NXN Friday and Saturday

After the course preview, there was a Q&A with several Nike elite athletes.  The panel, run by Simon Bairu included Shelby Houlihan, Hassan Mead, Shalane Flanagan, Mo Farrah, Colleen Quigley, Emily Enfeld and Evan Jager.


For dinner we were joined by Sammy Silva, a relatively recent addition to the BTC.  You can see Jager signing stuff at the table next to us.  The Nike athletes were great with all the kids.

Saturday it was finally down to business.  Nike does a great job with introducing all the kids and teams. 

It was time for the kids to go.  They came in ranked at 21 and with and provided a “wildcard” berth and the kids wanted to show they were better than that.  At the line, they collected and I heard one of them say, “we got this.”

This pic is from Alan Versaw
This pic is from Alan Versaw

I have no pix from the race but there will be a bunch from Milesplit that I can probably grab in the next couple of days.  But it was amazing.   The girls landed a 7th place finish out of the 22 teams, far exceeding how we came into the meet.  It was great capstone to the season.

Time to celebrate. 

Coaches had a clinic that included Alberto Salazar, Galen Rupp, Eric Jenkins and Nike strength coach Dave McHenry.

Oh yeah, I jumped in the citizen’s race and continued a tradition of showing how shitty I am in the mud, and it was muddy.  It might have been the worst course I have run on in terms of footing since Ireland.  20:30.  6:17, 6:38, 6:47. 

NXN so far

On Thursday we hit the Nike Campus in Beaverton.  Nike does a kick butt job with this affair for the kids because they set them up with some cool gear, and make the outfitting of them a big deal, and then there are a bunch of the Nike elite runners floating around the campus.

We got a jog around the campus, and the BrHS girls did a few laps on the grass field with Chris Derrick, 3x XC National Champ.

Greg and I got seats at Phil Knight’s reserved table.

This AM we got a preview of the course and the athlete’s village.  To say it is going to be muddy is an understatement.

This pic is from Alan Versaw

A guy with pink headsets

Interview with Dave M that chronicles his career, his injury and his recent amputation of his lower leg and what he hopes for in the future …

It ain’t the classiest of joke but a few of us have already wondered when it will be where Dave comes rolling by us in a race. 

Interesting podcast from “the Tinman.”  He gets a bit off the rails at times, but it is clearly because he has a deep passion for the game.  Lots if interesting nuggets regarding training in there.  His website also has some good calculators.

Been plugging some good runs in the last few days.  I sort of at a life point of where I expect it.  I tried to really tap into the idea that it should not be taken for granted.

Scientific signs of aging

I eyeballed JZ’s first run with a HR monitor … his easy 25 minute run had an AHR of 193.  And it was an easy run (over 8 minute pace for almost all of it).  What is mind boggling about that is a HR I can’t even achieve.

Mid day I got out and did a 20 minute tempo run (3 miles).  There is not a lot of room between tempo and racing.  That pretty much spells it out right there. 

Week end update

The boy turns 16 this week.  We celebrated this weekend.

We picked him up a GPS so he could join the ranks of runners who over analyze everything.


The BrHS girls got a slot to NXN.  They are going to Portland.

It was a pretty tense week for them to wait this out to find out if they had the slot.  Most folks thought it was a no brainer that they’d get in, but they still had to wait it out.  They got the news Saturday night.  It was pretty exciting times for them.

Another 70 mile week for me and I played around at Teller Farm again today.  It actually feels like fall now.

The week included the Turkey Trot 5k, some turnover sessions earlier in the week (Mon, Tues) and some work at altitude when we hit the mountains for the weekend.  It is pretty amazing how little snow is up there.  I ran through a lot of the old mine equipment, enjoying the fact that I was finding new trails even though I have been puttering around up there for close to a decade now.

Good interview with Alex Hutchinson over on the Final Surge Podcast.

I’ll put a plug in for Andy:  guy has a passion for Leadville and is looking to bring his love for that game to coach those that want to be a part of that nuttiness.  Good luck man. 

Weird setting Christmas without KZ.

19:18

19:18.  I thought breaking 19 would be a successful day.  I came up short, faltering in the second mile as we headed west into the wind and on the slight uphill. 

No results posted for this one … you get what you pay for I guess.

No stoked about the result, but not surprised either.  I do find it hard to dig, that is tap into a next level of effort.  I am not sure if that is physical, mental or some combination of both.  Whatever, I will just need to work at it.  The wind and colder temps did me no favors as the splits show but I can only use that (and the cold I am nursing) as so much of an excuse.  I am where I am. 

Huge turn out for this.  I put myself up in the first few rows and it was packed up like any major road race.  The start had me refamiliarizing myself with such affairs as I am out of practice with that.  Even though I was not far off the start line it still took a few seconds for me to cross the line.  JZ learned the lesson of starting way back as it took him 90 seconds to cross, and TZ took 3 minutes!  It all sort of reminded me of the Manchester Road Race, a race I did many times as a high school kid.  Crowded super fast start, loads of people, trying to maintain a position, stuttering through at different paces to find a gap … on a cold fall day where you were going to eat way too much later (GREAT finish there today by the way).  I think we’d even go and watch a football game at the HS later that day, but I might be making that up.

On the plus side I did beat the kid who took second in the 5A XC champs last year.  Mind you he was essentially walking, having a conversations with a dozen people and stopping for pix, but I’ll take the W. 

Today’s humor.

Throwing Copper

Got this from JV:

Out for about an hour today versus the typical 80-90 minutes I have been pulling.  I figured I ought to go a little less in case I do race tomorrow (which given I went through the registration I am likely to do). 

Regarding the race tomorrow, I was going to do the local Broomfield race, but they wanted 40 bucks for a 5k and 50 for the 10k.  Uh, no thanks.  There is a free run over in Louisville.  Well, you do need to bring a non perishable to the food bank, but that is a helluva lot better than 40 bones.  Still would love to see something like Parkrun take off over on this side of the pond.

Early pundits have the BrHS XC girls likely to get an at large bid.   

Today’s listening included listening to another Gimlet media production, “Homecoming” and revisiting some Live, Throwing Copper.

Crimes and climbs

Today actually felt like a fall day.  So far it seems like we have only had a long summer with one day of winter thrown in.

Even though I did some longer strides yesterday (read, 200s on the track), the cooler weather had me itching to do some more challenging (read not faster) work.  I took to a loop at a local park.  It came in to be a third of a mile on the nose, with a combination of turns, sidewalk, grass, downhill and uphill.  Essentially a meaningless loop … except I have visions of doing it again and making it a standard by which I can test myself.  By test myself I mean seeing if I can improve in terms of the overall speed I can hold on these, the number I drum myself into doing, etc.  I did five today, starting at over 2 minutes and eventually carving down to under that on the last.  Again, not quick, but a start to carve from.

My ability to dig and crush myself seems to be compromised though.   I am not sure if this is physical – as in that I am just not fit enough to do stupid stuff to turn myself into jelly … or if it is mental – as in that I have for whatever reason lost a drive that I once had to stick my hand into the fire as much.  Regardless of the reason, I am hardly sore or beat down day after day, and so I am wondering if I ought to be going at it more often in a week (say four or five days rather than a traditional two or three). 

On today’s run, I listened to Gimlet Media’s new show:  Crimetown.  It delves into the organized crime scene of Providence RI over through the story of its mayor Buddy Cianci.  Considered me hooked to this one. 

This is a pretty cool project. 

Exercise update

I got 71 miles last week.  Those were pretty decent miles too.  None of it was padded with dog or donkey runs (Bob is quick to point out those don’t count for much except for dog and donkey racing).  I came crashing into the weekend with a fever and my nose running like a faucet but holding it together otherwise.

So, where am I at?  My ego is a bit reluctant to reveal such matters.  I did a 5:25 mile the other day.  Quarters on my own seem to come in around 80 and 200s around 38.  Easy running on flats can be 7:20 or 8:30 depending on the day and if I have been taking care of myself (read – sleeping well, hydrating well, avoiding excess food and beer).  Tempo work is coming in at 6:15 to 6:50 … again also depending on the day.  Sub 5 for the mile … if I were not me but rather coaching me, I’d probably encourage that goal but call it a very long shot and be thinking it is unlikely.  In any case, it is only going to come one way if it comes at all and that is with doing the work.

I am on the fence if I will race on Thursday.  If I still have this fever, I probably won’t. 

The BrHS teams headed to Nike XC Regionals (NXR) Southwest in Arizona this past weekend.  Our boys sent a partial squad and they raced in the open race.  It served as the capstone to their season.  The girls are a nationally ranked squad and were competing for a qualifier to Nationals (in Portland) in a couple of weeks.  Top two teams make it automatically.

Unfortunately, we came up a bit short and finished third, behind Mountain Vista (who the girls beat at the State meet) and national powerhouse Desert Vista.  A third place finish means that rather than get an automatic qualifier we’ll have to see if the girls are one of four squads that are given an at large berth to the national show.   The selection committee does not make any decisions until after the final regional meets this coming weekend … so we practice until we find out.

Otherwise …

Century Camper Award

Since JZ started Scouts (not Cub Scouts, but Boy Scouts) he has had his eye on an award that his troop gives:  the century camper award.  To earn it, a Scout has to camp at least 100 nights with the Troop.  Camping has to be under the stars or in shelters the Scouts have put up (like tents or snow caves).  For JZ it has meant a lot of nights in tents, in snow caves, on the decks of boats, in other countries, on backpacking trips over the Continental Divide. 

The fact that the award is a knife with the Scout’s name on makes it all the more coveted. 

He got his award tonight at the Troop’s Court of Honor.  He is the 14th recipient of the award in his Troop.

XC Banquet

The season is not over for a couple of handful of kids, but most finished up at the conference meet almost a month ago now.  We wrapped up the season with a banquet at the HS cafeteria, pot luck style. 

It was a good night in that it gave the opportunity to reflect on the accomplishments of the kids and the team.  XC is a long season.  For a lot of these kids they started in June and some are still grinding away.

JZ came up short of earning his letter … 3 seconds shy of the standard and thus was the “first” kid outside those ranks.  He awarded “most improved.” 

There was of course recognition of the teams.  The boys taking second in the region to make it to state … and the dominance of the girls.  They have not lost a race in CO in two years, and have won the state meet the last two years in a row.  Pretty lucky to have been a part of that ride!