Bit of a hodge podge week ... 50 mile week.
50.3 of running on the week.
Mon - 11 miles, with a good chuck with LF to start the day
Tue - 7 miles
Wed - 7 miles at the EOD, including 6 x "State Hill" - which was about 70-75 second for me. I could feel this on the legs post
Thu - 7.1 miles, AM start of the day with GW
Fri - 4 miles, started with TZ and then got on calls for the rest. Work killed me on this one .
Sat - 8 miles, out on Interlocken Ditch and back. I was draggin' on this one.
Sun - 6 miles, over Flag, down Gregory and other messing around
A lighter week of sorts ...
Monday - 7 miles with GW
Tuesday - off. Got a knee shot.
Wednesday - 7 miles with GW
Thursday - 7.1 miles
Friday - 7.5 miles with GW
Saturday - 7 miles, including 8 by Stonehenge Hills.
Sunday - decided I might as well do Green given the low mileage week. As I started I noticed JV and BW in the meadow and so I was given the gift of the round trip with them. 5.5 miles.
60 mile week.
January - finished with 258 miles according to Strava. Only 9000 something feet of climb though - reflecting my not heading to the hills of Boulder because of snow and trips to LVS and the Bay.
Mon - travel to BUR, 4
Tue - AM with LF on Bay Trail. 10.2 miles.
Wed - AM with LF but NK and LK also joined for a few in the middle. 11.1 miles. Bay Trail of course.
Thu - AM with LF on the Bay Trail - 10 miles.
Fri - Back to CO. 6 miles in the afternoon. Stiff.
Sat - 9.4 miles, out to Interlocken and back. Shaking the trip.
Sun - 9.1 miles. Started with TZ for the first two. Heavy legged.
Mon - 7 miles
Tue - 9.1 miles, a bunch with LF
Wed - AM with the Coyote Crew: 6 on 3:30, 75 seconds rest. 8 miles.
Thu - 15 miles! A handful with LF and then over to meet GW for a bunch.
Fri - late in the day and a cold front blew in. Kept it short - 4 miles.
Sat - 8.7 miles with GW on most.
Sun - 8.2 miles out and back on the Interlocken Ditch, doing 10 by minute on, minute off on the return.
Long overdue I guess but I landed a lifetime pass to the National Parks as a veteran. Didn't know that was a thing.
60.2 miles on week.
Most of the week was in Vegas for CES.
Two days of the crush of humanity of CES was more than enough for my wee brain.
Monday - 6 miles solo, sorta dragging.
Tuesday - zero. Travelled to LAS, had a full day. Walked a stupid amount.
Wednesday - 6:30 start with LF and did 8.6 out from the Strip to UNLV.
Thursday - another 6:30 start with LF and did 10 heading west from the Strip.
Friday - back to CO. Tired and 6 miles
Saturday - got some new Nike Vomero Plus. Tested them out on the ditch sidewalk up into Interlocken. Nice. 10 miles.
Sunday - 10 miles, about half of it on the front with GW.
So - a bit over a 50 mile week. Nothing great on intensity but my runs with LF end up being a bit faster than I would self select for an easy run.
Connect has me at 5.5 miles of walks but that is what I fired the watch up for. Tuesday was something like 25k steps of walking with the conference. Anyway, 86 miles of running on the year which is almost 50x what I did last January.
I do need to get back to body weight exercises.
60 miles on the week
Mon - 9 miles with about 5 of it with GW
Tue - 9 miles down through Holmberg / Roberts
Wed - 9.4 miles down through Holmberg / Roberts
Thu - 9 miles on the warmest day recorded for Christmas in Denver. A loop with JZ (absolutely wonderful
Fri - 7.2 miles including about 5 of it with GW
Sat - 9.1 miles, a mile starting with TZ and then the rest around the Lake Link / Ridgeview loop
Sun - with JZ on the ditch path up into Interlocken. 7.2 miles
Another 10.8 miles of walking (at least) as well.
2164.4 miles of running on the year according Strava, 2167.8 according to Garmin C. Walking is at 766 miles on the year.
10 years ago this weekend, Jack and I won at BV, and with that became a Triple Crown winner in Pack Burro Racing. Like many things in the past, it seems like yesterday and more than 10 years ago at the same time.
FWIW - the burro we raced against, Yukon, is still a force on the pack burro racing circuit
8 miles today. Climbed out of Cragmoor and up to the climb wall and then wandered around a bit. Got me to 56 and change on the week with over 5k on the week. It felt like it has been 10 years since I did something like that.
It was slow.
56 something mile week, with a workout in the middle of the week with GW. We did 7 x 200m in 43" on 200m recovery. Most work I have done like that in a bit.
Ok - why are we doing this? Because we decided, on the whim of his kid, to jump into the BRR track 4x8 next week. I am guessing I am in about 3:15 shape, but figured to do a few reps to get used to a little of that coordination.
Some recent pictures ...
57 mile week.
Nothing particular incredible about this week from a running perspective but kept plugging. Got in a 10 miler (+) on Sunday and did some work on the track on Tuesday with the early morning crew that meets out there. I do not worry about splits or racing anyone in those sessions but rather just focus on effort and breathing hard. 57 is the biggest volume week I have had in a year and I can say - I am feeling it: both the good and the bad. The good being I can feel that fitness that comes following fatigue. The bad being the fatigue.
Got in another 15 miles of walking. It is something. It definitely helps. Clears the head, settles the body in the evening before heading to bed.
Still alcohol free.
Saw Phish at Folsom on Thursday. I am not a Phish phan but man, those boys can play. And their light show is sick.
Played a gig on Friday. It was a marathon of four hours of playing, so another four on top of that with set up, break down, etc. It was a tad warm. I was knackered at the end of the day and nearly passed out by the time the fireworks went off.
Otherwise, it is the nice buzz of summer. Getting outside, working the yard, trying to stay cool. lots of vitamin D and naps whenever I can.
It is a good life.
With a day left in June, Strava tells me the last five weeks have been 52, 54, 54, 54 and 50. I missed one day in there (this past week - travel). Walking was another 12, 13, 14, 14 and six (again travel). Strava also says I have 803 miles on the year as of today for running. Connect tells me I have been averaging 20k plus steps a day, the last four weeks were 213 miles, 48 of walking, average RHR is 46.
Have remained alcohol free for over 7 months now. Really not much of a thing there.
I can feel my limiters. My knee is often feeling shitty. Not as a bad as it was prior to the Duralone shot but I know I am grinding crap in there. My lungs often are hacking - a remnant from the scarring from the embolisms I guess. I am generally weak in almost all other functional movement because I don't do diddly for ancillary exercise.
But I am happy to be jogging.
Been getting some kayaking in too.
I estimate to be in about 6:30 mile shape. I hate that it is that, but recognize someday I'll look at that as something far out of reach. I occasionally get the itch to race ... maybe a mile. Then I think a 50 mile. Nothing with a significant climb as I just don't have that. I wonder if I can keep doing 200 miles a month for the rest of the year and maybe get 2k on the year. I wonder why I wonder that. Watching races, be it collegiate track or WS, definitely gets the itch going a bit.
If you have read this far and are so incline - and are doing nothing on the 4th - come check us out at Prost in Northglenn, 2-6.
47 plus miles on the week, including some work Thursday AM doing kilo repeats at 7:15 pace. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. 7:15. Lol. It is what it is. Wondering if I can grumble the body up to take a run at a mid six minute mile soon, lung scarring and arthritic knee be damned.
Got in other 12 plus miles of walking, including a sunrise walk at Sanitas.
Caught Spare Change Saturday night at Mother Tucker's. Apparently the place is shutting down. It was their 38th show there. From what I heard they the first act there and now they are the last. I am guessing I had 15-20 shows with them there.
May in the Front Range is great. Almost as good as September in Dillon.
Another shameless shot from last week.
Back home for the week and the weather was pretty good. 47.2 miles on the week, another almost 12 miles of walking. Even did a track workout Thursday AM - 3 x a mile. Decided I was just gonna breathe hard and not worry about time. They ended up being 7:20s. Given I haven't been faster than 7:50 on anything in a long ass time, I figure that is about right. And I did breathe hard. Coming up on about 500 miles on the year.
Nothing huge to report. Grinding with work, doing the spring yard thing, contemplating the death and life of my father, watching the youngun's become old ones, running, music, etc.
This weekend represents a bit of a milestone for me. It has been almost a year to the day since I left my consulting business as a partner and went back to the corporate world. That alone has been a whirlwind of change.
The past year has been a lot of change though. Our youngest graduated from college. Our oldest returned from Japan. TZ's parents moved from the high mountains of Park County to the desert of Arizona. My father passed. I quit a band. I joined a band. I ended my involvement with Scouts, and high school coaching. I went to China twice, Vietnam once. I took two months off running after struggling with an achy knee for 8 months. I read more books last year than I probably did in the prior three collectively. I gave up alcohol.
To an outsider, it probably looked the same - a middle aged privileged white blue eyed male doing all right. I agree. I am doing all right. A fair amount of ups and downs, but I am doing pretty damn well.
I was thinking as I was coming home from the Bay this past week that I have a place I can go where there are people who are going to be genuinely happy to see me, give me shit, spend time with me and care. That is pretty flippin' awesome
Last week was 46 miles. Probably a bit more than my knee likes and definitely makes me feel the limits of my fitness and current lifestyle. This past week was 42 miles - and even had a quality session with LF while in Burlingame (hills at Coyote Point).
The Pinebox Sleepers had a gig at Prost on Friday. Four hours of a gig. That is a lot of music. 49 songs - about 2/3rds originals. It is challenging for sure. It would be different if this was my full time thing but we only practice collectively like 3 or 4 times a month. It is a big lift - and so inevitably, I see the errors we make when playing. The audience rarely sees these - unless they are HUGE gaffs or someone is paying attention really well. But we on the stage do. And so like a race, afterwards I reflect on what could have been better or what went well.
People have told me that I am too self critical but I don't see it that way. It is definitely a both things are true - I have a blast playing this music. But I want to be better.
It has me thinking a bit as of late - the struggle is the necessary for the joy. And with that, I have wondered if the struggle is the joy itself. I am not saying that is true with actual trauma - but rather we must have some challenging force on us to grow and see the positive.
I missed Friday - work day got away from me and then I was feeling lazy in the evening. The cold mist of rain kept me uninspired to get out. But I ended up with 44 on the week. On Thursday I even managed a workout of 4 x 2, 4 x 4 and then 4 X 4. I didn't really keep watch - just pushed the gas a bit. I did notice afterwards a few 45 seconds on the 2s.
I have described the knee as being "novicaned." By that I mean that I can feel it is still fucked up but that the pain is under ... under something, under water, under ... just numbed. But 44 miles with a workout is probably too much a beating for it in a week right now.
Caught another Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers show on Thursday night.
For the first time I thought ... "hmm ... that was not an A+ show." They played a few less songs than typical. They had some problems with their sound (a bit of the outcome of the feedback thing they do now). They did some choruses a bit too many times in a song. They leaned heavily on the Refreshments roots more than anything newer. There was hardly any in-tween song banter.
That said, an RCPM show is still 100x better than most bands for me. I always have a good time and I always learn something. Was my criticism of them based on the fact that I was not drinking at the show? Or was it that I got a slightly less than awesome night I have become accustomed to. Arguably if this was the first time I had ever seen them I'd have been blown away. Guess I have become a bit of that kind of fan.
Love that Gretsch that Roger has with the ripped out pickups.
Oh yeah, 13.3 miles of walking. I think that was all dog walking.
The shot to the knee kept me from running for 2 days. By Thursday the swelling had subsided enough that I was able to jog on it a little to get some blood flow going. Ended up with 30.x miles on the week.
For a moment on Friday I felt good enough that I was thinking about racing in 2025. Wow. There would need to be a lot of changes to get to that but the thought was entertaining. We'll see. Fairly certain I could do that "beat your age" thing at that 10k on Memorial Day if I wanted to lay out that much cash for a run.
I had a laugh at a memory of my younger ego self. I recently came across a guy sharing that he had run a mile at the age of 70 in 5:46. I remember when he did it. I remember I thought "cool," but I really didn't appreciate the magnitude of that sort of thing. I have a different perspective now.
Boston tomorrow. I know some folks running. Some asked if I ever ran it. Yeah, I did - but it was when a.) you didn't really do marathons unless you were running 100 miles a week b.) you could run Boston bandit and it was not only not a big deal but sorta cool and c.) I was convinced to do so by a pretty girl each time (not a good idea fwiw). So I don't really have a road marathon time even though I have done a bunch of marathons (at least PPM 10 times).
I hope all of ya' running tomorrow have a blast, run fast and get everything you went for. It is truly an amazing race - and I even got that when I did it in the 90s as a bandit.
More pix over on IG.
Started the week in Weifang. I found a nice little set of inner city trails to run, and was not alone in the wee hours of the morning. The early jogs did establish a good cadence for the day for me. The runs were slow, meandering with stops for pictures, and with little concern for anything other than checking out where I was at.
There is a lot to these trips. Visiting the groups I work with over there, connecting with people I otherwise only interact with electronically, seeing how product is actually manufactured, and coming away with a feeling of gratefulness ... of the opportunity to be a part of it and to have the life I have there and at home. It is basic but hard to explain ... seeing the broader world in this regard is eye and heart opening for me. I learn a lot technically, but that is often washed over by a wave of recognition that there are a lot of people on this planet ... and most of us go home and want to just share a good laugh with friends and family at the end of the day.
After a couple of days in Weifang (that was DEN-LAX-HKG-TAO to get there) we headed to Hanoi (that was TAO-ICN-HAN). Weifang was huge city, but Hanoi was massive - or at least where I was.
Similar running.
And then the trip back home. That was HAN-NRT-SFO-DEN.
Got some jogging back when I got home to shake the cobwebs and fight the jet lag. And to recognize the insanity of world travel and the basic joy of your own place.
I jogged with GW Sunday morning to get caught up.
39 miles on the week. Probably another 9 of measured walking.
