Week ending 18MAY2020

Monday afternoon  - cooler day, but a bit tired today.  An hour and some strides.  7.7 miles.

Tuesday AM - misty chilly ... 6.1 miles with 10 x 40' hills (Eagle Hill).
Tuesday PM - easy four along the ditch.

Wednesday mid morning.  8.5 miles easy.  Felt better as the run went on.

Thursday afternoon - 8.2 miles.  Tired.  Easy and it felt like a slog but it was actually marginally quicker than yesterday.  A few strides at the end.

Friday PM - longer work today.  4 x a mile on the track on a lap rest.  Goal was 6:10-15.  Actual was 6:05, 6:05, 6:03, 5:55 with most that 55 coming on the last lap (and sort of looking silly, breaking down doing it).  Good workout.  10.2 miles on the day.

Saturday - easy miles.  5 with JZ in the old neighborhood as we waited on an tire repair.  I got a few more post.

Sunday - 3 peaks - Bear via Fern out of Cragmoor, then over to SoBo, then over to Green and then back down Bear Canyon back to Cragmoor.  13.6 miles with about 4500 feet of gain.  So a long run and finally some mountain vert.  I had JV and Homie for escorts this AM.   The run was a bit more than I was planning but it was a beautiful enough morning and the effort was in check enough that it was manageable (although I had to slurp some water at Bear Creek).  I am certainly not in "mountain" shape but I managed ok given the length of this effort.

Showing how little I get to the big hills anymore - it is the first time I had been to Green since going there with GW and Gabby last July.  Bear?  Got to go back to 2018 for that. SoBo?  Yeah - 2015.  For me it is mostly the "time tax" that I have been less than willing to pay over the last few years.  I might need to be more willing to eat that if I want success in a hill race.

Solid week - 2 quality workouts, a climb/long run and overall good miles (67.3) and the biggest vertical run on the year yet (although it is hardly enough). Actually on a gig remotely on a different time zone next week so it might be a bit more challenged that has been the last couple of months.

Apparently the rumor is that Pikes will make a call as to what they are doing June 1.  I'm fine with whatever that call is.  I sort of feel I can take a crack at some so-called 50yo PRs (as I am still pretty freshly minted in that decade) for the mile and 5k if Pikes pulls the plug, and I sort of think I could possibly take a long shot crack at a sub 5 effort at Pikes if that plays out.  It is all good either way.  I am thinking with Leadville canceled for that same weekend, Pikes will likely do the same but that is just a guess

Sunday 062215

AM – did an early start with Jeff out of Chaut to beat the heat.  Five minutes (ish) in I took a digger coming down into the creek crossing at the Gregory lot.  The hands which usually take the brunt of the beat got missed entirely but I hit the right thigh pretty hard.  I guess that is a way to pound up the quads.

Great conversation (as always) on the mellow trip up Green with Jeff.  We went up the back route.  At the top, Jeff and I split paths.  I headed down Bear Canyon to the Mesa, then back up Shadow (I re-watered up at the creek there).  The upper parts of Shadow that were plagued by the wild fire a few years ago are now blessed with wild flowers.  It is gorgeous.
I then headed over to Bear, back down the Bear Green connector, back to Bear Canyon (rewatering up at the top), and back on the Mesa.  18.5 miles with about 6k of vertical.
 
I love this view on the Mesa.
I felt good on whole.  The banged up thigh barked a bit no biggie. 

Endurance Planet stuff:  I have listened to ATC from the first episode.  And I find the initial banter back and forth between Tawnee and Lucho to be the best part.  Almost all the questions seem to have been asked before (although this week there was some new wrinkles) and I find hearing what is going on in their life to be the best stuff.  I also listened to the recent cast that included Hal Walter, Phil Maffetone, and Chris McDougall.  I enjoy this stuff, particularly since it includes stuff on burro racing, but I will openly declare I have trouble with some of the messages delivered with it.  McDougall in particular seems to me to make absolute comments that have threads of truth – but are not absolutely true.  That sort of stuff rankles me but I have come realize that might simply be part of his marketing (a concept he also makes absolute comments on).

Last week was 48.1 miles, 6230 feet and about 7.5 hours.  This past week was 23.8, 5815 feet (yes all but 25 of it came from the run today, as I ran twice this past week and 5 hours. 

Friday 060713

Long with climbing:  Mesa to the Shadow connector to Shadow to SoBo to Bear to Green (#35 on the year) and then down the middle.  14.8 miles with about 4500 feet of vertical.  Couple of things:

… I really had no legs after the last two days of work, so this turned into a long slow “on your feet” set.
… I was not sure what I was going to do but then I saw that Shadow had reopened so I figured I better check that out (to see what the fires had done)
… it is pretty bizarre up there …

It is hard to describe how stark it is up there in comparison to what it was.  The trail is familiar, but the mountain is not.
… made it with one water bottle, a couple of gels with no issue but it was cooler morning.
… this ends three days of “harder” efforts.  It was not exactly what was in the plan, but it got tweaked that way because of some schedule constraints I have this weekend.  No joke – I am ready for a down day now.
… I had not been up SoBo since March of last year!  And I had not seen the summit of Bear since December.

Doing some burro training at Laughing Valley Ranch tomorrow at 10AM.  Drop me a note if interested.

I missed on Thursday the BRR meet (but I had other plans both at that time and in terms of training).    Next one is June 20. 

Saturday 032412 SoBo, Bear, Green

Took JV up on his offer for some early morning peaks.  Joining us was 2011 UROY Dave Mackey, 3rd at Chuckanut Jason Schlarb, 3rd at Hardrock Joe Grant, and 10 laps on Green FKTer Homie Prater.

Name dropping?  Yeah, but only to show how I was the anchor for this affair.

Beautiful morning, warmed nicely, great conversation and the trails are in good shape (with perhaps the exception of the section above the SoBo/Bear Saddle heading up to SoBo – that is pretty messy with a mix of ice, and snow that you can drop into hip deep with … plus someone has made a trail that is completely in the wrong direction).

Saw Rob and Laurie Timko at the saddle.  Rob looks skinnier every time I see him.

Pix courtesy of Rob.

 

Jeff showed us a new trail being put in above the current Bear Canyon trail.  It is fair to assume this will replace the trail lower to the canyon at some point.  It is some sweet smooth dirt track.

I managed okay.  I was not as strong on the climbs, but that is to be expected given what I have been doing (or rather not doing).  I rolled my right ankle a touch on the Mesa but nothing horrible.

13 miles, 4185’ of vertical (Towhee, Shadow, SoBo, Bear, GreenBear, Green,  the new trail that is being put in above Bear Canyon, Bear Canyon, Mesa and Bluestem)

Wednesday 062211

AM – 5 miles wake up run

Good stuff in this podcast re: recovery, etc from the Purple Patch Fitness guy.

According to Sean, this blog has some dulcet tones.

PM – South Boulder Peak.  Felt good to start but was certainly slogging by the middle of Shadow.  I got up in 54:44, but definitely knew the super computer was not running well on the way down.  Rather than risk a wipe out, I shut it down and “ran” down easy.  RT was 1:32.

But the bummer was this view as I came into the South Mesa Trailhead lot.

Other signs there indicated this “Coming Soon!” was actually June 27.  Not sure if this will be 5 bucks for a year or 100 bucks.  I am also going to check out if Broomfield is exempt from this given it was once part of Boulder County, and paid for a good lot of this open space.  In any case, I am sure it is going to make this and the Dowdy Draw lot much less visited by me (forcing me to the Flatirons Vista or the trail head over on 93 a bit more up north).

Elsewhere …

 

Wednesday 060811

Good Scout meeting last night. Kids did bike maintenance, including changing the flat back tire on the back of my bike. We went for a ride afterwards and got some ice cream.

I have a problem watering the lawn these days. Namely that this bugger believes all sprinklers must die.

Of course, those buggers start like this.

AM - 6 miles.

A new mountain road race … this one up Pikes. Can’t say that I am interested in it, given the fact it comes one week post the PPM.

PM - 7 miles, South Boulder Peak. 49:15 to the Saddle, 56:15 to summit, RT in 88:38. Felt good. Still got some ascending work to do. I did a bit of checking and I think my fastest summit is 49 minutes and my fastest RT is 82. Both of those are from three years ago though.

This account was recently posted on a local trail running list.

Just off the Peak to Peak Highway, as you turn toward Rainbow Lakes, about a quarter mile there's a forest road that peels off to the left, south, down toward Como Creek, deadheading at a gate beyond which there is no vehicle traffic. When my wife and I hiked past this gate at 7:30 on Sunday morning, there were two vehicles parked there. I was exploring the site of one of the mining camps for the Switzerland Trail Railroad.

As my wife and I returned to the gate heading back to my truck, we saw activity suggesting folks were breaking camp, reloading their vehicles. A small black lab came to greet us, tail wagging, ruff-ruff-ruffing, stopping about five yards away. I was bending down to talk quietly to him until the owners appeared, and at that moment the pit bull came roaring over the slight ridge, directly at me, full speed. I assumed it would stop and do some ruff-ruff, but knew quickly that was not to be. At a distance of about four feet from me, he leaped at my throat, knocking me back and down.

Since losing my dog to a big cat last year, I've made it a practice to carry a knife with me when I venture alone into the forests. I doubt I'd be very effective against a big cat, but it's always been reassuring to my wife that at least I'd put up a fight.

If you carry a weapon you'd better be prepared to use it, and I was able to get it out of its sheath on my way down. Yes, it was a bloody battle, me laying on the ground, flailing wildly with the knife at the neck and head of the dog as it did its best to tear my femoral artery from my groin. A deep stab produced enough yelp from him that, along with the force of my blow, released his bite and drove him back. He'd already tried two times to get chunks of me, one at the neck, one at the rib cage, and my thrashing about successfully fended those off. After being driven from my groin, he came back two more times, once for my genitals, as if I weren't already full enough of adrenalin. Battled back there with knife slashes and kicking, he moved around to my left, where he grabbed me at the lower leg. Jaws wrapped around a large section of my calf, he was pulling me, jerking me, uphill, I was reaching to stab again when the owner showed up to pull him off. That was a battle between the two of them. The dog was bleeding profusely from the stab wound to the left shoulder. I was fired up enough I wanted to continue the battle, to finish the beast off.

I had no question whatsoever that this animal had one purpose, and one purpose only--to kill this intruder. Had I not had the good fortune to strike him deeply enough with the knife to get him to yelp, he was moments away from accomplishing that kill with the severing of my femoral artery. A gun would have been worthless at best under these conditions, and with my wife standing next to me I'd have hesitated to shoot for fear of hitting her. That moment's hesitation would have been fatal.

The owner was mortified and deeply apologetic. "He's never done anything like this before," though it was noteworthy that the dog was wearing a shock collar. "The batteries died a while ago." The folks were extremely supportive, helped bandage me up, freely exchanged information, and drove us back to my truck. I went immediately to the Emergency Room at Boulder Community Hospital, Broadway.

Under legal requirement to do so, ER personnel notified Boulder County Animal Control, who came within 30 minutes, interviewed me and did a thorough photo documentation. That afternoon as we returned home the telephone rang, the owner of the dog calling to check on my condition and to let me know he'd managed to get the dog to the vet in time to get him stapled back together.

He graciously offered to cover all my medical copays, continued his apologies, and in general could not have been more cordial or accepted responsibility in more openly.

Shortly after that the Animal Control Officer called to inform me that a citation had been issued under the provisions of the state, rather than the county, law, and that the dog was in quarantine though the owners had documentation of all vaccinations.

The arraignment for these charges is in late July. State law allows for but does not require euthanasia, so it is up to a judge's final decision. I am determined to prevent this dog from ever injuring another human being. I've retained the services of good counsel.

Monday 060611

AM - 6 miles. Legs were sluggish to start but that seemed to roll off a bit once I was out there for a few minutes.

Lize posts today a bit about ultra girllz.

Results are up from Golden Gate.

PM - 7 miles, South Boulder Peak via Shadow. Not zippy for sure (saddle in 51, summit in 58:30, RT in 96 ... slower on the bottom half of the down because someone alerted me that a rattlesnake was ahead - never saw it), but I wanted to start banging some vertical this week. Legs were clearly still holding some fatigue from Saturday, but that was part of the purpose.

Monday 041111

AM - Bear, South Boulder Peak via South Mesa Trailhead, Fern (ugh), and then back down Shadow. 9 miles.

Saturday 031911

Start conditions

Route

Finish conditions.

Did the “I can see South Boulder Peak and Bear Peak from my house so I am going to run there and back” thing today.  It was a blast.  For some, this is a walk in the park run.  As I think this is only my second run north of 30 miles, it is a bit out of the norm.  I had no hard core “kill it” expectations in terms of time today, but thought that about 4mph would be the ball park I’d play in.  7:50 later, 34.75 miles, 4629 of gain and I was back home after fun day across suburbia, eastern plains, and front range mountains with others who enjoy the same.

I started around 7:10, with temps just above freezing.  Shorts, but the ultralight wind breaker, gloves and a camelback (70oz) loaded with various glucose and salt if needed – plus an additional hand held water bottle.  Around 3.5 miles, I took a bio break, got a little breakfast.  I felt good, and was actually feeling better in the second hour versus the first.  I was shuffling along anywhere from 8-10 minute pace when running. 

After a short jaunt through the Rock Creek ‘hood, I was pleased to find how close the Meadowlark Trail came up to McCaslin by Key Bank.  I picked it up and then on the new connector (well, a bit more than a year old now) between it and Community Ditch (the Mayerhoff-Singletree).  Sweet stuff.  I was definitely enjoying the morning, and the mountains coming closer with each step were a great motivation. 

At Marshall Mesa trailhead, I hooked up with Footfeathers.  We headed up 170, and at the South Mesa Trailhead picked up Mtnrunner2.  I was having a blast.  My legs felt great, my hydration and nutrition were pretty spot on and I had gotten to the base of the big climb without issue.  The pace through here had been (with breaks) around 6mph, but I knew with Shadow looming, it was gonna have to slow.  We picked up Shad in Shadow (longest mile in Boulder).  The north face of SoBo was still pretty slippery (this was more of an issue coming down than up).  I still felt solid, even with the big climb in the bag.   We hit the summit on a running time of about 3:22 and at about 17 and a quarter miles from my house.  Homie came on up, and we also saw BTR guy Johanes.  Hung out on the summit, eating a bit, drinking – but then realized how windy it was so we got moving over to Bear.

Given the snow, I was went SUPER slow on the down.  I was wear road shoes and it was clear that was not the gear for this.  But, it is only a short stretch back to the saddle.  Back up and over the Bear, and a bit more of the same of enjoying a bluebird sky day and the stellar views that you have up there. 

Shad headed back towards Chautauqua, and then we ran into Brandon – who was out for his own long run.  Yapped with him a bit and then we headed down Shadow.  All told, I don’t think we started heading back down Shadow until maybe an hour after tagging the SoBo summit. About half way down, even though the effort was easy, I could feel the length of the run and the downhill effort building into my legs a bit.  Not quite 20 miles in, but it was clear that I had not been doing this sort of work.  Oh well – that is why I was doing it.

Homie scooted ahead, needing to get back to his palatial estate.  Caught some water at the trailhead and then again at Marshall Mesa.  Footfeathers and Mtnrunner each shared some water with me (which I contemplated NOT taking for a moment as I thought about an ego driven “self supported” tag, but then intelligently said to myself – screw that, I need the water as I could feel it was now in the upper sixties.)

Mtnrunner and I headed back across Marshall Mesa and the previously mentioned trails to Rock Creek.  I eyeballed a different route that paralleled 36 a bit more and took that.  At the … I don’t remember the road crossing, he turned back – as he had near a marathon of running in the bag with his return trip.

I did a bit of bushwhacking here – nothing crazy, but I was interested in finding what the shortest route possible back would be – not just to get the run done, but as I was interested in what it would be for future runs of this. 

Started to feel the heat a bit and the length of the run – no surprise there but was still managing to run 10s (although the pace accumed to 13:30 by the end of the run because of Shadow and the pauses).  Software says that I spent an hour twenty “not moving” which puts the moving pace at 11 and halfish (so at least 5 mph).  Pulled into the house, and got to work on getting something eat, getting the legs up and working a bit of recovery (shower, legs up).  Overall, I felt pretty good.

Learned a bit here – my stomach seems to handle most of the glucose I throw at it, but I am not pushing the pace.  That might be a bit different with a harder effort.  I certainly need to make runs like this a bit more a part of the steady training diet if I am going to seriously consider running 50 mile or longer distances.  I am not sure I am going to take those distances seriously … yet.  I was pretty good with nutrition, but even though I was pushing water pretty good in the last couple of hours, I was still at the short end of the stick with the warmer temps and a wicking wind.

Definitely interested in doing this again, and maybe taking it more aggressively – just to see what I could do on it.  I think I could tweak the route to a nice 50k, and maybe a fat ass event, but some folks may not dig the suburban end of it.  I sort of like the mix of suburbia, eastern trail, grassland, sidewalk, crush cinder, asphalt, road, mountain trail, peak and prairie.  Hmm Peak and Prairie Pisser 50k …

SUPER HUGE THANKS to all the guys who came out – it was very motivating and helpful (kept me honest in doing this!).

Great day out there

Various pix and some video:

       

Deconstruction of the beard and hair post run

Monday 110810

Yes, I know I went on a self tirade about being more specific in my training but I heeded the call to the mountains today.  South Boulder and Bear it was via the land of the Shadow.

The other brown line above represents the percent grade at any point in the run (sort of).

Coming down, saw two guys heading up.  The sun had set.  This is about 2/3rds of the way up Shadow.  “Does this trail go to Eldorado Springs?”  Ugh.  I gave them some directions and tried to keep it upbeat, but ended the conversation with “you have a less than an hour of daylight” as I ran down and they continued up.  I have had conversations like this more times than I can count on Boulder trails, but they always leave me a bit concerned.

Got to day dreaming … thinking about how I wanted to do this route every day until I could eat it up.  Had the thought of an “Ursa Major” run, that would include at least four rounds of the Bear.

Was thinking how running is like surfing.  We are out there trying to catch that perfect wave, that perfect day.  Some days we catch it, and then we spend a lot of other days trying to catch it again.

Anyway, today was an epic day out there – and not one we are going to have again for a bit due to losing light, colder temps.  I am glad I got it in.  Nothing zippy up and down today but a good head clearing run.

Fermentation underway … day 1

Saturday Skyline Traverse

Met up with umm … met up with some guys for an evening mountain run – more specifically, the so called Skyline Traverse.  I’d tell you who they are, but just in case the race-Gestapo are watching, I won’t.  Those who were scared off by the early rain – your loss.  Those who came and ran, well done, well sung.  Doing the traverse in the dark is quite a treat. Got to meet some new folks – always a treat - and catch up with some old dawgs as well.

In any case, as the sun was setting, we headed south out towards the Mesa, then up South Boulder.  After a bit of time on the summit (where we checked on WS100 results), it was dim enough that we had to fire up the torches (really, we did not carry torches, but I think UK folks call headlamps and flashlights “torches” and I am so damn impressed with Nick Clark today, I am going to try to use British slang). 

Over to Bear, where we sat and watched the sky turn from purple to black.  Beautiful.  Then in total darkness, the run over to Green.  After a short stint on Green, we headed down over to Flag.  I rolled my right ankle/foot again before the four way junction.  This makes downhill running very careful and slow.  Any sort of odd side to side lateral motion on it in the right combination sets me up for wincing, gimping, and walking funny for about 2 minutes.  Up, because the foot plant is more passive, is not nearly as bad. 

Then Flag.  I gimped down off of this, and while the rest of my parts were feeling great, i was glad to drop Sanitas from the agenda because of the bad wheel.  In past years, this run itself would leave me worked, but I felt fine (other than the foot).

I think my GPS data is a little off because mine came up short (I think I turned it off for some segment).  Based on what I am reading from the other mountain secret service agents it was about 14.25 miles, with about 4500 feet of climbing.  A bit more than a half mile to jog to the headquarters / start – so I will take this as 15.



Up the Bluestem trail
 
A very green basin with runners in it.
 
 
Getting ready to check WS100 results – really!
Long’s Peak in the distance
A portrait of the whole crew on the top of Green