Week ending 26JAN2020

The week started with a significant amount of concern over what was going on with me internally.  I was so wracked with pain on Saturday and Sunday last week that I spent significant portions of time writhing around on the couch or passed out.  It led to speculation that I was dealing with a kidney stone, renal failure, a gall bladder gone bad or a blood clot from the long flight back from Singapore.  I stubbornly refused to go the ER given the costs, and that I'd have periods where it seemed I was "getting better."  On Monday I tried to schedule a doc visit but the soonest they'd be able to see me was on Tuesday.  Given I already had a routine appointment set for Wednesday anyway - I decided to wait until then.

My doc was pretty certain it was not a gall bladder issue (when palpating my abdomen I had no pain), and that it was not a blood clot given there was no issues in my calves and that I was breathing ok.  We set up for the typical annual labs and we agreed to also add a D-Dimer test.  If it came back high, it could be considered a marker for a possible clot and then I'd need a CT scan "stat" (I wondered what stat is all about and it comes from a Latin word meaning immediately).  Around noon I got a call back that it had indeed tested out high and so I went and got the scan.  Within 30 minutes my doc called me and shared the good news that I didn't have a clot ... but instead I had pneumonia.

Uhh ... okay, great.  I guess the side pain may also be a related to that.  There is some speculation I may also be dealing with a pleurisy or some deep muscle strain from coughing associated with that.  In any case, I am now on an antibiotic regimen (the "Z-pack") to deal with the pneumonia.

All this is to say ... it has been a week of "training" that wasn't training at all but just jogging for head space more than anything else.  I tried to listen to my body and not push anything - and frankly that was easy because I felt like physical garbage most of the week.  Ah well.  Better now than later I guess.

Other fun update was that as I have now completed 5 decade of life that routine physical also set me up for scheduling a colonoscopy.  For some reason, my children, father and even the referring physician have all found this to be news to snicker at when it is discussed.

Mon - 7.4 miles
Tue - 5.4 miles in the AM with Greg, PM - 4.7 with the Eagles
Wed - 5 miles with the Eagles.  Shortened day because of CT scan
Thu - 10 miles in the morning that included a couple with TZ and then a couple with GW, travel to PHX in the later evening
Fri - in PHX, AM - 8.6 miles along the canal.  Dark.
Sat - AM, flying with the Eagles.  Did a ten minute threshold effort at 6:20 pace.  I was fine but doing much more than that with the pneumonia, the antibiotics and just a handful of hours of sleep would have caused me to crater.  I called it while the birds flew on.
A little later another 5.2 along the ditch with a couple with TZ and KZ
Sun - on the Mall, 8.6 miles.  Legs a little tired from the travel to DC.





Song I did as part of the 20 City Project, this go in Singapore.  As a side note, this got me held up in TSA Precheck security this week:

Best part was that I could see they were staring at the capo on the Xray.  Guy in line next to me asked if I had a water bottle in my bag or something and I replied, "nah, they just don't know what a capo is."  The TSA officer heard me and got pissed.  "Sir, I do know what a capo is."  I got polite and apologetic.

She then came over, looked in my guitar bag, pulled the capo out and asked "what is this?"  And so I showed her.  Good stuff.  Pew pew bang bang.

I had a couple of hours in the PHX airport on Friday night before coming back.  As a part of a music project thought goal I have of playing my own gig, I have been building my cupboard of tunes.  I have about 25 in the can at this point.  I played through about 20 of them in the airport.  Part of this doing this drill is just straight up guitar practice ... but it is also playing through the tunes to see what goes together, what balances from song to song, learning from that and shifting up for next time.

I found a corner near my gate, but away from most folks.  Nonetheless, there were a few folks that came up and commented - an older couple, some kids taking video of me with their phones, and another six string troubadour.  All good.  I did something like this in Singapore, and one of the lessons I learned is that my voice is not really strong enough to hold it out for two hours of playing.   I got to about 45 minutes there and I was done.  So ... work to be done.

I have long eyeballed the Gibson ES-335 but have never laid hands on one.  I did as little test driving this weekend.

The arch tops there are a 235 (the black one) and a 275 (the rose one) and they are pretty dang sweet too.  I found the 335 with the Bigsby to be a bit oddly weighted.  In any case, I'll keep trying them out.

Wednesday 17JAN2019

Still coming out of the funk.  I have a very chest laden cold now – heavy coughing, and a lot of rattle in there.  It is the sort of cough where you do it enough that your head and the rest of your body starts to hurt because you are violently trying to get some ick out of your lungs.

I jogged over to the high school for practice and then did another five miles with Greg.  Six miles total … slooooow. 

Jammed in the evening with a couple of guys.  It might turn into  a gig that plays a local brewery or two.
  

I am pretty sure we sounded just like this.


or this

Tuesday 15JAN2019

I was horizontal at 5PM last night.  I slept some.  Then I tossed and turned.  I watched some WWII stuff on Nat Geo and got uptight about the Nazis and the Soviets for a bit.  And then I fell back asleep.  Then the stomach cramps – or I don’t really know what they were  - started and I was a wreck. 

And I was back up around 8AM.  The headache is gone but I have a very nasty hack and feel pretty weak. 

I got out for a very easy five in the afternoon, overseeing a fartlek effort for the team.  TZ really didn’t want me to run, but I promised to keep it slow and easy and not too much. 

Sicko

I’m really just a sloppy mess right now.  Clogged up, fevered up, and just tired.  Meh. 

Several voices on the board told me to keep my arse in bed.  So I finally listened and took to that.  I think if I headed out, TZ might have beat me.

Oatmealfest not 5k

I went to bed at 8:30 Friday night and slept hard until 6:30.  Again this is not usual.  I took my temperature and it read 99.6.  I really didn’t want to race but I had registered, told folks I was doing it, so I was determined to head over and just see how I felt on the warm up to make a call.  I mean – I was gonna jog anyway, right?

I met up with Greg and Jen and did a light 3 and a half  miles in the snow covered streets.  We learned that the part of the course that cut up to the boathouse on the trail was going to be cut out of the course because of the snow – and that it would be significantly short.

I felt like complete ass on the warm up.  Nasty sweats, hacking and blowing out a bunch of goo.  Between not feeling good and the course being short, I knew I was not going to be satisfied with my race day at all.  Perhaps hearing the message from the universe,  I decided to run with Jen to serve as a pacer for her.  It gave me a little workout, and the satisfaction of doing something without the all out effort of a race.  2.7 miles at 6:43 pace.

I had JZ take me home immediately after the race.  I didn’t warm down or stay for the oatmeal breakfast.  I took a hot shower and then … I slept for another 2 hours. 

I got up because there was a meet over at the CU Indoor Practice Facility and Broomfield Eagle grad Mike M was racing in the mile unattached.  It was fun to see him race again, put up a 4:12.x, get the win and see all the typical folks a meet like this draws.

Post the race, came home and … slept.  So, yeah, I’m officially sick.

Thursday 10JAN2019

I might be sick.  I don’t know.  I am certainly not well.  I awoke with a headache that I carried most of the AM and that I tried to put at bay by catching some quick naps between work calls.  It helped a little.  I told TZ it might that I have cold or a sinus infection coming on or maybe the flu.

Jogged six in the afternoon – 8:07 pace around the Commons.  I had thought of doing a gym session today but I decided against it given how I was feeling.  The run seemed to help.  Squats however sounded like a recipe for vomiting. 

I also registered for the Oatmeal Fest 5k in Lafayette this weekend.  Hopefully I’ll shake whatever it is I am dealing with and see if I can demonstrate a bit of improvement on the 5k.

Thursday 06JUL2017

Still expelling a lot of snot, etc and so I decided not to race today.  Actually it helped that Greg said, “what would you tell you if you were your coach?”

AM – four with GW to Josh’s Pond.  Already hot. 

I was going to go in the evening but the persistent hack had TZ insist otherwise. 

A coach for the coaches:

Wednesday 05JUL2017

This cough is wrecking me.  I definitely aggravated the heck out of my lungs by racing with this cold and I am paying the price yesterday after the race and today.   It is bad enough that I am seriously contemplating not racing at the BRR Thursday night.  In addition to this illness probably impacting the race, I am more concerned about how the race would impact the illness.

AM – easy 5.2 miles with the XC team.

Evening – 5 miles.  Super easy.

Friday 30JUN2017

AM – 5.2 miles with Greg and the team down to Josh’s Pond and back.  I did a half dozen grass strides when we returned.

My nose is running like a hydrant.  I am definitely dealing with some sort of cold or nasal infection or something that has come on via a combination of travel (out of my element, in a tube in the sky,effed up sleep) and a bit more running (I did 42 miles M-W).  I was blowing my nose and sneezing like I had been inhaling cayenne powder nearly all the way home.  I am sure this made the already pissed folks on our flight more pissed (our flight was about 4 hours late in landing due to various delays).  Today, I am fairly sure I am running a low grade fever.

I had no juice on the AM run but again, getting out and doing it always makes me feel better than not. 

Afternoon  - 7.1 (typical loop for that, CCW) and even though I was snotting up a storm and sweating from the fever, it went fairly well.

June – 327.8 miles, 44.55 hours, 13130 feet
Year – 1883.8 miles, 253.55 hours, 82130 feet
Other stuff – averaging 9.86 hours a week, 73.26 miles a week, 6 run days off on the year, 20 business travel nights, and 5 camping nights on the year.  10.47 miles average a day but 10.83 on the days actually run, averaging 7.43 mph.  Travel is at 11% on the year.  3 races run (a mile, a 1500 and a burro race)

Weekend 0516-1715

Saturday – I think I am nearly through this pretty nasty cold.  Still hacking up crap but it feels as if the worst of it has passed.  That was not a fun two weeks on the health front.  A busy day and an eye on a larger Sunday had me decide to keep this day light:  5 very easy miles.

Sunday – 2 laps of Green, all on the front side.  I thought I might do three if I felt good and the timing was working well.  I was not feeling particularly strong, and had ate up a fair chunk of the AM off two laps and called it at that.  I saw the hiker guy Skurka out there and had the pleasure of JV joining me for the second half of the climb and descent on lap 2.  Slow moving out there today, but the second lap ended up being faster than the first (call that the JV effect).  10.4 miles.

81.7 miles, 12+ hours and 7900 feet on the week; 1552 miles, 212 hours and 78k feet on the year.  May is about 190 miles, 26 and 3/4 hours and 10k feet (yes, over half my vertical this month came from today … that is what you get for running in Tel Aviv for a week).  Not a great week, not a horrible week, but less than the week I imagined in regards to running.  I struggled with this cold this week more than I care to admit.  I was catching on a variety things post international travel as well.  .

Friday 051515

Concert season:  KZ had a concert last night.

Afternoon – 16 miles.  Ran back from Boulder HS after JZ’s track meet.

Thursday 041515

JZ had a concert at school last night.  It was the final band concert for the director there, Mike Kreeger.  He has been teaching at the middle school since it opened in 1983.

Mike has made it a tradition of saying he is heading out for ice cream after the concerts, so TZ and some of the parents arranged that ice cream was brought to him this time.

Zach (he spells it wrong) Miller is moving to Barr Camp.  Kind of cool to see the local kid do the very local thing.

Fellow burro racer Leah N moved to NC and her running with a donk there is getting some attention.

I thought I was done with the cold, but I woke up realizing I have yet to shake the Hebrew Hack.  It is really annoying at this point.  Might be the worst cold I have had in years.

Stoked to see this guy move here to the superior in brew state than where he was.

Afternoon – 12 miles.  There are complete trails under water.

Tuesday 051215

CO pocket rocket Stevie K is in the latest Salomon vid. 

Mid-day – 5.1 miles from the office.

Remember the guy who did the HR video that was hilarious and stating how much it sucked?  He is also the guy that tried to do a mile of burpees.  His name is John Sharp and he is freaking hilarious.  His latest training advice:  With everything said, do I have a formula?  Yea and this is free.  Pull tires, walk up hill, spend 15+ hours a week training at 80% or less up to 25+ hours week.  Tell your mamma you love her, and pet your dogs. Have a beer now and again, move 6 days a week. Smile and tell jokes out there running. And be sure to piss off a few folks on Facebook. :) 

Also listened to this good podcast interview of Steve Magness (by Jay Johnson).

Afternoon 7.5 miles.  Felt like crap.  Sick and tired of being sick and tired.  But I think I am nearly done with this cold though.

Trails that were redone from the 2013 September flood are gonna need to be redone again.

I love how green everything is right now.

Thursday 110713

I wondered about this lately:  college ultra clubs.   Club sports were all those sports that were not NCAA sports but were pretty dang competitive.  Rowing, ultimate, cycling, tri.  Admittedly, I do look at the college age and younger kids wanting to do ultras as a bit of anomaly.  That is clearly because of the lens I had at that time:  why run 50 miles when I was more interested in running faster at the mile or 5k?  I understand of course that they might have a different take, but when prompted I always look to nudge those folk towards running quick while they can.  The long long stuff will be there even after that speed fades.

Still blowing large organisms out my nose.  Particularly in the AM post a good night of sleep.  There is some sort of disgusted satisfaction I get with it when a large green thing comes out of my head.  Grossed out by what it is, but satisfied that I got that thing out of there. 

Got my flu shot at work today.  Not sure that is the best course of action as I am already in the hole being sick, but …

Got hooked up with these today via a good friend.   Pretty sweet.

These  are great, except because of my left foot deformity, the heel cup is a bit tight on the inside of that foot.  I was getting a bit of skin shear there (an early blister).  Not a biggie, I might mod the shoe a bit to accommodate for that. 

After a four mile warm up, I decided to do some turn over in the spikes to try them out.  In and out rough quarters in the grass, just trying to get some turn over, the feel for the spikes (I was hitting them in about 79-80).  On the jog recovery there happened to be some ladies sitting on the edge of the field where I'd turn by.  They were doing sit ups and stuff.  Whatever.  I put on the 1000 yard stare, jog by, get back to work about 100 yards after passing them.  Except after one of them because I had that 1000 yard stare going, I stepped right into a hole of a sprinkler box.  I then of course did the idiot windmill swing with the arms, yelled ow loudly because it hurt and then was gimping because I felt it shoot up into my right hip.  Continuing a theme of my life I guess I tend to look like an idiot whenever I try to look cool.

Managed six before the wheels came off, and two of em were in the Hokas as the feet were getting ripped up.  Ugh.  10.6 miles.  I did something in the right hip,  It should subside in a day or two, but it is pretty angry tonight.

KZ had her XC end of season banquet tonight. 
Boys State Championship Trophy.
Coaches …Greg Weich, Dan Valdez, Justin Hazard, and Kay Davidson

The family

Wednesday 110613

Boys all state XC.  Glad to see Ethan G made that.

Election day stuff:  the pot tax passed, the education tax failed, chickens in the back yard in Broomfield passed and the fracking moratorium was too close to call (it will recount). 

Roes articulates well why I think Olsen’s sick 100 mile run won’t get some respect in some circles.

Could be ACA I guess, but for the same exact plan next year I shell out 11.6% more.

I probably would have taken time off today.  I feel particularly beat up, and the sickness is in my chest with a good hack.  The cooler temps and the seasonal 20 mph afternoon winds did little to motivate me to run.  Nonetheless, I had previously agreed to meet with Adam B for run – and stuck to that.  10.4 miles easy.  Finished in the dark.  Would have loved to get after it today, but I am just up for that these days.  Probably talked Adam’s ear off.  Poor kid having to hear it all from a grumpy old man.

Today’s NSFW listening on the ride home.

Robert put up this interesting read on gender differences in competitiveness based on marathon performances. 

Tuesday 110513

Want to hang out with Rickey Gates, Jen Shelton and Lance for a week while running in the mountains?

Impressive that NB athletes from different running disciplines collaborate.

I blew something out of my nose that seemed to be the size of a small animal today.  It felt good. 

Thought I would tag a workout in the grass today, but when I hit the grass I had no gas so I shuffled my ass some … 10 easy.  Was only in a shirt and shorts and got cold coming back west and into the wind. 

Monday 110413

Some shots from the NY Marathon (photo credits, Victah Sailer, Flotrack) … first apparently Kebede blew his nose into his hat at the finish.  Just saying.
Next Meb, deciding not to DNF when his race blew up but instead help a fellow racer, pretty awesome.

This very much reminds me of trying to get Footfeathers to eat at HR.

I was talking to someone over the weekend who made note thaasked me what the biggest gripe with Leadville was prior to this year.  It was that road section leading out to Winfield.  He noted that Leadville never stepped and responded, yeah we are going to take care of it, even when it was suspected.  Instead it just happened.  And then it was announced the day before the race.  His point is that Leadville (LF) listens to this sort of stuff, will respond but we probably won’t hear about it until the last minute.  Anyway, the Leadville HR back and forth on qualifiers, race responsibility, etc seems far from done.

More Freil. 

October is done.  It was sort of a wash for me in terms of training.  I did not get on any significant gym work in.  I did not lose any significant weight to prep for a race.  I did make some slight modifications in getting more turn over or V02 max work in.  But admittedly – it is hard to get that in.  Obviously it is hard to run hard, but clearly the way it leaves me beat up is more significant than it was a decade ago.  That feeling that way is a nature of physiology of aging I guess, but the bigger issue (and one repeated here countless times) is that shifting my habits in training (both in what I do and how I do it) is harder than typing it up on a blog.  Take yesterday for example, I could have run for an hour, got my hard training in, and then did the gym for an hour.  But I ran for 2 plus hours.  I am sure I got some benefit from that long run but I probably would have been addressing a different and greater weakness by doing some weight resistance work.  But two things prevented that:  I wanted to run (spurred by a variety of motivations), and getting to the gym is a new habit that I don’t find easy to get to.  Or rather it is easy not to do. 

I don’t expect November to be much different.  I have some business travel, some Scout camping obligations, a hunting trip and the Thanksgiving week to keep me off balance enough.  I will take the running where I can get it.

Been scheming on a Fat Arse run.  The idea came to me post the jog on Saturday with Bob when we started talking about all the microbreweries popping up in the area.  I will see if I can glue a good mapped run together for these …

Current: 
Crystal Springs (Louisville Tech Center)
Industrial Revolution (Erie)
Gravity (Louisville)
Twelve Degree (Louisville)
Front Range (Lafayette Marketplace)
Odd 13 (Lafayette)
Big Choice (Broomfield)

Soon:
Wonderland (Broomfield)
The Old Mine (Erie)
Echo (Erie)
The Post (Lafayette)

Erie makes things particularly more challenging so I might do a stretch without those to start.  Suggestions welcome if you get to it before me.  Playing with Google Maps for three minutes got me this.

Lot of anecdotal evidence out there that a marathoner only has so many “good” marathons in them.  I was listening to the House of Run’s preview of the MYC marathon and they were discussing if Hall is done.  In there, they make the typical arguments of how most guys have four or five good marathons before they seem to start banging at the walls of injury and attempted comebacks.  That of course got me thinking about the every day marathoner … of course we are probably not quite eeking out our potential in the same way, but I think there is some applicability in those principles.

I worked the finish line at XC Big 12 champs in 2000 (that is right, 2000).  I was surprised at how nutty the finish line was for the women.  Occasionally some guy comes across and crashes out and needs some help.  With the women it seemed like 50% were falling into heaps ready for carry out right at the line.  Apparently some things have not changed. 

Separately, what does it say about women’s US marathoning (or its standards) when both a 16 year old and a 49 year old qualify for the OT Marathon in the same race.  I don’t think that would ever be possible with the men.  I get some of it might be the off differences in the qualifying standard (mens A is 12 minutes off the WR, B is 15 minutes off it, whereas the women’s A is 22ish off the women’s WR and the B and 28 minutes off it).   I could play with the percentages I guess to come up with equivalents on it.   But even if we went with a lesser standard for men – say a 2:22 B like it used to be – would we see a 49 year old and a 16 get that time?  Maybe, but I think it is less likely.  Maybe it is more likely in East Africa?  In any case, it says a ton about the capabilities of DeReuck and Hadley.  But I also think it says something about the “life time” of the woman athlete.

My stomach is pretty sour from the overnight cold meds I have been taking so that I can sleep and not leak snot all over the pillow.  Ick.  Plus it makes my dreams crazy bizarro.   Daylight got away from me and now running after work means … running in the dark.  Easy … 4.4 miles.

The Garmin ANT agent is the worst product ever created.

Some recent pix

Course map for Boulder XC is up.