to open it up, and I could hear that I was gapping from the group.  I did not have a lot of pop here, but I felt good in being able to actually push more of the run here than I may have in the past.  7.8 sign in 51:37 (15:37) (for what it is worth, comparatively, my other BTMR splits have been better through to here, but this is my best run up to the 78 sign in the four times I have done this race).

I could see Ryan C and some other folks beginning to come back to me on this flatter section.  We hit the little wood bridge about 2/3rds of the way to Barr Camp from No Name, and I started my search for Carpenter.  I typically see him in this spot.  I was surprised to see, at just a few ticks under an hour, Ryan Haefer absolutely FLYING the down hill.  I found myself motivated and while this next section is typically pretty challenging for me, I was able to make a fair go of it.  Just past the half mile to Barr Camp sign, I caught Ryan, who gave me some words of encouragement.  Hit Barr Camp in 69:03.  Again, comparatively, not my best but a handful of seconds within it.

I took a running gulp of water and got on with the down.  I could feel the wobble of the legs, and began to work so that I could get it to pass – and passed two guys pretty quickly.  One came back almost immediately and quickly disappeared down the trail. 

I could tell immediately that I was running a bit carefully.  That is not to say I was not running hard.  But I was being careful while picking my way through the rocks and the uphill runners.  And definitely on any of the curves.  Soon I was in no man’s land – and not seeing any other down hill runners.  I felt like I was running the straights as nearly as fast as I have in the past, but in retrospect, with few folks to gun down – maybe not.  And I was certainly being careful through the turns – not wanting to turn my ankle or take a spill.  As a result, I came down in 39:19.

On the way down I caught the guy who blitzed past me just post Barr Camp.  He was just before Bob’s Road, and heaving.  Ack.  A little further, I saw a red shirt and thought I was going to catch someone else – but as it turned out – it was Tommy Manning who was just out jogging and catching the race action.  I cursed him a bit and he laughed me off.  In the W’s I caught Paul P, who was having shoe issues.  Really excited to see how this kid performs over the coming years.

Photo by Bethany Garner:

This put me in at 20th overall, 19th male (just behind Brandy E who won the women’s race in a course record), 4th masters and 2nd in the 40-44 age group.  My time was 1:48:23, which is my 3rd best out of four tries there.

Initial results.

That said, I am pretty happy with the outcome.  Coming in, with training as it had been and the river trip, I felt that a sub 1:50 would be a big challenge, and “off the charts.”  I was confident that I could get under two hours, but thought I’d run closer to a 75 up and a 40 down for a 1:55. 

The race was very deep this year, with nine guys going under 1:40, including Haefer who ran a new course record of 1:29:04 (breaking Carpenter’s record of 1:29:33.  There is chatter that he broke Bernie’s downhill best.  Gates was second, and Carpenter ended up in third.  There will certainly be some speculation on that in the coming days, I am sure.

The next set of spaces, 4-7 shifted at the finish from when I saw them coming down.  I know Bernie bombed the down hill.  Those guys finished 15 seconds or so within each other.  Damn!

Afterwards, I jogged back up to the first switch back of the Ws and watched the finishers with JT and Katie.  Quite a thing to watch.

Of course, the awards assembly was a blast – seeing people, chatting up the war stories, and just the general communion there.  Tons of pizza, lots of watermelon, lots of awards.

Photos by Bethany Garner Start and lower Ws
Photos by Chris Alstrin Upper Ws
Photos by John Garner Awards cremony

Nick taking the age group, 35-39 and 12th overall in 1:42 something.

Top three masters.  Guess who was out of the money and fourth?
Top three women. 

Top three men.  Notice Haefer’s socks.  I’d suggest that based on his perf, and Solinsky’s performance, socks are superior as a performance enhancement to beards.
 
Some of the top dogs exchange stories.

Monday 060710

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).

Thursday 052710

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.

Wednesday 051910

AM – Green Mountain.  Easy.  Felt a bit sluggish.  Took the Chaut-Gregory-Long-West Green route.  Started back down that route but went with the road down to get a little more mileage.  11 miles.

According to his facebook, Rickey ran the North to the South Rim in the Grand Canyon in a record tying 3:07, while managing getting lost on that trip.  That is moving pretty fast.

Friday 112009

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.

WMRC post editorials

• Rickey G posts re: WMRC. Interesting stuff. This morning in a conversation with Rick I was wondering if this year's WMRC represented a bit of a "coming out" party for the African nations, the way the Olympics of 68 in Mexico City did.
• Rickey also alludes to something I was talking to Tim G about: an ability to peak at WMRC with a lot of other racing. I realize that when guys like Parr and Rickey win a spot, hell - if they want to walk the WMRC - that is their privillige they have earned. And maybe that is acceptable in the "minor league" (a league I'd love to join but it is beyond my capabilities and choices). But there is something about it that leaves me uneasy. I realize I probably should give a crap, but if Ritz raced a marathon the week before the 10k in Beijing - my sense is people would be ripping him. So I am a bit back and forth as to whether to be critical of not peaking for WMRC by racing a lot or doing an 100 mile race, or whether to compliment those guys for "living it." (crikey - if Parr wins Imogene tomorrow, he will have had a Triple Crown of Colorado of sorts). We respect the guy who races great all the time, but we also respect the guy (or gal) who races killer come the one race out of the year.
• At the end of it, I have to defer to smiling at how they chose their journey. It might not be how I would choose, or how you would choose - but it is one that resonnated with how they wanted to live it. But if you would do it differently, I respect that too. It is the right thing to do. I raise a beer to any of those guys, and will gladly buy them one. (By the way, I have similar considerations for Anton going for it - for the CR, although folks have been critical of that as well).

Rickey’s post …

• Blatant blog thievery here … Ricky’s post. When a guy of his experience says, “To say that Sierre-Zinal is one of the greatest mountain races in the world would be an understatement,” it gets my attention. When he talks about the fluid nature of Kilian, I have to grin, because it is the same sort of chatter I have had with others when talking about Rickey.
• … this is pretty neat too .

Friday 070309

 

 

 

 

 

Headed out on Park County Road 12 this AM.  This is about a 2 mile run down to a fork of the Platte River and then you start running up towards Mosquito Pass.  Most of the road is never really steep (except above the river crossing past the lower London Mine – which is about the last 2 miles heading up to Mosquito Pass), with the grade averaging 4-5% (a few sections are a bit steeper, but not much and not for long).  Plan was to get out for 2 hours, capping the effort on the way out and then building the effort on the way back, with the last two miles back up being hard.  They would be hard anyway but I figured I’d put that out there to start.  Ran wit the Camelbak.  I had contemplated running all the way out the pass but the early morning clouds as well as other planned obligations put the ka-bosh on that. London Mountain is in the center of this shot (at the start) and Mosquito Pass essentially sits behind and to the left (south of it).

 

 

On the way out changed plans up a bit and thought if I could average under 10 minute miles, I’d do 8 out and then get back in about an hour.  That would give me about 2:20.  Averaged 1:45 out, and got out there in 80 for the 8, but just barely.  The last two miles were north of 11.  Comparisons of ending altitude, GPS versus barometric.

This “finish” was just below the lower London Mine.  It would be, if memory serves me correctly, about three more miles to the Pass (that then can drop into Leadville).  I took quick bio break and started the run down.    

I was able to keep near sevens under the 150 cap.  After about ten miles I let things begin to float above 150, and then 160 near 12.  Just as I was about a half mile into the last two miles, KZ called me (you can see where in the HR data below).  Oh  well – it is my daughter, I am going to take that call in a run.  I took the pause, but then circled back a bit to get the HR back up before starting the watch again, but it still took me a bit to get back to 170 again.  The last mile hurt in the legs but it was a good hurt (whatever that means).   HR average on the way back was 159, with the last four at 166, last two 168 (albeit with the interruption).  Total side note – I notice near the start of both segments a jump in HR for no apparent reason (plus 160).  It quickly drops though.  Might be the HR monitor but the Garmin has not done that historically.  16 miles on the day, 1300 feet plus of climbing, 2:17.  Feeling good.  Definitely feeling some of the load, but it is not killing me.  :)

This is funny … particularly since one of the competitors won’t even be on the same continent as the race.

Good post on how to train with a HR monitor.

 

Loon Mountain race this weekend back east:  It consists of a 1/2 mile climb up a 40% grade ski slope to the top of North Peak before you bomb down the Sunset trail on the other side to the finish. OUCH.

 

Podcast via Mzungo with Ritz.

Monday 062909

• Slept in (man that felt good) to help ensure recovery from yesterday. Felt pretty good through the day yesterday but I was ready for the rack big time when nine bells hit. Will go easy and maybe a bit lower on miles today. Looks like I might get the opportunity later this week to be up high. Resting HR this AM was 44.
• Congrats to all the folks who ran Cranmore yesterday. Joe Gray won it by a lot, Zac F was second, Matt Byrne was third. Rickey G was fourth (insightful post) but I’d think he has to be a lock for the at large berth given his performance at Mount Washington. Fellow Fleet Feet teammate and kick me in the ass at the “wall” at Mount Washington guy Simon G was seventh.
• Post race interview with Hal from WS100.  Anita O’s post race interview.  Thrashing on ultras in the comments today … Brett’s post covers it best.
• mid day – very slow and easy 8 miles (warm, 90 degrees). I notice a total deflection in pace (slowing) while maintaining the same HR on warm days around 20-30 minutes of running. I can only assume it is because my core temperature rises to a point at time where the heart has to work harder (at the same pace) to keep the body cool.  And so when I run at a near constant HR, that means I need to run slower to do that. AHR =144, max 149. Definitely a bit sluggish in the legs today – but not bad. I am hoping I get out for a few more tonight (not a guarantee)

Monday 062209

• Some of my photos re: Mount Washington got posted on irunfar.
• DoubleJ Mt Washington report (with good video)
• Dave D Mt Washington report
• Justin Fyffe report
• David Q report
• Post on Simon at Mount Washington
• Rickey Gates at Mt Washington (his race report)

• AM – 5 miles, super easy. AHR 145. Resting HR was 48 this AM … so, a bit higher than last week’s 43.
• PM – 7 miles, easy. AHR 146