This Lots to blog about today. No particular order, here is the firing of random thoughts my pea shooter brain...
... had thoughts of going long today, but it was just not in my legs. I got out, on Green, and thought things would open up and that I'd add on to the route. The effort was greater than expected for the pace, and while my heart wanted to tack on Flag, or the Second Flatiron, my brain made the better call. I'll save it for a day when I have it rather than floundering.
... Mount Washington was yesterday (results). Clint Wells, who fell off the depth chart (and why is a damn good question) finished second, with Rickey Gates coming up in third. I was a bit surprised to see Peyton Batliner have a tough showing. Props to Simon G (breaking Matt Carpenter's master's record) Andy A, John T and Claude C. The race looked to be incredibly deep, with 31 guys breaking 70 on this classic tough uphill run. Ernholtz sends a message that she is a force to be reckoned with at Pikes later this summer with a win here.
... Still Mount Washington, while it is a tough climb is different than climbs in the west because of altitude. Frankly, some just don't do as well when the air gets thin, and some do better. I'd be willing to bet (small change mind you) that Simon beat Matt on races at lower elevations 4 out of 5 times. Get above 8000 feet however, and Matt's VO2 from an other planet prevails every time.
... and on that front, Mount Evans was yesterday. This was a much deeper field than last year where I snagged second behind Mackey. JV ran 3 minutes better but dropped five places. Carpenter ... what can I say? Any moment when you think that Father Time might have caught up with this guy and that his best years are past, he posts a time or performance that leaves you shaking your head in utter disbelief. 1:37:01? For 14.5 miles ... for most folks that would be a decent training run ... if it were FLAT and at Boulder. Mind you Mr. Carpenter does this while starting at 10000 feet, running to 14000 feet and from wire to wire by himself. While the USATF Mountain Running Championships were out east at Mount Washington, Matt made it clear who is still the king of mountain running. While I appreciate Matt's boycott of USATF events, it is rather sad from a fan perspective that we can't get to see him take on the rest of the best in the US. ... And Mount Evans was pretty dang deep this year too! Eight guys under two hours, with Pikes Ascent star Daryn Parker posting right at 2 hours for ninth. Kudos to JV for running a well improved race, and to Susan N, Lisa G.
... I appreciated JV's sharing of his mental state in the last mile of Mount Evans, which is a pure sufferfest. All kinds of crazy thoughts go through my head in the last miles. Jump on the back of a car? Cut a switchback or two? Give up and walk? Steal some poor sap’s carbon road bike? I think about this sort of stuff ... and of course you will never do any of it but it is odd how these weird weeds begin to take root in your head when you are suffering at altitude. I recall a thought in last's Pikes popping up ..."I don't want to run anymore." I actually ended up laughing at loud at that one.
... I might need to change my predictions for the women's Ascent. Ernholtz will move up, I got to consider Nuznum. I am not sure if Lisa G is knocked off as the favorite yet.
... coming down Gregory Canyon this AM, the canyon was yelling with cicadas. It was crazy loud and weird, like the sky-trees were alive.
... we now enter seven weeks out and soon I will need to alter my training approach. I have been burying myself to get to some base level of fitness where I feel I could be ... well, self respectful so to speak. I am there (I think) but ... there is work to be done. I have been burying myself in training, expecting to absorb it over time. That has been working, but I will need to shift to an approach of harder days being harder, easier days being easier, and begin to push some specific hill interval workouts.
... I still don't know if I will do the Ascent only, the Marathon only, or the Double. The least likely in my mind is the Ascent only although that thinking is a bit backwards as that is the FIRST event. The question that is weighing on my mind is will I be fit enough to run a strong (for me) marathon? If I will be, do I attack that without the excuse of the Ascent in my legs? I don't know yet, and the way training and workouts go over the next 2 months will drive that decision. If I line up today, it is the Double. 8 weeks from now, that could be a different game altogether.
... I was thinking this AM of how I have had dogs get into porcupines. The dog never wins and you end up spending half the day pulling out quills with a pair of pliers. Now, if this happened to a human, they would never screw with a porcupine again. A dog however remains wholly convinced that they will get the better part of a porcupine the next time they see them and that, in fact they will kick the living crap out of that thing that stung them the last time they met. The dog never wins though. The porcupine always wins. I was left to wonder if I was a dog and Pikes Peak was my porcupine.
... week in review
- M 64 minutes treadmill, 4K elevation
- T 80 min AM, 30 min PM
- W Green, hard, 64 min RT
- Th 91 min easy
- F Green - 74 min RT
- Sa - 32 min AM, 50 min PM
- Su - Green - 84 min
... total volume on the week was 569 minutes ... which is not a ton (9.5 hours) but I am feeling some things on the edges ... probably because of the near general maintenance of the volume with an increase in intensity (slightly) and the heat (plus just other noise like increased work as of late). These little things are nothing huge but they are smoke signals ... a cracked lip (dehydrated), some fitful sleep, sore toes ... playing on edge city will give me some good workouts (Tu, We) but I will have days that are less than average (today).
... when I was thinking about that (last thought above) today on my run, I recalled an article I read (this is a really good read if you pick up what is going on between the lines) about the duel between Carpenter and Elliott in the Ascent. Both men-competitors trained at Barr Camp that year in the weeks leading up to the race. In a post race interview Carpenter revealed how he was observing Elliott living in edge city at Barr ... "I'd see him walk in the door at dinnertime and think, 'He's got a little black under the eyes, he's moving his sandwich a little slower to his mouth,'" Carpenter said. Now that is some competition.
... where are the San Juan 50 results?! Also will be looking for IM CDA results today too. Kick butt KW!
some good thoughts....i like the dog/porcupine metaphor. we've all got our porcupines!
ReplyDeleteYea those damn ultras are so slow to post results.
ReplyDeleteI did some back of the envelope calculations on the PP message board. I have no idea what the pressure was at the Mt. Evans race, but if it was 10% above normal, then that (as best I can tell) would result in about 10% more oxygen...would that result in 10% better performance? Who knows - Matt Carpenter is an efficient beast, so maybe he can scrape every % out. Anyway, 10% on 2 hours is about 10-15 minutes faster time.
You gave a good analogy on his 1:37. I think I could run a few minutes faster than that (maybe 5) at SEA LEVEL (10000 feet lower) on a FLAT COURSE. Jiminy Christmas.
I noticed a couple new competitive entries for the women - Andrea Williams and Erin Ward. A former near winner of the Pikes Peak Marathon multiple times as a YOUNGSTER and a female that runs a 2:45 marathon.
ReplyDeleteHard to know what Andrea's been up to the last few years, but she's entering the prime age...