| Location: Erie,CO, Member Since: Jan 01, 2008 Gender: Male Goal Type: Unknown Running Accomplishments: Pikes Ascent: 2:37.x
Pikes Marathon 4:32:x
Do PRs count if they are older than 10 years? Short-Term Running Goals: Preparing for Pikes 08 Long-Term Running Goals: Run lots of mountains and passes, the Grand Canyon, and the Burro Race World Championships Personal: I have nine toes for the same reason Paul McMullen has eight |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 277.50 | 9.00 | 6.00 | 15.50 | 308.00 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 | |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 11.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 11.00 |
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 Mid afternoon - 6 miles easy, 46 minutes. Felt good. Not sore. My ankles were a little stiff, but then they loosened up. Couple of hours later -5 miles, 37:38. Again, easy and felt good, maybe a touch flat. It was a bit chilly out. Just an easy day, with some easy mileage, under gray skies in Boulder County, and dreams of warmer days to come.
It is pretty crazy to read my logs from last year and see just exactly how much mountain stuff I was doing. I was wholly in belief that would change the runner I was and make me strong on the hills. I think it helped, but it was, in the snow, so little focused on the actual running that I think I lost fitness. And that mentality carried over into the summer. I focused on the mountains ALL the time. I think the right balance of this focus is key for me - a balanace between hills and flat running.
The pic today is one of my favorite from PPA 2007. It has 2006 champ Simon G and 2007 runner up and 8 time champ Scott E on Ruxton. Simon trains a lot on the flats, but then does some key workouts on hills. Everyone who does well at Pikes ultimately is a good fast flat runner too. They just have an uphill problem. True, there are those uphill specialists, but they are more the exception than the rule.
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 |
|  Various other necessary activities took hold of most of the day and as a result I did not get out until about sunset. I ran so called "steady state" (or what I have called easy plus in the past) on the out and back 10. Out, 34:32, back, 33:52 (I picked up the last 90 seconds). I felt good. I also feel that I am getting back into some form of shape that I was ... well, sometime ago. I felt good, but I feel that I am learning, in some way, how to run quicker again, rather than it just coming into fitness.
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 10.00 |
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 I got Lucy out for a four miles (she is insanely strong, I ran four miles during this but she easily ran at least six as I was throwing the frisbee for her while running) and then quickly changed and got on the mill. I wanted some turn over and so I did 17 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off. Why 17? Because I was done when I got there. Really, I needed to be finished to get out with the kids for a bit. 10 miles in 68. The minutes on were at 5 m/m pace and the off minutes were 8 m/m pace. Stride counts were hitting 44-46 - so I think that is improving. My lower abs are still a touch sore, and I am not sure why - but I have suspected the treadmill! I think I might pull it a bit funny when I hit the front end of the deck (overstride onto the part that does not move). My gimp foot Ach. is a bit sore, but that is what you get for putting your foot in a lawnmower.
It was a good week. 80+ miles. 584 minutes.
M - 10 +, easy
T - 4, 7 w/ tempo run (treadmill)
W - 8e
T- 20, building (treadmill)
F - 6e, 5e
S - 10 steady state
S - 10 miles, 17 x 1 min on 1 min off
Next week I'd like to get a solid track workout in, do another good long run (but I might back off the distance a hair or two) and see if I can sneak a few other runs in to up the overall mileage. That said, I might shift things up and jump in a 5K race to get a quick status check. I feel good. I am starting to realize the benefits of this last two months - I am turning a corner. I still have a lot of work to do, but it is good to start to feel some of the benefits.
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 11.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 11.00 |
| AM - easy with Lucy, 3 miles 23 minutes PM - snowing again, and I felt particularly wimpy so I hit the mill. 8 miles with HR right at 145 or under in 58. |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 12.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 12.00 |
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Today was just off. Work spiraled a bit bigger today, I felt a little scattered, I did not feel so hot and I had family stuff to tend to in the evening, and so I was bookending a lot of little runs. These little runs are so little, I wonder if they are worth anything more than just me feeling good that I got something in. AM - four miles outside with Lucy, post work - four miles before catching up with my family, and then four more on the mill before going to bed. These late night runs are not really fun. Post dinner, at the end of a long day ... they are just icky. But, this day is done. |
| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 9.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 11.00 |
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I joined up with PM for some running today. PM is one of those people that have significant mental issues. In other words, he is training for the Ironman Triathlon. The only folks with greater problems are those nut cases who do ultras.
Anyway ...
PM had a pretty specific track workout he wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do some speed but not sure exactly what I wanted to do on the track, and decided that I zero in that when I saw the conditions of the track, determined how felt, scoped out the weather, justified the position of the stars, checked my blood pressure, and checked with the Dali Lama. I am glad I did. It was near 20, if that, when we got to the track and there were several sections blown in with snow and ice. And their was a nice wind from the north. All the while, we could see a cloud socking in Boulder (indicating snow) as we watched from MHS track. PM, nonetheless, attacked his repeats, most of them from lane seven.
Me? I did not want to have much to do with the nuttiness of the ice, snow, and wind and so I turned this into a pick up and fartlek run, jumping in with PM to "help" him through some of the repeats, but mostly focusing on pickups to get some good turn over. On whole, I ran for about 100 minutes, but I am guessing it was only about 11 miles.
It was good to run with somebody. PM and I chatted on PED's in endurance sports, masters (or old guy) training, multiphasic approaches, etc. PM - your dedication showed today, doing a track workout in that snot was tough! Keep up the good work and you will have your break out. |
| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 8.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.00 |
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 I have talked with TG about a concept of fitness spiraling up, and fitness spiraling down. You like your fitness to be on a consistent uptick, or spiraling up, but, you might have ticks where there are slight downward spirals even in those longer term upswings. In school, we called this dynamic metastable equilibrium, but we don't need to get into such Thorson geomorphology concepts here.
I have been in a bit of a down spiral the last couple of days. It does not start with any one particular event, but for the sake of discussing it, let's say it has been my work. My work takes up a bit more of my time, and then so my training gets cut back a bit, which further frustrates me, which gets me unclear about my work, which then makes me lose focus for my workout, which then makes my diet slip, and then I sleep poor and then my next day's training is off ... and I get in this spiral.
Makes absolutely no sense, does it? “Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.” - Buddha. So these choices are part of my journey, part of my confronting my weakness, my humanity, my discipline, my desire to exercise self control - and when I see the weakness like this, as I have for the last 48 hours, it makes me realize how much work I have to still do. Breathe in, breathe out. Is any of the above really true? Or is just represent choices, implied and explicit I have made in that little shell of my head?
So today was an easy run, as I tried to get my head, my life, my running into a place where I felt more comfortable with it and really what is. I went easy at the tail end of the day on the creek path. Today this spiral stops. The BTR talk with all those mountain runners at Sherpa's was a nice mental clearing house (motivational) as well (more on that in an other post later).
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 7.00 | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 12.00 |
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 I apologize in advance: I think this is going to be a little long ...
Yesterday, I talked about about spiraling down in training, and how I had got into a bit of a rut over the last couple of days. I was determined to break that cycle today, realizing that this was more about my mentality, and losing control over little choices I make more than anything else. As much as one can spiral down, I beleive you can spiral up too. You can just be on top of all of it - you do a workout and absolutely kill it, it breaks your flesh but you feel more energy in yourself after the workout than before, you eat well, you sleep well, you connect with your loved ones, and you are at balance for a brief moment in your world. So I looked to start to get back to that today. One step at a time. Ridiculous ain't it?
I did not get on the mill until 8:15PM, so I'd be a liar if I did not say that think about putting off this workout, this run, and just floating in this muck for another day. But I was able to clear my head (finally) after a few hours free from work, hanging with the family for dinner, and chatting some good talk with my bride.
Bear with this transition here, it will come back around ...I have not really been watching this drama of the Presidential Race. I have lost hope in our federal government, its representatives, Democrat and Republican alike. I have come to wonder if we should ever trust a person who spends millions of dollars to get a position that pays them 400K. Nonetheless, a lot of my friends are wrapped up in it, and TG sent me a link to the recent video, "Yes. We. Can." It is a damn catchy riff, a beautiful video and I found it to be a moving message. TWK (welcome back to the blogosphere! Love the title!) sent me a post stating that most of our emotions, and hence actions are an outcome of fear, love and hope. The "Yes. We. Can." video represents this (it ain't about politics in that video to me, even though it is obviously marketing a candidate, I am still undecided on who I will vote for, mostly because I don't know much about where they stand on the issues), our journey's up Pikes and back, Lucho's dance with the marathon, PM's drive to master his IM, JV's jaunts up mountains, all of us ... we are doing this because we love being out there, we fear the days when we won't be able to, and we hope to transcend what we currently are. Ridiculous, like I said ... if it is positive though, is it a rant?
I got on the mill and heard the words to that song, but they morphed in my head a bit.
It was a creed written into the your soul that declared the destiny of your humanity.
Yes you can.
Yes you can to greater good and serenity.Yes you can to grace and commitment.Yes you can heal yourselves and reach new limits.Yes you can become something more than what you are.
Yes you can.
You know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in your way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of you, calling for change in you.
You have been told you cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ...........
You've been offered silver bullets and quick fixes, but in unique but common story that is you, there has never been anything false about hope and dreams that require commitment.Now is the time to write your comeback story, your chapter in the American dreamscape, and how you chose to do something more. You will remember that it is your choices, that it ALL starts with you and that you are not the victim of anyone else's curses, fears or spites except the ones that you create.
Yes. You. Can.
12 miles. For the first 10, I went 0% (7:24), 5% (7:45), 0% (7:06), 5.5% (7:39), 0% (7:08), 6% (7:47), 0% (7:05), 6.5% (7:22), 0% (7:05), 7% (8:14) and then warmed down real slow ... (9, 10), total was 1:33. I totally blew up in the 7% mile. I was not red lining but I just ran out of gas. My HR went down, I think it just all caught up to me ... but I did not care, as I was detoxing.
(today's pic is the start line of the Ascent in 2007)
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 |
| I went easy today because I might race tomorrow. Or I might go hard. It is to be determined. 7 miles, with some solid stretching (that I have not done in a bit). |
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| | Race: |
Frozen Foot 5K (3.1 Miles) 00:17:15, Place overall: 9, Place in age division: 3 | | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 11.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 14.00 |
|  Last night I was yapping with TG and told him that I'd do this 5K race if I felt good, but not if I felt off, or even on the fence. Well, I must have lied because when I woke up this AM, I did not feel good. I did not feel bad. I just felt flat. But I decided to jump into this anyway, to get a new baseline as to where I am at, and because racing does provide a bit of fuel for rekindling the fire.
It was cool (30s?), overcast, and a touch humid. In my warm up, I, as one is prone to do in warm ups, worried about how my connective tissue felt, how my legs felt a bit heavy, and the like. I ran into Andy Ames and chatted with him a bit. It seemed like his warm up pace was a bit quick for me and I wondered if this race was going to represent a step backwards. But, in any case, I was there, in the ring, and so you have to give it a shot.
We got out quick - of course. All these races go out quick and I was about 20 deep about a minute into the race. With this initial play in, I began the task at hand and began focusing on keeping relaxed but rolling up those who had gone out too fast, while not becoming someone else's victim. I felt actually pretty good in this first mile and split (fwiw) at 5:25. Right past the first mile, I passed the last person I would get for the race (I did not know that at that time of course). I was a bit concerned with the mile split, thinking that I had maybe gone a bit too fast in the start and felt like I was begining to pay for that in some of the short climbs in the second mile. It was a bit of a lull in there, I was not in direct contact with anyone, and I lost a bit of focus and drive. I hit the two mile split in 5:42 (11:07). I began to get my head back and tried to begin to push, realizing I only had about six or so minutes left of running. There were some good straight stretches and I got a 5:36 third mile (16:42), finishing in 17:15 (I had about two clicks faster on my watch but its common for finish chutes to add two seconds). This landed me ninth, and 3rd in the 30-39 age bracket (age group won by some tri guy named Matt Reed ...).
I am happy with the improvement this race shows. Again, I did not feel particularly stellar, but I am showing improvement in 5K time, and so that has to reflect an improvement in fitness (17:44 at Oatmeal 5K, to 17:15 today). The course is probably a touch short, but Andy said it has something like 35 turns. A good number of those turns are more like switchbacks than just 90 degree turns, and a couple had some ice. So, I'll call it even. While I am happy with the improvement, particularly with it coming on a week where I felt I was off, I realize I have work to do. It has taken me about three months to drop 40 seconds off the 5K time. I want to drop at least another 40 on it in the next three months. This will require a bit of shift in focus, more to particular interval workouts, but I think I am ready for that. Again, I felt flat, not bad, not good ... maybe a bit race rusty mentally in my ability to dig in the middle mile. I certainly did not feel like warm death at the end of the race ... it seems that I am able to get to that kill yourself state better the fitter I am. I do think that the faster opener shows that I am getting some of that turnover. Just need to keep that going for a few more miles!
I am giving this week a B-. It would have gotten a C or worse given I did not have a long run this week, and the mid week distractions, but I did manage to pull myself out it and show improvement in this race.
9 miles with the race, added a real easy five in the evening on the mill. Felt good, not sore at all. |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 11.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 11.00 |
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 Monday ... another start of the week. Zero miles in the log to start. Here we go again ... part of me loves this ... knowing that the pure monotny of training for some is what sends them away. Those that train through these short dark, windy, cold days will overcome. BWAH-HA-HA.
I came home early from the office to work a bit from home, help out with the family as my bride was not feeling well. Nonetheless, I snuck down to the mill before dinner and banged out seven. I started slow (8:20) and just kept picking it up ... not because I felt good, but mostly because I wanted to get the run done and get back upstairs. And because I was getting bored. 7 miles in 48 minutes, with the last six under 40 ... and it was easy.
I can feel my fitness progressing, simply because I ran a race yesterday and here I am feeling okay enough to run sub sevens on a machine I used to hate the next day. Okay, some of this is because it is mill running (which I am becoming more and more convinced is easier). But at the same time, and this might seem contradictory, while that fitness is improving, I can feel a part of me falling apart. I can almost feel the bone growing on my gimp foot heel; with each mile I build up a bit more calcification on that Haglund's deformity. My abdominal issue has not really healed; depsite my wanting it to just go away by ignoring it ... it has not. I get up from my desk in the middle of the day and I look like I am about to fall over. How the hell does that happen where you go from running 5:30s in a race to not being able to walk comfortably at the office?
Is this age? You actually can increase fitness or maintain it but the body parts start to give? I talked to Buzz at the BTR talk the other day and I asked him how he was doing. He spoke about a variety of injuries he has had to deal with (hammie, should surgeries, etc). He said, "I have this great engine, but the wheels just keep falling off the car!" Okay, okay, I am not falling apart. In fact, the Achilles has been a pain (literally) for years (put your foot in a lawn mower once and you never are forgiven - sheesh ... ). Maybe it is pyschosamatic, brought on simply because I am this age and I supposed to think about this stuff more, but it seems like I feel more little niggling ache and pains then I used to.
And yes, they are aches and pains. The difference between an injury and an ache and a pain was described to me by Jason Hickman at the Camera years ago ... as I described a problem he asked, "can you run on it?" "well, yeah, after I warm up some." "then it ain't an injury, it is just an ache and a pain. When you can't run on it, then it is an an injury."
After I got the kids down I hit the mill again (the winds were really ridiculous today, they actually woke me up last night shaking the house) for five in 33. Total on the day, 13 in 81. I doubt I could do a half that quick outdoors right now, but ... I could not have done five on the mill in 33 three months ago after doing 8 and felt comfortable. The body is an amazing vessel.
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 9.00 |
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2.5 mile warm up over to Monarch, 4 sets of 200-200-400 with equal rest and then a 2.5 mile warm down. I did a few 100m strides before the workout to open it up a bit. Again, I did not concern myself with rest here (although, I think I will begin to convert to those sorts of workouts, where rest is timed and controlled, shortly), and focused on the turnover. The 200s were in 34.x, and the 400s were 73.x, 72.x, 72.x and 71 flat. The speed is coming back.
... but I am having a problem now tapping into it. My lower abdominal wall hurt a lot today. I really bugged me in the early part of the warm up, but then it cleared up some. Nonetheless, I found I could not dig the legs as much as I wanted to because I had this core problem. I backed off the workout a touch because of this (both in effort, and in overall duration - 4 sets instead of five). I suspect the treadmill is somehow behind this, because it always seems to hurt more post treadmill running. But that might just be an excuse. I need to get this thing looked at soon. If it is a hernia, it ain't going to just go away.
9 miles on the day, 70 minutes. |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 |
| I felt tired today. Just tight all around, and tired. The weather was more like April today (65) so I got out for four around 3 and six around 5. All easy running. |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 11.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 11.00 |
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 So I felt better today. Not as tight, not as sore in the abs. And what sucks is I am not wholly sure why. It could be:
- I had an easy day yesterday (after three somewhat more challenging days).
- I ate ice cream last night
- I have not run on a treadmill in a couple of days
- Venus is in the constellation of Virgo
- I took some vitamin I (okay, Ibuprofen!) like my medical provider advised me.
But in any case, I felt a bit zippier. Slept great last night too. But my point here is we are not simple experiments where you control one variable and then something else moves.
It snowed today (after that 65+ yesterday). I got out mid afternoon for an easy 8 (1 hour) and then tacked on an easy 3 a little later. |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 17.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 17.00 |
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I got on the mill early today with aspirations to do a two hour run, simply to get it done for the week - it is going to be a busy weekend. I was also curious to see if the mill run would cause me to be the BIG WIMP that I have been about this abdominal strain I have had.
In any case, same sort of approach to my long run as my last one on the mill - build into it. I thought if I could get 17 in two hours, I'd be content with that.
7:23
7:18 (14:42)
7:12 (21:54)
7:11 (29:05)
7:01 (36:05)
6:54 (43:01)
6:48 (49:49)
6:43 (56:33)
6:40 (63:13)
6:35 (69:49)
6:31 (76:20)
6:27 (82:47)
6:27 (89:14)
I was taking water every five minutes to keep well hydrated. I took a gel at the hour, and started drinking some Nuun every five minutes at the 70 minute mark. By the 13th mile (above) I was sweating like it was a July day in Rhode Island. I was not working crazy hard, but I was needing to focus. I figured with the 13 in sub 90, I'd back off for a four mile warm down.
6:52 (95:06)
6:52 (1:42:58)
6:48 (1:49:46)
6:26 (1:56:12)
Yeah - that last mile was just get it done kind of thinking. Again, I need to do this stuff outside, but this morning did not lend to it from a schedule, where I needed to be perspective. My stomach did not hurt much during this run, but I was aware of the tightness down there. Then again, I did start my day with a couple of Advil with the coffee.
Mentally, I think I want to wrap my head around this run getting really fast (for me) as I build through it. That is going to take as much head work as physical work. Thinking about running sub six for 10 seems mentally easy if I am thinking about a race, but hard to do it in a workout. As they say, train hard - race easy. |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 |
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 Joined Scott E this AM for a real easy jaunt in the foothills west of his house. The trails still have some snow and ice, but traction is not necessary. Scott is just bouncing back so we went real easy for an hour. I got in an other five in the afternoon and played with the jump rope a bit.
When you see Scott on days like this, where he is running easy, you'd probably not guess that he has won Pikes Peak Ascent 8 times. Scott, in fact, is one of the few runners that has had any sort of modicum of success against Pikes reigning king Matt Carpenter. But, if you were to see him when he is full on into his training, killing Linden hills in June, you realize you are dealing with a different kind of person. I remember the first time I ran with him on said route and left thinking, "wow, that guy is dialed in and focused." Nice, soft spoken guy. Just don't expect that you are going to get off easy if you try to run up a hill with him. He, of course, has his eyes on that mountain in Manitou again. His ability to transform himself from a runner who will go easy in February because "he's not there yet" to someone who in August can stick their hand into a burning vat of lactic acid flame for lung searing ascents - continues to amaze and baffle me.
The pain in my lower abdominal muscle has returned, and so I suspect the treadmill again given the effort there yesterday. Hopefully, the easy running outside will cause it to relax a bit.
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 13.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 13.00 |
| 13 today on the treadmill. I had early aspirations to get a tempo in today, but I spent a good deal of the day with the family at the pool. Playing in the pool, hot tub, etc took some of the spunk out of my legs and so I landed on just going easy.
Ok week, with a fair long run, and an okay track session. 82 miles on the week, 188 on the month. I found it a bit hard to dig in this week with the abdominal stuff I have been dealing with. Nonetheless, I think I am progressing. |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 14.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 14.00 |
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 I met up with JV and AV at Sanitas this afternoon. These two are serious mountain goats. Every weekend they are off bagging some 14er. It is easy to overlook this on the planet of Boulder where everyone seems to be sponsored by some shoe company, or are running across the country in a Fred Flinstone vehicle, or are describing a 2:31 marathon as an off day. Climb all the Colorado 14ers? It almost like another Cub Scout badge in this town.
But it really is not. Really, it is not. In fact, it quite nuts. Read his blog if you don't beleive me. Maybe I should not have a picture of a mountain goat but instead of mixed martial art fighters to portray how hard this is.
I had put about 2 miles in before hooking up with these two. I had some aspirations to do a tempo up this hill, but the treadmill run last night left me more tapped than I had expected, particularly in, you guessed it, in the abdominal muscle wall area. Latest hypothesis on this is that it is just strained and I am not giving it enough rest for it to effectively heal. I realized that Sanitas is not easy and that running it easy (figure that out) would provide a good workout in any case. And as I expected, it kicked me in the teeth. Sanitas, while short in duration, does have significant grades right from the get go. And ain't even the grades that seem to get me, its the fair step ups. I tried to keep it relaxed but by 10 minutes in, I was, well, something other than relaxed. JV can totally smoke me on this stuff, but he always remains kind, stating how the pace is just fine for him. It was good to run with him, talk training, mountains, and jokes about gas. With about 3 minutes to go I thought there was a shot at breaking 20, but the ascent trip took 20:12.
I know that making deposits in flat and speed first, as I have been, will cause a debt on the hills that I will have to pay. I got notice of that debt today. I said to JV on the way down - "I want to do it all." And I do. I want to do the fast track workouts, the long road runs, the killer hill tempos, the long mountain runs, the hill repeats, the long building flat tempos. Of course, there is this minor issue we have to deal with called recovery. (Total side note, this crud that some Yankee pitcher is hurling about not taking HGH to be a better pitcher but instead to help him recover is that - CRUD. Your ability to recover is your performance). Sanitas put me on notice, I need to inject a run like this at least once a week to keep some hill familiarity in the legs. With the weather breaking, that ought to be a bit easier. The focus will shift a bit to those sort of runs, more structured track work (managing recovery more closely) and moving some of the long runs to the trails (but assuring they are building efforts). Where I am changing from last year at this point is the level of focus I am putting on the hills. It is a minor but significant tweak.
We came back down, caught up with AV and ran with her the rest of the way. It was a good easy run, with the Sanitas portion taking about 40 minutes all told. I parted from JV / AV and I jogged over to Fleet Feet after this, did a quick check on a few things from the wireless, and then got at it again. I got in some minutes before joining the group at the store for the Monday night jog. At this point, I was ready to be done but the group run (which never starts on time, and that bugs the heck out of me), pushed me through another five miles.
All told, it was about two hours, and about 14 miles.
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 |
| GORGEOUS DAY. Shorts, t-shirt. Just plain sweetness on the Davidson Mesa, with big views of the Flatirons. Easy 10. Supposed to snow again on Thursday. |
| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 6.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 |
|  Long before I knew its name as the Davidson Mesa, I called the back hill on that big flat area behind my office as LOSH - or the Louisville Open Space Hill. I am including a picture of the mesa today, as the webcam link I put up yesterday ... well for the night owls on the internet, it provides a less than illuminating image.
I would put LOSH in my logs to indicate where I had run. This back hill is a short jaunt, but it is fairly steep, rocky and makes my arms hurt when I run it. Along with other parts of my body. Yes, this hill and I have a history. And I think I have yet to win an argument with it. This hill ain't that long. Alone, its steep section is probably 200 yards. A workout for me in the past on this hill has been eight up and down repeats, with the ups being under a minute. So a minute on it is near eight minute pace. That seems slow. I keep telling my lungs and legs that and they don't really seem to care. For a short workout, it is one that usually leaves me grabbing my knees at the end and wobbling in the office for the rest of the day. And it always leaves me with that mixed feeling like I had accomplished something, but that I had so much more to do.
In any case, I took a slightly different approach to this old friend today. Rather than just running the hill outright, I ran a lead up section to it, and then drove into the hill, and then would loop back around the top side of it back to the lead up section. These ended up being just short of being 2 minute repeats with then about a four minute rest jog. The lead ups and hill ended up being about a quarter mile and the jogs were a half mile.
I did not feel real zippy - mostly because I still can't seem to get my stride out as long as I'd like it - because of this abdominal thing. That problem is getting better (which supports my hypothesis that the treadmill is aggrevating it, as I have not been on the treadmill for a few days) but it is still a bit of a problem. Nonetheless, I was getting up the hill in about 65-67. I was satisfied with that given it was a bit iced over in some parts (putting me off the trail into the cacti and yucca), and with the lead in. I did six of these, each one getting quicker. And like an old dependable friend, it left me grabbing my knees on the last one, but still feeling like I had a lot to do. I will look to build this workout to be more laps, quicker overall, and quicker on the ups. 10 miles total, 3 miles warmup, 3 mile warm down, 4 with the six loops. Contributions to the workout today came from Coheed and Cambria (James, I don't really you but I am guessing you'd dig these guys ...) and The Darkness (those guys are nuts).
I am playing with the idea that next week I drop my mileage to 50 miles (from the 70-80ish I have been doing) and focusing the work more on speed. I am interested in performing this experiment for two reasons: 1.) I am curious to see how I respond to a drop in mileage. I'd like to think that a drop would leave me feeling fresher and that I could attack the speed workouts a bit more and b.) I'd like to try this to emulate a bit of a taper. I am trying to figure out how that taper needs to look now, particularly given how Lucho feels his had adverse effects to his effort at Austin. I am thinking that this little experiment will let me play a bit harder in that mileage space, begin to see how my body will respond to lower mileage (albeit, I will be upping the intensity some) and start to sort those things out (178 days to go!).
Oh yeah - I got a question: why is your blog called Hang Nine? Answer: I have nine toes. I lost a toe (and created all sorts of other foot scar tissue issues) when I was a kid (let's say it is a race I lost). My Dad coined the phrase when we found I could not really wear flip flops as they would simply fall off that foot. So think of hang ten (the surf term). I hang nine.
Live it.
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 11.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 11.00 |
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 I got out mid day for an easy jaunt on the Davidson Mesa. Later in the afternoon, I met CC for a run up Flagstaff. One of my favorite stories from last year's Pikes weekend is watching CC finish the Ascent. I had 50 yard field side tickets to watch the Super Bowl of mountain running. Seeing folks come up to the finish, just worked, driving to finish this thing was absolutely awesome. Watching CC finish, considering what he had been through in the 18 months prior was pure inspiration. I'd tell his story here but it is his story (and maybe I will if I get his permission).
This was a really slow six (I checked the distance via mapmyrun).I was thrashed, the trails were icy and muddy and I was without additional traction. CC was really kind in waiting up for me but I was in the so called "granny gear" most of the way - and I really held him up We started at Eben Fine Park, when up the Viewpoint trail, connected to the Flagstaff trail. Once we got to the top, we edged around on Boy Scout. I had never been on this trail. It was pretty icy and I flopped a couple of times, and did the skitter dance many more. I definitely want to check out this bugger this summer ... it could make for a good little repeat loop.
Much more I could write, but I am off to read some comic books with my son.
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 8.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.50 | 11.00 |
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 After the run yesterday, I was worked. It was one of those where after the run, my butt is just draggin' ... I was laying in bed in the evening, still feeling that buzz of it all. It is interesting to me that my hard days often leave me feeling invigorated but my easy days leave me feeling like chewed up and spit out. I was jacked enough that I even slept poorly, waking up several times in the night.
I am realizing I need to be in the hills a bit more. Last year there was this little voice in my head saying I needed to do more speed, more flat stuff . This year, the voice is saying I need to get those wonderful hills more. Getting on them twice this past week has revealed a chink in the armor I am trying to build. I have a good amount of time to correct that, but dang ... Sanitas and Flagstaff gave me some good kick in the teeth reminding.
It is all about finding that right balance of flat, speed, hill, long, rest, diet ... and LIFE. Yeah, on this blog, I talk a lot about training, my ups and downs with workouts, but I am living a dream. The slice of the dream last night was reading X-Men #7 to my son (he is seven, and this comic is from 1964) and then having my daughter read over my shoulder while I blogged work stuff - and she corrected my grammar and spelling!
Today was yet another perfect weather day. Low 50s, not an ounce of wind. Well, maybe an ounce. I jogged three miles from the office over to Monarch High track later in the afternoon. It gets a little tough to get a track this time of year because you begin to compete for lane space with the high school track team, soccer team, lacrosse group, etc. I do try to stay out of their way, as I am the guest. I did the 200-200-400 workout again. Again, I have not worried on limiting the rest in this workout but this time, I kept it a bit more honest. I was hitting the 200s in 33-34 and the 400s went 73, 72, 72, 71, 70. I felt ... okay. I mean, I did not feel great and powerful - in fact I felt a bit heavy. But in a wierd kind of way, I can feel this shell of crud unpeeling around me. That hardly describes it, but I am getting to a point where I can feel a little turnover in there again. Still a far cry from what it was, but I occasionally get a wiff of it. Or maybe I just need a shower. My abdominal area is still a bit sore, but the strain seems to be very slowly subsiding (sneezing does cause me to wince quite a bit though). Warmed down back to the office for three miles.
Booked my room at Pikes today. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention yesterday that CC has the baddest looking Fu-Man-Chu I have ever seen.
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 13.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 13.00 |
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 I got out on the various off shoots of the Mesa trail with Lucy today. I had little for a course agenda, but I wanted to get two hours. I got that and about 13 miles (with some fair vertical). For most of the run, I figured I'd avoid the ice and let Lucy determine the course. We did not avoid the mud however! We were both so muddy when we got home, my son asked "that's Lucy?!" It took a good amount of bathing to get her clean.
I spent about a half an hour or so running with local ultra legend Dave Mackey. He was also out for a run with his dog and so we hooked up for a few miles. Dave has done more off the chart stuff in the last five years than most people do in their entire lives: set the record on the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim, come in second at Western States, set records at 50 milers and 100ks all over the place, done adventure races all over the world, won nearly every Satan Minion's run, nearly caught Matt C at Pikes last year with an insane descent, hold FKTs for most of the routes in Boulder, won a 350K race in Canada last year where he won some monster diamond for his wife. It is truly difficult to comprehend what an amazing athlete this guy is. His accomplishments are other worldly. And yet, he comes across as a soft spoken, quiet guy - more interested in what you are doing for training and racing than speaking about what he has done. But there is no questioning that he has a deep competitive fire down in there ... it is just hard to see it until the gun goes off. We spoke a bit about training, recent races, some of our goal races, what some other locals are doing, our families, and the like. I am excited to hear that Dave is at least considering doing the so called "Mountain of Pain" (yes, that is Pikes again). Any race with him in it has proven to not be over until it is over - and with the long descent at Pikes where he holds one of the best times, folks better not think they have put the race away with a strong Ascent.
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 12.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 12.00 |
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Cool morning, but again, signs of spring out there. Did a 12 mile loop easy through Teller Farm from the house. I bounced into a couple of folks out at the Farm and ran with them for about 20 minutes before heading back home. Isabelle Road is having work done on it so it was totally closed to traffic - it was nice to be able to run down the middle of the road.
It was a good week. I had two runs at 2 hours with both of them including some fair amount of climbing. My mileage was 81 on the week, but the time on that was about 690 minutes (versus about the same amount of mileage last week, with less hills and about an hour less). I had a turn over workout as well.
This next week I am going to try dropping the mileage (50 miles comes to mind) and up the intensity slightly. My take on this that I will do easy days really easy or not run at all. I will probably look to do more core work, athletic work on those days but really lower the running volume. I want to see if I can get a bit more spring in the legs for the hard days. I am also going to food log next week as well.
Live it. |
| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
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 I felt a bit off throughout the day. I felt ... thick. Tracy said this probably because I am sick. That might be the case, given the crazy flu that has been going around but I don't think so. I just felt heavy and slow today. THICK. Nonetheless, as per plan I went easy, and short - 4 miles. I added on about 30 minutes of stretching, core work, etc. It is hard for me to attack the core given this ab thing, so most of it was working around that. I can't even do a single situp without significant strain. I am supposed to see a doc tomorrow for a physical and I will see what he has to say about it.
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 5.00 | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.00 |
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 Busy day, night. I got out mid day for a tempo. 2 mile warm up, did 3 laps around Harper Lake off McCaslin (building, each a touch faster than the previous) and then back down through the Davidson Mesa to the office. Whole thing was about 26 minutes with the pace starting a bit above 6 minute pace and then moving down to 5:30s. Looking forward to doing this sort of workout more often now that I can and adding length to it, dropping the pace more. I did not feel well rested, actually kind of flat (still a bit thick) even with the light four yesterday, but we'll see how the rest of the week goes. Warmed down for an other three miles.
I saw the doc today and he is pretty convinced my abdominal thing is not a hernia but a good muscle strain called a diastasis. This is apparently where the muscle separates from the vertical line of connective tissue. It should heal on its own as long as I don't strain it.
I also had some blood work done to check some of the basics. I don't think they would have normally done this as part of a physical but I indicated I was interested in doing a 50 miler and wanted to assure that there were no problems there. I sort of re-realized why I don't like to talk to folks about these sort of events. When you mention this, most folks put you in that, "oh you are one of those" category. Now I guess this doc does not normally have people come in and say, "umm, hey doc, can I get clearance to do a 50 or a 100?" No, in fact, he probably spends most of his day dealing with folks that are wanting get back to basic good health.
"So you run how much now?"
"About 10 hours a week"
"All at once?!"
"No, no, I run every day so some days are 30 minutes, some are a couple of hours."
Here he gives pause and a long look.
"So, what 2 to 5 miles a day ...?"
I have yet to find the right answers to these questions that put people's minds at ease, and let them know that this behavior is not unusual, particularly when they consider it against some of the activities they regularly pursue. And so I usually dodge and evade these questions, or get a (as my wife describes it) a real goofy tone of voice in describing what I do.
Curious to see how I feel tomorrow. I am tempted to just do an other tempo if I feel good, or maybe hill repeats. And he said I could run a 50 if I wanted to.
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 |
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 I felt pretty good last night and had thoughts that I'd come back and go "hard-ish" again today. But despite the great weather again today, once I got moving a bit out there, I knew I'd not be able to hold a workout that I'd feel good about. I still feel a bit off - Tracy thinks I am fighting some illness.
So, I have done what all of us do when things don't go our way - I have rationalized this. I was not supposed to go hard today, I was supposed to easy today and absolutely kill myself tomorrow as part of this lower mileage, higher intensity experiment I am running through (that does not seem to be going so great thus far). This experiment might be jacked altogether if I am fighting some sort of illness I guess. We'll see tomorrow.
I did an easy seven on the Davidson Mesa, and did some stretching and then jumped rope for about 15 minutes. I have come a pretty long way from when I got the rope at the end of the year (a gift from my daughter at Christmas). I could barely get ten jumps at a ridiculously slow cadence then. I still look like a moron out there but I look like a moron that can jump a little bit of rope. I struggle still to get the one legged jump stuff done - particularly on the left lawnmower foot.
I have heard some interesting podcasts on the mind body connection as of late. This past week's This American Life and Fitness Rocks both hit on the connection, although in different ways. I find  some of the findings in the Fitness Rocks 'cast to be particularly interesting. In short, when they told people that they were indeed exercising when they performed routine work activities (routine for them), their measurable health factors improved (BMI, blood pressure, etc). In other words, the verbal on what they were doing either made them change their behavior and become healthier - or their mind somehow changed thier physical health factors. Given that placebos (a substance introduced that will have NO expected physical reaction) have caused people to have rash reactions (demonstrating that when you suggest something - you will get the result), you have to consider the power of your mindset when applied to training and expected race outcomes. Have  you ever met a winner of a truly competitive event who thought "there is no way I can win?" Think (pun intended) about it. I heard another show where Derek Jeter of the Yankees refused to even consider when he was in a slump after he went 0-32 in batting. Now why would he do that?
One of my favorite stories on this though has to be when Viren won the 72 10000m in WR time He and Frank Shorter tangled up, Viren fell to the in-field and lost about 100m on the lead pack. Virén caught up with the leading pack. With 600 meters to go, Virén dropped the hammer and started an unprecedented lap-and-a-half kick. Another athlete, Ghammoudi who had fallen in the race in the same tangle up dropped out after trying to catch the lead pack for about half a lap. In retrospect, Shorter said (loosely), "For Ghammoudi to win the race, it was going to have to go perfectly for him. Regardless of what happened in the race though, Viren was going to win."Mindset is not just mumbo jumbo - it can dictate how you perform and set your limits. Or unlock them.
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 | 10.00 |
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It was a nice day, and I had aspirations of getting outside but I needed to be at the house with my son. So, for the first time in about 10 or so days, I hit the mill.
- 2 mile warm up with "strides" (13 minutes)
- 2 miles (10 minutes)
- 4 minute inactive recovery
- 5 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off at 12mph for the on, 7.5 mph for the off
- 2 minute inactive recovery
- 5 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off at 12mph for the on, 7.5 mph for the off
- 2 minute inactive recovery
- 5 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off at 12mph for the on, 7.5 mph for the off
- 2 minute inactive recovery
- ~ 1 mile cool down with a couple of strides (6:30)
This got me 10 in about about an hour of running, just few ticks over 67 when considering the inactive rest. I was pretty stoked to get the two miles in in 10 minutes. That was not too hard actually - during the repeat. My body suddenly noticed what the heck I had did during the rest session. The minutes on / off were not that bad - just required some degree of focus. I started playing a bit with them in the last two sets, making them 62-65 seconds to get the treadmill clock more aligned with where I wanted it. I have a bit of doubt that I could do a ten minute two mile outside right now - again, I think there is something to be said just for keeping up with the mill - but I was glad to wrap my head around this bugger.
I decided to watch the movie 5000 meters, nothing comes easy. There is this scene in the begining  where they roll a clock to 13:21.5, and discuss how that is the Olympic A standard. I thought this would be a good motivational part to watch while I ran the two mile section. About 3 minutes into my run, I am looking at this running clock on the tube and begin to guess that their seconds are much faster than mine. 13:21.5 had come and gone well befor I got to a mile and a half. All I can say "what is up with that?"
I talked to Lucho a bit last night and we are going to look to get together for a run this weekend. is We yapped a bit about his training, Austin, my marathon in August, etc ... Given some of the things we talked about, I am taking a bit of a different approach to what this week is about. Frankly, I don't feel super fresh with this lesser mileage. I don't feel horrible, but it is not like I have a bunch of pop in my legs all of a sudden. Nonetheless, this lower mileage this week fits in well that it serves as a "rest" in the bigger picture of mileage. With 30 so far this week, I am expecting to get 60 or more. That might not seem like a big rest, but with the norm being 80's as of late, that is about a 15 to 20 percent drop. |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 |
| 10 miles easy with MK and PH on the Boulder Creek Trail. Felt good. Kept it easy - no residual crud from yesterday. |
| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 277.50 | 9.00 | 6.00 | 15.50 | 308.00 |
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