GZ

I was not on top of it, and I knew it from the start - but decided to make a go of it anyway. After a 2 mile warmup (>15), I did 3 miles with 3 minutes rest (at 5mph, so a quarter jog) at about 5:30 to 5:35. None were outright killer, but I did not feel strong. It may be the cold that I am fighting (fwiw, I was sweating like it was a GA summer in the basement). This brought me to 5.5 in 43:40, and so I finished it off with 7.5 in 55 for 13 in 98:40. Not stellar, but I was glad to push through it given my state.

got out in the afternoon with Lucho. From his place, we ran east through Anthem, and then back. I went a bit light on the clothes - I was dying to get into shorts after running with three or four layers all last week. Towards the end of the run (the last 35 minutes actually) I was starting to feel it - in fact, I am defrosting now in front of the fire. We finished the loop in 1:45 and change.

A bit tired today from the effort on Tuesday and the good run yesterday. Went easy the whole way to recover. 38 out, 40 back on the plowed sidewalks of Louisville.

AM - I did not sleep real well, mostly because I am blowing out this cold. I got out in the AM and was a lightly sore in the quads, and did an easy seven. The roads are a bit of a mess - a combination of packed ice, snow, slush and water. My street looks like the end of some melting glacier. Most of the sidewalks are clear though. I told my wife the streets are of the consistency of a half hour old margarita (am I showing a desire there?).

PM - My daughter was at a birthday party and so I ran from the Flatirons Mall (ick) out to 128 and south on Simms, scoping the new office route. Windy - there is a front blowing in. Easy 40 minutes, 5 miles. Looks like there will be some decent hills out there.

I wanted to get a tempo in today. As it was sloppy out (melting snow, but still lots of packed ice), and windy (comes with the warmer temps), I hit the treadmill. I have ambitions to get this workout back to the SBC trail. There I will head out (and slightly up) at a slightly slower than 10K pace for 3 or 4 miles, and then come back slightly faster then 10K pace for 3 or 4 miles. When I was doing this a few years ago, it was effective in teaching me to control the effort on the front end and push the effort on the backend. Unfortunately, as I get more fit, I have historically become better equipped to execute poorly. When I am out of shape (or less in shape) I am forced in executing to whatever I am capable of. When I am in better shape, I have this tendency to go out to fast.

I felt I had a fair week of training - one where I advanced fitness rather than maintaining or losing it. I wanted to get a longer effort in though and so landed on a 2 hour run today. I kept the whole thing easy. The mileage might be higher than 15, but there were a couple of stretches where I was clanking through snow or mud. I headed east, through Vista Ridge, around the landfill, out by the HS, back by the new Rec Center. I need to do more of these longer runs - making them a steady part of the training diet, simply because they are a bit of a weakness for ... maybe more in my head than anything else. I never struggled outright physically, but I find it to be a bit of work to run out there by myself for two hours. As I have said, "work to do." Again, it was a decent work for me: I'll give it a B. Mon - 3 miles in the cold in Fairplay Tues - 13 miles, with mile repeats Wed - 14 miles with Lucho Thurs - easy 10 miles Fri - 10 miles, with 3 miles tempo Sat - AM 7 miles, PM 5 miles Sun - 2 hours easy, 15 miles 77 miles on the week, 2 "fair" workouts, a 2 hour run, and a mid - longish run at a better clip. I guess the mileage is decent in light of the fact I had a three on Monday. Next week I will look to do a 5K test in the Oatmeal Fest. I want to get a check to see if fitness has advanced, and if so, by how much. I will look to balance the work with a speed workout earlier in the week. The plan calls for quarters, but I may adjust that to eights depending on the weather (and if I am forced to the mill). I have to do thinking about how I want to balance the rest of the week, and still get other good stuff in. I am toying with the idea of a daily food log. I think it would be interesting to put that out there, to write down what I am eating, see how it compares to what I want to eat, how it effects training, the entire caloric input thing. It just seems to damn tedious to write that all down.

75 minutes, 10 miles, easy. I thought I'd feel a little tired from the longer run yesterday but I bounced back fine. Once I was rolling, everything felt good. Started for about 17 minutes before hooking up with MK in Boulder (light snow falling), and we went for 38 minutes. Tacked on another 20 min to wrap it up.

2.5 mile warm up over to Monarch track from the office. This was one of those days where I could feel I was a bit off, and was concerned with how the workout would go anyway. Mentally, I was focusing in on a problem at work, and it was gnawing at me in a way that I could feel that was making me edgy. Should I separate these efforts and thoughts? Yes. Do I have discipline to do that? Not totally. I still did the workout, but I could feel that I was a not fully in the game even in the warm-up. In fact, I think that is a bit reflective of how I have felt on some of these workouts for a bit: I am getting in there and doing something to advance or maintain fitness, but I am having issue in getting that break through, dig in, kill it type workout. Today it might have been work, or the long run on Sunday that caused it (but that was not so much the case over break I guess).




I started with 2 x 200 to open up the legs a bit (36s) and then did the 400s which all came in at 75-76, except the last was at 73 high. I then did 2 more 200s (3 minute rest after the 400s, and then 2 minutes after the first 200) in 34. I got to keep after this workout. I could write about what I used to do all day - I am here now and I can do something about it (and something will happen whether I choose to do something or not). I once had a little bit of speed. And I let it go. I can't make that mistake again. I used to be able to get this workout (8 x 400, 1 minute rest) with the 400s all under 70, and some of them even as low as 66 or 65. Not today. Ah, you reap what you sow. The good news is that there seems to be some improvement in the general speed since the 200-200-400 workout from last month




Warmed down for 3.5 miles. Total was nine on the day over the course of about 75 minutes.

I felt a bit sluggish - no surprise given the workout yesterday. Did an easy hour (8) on a gray, humid, cold Colorado day. I will look to do a workout tomorrow that taxes my cardiovascular system but does not kill my legs too much. I'd like to be able to bounce back well for the 5K on Saturday.

I ran Sanitas today, wanting a tempo effort, and something that would tax me cardiovascularly but not sap my legs. I want to come back and run the Oatmeal Fest 5K as a test to see where I have come (or gone) since Thanksgiving.

Sanitas is a nice little compact climb. 15-20 minute and you are done. I think I have done this in the 17s, but in referencing the log from last year, I can only find that I did it as quick as 18:38. Today, I went into it carefully, at a tempo mentality. When I saw where I was at when the watch hit 18, I figured I could make a go to break 20 and did with a 19:56. It was a little icy on the upper half, and this did cause some slipping. I got a good little burn in the end, but I have to say, this was one of the best workouts I have felt in a bit. It was controlled, but a solid push. I felt that I could dig in a bit. So all good. The downhill was a bit more of a trick - it actually took 15:17 to come down. I was not looking to fly down but I had to be careful with all that dang ice!

After all this, I ran into downtown and ran with MK for a chunk. As has come commonplace with my runs with MK - we shared great conversation. MK is my brother - we connect so easily. I can tell you a million things about MK - all you need to know is he my brother. Today's conversation was a mix of discussion on his high school coach (killed while running at the age of 39 by a car), our families, the caloric bank account, current training (this section is mostly about me because while MK runs right now, he will tell you himself - he is not training), blogs, the 'Rock, and workouts we used to do that seemed normal at the time that seem out of reach (but they ain't) now.
Round trip today was 90 minutes, 11 miles.

Short story: 17:44. Longer story ... This is about as local of a race as I can get. Yes, of course, there is the Eeire Erie but that is actually farther away than this race. I had contemplated jogging over to the race as a warm-up, but brought the car to have a place to stow gear.

1. We are all sitting at the start ready to go. Everyone has that nervous twitch. The announcer says it is going to be about two minutes to the start. So, everyone strides out. I jog over to my family to say hello. My son freaks out - "DAD! GO! THEY ARE ALL GOING!"



2. Jogging with Lucho after the race. Discussing stride cadence he says to me, "No offense but dude, your stride sucks." He has a point. His turnover goes around 190 a minute. Mine is nearer to 170. I am not sure this is a silver bullet in getting me a minute faster on the 5K, but I will definitely work it.



3. Lucho is definitely a student of the sport. He and I traded memory stories of various track and field world championships during the warm down.



4. JV located materials for a wobble board he wants to build while he ran with me during my warm up. And yes, he went and did Green when this was over.



5. PM had a Geico Caveman visor.
   


6. Lucho saying, "I won today more for third place then I did for 13th at Kona." I don't care who you are, that is jacked up.

Results are up.

Oh yeah ... diet for today ...
AM breakfast - bananna, 2 cups of coffee w/ milk and no cal sweetner
Post race -some juice (about 16oz), and an Odwalla bar
Lunch - about 4 small handfuls of almonds, a small salad w/advocado and it. dressing. Cup of tea.  I guess I could skour the internet"s" to find out how many cals that is but ... it is tedious.

I agreed to meet Lucho this AM. He was doing 20 something (22 I think) and I wanted to build up my long run (15 last week) - so we agreed to share some miles. I think I get a bit more of benefit out of this run than he does - as it pushes me to run 5-15 seconds a mile faster than I normally would, and it helps me through the miles. We met on 287 and headed north as the sun rose. It was cold - there were icicles on Lucho's beard.

Lucho did not hesistate to "get in my face" this AM. He immediately was asking me about my half tights (in 20 degrees), and my water. Within half a mile of running together he was asking me why I carrying water, what fuel, and essentially - what the hell I was thinking.

He is right. I do a lot of stuff without thinking it through. And some of that I think is okay. Just run damn it. And I think in my 20s and for 10Ks I probably could away with that to some degree. But I am now doing a marathon, and by some definitions an ultra. Hydration is important. Nutrition is important. Thinking is important. Sure, maybe running in half tights is okay but I probably need to carry more water on these runs (and hence a camel back even it feels stupid). All said, I am getting more benefit out of these runs than I think TL is from me. I appreciate his questioning of what I am doing - because I need to consider and reconsider what I am doing so that I drive to maximum efficiency.

I slowed up on the second half of the run, as my heart rate climbed (lack of water perhaps Zack?!). But it was a good effort of 17 miles (or so) over 2:08. I felt pretty good throughout, just slightly tired in the last half an hour.

It was a good week. I will give it a B.
Mon - 10 miles easy
Tues - 9 miles with 2 x 200, 8 x 400, 2 X 200
Wed - easy 8 miles
Thurs - 11 miles - 20 minute tempo on Sanitas
Fri - easy 7 miles
Sat - 12 miles, 5K Oatmeal Fest - 17:44
Sun - 17 miles - long run
74 miles on the week, with 4 fair workouts. On whole I think fitness progressed.

Mid day I got out with co-worker DB and did an easy seven (55 minutes). At the close of the day I got out for an other five (36:40). Purpose of these runs was a.) to recover and go easy, b.) play with my stride rate. I did a few stride rate counts and they all came in around 88 strides a minute (single leg). And this was with me thinking about it, meaning it was up. I would occasionally let it slip to what I was more atuned to and comfortable with and that was much slower. The pace on whole would not change (I think) but the stride length would open up. I am going to keep on working on getting the legs turned over. I think TL mentioned it should be north of 90 strides a minute. It does not physically hurt to increase the cadence, but it feels different. It is funny, SE mentioned to me about a year ago that I needed to not have such a loping stride. We did Lindens and I remember matching my stride to his to work on this but then I let it go. I guess I respond better to feedback like Lucho's: "dude, no offense but your stride SUCKS." Yeah, I am a little dense. I felt a little flat today, but overall good, particularly in light of the fact I raced Saturday, and then went long yesterday. I am hoping to jump the track tomorrow to get 200-200-400 workout in - as snow is expected on Wednesday. Quote of the day came from co-worker PM today, "....after about 7 or 8 hours out there on course...everything is stripped away...there's nothing to hide behide any more, no ego, no cockyness, no pride, no work problems, or relationship things...it's all gone and all that is left is you. It's scary, too scary for a lot of folks. But that's also the reward. You experience every emotion out there." There is a lot of things I love about endurance sports: the training, the race, the competition, but ultimately what I love most is the rawness of the humanity it presents. As William Wallace says, "we all die. few of us live."

Ah yes. Write up about motivation on Monday ... you are certain to give yourself the whammy on Tuesday. It was one of those days where I felt a bit off from the bell. I woke up and this snot was coming out of my head. My stomach hurt a bit, and my head felt thick. In the old days, I'd call this a hangover. Unfortunately, I did not engage in any activity Monday night that would give me such an excuse.

I had hoped to engage in the 200-200-400 workout today to get good turnover. I wanted to get it done today, well, to get it done and because we are expecting snow tomorrow. As is often the case, however, before our Front Range snow storms we get a day of warmer temps (50s) and a stiff wind. From my desk, I could see trees bending in the wind. The wind gnawed at my motivation. The woozy feeling in my head gnawed at my motivation. This becomes a bit of a downward spiral typically. To not worry about my upcoming run, I try to focus on my work, but then I let my work become my event and suddenly I am too busy to run and then that further gnaws at my motivation. I don't feel good. It is really windy out. You have a lot of work to do.

After seeing big pieces of trash roll by in the lot across the street from the office, I decided that I would run on the treadmill. At least there I'd not have the wind for an excuse. But even after getting home it took me a bit to get to it ... check email, long time to lace up the shoes, check email again (I do have a lot of work to do you see), take a phone call, feed the dog ... all avoiding getting on the dang T5i.

I had a good chat with a co-worker (TWK), including some conversation about his running. I am really enjoying digging into what other folks are doing for running. I am trying to take special care in listening to what they are doing simply because a.) typically as a runner you are thinking a lot about what you are doing and b.) while I think a lot about what I am doing I really don't know what the hell I am doing and I probably can learn something from listening rather than telling folks what I am doing. It was this conversation and the entire thought that the three folks (well, okay 2) that read this blog would have some possible interest in how this workout went. And I did not want to write that I felt like and called it all off. So the blog, at least today, helped.

But even once on the mill, I delayed. I took a longer warm-up (3 miles, 21 minutes, first mile in 7:30, last mile with some striders to get HR up and used to the faster pace) - delaying the workout itself. I was not dreading working hard, as much as I was dreading results of working hard and not getting through it well. I decided to do half mile repeats. I can't really do 200s or 400s at the pace I want to on the mill, so I decided I do halves at 5 minutes per mile pace (2:30 for the half) and take a real easy quarter rest. In the spirit of focusing on the turnover, I decided to worry more about the repeat and not push the interval of rest (taking there whatever I needed).

I did 8 of the 800s - all at 5 minute pace (2:30) with the rest being anywhere from 2:00 minutes (8 m/mile) to 3 minutes (12 m/mile). HR for the latter repeats was near 175. None of these felt particularly hard or strained - I felt in control and on top of the workout the entire top - which suprised me considering how negative my attitude was coming in! I feel I could have rolled more with anyone interval or even done a couple more. The effort was solid. I know it is a treadmill and that is not the same thing as doing it on the track but it was good nonetheless. Things are coming through. I did some cadence counts during the repeats, and then later my daughter did some. They came in at 88-90. The higher cadence felt much more natural in the repeat on the treadmill than it did on the easy run yesterday. I finished out the run in 68 minutes and decided it was okay to reward myself with a glass of Merlot with dinner.

So, not the workout I wanted to do ... but a good effort in light of how I felt, and the weather.

Went easy in the cold (teens, and yes I wore pants) ... 8 miles, 63 minutes up on the Davidson Mesa.

12 easy miles. 90 minutes. It is cold. And a bit windy. And the wind has a good bite. I have mixed thoughts while running on days like these. There are the thoughts of, "mighst all critey ... it is cold and windy out here. This stinks. I rather be sitting next to a fire having a beer." And then there are thoughts of "7 months to go. And at least I am out here. There are folks that who want to be and can't."

I have felt a bit behind the eight ball the last two days. Behind in my running, behind in my thinking, behind in my sleep, behind in my hydration, behind in my eating (which means I am probably ahead), just behind ... I am not really. But in a regard I am.

We went to the National Western Stock Show last night and we caught the bull riding show. All I can say is that folks who think running up Pikes is stupid must think these folks are truly whackey. And crazy tough. And I complain about running being tough? Hardly.

I wanted to get my long run done and so did it today rather than waiting until tomorrow. I started outside - mostly to get the dogs out. After 8.5 outside, easy, (64 minutes), I came in, quickly changed and hit the mill. I had the mill all set to go - even with several water bottles (with a little lemonade mix in it) and tried to build into this effort. The thought here was to have a good long run, and build slightly, in effort and speed towards the end. I did 8.6 (I wanted to be sure I had 17) in just over an hour (total time 2:04:39). I was not flying at the end obviously, but pushing enough to get my HR up over 160 (and was under sevens).

... various thoughts and commentary ...

• I think having the hydration readily available for the second half was helpful. I worked through two 16 ounce bottles pretty quickly, as I had made it an objective to take some drink every five minutes whether I wanted it or not. I felt good throughout this effort. My legs are not super springy, in fact - I can feel that they are a bit worked but I am not "under my training."
• I think I ought to be able to get my mileage to near 80 this week. Over the last seven days, it is now 87 (the bookend long runs help). This is good - I want this level of consistency with mileage, but I need to be careful not to chase mileage for mileage sake. The importance is in the workouts, particularly the long run ...
• Once I get re-acclimated to the length of time of the long run, I want these efforts to be building, and pushing towards the end. Reference this McMillan article regarding this. I will look for help on some of these efforts ... running the first hour easy, and then enlisting help to get a good long push for the second hour plus, as the spring progresses.
• I was thinking on my run today that a good deal of this blog may come across as "complaining" about training. I have certainly been complaining about the cold. And then I complain about having to run on the mill. Really - when it comes down to it, I know that I am blessed that I can engage on this journey. I have a gift to move significant distances under my own power, and I will look to exploit that gift to its greatest depths. I love that I can do that.
• Many religions teach, you must walk your own path. The principles in the faith are the same, but it is your path to find your way. Running has principles, each of us has to find our own path to whatever we want to accomplish with that. It is your path to determine to what lengths you will sacrifice, what goals you will set, what talents you have, what balance you acheive ... worrying about that this person runs 8 minutes per mile when training versus 6 minutes per mile ... well, there may be a place for that, but only if it is something you put in your path.
• The greater mileage and slight more attention to detail regarding my diet are having an effect. I am down at least 10 pounds since returning from Hawaii. Of course, I gained nine pounds when I was there! I am not going to worry too much about my weight, but instead take a focus on fitness, health, and smart consideration of how those are factors in weight and its effect on performance.
• I played with MapMyRun a bit this AM. The bad news is my seven mile loop from work is about .05 short. The good news is my eleven mile out and back is about .9 long. My 3 mile out and back is .04 short. Give a little, get a little. I am actually surprised I was as close in guessing as I thought. Very cool tool.
• I am also cross posting my training to georgezack.fastrunningblog.com. Not sure if I will continue to use this, but I am a technology geek, so love playing with this sort of stuff.
• Props to TWK - who nailed a good long run today.
• Good luck to PM who is racing tomorrow.

Catching up on training logs from "one year ago today ..." It is pretty clear I was definitely more hill focused. That was not bad. I just think that being less hill focused for me right now (not excluding hills though) is better this year. It is also clear that January is historically a cold month. :-)

Sunday January 14, 2007 13.3 miles (will count as 13) in 2:34 (hit 13 in 2:32). Cold and snowy out so got on the mill and watched “House of the Flying Daggers.” Set it at 11.5% (miles 1 and 8 were at 12 percent, last two miles were at 11%) Splits were 12:59, 12:58, 12:21, 12:01, 13:03, 12:01, 11:48, 10:51, 11:46, 11:27, 10:40, 10:13, 9:47 (and then 2:00 for the last .3). Felt easy, nice slow burn throughout but no straining. This also represents over 7800 feet of climbing in a run.

Comment from today - interesting! I was thinking about this very workout. It is an emulation workout that I do - emulating Pikes! I altered this workout later in the year to be more like Pikes in that I altered the grades at different points to be more Pikes like. I do want to do this workout again - but not at this time. It is a dang good workout, but, as you can see, it does not promote speed. It promotes hill climbing. I want the speed and will combine that with the hill climbing as the spring progresses.

Saturday January 13 2007 It is freaking cold out – zero. In the AM got out with Lucy for 30 and then tacked on another 45. Kept the pace upbeat to assure this was 10 over 75.
Friday January 12 2007 AM, 28 minutes, 4 miles on the mill. Pretty cold out.
PM cold enough to freeze my beard. Did 35 minutes solo and then 45 minutes with MK in Boulder real easy. 81 minutes but calling it only 10 because of conditions.
Thursday January 11, 2007 early PM, very cold out so I stuck to the mill. Did a 1.5 mile warm up in 10 minutes then 3 x 1 mile with increases in pace on the minutes in the miles with a 3 minute/ .25 mile rest in between. Warmed down with 2.25 miles for 7 total in 50 minutes.
Wednesday January 10 2007 – 88 minutes, 8 miles. Got out with JV up Bear via Shannahan Ridge and Fern trail. Lots of sloppy snow towards the bottom. It hardened up near the top but then the wind was really blowing above the saddle. The top was gorgeous all encrusted in snow and like a stairway to heaven. 55 minutes up and 33 minutes down (although I kept falling down and I took the longer route down towards the end!)
Tuesday January 9 2007 After a lousy night sleep and a long day in the office with out of town visitors, got on to the mill. Did a two mile warm up in 13:30 with four striders to loosen up. Then did 5 x 3 min on with a 2 min break. Started at 10.8mph on the first and would up it a tenth every minute, and also start at the next higher (10.9 for example) on the next one. Rests were real slow (12 m/mi). So these started at 5:33, and got down to 5:10 towards the end. On the fifth I upped the pace every 30 seconds versus every minute. Warmed down with 1.5 miles at the end to get a total of seven in 49 minutes Mileage is a bit behind this week (only 12) but I am okay with that. I need a bit of rest and a bit of turn over and weeks where I do that a bit more than just miles and climbing have be okay in my head.

Not suprisingly, I felt stale this AM. I did an easy 10 (80 minutes). And yup, it is cold enough that the facial hair (it is not a beard, it ain't a mustache) was frosted over. I tried to focus a bit on turnover ... still coming in at 88.

I had visions of doing Green today as a good easy effort. I know it sounds a bit contradictory to say that a 2500 foot climb to 8000 feet is easy, but they can be. Just gear back and grind a long slow climb. But the snow and the cold (teens) chased the idea out of my head.

I landed on doing something on the mill. I did not feel ready for a strong interval effort and geared into the idea of a longer run where I just upped the ante of my pace. I'd hesitate to call this a tempo (although by some definitions it might be ... as my heart rate stuck in the 160-170 for the latter portions of it) - rather this run was just a mid distance run where I wanted to run a stead state, and push the pace a bit to become more comfortable in that range. After a bit of a warmup for 3 miles (7:26, 7:15 {14:41}, 6:55 {21:36}), I began to gear down a bit to see how it felt. 6:03 {27:40}, 6:17 {33:56}, 6:15 {40:12}, 6:07 {46:20}, 6:09 {52:28}, 5:57 {58:25}, and 5:53 {64:18}. The effort felt all controlled - never was I anywhere near redlining, all just somewhere about comfort pace.

I realize this ain't much, but it represents some progress to me - and I will take it. I'd like to generally see the overall pace of my runs increase. I need to be careful to balance these sorts of efforts between easy days and hard days (as this is a bit of tweener). I am walking away from this one though thinking I am fully capable of coming back hard tomorrow. We'll see!

Props to PM for his 10 miler yesterday. Good work man - you are progressing. Tough conditions and it is January!

I felt off today. And this sort of ticked me off. I wanted to feel good. I did not want to feel off because that might mean that I was off because of the effort yesterday. Really, I did not want to have a "tweener" workout yesterday that in turn compromised my effort today. This is a bit of a trap I need to be careful of ... instead of keeping easy days, easy - and hard days hard, the trap is to run all the days in between ... and hard days are not so hard and easy days are not so easy. That does not lend to getting better. And so, I knew in part that my effort was not super hard yesterday and it was not super easy. So I had compromised what I could do today. But I did not want to admit it. Nonetheless, I was hesistant to get out because I knew I'd have to face this reality that I was off because I pushed yesterday but not enough.

But I felt off in other ways, not just from the run. I am dealing with a stomach muscle pain that is slowing me down. I slept like crud. It was cold out. And windy. So I had the excuses lined up in addition to my tactical error from yesterday. I hit the mill again in the afternoon. This too played into my mental state. I did not want to run on the mill again.

But, as things are, as I dug into the mill and the run a bit I stopped feeling sorry for myself and decided to make something of it. I knew I was not fully able to attack this run, but I was not going to just run easy. Maybe this was a tactical mistake too - but mentally, I needed to do something to keep driving progress in my head. So after a four mile warm up (7:15s), I jumped into a classic Carpenter interval workout - 1 minute on, 1 minute off. I did 15 of these at 5 minute per mile pace (I really need to determine how I can crank the mill into kilometer paces) and the rests at 8 minute per mile. The initial intervals brought my HR up to about 160 and then the rest would teeter down to 147. Towards the end, the HR would climb to 168, and then the rest would come in at 150-155. I did not feel strained on any of these, but I knew I was not on top of my game. I did some pace counts for 30 second on the repeats, and these came in at 45-46 (or 90-92 on the minute).

I finished the 10 with a mile cool down, for total time in 66:40.

This is certainly not as good as the workout I did last week with the 800s at 5 minute pace, but it was something. And it worked the turn over a bit. Tommorow I will rest (easy mileage) to get back into a smarter groove.

Went real easy up and down Green today. It was a bit chilly, but not as cold as it has been for the past couple of days. Round trip is seven miles. I went real slow, just enjoying being out. The snow - ice - crunchy - slippery conditions kept me slow as well. It was fun getting out ... in the woods, on the hill ... unfortunately there was that big old brown cloud to look at when I got to the summit. I am a bit concerned about this abdominal pain I have been having. Not sure what it is, but am hoping it disapates in the next day or two. Definitely felt it more on the way down today.

From the next day ... There were a couple of other thoughts I had on my easy run yesterday that I wanted to get down ... in my charting this experiment of one.

First, on this easy run, with significant climbing, my stride rate went way down (like 75). I am less concerned about my stride rate on my easy easy runs but I can see how this sort of work makes that a habit - it contributes to a lower stride rate all the time if I do this alot. I will want to make sure that when I go after this run hard that I keep the rate quick. It is funny how dense I have been on this topic. Hill climbing specialist SE tried to tell me this while doing Lindens last year. Master miler PH has often told me that I need "to get them down." Mentally I thought about this a little. It was not until Lucho said, "dude, your stride sucks!" that I actually took the concept to heart.

Second, I am not sure what strained my abdominal - but I am pretty nervous about it: is it a hernia?! It seems a little better today but I need to keep an eye (?!) on that.

Finally, it was good to get off the mill yesterday. The mill is a good tool but it is a drill on my head. When I am on it, I am consistently playing the game of upping the speed, and then downing it. This is good on some accounts (7:20s feel hard? crank the pace to 6:00 for a bit, then bring it back to 7:08 and that feels good), but when you run nowhere (literally), it is a bit like water boarding. Kerrie told me I need to get outside after my workout on Tuesday ... she was right.

I got out early with Lucy and got in an easy six (46). The winds were pretty strong still. Later in the evening, I got onto the mill and did an easy five (36:30).

It looks like the winds have passed now. That being the case, I will look to do a long run tomorrow. I have been playing with the thought of doing a good portion of it on the mill so that I can keep the hydration under control. If I get the opportunity, however, I will head outside and do loops that let me get to water periodically. Ideally, I will build the pace through the run.

In Boulder today, there was a pretty good race, particularly when you consider the nuttiness of the wind. It was good to see Lucho do pretty well against that field. Several of the FF guys (Pliska, Ames, Funke) ran well in the masters division. Props to TWK for a good long run today too.

This interesting list (top 1000+ marathon times in 2007, US, Men) were posted today.

AM - real easy four miles with Lucy. Just a little shakeout, wake up, get the dog out.

PM - pressed for time after work, and before heading out ... wanted to get a workout in, and it was pretty windy out again today (30 mph gusts). Hit the mill. I did not feel great, so I decided to tempo it, and the thought that bubbled up was 7 in 45 with the warm up. I hit the first in 7, three in 20, four in 26:0x, five in 32:0x, and then seven in 43:40. Again, I can get into the mill a bit easier than I can outdoors right now, but I can't seem to tap in as deep to make myself hurt there. In some regards, this was good for not feeling great ... I hit the last four under 23:40, when four on the mill was a struggle a few weeks ago. Here's the trick - crank the mill to faster speeds (5:20 for example) for like a minute and then back it off. The overall pace, obviously, is better, and then you can manage the slower pace (at least initially) more effectively.

Easy tomorrow, long on Thursday is the plan.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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)

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?"

10 miles easy with MK and PH on the Boulder Creek Trail. Felt good. Kept it easy - no residual crud from yesterday.

met Lucho and Jeff for a run this AM. I got over to Lucho's place a bit early to get some "e.c" as I wanted to get about 2 hours. As we started the run, the snow was really flying, with a good gust out of the north. And it was that really thick corn snow, making it hard to see when you looked up at all. I think if it was any of us alone, we probably would have bagged it. But we were all there and so there was no giving in. Still, there was some quiet muttering how it was 70 degrees yesterday! I found that still dealing with some residual crud from yesterday and so I felt a bit drained. Jeff had a tempo scheduled - hardly ideal conditions for that. I let the guys go and just settled into an easy pace as we hit the hills, wind and open conditions. I finished up when Lucho came back to get me at 1:45. I had planned to get more but the weak gut, combined with the blizzard conditions making me wet and cold sent me packing early.

Since I did not run with him much, I did not get to talk to Tim as much as I would have liked about his aerobic training, low HR approach he is currently taking. I need to dig into this a bit more with him, but the general approach is best described here ...

Lot of little runs today. I don't like to do it that way, but my schedule has been a bit tighter recently so I am getting it as I can. For example, tonight JZ and I worked on some of the finishing touches of his Pinewood Derby car (he has decided to call it the Green Dragon). The pic here is him weighing it. If you look closely, it appears his car is just a touch over the allowed five ounces. He decided he'll make changes to the weight at the official weigh in tomorrow night - they will probably have a bit more of an exact scale. I am pretty proud of the work JZ has done here. He has easily done 85 percent of the actual work on his car; I've been there to yap at him about it, hold pieces that were too big for his hands, etc. People might look at this and roll their eyes, but I love this stuff. Anyway ... back to running ...

AM - on the mill. First 3 miles I did at 5 percent to see what pace a sub 150 HR would net. It was about 10 min / mile. When I dropped the grade, did another 8, again sub 150, and this was anywhere between 8 min / mile to 7:24.

PM - back on the mill. If I run on the mill every day, is this sort of like a MAF test everytime I run? I did five miles. First mile was 8. The HR settled down after 3/4 of a mile at 135-139. Now that alone is interesting. Yesterday on the track it was 149 at 8 min pace. Perhaps this is just further quantification that treadmill running is easier? So, I bumped it up and did the next three in 21:45 (ave 7:15) (mill was a 0.5 incline the whole time). When I pushed the pace up to 7:03, the HR would tag 150 and so I'd bring it back down. For the last mile I decided to push the incline to 10 percent and see what the corresponding MAF pace was. It was just under 11 min / mile. Now that my head is wrapped up around playing this game for a bit, I am interested in see what the mix of results will be at different inclines, etc.

I am a bit tired today. I had some aspirations when I went to bed of getting up early and getting some miles in. But I slept like a dead man last night and by the time I rolled out of bed, it was time to get the clan moving to school, etc. So I didn't. It is going to be another tight week with my schedule so I am going to end up sneaking stuff in at lunch, late night, early AM ... so a lot of little runs again.



Mid day - easy six on the Coal Creek Trail. Just me, prairie dogs, a few other runners, some guy that was fourth in the Olympic Trials Marathon in 2000, seventh in 2004. Care to guess who that is?

PM - easy on the Coal Creek Trail (the other way). It is so obvious that Spring is trying to break through ... and the time change is really helping (although there were bugs out there too!). At times I felt like I was just floating in this run. Other times I was feeling like my legs were made of lead.

Easy 12 out at Teller Farm. Real easy. My legs are pretty heavy. Wore the electronica to assure the HR did not go about 150. I averaged 143 throughout. Pace was around 8, slower on the ups. Last ten days have been 144 miles.

When discussing training with Lucho, he has used the term "bomb proof." It is an interesting choice of words. They describe being so fit, so strong, that come race day, whatever the course, your body, the day throws at you - you are ready. Part of the reason why I find it interesting is because Scott Elliott, who I am pretty sure has never met Lucho uses the term "bullet proof" in the same context. Two guys, both driven, methodical, focused, never met and nearly the same terms.

And so the way you become bomb - bullet proof is to bomb yourself with long runs, tempo runs, aerobic work, anaerobic work, core work, intervals, hill sessions ... all so that come your race day, you can drop bombs on the competition, your goals, and yourself and get to that next level - whatever that is for you.

For the last 11 days, I have been dropping a bit of a bomb on myself with two concepts: training at a lower HR (and hence a slower pace) and increasing distance. The first, alone, is not much of a bomb. The second has seemed to have left me reeling. While my mileage is hardly anything of significance when compared to most, it is an increase for me. Up until about Wednesday of this past week, I seemed to be handling it fairly well. Since then, however, my runs have become long, slow(er) drawn out affairs where my body is yelling at me about dull aches and pains from connective tissue, muscle and bone. Some of this is the mileage. Some of this is that I have been "burning it" at the other end a bit with work (yeah, if I got an afternoon nap, I might be doing better), and family.

The goal has been to bomb myself to become stronger, to become more used to the greater mileage, to become more efficient aerobically, and to become more bomb proof. I knew that burying myself in mileage for a few weeks would be a challenge. But today, I am wrecked. My 12 today was a death march of heavy legs, slow running, held together only by will of personally requiring that I get it done. Sometimes you just take a pill of SIU and move on.

But, as training is supposed to do, this reveals a weakness, one of many for me. While in the short term, I may back off the number a bit, I do need up the ante here to become bomb proof. My plans are to run a marathon - not a 5K. And so, I need to make the investment in my bomb shelter with miles, minutes, hours. It is not the only thing I need to invest in, but it is clearly one I have learned needs some work. And all this is good stuff. In fact it is great stuff. I love getting out there and getting to the realization of this stuff.

forgot to mention yesterday that while I ran on the treadmill in the AM, and I found it hard to keep my HR down at even slow paces, I had a different experience in the evening. I found that I could get to 7:30 pretty easily and still be well beneath 150. In fact, at the 8 and change paces, my HR was below 140. And I also found that I could push the pace up quite a bit (6:30s) and the HR would hover in the mid 150 range (although as it was a post dinner run, my gut was pretty angry, but that did not seem to effect HR). So this raises a couple of questions. 1.) Could it be that I can MAF at a higher HR (say 155) and still get good results? 2.) Why did I have issues in the AM in keeping my HR low? I am less concerned about the second question however, as a case study of one does not make for a good case. I realize that could be concerned about it: such conditions could reflect a body that is tired, and bordering on being overtrained. I think if I continued to see it, I'd have been really concerned - but the evening session seemed to put that to rest. It could have been that I was dehydrated, was still asleep, or heck, just a bit off. I am going to have to check with some of the MAF-mavens on the topic of the first.

It snowed here last night. We keep getting "whiffs" of Spring but then Winter let's know that it is not done yet. Ah well, better to get the water and avoid an early summer drought. I really appreciate the title of Kerrie's blog - How To Do It All. I am not sure I am ready to write that chapter, but I am trying to figure it out: family, work, training, sleep, diet, live for today, plan for tomorrow ... Our daughter was barfing again today, so that added another challenge that ... well, you just need to roll with (poor kid, she had the flu, got over it and seems to have gotten nailed with it again). In any case, I decided to go easy and short in light of my recent miles. I did an easy six with some short strides. Aerobically, I feel fine. I am definitely dealing with a higher degree of mechanical stress as of late that makes my ability to tap into some of that aerobic power difficult. In other words, my economy sucks right now. I think a combination of the higher miles, my abdominal issue and my lawn mower foot have added up to create a small storm of structural woe for me. In other words, I can feel it. Don't get me wrong - I wanted to dance on the edge a bit. I just wish that went I got to this edge, I did not feel like my wheels were coming off. I want to get back to a point now where I feel like I can jump over buildings, run up walls, and explode off that start line. And to that end, I am going to go find my jump rope now.

AM - easy five. Dark. Cold. Starry sky. Felt pretty decent. Legs are still a bit heavy, but not too bad.
PM - easy eight. Warmer and windy. Legs were pretty heavy but I was not feeling any soreness or structural concerns.

Dave M has started a blog. For folks who have never heard of Dave, he is a regular super hero between what he does on roads, trails, ice, rock ... in addition to Dave giving Matt a run for his money in the downhill race last year (literally), I personally have seen Dave run from Chautauqua Ranger Cottage to the base of the Second Flatiron, free scramble up the Flatiron, run to near the base of the third, free scramble up that and then run back down to the cottage. Under 40 minutes! Those Minions are nuts!


I did a little experiment at work today - I tried to avoid sitting down at all. In other words, I tried to stay on my feet as much as possible. I did this to see if it would make me feel any better with my general stiffness I have had in my hammie / glute and abdominal issue. I know it made me more aware of how I was ... being ... and so it made me drink more water, do some light stretching periodically, calf raises, etc. My co-workers, who were not aware of this experiment, were wondering why I stood in all their meetings, but I am a bit used to odd looks ("nice shorts!", "You ran how far?", "why do you shave your head?" "why are you standing up?"). I think I sat for about a half an hour all day, whereas I normally sit for close to seven hours all day. So day one results? My butt did not hurt. My feet did. Seriously, it seems to have stretched my hamstrings out a but more, made me more aware of how I am moving. I will look to repeat this experiment some more.

Additionally, I am trying to drop my refined sugar take. Generally speaking, I think it is not bad, but I hardly think it is great. Being a coffee drinker, I have often loaded up my java with the white stuff. This past week I have gone to artificial sweetners - yeah, I know, hardly much better but a small step forward. I am also going to try to back off the PB and J ... that stuff seems a bit loaded with refined sugars.

I got out for a jaunt with Lucy in the AM, doing the typical 3 mile out and back. The plan at that point was to get out in the afternoon and get another hour in to round the day out. I started the second run with KZ on the bike next to me. All day I had felt tired, blah ... heck, I even took a nap mid day. I hardly ever take naps. My tiredness showed again on this PM run. I gave it the two mile rule to see if it would shake out and it didn't, so and I called it. Headed back to the house, hit the showers, had a beer and made dinner.

The family is on Spring Break this week so I did not need to drive the kids in. So I biked in. I kept it easy, wandering around on various roads and paths to the office ... looking for various ways I could get off the road and short cut the trip. "Short cuts make for long delays," as I learned once again (damn barb wire fences) It was about a 50 minute spin. HR was b/w 130-151. Ride home was about 40 minutes (a bit more direct and more downhill)

My legs are still significantly tired. As they have been for the last few weeks. Maybe I ought to just race burros ... (seriously, if I could get a Burro, I'd do this in a heartbeat). I had contemplated running anyway, and maybe even MAF testing it today. I found plenty of reasons not too and took advantage of them. I realize that today was not totally rest though. I am debating now if I am being just a plain old wimp with my mileage and my concerns about being tired of if this something I just need to work through, get through a wall. Am I breaking down or breaking through?

I think I may have set myself up as someone who is "anti-MAF." I am not. I am not fully blessing this approach either however. The general thought of MAF is that signficant time is spent doing aerobic work to develop that system exclusively. Over time, you will become more aerobically strong, and be able to work at faster paces while remaining aerobic. I agree with this idea. The part that I have questioned is the need to remain aerobic during the entirety of a base phase. I have been "MAF-izing" for the most part for the last month. I have gone above 150 (a MAF rate) a few times (and one time, way over, when I climbed Sanitas with JV ... 170, but even then we were talking), but rarely over 154 (I think Sanitas was the one time. There have been probably 3 or 4 occasions where I have gone north of 150). Lucho has been kind enough to explain to me that the development of the anaerobic system can compromise the development of the anaerobic system. I think this is the part that I am struggling to get my head around as to why that is true. And if this is true, why is this training approach (MAF) so poorly known amongst distance runners, particularly that of the marathon? I mean, it worked for Mark Allen, how come we don't hear Hudson's gang talking (or name any of your favorite running athletes) about it?

Early AM - 3 miles, ~7 min pace, groin sore (4), hammies tight (2), otherwise feel fine. Would have brought Lucy but she inhaled a rawhide right before I left so I decided to spare her. Or maybe me.
AM Rode into work, easy spin, mtn bike - 42 minutes. No groin pain whatsoever!

Mid AM ... had a great yap with that guy who is killing it at BS&B. If you ain't reading his stuff, you ought to. This guy is training hard, racing well, and living the life. I noted this in our "conversation ... I said:" I was thinking yesterday that I might be thinking too much about my training ... and hence I need to take a bit of the so called caveman approach for a bit ... run more, not give a crap about HR gear, run fast when I want, run slow when I want, run mountains, etc ... I have had a bit of a wash in March: good mileage for a bit, bad mileage for a bit ... nothing really pushing the pace. Not a big deal in the grand scheme as I am 21 weeks out (more of an issue in my head rather than in race preparedness), but I need to get on the horse again ...
Totally unrelated, someone at work sent me this ... JW, let's form a team!

Mid day - up on the Davidson Mesa. 'nother beaut day. Groin felt a bit better (2), hammies tight (4), and my Ach. was pissed on the left side (screw it, it is always something). 8 miles. My left hammie got increasingly tight as the afternoon wore on (cripes, is this a training blog
More warped music to free (or bend) your mind by ...

PM - end of day rode home. 25 minutes. Zero pain in the groin. When I bike these days, it just feels good. No pain. I can control how much I want I hurt with pace. I used to feel that way when I run, but not lately. Hmm. Might be a message there. Might need to cross train more. Thought about getting out for an other run in the evening, but life prevailed.

Pikes race stuff ... the other day I posted that I think Pikes needs to change registration (long term) to one based on qualifications (graded by age) rather than continuing the practice of allowing anyone who can meet the current standards. Looks like there are some similar musings on Kona by a local tri guy.