Friday 01DEC2017

Some course scouting in the AM – four miles.

I did another tour of the Nike HQ campus in the afternoon, and some strides on the MJ track.  6.5 miles. 

Thursday 30NOV2017

I thought I’d get up early and get out for a run before heading to the MSP airport (to catch a flight to PDX and NXN) but I slept hard (and well) and did not manage myself out of the rack early enough to do that.

I made the jump over to PDX, caught up with Greg and Ryan and jogged around the Nike campus.  Say what you will about it being the evil empire, they do a great job with this event with the kids and you can’t help but be a bit inspired by all of it.

11.2 miles on the day, most of it on the Hollister trail – just off the Nike Campus, a nice quiet 1.5 mile loop.

286.7 miles on the month, 39.6 hours, and 12210 feet.  3317.5 miles on the year, 438.5 hours, 158525 feet.  62 business travel nights

Wednesday 29NOV2017

AM – 4 miles.  Slow.  Cold.  Dark.

Chickened out in the evening.  We didn’t get back to the hotel until 8 and I was not able to punch through to get out in the dark, wind, cold.

Off to PDX tomorrow.  It is NXN time.

Tuesday 28NOV2017

Happy birthday JZ

AM – 5.6 miles.
PM – 4.4 miles.

Dark and a bit colder today.

Tripped over 3300 miles on the year today.

Monday 27NOV2017

AM – 4.5 miles
PM – 5.8 miles.

Dark at both ends.  Good news is that it is about 20 degrees warmer here than it normally is … at least according to the locals.

Week ending 26NOV2017

A week home – a reprieve from the recent business travel buzz.  I was sharing with someone this week that it is not so much the act of travel that is a challenge.  Frankly it is an easy target to bitch about the travel and gripe about things like TSA.  It is really not bad.  Being away from home however and not tending to that … that is the challenge. 

It was good to be home in Colorado this week.  KZ came home from ISU for break. 

She made it a point to sit me down and get me to watch Stranger Things with me.  She had already seen it with friends back in Ames, but she wanted my butt in the seat to watch it.  It is certainly enjoyable … it effectively hits on so many of those 80 themes and movies folks like me enjoyed as a kid:  some Stephen King, E.T., Poltergeist, Goonies … toss in a bit of the retro D&D … good stuff.

I got in some running but the highlight of my week in that regard was the Thanksgiving Day 5K over in Louisville.  It is a free 5k, so there is no official timing or results, but it still runs fairly competitive.  Given the lack of any faster work in my recent history, I was seriously doubting if a sub 20 was in the cards. 

I lined up about 10 rows back with the Eagles XC women and coach Greg, and we shared some pre-race laughs.  The girls had just done a workout the day before so they would run together fairly easy.  There were also other former Eagles out and it was nice to catch up, share some holiday smiles and a few light hearted jabs.



Once the race went, I quickly recalled why as a younger man, I made it a point to never be more than a row or two back from the start.  Even though we may have been only 5-10 yards behind the start line, it took some 10-15 seconds to pass it.  I started my watch at the threshold but even after the start it was a bit of a bob and weave affair to get going.    It all settled down after about a minute of course, but it felt like way more than that.

Here’s a thing that is positive for me about not being particularly race fit:  I tend to run my races a bit more appropriate for that fitness.  In other words, when I am in pretty good shape, I am more likely to botch a race by going out too fast in the opening half mile.  However when I am off game a bit, it is as if I know better and hold back more to my abilities.  I passed the opening mile in 6:05 – and given the 20 minute thought in my head I was wondering if I was looking at a pending blow up.  The second mile was slightly uphill and upwind, and the pace slowed as we climbed to the course high point – 6:22.  I was passing folks fairly consistently and only being passed by a couple of people.  At two miles the course turned back towards the race finish and downhill, and I managed the fastest mile of the race for me in 5:55.  There was no real kick in me over the last 300 yards in sight of the finish banner but I managed a sub 19 with an 18:44.  The course may have been a tad short, so it could even be a 19 low if I am honest.  Garmin tracked me 6:07 pace for whatever the distance was.

That is certainly not great but considering my expectations, the amount of travel I have had (along with less than stellar diet and beverage intake), and not touching any miles at six anything pace in a long time … it is pretty good for me.  It had me realize for the millionth time that few things motivate me to perform as much as getting out there and performing.  Competition is a grand motivator for me, even if my most competitive days are past.

The rest of the week was easy jogging – although on Saturday, riding a bit of Thursday motivation, I got in a handful of 500m intervals at 5:20 pace (1:40).  My legs were still a bit burdened with the effort from Thursday but it felt good to get a bit of rolling in.

Other news in the week – it was a fun Thanksgiving.  While I was still busy with work at home for the front of the week, it seems that this time of year always starts to drive a bit of greater contemplation for me.  It was good to have some family and friends and perhaps that encourages that.

JZ got his wisdom teeth removed, and with that we learned that he and Percocet don’t go well together.  Later in the week we did a little celebration (a couple days early) for his 17th birthday.

There was a fair amount of anxiety within the Eagle XC camp as we had to sit until Saturday to learn if the team had been awarded an at-large bid to the NXN meet.  I was pretty doubtful at first, putting odds at 20 percent but as the week marched on and I listened to Parker, read the Milesplit break downs I was increasingly encouraged.  We learned Saturday night that the women had indeed earned their second trip to the big meet in Portland. 

Sunday I headed to MSP.  With Portland in the mix, I might have just packed a bag for the next ten days.

75+ miles on the week, with showing some hope on a couple of quicker runs in the mid week.

I found this video to be good this week where we were considering “thanks.”  Dennis gets a bit rich on the “preaching” but the message is solid.

Lots of good podcasts listened to this week but in particular I found the Jocko podcast 100 to be very very good (101 is solid is well).

Sunday 19NOV2017

AM – four miles, including a mile with the old fuzzy dog.

PM – 10.2 with Bob down on Rock Creek Trail.  We both felt pretty sluggish but the partner effect kept the run under 8 minutes a mile.

70.9 on the week.  No workouts of significance. 

Saturday 18NOV2017

Guess who is home for break?

Mid day – a solid 12.3 in Broomstock.

Lots of news on the XC front today with NCAA Nats and of course the NXR-SW race.  The Eagle women scored into the unfortunate spot of third again for the second year in a row.  The top two teams get automatic bids.  We now wait for a week to hear from the selection committee to hear if we are headed to Portland.  With only four teams selected out of the 9 national regions, it is not a high odds bet.   In the Eagles favor is that they only finished 9 points out of second, to the CO State Champs in 5A, Mountain Vista, but unlike last year they have no wins over them this year. 

This game is not getting easier – all of the Eagle girls who raced last year improved significantly in the race this year (improvements from 8 to 63 seconds).  Even with that, and having six girls under 19 in the race – it was not enough.  Heck, last year the seventh on the team was 19:50 and this year the ninth runner ran 19:35 in the open race.  Toss in that top 20 finisher at NXN last year McConnell did not make it this year despite also running faster (17:29!) … it is getting tougher. 

Friday 17NOV2017

AM – 7.2 miles.  I got in a mile with TZ as she started her jog and then I got a handful plus more.

Afternoon – a few miles with JZ.  With is a relative word.

Thursday 16NOV2017

Ah, back home.  Nice 12.2 loop to get back at it a bit.

Wednesday 15NOV2017

Even though I got in at midnight last night, I forced an early wake up to get some running on the DC Mall.  It never has been a disappointment. 

5 miles.

Tuesday 14NOV2017

AM – 5 miles in the highway trap of Irving TX that I am in.  It was a bit of a grind … early morning sluggishness, amplified by the travel, off hours, humidity, and the dark.  But some is better than none.  That said, I know my training lately is crap.  It just is.  I only have so much discipline in the tank to drill through some of this business travel and other activities to get some exercise in.  I know it is setting up for a long slow fade – which has been happening for some time anyway - but I’ll go with that rather than fold all together.   There are things that I could do to maximize it – like jump on some quality when I am limited on time but I have just not had the will to make that happen at 5AM.  I am no Jocko there I guess.

I caught a decent podcast interview with Billy Corgan on the jog last night.  This morning I caught the Billy Yang podcast with Tony K.  Both are great listens with guys that were on the top of their craft, have deep self reflection on their own growth over the years, and where they are now.

The day in Dallas … and then travel to D.C. in the evening.  Whew.  The Fall Tour has been busy, but settles down a bit after this week (only two more weeks of travel left in the year, but one week is so far off the beaten path its almost like international travel domestically).

Monday 13NOV2017

Evening in Irving – 10 miles.  Legs dead from the travel and the TDO.

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.

Wednesday 08NOV2017

A reminder about birthdays …

10 miles in the afternoon while working with the girls.  Incredible workout for those ladies.

Tuesday 07NOV2017

Afternoon – a long work day at the home office so I swung out in the afternoon to the snow squall we have had all day.  A very very slow 6.3 miles.

Monday 06NOV2017

AM – 7.5 with Greg on the Lac Amora loop. 

Another couple in the afternoon supporting the girls during a workout.

Sunday 05NOV2017

11.3 miles in my main run , and another 2 easy with TZ.

71.6 miles on the week, 9.5 hours on the week, 3425 feet.  A solid week with the travel as I got in a couple of pieces of work in Atlanta, and I felt that today’s run was good, coming off yesterday’s 14 miler.  I felt that I hit a nice bit of variability in the training – even missing a day on Monday but getting some solid work in otherwise.

Saturday 04NOV2017

State has passed and now it is time for the Nike post season.  The girls will head to NXR-SW in a couple of weeks to see if they can get a berth as a team to the NXN meet in Portland.  A top two finish secures an automatic berth.  3 or 4 means you are in a pool for an at large bid, but only 4 teams get that out of 9 regions.  The girls got that last year but that came off of them winning the Colorado state title and losing in the region to the Mountain Vista team we beat at the state meet.  This year they don’t have that luxury. 

The girls got a good workout in our one of our regular routes … “the ditch.”  The ditch is a community water ditch that brings water from reservoirs to the places that have water rights to it in the east.  For us that means, a very flat soft surface to run along for workouts like this.

I added on post, including some miles with TZ.  14 miles on the day.

Friday 03NOV2017

Ah, back to the home turf.  Cool dry temps, low autumn sun, easy jogging.  I was actually pleasantly sore in a few places for my efforts yesterday.  I’ll take that as a sign of something positive.  8 miles.