Hang Nine

We celebrated someone’s birthday last night (even though it is today).

This is an interesting and compelling story regarding donkey and vets here in CO.

This video makes the Balch Field House look completely awesome.

Go figure. Compression gear doesn’t do shit.

For those who keep score, Barkley had no finishers this year.  Farthest a guy (Coury) got was three and a half laps.  Yeah … not for me.  I ain’t that tough.

Been on a CCR (no not Creedance) kick as of late.  Today’s listening:

Another hot and windy day.  10.1 miles, steady.  My legs felt heavy to start but they lightened up a bit over the run.  Tripped over 1000 miles on the year today.  Fairly certain I have never done that by April 1.   I was about 670 miles at this time last year, 897 in 2013, 952 in 2012 – but that came off more aggressive January and February months with a LOT of treadmill.  Same sort of stuff in 11 and 10, probably with a lot more mill miles.

AM – out before the sun up and got in a run with Vinay.  He is moving out of state soon, so this will probably be my last run with him.  8 miles.

I am getting word that Bob took second at the Austin Rattler.  That sinks any plans I had for him as a pacer at Leadville as that performance gives him a slot.  Need to figure out that pacer thing soon.

The business card I posted on Sunday … I spoke a bit more with that WWII vet about his service.  The guy did time at Saipan.  If you don’t know what that is, look it up.

Afternoon –8 more miles, a little quicker than this AM.  I just roll a little better in the afternoon than first thing in the AM.

100 plus on the week and I have tripped over 400 on the month (402.3), and thus have met my March goal. 

The Leadville 100 entry list is up.  Names that caught my eye (in an “oh that is interesting, I was not expecting that” sort of way):  Melody Fairchild and Lee Troop.  More names are gonna end up on that list after this weekend’s Austin Rattler.  I expect Bob to be one of them.

The PPM list is also up.  Hard to say much about that field until the comp bios start coming in.

Train wreck of a run this AM, and I set it up starting yesterday.  I was out in the sun, and so drying out and then went for pizza and a couple beers afterwards.  The whole affair had me up late, sleeping poorly and feeling behind on hydration from the get go.  I got up late and so it was starting to warm up, it got windy.  I screwed around, getting the dogs out, feeling like crap.  I did mess around with a hand held water bottle.  It was 20 ounces and so for one of the hours I was out there I would take a sip, squeeze every 3 minutes.  It works out to just about 20 sips.  It definitely is a method that can work on a hot day.  I am not blasting my system outright with a pounding of water – more like dripping in what it can take and keeping at the hydration throughout.  But it probably works even better if  I start appropriately hydrated. 20.5 miles. 

I had meant to meet up with Brownie this AM on his bike ride to Longmont, but my family got back from Spring Training early and so that didn’t happen.

Got this from Freebird in the comments yesterday – it is a great read.  Every bit of movement adds up, and over a lifetime builds into specific skills. People get all worked up about precise number of sets or “peaking” or nutrition, but most people really need to simply shut up about all these details and go do something physical every day.

Mid day – a quick jaunt between calls.  5.1.  Then about an hour later, after another call – 5.3 miles.  I spent a better part of the afternoon at the Broomfield HS track meet, helping some, videoing some races, and enjoying the buzz of a track meet.

I recently was chatting with a WWII vet and he gave me his business card.
The man served at Saipan.  In my book, when you do that, you can have whatever the hell you want on your business card.

Nice post by Tawnee on her metamorphosis as an athlete. Good read on how she worked through that stuff.   And congrats to her and her guy for getting engaged.

Interesting post by Mario F over on Competitor and his racing demons.

Both of these are interesting to me because it shows me how people who love the sport can become tortured by it. 

A list of the best beers (101) in America

World XC this weekend.  Will be interesting to see how locals perform, like Thweat and Cerake (quite the tat).

Today’s listening:

Early evening – day was pretty loaded so I did not get out until later in the day.  I had a bit of a hot right hamstring last night but it seemed to be okay today.  The first half of this run I was moving pretty well, and even tossed in a surge or two (or ish) feeling pretty good.  I then made a pit stop and from there, I suddenly felt like crap for the second half of the run.  Ah well.  In the last mile the hammie start to talk a bit.  Not bad, but if it is still arguing tomorrow, I might forego the long run this weekend.

Allie M has the FKT for women on the Incline – just a hair over 20 minutes.

Mid afternoon – I found myself screwing around, delaying my get out.  The hardest part on some days is just getting out.  I finally got over the hump and got out. I was a bit tired, and even a touch sore in some places.  So I tried to pick it up some, at least to a bit of an okay pace – rather than just fall into some slog.  7 miles.

PM – I had to close off on some stuff with Greg from XC, so I met him at Flatirons Running tonight.  It was their fun run night, so I decided I’d use that as a way to get me out for another run.  That was effective and I got in another 6.2.  I was surprised at how quick some of it went.  There was a crew off the front running 6:30s from the get go.  When I considered that, it was not particularly surprising, but more a reminder of what I used to do.  I found that just being in a group made me move a bit quicker with little thought of it.  Afterwards they had a Q&A with Scott Jurek.  Here I discovered that I am indeed a cranky old man … people were asking all sort of questions like what his favorite vegan meal was, what kind of stretching he did … I know these are fine and appropriate questions for that venue, but I felt that it would have been a much better session to ask things like if he ever did rub Vagisal on his legs, boxers or briefs, and if he listened to Elevation Trail.

Someone asked what his fastest time on Sanitas was and he said he had never run it.  Somebody spouted that Kilian had done it in 11 minutes.  My quiet phase ended there because that would be like saying El G had run the mile in 2:57.  No, it is just over 14 minutes …

I did get into some small talk with a few of the runners and I had to hide my surprise at a couple of the folks who talked about doing this hundred or another and when asked about their peak training had it at 50 miles a week.  I mean, I guess that can work of course.  But I am sort of surprised that one would go that route … it is harder to pin down what their reason for that would be.  I mean, I guess there could be some reason that has some meaning to them as to why they want to do a 100 miler on such little distance.  But I think I would steer them to a 10k or something on that sort of training.  Just me … and I kept my mouth shut on it.  But not my keyboard I guess.

104.6 in the last seven days.  And it sometimes feels like it is not enough.

John Oliver is great.

I have been on a pause with some of my reading, but I have been going through the WWII in HD series on the History Channel via Netflix.  Also worth checking out is the Rise of Isis on Frontline.  Yes … history repeats itself.

And this day just slipped away.  Work, life, and the like.  I could have forced the issue at the end of the day, but I was tired and decided against it.  A goose egg to finish the month.

The zero scratches at me a touch but I can say it does not bug me the way it used to.  It helps that I have tried to embrace the mentality of taking it while I can, and not worrying when I can’t.  And having a solid few weeks behind me helps too (44 days since the last day off).  I finish March with 412.5 miles, 18615 feet, 56 hours.  On the year I sit at 135 and half hours, 38580 feet and 1007.1 miles.

I came up short on a goal in March that I wanted:  a race.  I am not sure I would have raced well because I ended up chasing the miles enough that I was not doing any significant turn over work, and often my legs were tired.  But racing does keep me fired up, more in a running spiritual sense and that is why I look to do it.

April … I have a couple of goals – nothing as firm as the 400 mile month but fairly clear.  I need to start to get onto the vertical stuff.  A 25k month for many (like JV) would be nothing, but for me it would be pretty significant.  I like to see it come with at least 10 climbs of 2500 (or say 10 Greens) with maybe a 5k effort in there.  Physically, I know I can handle this.  The time management aspect of this is the challenge because it means getting out to the Republic, back, etc.  I have become less a fan of that sort of stuff because the time I am sitting in the car getting there is time I could be doing something else:  work, training, spending time with family, whatever – anything other than sitting in that car.  The challenge is more in the discipline of time management than the physical.  But I need that physical work because I have become less than proficient on the climbs and the downs. 

One big week of travel this coming month, and it is to a flat spot, so that will further challenge the vertical goals.  When I can’t get the vert, I will look to alternatively chase miles or speed or even (gasp) even recover).

Oh yeah, April – nail in pacers and crew.

Mid day – winds are back.  Easy seven miles, but I was slogging in the winds and with tired legs from the last couple of days.

I was having a conversation with a coworker/friend today and he asked me for some training advice.   He said that he had recently started including some faster work in his running and what he did not understand why he was getting slower on his other running days.  I knew a little about his running but I asked a few more questions.  I learned his running was 3 or 4 days a week, and that this inclusion of faster work (200 meter and 400 meter repeats or a 20 minute tempo run) was a new addition to his training, and not replacing any of the other easy running he was doing. 

So this is a bit of the classic quality versus quantity thing and I felt that the Hudson idea that you should not sacrifice quality for quantity and you should not sacrifice quantity for quality was appropriate here.  Except of course when you are deciding to make those sacrifices as part of a bigger idea.  In the case of this co-worker, I advised him that my take was – yeah, if you have suddenly thrown in a new stimulus, and you are feeling it the next day, you are most definitely going to be slower and that is okay.  He kept his quantity the same and then upped the ante with quantity.  His sacrifice?  He is a bit slower on the other days until he adapts to that stimulus.  In fact, if you were always feeling great the next day (or maybe the day after that) you could make the argument that you were not stretching yourself enough in that preceding workout.

I offered to him his choices were to lower the quantity a bit, or to ride it out if he was not risking injury as his body made the adaptations and just be okay with being slower on those other days. 

And yeah, I think it is great when I google search on Brad Hudson quality quantity the first thing that comes back is a Lucho article.

Evening – 7.2 miles. 

This year’s Mount Washington Hall of Fame inductees.

AM – slow to rise but I got out and down to the HS to yap with Greg as he set off his bleary eyed high schoolers.  9 miles.  I ended up circling up to the kids on the second half of their run and immediately was reminded that their easy pace is just under 7.   It was part of why I headed over there to run … I knew it would wake me up a bit and force me out of the 8+ slog.

PM – I got out to Green with JV.  Well, first I screwed up the start.  JV was going to be a bit late to our original start time and so I thought I would take advantage and get a head start.  Jeff has killed me on Green like 200 something times, and I thought with my tired and non vert acclimitized legs, a little jump would be good.  But I messed up the message and he was waiting for me in the lot.  We figured it out and caught up just above the Saddle Rock.   Good to get on Green (I was draggin’ and the snow up high with my slick shoes made it stupid) and better to catch up with Jeff.  I need more of both.

 
I was feeling the lack of vertical for sure.  Need to be getting at this at least weekly.   On the way down we ran through the RMR crew, and I got to catch up with Mike Randall and burro racer Jon Davis.  Good to chat with those guys and consider some of the summer plans with quadripeds.

AM  - up early to get the crumbgrabbers off for Spring Break.  I was tired and felt it.  David C put the call out for a burro run and I took that up, figuring it would force me through some miles.  So I jogged over there (that was good five), then another six and half with Dave and the burros, and the the jog back for another five and change to give me 16.6 on the day.

95.1 on the week, 301.7 miles on March.  5025 vert on the week which still ain’t much but it is more than I have got any other week of the year.

Mo runs a Euro Half Marathon record.

Evening – very honored to be a part of this young man’s Eagle Court of Honor.

JZ had a meeting in Highlands Ranch for the Scout camp he is staffing this summer.  After getting him settled, I laced them up and explored.  22.1 miles. 

I had not realized that I was heading into Highland Ranch really until late last night and then I was not sure exactly what JZ’s schedule was going to be down there.  I thought of putting the call up for folks to run, but it was all just too loose to nail something in.

I am sort of stupid with water.  I did not bring any with me and at 2 hours I was pretty parched and about 4 miles from my car to get some.  I can run that far without water, but it just sets up for a bit of a chase then in trying to get hydration back on track.  I can’t afford to do that on longer runs.  I ran this super easy the whole time, never motivated to push it.

AM 5.3 miles.

PM 10.2 miles.

AM – I woke up and it was pouring out.  I decided I did not want to risk running out doors in the dark, rain, fighting city traffic on roads that often don’t have a sidewalk.  And given my wipeout luck as of late, if I had I’d probably fall through a sewer grate or sumthin.  I hit the hotel gym and the treadmill for the first time in probably close to a year, maybe longer.  8.1 miles in an hour, that started crazy slow (12 m/mile) but I eventually woke up, and brought it around to some running.

Matt Carpenter has apparently been elected into the Colorado Hall Running Hall of Fame.  Based on the little I know of Matt, I’d guess he will feel honored, but at the same time sort of not care much, as he seems content to let his accomplishments speak for themselves.  In any case, this is a long overdue election.  From my perspective, you can’t help but wonder if Matt was passed over because of his outspoken nature on many topics in running, including taking shots at the USATF – as many of the HOF committee folks appears to be a part of the USATF in some regard.

Initial confirmation lists for Pikes are up.  As there are 900 listed right now for the marathon and the entry site says they will take 800, I’d say that is full with the expectation that some will get pulled or some will DNS.  1600 in the Ascent so still some room there.

Caught Chef on the flight home.  Solid. 

Came home to this.  10 seconds after this pic was taken, he swung his arms out (like he was swimming) and broke a nearby glass.

AM – typical struggles to get up on the second day and get going.  4.6miles.  Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack helped a bit.

Watched Fury the other night.  As much as guys like Pitt, Cruise and DeCaprio take crap, I seem to enjoy everyone of their flicks.  Fury, Pitt’s latest afaik is solid in my book.

AM – dark, and lacking a sidewalk in many cases.  4.3 miles out towards Lennox Park,  Tired, as expected.

Looks like quite a fight brewing this weekend because of Boulder OSMP.

PM - More exploring over in Hahn Forest and the area around it.  Mostly getting lost trying to get there through the urban jungle.  7.6 miles.

Nice read by Reavis on Ritz, Hall and Webb.  Another perspective on Hall.

AM – 8 miles before heading to the airport.  Felt okay but my stomach was pretty sour. 

Evening – still fairly light when I started but I ended up in the dark, which was less than fun on the narrow sidewalks in the city.  But I did get down into the preserve down near Emory.  8.3 miles, easy

Mid day – warm.  Some might say hot as it might be the warmest day we have had in a bit but really, not bad.  12.3 miles.  Every step of this run felt better than any step yesterday. 

85.3 on the week, 11 hours and 4310 feet.  On the month, 206.6 miles (so slightly ahead for the 400 goal), 27.7 hours and 7205 feet. 

Pix from yesterday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, including some burro action.

Latest ATUC gets into Krar’s MAF test where he runs 6:12 pace at a HR of 147. 

Splits from the LA Marathon.  Big kudos to Sage for sticking with it. 

Nice to see local kid (and coach at MHS) continue to have some success.

My work comrade and friend Mick was over from Ireland and took some neat photos while here.  You can check out his impressions of RMNP over on his Celtic Light and Shade site on FB.

AM – we (JZ, TZ and me) headed down to Denver to participate in the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade with the Western Pack Burro Association.  It is always fun to wrangle up the burros, see the family of those involved, and to get reconnected with man, these gentle giants.
After the setup, it began to hit me as to how big this parade is.  We kept watching groups go by.  And by.  And by.  We were called into the parade at our turn, and then I got to see the crowds as we walked around Denver, the Coors Field Area.  I am guessing but it seemed like there there 20000 people out.  I really don’t know.  It could be half that.  But it was a lot.
The section near Union Station reeked of the leaf.

I walked Jack up, mostly bringing up the tail end of our group with Bill and Brad.  I looked to introduce Jack to as many kids as I could but we had to keep some pace.  It was cool to see kids enjoy getting to meet him.  Some were really excited about the whole affair.  I was really blown away by how many people were out for the parade. 

We finished, got the burros unsaddled, all back into the trailer – AND there were still groups heading out for the parade.  It was huge.

PM – 20.2 miles with Bob.  From step 1, I was tired (probably the load of the last couple of days, but also the burro wrangling in the AM).  But I was also committed.  I’d love to get to a point where 20 is just mindless easy for me but it is mind-full easy for me.  I felt worked from the get go, but I was just going to get this done.  Admittedly it was another run that I probably would have bagged on my own but it never came into question as I was in the game with Bob.  In fact, much as I expected, the pace slowly picked up in the second half, assuring it was a bit quicker to finish.

I am happy that when I feel like ass, and we have a fair amount of vert (compared to what we have done), I can still hold a pace that I’d love to have at mile 70 of Leadville.  But I’d like these 20s to be a bit more automagic … that is only going to happen if I stretch them up a bit either with more vert, or a bit more speed.  Or greater frequency.

AM – slow and easy dog jog with Lucy for 5.1 miles.  Actually she did 3.2 and then I added on.  At 9 and with the reconstructed front leg, she is good for about a half an hour before I can start to detect a slight gimp on her part.

PM – 10.1 miles.  TZ joined me for some on the bike.  Tired a bit.  It is the brown season.

The world of anti PED enforcement is interesting.  Folks are for it of course, but then there seems to be a backlash when folks like Kristi get busted at Pikes (why is USADA wasting resources on that?) and there is general discontent with “whereabouts” considerations (as penned by Greenwood this week).

And meanwhile we continue to make race decisions based on uniform design in the HS ranks.

And a 55 year old runs a 4:34.  And a 10 yo ran a 91 minute half.  I think everyone has seen the vid of a 95 year old running a 55 200 meter. 

Interview with Anita Ortiz.

I find it funny that I cannot get a Murphy’s on tap in Dublin (it is a Guinness town) but I can one at a secret spot four miles from my house (and an Old Speckled Hen as well).  Murphy’s and Beamish are far superior stouts to Guinness.

Afternoon –  Got in a half dozen, and then another seven and change with Adam B and then rounded out to 15 miles. I was a bit tired, probably more from the week of work than any recent running effort.

Listened to the Lee Troop interview from Jay Johnson.

I occasionally think I can run.  Like I am pretty good at it.  Then I see something like XC Nationals and remember what I really am.   In a similar fashion … I sometimes think I can sing.  Then I see and hear this and realize I can’t really.

Stephanie Hightower needs to go away.

Another great Salomon vid.

Evening  between the office and dinner:  6.2 miles.  Picked it up in the second half.

AM – I had a small window between getting out of the house and my first meeting.  4.2 miles from the office.

Mid day – 12.3 out on HWY 128.  This run naturally starts a bit slower as I have to climb up to 128.  It then rolls but allows for a quicker finish with a big drop back into Westy.  It was easy to steady to tempo … so I guess that makes it a progression.  It felt good to move a bit more, and the weather set up well for it.  First day since banging it that the hip was not something I was thinking about.  Warm enough that I was able to ditch the shirt.  Got to make the world happy that way I guess.

Brilliant.

This is a great throw back video.  A bit of Timko, a bit of Lucho, some Bob, me and plenty of smacktalk.  And a hot tub.

More on middle aged guys like me doping.

Granddaughter coaching grandpa on the ins and outs of Facebook.  No really.

AM – 7.1 miles easy.  Had to get up and go because of daylight savings and heading over to RMNP.  102 miles on the week, just about 14 hours on the nose.  Low on the vertical again as I didn’t want to fight the snow, the ice and focused on getting the hip feeling better.  Not a lot of zip in the week, again because of the hip and the ice but I started to open things up here and there towards the weekend.

A couple of coworker friends were in from Ireland.  I offered to take them up to RMNP.  They seemed to enjoy that as they don’t see stuff like this in Ireland much.