Week ending 28NOV2021

Monday afternoon - delightful weather but not the kind of stuff we ought to be experiencing in late November ... 70 plus degrees.  9.1 miles, interrupted with too much work stuff (I let that happen).

Tuesday AM - 9.2 miles around practice - super easy.  Dumb sore still from Sunday.

Wednesday AM - 4 miles with a few strides.  

Wednesday night ... had a gig at Mother Tucker's.  

Thursday AM - the obligatory Turkey Day 5k.  I was not feeling overly confident in this, so I had low expectations.  Given I hadn't raced until this past Saturday in over 2 years, and that I was racing twice in a week ... well, I started to line up excuses:  it snowed the night before, it was cold, and I was still (!) feeling a bit sore from Green.  

But it went ok.  6:27 for the first mile.  That is as quick as last week, but I started it a lot smarter in the first couple of minutes (and it is slightly down to start).  I was feeling soft in the second mile which seemed to climb way more than I remembered - 6:47 (with about a quarter in there over 7, ugly).  Got going a bit on the downhill back into town for a 6:22.  I had 19:57 on the phone as I crossed the line but it took me a bit to get it to stop/register.  But - nearly everyone agreed its probably 100 meters short (I had 3.07).  I averaged 6:30 so I just chalk that up as an improvement over last week.  8.7 miles on the day.

Pace calculators put that pace at about 20:10-15 for 5k.  That would have been a nice improvement over last week's 20:50.  Age grading that puts that at 73.3 percent, also a bit of an improvement over last week.  All that said, I need to get back at least into some 19s so PB talks a bit less shit.  

Friday - up at ABC.  Day got away with various work on things.  Thought about a jog at the tail of the day but was sorta fried and gave myself the "this won't advance fitness" excuse.

Saturday AM - 8 miles easy with GW around practice.  

Sunday AM with Syd Kid and GW.  11 for me on total.  I was tired.  Right leg felt wonky, more worked than the left.  Just did 11 to get 50 and to get in a bit more a longer run than I have been getting.  

Week ending 21NOV2021

Monday - full day on a local engagement.  Didn't get out until the near evening, dark.  5.1 miles.  

Tuesday AM - 5 miles easy with GW and Syd Kid before heading into work.

Tuesday PM - 5.1 miles on the sunset on the Ditch/Lake Link loop. Meant to be easy, and it sorta was but I was moving unexpectedly quicker than I thought.  

Wednesday AM - 8 miles around practice.  Super easy.

Thursday AM - chilly (20 degrees).  5 miles easy.  

Friday AM - 6.1 miles.  Jumped in a lap or so every once in a bit of Syd kid's workout.

Saturday AM - been toying with the idea that I have to actually get back to some sort of racing so I headed over to Park Run this AM.  Good news:  I raced.  Bad news:  I am not that fit.  Good news:  I am not as bad off as I thought I might be.  Bad news:  I am sorta mentally soft right now.  Good news:  Nothing completely fell apart for me.  Bad news:  I was an idiot and went out too fast.

20:50.  Told myself going into the race I'd be super chill the first mile and them figure it out.  A group of guys made for a little pack at 100 yards in and I told myself to hang with them.  But 200 yards later I dropped because I had convinced myself they were going to slow.  And they caught me at 2 and quarter miles.  Good stuff.  Some things don't change.

Parkrun does really have their shit together.   You register, show up with your barcode, they scan that post your finish and its good to go.  Nice little email and results are sent over and they keep a database of your results over the years.

They also send age graded results.  While, I am not a proponent of age group ratings to identify who "won" a race outright, I recognize some value in considering those metrics.  When I consider my best times at various distances in my very late 20s, I would have posted a 80+% for those performances.  My Parkruns here (3 prior to the Saturday effort) ranked at 73% and my performance yesterday was at 71+%.  It gives me a bit of a pseudo objective view of where I was, how age versus focus may have shifted that some.  And a bit of a something in addition to times to chase.  

Oh yeah, first Parkrun since December of 2018, and first race since Pikes 2019.  It has been a while.  

10.2 miles on the day with the race, warm up and cool down.

Sunday AM - two super easy flat miles and then over to Green Mountain.  I think it has been since July of 2020 since I did a round trip on this.  Again, it has been a while.  I ended up going up ASG and then down the backroute.  Whole thing was slow but I expected that.  8.1 miles on the day.

56 miles on the week - a good one for me for sure with a Green, a Parkrun and some fair miles along the way.  

Crazy light lately on the bookends. 

Week ending 14NOV2021

Monday AM - with Syd Kid and GW for some sunrise miles.  8 easy.  

Monday afternoon - just weight work in Eagle gym.  I'm done in there after 15-25 minutes ... just worked over as I am generally weak these days.  Mixing in a variety of weight exercises.  

Tuesday AM - got a few kids out to start building for the spring.  It is great to see kids out at 35 degrees at 6:20 in the morning - it just shows that they are on it.  6 miles with 100 and 200 strides - definitely feeling some of the squats/lunges/kettlebell swings from yesterday.

Oh yeah, got the vax for shingles.  That one leaves a hurt on the arm worse than most.

Started a bit of yapping the last couple of days that I need to consider the 2022 season.  Yesterday it was musing on doing the GoG 10 miler, BTMR and PPM.  Today it is a Parkrun 5k.  But I still haven't signed up for anything really.  

Wednesday AM - 5.6 miles with the over achievers doing work.  
Wednesday PM - 3.7 on the ditch, moving pretty well - sorta thresholdy.  

Thursday AM - 6.2 jogging with GW.  
A little later in the AM another 3 miles.

Friday AM - down in the 20s now in the AM.  9.7 miles with 8 x 150 in under to just at 30 secs.  

Saturday AM - meh.  8 miles.

Sunday mid AM - 9 miles.  3 mile something warmup and then 5 x 800 on a quarter jog.  First "real" workout in a looong time I think.  I thought 3:15s would be appropriate but did it by feel.  The first was 3:03 so that set the pace.  They were all that with the last being 2:59.  Wind picked up in the second half.  Wasn't super hard but wasn't easy - mostly the self chatter in the 6 inches between the ears.  

Workout told me that I am not in great shape, but not nearly as bad as I thought.  I was thinking breaking six for a mile would possibly be not in the cards at current.  I would guess I could do it, but it would be ugly.  Sub 20 in the 5k is a stretch so I'll have to line something up on that soon too.  

Pretty good training week on whole - fair volume (59 mi), and a couple of workouts spinning the wheels.   

Some recent covers:

Week ending 07NOV2021

Monday AM - 8.5 miles super easy.

Tuesday AM - dark and with SB and GW. 8 x 300 at mile pace ish on 200 jog with SB to help her along.  5.5 miles.

Wednesday afternoon - 8.2 miles, coaching some post season kids.

Thursday AM - 8 miles with GW, super easy.

Friday AM - early and dark with the post season kiddos.  7.4 miles with some strides.

Saturday AM - Post season kids, 8.6 miles.  Hopped in some of Syd Kid's repeats and then fartleked back home.  So, sorta backed into a workout day when I was not feeling it.

Sunday AM - 9.8 miles, slow to start and carved away well at getting to an okay pace.

56 miles on the week.  Still sorta messing around with kinda exercising and kinda training but kinda not.  Pikes was making some news with a change for its schedule in 2022 (moving from August to September ... man that would have shifted a lot of age group stuff for me years ago), so I was thinking about that but it has been nearly 3 years I think since I have raced anything.  I might need to consider a 5k before I really jump back on a mountain marathon thing.  

 

Week ending 31OCT2021

Monday AM.  Buffalo.  Dark, chilly and rainy.  3.1 miles to wake up.   More of a challenge doing this than it used to be.  But always glad that I do it when I do it.  But still the body knows that 6AM here is 4AM on its clock.  But meh.  At least it was a well lit sidewalk on the state highway, so that was good.  

PM = late start so dark and windy.  Rained a bit.  5 miles.  This park is nearby.  There are also speakers playing songs like "America" (yes, the Neil Diamond one).

Tuesday - slept in (meaning I woke up at six and got to work shortly afterwards as we head in around 7) so no AM running.  Was pouring out so I didn't venture outside in the evening, and did the hotel treadmill.  After a good six miles in the 75 degree room with no air movement, i it looked like I had taken a shower.  So I stopped.  

Some pics from the AM ride in (Wednesday).

Wednesday - yeah, slept in again.  I am getting lazy I guess.  Evening - ridiculous work day so I only had 50 minutes between getting back to the hotel and having to meet up with everyone.  Got in 4.  

Thursday - yeah, took the AM sleep.  Got setback until 7:30 - so dark and windy and navigated some local neighborhoods for 5.2 slow miles.

Friday - dragged me arse outta bed and got out for 4.1.  Figured with travel back today I had to get it done in the morning.  

Typical travel nightmare ... I burned a bit of capital to get out of here on Friday to make it back for the State meet on Saturday.  Had a flight from Buffalo to Chicago booked with a layover of 75 minutes planned before the Chicago to Denver leg.  The flight coming into Buffalo kept delaying, eating the layover time until it was like down to 10 minutes.  Landed in Chicago and got some hope as the next flight had a 10 minute delay.  But then taxi to the gate took like 15 minutes.  Got over from the inbound gate quickly hopefully we get on but ,..we ended up looking at the plane sitting there, the gate agent told us you "sorry, we locked the door."   But the plane is there.  "Nope.  For you it is gone."

And then you are in Chicago for the night and you are not going to the State meet on Saturday in Colorado.

Saturday mid morning - 9.2 miles.  Tired.  

Sunday - way cooler.  8.1 miles.  Sorta sore.  

Just under 45 miles on the week.  Explained - rationalized away with the business trip to a not so great location to run.  But sorta not.  

Had this on the front porch this weekend.  

  

Week ending 24OCT2021

Monday AM - 4 miles on the ditch with Greg.  Added on another 1.9 post.

Evening - along the ditch and back.  4.2, and picked up to a threshold sort of thing. Felt good to work a bit.  

Tuesday - did the routine physical thing.  I seem to always leave these a bit ... miffed. 
"Have you had any depressive thoughts over the last two weeks?"
I am too stupid to just say no, and I end up asking an unnecessary question ... "uh, I am a human ... do most people just answer that no?  I mean I would guess based on my interactions with folks if you are getting that for a response, then most people are lying."
Uncomfortable pause.
"Sir, it is a screening question."
Uncomfortable pause.
"Uh yeah, I am fine."
"Do you take caffeine? 
"Yes.  About 15 minutes ago."
 "Alcohol?"
"Yeah."
"How much?"
"It varies."
"From what to what?"
"From zero to ..."
Uncomfortable pause.
Doing math in my head ... and trying to figure out a number that doesn't get me locked up right away.
"maybe 10 in a week?"
"Yeah.  Let's say a dozen."

It is just a lot of that.  And being told degradation of vision, loss of hearing, interrupted sleep, loss of muscle mass, etc are all normal.  But is there anything you are concerned about?  But don't have those depressive thoughts at all in a two week period.  

But hey, the lab was done up in Halloween stuff so there was fake blood in the walls.  So there is that. 

PM - 10.5 miles over to practice, some with the coaches and then back home.  Got in some work at the gym too.

Wednesday AM - a slow 3 miles with GW

PM - 5.5 miles with the coaches

Thursday AM - 7.1, handful of it with GW on the Lac Amora loop.  Additional 1.3 post super easy.  A bit more at the Regional meet.

Friday - 8 miles with the coaches.

Saturday - 8.2 with practice.

Sunday - up early (3:45) after a late night with the band.  Ugh.  Travel to Buffalo NY for the week.   8 miles, most of it on a stretch of road that I'll avoid in the off hours (no real sidewalk or good shoulder).  But when I got to the bike path, that was cool.  

63 something miles on the week.  Overall pace has been getting better.  

 

Week ending 17OCT2021

Saw that I tripped over 2k miles on the year last week.  Would seem to indicate I am gonna get around 2500 on the annum.  

Monday AM  - jog with Greg and Syd for AM practice.  Half dozen strides at the end. 6.1 miles.  
PM - 4 easy miles

Tuesday PM - set up the flags and then did some work with the team.  Did 3 x a half mile at six minute pace on the upcoming regional course and then on the fourth got to about two minutes.  Bagged it there because there was a twinge for a few consecutive strides in the Achilles.  Meh.  6.1 miles.

Got the flu shot and the COVID booster.  

Wednesday AM = 4 miles with GW for morning practice.  
Afternoon - felt fuzzy.  Easy 4 with K-Dawg post Chicago and RT with the team.  

Thursday PM - 8.2 miles.  Over to the Commons to catch up with the team (they had a little TT) and then back.  Flagging in between.  

Friday -  8.2 miles out practice and back at the Commons.

Saturday - AM practice.  8 miles on Bobolink.  

Sunday - 8 miles in the AM.  Sort of tired but moved well.  

Long but the feed of the Saturday night show.  All of it.  The gaps, the breaks, the mistakes, and not sounding too great as it was recorded from the top of a keg.  

All of the stream ... the music, the highlights, lowlights, breaks, etc. 0:00 4:20 - Going Down 8:25 - Shout 13:00 - Midnight Train To Memphis 16:30 - Third Stone from the Sun 22:40 - Bright Lights 29:20 - Lochloosa (I need to learn to actually play the harmonica) 34:50 - Into the Mystic (this is where I was suddenly realizing that I couldn't hear the monitor behind me and so the acoustic was just washed out for me) 38:45 - When You Say Nothing At All 43:40 - Suzie Q 48:15 - Better Now 53:00 - Starting Over (really couldn't hear myself on vocals, or acoustic - became a bigger issue on the next tune) 57:40 - Keep The Wolves Away 1:04:20 - Hey Hey What Can I Do? 1:04:35 - Shine (not sure I'll never nail this solo but it was going okay until it crapped on the last riff, CG thought I sounded loud on the whole thing) 1:05:10 - Anyhow 1:22:30 - Birthday SET BREAK 1:50:40 - La Villa Strangiato (so close to getting this modified version but miffed one little part) 1:56:50 - Sweet Emotion 2:03:25 - What Is and What Should Never Be 2:08:40 - Feeling Allright 2:14:40 - Brown Eyed Girl 2:18:50- Margaritaville (I might need to just do the g-solo here) 2:23:45 - Whiskey and You 2:28:00 - The Struggle 2:32:45 - Colors BAND INTROS 2:40:20 - Midnight in Harlem (I still suck at this solo) 2:46:50 - Drift Away (I need to work the fills here but in the absence of that getting people to sing seems to work well) 2:52:00 - Copperhead Road 2:57:30 - India / Mountain Time SET BREAK 3:34:25 - 3AM (still need to work on fill timing) 3:39:00 - Recognize 3:44:10 - Return to the Mack 3:49:15 - Hell to the Naw 3:54:15 - Tequila (Uhh what are those other chords?)

3:57:30 - Horse With No Name 4:01:50 - Joy of My Life 4:07:10 - Cover Me Up 4:14:15 - Crazy Little Thing Called Love 4:18:00 - Friends in Low Places (whole rhythm of the tune was off so I sort of botched the solo) 4:23:30 - Hold On I'm Coming 4: 30:30- Tennessee Whiskey

54 something on the week with a little bit of quality in there but nothing particularly structured.  

Week ending 10OCT2021

Monday - pressed for time:  warm up to Commons 500 loop and then 10 x 300 (ish, we sort of figured it out with watch GPS units and memory of the loop) on equivalent rest (time, or slightly greater), with the first 5 at 3k pace, and the second 5 at mile pace.  I was over pace on all of that but got a good workout.  6.7 miles.  (long day - up at 4AM to start work with an ET site, then up late to do a pickup at the airport)

Tuesday - nearly a day off.  I just put out flags for the kiddos, ran back and forth coaching and then got flags.  2.8 miles

Wednesday AM - before the work started.  4 and quarter with GW.  Beautiful AM.

Wednesday PM - practice - 5.4 miles.  

Thursday PM - practice - 5.1 miles

Friday PM - with GW post the conference meet.  8 miles.  Running has been taking a bit of a back seat this week to band practice.  Yes, it is this sort of ridiculousness.

Picked up this kit this week.

Saturday AM - 8 miles with the coaches at practice.  

Sunday AM - 8.2 miles, with some fartlek in the second half (really no watch in as much picking spots).  Actually a fun thing.  

48 something on the week, impacted bv the work and band practice this week.  Here's a something with the harmonica.  

Week ending 03OCT2021

Monday AM - 3.1 miles in the dark on the San Diego Creek.
And yup, the work this week hit me.  Didn't get out in the evening with the long day, and took to the sleep on Tuesday morning rather than fight the 0'dark.  

Tuesday evening - headed out along the San Diego Creek trail, past UCI and past the San Joaquin Marsh.  9.1 miles with 10 x 2 minutes on, 1 minute off on the way back.  Good sweat.  

Wednesday evening - a bit tired (long day).  8.2 miles on the San Diego Creek trail (heading east).  Birds, bugs, bats and rats.  

Thursday evening - another long one.  5 miles in the dark on the trail.  Fartleking.  

Friday - work and travel back home.  Managed to draw an lucky card:  walked through security at the airport and the very first gate was the same flight back to Denver except about 3 hours earlier.  Took a middle seat way in the back (the last one on the bird as they were getting ready to close the doors) but it was a nice windfall.  Zero miles.

Saturday - back to Broomerville.  8.1 miles for practice, with the coaches and a good weight room session in the middle (it has been a bit since I done that).  

Sunday - met up with Syd Kyd and did a few with her.  8.2 miles easy.  Oh yeah, hammies were sore from the gym work I did yesterday.  

Ended up with about 42 miles on the week - and so, yeah a significant drop from last week, but expected.  Missed a day on Friday, but lightly pleased with getting two sessions where I stepped a bit out of the comfort zone.  

Week ending 26SEP2021

Monday AM - 3.5 with GW.  Cooler and windy.  
PM - 5.5 miles with about a dozen 150s as strides (or quicker).

Tuesday AM - 6 miles super easy.  
PM - 5.6+ miles with the team, doing kilos.  Opened with a couple of 200s, quicker and then helped out on four k's at 6:10ish pace.  I wish they were easier or faster but I y'am whad I y'am.  It was good to be trying to roll a bit again, even if the watch was running faster than it used to.  

Wednesday AM - 3 miles easy with GW.  Chillier in the AM these days (mid 40s).  
PM - 7 miles with practice.

Thursday AM - 2 mile wake up, easy
PM - 6.7 with AH, GW and guest visitor Dan V.  Felt good.  Like almost like almost. 
Slept hard but fitful last night.  Some pretty far out dreams. 

Friday AM - wake up, shake up 4 miles.  
6.4 in the afternoon, back and forth at the NW open space for the XC meet.  Some stuff at 10 min pace.  Some stuff low six.  Start and stopping.  

Saturday AM - practice.  5.1 with the coaches.  
PM - 5 miles, with 12 by a min on min off on Ridgeview=>Ditch.  No worries on pace and just was trying to hit so called 3k effort.  

Sunday AM - 3 miles wakey shakey before heading to the airport.
Off to Irvine (Orange County), California.  6.2 miles exploring in the afternoon after settling there. 

Video of the one of the covers I was working on this week.

Quite a week for me in terms of running (69.2 miles).  Definitely enjoyed not being on a scheduled engagement and getting in two days, and so my biggest mileage week in a while, probably the year.  I ended up hitting the weekly average for miles on Friday.  I'll probably make up for this in the next couple of weeks with lesser mileage due to greater work commitments.

I guess it might be a good idea for me to try to be more on the double thing if I want to keep the miles up.  I got about 25 of the miles this week on the AM double - and so it would have been the typical 45-50 with just the afternoon stuff.  

Reality in terms of running performance for me right now would likely mean it is a stretch to break 6 in the mile, and therefore a sub 20 on a 5k would be unlikely.  So, there is that and I'm thinking (occasionally) about crackin' at those.  Maybe if I kept the rubber bands together physically, and maybe if I could remain relatively disciplined otherwise I could get a run at sub 19, but that is significantly taller order.  

No misconceptions here.  I have somehow been able to keep the Achilles at bay most days, but there are truly times when I know if ain't happy.  I can't go hard on it nearly as much as I like.  It is what it is.  

Week ending 19SEP2021

 Monday - 5 sets of a minute, 40 seconds, 20 seconds, trying to shift gears a bit on the speed as the repetition length shortened.  Did this on the turf.  7.5 miles.  

Tuesday - 7.7 miles with practice

Wednesday - AM = 2.5 miles, getting a few with some of the kids who were doing an AM workout.
PM - 5.1 miles.  

Thursday - 7.7 miles with practice.

Friday - 7.2 miles with practice. 

Saturday - 5 miles at St. Vrain on warm ups and the like.  Private B-day gig in the evening.  

Sunday - 7.7 miles in the evening during moonrise.  Jupiter and Venus prominently out.  Didn't feel so hot.  

50 mile week.  Last week I was thinking about races, and this week that seems a ridiculous possibility.  I had a good workout on Monday but was in a bit of a spin for the rest of the week.  

Week ending 12SEP2021

Monday - a bit stiff, but did ok in the heat once I got moving.  8 miles.

Tuesday AM - a wake up bit on the ditch before calls started up - 3.7 miles.  
Afternoon around practice - 4.4 miles.  

Wednesday PM - afternoon - tight on time due to a variety of commitments so I only got in three but had 12 x minute in there at about 5:25 pace.  Guessing it would be a tall order to break six in the mile right now.  

Thursday AM - 7.3, most of it with GW,  catching up.  

Thursday afternoon - gig for Ball Aerospace over at the park.  

Friday afternoon - upper 90s hot.  7.3 miles easy.  Smokey too.  

Saturday - down at the Liberty Bell meet.  5.3 with EC, GW and SB.  Got another handful for a rounding out to 10 on the day running around the different ends of the meet.  

Almost right at the start of the first race for our team, someone shouted that an adult guy had gone down just up the road a bit.  People were shouting they needed help and to call 911.  Greg and I ran over and with another guy started doing chest compressions, breaths.  It didn't look great for the guy but that didn't matter really.  We did CPR until EMS showed up.  They got out the AED and got to work so we got out of the way and went back to coaching.

We heard an hour later that he had lived.  I am not sure if that is true though.   I hope he is of course.   In some ways it is a bit of a thing in my head ... in part because everyone was saying how it ought to be a thing in my head ... and maybe because it was just a thing we did because that is what we are supposed to do and it is not so much a thing in my head then ... it is a thing in my head.  I dunno.

Sunday AM - 8 miles.  Still warm but significantly cooler than yesterday.  I took a spill yesterday moving the team tent and my left hip was pretty sore today.  53 plus on the week, so not too bad getting back into it this week after the travel week.