Week ending 01MAR2020

Monday AM - in Melbourne.  Flat as a pancake.  I got a whole 8 feet over the 10 miles yesterday.  Same thing today - 7.7 miles slow to start and in the dark.  Tired legs for sure.


Monday evening - 3.6 easy but quicker than the morning.


Tuesday AM - 8 miles with 10 x 2 minutes on, 1 minute off.


Wednesday AM - slow to rise this AM and fairly dead legged.  8 miles easy.

Wednesday PM - 3 miles.  Felt a bit better but still worked.

Thursday - tired and slow to get up.  4.1 miles and that was it for the day before a full day at the office and traveling back to Colorado.


Friday - 5.3 with Greg in the AM
In the afternoon - 5.2, feeling pretty good.  Headed off to Tahosa for the afternoon Okpik.

Okpik weekend is a bit of a no run weekend for me.  It is such a butt kicker with the snow, the cold, the work, the altitude ...






So no miles on Saturday, the day to finish February (which was 296.7 miles, 39.83 hours, a very low 8600 plus feet (travel hit that hard), with 9 days of business travel, 1 day off from running - the previously mentioned Okpik).

Sunday - 10.1 miles.  Not pretty but felt good mentally to get it done.


On the year - 573.7 miles, 77.97 hours and 18964 feet - all over 81 runs, 2 run days off.  On whole I feel a good start to the year in prep for a Pikes run ... need to keep at the longer day every week or two and start to nudge up the vertical more.  Not surprisingly, I feel fresher in a weird way when I run more - to some end.  If I back the long day and a quality day, I tend to feel that way more over the next four or five days than if they are even spaced apart by an extra day.  And I feel better on whole than I do with a down week (like this week - 55 miles).

Oh yeah, word came back that the polyp removed in the colonoscopy was benign. 

Saturday 30MAR2019

AM - 6.2 miles with a couple of handfuls of strides with the team before heading out to go camping with the Scouts. 

Okpik weekend 2019

Okpik weekend with JZ.  This was our sixth year of doing it and fourth on staff.

It is a butt kicker of weekend to build the quinzee … or to train and support folks who are doing it, but JZ is the best partner at this ever. 

Friday 04JAN2018

AM – got out with the Eagle crew and Jeremy P on the Ridgeview loop around to the ditch, running with the new kid from Cali.  Easy, sub 8 jogging.  My hammies are bit sore still from the weight work on Wednesday but not nearly as bad as yesterday.  Finished with four strides.  6.2 miles

Hit the weight room afterwards and saw some of the kids from other sports doing overhead weighted lunges and so I did some of that.  I talked to the weight coach (he is awesome) Jimmy Z and asked him about some stuff I could do for quad strength, and we ended up talking about front loaded squats as being more effective for that than back squats.  Got in a few sets of pull ups too. 

It was not my best gym session but I want to keep at poking at this even if only in small amounts when I can, not traveling so that I can make some strength progress.

Last night I participated in an Eagle Scout Court of Honor.  I still am active with the Troop JZ was a part of, and seeing kids achieve this rank is a special moment for them.  I recognize Scouts are not everyone’s thing – but I find value in the program in its development of young people through outdoor experiences and its focus on character and skill development. 

At the Court – which is the “celebration” ceremony where a Scout receives their rank award – and hence is a combination of serious awarding and recognition of the Scout and his family and some good natured heckling (usually by sharing a story or two of something from the recipient Scout’s history) – there is also typically a point where the Scout provides a “thank you” back to certain people that have helped him on his Scouting journey.  On occasion he may provide a “Eagle Mentor Pin” as a memento of the occasion.. 

I have had the honor of receiving these pins in the past.  I don’t take it lightly.  I view it as one of the highest forms of recognition I can achieve at this point in my life – in that I have impacted someone in a positive way, to the point where they want to highlight that. 

When I have received these in the past, I have heard the Scout say something about how I made them laugh or I helped them in their project, but last night I heard the Scout say something different.  This Scout said that I had challenged them at one of their earlier rank advancements as not necessarily being ready for that rank because they had not really performed their best.

I was sort of surprised as I had no recollection of that.  The Scout went on to say how while he was not happy about it initially, he had really thought about it afterwards, and recognized that if he was honest with himself, he knew he was capable of more and that he would strive for that. 

Whoa.

Well, I’ll say this … that is going get me to strive to do the same sir.  Thank you for the reminder. 

PM – easy four miles, with strides.  I had considered not doing this but it was so dang beautiful out after the colder temps this past week I could not pass it up. 

Eagle Court

JZ was officially awarded his Eagle rank today.  It was a pretty neat day.

JZ–Eagle Scout

Yes.  He earned it. 

Weekend 08-11FEB2018

Thursday – 13 miles easy in the afternoon.

Friday – 7.5 with Greg in the morning, jumping on 5 minutes on, 2 minutes off over four sets.  It was cold with freezing fog, and I felt the slightly bigger day more than I cared to admit.  I got in another three and change in the afternoon before coaching the kids through a workout.  The weather had degraded enough over the course of the workout that I was seriously thinking of bagging it.  JZ told me afterwards that he was glad I hadn’t.

JZ and I then headed out to Tahosa, for our fifth year at Okpik, and third year of staffing it.  It was a good weekend playing in the snow, digging caves, instructing younger Scouts, and enjoying a sub zero night.  The drive to Ward was pretty much a white knuckle affair the whole time and took an hour forty versus the typical hour … but we made it safely.  It was worth it.

JZ is such a trooper at these events.  It is truly an ass kicker of a day with the hike with the pulks at 9k feet through the snow, piling the snow, then carving it back out … dealing with the weather … and he just loves it.  It is a real privilege to get to share it with him.

Of course, I get nothing for running on that day.  I get some sort of workout but it ain’t running.  First day off on the year.

Sunday – I always forget how trashed I am from the Okpik event when I think about what I will do Sunday afternoon.  This year was no exception.  6.6 miles just to wake up some stiff legs.

A solid week on whole with a hill workout, some threshold stuff and a fair number of miles given the day off.  Going to have to get back to being rigorous next week. 

Weekend (and then some) … 09-12NOV2017

A bit behind …
Thursday (09NOV) – 6 in the AM with Greg, in the afternoon it was 6.5 with the team as the kids did a helluva workout.
Friday (10NOV) – a quick and short 3 miles before heading out to the Rendezvous Site on the South Platte for another Scouting Turkey Dutch Oven event.  We had 140 for dinner.  It is just one of those days where there is not going to be anymore running as I am on the move all day doing other work.  And Saturday (11NOV) was a goose egg on the running.

Sunday (12NOV) … I was bushed from the campout but I got out in the fading light of the day to get in five miles.  Up early tomorrow for a 5AM flight to Dallas.

Weekend 24-25JUN2017

Saturday mid day – a sloppy 10.2 miles with it getting warm again.

Listened to a good ATC with Lucho and guest host Annie.

Sunday AM – jogged down into the open space and then met Bob as he came from the north.  Worked on a half dozen of the “shad hills.”  It is about a 1/3 of a mile up a 6 or so percent grade.  I managed to look at Bob’s back on each of them but I got some hard breathing in, and found a way to get each one a bit progressively faster – starting at 2:05 and cutting down to 1:53 on the last.  11.5 miles.

The week ended up being 75.8 miles.  I am at 267.4 on June over 36. hours and a flat month at 11k and change vertical feet.  On the year, I am at 1823.4 miles, 245.8 hours and 80,265 feet, six days off.  Averages are at 9.83 hours a week, 72.94 miles a week.  17 travel nights, 5 camp nights.

The week was good in that I turned the corner on the hamstring and some of the basic energy issues I have been having.  I definitely need to get to the habit of pushing pace a bit like I did today a couple of times a week. 

All good.  Fun weekend doing various Scout related things: