Sunday 111311

Got home mid day post the Turkey Dutch Oven cookout and was a bit fried.  Then headed off to KZ’s last soccer game of the year (outdoor) and was very cognizant of the wind playing with my head.  Decided on the way home to take advantage of the gerbil machine in the garage.  10.5 miles, with 6 x 5 minutes on 2 minutes rest. 

Once I got going, and my head clear, it was a very good and enjoyable run.  Kept it at 0% grade to help with turnover, but I am increasingly convinced the damn thing just lies to me about pace.  I just need to consider it like an indoor bike trainer and consider time based work on it.

A little less volume in terms of miles, but a few handfuls more of minutes.  Got back to a bit of vertical this week with over 5k.  A friend advised me that I need to get a goal soon or I will fall into the habit game of just doing my 10 a day thing (they are right).  It has been a month since the hundred and I can say I feel pretty normal again – and that was evidenced with the track work this week, and the nudge in the vertical. 

The next week will probably be a bit of a challenge judging by the work calendar.  Short and sweet might be the order.

Saturday 111211

Up in Fort Lupton for the Turkey Dutch Oven cook out with one of the local BSA troops that our Webelos are checking out.

Small tent

Big tent

Looking inside it

It folds up to this (without the poles)
.
Getting hot chocolate
 
Big skillet

Lots of onions in that big skillet

Blue Sky
 
Tomahawk throwing

A way point on the orienteering course
 
5 easy miles, up wind
 
Prepped for Dutch Ovens
  
Cooking up breakfast (taters, onions, peps, go with eggs later)

Opening flag
 
In the recreated Fort Lupton for dinner

Peach cobbler our Webs made for desert

Friday 111111

Why ultra guys must have blogs:  it is the law.

Day 10 (yesterday) of mo’ month.  Hardly work posting.

I have no intentions of being a tri guy, but I am a slight fan of the sport.  Interesting to see Verzbicas dropped out of the Oregon program so quickly to pursue triathlon.  Crazy to think a sub four miler as a high schooler is pursuing tri over running.

Mid day – got out with Bob.  Did 5k at the track (not tempo, but not racing, but faster than what I thought I could do …18:30  (hit the mile in 6, 2 in 12:03), then jumping in with with Bob for some his stuff (more than me and faster).  4 more halves (2:57, 2:53, 2:52, 2:51).  Again, nothing stellar but for my first session  back, I was pretty happy as I was thinking anything sub six thirty would be super hard.  Work today wasn’t in the lungs, but the legs were wondering what the hell was going on.   Figure I need to keep at this sort of thing to get back to that 5:25 5kish pace. 13.5 miles on the day.

Thursday 111011

      
AM – JV put up the bat signal for Green last night.  It had been a bit since I had hit a bigger hill and so I took him up on the offer, but warned I’d be slow (and I was).  This was Jeff’s 98th summit of Green this year and my 21st.

The lower stretches of Green were clear of any sort of snow or ice, so traction was not necessary.   On the upper end however (heading up via Greenman, at the talus fields and above in particular), things were socked in with compacted ice.  JV had his microspikes and a need to get back to his family so I urged him to move on while I carefully picked my spot – looking for small squares of dirt, rock or roots to connect with rather than zero friction ice.

It was great to get back on the hill and work the climbing legs a bit.  I am clearly out of touch with that some.  The ice didn’t make the task any quicker.   If I am going to do this regularly, I am going to need to stud up some shoes or invest in some spikes or hagnails or whatever.   Always good to yap with Jeff – and although nobody will believe it we don’t just talk about running.  This AM we talked about running and how wonderful our wives are and how damn lucky we are. 

On the way in, I saw something similar to this (not my picture, but essentially what I saw on the rail line that runs through Broomfield as I was driving out to Green pre dawn.)

Wednesday 110911

Nick looks to be setting up a spring 25/50.  Also he is out of the NF50 so I imagine folks could mail their UROY ballots in now.  ;-) 

The Meb story is incredible:  Meb Keflezighi is like a zombie. Every time you think he’s dead, he just keeps on coming back. Last spring he was without a sponsor and couldn’t get an appearance fee at a marathon. Literally no one wanted him. His race results didn’t suggest anything big was coming. But today, in his tenth year of marathoning and some seven years past his greatest race, he broke his PR. Who breaks their PR in their tenth year of marathoning? That’s just ridiculous.

Oh yeah, even though every is fired up about the new attack on the marathon, Burfoot says the hype for a sub 2 ain’t warranted yet.  Covering the NY Marathon … these guys are hilarious.

Goucher retires from elite competition.  That guy has been quite a story himself.  Let’s see if I can talk him into Pikes.

Hit the Spring Brook loop for 10.  Nice in some spots, but pretty muddy in others.  Going into this run, I thought I might go after it, but it was clear after a couple of miles I was a not ready for a hard day.  But maybe I need to check these good reminders on varying training.

Tuesday 110811

Compression gear apparently does not help when you wear it in a race.

‘nother Lucho podcast.  Enjoyed it.

A report from the ditch on the heels of the new FKT there.

Treadmill in the AM:  5 miles at 5% grade, averaging 7 mph … just getting back to a little vertical work, and then five flat, easy (34 minutes but the treadmill lies lies lies).  Did this in the office gym.  No one was in there and I had some chaffing on my nips from the run on Sunday.  Flipped the shirt over the back of my neck, but was sort of paranoid someone was going to come in and get all scared at the bald hairy sweaty man.

Slight mo’ shadow starting show up.  Two more months and I ought to be in the game. 

Obligatory nod to KJ vid.  You got to wonder who is the guy that is running with the damn camera to take all these shots.  There is one where it looks like it was taken 30 feet above their head.

Somebody at work asked me a couple of weeks ago about how to taper for an upcoming marathon.  They asked me via email.  I did not want to type a long answer on my crackberry, so I wrote up some responses on hotel pad paper and took some photos that I sent to them. 

There is a scene in this that reminds me of one of my first backpacking trips with a friend of mine in college.  This was no slack packing or go light event.  We were out there for a week with a boat load of everything on our back on the AT.  We reached this downhill scree slope on one of our last days and we just started running down it with these 40lb packs on our back and the big lug hiking boots.  Laughing at first, we ended up going arse over tea kettle and making the mountain side look like a yard sale.  It was blast.  I think we sat around and ate blueberries from the bushes in the area for the rest of the day.

I confess, I stared at this way too long last night.  But then again … it was only a 10 mile day today.

I got asked by a colleague at work (a few weeks ago) about some feedback on how to taper for an upcoming marathon they had.  I got a little information on their load, goals, etc.  But then I was away from my laptop, and decided rather than type all my thoughts on it via the crackberry, I’d scrawl it out on some hotel paper, and send photos over to them.  This is what I sent.

   

Monday 110711

Mid day – 8 miles.  Temps were dropping, and you could feel the humidity building.  8 miles through the Westminster Hills open space.  As it is a dog park, I try to avoid it … simply because the dogs are so damn over zealous there.  Still moving pretty good.  I can feel a little tightness in the psoas and priformis as these runs go on … but not too bad. 

Listened to the AJW interview from URP.

I am not going to be around (out with the Scouts) but this looks like a good run to go join. 

New FKT for the R2R2R

Read about it here.

Sunday 110611

This week’s runs have all come very nicely, and at paces that were surprisingly quicker than what I would have expected (while being very comfortable).  This AM started similar, but I unwound and fell apart after about an hour.  Early in this run I thought I’d extend the run a bit, but I ended up slogging home on a shorter route.  12 miles.

65 miles on the week on 7 runs, including one at 4 miles.  Building back nicely on whole and will look to add a little more structure this next week.  That structure will probably be in the form of 5k, 10k running, but I have not picked a race to accomplish that yet.

I read in the latest issue of Running Times last night that only 5 men have made 2 Olympic squads in the marathon.  Two of the favorites going in have to be Hall and Ritz, but it is apparently very tough to make two teams.  Could figure Meb in that mix as well (how about making 2 but missing one in the middle?  Wow). 

But certainly not as tough to make the US squad as it is to be even in the conversation for the Kenyan team.

Day 6 of mo’ month and thinking about what to do in 2012.
 
It has been a long time since a Hang Nine shot, so here is one.  Feet are actually in pretty good shape these days.

Saturday 110511

Mid day, ten miles and with a little structure to check things out and break it up.  10 thirty second hard stride outs on every three minutes.  Actually ended up being 11 of them because I lost count.

Friday 110411

Some guy tells me to take my seat in the back of the room and that I need to run a REAL100.  He posts an interesting read over on IRF today.

Bob clued me into this silliness:  Ted Turner to donate buffalo …

Looks like the Turkey Trot race I cherry picked last year is under new management, or at least a different name for the company managing it.  No mention of prize money for awards, so I will admit – I am little less compelled to get out.  That might be a good break anyway.

Brownie clued me into this contest.

Mid day I hooked up with JV.  It has been a long time since I jogged with Jeff (although I did last see him at the B100 while I was doing 12 minute  miles and he was on a bike) and it was good to catch up. I thought with Jeff pushing a baby jogger with TWO kids in it, I’d be lining up a nice easy day.  No chance.  Unless snow slowed him down, Jeff was hitting sub 6 on the down hills, and low sevens on the flats.  He was kicking me arse.   I mentioned I was going to do a some strides at the end and he joined me.  He then promptly kicked away from while pushing the jogger.  Easily.   Sheesh.  I need to do some work damn it.

Officially rejected.  Sort of.  I never got a rejection note.  I guess I would expect one, but I am not surprised that I didn’t in the “don’t give bad news” world.

Thursday 110311

I am seeing that there are a few folks announcing they have been contacted as Ignite presenters.  I have not received any sort of confirmation or declination, so I am going to assume I have been rejected.  No worries.  Next time.

Days 1 and 2 of the mo, not much to write about yet.  This will get ugly.

 

Lot of folks fired up for Pb as registration opened up on that (exhibit A).  I have not registered for that in part because I am still interested in Pikes, in part I have a free entry to Pikes (versus a near 300 dollar fee for Pb) but MOSTLY because I have not convinced myself that I am willing to do all the necessary training to do the Pb I think I could do.  Yes, I know I could do SOME of the appropriate training and get SOME level of the result that training would enable.  But I am not yet sure I am WILLING to make the choices to support more than SOME, and so I am not ready to approach that half assed. 

And so, implied in this is that yes – I think the training I currently manage can get me some level of satisfaction at Pikes, but for a 100 – it is a different game (but the opposite is less true … Pb 100 training would get you further along at Pikes anyway).   Yeah, I know that folks will say - “just do it” or all I need to do is get up early and get this session done or that one, blah blah blah.  They are absolutely right.  I know what needs to be done.  I am trying to be honest with myself that I am not sure I am willing to do that consistently. 

Some of this comes across as the cranky old man, but some of this URP interview with Frank Bozanich is pretty good and funny.  I do have to roll my eyes a bit at how there is talk about how guys were tougher and just raced off the front in the past.  I did enjoy his comments on barefoot running though.  Digging what the URP guys are doing.

12 miles, steady with Bob.  Good to catch up with Bob, as it is the first time seeing him since the B100 and he has had some competitions in there since then.  Third solid run in four days.  Thinking about what’s next …

Wednesday 110211

USATF MUT awards.  Sigh.

Felt lousy today – and I know why:  I got crap for sleep last night – although I don’t know why on that.  I was a bit zombie-esque in the second half of the day.  I slugged out a four mile slow dog jog at the tail of the day; hoping to shake myself awake but it really didn’t work.  Meh.  No worries. 

Tuesday 110111

Busy day at work so I did not get out until JZ’s soccer practice.  7 miles, but again at a nice clip.  I might be ready to be thinking about 5k work again.  But supposedly we get 6-10 inches of snow again tonight so the track will be buried.

Mind boggling article from SoS on marathon top end and how it has shifted.  19 of 20 of the top marathons this year come from Kenya.  Every major has been won by a Kenyan.  The average of the top 10 marathons this year is faster than the WR from a decade ago, with 8 men breaking that record.  Great article but crappy title – seismic shift.

Leadville reg opened, and nope – I did not bite (where does that additional 20k in reg fees go folks?)  Some folks don’t buy the Pb hype.  Others love it.

Monday 103111

Got the link to this article from Ward (regarding altitude).

KJ talks about how much he eats and drinks during an ultra.  13L of H20 at WS100, but only 5 at UTMB.

Roes hints he may be done at Western.

Want to improve?  Run with a bow.  That terrain is pretty bad ass.

10 miles.  I felt good – best I have since the 100.  I upped this to steady over the run, effectively turning it into an out and back run with the back as a tempo effort.  Nothing real zippy but faster than I have in a bit.  Gorgeous day but the winds picked up on the way back.

Uh oh

I have lamented about Pikes and Leadville being the same weekend (most times).  Maybe I was not lamenting really as much as I was thankful – as it gave me an excuse.

But now … there may be no excuse.  Coming in 2012 - Get a taste of the dirt and grit that makes up the Leadville Trail 100 Run. The team who compiles the most miles in a 12- or 24-hour period wins their division and invaluable bragging rights. Solo racers can also get a chance to race for the coveted Silver or Gold Leadville belt buckle. Giddyup.   September 1-2.

Sunday 103011

AM – 11 miles easy.  A bit more miles than I expected on the week, coming in at 53.  277 on the month and 3019 on the year. 

Think my next competition will be to participate in Movember.

Centaurus coach McCandless talks about the come from behind win Centaurus pulled off yesterday.

Saturday 102911

AM –  With enough snow on the various fields that soccer for the kiddoze was cancelled, I considered the Basic for a moment.  I got back pretty late last night however, there was plenty of catch up with the family to do, and I am not quite up for getting in the mix of snow and climbing on the hills west of Boulder.  8 miles locally, but I feel things are getting to a point where I can begin to go after it if I want.    And I am starting to feel some want.

CU XC takes Pac 12 title, and Centaurus took the 4A XC title over Broomfield.  Interesting how the fastest average team and sum team does not always get the higher placing (as a team).

Kids had a piano recital today.  It was a Halloween based one, so they were in costume.  Here is JZ as a zombie ninja (I am still not sure how that works) getting ready to hit the keys.

 

After the recital, the elementary school was having a fund raiser carnival – also in the Halloween spirit.  They had a cake walk, and in addition to giving cakes to the winning numbers, they were awarding them to the best dancer during the walk.  I ain’t got a groove but I can outwiggle the elementary school kids.  And best of all – instead of winning a cake, I chose the apple pie.  9 times out of 10, pie wins over cake.

 

Was thinking on my run today, how – at least for me – success is a factor that leads to failure and failure is a factor that leads to success.  Not a new lesson but one I need to continue learn over and over again.  See – I was the kid that was told, “ah you are so smart.”  So I believed it.  Then guess what?  When crap got hard and my “smarts” didn’t get me through that (because smarts are different than hard work), I fell apart.  Suddenly I was not so smart.

In this regard, I am sort of glad that the 100 a few weeks didn’t go well.  Crap, had I won it and run it in 16 hours and felt great I’d have my head so far up me arse that I’d probably forget how to walk.  Screwing up sets me straight and gives me a better perspective on what is real versus straight up success.  So it sets me up for success later.

I often misuse successes, even small ones, as an excuse to allow poor behavior.  “Ah, sure, I can eat that.  I ran 10 miles today.”  “Sure, I don’t need to do strength work, I just ran a 100 miles, I obviously am strong enough.”  Reality is I deserve nothing and I need to earn everything.  When I forget that, and I think I am deserved of something, then I earn what I deserve – nothing.   And actually – this has very little to do with running.

Or something like that.  It was certainly clearer on the run today.

Friday 102811

AM - 7 miles easy.  As a side note, this run put me at 3k for the year.

Holy crow this example of how to wire your garage door is excellent.

KJ:

Thursday 102711

AM – got out with Ken and Darren this AM in Reno.  I had never met these guys but that is the blogosphere.  I mentioned the other day I was heading here and they got in touch with me, shifted their schedules to jog with me – and did it on a silly loop around a lake (1 mile) near my hotel.  Thanks for hosting guys!

The runners I meet – awesome people.  I know that comes across as a bit “hooray for runners” but it is true.  Seriously – I know it would freak some folks out to say they were going to meet two folks they have never met in person but had exchanged two emails with -- in the dark by a lake in Reno.  Not a problem with endurance runners.

Good guys, out there enjoying the outdoors, trying to improve, be good friends, dads and husbands, and have a good time.  It really does not vary a whole heck of a lot from the elite dudes to the folks just starting the sport.  I love it.  Was very stoked and rejuvenated in my heart this morning to share a few strides with these guys.

Poorly taken self portrait with these guys.  I look like I might still be running from that stunt I did a few weeks ago.

 

It was a little chilly but I ought to not gripe about that since it was about twice as many degrees here as it was in Broomstock this AM.  8 miles.

I feel generally recovered by my psoas on the right side is a bit sore.  At least I think it is my psoas based on the in depth 3 minute google godess prayer I did this AM.  I am not sure what I am going to do about that yet – for the short term.  I do know longer term this is a big imbalance I have and something I most definitely need to correct.  I might just need to be lazy for a while but I’d rather not.

Got this from Footfeathers – worth sharing (related to my possible Ignite session)

I am not voting in the Boulder elections because I don’t live there.   But for those of you who do, please consider voting and consider this (plucked from the Boulder Trail Runner list serve):   Lisa Morzel (who is running for re-election) said at a March City Council meeting:
“I would go for yellow tags for bike users, maybe even blue tags for runners, pink tags for walkers... I don’t think dog users should be the only ones that are paying into the system.”  Do you want to be required to wear a "blue tag"??  This is for real - this really happens behind-the-scenes - we need to vote; electing City Council is the only thing that works.  At the Tuesday Meeting when Council rejected mountain bike access to Anemone Hill, the Daily Camera reported, "Councilman Matt Appelbaum went a step further and said he doesn't want any human access to the property."  "Any human access" to public land???  He used to be our Mayor. You really need to vote.

Sheesh.

Expect to read into this one a bit more tonight.

Evening: trashed the upper body in the gym, again fairly quickly (it does not take much).  Worked on the pigeon pose as recommended in today’s comments.  I might be old and gray enough now that I can go try this yoga thing.