Monday, September 21, 2009

Moving Forward

Been thinking a lot lately about my running moving forward. What is the next challenge??? Anymore racing in 2009? How am I going to improve in 2010 without it costing too much...in time or money? How do I balance an obsession with running with a growing obsession with my career? Again, how does this all fit in with the family...three kids, two of them playing soccer, one soon to be playing basketball, an impending ski season (a pass for the first time since before the boys up at Eldora), etc., etc., etc.

Lots of questions, no answers....

A few potential goals that have been milling about for the past 6 months, not sure where to focus next considering the above. Obviously I would need to choose maybe one or two key races for 2010; but I definitely need to pick something(s) now so I at least have a focus unlike this summer where I was just wallowing back and forth between several ideas finally settling on Breck Crest which was great, but more as a B-race rather than an A-race. The marathon would certainly have felt like an A-race.

1. Colfax Marathon - May 15-16
2. Bolder Boulder
3. Spring Desert Ultra (25mile) - April 18th
4. Pikes Peak Marathon 2010 - August
5. Leadville Marathon - August
6. Breck Crest Marathon - September
7. Denver Marathon - October
8. Blue Sky Marathon

Lots of options of course. Obviously a big split between the trail races and the road races. I definitely have to admit that I really enjoyed the Breck Crest as there was no focus on pace, catching runners...just the beauty of the trail and the challenge of the terrain; simple and elegant. However, I have such a feeling of unfinished business with Denver last year knowing that I am capable of so much more. It truly seems that the biggest thing holding me back now is the lack of mileage. Even though I have not tested it yet I feel that if I was able to tick off 35-40 mile weeks through base and build and then 45-50 during the big marathon weeks I would really be able to nail these longer races. Watching BF progress his training dramatically after upping his mileage is such a great example of what I am talking about. I just am not comfortable running much more than 13 right now mostly because I really don't run that far very often. I started getting in the habit of getting up fairly early on Sunday mornings for some of my longer runs this summer which did help. However, after finally deciding on Breck Crest I tended to focus these runs in the hills and on the trails not really getting big mileage, but getting decent time and elevation. So, again; I need to find a focus and stick with it.

Or, I could just take a step back from running and simply focus all of this energy on other things like the career. The family of course will be the constant of which I will not take real time from. So, any alteration in training will have to been taken from somewhere else, like early mornings, lunch runs and maybe evenings here and there. Real mileage increases will have to be gained by doubles and consistent long runs on those early Sunday mornings.

Or, I could keep the running status quo hitting 20 and 30 mile weeks consistently with smaller races in 2010 as with 2009. Will this be enough? Status quo could mean the same time focused on getting the article written, the CRA completed, the consulting gig in the bag, and maybe an application for speaking at RSNA 2010?

Lots of options to choose from.

More to come....



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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Made in the USA!

I think the new NB MT100 are my next trail shoe! I am getting sick of carting around the Cascadias even though I loved them when I first bought them. I have just become used to thin and light...my Precision 8's are not close to 400 miles and the Lunaracers are hanging strong at about 70 miles....although I still can not run them longer than 7 miles as they are just too narrow for my foot. So, it is time to find some more minimal trail shoes. Hope they work!

I have been wanting to run NB for a long, long time...probably since I was a kid and visited the factory store with my mom. I remember thinking they were the coolest sneakers around growing up and I seem to remember that my first running shoes were actually NB's I got at the factory or maybe at Marshals. There is a lot to be said about shoes made by New Englanders!





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Monday, September 07, 2009

Atomic Nomad Crimsons!

First new pair of sticks since before the boys were born. Picked these babies up at Snigrab today for 499! Great deal since the 2010 models retail for 1300 or so and older pairs like these (2008/2009) are still way over $600. Came with bindings and all.

Excited as these appear to be a nice cross-over GS/race ski with a much wider foot print and a lot less weight.

Can't wait to try them out both front side and back side!
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Sunday, September 06, 2009

9/6/2009 Breck Crest Half Marathon





Continued my new attitude of not stressing before races by focusing on simply having fun and enjoying the scenery. Ever since Imogene in 2007 I have been transfixed by running at attitude surrounded by the majesty of the high peaks. AK does such a spectacular job describing the feeling of running in the hills, in fact mountain running is what I would prefer to do most had we not decided to live down in Louisville.

I did not really sleep well the night before or the night before that. For some reason my parents up in Dillon felt the need to transport one of their 30 year old mattresses from Vermont out to Colorado...needless to say it is not very comfortable and amazing loud! Yankee frugality just does not go away. Anyway, got up to Dillon on Friday evening with the family. Did a small warm up run for about 30 minutes on Saturday...felt a little slow and out of breath. Started thinking to myself that I should have done more elevation work as my Eldora 10K and the training run the week before up to 9800' probably was not enough. But, I put this out of my mind as I could not do too much about that now. Enjoyed the rest of the day with the kids nonetheless.

Continuing on with the theme of not worrying before races we choose to stay up late the night before the race to finish State of Play. I guess I should have looked at how long the movie was and done that time math after getting the kids down...needless to say it was probably 11pm before we got to bed. Took awhile to fall asleep as usual and then woke up a few times through the night for various reasons. Alarm jarred me from my fitt-ful sleep around 5:15 (not too bad) and promptly worked on my usual PB&J. Had enough time to down the sandwich and enjoy a coffee with dad over Fox News. He seems to have become more conservative as he has gotten older. Made a conscious decision not to talk politics; even though I was not stressed about the race an argument over Obama probably would not have been a good idea.

Dad drove me over getting to Breck around 6:50 or so. Did not do too much of a warmup, spend most of the time circling the Riverwalk Building while taking numerous bathroom breaks. Started to get nervous that I was going to have some GI trouble up in the hills after all of these pitstops before the race. Anyway, focused again relaxing. The race was very small with just over 300 participants between the half, the full and the 5 miler with about 115 of them in the Half. Not overwhelming for sure with a very relaxed atmosphere at the start as is typical with the trails races I have participated in.

The gun went off right on time at 7:30 and we were off. Concentrated on staying slow and controlled for the first mile or so before hitting the trail. Slowly passed the slower runners so as to get a better position on the initial single track. The trail started going gradually up around mile 1.5 or so. The trail dumped onto a road around 3.5 miles or so. At this point I was feeling pretty good following a guy who looked to be about 50+ plus with the chiseled, lean features of someone who has chosen to run and workout rather than play golf. Once I hit the road the grade went up a bit with a few short, steeper sections. This is the first point I chose to walk as it seemed more efficient to speed walk than to run and I was not loosing ground to those around me during a few of these breaks. Hit the first aid station at 4.5 miles in 47 minutes or so which was at about 11,000 feet by this point. Looking at the data I am surprised the station was this high as the climb seemed very gradual from the start...1500 in the bag. Definitely not moving too quickly, but fairly constant. Problem was that I was a bit tired at this point. Had some gatoraide and then attempted to open my GU Chomps. For some reason the package must have gotten a bit hot as the things were all kind of "glued" together. This experience getting the things out of the package should have been a warning as I struggled with these things for about a quarter mile. They just seemed a bit too difficult to eat versus a gel. Got about 2 of them down and continued on.

Beyond 5 miles we entered single track again with some short, steep inclines here and there with everyone around me walking these little sections. I chose to follow suit which seemed fairly comfortable. We crested an incline and then we were presented with our real challenge...probably 1000 feet of climbing up a ridge. We could see all the runners snaking well above us. It was a sight to see! Looking at this scene and then the surrounding high country ridges I was definitely motivated and happy to be participating. This is why I race trails in the mountains!

Just got in line and plodded up. Crested out at 12,500 or about 1500 feet in one mile. Awesome. After cresting we ran along a ridge with the world far below for about a half mile or so. Hit aide station number 2 here. This is the point where the marathon and half-marathon groups split. The marathoners were presented with a left turn pointing higher up on the mountain and we were presented with a dreaded ski resort work road! From this point it was down all the way. The road at this point was very similar to Imogene after the summit in that it was very rough with lots of large rocks to trip up the gait. Was able to move along somewhere between 7 and 8 minute miles only limited by my risk aversion. Had a few more Chomps maxing out at a total of 6 (probably around 150 calories today for 2:27 of running)! In hindsight this lack of calories contributed to my crash as soon as the trail leveled near the bottom of this road. Once I hit mile 11 I was done, the legs just did not want to move. Fortunately it was still kind of down, but I just did not have much left. Hobbled into the finish in 2:27. Not bad I guess, finished in the top quarter of the group with an average pace of just under 11 minute miles.

I am thinking of coming back next year for the full as it surely would have been fun to continue a little longer way up in the mountains as the full traversed another couple of miles above 12,000 feet. The race was very convenient, cheap and beautiful...almost as stunning as Imogene. I am still transfixed by PPM, but this race seems a bit more varied rather than straight up and straight down. I may also consider the Leadville Marathon as well...Brandon wrote a great report on his experience there this year.

A couple of learnings...

1. The hand-held worked well, but I did not drink enough. This is the problem with cool races...I just don't drink enough. I did have two cups of gatoraide, but I did not finish my water bottle. Need to get down at least 15+ ounces an hour in the future
2. Need to try the Chomps again, but I should have finished two full packets on a race of this time; not finishing one definitely contributed to my crash at the end
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3. Need more miles on the weekends. I need to get comfortable running over 2 hours
4. Need to get more sleep!
5. Need more hills; probably alternating long runs on the weekends with Front Range Ascents. Need to continued doing the Tuesday Tempo Runs during the summer as these really force me to run fast up!

Overall a great day!



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