Monday 111212

A little bird tipped me off to this one:  apparently even the Incline record has been infected with PED performances … Mark Fretta tested positive for EPO, and now has a four year ban.  Fretta had claim to the FKT on the Incline at 16:42.   Has anyone posted faster than Matt C’s 18:31 from 1998?

Another little bird tipped me to this typical beer reviewer’s review.  Awesome.

Race and significant run schedule for 2013 (thus far)

4/20 – R2R2R in the Grand Canyon (would like to see if I could break 9 hours … did 9:22 there three years ago, but as my first run over the marathon distance ever).
Throughout the summer, as much of the BRR track race series as possible with an eye on breaking five in the mile, 17 in the 5k
7/28 – Burro Days Pack Burro Racing World Championships in Fairplay CO – I am defending champ.  Gotta go.
8/4 – Boom Days International Pack Burro Championships in Leadville CO – won this race last year and it another reason to get up to Mosquito Pass.
8/18 – Pikes Peak Marathon – my seventh running of this glorious event.  Yes, you may have noticed that I did not include the Gold Rush Days for another burro racing event (in Buena Vista).  For what it is worth, I am not expecting to do that race as I want to dial in the focus for Pikes.

I also registered for the Redline Thanksgiving Day 5k in Broomstock today but that is obviously a 2012 event.  I am not sure if I am racing or pacing there yet though as I registered the family.  I do need to sprinkle the spring with some other stuff. 

Admittedly, I am also toying with the idea of another 100 – after Pikes.  Maybe the B100, but I’d rather pace someone there … but maybe Javelina or something.  Hopefully, common sense will prevail.

Other runs I want to get in this coming year though are Tony’s Green Walker Ranch Loop, take a shot a beating my PR on Flagstaff Road, and Green Mountain (hell, all three routes but particularly the middle route), and running from the high altitude Hang Nine outpost in Fairplay to Brandon’s place in Leadville and back.  Maybe even another run from Broomstock to Bear again, but that would mean Shadow Canyon would have to open again (apparently west Bear is open but the OSMP site has not declared that yet).  I’d like to get back down to HR to play around down there as well – as that is a fun weekend.

Afternoon, 11 miles, 8 with the Footfeathers.  His AHR was 125.  Mine was 152. 

Monday 102912

A few years ago, I had put a race in New Mexico on my schedule.  “La Luz” is a hill climb, with grades similar to Pikes, but as it only goes 9 miles, and it starts at a lower elevation, the summit is not nearly the oxygen deprived pace.

I recall talking to a local runner about it, who had done it before.  At one point this person said, “well, you should get down there on the course a few times to get it dialed in.”  Get down there?  The thing is 8 hours away by car.  “Well, if are serious …” he trailed off.

I have referenced this conversation when describing this particular person I was conversing with.  Usually with the theme being, “’Well if you are serious?’ That dude is crazy!” 

And there is some element of that is sort of true.  Sort of.

But the fact is, what we do is often seen as crazy.  “You ran up Pikes?  And down?” “You ran 100 miles?”  “You run a mile how fast?”  “You ran how far (usually followed with the obligatory statement of how they don’t drive that far)?”  So, what we often do is seen as really serious.  So much so that it is not unheard of for people to ask if we are training for the Olympics.

But I think some of us question if we are serious enough.  Or if we are too serious.  “Should I run more?  Should I take a rest day?  Should I do core work?  Should I get a coach?  Should go sleep in my car at altitude?  Should I get a massage?  Should I diet?  Should I fill a tire with a bunch of sand and go the extra mile?”

So much of what I see runners trying to figure out is how serious they are, how serious they want to be, and the results they want.  There are of course those who are just in it for the fun of it, regardless of result (pretty rare though).  Most of us have some thought to improve, or at least stay in the same place as we age (which is sort of like improving anyway). 

And so for me, I find myself often asking how serious I am or how serious I want to be.  “Hokas?  Drop beer?  Vitamin supplements?  Travel to Lucho’s place to get my ass kicked every week?  Skip that desert at the corporate weenie dinner?  Grapple with my schedule to get out for group runs or races more?  Should I skip running 10 miles today and only do 4 because I have a key workout tomorrow?”

And there is the question of how much of a difference any of these things make.  Does that beer tonight make much of a difference to me at over 8 months away from my goal race?  Probably not.  But if it is four, does that make a difference?  If it impacts my workout tomorrow, does that mean I lost an opportunity to improve towards my goals?

Maybe going to La Luz was too serious.  Or maybe it wasn’t.  It depends on how serious you are.  Eventually you determine that you are indeed serious, or you could be more serious.  If you could be more, you either come to terms with that, or the that comes to terms with you (at the point of performance).

It is easy to be serious the week of your race.  Actually that is not serious at all.  That is scared.  Fear can drive a level of seriousness even in those who claim not to be (you know, the guy who says they are just doing this for fun but gets pretty damn serious about getting their name on a Pack Burro Racing Burro board in Fairplay in the last 5 miles of such an event because they are scared of getting run down – just saying).

We look at seriousness with a bit of awe.  Tony running 20 hours and 50k of vertical a week.  Dakota living in Silverton for the summer.  Carpenter running Pikes everyday.  Elliott living at Barr Camp for a month before the race.  Sir Clarkie being Clark.  Honnold living in his car so he can climb all the time.

So I put a pretty big goal out there a few weeks ago:  PR at Pikes.  I know how to train to do that.  Question is with that goal, if I am really serious.   Some of the three of you who are reading this might be thinking, “damn he is crazy.”  But I see a lot of places where I am not serious.  I see all these little bs decisions I make that are where I fail to be committed.  And it drives me a little crazy. 

And this just ain’t with my running.  It is with all sorts of things in my life.  Little decisions I make that seem to undermine my drive towards a goal as a father, husband, and friend.

Why the hell am I doing that?  Usually it is about some sort of short term perceived gain versus taking an imperceptible step towards a bigger more fruitful one.  When one can choose the right one there, that is wisdom.  Note – I said the “right one.”  Not the longer term one all the time.  There is a time to save the pennies, and there is a time to break the piggy bank and spend it on something.  I see the man who always saves ending up as poor as the man who never saves.

I really need to figure out how serious I am and where I want to be so.

(By the way, I post the above video a bit in jest, because I see those two as guys that have a sandbag ton of wisdom)

AM – 5 miles.  Raining and windy.  Joined the RAPS group run.

This is pretty cool.

Evening – easy 4 miles.

Saturday 102712

Headed out for a run this AM and had the great luck and fortune to bump into Buzz, Bill, Jeff V, Tony K, Burch, Mike H, Brandon F, Tim L, Rob T, Basit, Dave M, Justin M, Homie, Sandrock, Wes T, Kendrick C.  Crazy how that is in here… you can’t head out for a run and throw a rock without hitting someone in the face.  Just another day in this wonderful place we live.


               

I clearly and quickly knew that I had not visited the hills as of late.  I could feel the small of my back give off its tell tale “bark” when I have been away from them (the snow seems to magnify this, along with yesterday’s workout).  No bother at this point.  Flagstaff and Green for the front half and then coming down via Bear Canyon to round it out to 11.5 miles.

All that however was really the footnote to this run.  It was great to share a few strides with so many of the wonderful people in this community.  Common topic that comes up is how folks’ heads are churning on their ‘13 plans.  Interesting to hear the different takes. There are so many wonderful stories.  Yeah, cheesy as Swiss, but it lifts me up.  It might be that I don’t do a lot of it and so it is a novel thing, but it leaves me buzzing for hours afterwards.  I probably am buzzing too much during these sort of runs too, feeling like a kid at Christmas, and talking too dang much.

Couple of shots from a Halloween gig we went to last night.  What is scary is that I actually use to sort of look like this when I had hair.  No, seriously …

Off to Seattle tonight.  Listened to the Endurance Planet show, Ask The Coaches.  This show by Lucho and Tawnee, along with TalkUltra are pretty much the only two fitness, endurance, ultra, training podcasts that I listen to anymore (although occasionally I will queue up Marathon Talk. .  It has been fun to hear how this show has matured, being a bit of ultra, a bit of marathon, a bit of tri, a bit of all the stuff “we” talk about.  I dig it.   When not listening to this “genre” I go with Carolla’s stuff for laughs.  Most the time though, it is purely music – everything from Winston to Foo Fighters to stuff KZ turns me onto.  Go to Pandora when stuck.
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Solid post by Ian S regarding flat 100s.  Without a doubt, I am still thinking about the 100, but I am not focusing on it in 13 (given my Pikes goals).  And without a doubt, I am still amazed at what Bob did at the Boulder 100 in his last lap.  Reading Ian’s post leaves me nodding my head, because it is clearly not how you run the first half but how you can run that damn second half – and really how much from 70 miles to the finish.  As I was crushed to a point of “running” a 17 minute mile in my last couple of laps, I clearly have a lot of possible improvement …
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Started getting back to a little bit of core work.  Mostly push ups, planks and reverse crunches.  I have not done them in a bit so it is leaving me a bit sore.  I imagine that as the weather starts to degrade a bit, I will look to get into the gym a bit more.  Maybe some rope work.  I tend to get a bit nutty with bench press and that sort of stuff when I go to the gym.  It is a left over from the AF days I guess.  I can’t say that I will totally eschew that stuff, but I think I will try to focus a bit more on some core and leg work (dead lifts, squats).  Eh, easily said.   
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While I will be focused on Pikes in 2013, I am pondering the burro thing again.  And I’d like to finally coordinate a Fairplay to Leadville run (and back) with Fuller.  And I am thinking of hosting up a FA type event … my house to Bear and back … whatever route you want with a few checkpoints along the way.  Not the cup of tea for everyone with the flat before the climb, but a good 35 miler (ish).  Pancakes galore at the finish.  Maybe in March. 
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I saw a commercial today while on the plane for testosterone applied via a stick to the arm pit.  Of course there was the list of all the possible side effects at the end of the commercial.   When driving into work, I hear commercials on the sports radio all the time about “low T” this and that.  "Are you a middle aged man who is tired of being tired?”   This is not new of course, but it seems that this stuff is nearly as readily available as coffee (when is Starbucks gonna provide the Low T Latte?).   The question that I am trying to get out of my head (kind of like a bad song that gets stuck in there) is this:  with this stuff apparently being so available, is it really okay if someone just gets a  therapeutic use exemption (TUE)?   Apparently I don’t have low T (but I have not been tested), but if I suddenly did and I got some prescription to bring my levels to some “normal” range, would it be doping if I competed with an appropriate TUE?   According to what I understand from USADA, the answer is no – that would not be doping.  

This sort of sounds like an argument that I hear pro’s who have been caught making:  “I did not use it to enhance my performance, but just to recover.”  Uh, enhancing your recovery is enhancing your performance.   The guy taking testosterone to get it to some level within his TUE is doing it “to just be normal” – but he is also enhancing my performance.   Then again, I enhance my performance too – I drink coffee and I know it will help my performance so it is obviously a performance enhancer … just happens to be legal when I have my two cups in the AM

This leaves me a bit stuck with the conundrum of how everything is a drug of some sort (uuh, yeah, I), and how we legislate and regulate what is normal.  And that is sort of arbitrary.

Monday 100812

There is always another take.  I enjoyed this read on how less is less.  And Gordo discusses how crime in the Gotham of endurance sport can pay.

Today’s run was about relaxing a bit, getting in some training, using it as a “calming space” and NOT messing up tomorrow’s workout.  I have not determined what I will do tomorrow yet, but I know I want it to be something focused towards a 5k/10k workout.   At this point, my thinking is I need to get some work in that begins to play with the top end speed, so probably some 200-400 work.  As I progress this work for intervals would be more mile, 2 mile type stuff.

Anyway – a very easy 11 today.  Felt the work from yesterday a bit, but was pretty relaxed running with company.  Guess who?

 

Sadly there were dozens of cops and search folks, including helicopters all over the place.  Where the young girl who went missing here recently in CO is just about a half mile from my office.

Sunday 100712

16 miles, 2:06 with about half of that with JZ on the bike.  Plan was that I start this run easy (sub 145) and then build on that as the run progress.  That went out the window with JZ on the bike.  There had to be some racing as I’d catch him on the uphills and he’d fire past on the down hills.  And then he crashed and that held us up for a bit.  All good though.


Had to stop to watch the train go by and get a car count.

Went with the K-swiss shoes today, which are okay.  They seem to leave my feet in a bit of hurt.  Nuthin’ serious, but I might be a bit Hoka spoiled.  And the outsole on those K-swiss loves to pick up the crusher fine rock.

58 on the week, which is a touch more than I have been getting on travel weeks.

Dovetailing a bit off of what I posted yesterday, as I have over 40 weeks until my goal race, I can’t be focused on that too much as a goal yet.  It is more of a longer term vision.  So with that in mind, I will look to focus my fall and early winter on getting my 5k and 10k times down and look to PR at those as an old guy runner.   I have yet to pick goal races to do that … and I am not sure I will exactly for this phase … but I will eyeball the race calendar.

What this really means if I am serious is this:  I need to focus in on two workouts a week.  Maybe three if I am lucky.  More times than not, these will be tempo session and an interval session.  There is a lot I can vary in there (hills, track, length of the repeats) – and that is the easy part.  The not so easy part will be assuring that I don’t screw these sessions up by what I do with runs on the other days.  A third session might be a bit more of a long run … if I can handle it.  I intend to work through this phase until either Christmas, or I plateau significantly.  (there is the third possibility which would be injury, but we will look to avoid that).

Oh yeah, under most circumstances this year, I will look to avoid the mill as well.  It gives me a bit of false sense of fitness and I think it has promoted an injury in me in the past (particularly when I go nutty with doing really fast stuff on it).  There might sometimes I go to do it, but I will try to avoid it this year.
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Played with the Strava app on the Iphone for the first time ever.  Meh.  Maybe.
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Apparently some of the peaks in the West TSA are still closed here some close to 3 months post the fire up there.  The supposed issue is that there are trees that are potentially dangerous (a falling danger) that would need to be felled or cleared.  Not sure I see that as a risk for shutting down the trails (as that risk is pretty much out there all the time) but there is NO time table I can tell of that speaks of when the trails would open.  This is the latest I can find.

I don’t know what is really going on there but it really becomes increasingly easy to create stories that there are those in the OSMP who are more interested in keeping access limited to the point of no use at all.  
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Tim Long’s posts make me laugh –actually out loud- more than any other MUT blogger out there.  But P’s post yesterday is right in the mix.

More seriously, Tim recently posted about taking a break.  I asked him a question about this in terms of masters running.  His response was directed a bit more back to me.  Rather than hijack his post there, I responded to him directly and will put some of that here – as it has bearing on the author of this blog.

First, I need to disclose that I respect Tim a lot.  This guy has educated himself to a graduate level of ultra knowledge via experience, but he has an ability to intuit what “clicks” for people.  If I were to get a coach Tim is one of three guys I would seriously consider.  The other two being Lucho and Scott E.  So yup, the theme there is MUT experience, endurance focus, no nonsense sugar coating insight and attention to detail.

In any case, Tim said the following.  I have embedded my response comments in highlights.

I like to talk from personal experience and observation of others. So, let's compare you and me. I hope none of this is offending. You seem to run like you brush your teeth with an internal force pushing you to get it in every day. If you happen to miss a day, the tone in your blog post about that day is a negative one, like you failed for that day.
Probably true.  A run for me is often not about a training event, or even exercise, but often more about getting out and “taking space.”  It could be to enjoy nature, to find something sublime, to get away from the office, to think about something, to consider my relationships, or just to veg out and listen to the Foo Fighters too damn loudly.  When I don’t get this time, it is a bit of a failure.  Completely not offended.

The running you've moved to seems to be more blended and narrow (same distance, same terrain, same pace roughly). Fitting that into your day becomes easier than diverse or goal oriented training.
Also probably true.  As my work and family life commitments have changed over the years, I have looked more and more to be creative in getting my time in.  It has often been more the goal (see above) than training specifically itself. 

Somewhat of a side note: I've wondered whether you race less because you are a fast(er) runner and are avoiding (not necessarily consciously) competing at shorter distances because you'd have to accept the slowing of age. It's more poignant for someone like you who's run and raced since a much younger age, so the disparity between your racing times in your 20s and now are more distinct.
Probably not true.  I think I would love to race more, but I have made choices in my life that mean I race a bit less.  I love racing, the community around it and how it makes me feel, but I find the time I do it is usually pretty selfish.  Nothing illustrated this more to me than my trip to XC Nats a few years ago.  Did I have a good time?  Yeah.  But I was wondering the entire time if it was worth it to travel across the country away from my family to run around a field 6 times.  There is not a definitive answer all the time of course, but I have clearly tempered my racing compared to prior years for this reason more than any other (I think in the year before my daughter was born I raced 55 times).

I think I can honestly say I am not ducking racing because of the slowing times.  I do know of athletes who do not do it because of  that reason though.  Guys who ran sub 30 for 10k in college, and so have little interest in busting their ass for a 38 minute effort at that distance.   I have talked about this with Bob S actually and we came to the conclusion that we sucked enough for long enough that this is not a factor for consideration for us.  Or sumthin’ like that.

I didn't start running and racing until I was 34. Like I said, that's a side note but also could be a cause of your current style of year-long, linear path running.  My running revolves around racing and competition, so I have to "peak" several times a year. Sometimes it works and other times falls short. One thing for sure is that I can't maintain that type of running for long periods. It's mentally stressful and (as we age) it takes its toll on my body. By the end of the season (which I'm on the verge of now), I'm almost sick of running and literally have to force myself to get out the door. I've always been driven by races both in cycling and running. Without them I'd probably just jog for 4-6 miles a day with no real passion or interest (like brushing my teeth). Heck, I might not even run at all if it weren't for races.
I can related with this.  I think there is something for me to be said for not setting goals and hence not defining periods, workouts or “training” (versus exercise) – and I touch on that on one of the posts I put up yesterday.  I think I would be motivated to run in any case, but I have found ways to be motivated not be specific in “training.”  This is really my challenge over the next year.

So, I'm not sure I addressed your specific question about masters runners having different needs in terms of time off. Like much of running, it's individual. I incorporate breaks into my athletes schedules (weekly, monthly, annually) because they're looking for direction and improvement. Running well (especially in ultra distances) is a tightrope of physical preparation and mental freshness and eagerness.
Love it.  This is why you are a good coach.

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It ain’t work or family safe, but the episode of Adam Carolla with David Allen Grier is off the charts funny.  Not for those who do not laugh at potty humor.
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Canning … (there is about twice this)

Reading.  The dog is no fan.

Wednesday 092612

Sweat Science over at RW is a solid regular read.

13 miles, most of it with Footfeathers.

Wednesday 080812

Green with Tim L.  Hot. 

Aish is running Leadville.  Dude is a 13:20 guy and a 2x Olympian.  I think Wyatt asked if an Olympian had ever won a 100 miler before.  That is a pretty good question.

The bigger question is really this:  has anyone that has had elite success at the road / track end of the sport ever had that level of success on the MUT circuit.  Certainly King is the leader in that regard, but you’d have to consider Wardian in the conversation (he has been to the OT for the marathon at least twice).  Canaday seems to be making his mark this year as well.  Aish could be the next guy.

Who else?

I am pretty sure that nobody in the ultra space however has ever gone the other way.  Make of that what you will.

Thursday 080212

Gonna skip tonight’s track meet, as I have to tend to getting a soon to be high schooler’s equipment needs.  Patrick looks to nail the rarely executed 1500 – 400 meter hurdle double.  I am hoping the hurdles at set to 42”.  If you get a chance get out there and check it out.  There is also the $4 10000 race at 8PM.  If you can bear 25 laps on the track, you probably won’t get any better or cheaper conditions than this for a 10k at altitude.

Tim and I got out for a run on Green, and we hit the back side on the way down so he could see those new changes.  10 miles.  Good to get out with Footfeathers and chat it up.  18th Greenie of the year.  Got a good view of the backside of Bear and SoBo while coming down Bear Canyon.   Fairly burned but not as bad as I was expecting.

Tuesday 072412

Apparently Boulder local runner, TJ Doherty was critically injured in a car vs. bike accident recently.   TJ – while I did not know him well (I only ran with him a few times) was a pretty bright light of a guy.  I recall seeing him at the Superior Downhill mile a bunch of years ago.  He had broken a collar bone a bit before, but raced anyway.  With a sling.  And he came through the first quarter well under 60.  Got this pic from Justin, who was his roomie multiple times.

Truly sad on so many fronts.

While the timing of this death, the Aurora shootings, the death of the Boy Scouts in Wyoming in a car accident while back from summer camp, the death of a coworker to cancer, are a coincidental, it has certainly struck a chord with me.  Life is fragile, and short.  Make it count.
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Wanted to share this story from HR before I forgot it. 
The finish of HR is  torturous.  I’d say ridiculously torturous, but in comparison to the rest of the course, it is not.  It is really just a last little chuckle at you, poking a wound.  The end (this way) is not particularly hilly, or high, it just appears to be unexpectedly long.  You can see the town of Silverton, you are dancing on the edge of it, all the big climbs are done, and you are on this single track just a bit east of the town.  It just seems to go on forever.  It is sort of like waking up on Christmas morning like a kid.  You have been waiting for this, but then your parents tell you that you cannot open presents until 3 in the afternoon.

Tim wanted to be done so bad, but this trail was going on and on. A girl (not racing) came on the trail from the opposite direction, and he asked her how far it was into town.  “No more than a couple miles, I am sure of it.”  We keep going and Tim is working and READY to be done.  The news of this being only a couple of miles gets mixed reviews.  It seems about right, but damn – he’d sure like to be done.

She then comes back on us from behind and (after after briefly freaking out that she was someone rolling him up) was heading back into town to finish her run, some 20 minutes later.  We have probably covered a mile and a half in this time (before you condemn that pace, you need to go do 99 miles of the HR course).  Tim bluntly asks “How far did you say it is into town?”  Her reply:  “No more than 3 miles.” 
I thought she was going to eat one of those trekking poles. 
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Anyway … looks to be one of those weeks where I am a one legged man in a butt kicking contest.  We started yesterday at 0730 and didn’t finish until 2100.  Ugh.  Need to keep the composure.
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Anton is back and says he thinks he could break the HR record.  I dig the confidence.
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Evening – I was able to break out a bit earlier and eyeballed San Bruno hill, a bit to the north of me.  I jogged through a slightly annoying set of crosswalks, lights, and relatively pedestrian unfriendly set of sidewalks and diversions, before I found myself on the shoulder of the south side of this hill.  After several disappointing run into dead ends in various neighborhoods, I spotted a guy who was jogging up and seemed to know where he was going.  I slipped about 100 yards into his draft, but then saw he also hit another dead end.  As I came up on him I asked him if he knew where he was going.  Jamal was also an out of towner, in on business from Seattle.  We made our way around the west side of the hill, chatting about running, when he ran briefly at Oregon, various ultras, the scene in Ashland, etc.  Eventually we found a nice little connector up, and got up about 1100 feet above the ocean pretty quick.  And probably even more quick down (off the east side).

Cruddy camera phone pix that I would have loved in the 90s.
k

Funny, I will probably never see Jamal again, but we just enjoyed the run and each other’s conversation without little consideration of that.  That is the way so many runners are out of the gate.

Wednesday 071812

 Tim has posted his race report from HR.  And Sean’s crew report with a bunch of photos.  Oh yeah, be sure to check out the real HR cafe.  And check out the post race interview with Joe G and Dakota.

I can say that the race did get in my head a bit.  On Monday, folks were doing the obligatory, “hey how was your weekend?” question.  I sort of wanted to say “well I had this natural experience that was equivalent to doing peyote, drinking a fifth of bourbon, and BASE jumping at the same time.”  But you know, folks don’t get that.  You just say, “yeah, had a good time in the mountains.  Thanks.  You?  Oh you went to a Rockies game?  Awesome.”   And then I poked around a bit later in the day looking at qualifying races for that nutbag event – going back and forth between saying “yeah, I can do this” to “you told yourself you would not do this without training for it” to “are you really going to screw yourself this way?”

100s are hard.  Maybe there are folks that they ain’t hard for, but for 99% of the mortals here on planet Earth they are really really hard.  And that is their allure.  You do them because you don’t know if you can.  Even if you know you can, you know you are going to get a baseball bat to the teeth with the challenge along the way.  So there is a draw to me to do that as crazy as that sounds.  But I am also cognizant of the drain they can have on you.  I am not ready to make those sort of sacrifices with the other choices I have made in my life.  And I am not a big fan of the overhead they require from other people in terms of them taking care of you before, during and after the event.  In illogical contrast to that, I really dig being the person who helps people on these journeys.

HR is certainly put some silly seed in my head, but hopefully it takes a while to germinate.

3 things you should bring on an ultra but most folks don’t.  Zantec?

While I was scurrying around in the San Juans, JZ was off canoeing with this Scout pals.

Shaking my head still at the nuttiness with the bike race.  But that is not even as close to stupid as is what Bill Lee is dealing with at Laughing Valley Ranch.  Then there is of course this disappointing decision.

Afternoon 7.5, 1 hour.  Hot.

Evening, 5.5 miles.  45 minutes.  Slow.

Friday AM, HR Start

Thursday 071212

Thursday AM shakeout run (3 miles)
 

Most of the day was spent screwing around Silverton.  Definitely a different sort of town.  You can smell the slow speed of it all, but then there is this weird crust of a layer of all these super endurance freaks who show up for a weekend.

Anyway, I got out for a little run with Tim, JT and Bfish.  We hit the mandatory race briefing.  I did some planning of things with Tim and Shaun.  Saw alot of the folks you’d expect:  Buzz, Tony, Nick P, Mike H, Scott J, Bryon P, Karl, Dakota, Rob, and a bunch of other mountain ultra dudes and chicks.  Nutty.  I might have been the fattest ass in all of the town, even though I was eating the least amongst the lot. 

More stuff on the day from Buzz.

Great read by Hal Walter on burro racing.

Wednesday 071112

Off to Silverton today.  Karl posted odds which includes Tim, so he will undoubtedly be freaking about that. 

Do I have enough gels?

Did I really sign up to hang out with these nut jobs all weekend?

The view for most the day

Great, we are here.  Now what?
 
Question answered …
  
A new rock.

Some guy that has won some 30 something 100s and Footfeathers

I guess we better figure out where we are going

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