Friday 042012

Colorado Running Hall of Fame inducted a few members last night that have left a mark at Pikes, including Danelle Ballengee, and Pablo Vigil (although Vigil is much better known for his accomplishments at Sierre Zinal).  Also in this class that caught my eye were Ken Chlouber, and Jerry Quiller – as these guys are more known for their support of running rather than actual running.

Leadville entrant list is up.  As is Leadman.

Some history for you WS philes out there.

Gym
Calf raises 40 x 80, 30 x 80, 30 x 80
Leg press machine – 12 x 180, 12 x 190, 10 x 200
Abdution 20 x 110
Adduction 20 x 110
Squat (in a controlled rack), 12 x 95, 10 x 115, 8 x 135.  I have to say, I liked how the rack helped me keep the motion appropriate and move my legs a bit more forward.  Allowed me to roll back into the hips more. 
Stat cycle – 120 minutes
Post ride got in 2 x 20 leg lift
Bench press 2 x 145 (new high for this good around), 4 x 135, 6 x 125

Ten: it comes down to this

I have long been toying with changing how I approach my running.  That “toying” came to a head in the last few weeks.  That is partly because of my having to deal with this Achilles injury, partly because I am increasingly cognizant of other weaknesses I have long ignored, and partly because of insight of what I am capable of doing versus needing to do versus wanting to do. 

Most of these recognitions are not new, and probably for long time visitors of this blog they are painfully redundant.  The issue has been that while I have recognized these in the past, I have done little to change my approach.  Some of this unwillingness to change was because I had established habits.  Some of this was because to some extent I was happy with what I was doing.  I enjoy getting out for an hour or two a day on roads, trail, and track.  And sometimes I enjoy that short term view to the detriment to the long term view (a race on the horizon).

We’re all different.  Some of us will totally look at the race in six months, and do everything for that as if it is the only thing.  Some of us will not give a crap and just do what suits us today.  Neither is wrong.  Neither absolutely defines success more than the other.  For me however, continuing to do the same thing and be frustrated with the results … well, that is the definition of insanity, right?

So this “reboot” of sorts was verbalizing that to force myself more to consider it.  It means that I can either a.)  change what I am doing b.) change what I expect c.) some combination of a and b or d.) continue to do the same thing and not expect any change. 

I think that I have started to embrace “a” (going to the gym, not running even though I can but on a compromised piece of grizzle, cross training on the bike) and “b” (actually letting go of what might be the results I want).  I have heard that research says it takes about two months of daily repetition to form a habit.  If that is true, the past two weeks are a step in the right direction, but hardly indicative of future behavior.

So what does that all mean in terms of what my training looks like? 

First and foremost, I need to listen to this Achilles.  I think it is nearly completely healed and I will start to test – evaluate that shortly with some short easy runs.  I must be completely willing to accept that it is not, regardless of the time table I may have in the caverns of my mind and rest it longer if necessary.  That could be the whole summer.  Or fall.  I need to be okay with that.  Admittedly, I hope not … but if it is, then it is.

Once it heals, whenever that is, then I will bring myself back to some level of regular running.  I want my running however to look different than the 10 a day, 70 miles a week standard it was recently.  I really want to get to a point where I focus that on three runs a week.  And those would be a.)  a hard short interval run (like 1 minute on, 1 minute off on hills or 10 x 400 or 3 minute intervals on a hill or halves or kilos on the track) b.) a longer tempo run (again – alternating these between hills and flat) and c.) a long run (preferably in the hills this time of year).  All other runs are almost unnecessary.  I need to be content with filling any other days with a day off, a 3 mile run, a hike, a bike ride or other cross training.

Second, I need to continue to embrace the gym as a way to address other weaknesses.  It will make me a better runner and athlete.  Longer term it will mean I can run longer.  And I like that idea.  And for what it is worth, I like the gym. 

Third, it is sort of a combination of the first and the second but I really need to make those other days – well, other days.  This could mean time on the bike, or really easy running, or goofing off at altitude by cutting trees or something.

And finally, I need to remain committed to this.  There is still a desire to go back to do what I have done.  There is still some question in the belief of this approach.  Today I am committed but I need to be sure to stick to it. 

So enough with all this talk.  Time to action.

Test from the latest batch

Shaping up nicely.  Only 2 weeks in the bottles.

Thursday 041912

A bit of soreness (expected) in the back from yesterday’s deadlifts. Won’t rush back to those yet, but will look to build on them over time.

Schlarb PRs on the front side of Green, and probably has a fair claim to the FKT over there. Hmm ... wonder if I can coordinate a Rickey, Schlarb, Waggoner, Anton showdown. I can promise this OSMP lurkers ... it won't be announced here.

Glenn Randall, the 2010 PPA champ, is getting some press for his leading the first 10k of the Boston Marathon.

I am going to dig into this read on Kenyan dominance later today.

Camping in the woods this weekend. SF next week. If things feel good, I might give myself a break from my running break just to enjoy a run over the Golden Gate and into Marin.

PM, office gym, machine bench 6 x 140, 8 x 130, 8 x 130
Lat pull downs 11 x 110, 7 x 120, 4 x 130
Mil press 10 x 110, 6 x 120, 3 x 130
1 hour stat bike (recumbent, ugh … worked legs different though).  Focused to keep HR near above 140 entire time.  Easy on the lungs, hard on the legs.

There is just the remnants of a dull ache in the Achilles.  I wonder if I am thinking about it a bit too much at this point.  I know if I was training, I would not even think anything of this.  It would be just a regular old ache that I dealt with.

Nine: is this how I rank?

I am writing this one from the stationary bike.  In part to kill time on it before I get to the hard stuff where time kills me. 

Before I get into it today, I want to be clear that I am happy.  I realize that some of these posts come across as a bit tortured, frustrated, and maybe even a bit angry.  I guess there is some truth to that, but it is only a sliver of it.  I see the latest relearning of these lessons as a very positive thing.  I see success via failure. 

And on whole, I am an incredibly lucky dude.  I know there are some folks out there who say they rather die then to not be able to run another step.  I absolutely love running, but if it were something I could never do again, I’d miss it – but I could be completely content and full in so many other aspects of my life.  And the new ones I would explore.  I feel pretty lucky in that regard. 

Anyway …

After I “ran” 2:37 in 2006 on the Pikes Ascent, I convinced myself to run the marathon.  I was pretty confident that with some changes to training (namely more hill training), I’d be able to run much more of the up (I walked so much in that Ascent PR!), and thus put in a 2:30.  I’d   then roll down to a 4:10.  Maybe even a sub four.  

Five marathons later and I have run a scatter between 4:30 and 4:55.  The results speak for themselves. Not bad by the measure of many, but not what I thought I could do and so that expectation is part of some of the rewiring I have to consider.  I wanted to put a mark on that race.  And this is not unusual for runners.   The clock number becomes what you are.   Your place as well, but the clock number is what gets compared year over year.  Effectively, your name goes into the results and it is there forever. 

Of course it is NOT what you are.  You are not just a name and a number in a result.  There is a story behind that result.  And I don’t just mean the training or the race day execution.  I mean the bigger story. 

After any race, when I get home, my family NEVER asks me what was my place or time.  They ask, “How’d it go?”  If I answered them with a time result, they would not understand.  With Pikes, they’d really have no clue.  I could tell them it took me 2 hours and they’d still smile.  Or 9 hours.  In a blissfully ignorant and loving fashion, they don’t care what the clock said.  What they really want to know is “are you happy with the result?”  Because if I am happy, then they are happy for me and then they too are happy.  If I am pissed, well, they are sad for me.  And probably sad too.  And what good is that?

Slight side note-tangent … Regarding place in a race,  that number sort of means even less to me.  Certainly in a race, I race with consideration for place.  But I recognize that is sort of a contrived measure.  Supposedly I was third master last year.  Of course, that was after Bernie and Matt were not considered in those rankings because they were in the top 10.  I use place as a race day tool, but really if I execute as well as I can, the place will be as good as it can be.  For some, the few who go for the win, this might mean different tactics.  Those tactics are probably not appropriate for the lot of us in the middle of the pack.

I still feel I can PR at Pikes.  Maybe not.  That day might be behind me.  But I am not going to give up on that as a possibility.  But I am not going to make it the sole objective of success.  I don’t think I ever have actually, but I want to put it in better perspective.  The race is a celebration of a journey of maximizing everything I did to prepare and execute.

Maybe this approach of taking time off and then getting after it in May, June and July works.  Maybe it doesn’t.  Maybe it means pretty much no difference at all.  Maybe I PR.  Maybe I don’t.  Maybe I get close.  If I PR, everyone says, “wow, see – it could be done.”  If I don’t, folks say “eh, he was a head case and injured.”  Or “he was getting old and getting all out there about whether he wanted it or not.” 

Or maybe I discover in two weeks the Achilles is still as jacked as it was.  Or maybe I discover I am screwed with it still come August 1. And I should not race at all.  But if I don’t it is not who I am.  Who I am is the choices I make in managing the journey. 

Here is what is really crazy:  when I can see that and grasp that concept, not only am I more content with how I train, I am more effective.   When I am not, grasping at expectation, I am almost like the batter in a slump who is trying desperately to get a hit.  They tense up and become worse.  But when he relaxes and forgets that he is in a slump, he can hit again.

One more of these tomorrow as a wrap on the series … it is time to take the next step …

This does not get old

Posted before, but worth it again

Wednesday 041812

Good interview with Rickey.

Afternoon – gym:  Dead lifts (I am not sure if I am doing these right) 12 x 95, 10 x 115, 6 x 135
Bench (I sort of like the bench … just an appetite to see if I am getting better at it) 12 x 115, 11 x 115, 12 x 95, 30 x bar
Leg press (seated), 12 x 170, 12 x 180, 10  x 190

Not a ton on the gym today, but I wanted to do a bit more in my time window on the bike.

Bike (stat of course), 60 minutes of steady spinning followed by 30 minutes with 15 x1 minute on and off.   I am getting stronger on this already. 

Do this:

Eight: I forget what eight is for.

Again, I really wanted to run yesterday … and today.  I can clearly see a split in my head:  being frustrated and upset by the fact that I should not run, and being content that I would not run because of a commitment I made to myself.  Habits are hard to break.  Even when they are good habits to the point of being a fault.

I was going a little stir crazy.  Seeing the mountains, and the meadows just below them turning green, well I wanted to be in that.  I wanted to forget my commitment to get this Achilles 100 percent healthy:  it will never be 100 percent healthy you clown.  You put the GD thing in a lawn mower.   

I see evidence around me that getting into peak condition for folks who have a large base is not something that takes six months or a year.  The 2010 UROY alludes to it here.  Joe Uhan touches on it here.  Carpenter talked about it last year at Pikes. 

I can’t relate directly to the pressure he talks about in that video, but I can relate to some of the concepts.

I see guys who do it all the time.  They take a bunch of time off but then come roaring back off a little training or a short training period and kill it.  Clearly they don’t do this by sitting on the couch for six months and eating ring dings and drinking yoohoo.  They are doing something … more aligned to “exercise” versus “training.”

I confess that I get afraid that by not training, I am going to lose some edge of fitness, or some discipline.  And that represents some sort of failure of myself.  And I don’t like that.  And so I get into a mental trap of always wanting to advance my fitness … even when I see evidence that is contrary to that.  I am clearly still arguing with myself on that.

I have to believe that I can take every day off from running between now and May 1 and still rally to be a stronger athlete than I was in 3 months time … by pulling from my base, by being focused in that three months, by being smart, by taking care of the other 22 hours in the non training event, by taking the training I am given and not that I want, and by believing it can be done – because I have seen it can be done.

Tuesday 041712

Afternoon – full day at work so I hit the office gym.  In work clothes, dumb bell bench (12 x 35); front shoulder raises (12 x 20), weighted lunges (2 x 10 x 20, 1 x 10 x 15), dumb bell push up rows (20 x 15).  30 “box jumps” up onto the treadmill (6”-8”?).  50 pushups.  A light gym workout.

The lunges are pretty difficult for me, particularly on the right side (when that foot goes forward).  I could also fee the Achilles unhappiness with the box jumps.  Good affirmation that I am not in the clear yet.  Not happy about that though.

Seven: the time table

I really want to run today.  My Achilles feels pretty good.  I am walking around this AM trying to determine if there is any pain in there whatsoever.  I can’t feel anything but when I think about a single body part with that much focus I almost feel as if it is our programming to feel something.

I probably won’t though, as I will look to take recent advice from my friend who stated something like, “once you think it is healed, take more time off.”  There is still a little blistering under the scar on the left foot, so that ought to be enough to give me pause.  Typically it wouldn’t.   I’d feel compelled to run because I enjoy it.  I’d feel compelled to run because I had to because I only had so much time and I did not want to waste it.

There are 123 days until Pikes.  Or 17.5 weeks.  Look up marathon plan out there and nearly all of them are 20 week plans, maybe more.  Sure, there might be a few that are less, but I have felt that Pikes, with its distance, altitude, 7800’ of up, 7800’ of down required every single one of those days.  And probably not just 20 weeks but 36.  Or more.

It probably didn’t help that I heard stories of guys like an out of shape and overweight Scott Elliott.  He was watching the PPA one year and saw Jeremy Wright win in 2:18.  He had not run the race in four years but je believed “that winning time is too slow” and took the whip to himself everyday for the next year.  He took second behind Jeremy the following year, and won the race over Jeremy the following year.

Or similarly, Matt Carpenter, feeling the sting of a loss to Ricardo Meija in 92, trained insanely for the next year to come back and set a ridiculous course record.

And so I let this belief that I needed every second of training, the time table, and the subsequent plan set up my training and how I approached fitness.  In such and such period prior to the race, I was bound to some training that the time table and the belief led me to.  Then when that time period changed, I shifted the training to the next expected phase.  Base, hill training, effort specific runs over hill and dale, taper and race. 

If done right, it can work.  But for the most part is the body really does not give a crap about a time table.  Your quads have no idea that you have a race in 123 days.  Maybe you would benefit from continuing your base phase longer than what your schedule or time table says.  Maybe you have started to plateau with aerobic training 20 weeks out.   Or maybe you get hurt 123 days out from the race.

I need to progress my fitness from where I am, not where I want to be or where I think I ought to be based on the calendar.  There is no calendar that my heart and lungs have any awareness of.  They have some capability now.  I can look to maximize that capability and improve it today, tomorrow, but there is no thought as to what they can do in 17 weeks.  I can tailor and tweak that to some extent to some race date and time table, but I should not let the calendar drive it.  Instead I need to progress my fitness in a way that is logical to the stepping stone I am standing at.  Blanket subscription to a plan to could mean moving forward in a way that is not considerate of what I really could benefit from.

The challenge here of course is the mental clinging that I have to be of my best fitness come that race day in August.  The need becomes then to change that thinking to getting to my best fitness whenever that comes – and making that the goal.  The rest will fit in appropriately.

By the way, it is crazy that five guys broke four hours in 93.

Monday 041612

This is the post of the day.   You got to read all of it.  Being a father helps it from a context perspective too.

Mystery man Mike Morton podcast interview.

This video is a little surreal. 

Heat, Boston – excellent break down.

Mating pair of Kestrels in the back yard.  They were diving like crazy.

Gym
Glute machine 20 x 100 each side
Bench - 4 x 135, 8 x 115, 8 x 115, 12 x 95
Hip Out 20 x 110
Preacher curls (bar) 12 x 45, 10 x 55, 6 x 65
Seated tri rope extensions 12 x 40, 10 x 40, 10 x 30
Hip in 20 x 110
Calf raises 40 x 70, 40 x 45
Torso – 20 x 110 each side
Leg raises 2 x 25
Squats – 12 x 95, 10 x 105, 8 x 115
Leg press – 15 x 150, 12 x 170, 12 x 190
Front shoulder raises  10 x 25

I am being a chicken about 3 exercises … box jumps, dead lift and lunges.  Need to work these into the agenda.  Making progress overall though.

Followed with an hour on the bike.  Forgot to mention that I look to get out of the saddle when it gets tough (for the “ons”).

Between the squats, calf raises, leg machine and the bike, I was fairly worked in the lower half when I was done.

Hang Nine and bikes

I have been asked why I don’t get a bike and why I don’t embrace cycling a bit more.  I will admit that I have a bit of apprehension at the entry cost.  I was recently advised that I could get in a decent low end bike for about 1000 bucks.  That just seems steep to me.  Yeah, I recognize that I spend money on other stuff, but I am not ready to swallow that bigger pill.  Yet.

But probably just as much is that I SUCK on a bike.  I don’t mean in terms of performance.  That is obvious.  I don’t bike much so I should not expect to clip in and ride at 25 mph.  I mean that I suck in terms of coordination.  I am ridiculously uncoordinated. 

I had a paper route as a kid.  Afternoon paper delivery and so I had the big baskets on the back of the bike filled with papers.  It was probably 50 houses, over 5 or 6 miles, and about 3 miles from my house.  I was 12, and it was a little bit of an ass kicker at the time.  Anyway, one day I am heading out to the last house on the route and this young attractive also 12 year old lady goes biking the other way.  I recognized her from school (it was Junior High then kids), and so she gave me a polite “hi.”  Of course, in the mind of a 12 year old, or my 12 year old mind this was an invite for additional conversation.  I biked as hard as I could to the last house, delivered that last paper by hucking it to the front porch and then set off like a demon in an attempt to catch her.  What I would say when I got there, no clue – but I am sure my yellow 3 speed with the Auntie Em baskets would have been a significant woo factor.

I spotted her about a quarter mile up on the long road and doubled my effort.  As I did, I shifted to the all so powerful warp drive THIRD gear and pushed harder on the pedals.  The chain slipped however and that is when I made a pretty crucial mistake.  I looked down at the chain, and tried to back pedal to get it to recatch.  I slipped into the side gutter of the road, loss control of the bike and smacked it dead on to a fire hydrant that magically appeared in front of me.  I went flying over the handle bars, smacking my body into a telephone pole just past the hydrant.  I must have slid down the pole like Wiley E Coyote to the ground.

The girl never saw any of this.  As I looked up, through sweat, dirt, blood and tar from the pole, I could see her biking off into the distance.  The home owner who lived adjacent to this scene came running out of her home, as she had heard the crash and claimed she thought there had been a car accident.  The bike was a complete wreck and it took some effort to pull it off the hydrant as the wheel had collapsed in a funky way around it.  I was bleeding in several places.  She let me call my mother who came and picked me up.

When my father got home, he wanted to know what had happened.  I was not going to explain to him that I was chasing some girl, and so I told him I hit a patch of sand and lost control of the bike.  He turned the whole thing into some sort of investigation and went out to the scene of the “crime” where – of course – there was not a lick of sand anywhere to be found. 

I ended up walking most of the paper route thereafter for a bit until I saved up for a new bike. 

So biking might not be my thing.  And there are several additional bike stories like this in my past.

Six: Be smarter dummy

Somewhere in the late 90s, maybe early 2000s, I did the Pearl Street Mile.  I placed something like 12th or 13th, running a time in the mid 4:30s.  I had no expectation to win this race, as it drew some serious competition.  But I recall looking at the results and thinking, “all those guys ahead of me worked harder than me to run faster than me.”

This thought bubbled to specifically combat the “talent” argument.  “Talent” is that so called variable that you have no control over.  You are born with it.  It makes some of us grow to 7’1” and NBA bound, and others with sub 50 400m speed with no training. 

I chose not to worry too much about talent.  I have no control over it.  You can’t measure it.   I have what I have; it is really about maximizing it from there.  As I ran more it became clearer to me that worrying about talent was worry wasted.  This doctrine was cemented by the fact that that apparently everyone I knew who ran claimed to have no talent and was instead a product of hard work (side note, dontcha just love when someone says to you how natural a runner you are?  What the heck is natural about running in excess of a hundred miles a week and at speeds often where your eyes feel like they are bleeding?).

So I chose to ignore talent.  This means that there are two other categories of runners:  those who work harder than me, and those who don’t.  Except there was evidence for something else.  Those who ran smarter than me.

There was of course the obvious manifestation of this:  race execution.  I could train harder and smarter than someone but if I ran stupid on race day (translation, went out too fast), I could be looking at the rear of guys (and gals) that I should have by my “harder” calculation should have beat.  As stinging as such losses were, the opposite was incredibly sweet.  I came away the victor over a 4:05 mile one time in a 1500 meter indoor race when the kid took the pace out well under 60.  Slipping by this “harder” worker because of his less than “smart” execution made for a nice win.

But beyond race execution, there was the less obvious.  There were those who I obviously trained much harder than, and I was perhaps even more “talented” than (if I chose to consider that unconsiderable attribute), but I could not seem to challenge.   They put in less miles, they did not do as many hard workouts, they were less likely to do the extra credit warm up and cool down, and they cross trained.  And they also ended up making it to the finish line before me. 

W.T.F!

So, as you have already guessed, they trained smarter.   They made their easy days easy.  They made their hard days ridiculously hard.  They recovered well.  They could listen to the subtle sounds of their body as to how to eek the most out of it – including when to stop and do something else, or stop altogether.

I am going to use an example here:  UROY 2011 winner Dave Mackey.  A couple of years ago, Dave, Footfeathers, JV and I went out for a run on the Flatiron Vista trail.  We all agreed it was going to be easy.  And it was.  We could all hit miles sub six, and maybe sub five if we wanted to but we were content to float 9 and 10 minute miles on the trails. 

And we had to stop and keep waiting for Dave.  Dave was way the hell back. Waaaay back.   I recall wondering “what the hell is wrong with him?  Is he hurt?  Is he okay?”  I had the audacity to ask him in some form and he, in his soft spoken way, stated he was fine and just relaxing.  Even with our easy running, we dropped him a on the downhill (Dave is super human on downhills) back to the lot, where I made Footfeathers do an extra quarter mile to assure that I got 10 miles to read on my wrist bitch GPS.

The next weekend, Dave collected another one of his kabizillion victories.  So much for me working harder the week before.  There are, of course, countless other examples that I can think of.  Lucho’s 50 mile a week approach to his 2010 Leadville comes to mind.  This is not to say that hard work is not necessary, or that it is not a huge key to getting the most out of the talent you were born with.  It is but it ain’t the only element. 

I have worked hard but then looked at myself and often said, “meh, you suck.  You need to work harder.”  It is a good attitude, but it is often one that leads down a path of destruction and less than optimal results.  And again, as one gets older, the room to make this error gets smaller and smaller.  I can work smarter.  The first step is recognizing when I am digging myself into that hole.  The second step is putting down the shovel and climbing out. 

Sunday 041512

2011 was about Kenyan and the marathon.  Ethopia appears to be poised to be the dominant player in 2012.  London looms large. 

In addition to marathon results catching my eye, you have to see the Lake Sonoma 50 … of course all the readers here caught that, right?   What about a 60 year old going sub 17?  Insperspiration.

Also a nice preview to summer action to think about who will make the USMRT.

I might have posted this before, but your desk job is killing you.

Got in a walk with TZ in the AM and that allowed me to assess the Achilles a bit.  It is getting better but is not 100 percent yet.

In the afternoon, 90 minutes on the stat bike at the gym.  I did some reading while spinning for a bit and then let the “program” called “Pikes Peak” on the bike take over.  How could I resist that?  As it turned out, it was a series of “hills” – meaning a progression of harder resistance then decrementing that over and over again.  I think I like my timed structure stuff a bit more, but this was a good change up.  I guess it was consistent today though …

3 days of running this week, representing 30 miles, and 6600 plus feet over 5.5 hours.  I probably ought to have done none of it to push the Achilles into the clear, but it is progressing with the reduced volume.  I did have an additional 5 hours on a stationary bike over four sessions – and all of those included some element of push.  I also had three sessions doing something in the gym, at about 45 minutes each (although there is tons of rest in there … it is just different). 

Lessons from the week are:  I can do a lot on the bike and come back the next day and hammer again; I am enjoying the gym bit, I need to be more aggressive with the Achilles recovery.  I can certainly run on the foot but that is not the best idea right now.  It has taken me a full week of thinking about that to understand that.

I can’t seem to get my HR nearly as high biking as I can running.  That might be reflective of the fact that I am just trained in that.  I am not concerned though … the bike workouts leave me sweating and wobbly legged as I walk up the stairs after ‘em.  Here are the earlier in the week bike workouts.

Mon (15 x minute on and off)

Wed (6 x 3 minutes on, 2 min off)

Fri (15 x 1 minute on and off)

In regards to the weight I am pushing in the gym, I am ridiculously weak.  I used to push 215 on the bench (of course this was over 20 years ago) and now the equivalent to that is 135.   Bench has NOTHING to do with running, but it reflects how weak I have become on several fronts.  Already, however, I am seeing strength gains day over day.  Does the central governor apply to weight lifting.

I have also been wondering if my Achilles issue is more of a heel spur than tendonitis.  Given the build up that is clearly visible on my calcaneus, that should not  be surprising.

We are singing from each other’s hymnal, and more of this sort of stuff this coming week.  (So yes Brandon, Six …  tomorrow)

More Inclinathon nuttiness

Saturday musings

I get it will be hot at Boston, and I think it is nice that the B.A.A. is offering up a deferred entry but, I sort of scrunch my forehead at the “dangerous conditions” statements being made.

A wiki regarding Central Governor.

The blister on the foot yesterday kept me from running, which I was completely fine with.  But that outcome, and the run with Brandon and Jeff yesterday, got me thinking that while I have significantly changed my training this past week, I am still screwing around with this Achilles and foot thing.  I need to be more serious with treating it.  And with the slow reprogramming or unraveling I have been doing this week … I have been questioning how much time do I really need to prep for an August race.  I go back and forth as to whether I am rationalizing or being smart when I wonder if I could just take the rest of April off from running, and get to the start line in damn good shape on 100 days of training.

I think I can.  I also might not have a choice as to when I could start anyway.

Saturday 041412

AM - gym.

25 x 25 leg lift

Torso machine 20 x 120 each side

Hip in machine 25 x90

Hip out 25 x 80

Leg extensions 3 x 12 x 90

Tri rope ext 3 x 12 x 40

Calf raises 30 x 55

Bench 8 x 115, 2 x 10 x 95

Glute machine 2 x 100 (each side0)

Squats 12 x 65, 12 x 45 (front)

Bike - 1 hour. 30 minute warm up, then 30 minutes of minute on (L13), minute off (L5 or 6).

Readings today …

CU is shutting down to visitors on 4-20.  Ought to be interesting.

Keith Moon to play at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.  Ought to be interesting.

Looking to read McDougall’s account of his search for Micah True later tonight.  Will be interesting.

Friday 041312

Got together with JV and Brandon in the afternoon for a little peak bagging.  I warned that I was going easy. 

Jeff picked the route, initially defining that we get Green via the “back” way of Bear Canyon.  As we neared the mouth of the canyon, Jeff switched the plan up to heading up Bear to Fern.  I protested, but submitted.  At the top of Bear JV tried to talk us into South Boulder and my protests won this time.  At the three way junction I started heading down but Jeff and Brandon convinced me that actually going over Green was shorter.  And then heading down Green on the front side, they had to stop and wait for me several times.  I ended up developing a blister under the scarring on my left foot.

I traveled very carefully down, muttering to myself that I had bit off more than I ought to chew today.  Yes, ought to.  I could chew it, and would chew it … I probably should not have though.

But it was awesome seeing Jeff and Brandon.  I had not seen Brandon since the 100 in October and that is just plain old shameful.

The guys gave me lots of good feedback on things I could consider to improve this Achilles situation.

Five: the other 22 hours

I have received various forms of feedback in the last couple of days that the answers to the questions and considerations that I am posing are very obvious.  And that means it either resonates well with folks because they also consider these topics or it means they see the topics as so ridiculously elementary they wonder what the hell my problem is.

I have established training habits that have brought me some level of success, but now I feel are necessary to change.  I am using this blog as a tool to “re-write the firmware” in the program. 

Part of the goal here is to toy a bit of a thought experiment that I can reprogram myself.  We all have beliefs as to what we need, want, love, hate, think we need to do or should avoid.  My examining this in a context of my running and endurance endeavors is really just the “skin of the apple” on this topic, but it is a relatively safe place to play with this.

I understand for some folks that might not make sense.  They can see what they want to do, and just make the decisions to do it … and so when they see on going repetition of writing like this, it seems like a Dr. Seuss book – ridiculously elementary and childish.  In many regards, there is a lot of me that is still a child.

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Anyway, the thought I propose today in how to better be the kind of athlete I want to be might be a bit more controversial, as it is almost in direct contrast to yesterday’s thought.

I often focus on what my run or activity ought to be for a day or maybe more broadly the training I want to get in a week.  I think about key workouts, how many miles I want to get, how much climbing, and how much time on my feet.  If I can represent that I put in 14 hours in a week with a 100 miles and so much vertical, I look at that week as successful.  Or even on the day scale, if I get in the three hour run in the mountains, or the 10 mile run under 70 minutes with intervals in it, it was a success.

And there is some truth to that of course.  Those measures have some value.  But they overlook something.  And that is everything else I do.

Even if I run 2 hours a day, there are 22 other hours in that day that need to be considered.  I can – and have – completely undone the benefit of any particular work I have done in a workout by not taking care of myself outside of that workout.  Not all the time.  But enough.  I often fail to appropriately hydrate.  I can turn the workout (either consciously or unconsciously) into some sort of rationale to reward myself to remained disciplined with dietary choices (“hey, I kicked ass on that workout, I deserve another beer”).  I might ignore sleep requirements.  Or eschew other general strength training that would be hugely beneficial. 

What I do in the other 22 hours is equally as important, and perhaps of even greater importance, to my effectiveness as an athlete.  I can nail every run between now and a key race, but if I fail to do the other things necessary to grow stronger … well, I won’t get stronger.  And I will reap what I sow.

And for what it is worth, this has certainly become magnified as I have aged.

Part of the reprogramming will have to include an appropriate examination of the other 22 hours.

SIDE NOTE AND POSSIBLE FUTURE TOPIC:  Obviously this is not meaning that  monastic living is required all the time.  But I am one of those that find when I “break the seal,” I go to flood water state versus a trickle.  For example, in the past I have elected to stop drinking beer for months leading up to a key race.  Why do this?  Because it is easier for me to have no beer than to say I can have only one (maybe, that should be the next challenge then).   Clearly this is about how to manage the other 22 hours and with what level of balance…

SIDE NOTE 2 and POSSIBLE FUTURE TOPIC:  something I have been less than eager to write about is the topic of weight and performance on distance running.  I have chalked up most of last year’s drop in performance in the PPM to a lack of altitude training (being at sea level for a significant part of the summer) but I also have suspected that my business travel life style bumped my weight up.  Carrying an additional 5lbs around a regular basis ain’t a big deal, but it makes an impact when climbing a 14er as fast as you can (although probably less so coming down!).   This is also about the other 22 hours, but more in the days and weeks leading up to a key event … and also balance.