Hang Nine

14 miles, easy.  Woke up and went for a jog / walk with TZ for about 3 miles.  Then did my 14 very relaxed.  AHR = 136. Max = 148 (Dillon Road climb). Kept it easy and slow.

90 miles on the week, on six days with three doubles.  Decent tempo at the front of the week (Mon), and good Simms Hill workout (Wed).  Tuesday off was a bit of slip (off), but in retrospect it lit a bit of a fire under me – so it was a good thing.   724 minutes.   January is 359 miles and 2923 (~48 hours).  For comparison January 09 was 328 miles, and  January 08 was 347.   Definitely chasing miles here a bit – as I rather do that in January than June.  I feel however good about how I am doing it – getting in some nice threshold workouts – so  nice blend of the quantity and the quality I need / can handle right now.

Couple of weeks ago, Bob asked me what I intended to do different this year.  The answer came with a lot of namby pamby whining on my part in regards to what the goals were for the oh one oh.  But in short, assuming it is something mountainous and long, one thing I will be doing different is making my long runs longer.  Last year I got into a mix of a long building run, but the runs were rarely over three hours in length.  Part of my build up here in January (from 1:45 on a long run to 2:30) is building up to a long run  - where I don’t feel obliged to tag it.  Currently thinking is that if I am not racing on a weekend, the weekends would generally alternate between a longer run (20+ miles, or 3 plus hours in the hills – better) and a more mid – long (14-15) miles that builds.  We’ll see.  I don’t want to think about it too much … at least until I land on what I am going to do.

19 miles.  Met up with JK1, Lucho and Bob this AM.  Actually, I got there a little early for a couple of additional miles.  I do these first couple really slow, starting at at 11-12 minute pace, working out some of the basic wake up kinks until it gets to about 8-9 minute pace. 

Then joined up with the guys.  Fun group, and I am pretty much cracking up (or cracking) the whole run.  A current pro tri guy, a former 100k US team member who just broke 16 in the 5k, and a guy who 12th at Kona one year now training for Leadville – but none of that matters as we yap about how shoes are going to be totally gone in two years.

We headed out towards Marshall.  The road to Marshall is a state highway, with trucks, and regular amounts of traffic.  We got “asked” by a guy in his front yard to be quiet as we ran by (Saturday 8AMish).  Really?

We started pretty easy but then comfortably found our way back up into sub seven pace for a few.  13 and change with JK and Lucho, and then tacked on few more with Bob.  These guys make these long runs just fly by.  Thanks guys.

Next band name …

 
I was going to sleep in, but felt I needed to get out there after being called a princess by Lucho.

 
Garmin came back to life.  Left in the charging cradle all night and apparently the Garmin Fairy came and decided it was not its time after all.  I feel so complete again.  Sigh.  6 miles, easy (AHR = 139).  Got the dogs out.

I feel like I have been a bit inundated with barefoot running articles as of late, from various blogs I read, people I know.  Mark P posted this on Facebook, there was a recent post on SOS, a whole website dedicated to it at Harvard, this article in the Boston Globe, this thing over at Nature, and this post at ScienceNow.  Crikey.   That was just this week. I have yet to really read all these.    A joke I heard someone make recently was that they were going to get rid of the tires on their bike rims because biking that was more natural and how we were intended to bike.  Again, my take is … well, if it works for you, great.

So apparently Scott Jaime is now recognized as the masters winner of PHX Rock and Roll.

PM  - 10 miles, easy, about half of this was with MK.

AM – It snowed last night.  Not a lot, but enough to have me decide to avoid the risk of a icy street in the dark.  Not as tough as some I guess.  Happily took refuge in the garage, 6.5 miles very easy on the mill. 

I know we all have the things we like that others look at and scratch their heads at.  I am leaving the office building last night and mention to a coworker as we are walking out, “well, looks like snow is coming.  Good thing.  We need it.”  He grins at me and SHOUTS, “WHATEVER.  I AM GOING TO LAS VEGAS BABY!!!”  I look at him and realize he thinks this is about the best place on the planet a person could go to.  I mean there is this crazed look in his eye like he just told me he is going to go to heaven on earth for the weekend.  My opinion is that it is about the last place on the planet I’d want to be.  Of course, the tables would be turned if I told him, “I AM RUNNING UP PIKES PEAK THIS WEEKEND BABY.”  He’d think I am one of them.  We all got our thing.  What happens on the run, stays on the run I guess.

PM – mill at work.  Easy.  Started listening to this interview with McMillan and Gotcher. 67 minutes (so just under 8 minute pace).  Did not feel like zipping up the pace so kept the effort easy and slowly rolled up incline to 3.5 (not too steep but a little bit of a grade) through the run, and then dropped it back down to 1.5.

Garmin 305 seems to have died again.  Not sure if the battery just died on this refurbished model or what (it ain’t waking up off the USB cradle).  Worked perfectly well this AM too.  This bugs me of course because I have become expectant on that data of distance, pace, elevation – and probably the most interesting is HR. An additional data point that I also track is training stress score … just to see volume of work over time.  My side log in Sporttracks (tracking mileage, minutes) gets kind of broken when I am not using the Garmin.   Not sure if Garmin will provide another one given this was a refurb replacement.  None of this is particularly important.  I will just need to fly visually for a bit versus off of instrumentation.

Got this from DD.  Apparently the highest measured wind speed on Earth is no longer from Mount Washington.  Apparently this came down in 1996.

More fun from Masters racing in PHX.

AM –dark, cold, easy. 6.5 miles. AHR = 145. Very easy jogging and a frosty beard.

PM – 8.5 miles. Tight on time, short warm up (a little longer than a half mile) and then six times Simms Hill (similar to two weeks ago) 3:29. 3:44R, 3:30, 3:40R, 3:27, 3:42R, 3:26, 3:45R, 3:28, 3:49R, 3:23. Got wrapped up in the fifth in chasing a bike up the hill (he had 40 yards, I got him and put 25 on him), and then nudged a bit on the last. Felt good and never like I was “killing it.” About a 2.5 mile warm down. Average was about 3:28 with a 3:42R. The averages are faster but I started the first significantly slower last time. I will compare HR data from this session to the one two weeks ago when I get a bit more time tonight. I feel pretty good about the consistency in the effort of these intervals though.

Good article on why you are not losing weight.  There are a couple of dings for primal eating, which I raise an eyebrow at for the endurance athlete, but the messages in there are good.  From Brett, a predictor calculator for how you will run-race if you lose weight (or gain it).

The oddities of the PHX masters marathon continue …

KZ is in middle school and has a home ec class.  It is one of those classes that she takes for six weeks and then switches to something else (like wood shop).  One of their tasks in this class was to make a french bread pizza.  Sounds good, right?  Sure.  Except they are not allowed to cut the bread.  The knife is too dangerous.  They are not allowed to use the cheese grater to grate the cheese either.  Yup.  Might just get cut.  And of course, they are not allowed to put the pizza (that they make with jarred sauce) into the oven.  Yup.  Burns.  I am not sure if I should bemoan public education here or feel sorry for the teacher that is doing this (as the kids eat) (PS – our kids use knives, graters and ovens at home).

Interesting stuff on barefoot running from Mark P (yes, marathon world champ and dude that can seriously make you scream with PT)

Local tri guy champ, Matt Reed, interview (podcast)

No running today.  It just worked out that way with other obligations  I guess I could get out late tonight just to do it, but there are enough other good reasons for me not too … and today is a recovery day anyway (so you can reconcile any workout or not for any given day).  Feel fine … just busy with a Pinewood Derby car, work, kids school conferences, middle school word problems, etc … and lacing them up at 9PM … eh.

Been listening to my local police radio in the background.  Yeah.  Old timer stuff.  My father was a career firefighter and we used to have one of the crystal scanner radios (so the chip-crystal was placed into the radio by you as it was pretuned to the frequency) and we’d listen to local FD / PD calls all the time.  It was one of those radios with the red lights on front, that spiraled up the dash across the ten buttons (for the ten frequencies) – with push buttons.  I found a pic, and it looked almost exactly like this.   As a kid I knew all the 10-x codes.  And there was this hum of the static, and the someone mumbling the time in military time like every minute.  Sort of nostalgic I guess.  Also interesting to hear what the police are doing in your town, and sometimes a bit surprising.

Ran inside today because I am a big wimp and did not want to deal with the wind.  Really.

11 miles.  Progression run.  This is a bit of a challenging workout for me on the mill because I am very tempted to get on the mill and go, go, go.  But to do this workout right, I need to sit for a bit and slowly build the pace.  More mental than physical.  Bob has noted (appropriately) that I tend to play on the mill more than I should (call it ADD if you want).  This helped me with some patience and I got a decent workout out of it anyway.  7:54, 7:33, 7:21, 7:11, 7:00, 6:50, 6:43, 6:32, 6:20, 6:08.  This is a workout I know I can run faster, but one of those ones that I am thinking that – for now – I don’t need to force (particularly on a mill).  I am hoping that this is, as Dieter would say, “good speed.”  Tacked on a cool down mile in 7:08.  76 minutes and change.



In yesterday’s run, had a good chat about what my goals are for the year.  I still bounce a bit from miling, to Pikes, to Leadville.  Some good questions raised if I am doing a self imposed choke at Pikes because of my head.  I like to think not, as even years there have been fairly decent for me.  But it is certainly possible. 

JZ forgoing dinner and using my headlamp for painting of his Pinewood Derby car.

14+ miles with Bob, JK1, and Lucho, easy, 7:50 average, 149 AHR. Felt better than I expected I would (given the miles yesterday).  Great to run with these guys.  Miles just click away as we continuously yap and crack each other up.  TZ asked what we talked about on the run … and I could not come up with anything of significant intelligence.  “Umm … we wondered about if bald eagles attack geese?  (yes, we actually saw two bald eagles sitting in a tree near a goose buffet lake) Uh, our HRs if we were driving a tank that was under attack by the local law enforcement?” 

82 miles on the week, all singles, 682 minutes.  No hill repeats this week, but two tempo-ish runs in the middle.  Not ideal, but not bad for January, where I am absorbing the miles back up, getting in a few runs where I work a little bit.  No need to be grabbing the fence and hurling yet.   January is 269 miles.

2199 minutes.

I have been informed that the beard may be due to come off any day.  So, a mug shot just in case it vanishes in my sleep …

18 miles, 16.5 of which were with Bob.  Felt a bit tired after 11-12 but we kept it in the 7:30-7:40 range.

Mr. Tony goes Scott E style

On the mill today and the mind was a’wandering (as it often does).  Lucho’s post regarding criticism – feedback was in there.  When asked about training, I use to spout off that the first thing was base mileage (usually, I’d say “run more.”)  Increasingly I have become the first principle of any training is belief in it / and to have fun with it.  Otherwise it won’t work.  Or at least not for long.  I started thinking how a training philosophy becomes a religion of sorts, and exercising on that in terms of executing the training is the religious practice.  And like some folks in some religions, when you question a person’s beliefs they get defensive, or even offensive (the bare foot craze seems to be a lightening rod like this in the running space as of late).  And others are open to discussing it, sharing their belief, even promoting it but also listening to yours.  I once heard a guy say that really all religions really teach the same thing:  the more love you give, the more love you get.  Seemed to hit the mark for me.  Really, regardless of how you go about training, its about improving yourself.

Also thought about runners who have disappeared from the sport.  But that is another post.

The big local news in running is that CU alum Jenny B signed with NB

11 miles, easy.  AHR =140

New Pumpkins tune (free).  Not my favorite, but not bad.  

I sat in my son’s piano lesson today.   He has been playing about a year, and he can read music … which sort of blows me a way because I have been playing guitar for 25 years and I cannot.  I just did everything by ear, playing with other guys, or tab.  Anyway, I started wondering today if I stopped running … could I start playing guitar like … oh, I don’t know … a 100 minutes a day.  And actually produce something?  I see that when JZ gets a bit worked up over something he will go tickle the keys a bit … it is sort of like his outlet, meditation.  Kind of like running for his Dad.  Or maybe not.

Brett Gotcher interview …

RT: What kind of mileage were you running?
BG: My peak mileage was about 140 miles per week at the end of November and into early December. I was probably averaging mid-130s through that four- to six-week period.

Good stuff over at Lucho’s place

Weird day.  I was tight for time, got out mid day with the intent of going easy … but just started rolling.  I could not call this recovery, but I could not call this hard.  I’d not call this tempo.  Sort of easy plus.  I think if this sort of thing popped up all the time, it would be risky.  But periodically, these sort of runs are fun, refreshing and enjoyable.  Maybe because it was a nice, cool day today? After an initial mile of 7:30, the miles just started clicking off in the 6:30-6:45 range.  8 miles.  HR was floating in the 160s. 

Today’s playlist … Dream On by Aerosmith is great running.  Kick ass tune still 35 years later.



Had a crack up conversation the other day on how guys have pulled some nasty  practical jokes on each other.  Apparently two guys kept trying to pass off some rotting food to each other at their office.  Why this started is not clear, but in any case … one hid the food in one’s desk.  Once he found it, in return, he went and hid that same food in the other guy’s tissue box at his desk.  Made for quite the event when the dude went to blow his nose.   Conversation went downhill from there.  Sort of reminded me of some Carolla stuff.

My company finally went to soft tokens … after using hard key FOBs for like six years.  Now if we can get to Office 07.

10 miles.  4 mile warm up (co worker had a bunch of questions about Pikes, as he is considering doing it …) then 4 miles tempo, 2 to cool down.

I read a trip report tonight of two guys busting their asses on Capitol Peak for a record winter RT.  It is sick sick sick crazy tough crap.  Way harder and riskier than running.

Interview with Mr. Tony. 

Interview with Ritz (podcast).  Not much new in here but … (not sure if I have said this before on this blog or just on a rant on a run) … the arc of Ritz, Webb and Hall is a compelling story.  If these guys were in the NFL, ESPN would already be writing up the made for TV for documentary.  They all have had ups, downs, victory laps, records, injuries and challenges. 

Interview with Kara G. 

I have been a bit hesitant to say this – but I have been feeling great as of late.  I recall over the summer feeling very … challenged …  in my training.  I did not really recognize it, simply because I sort of felt – well, that is how you are supposed to feel when you are training.  And I love working.  It was not that I was particularly tired – but just little things on the edges – like being able to jump up and outrun my nine year old. Or running up stairs.  That sort of stuff.  These sort of little things were completely an issue as recently as last spring / summer … this is not the case now.  Generally, I feel great.  I hesitate to say it because I sort of feel that I could give myself the “whammy” by even declaring that.  Certainly, I am not training as hard as I did in the summer, but I think I’d have to also say that I have benefitted from that summer – in other words … I have absorbed it.  I did three days of 2 hours or more and I feel I could actually just keep doing that (reality is that my other life style choices will curtail that a bit).  I also feel that I am doing a few other things that are contributing to this – taking the easy days as easy / slow as I need them to be, maintaining consistent medium to high volume, not looking to absolutely rip every workout (yet), and rolling a bit when I feel it.  This is not something I can specifically write up into a plan to say how it is going to be – but a combination of a plan, and listening, but also gently pushing.  A balance … we’ll see if I can hold it.

That said … it ain’t perfect.  If you would have asked me yesterday what I was going to do today, I would have said I intend to get after it.  Not sure if it was a day of work (after a nice three day weekend), or the three days of two hours getting to me, or hydration / diet or the alignment of my chi in Orion, but I felt off just a twinge to not go hard (er, ish … umm, running).  Just a bit.  So I did not  run hard … in fact I ended up procrastinating my run, and actually enjoying digging into some datasets at work.  But I did get out, kept it easy and did 10.

Brandon put up the signal for a run today.  I had the day off with the holiday so took the bait.  On order was Green, a trip I had not made since October. 

I got up early, and figured I get in a few miles before the trip.  As I hit the highway, I realized I forgot to bring shoes of significant traction.  I debated if I should go back to the house to get some, but I did not want to risk possibly waking anyone up.  So I decided against it.  Stupid. 

Started in Chautauqua, did an easy loop on the Mesa, Enchanted Mesa and knew I was screwed as far as traction.  Headed up Flagstaff Road to kill a little more time and got in five before meeting with Brandon at the Gregory bridge.  Also in attendance were Mr. Tony and Dr. Chris.  Verification of my stupidity was reinforced by the fact they all either had screw shoes or microspikes.  Ah, screw it. 

I was able to keep the group in sight, despite slipping a fair amount on the up, but was way off the back on the down in about 10 seconds.  Very slow on the down.  11 miles.  Third day in a row over two hours – and I feel great.

Video posted over at BF’s place.  Chris’s report, and Anton’s report.I couldn’t help but notice the contrast of all of us as characters this AM, but still coming together and enjoying this hill. 
      

Nick’s Ghost Town report.

Had some time this AM, so I met up the DocJ crew at the Rez.  It sort of seemed that everyone was at the Rez this AM actually.   I kept the run super easy, catching up with Rock, MK.  17 miles.  AHR =145. 

80 miles on the week, all singles.  Good tempo at the front end of the week, nice hills in the middle and some decent mileage over the weekend.  January is 187 miles, 1517 minutes.

FF master Ken Pliska ran a 2:37:49 marathon in AZ today and won the masters division.  Pretty impressive.  I ran with Ken earlier in the week and said I thought he’d break 2:40.  Still Ken’s training, by his own admission, had been pretty light. 

And looks like it was a barn burner as Scott Jaime http://teamfasteddy-fasted.blogspot.com/ had the same exact time and was listed as second.

Hurt 100 record goes down.

Early rumors are that Nick Clark won Ghost town in a new CR.

More good on weight loss at SOS

Treadmill haters take note (from RRW): 

Although he didn't set a course record, Antonio Vega's win in the men's Houston half-marathon, his first national title, may have been the most noteworthy performance of the day.  Since Vega lives in cold and snowy St. Paul, Minn., he did all of his training for this race (except for three sessions) on a treadmill.  "Yeah, 120 miles a week," he said, commenting on how refreshing it was to be able to run outside.

Ran with Bob this AM, and hopefully this will turn into a regular Saturday AM thing.  16 miles.  Started in Louisville, ran to Eldorado and back.

Reg info posted for some other hill.  In addition to registering former winners, top ten folks, age group leaders first, this was posted as a change under the registration process:  Although not related to registration/qualification issues, if you are a potential award winner it should be noted that the board is considering a new awards ceremony “no show” policy which will be finalized at the February 4th board meeting.  Umm … guilty?  Last year I bailed about an hour after finishing the marathon, missing the award assembly and picking up my age group (3rd place, 30-39) award (note – I was really fifth in the age group but they don’t count folks if they were in the top ten … there were two 30 somethings in the top ten).   Unexpectedly, I had extended family show up at the finish (seriously, when I heard their voices post race, I was wondering if I was hallucinating), and I bailed to spend time with them.  I felt bad about it afterwards, but I did want to spend time with them.  I can totally see how skipping the awards is annoying – and problematic in some cases (last year someone tried to get my award), but I am not sure (yet) how this is a something you can penalize folks on.  Will watch with interest …

OH!  and at 85 bucks the marathon is still a great deal compared to nearly any other marathon out there!!

Great article from the SOS guys on diet.

Take a look at the different workouts over the career of Ritz

11 miles.  Up Simms and up onto 128.  I really like this run because the views are great.  It also bothers me a bit because cars are going 60 miles an hour 10 feet (or less) away from you.  82 minutes.

 

The work week has been a blur for me this week.  Just one of those weeks I guess, but I have not been in my groove with training, reading, blogs, etc.   Just off a little bit and actually – training has been still okay for me. 

Considering this 5k tomorrow, but 80-20 unlikely I will do it.  It is close, which is nice, but it butts up against my daughter’s soccer practice, and I am thinking of going longish and early.

I follow Greg Crowther’s blog … he recently wrote an open letter to David Goggins.   You know Goggins.  He has done Badwater, and a bunch of other heavy endurance stuff to raise funds for children of soldiers killed in combat.  He openly declares he hates running, swimming and biking.  Greg writes him an open letter about it, and Dave responds.  Interesting stuff.

Poker last night.  Won.  Got lucky at the right time.  Lot of low straights.   I play poker because of the guys I play with.  I really don’t think I could enjoy the game if I went to some tourney and didn’t know anybody.  I like kicking back and yapping it up, giving each other crap more than the game itself.   Otherwise I find the game a bit boring and too much to chance.

Been looking at this age grading calculator tonight.  Again, I am not a fan of age grading races to determine an overall winner, but I do find this thing interesting for personal comparison.   I punched in a bunch of my race times from different years to see what the age graded performance was.  My best times over the last decade fall in about a 5% range of each other.  And those age grades are about the same now.    For example, my 10K PR of 33:49 at age 30 (I think) grades at 79.6.  My mile best of 4:36 at age 33 (again, I think) is an 81.6.  My 5K PR of 15:58 when I was 29 is an 80.9.  My Bolder Boulder last year (age 39) of 37:37 is a 75 however.  I get a 75.7 with the 17 3 mile race on T-day.    Y

ou can also turn the calculator around and determine a time with set age performance score.  Supposedly, a 16:06 5k. would be an 80 for a 40 year old.

Anyway, got me thinking … I sort of want to look at the underlying calc tables and see if I could tweak them for non standard distances and races.  Like an age grader for Imogene, or Pikes, or Leadville.

One of those days at work where I was grabbing at stuff mentally that I should have just let go.  Consumed my day so I did not get to run until evening (9 PMish).  Easy five miles.

Seen it before … still love it.

10 miles, 78 minutes, 1100 plus feet of elevation gain. 3 mile warm up, then 6 x the Simms Hill, and then a 1.75 mile warm down. Approached this workout with a few thoughts … first, no need to “kill” this workout. I wanted to get a good stimulus, and so while I was running hard, I was also not looking to dig deep and “tag” it. Plenty of time for that, and I figured this set the initial baseline nice and low. Yeah, chicken shit in some ways, but I was not ready to race the workout. Goal today was to elevate the HR into the 170s for some reps, and move on. Second – get the work in locally. For whatever reason right now, I feel compelled to get workouts and runs in where I can, and with what is presented to me. Simms is a good 0.46 mile hill at an average 6.5% grade that is a half mile from the front door of my office. Easy to get to, easy to get some work out. Third – set up for consistency in workouts. Given its proximity, I want to get to this every couple of weeks, and either speed up a touch or increase the volume.


3:45, 3:38R; 3:31, 3:41R; 3:32, 3:52R; 3:33, 4:02R, 3:31, 3:51R, 3:25. So average was about 3:33 with a 3:53R. So these are good length hills, where the pace is averaging just around seven minute pace for me right now. The first two feel easy. The middle two begin to work, and the last minute and a half on the last two are a prelude of what is to come.

Today’s play list.


DNFs revisted by AJW.

This video on ChuckieV’s blog is hilarious. Love the stuff on the Newtons.

Semick, Roes named as UROY.

Need comedy?  Then enjoy the comments from Mark McGwire the liar, who apparently did not do PED’s for the purposes of getting HRs, but “health purposes.”   Umm – yeah.  That is the point of performance enhancing drugs.  They change and improve your health (hence what they are called).  I wonder if I could cut the course of my next race, get the win and a course record but look to make it better by saying I cut it not for the win but for health purposes.  Simply – WTF?  Take this guy’s record away, and ban him from any involvement in any professional sport for life. 

11 miles.  7 with Ken, Dave, and Steve at work and then tacked on four more.  EZ, 8 minute pace.

Bandera report from Nick is up.  He gets an auto-qual for WS100 for his win. 

JV took second in a local snowshoe race.

Max King interview … I see Max as a possible guy who could begin to move the bar (more dramatically) in terms of the competition at ultras.  This is a guy who took 3rd in USATF XC in 06, beating the current AR holder at 5k.  Yeah, I know things change, but it is reflective of the level of talent and results this guy could bring to the ultra scene.

PM – 10 miles, out  and back progression – tempo run, with the front half being “easy plus” and then building in the second half to 10K effort / pace +10/20 seconds.   Nice run.  Felt good and no tweaks from the weekend mileage.  Was sort of stoked to see each mile click by, and progressively a little faster.  8:19, 7:53, 7:41, 7:29, 7:16, 7:09, 6:41, 6:27, 6:12, 5:48.   The pace got a little quicker than defined pace towards the end, but it was with a net drop – so the effort was right.  Felt very controlled and never over the top.  Good workout.

Last day of a binary number for the month (until October, I think?)

.

Got out late morning and the weather was great.  Was clipping 7:40- 7:45s, keeping it comfortable at a HR of 145.  As I headed up Zuni, I could see a guy coming the other way in a very recognizable shirt:  the marathon shirt for Pikes for 2008.  As it turns out, it was Don B, a guy I have traded emails with about Pikes, Leadville and getting together for some miles for some time – but have never met in person.  We kicked around getting together this AM via email, but I thought I was going to be out of town.  Nonetheless, we “ran” into each other.  Did a few miles with him in our first meet up as he finished up and then I continued on.  Great to meet him.  He has done Pikes the last couple of years, and now has his eyes set on Leadville.

Goal was just an easy 2 hours as I build back towards a regular long run.  15 miles.  Felt great the whole run and no physical issues.

74 miles on the week, 611 minutes. January is 107 miles, 879 minutes.  Week was a bit jacked by work but feel I made a decent week out of it for this time of the year.  Fair tempo on Tuesday (mill but with snot issues), decent minute on minute off on Thursday, and then back to some slightly mid-longish runs over the weekend.  No 5k as planned, but I am fine with that.

   AM – out early with Bob.  14 miles, looping around Marshall Mesa, up to NCAR, back.  Good easy run, great conversation.  Chilly out.  Hair on the back of my head is now long enough that it had ice on it when I finished.  I think Bob is still out there.

In the evening, rode a snowcat up the slopes of Breck, as it was doing some initial grooming.  In the video, we are at about 11k feet, heading up a 15-20 percent grade.  The driver was cranking some Who from the Sirius radio that was installed in the ‘cat.

AM – real easy 3 miles on the mill at 5%.

Nick and JT have kept “cost of racing” stats.  DD has an interesting take on it in his roll up for 09.   Implicitly, I have been thinking about this in the terms of the cost of training as well – specifically in how I get my training.  I am not hugely compelled to go romp in the mountains west of Bolder right now because while it would be fun, I feel it is not the best spend of my training “buck.”  Simply adding the time to get there, back, for thrashing in the ice and snow … just not how I want to spend right now.  I’d rather spend that time otherwise.  But we all have our thing we want to spend our dollars on.  Some folks spend it on the gizmos on their wrists, others on treadmills, others on tights … whatever works.  I know at one point in the trip to KY, I was wondering why I spent money to run around a field three times. 

Work has been a bear this week, and combined with the weather, vacation transition, kids returning to school – my training spend has been a bit misaligned.  Not a big deal in January … but worthy of note.

PM. – Got into the 20s so I ventured outdoors into the road slop, the snow and the ice.  Nice skies though.  9 miles.

90 percent certain I am out for the Oatmeal Fest 5k.  Kids soccer and scouting events take priority.

Another very busy day at work, and so pressed for time.  Used the mill, and yes – I had a handkerchief.   

8 miles, with 10 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off at the tail of the run starting at 10k pace for the initial, and moving through the set to faster than 5k pace (but not by much).

Busy day at the office and, gee  I don’t know … I did not feel up for getting on a treadmill. 

After getting the kids put to bed, and the driveway shoveled with what the latest storm brought in, I headed out.  I am more likely to bring my cell phone with me on night runs just in case TZ needs me or I need her.  Well, I forgot to zip the pocket in the back of the tights and it flew out.  I had a pretty good idea of where and when it happened, so I stopped to look for it.  After five minutes of NOT finding it, feeling like an idiot, and given it was seven degrees out and snowing, I decided to head back to the house and get TZ’s cell.  Retrieved her phone, ran back to the location and called it up.  Found it buried in snow (could hear it, but could not even see it lighting up).  4 miles. 

And I launched rockets freely and without concern the whole run.  I suggest avoid Main Street in Broomfield if you are concerned.

I got this note today from my boss, he forwarded it.

I have just received a rather unusual complaint and frankly I honestly don’t know how to follow up so I thought I would start by telling his manager.

Apparently on multiple occasions when George is using the work out equipment it has been reported that he is blowing his nose on his hands wiping the mucus on his shirt, and then immediately touching the gear he is using and then not cleaning it up.  

The other reports are that he has blown his nose in his hat and immediately put it back on, and other times has blown his nose into his shirt he was wearing.

Of course I always do an extensive wipe down of the equipment when I am done with it – as I have dripped lots of sweat on it.  I figured by blowing my nose into my shirt was better than blasting the snot rocket across the room (which sort of happens with my sweat anyway).  I will just bring a towel along to hang on the mill.

Best news I heard all day. Congrats JP and Kat – and yes, FUCK CANCER. (sorry kids).

Slept in. I needed it. No AM run.

Good post on commitment by ChuckieV

10 miles on the mill at work. I hate these words when you are in a meeting: “why don’t we work through lunch. I can order pizza for everyone.” I want to scream, “no, why don’t we all take a damn break, get some exercise and hence be much more productive this afternoon?” But I don’t. Luckily today, we finished up a touch earlier than expected so I got to the mill. Turned this into a tempo run because I was ready to go after being caged all day. Did a 30+ minute tempo in the midst of the run, at 10k + 10-20 sec pace (this feels right – decent workout, nice stimulus, decent speed, not killer).

This guy wants it bad. Real bad. Say what you want, but the SOB ran 2:16. Stay tuned to the end of the video … and watch the third place guy close the gap pretty nicely. That and … a laurel wreath? Didn’t think any place other than Boston did that.

There is a snowshoe scene here in CO, but it is nothing like the number of races and the depth of the races they have in New England. I am just going to chalk that up to population density. JJ, by the way, is generally a good ambassador of the sport in the New England (even sporting the traditional accent), but he has taken to holding my racing flats hostage since I accidently left them in the back of his car post Mount Washington.

Relatively local 50k here in CO in June.

We had a clog in one of our pipes going to the street. Discovered this on New Year’s Day, and so toughed it out through the weekend rather than pay holiday fees. We still had water coming in, we just had issues getting water to go out. Let’s say it makes life interesting. Anyway, plumber showed up yesterday and snaked the pipes and all was good (165 bones later – well worth it). The cool thing is this: his plumber snake had a video camera so in addition to having the problem corrected, I now have a 38 minute DVD of video from inside the pipes – including the clearing of the blockages. Good stuff. Considering youtubing the good parts.

AM – woke up pretty damn early, not feeling well.  So I had a cup of coffee and went for a run with Lucy.  The cup of coffee came back, but then I felt a bit better.  Super easy, under the moon with the always eager training partner.  6 miles.  AHR =122.

PM – quick lunch break, got out for an easy five and found myself comfortably rolling.  37 minutes for 5,

AJW sets a good fire in this post:  DNFs in ultras.

AM – the family was off to the rec center.  After getting the crumb grabbers and associated guest crumb grabbers situated in the pool, I did some light stretching and slipped off to the treadmill.  Got in six before we had to jet.  Mile at 15%, then 12%, then 9%, then 6%, then 3% then 1%.  70 minutes.

PM – mill in the garage.  Amped for this, and so did a twenty minute tempo.  Mile warm up, 20 minutes in the middle building to 10k pace.  Less than a mile warm down.    5 miles, 33 minutes.  Joe Satriani Live in San Francisco helped.

The week was a down week for me in terms of mileage.  I was good with that.  It naturally occurred because of the holidays, but was furthered by the weather and the altitude on the front end of the week.   Definitely need to remember that as I get to Fairplay, the miles are less important than the time on the feet. 

I reviewed my logs from last year at this time (and through March, April) and I was doing a good number of intervals on the mill.  A combination of hard strides (14 mph) and then a workout with a group jacked my Achilles for a good few weeks in the spring. 

A subtle change, but an important one is that I won’t  do hard strides on the mill.  In fact, I’d like to make the mill all about incline  running, but I expect that with spring weather I will do other stuff than that on it.  Currently thinking that getting out for some 5k, 10k type racing and getting regular tempos in the midst of training will be a nice build up – and that I get to “other stuff” later.  The focus will be on general mileage, but I will look to get after it for 20-40 minutes a couple of times a week.  And with the mileage… sigh … getting back to a long run …

53 miles on the week, 442 minutes.  December is 291 miles.   3656 miles on the year,  32065 minutes.  January is 33 miles, 268 minutes.

Lots of good write ups on goals and the year in review – more than I can capture here … a few of the ones I read in the last day or two (in no particular order). If you read all this and are not inspired to lace them up, then you have no pulse (there are a lot of other posts, but a good number don’t do anything in particular to highlight 09 or goals for 10 … they sort of go at it everyday)

JJ - 09
DD - 09
BF - 10 calendar, goals, in review
Brad - 09
Lucho – 09 look back
JM - 09
PM – a review of where he was 10 years ago
Chris - 09
Bret – 09
Kev – 09 and a peek ahead

JK2 – the past decade
Nick – 09
JT - 09

All that has me writing up a half cocked review of 09 and goals for 10, but it reads more like a 12 step therapy program right now … so I think I will sit on it for a bit. One thing that has bubbled up in my head is that I want to find a way to help someone or someone’s enjoy running or to run better. That does not mean I am looking to coach. In fact, I was recently approached by someone who asked if I’d be willing to coach a group. I was interested, but the commitment of 2-4 hours every Sunday scared me off. So I’d call it something other than a coach … maybe an evangelist of sorts but that sounds too preachy.

Nice quick read on base period nutrition from Joe F.

Interesting read from Jay Johnson on peaking

Good reads from Running Times – best of 09 sort of.

12 miles.  90 minutes.  Federal loop.  And I corrected the damn day on the title of the post.

Just signed up KZ for a soccer camp that occurs on Saturdays – so the Oatmeal Fest 5k might be out.

Weird looking at that date up there. 

Interesting post by Greg Crowther re: input he provides to RW and how it gets “edited.”

We got back to the low lands in the early afternoon and I was well primed for a good run in the warmer temps.  Shortly after arriving home however, we discovered a plumbing problem – as in stuff backing up in the bathroom downstairs.  It was not a beautiful site. 

In any case, addressing this issue (and it is not completely resolved) took most of the afternoon, and the warmer temps and daylight hours slipped away.  When the opportunity came to run, I looked to the treadmill, but then over ruled that option – thinking it was just not a good way to start the year. 

Headed out on … umm, I guess I will call it the Zuni loop.  It dawned on me that I don’t really have any set loops.  I hit a lot of the same roads, paths and trails, but I mix up the routes I take quite a bit.  I made a resolution of sorts to come up with standard routes for comparative purposes.

With the icy patches in the dark, I decided not to do the tempo workout I had intended.  Had a nice easy run.  10 miles, 75 minutes. 

Last day of the year – lots to post again about the year in review, or plans for the oh one oh but that will have to come later. 

We spent the day as a family on the slopes at Breck.  It was cold – the first run was done in ambient temps in the below zero range.  The kids had a blast though.  I considered getting out for a short run with the dogs in the evening, but the cold had zapped me.  Given that the temps were single digit come dinner time, and there were some decent winds a’ blowin’ – I decided to kick back and relax.   The kids sucked me into watching some episodes of “The Amazing Race” (which reminds me of stuff we used to do at summer camp but the show of course is on the global scale).

Back to Broomfield New Year’s Day.