The Daily Planet

I'm so vein

2009-06-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

My blog will start being hosted on RW.com

http://www.runnersworld.com/community/persona/index.jsp?plckPersonaPage=PersonaBlog&plckUserId=8321027152&UID=8321027152

As of now, I'm the 96th most popular blog in the history of RW, check it out, lets get those numbers up people.

Bolder Boulder 10K

2009-05-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the race itself, as it turned into a run for me that became more like a college homecoming parade back in the days of visiting Western State College in Gunnison, Co. than it was a 10k race. Obviously every race has a goal, and everyone, no matter how little they think they are prepared, or what has happened leading up to a race, always thinks at some point before the gun goes off that they will catch "lightning in a bottle", or something to that effect. I remember a 4 miler on Thanksgiving Day 2 years ago in which I threw up in a bathroom of a 7-11 30 minutes before the start, and as a guy who still hasn't run a sub 20 5k officially, I went through the 5k that day around 19:26. I bonked on the last mile, but still finished in just over 26 minutes for the 4 miles.

I was pretty quiet on Sunday after getting up and around. I didn't do much, I didn't leave the house after about noon I think. I went to bed around 945 and was up by 330 to try and get out of town. This is where the story starts to get weird. I did my normal morning routine, although when I went in to "read the paper", I had no luck. So I got my stuff together, figuring I would stop for a SF Red Bull on the road and do business then. I stopped about halfway down to Boulder, and still no luck. I got to Boulder and parked my pickup at a place that was about halfway between the start and finish line. I walked in to pickup my packet, and as I was headed back about a mile to my truck, I ran into jon_a from the MRT section of RWOL. Him and I had run Colorado together about 3 weeks ago and so we chatted for a while. At this point I'm running behind, so I jog to the pickup, store my stuff and am thinking I'll hit the water closet on my way back, but by the time I got back to where they were, the lines were huge and I was less than 5 minutes from the gun. I decided to gamble...

I lost. The first mile went great, around 1.6 or so, it was time for me to find a restroom. NOW. Luckily there are portolets all over the course. After a couple minute pit stop, I started running again, PR, anything special is now out the window. I fought with my legs for the next mile and a half, just feeling like they had nothing in them. Around the halfway point, I have accepted that I'm just looking to finish the race at this point. Boulder runs through a lot of residential stuff whre college kids live. At just around halfway, a dude was holding a skull shaped beer bong and I had stopped to collect myself. He looked at me and said "You wanna hit this?"...I said "It's not Key Light is it?" He said it wasn't, and the next thing you know I'm on the business end of 3.5 beers at 725 in the morning on a Monday. I got cheered, and backslapped, and high 5s, but what I really got out of it was the ability to run the last half of the race, taking in the people, the places, and the craziness that is that race. It was pretty cool. I've always been so focused on racing that I never pay attention to all the things around it. I had fun, but was obviously concerned about my lack of energy, but that was answered the next day, as I came down sick, which leads me to believe that I was in the process of getting sick that morning. Simple enough answer.

On Thursday nights, a buddy of mine and I usually go to Road 34 here in town. I've detailed that place here before so I won't go into it, but last night we stopped in for a couple quick beers and we talked, I saw Moose, one of the bartenders, hanging out and having a couple drinks. I hadn't seen him working for a while, so I went over and said hello and inquired to his lack of presence the last couple weeks. He told me that he had quit his job and was moving to San Francisco with his girlfriend. He had no job, no prospects, nothing. Her job was taking her there, and he wanted to be with her, so he's going. I guess there are still people in the world who care enough about each other to do things like that for each other. I had to smile when he told me the story, but saddened at the same time to see him go. He was always good to me, always took care of me and my friends when we came in, and come Monday, (lol) he'll be in Frisco. We covered how things had been for me for a little while, had a drink, hugged, swapped phone numbers and said goodbye. Good luck Moose.

3 days in the writing

2009-05-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

I started writing this about 3 days ago, and had intended to rant a little, but as the days have moved on, I kept getting pulled away, and now the things I was going to talk about have moved to the back burner, as life is happening fast for me right now. But that's a good thing.

I'll hit 2 of the things I had started to write about very quickly, then move on. #1 Bucket List Marathons. I have no problem with this, people of all abilities running a race is one of the great things about running. My only thought is that if you ran one in your life, don't spend the rest of it telling people you are a runner. Or a marathoner in the present tense.

The Raven who was showcased on ESPN. I got into a couple debates about it on Runners World, and all I will say is that at some point, even the healthiest of things can be considered a disease. If they had showcased it by showing all the people coming out to run with him, his clearing of the 100,000 mile mark, and that was it, I would have walked away from the story thinking it was a neat piece. Once they started to talk about how much he hurt, how he couldn't get from room to room some days, how his back was so messed up, it changed the story for me. If I drink 8 beers a day to fight my inner demons, at some point go see a doctor who tells me that I should stop drinking, yet I don't listen, should I be celebrated for this? It's an unpopular opinion I know, but again, just because it's physical activty, doesn't make it healthy when it gets out of hand. And that's all I'm going to say on that anymore.

With Monday rapidly approaching, the Bolder Boulder looms on Memorial Day. I am excited. Although it's just a 10k. it has a marathon like feel to it because over 50,000 people will run it. I have run 4 10k's in my life up to this point, with half of them being in Boulder. My first BB was a mess, with last year's being almost scientific in the way that I ran. I remember talking to Marty and Steve in PM, saying I wanted to run a 42:59, which isn't that fast, but I had run a 46:xx in Boulder the year before, a 44:xx was my PR, and the last 10k I ran was a 46:xx as I was fighting injury trying to get ready for Chicago last year. I ran a 42:58 at last years race, within 1 second. It's a 6:59 pace. The thing is...I have no race plan, I can't even think about a goal time right now. Last year I ran this same race, after running the same marathon, and PR'd. so logic would tell me it's possible for the same thing to happen here. The difference this year is that after I ran my May marathon last year, I took time off, to let myself heal and recover, as opposed to this year, where I took 2 days off running, and I actually biked those days, and got back after it. With 5 weeks between then and Steamboat, I had no time to rest. The curve of recovery to strength again is the biggest question mark for me at this point. Running a poor time at Boulder is not the end of the world, not with 13 days to the Steamboat Marathon, and a taper coming...

On that note, I still don't know what to do about my taper. I ran 5 days as I headed into my last marathon, and think I'll be around the same this time. Although with more miles. I was in the 20's last time, I'm thinking more like 30 something this time.

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone. It's the beginning of summer. The beginning of a new season, the best season of all. I'll talk to you after Boulder.

20 miles, are you kidding?

2009-05-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

Two weeks exactly has passed since the Colorado Marathon, and 3 weeks remains till Steamboat. After my 10 last weekend, in which I stopped every 2.5 miles to walk and give myself a break, I had been feeling stronger each day as I ran. Although last night, I ran .10 miles after work. My boss is out of town, and I worked 6 days and about 58 hours. I figured I was entitled. I went home and showered instead, meeting my buddy Sean at the Town Pump, Ft. Collins' smallest bar, and then we went to Coopersmiths before I came home and called it a night. It had been a long week for both of us, and I needed some sleep in advance of the 20 miler. I had been feeling good on most my runs, so I felt confident.

I went to Gib's NY Bagel shop this morning. http://gibsbagels.com/ and had breakfast. I came home and did laundry for a few, and got out for the run around 10:30 am. It was already 70 degrees. I felt pretty good for the first half of the run, but by mile 13, I had stopped sweating, which is bad. It meant I was dehydrated. Long story short, I pushed till 18 or so before it really started to go bad. At 18.5, an ice cream truck went by. The fact I had no money on me is the only reason the big ice cream cookie is not still in my belly. I wrapped up the run, my calves, and my toe were hurting, but not injured. Looks like Steamboat is a go.

I really hope to BQ in Steamboat. Part of the reason why is that I will not have to run a fall marathon then. I can run 5 and 10 k's for the summer, build base, but mostly is that I can still go to Chicago in October without having to worry about marathoning the next weekend. It's a trip I've grown to love, although for different reasons this year. I'm starting to think it's importaint that I go.

With a change in what I usually do during the summers, I have made plans to go out east this year. I booked a flight to the east coast on Friday to see a friend of mine, that I am sure never thought I would make my way out to visit him, I hope the big city is ready for a little country. And I hope that they are all ready to see me.

Next Monday is Boulder. I signed up last week. It's a special race for me, and another milestone race. This and Horsetooth are the only races that I have done each year since I started running. I'm very excited this year, and the weather looks good for a nice race. I don't know what to expect out of Boulder, except a good time, but I can't wait.

Thanks for reading this everyone, not much to report now, but felt like I wanted to say hi.

One Weeks Time

2009-05-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

So a week removed from the Colorado Marathon, I've run 4 days since then. Wednesday was 3 miles, Thursday was 5 miles. I took Friday off, knocked out another 5 on Saturday, followed by a 10 mile run on Sunday in the rain. I feel pretty weak still, but not as weak as a have after the last 2 marathons. I'm encouraged. This week I think I'll pick up a few today, take tomorrow off, then try another 10 miler after work on Wednesday, go between 5 and 7 for the remaining days, then spike a 20 mile run on Sunday. It gets me into the 40's for the week this week, and then gets me one more long run as I push to Steamboat. My boss is on vacation this week, so I get to work 7a-6p straight M-F this week, and then 7a-4p straight on Saturday. This couldn't have come at a worse time as I try to finish my preparations, but it's just another hurdle to get over. The week after, I will try a medium long run on Saturday, rest Sunday, then off to the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day. I'm starting to get excited for that one, although I haven't had much time to process much of anything here lately. I'm pretty much just trying to get through each day and move onto the next. Life as I had known it for a while has started to look a little smaller in the rear view mirror, and the next thing for me to address is where I live. It has been time for me to move for a little while now, but I had been waiting on some stuff. Looks like I'm ready to get some new digs.

In other news, I find myself getting caught up a little bit in the Denver Nuggets playoff run that they have going. I don't watch a lot of pro basketball anymore, but near the end of the season, as the Nugs grabbed the #2 seed in the Western Conference, I started to pay closer attention. I think I was like everyone else around here, thinking that it's great, but when they run across Kobe and the Lakers, that the same thing that always happens will happen. Well we sit here today, the Nuggets can close the series with Dallas tonight, and the Lakers are in a dogfight with the Rockets, who dismantled them yesterday minus Yao. I still think in the end that the Lakers are too much, but it would be nice to see the Nuggets finish whe Mavs off tonight and then have Kobe and the boys have to fight and bang with Houston for another 3 games.

Manny was caught being Manny this last week, and although it's a "No sh*t" moment for most of the world, it's still bad for baseball. I'm not a fan of his, or the Dodgers, and the bad part is that the Dodgers will probably still be in first place when he comes off suspension. The funny part has been listening to the Sox fans talk about how the team took out the trash before he got busted. You have to be a moron to think that he wasn't doping while with Boston. It's funny how it's ok when someone like that plays for your own team, how skewed a point of view can be.

I am putting some thought into what I'm going to do with my summer. Obviously I'm going to do a lot of running, and what happens on June 7th will go a long way to tell me what I will be doing with my summer. If I BQ, then I may bypass any fall marathons this year, and maybe work on a sub 20 5k, or see if I can blow through my half marathon PR. It might open me up for a trip or two, as the last couple years I have gone to only a couple places, and used the rest of my time off for in town visitors. I'm thinking of someplace that will make me happy, where I can have fun.

Colorado Marathon

2009-05-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

I posted a pretty long race report on RW, but thought I would do something a little more complete here, if for nothing more than having it for myself, as the RW one will slide off the front page and be lost for all time in the next day or so. I had some things on my mind that I thought running this race would help, help me move on, help me find peace. What I found is that when I woke up race morning, as I got ready to catch the bus up to the start line, a lot of memories from last years pre race were there. I smiled a lot, and was very much distracted.

I spoke of my training log in my last post, how little I had run. On Friday I went to the running store, bought some GU's, which I hadn't even used one since this same marathon last year. I had 2 Powerbar Gels from a previous missed long run, so I bought 3 Gu packs, called rocket or something. I mention this because it shows how really unprepared I was. I also switched Gatorade flavors to carry to, because the Fruit Punch might have stained my new "Kal" racing shirt I made. I bought some orange on my way to the buses.

Once I stepped on the bus though, I filled with fear. The last time my legs saw 20 miles was this marathon last year. I felt ok, but as I talked about in my last entry, I had done very little running the last month or so. My weight was up to around 182, and I had been biking and using an eliptical, but not nearly enough for a guy who was trying to marathon. I really thought about asking them to let me off the bus.

We got up the canyon and I was so nervous. I watched the digital thermomoter on the bus continue to drop as we headed up the canyon, till it settled around 37. My drop bag had some warmer weather stuff in it, but turns out it was perfect. The girl from Fox 31 in Denver was running so I watched their news the night before, figuring on a weather report geared to this event. They said rain and 30's. There wasn't a cloud in the sky though. Another perfect race day. I met Jon, Victoria, and Sean, three people I met from RW the day before at the start line. And literally before I knew it, the gun went off...

Miles:
1 : 7:58
2: 7:46
3: 7:42
4: 7:23
5: 7:32
6: 7:48
7: 7:34
8: 7:53
9: 7:45
10: 7:40
11: 7:56
12: 7:54
13: 7:52
14: 7:43
15: 7:48
16: 7:50
17: 7:49
18: 7:47
19: 8:01 Here we go. The one thing I will say is that I was amazed how long it took for me to get into the 8's. Plus this had the first big uphill on ot once you are out of the canyon.
20: 8:10
21: 7:59 No clue how that happened
22: 8:19
23: 8:50
24: 8:39
25: 8:59
26: 8:42
.38: 3:47

3:30:41 on the gun.

At the 8 mile mark, I was doing the math in my head, if I sped up, I could still run a BQ I told myself. That thought lasted about 30 seconds. I went through the half about 3 minutes faster than I ran the Horsetooth Half 2 weeks prior. Around 17 or so, I started to think about beating last years time. Around 20, I was thinking I could get in under 3:30. It's easy to see that the last 6 or so miles were hard on me, they have been each other time I've run a marathon. The last miles seemed easier to me. At least easier than before.

I spoke before of how this run was supposed to be a sort of therapy for me, thinking I would go out and get lost in the beauty of the canyons, the river, the trees. I was out there for 3.5 hours and except for one location around mile 18 or so, I thought about the run the entire time. I don't remember much of what I was thinking at that point, but the race was on my mind the entire time. This was a completely musicless race for me. I did not wear an IPOD for any runs during the training and did the race with nothing but my thoughts.

The entire way down the canyon, I thought about watching my pace. At the 10k mark, when I screamed out "Just 20 to go.", the crowd seemed less than impressed. Tight asses. As I climbed the hill to Ted's Place, right around mile 17, there was tremendous crowd support. A got called Kal a couple times, since it was on my shirt, and also had people say I was still smiling. I was because I was happy knowing that within a couple miles, even if I crashed, I could still walk in and have a 4 hour marathon. Around 18 or so, a kid from the Marines and I started running together and talking. He said he could feel cramps coming on, and we distracted each other with talks of other marathons and times we had run. When I hung the corner to get on the bike trail, I remember my legs locking up at that point last year, but I pushed on. As I crossed the wooden bridges where the last miles are ran, and also where I had been running about 4 times a week before the injuries, and where the HTH finished, I shuffled off to the dirt trail that runs along the path and used it for a lot more of the race. I told myself, just make the tunnel that's halfway to the next water station, and you can walk for a little while. When I reached the tunnel, I talked myself into making that water station. I walked through every one, start to finish. I carried my own Gatorade, but got water and a few second break at each one. It made a lot of difference for me. Just after that water station, someone says "Keep it up Kal, nice job." I looked over, and the kid who caught me at mile 4 of Horsetooth was there. I asked him why it took him that long to catch me, lol. I'm proud to say, I saw his first post on the marathon thread this morning. I made the next water station, walked through it, and got going once more. About another half mile or so, me and a kid from Utah started to talk. He had run RNRAZ in January and was doing this, same as I did last year. He wanted to stop and walk and I told him just to stay with me till the water stop, we would walk through it and go to the finish. As we approached about 25.5, there are 2 hills there that you have to do. I warned him about them, seeing as he had never run the course before. We hung the last corner and had about .40 to go, he took off, and I had nothing left. I went in as fast as I could, but it was more like a jog, a lot like the rest of the run.

I learned more about marathoning on this one day than I had ever known before. I didn't run in Chicago because I was unprepared, but also because I was scared. When this same race went bad for me last year, it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me in my running career. I was afraid of how it felt at the end, how when it got tough that I would quit and I didn't want that feeling again, never in my life. I learned a lot about myself yesterday. More than I have in a long time. And I hope to apply it in the next 5 weeks, and for the rest of my running career.

Thanks to Stephen and Kyle, both of you helped a lot the day before the race. Sean, both my buddy from here, and from Wyoming, you guys are awesome, as was Jon, and everyone else I met this weekend.

So I have 5 weeks to Steamboat. I'm trying to figure out a running schedule that gets me there, and gets me 15 minutes in about 2 weeks. A lot of those minutes will be confidence. There is a half in Denver I might race on the 17th, then the Boldre Boulder is on the 25th. Then I would have a 13 day taper into Steamboat. Where to stick a 20 miler in there is the question, as I don't think I can do it this weekend. I'll keep you updated.

The April Fool

2009-04-29T15:19:00.001-07:00

So way back near the end of March, I decided that I better get my ass in gear and get signed up for the Colorado Marathon before the registration closes. Everything was going well, I seemed healthy, then the day I signed up finally, I felt a little tweaky from my left inner groin area. The upper part of my IT band was hassling me, and suddenly I went from marathon training to just trying to get miles.

For this training session my miles per week were as follows

Week 1: 28.1 I ran a New Years Eve 5k and then partied my ass off on NYD

Week 2: 43.7

Week 3: 36.9

Week 4: 63.1

Week 5: 60.0

Week 6: 40.1

Week 7: 70.1

Week 8: 48.2

Week 9: 51.8

Week 10: 53.9

Week 11: 47.4

Week 12: 25.6

Week 13: 5.0

Week 14: 25.1

Week 15: 26.3

Week 16: 9.3

Week 17: 29.2

Week 18: 13.8 so far, with another 10 or so to come.

Almost 680 miles to prepare. Less than 40 mpw average. The last 6 weeks were a wreck. I'm still a little off, but the race must go on.

Last week I made a life changing decision, one that will change my life forever. Good or bad, the jury is still out on that. The last couple years have been a real struggle for me. A lot of things have gone on in my life that I don't fo into on here, mostly because I feel there are some things that aren't to be shared. I know people think drugs or alcohol when they read something like that, but I assure you it's not. I dedicated a lot of my time and effort into something that turned our to be a dead end. To put that much time and effort into something and know that it was all for nothing, that all your pain, sweat, and tears were givin in vain is a hard thing to do. But sometimes a person has to realize that the only way to find happiness is to endure pain first, and I have for almost 2 years. I've decided that I need to be true to myself, and that's what I'm doing.

When I quit on Chicago after my IT issue last year, I was drained, worn out, had no fight left in me. I wanted to back out of Colorado this year, but after spending my day Sunday in the bottom of a bottomless bottle of beer, I went and ran on Monday, and part way through that run, I decided that for my heart and soul, I needed to do this. After all these months and all these miles, I can leave this baggage somewhere on the course, and return to the road I was on years ago, the one to happiness, to successful running, to the rest of my life. Belief in others is foolish, you can only count on yourself. I used to believe in this saying, but thought for a little while that maybe you just needed to find the right person to believe in. I was wrong.

Expect to see a 4 hour marathon or so. There is no tracking, but am making arrangements with a couple of people from runnersworld.com that I will give at least an update or two on the course, since some walking will be upcoming for sure, and my fuel belt has a spot for my blackberry.

I expect this to be my last entry before the race. I know some people might think it foolish to do this, but remember, they're just miles.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend. Especially Steve, because as long as I finish, my 3rd marathon was better than yours, I'll figure out how to run that 2:58 in Steamboat, like you did in Philly, after Sunday :p

Horsetooth Half Marathon

2009-04-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the 19th of April. My 3rd annual Horsetooth Half Marathon is coming up in the morning. This race was the first half marathon I had ever run, and probably my all time favorite race. I can still remember the days leading up to both of the other ones. 2 years ago, I went out for my Saturday run before the race and cramped up, freaking me out and causing me to drink about 3 bottles of Powerade Zero the night before and freak out. I also remember consuming a Red Bull, and a Spike before reaching the starting line, lol. Last year, I went to the packet pickup, and drank beer for 3 hours with fellow runners, probably left the 30 seconds that I finished behind my PR somewhere at the Miramont Fitness Center's FAC that was going on. I've logged around 7 miles this week, but some bike and eliptical time. The race will happen, it may be my slowest half ever, but I'll finish it. As will the full marathon here in 15 days. But that's another story for another time.

I've come to a realization in my life. After being a fairly serious runner for about 2.5 years, having run 2 marathons, 5 halves, and countless 5 and 10k's, that at this point, I'm not a high mileage guy, at least not right now. When I ran and was successful in my first marathon, I ran around 45 miles a week, but I also used an exercise bike, an eliptical machine and weights to cross train. After RNRAZ last January, I used those things less and less, and by the time I was trying to get ready for Chicago last summer, I was pretty much just running and doing nothing else. At my current weight, my legs and feet just don't like it. My toes are still bothering me, as are my left knee and IT band. The old routine for me was to get up @ 5, lift by 5:30, nothing major, just some muscle building. Then I would get 5 or 6 miles on the road at lunch, maybe pick up another 2 or 3 after work, then an hour or so on the bike or eliptical, then off to shower and refuel. Good cardio and lower impact. My long runs on the weekend were easier for me, and I stayed healthier. The allure of being a 70-80 mile a week runner has really gotten me in a bad spot, and really, to be a good marathoner, a person doesn't need to run that many miles. The time will come, when I want to be a sub 3 guy, or around there, that I will have to run those kinds of miles, but hopefully my body will be prepared for it by then.

I know some people will chime in and say that miles don't cause injury, that intensity does. Well the simple truth for me is that I can't (or won't) run 9:00 miles for 75-80% of my training. I like to run fast, and feel that I am running easy, and when I do those kinds of paces, I feel out of whack, unnatural. And I also feel like when I run slow, that I am very heavy footed, that my turnover is very slow, thus I am pounding on my feet and knees.

I have this half tomorrow and the full in 2 weeks. The Steamboat Marathon is in 7 weeks, and my base is still very good, I just need to get the running part of it going again. Lots of long weekend miles, shorter miles during the weeks and lots of bike time is what's coming up for me. But when I get ready for Denver in October, it'll look a little different from a training standpoint. I think the Daniels' plan will still be used, but we'll probably set the max mileage at 50 or so, instead of 70.

Good luck to all those running this weekend. Especially those of you in Boston, have fun, but not too much.. Leave it all on the course.

On the Fly

2009-03-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

So here I sit, 41 days from the marathon. Anyone who looks at my training log either thinks I'm forgetfull and no longer am logging miles or that something is wrong. Unfortunatly it is the latter. Moving back to last weekend, I had to make an emergency trip back home to the valley to see my family. I left on Saturday after work, but before I left, I went for a quick 5 miles that didn't go very well. I could really feel my left groin bothering me. When I tried to go out on Sunday and get my Q1 in, I could barely run. I wound up taking Sunday and Monday off and then coming back with 10 miles Tuesday. On Wednesday, I went out for 5 at lunch, and the plan was to get another 5 after a meeting a work. Well at the meeting, I was informed that everybody was taking a 10% pay cut, so me and one of the guys went to have a couple beers insetead. On Thursday I went out and ran 4 X 12 minutes @ T pace, with 2 minute rests. Including the 2 mile warm up and cool down, it was 10 miles total. It was also probably the best marathon specific workout that I have ever had, with the possible exception of a 20 miler I did before my first marathon, before I knew what LSD was. Friday morning I got up, felt a little sore in my legs, went down to Runners Roost, ponied up the 95 bucks for the marathon, and was planning a 13.1 mile run that day. No go. I tried to run Saturday at lunch, same result. My thigh on my left leg feels torn up inside. Rewind to Thursday afternoon. My left foot was bothering me some that day, but having missed some runs, I wanted to try and get out and get my workout in, especially having missed my previous Q workout. I tested it, and it felt ok to run the 10 miles on. Looks like it changed my gait though, bothering my thigh, my knee, and my groin all at once. So bottom line is this. Last week I ran 20 miles, I haven't made a Sunday long run in 2 weeks, and although I'm on the mend, I probably will have almost taken 6 days off by the time I resume.

I went to watch the Colorado Mammoth play indoor lacrosse last night, (it was entertaining, but I still prefer hockey) and as I watched the game I was thinking alot about training, marathoning, and such. For both of my first two marathons, I trained for 13 weeks. 11 hard than a 2 week taper. When I tried to prepare for Chicago last year, it was right around the 12 week mark that I broke down. Looking at the calendar, this is right about in that same time frame. The difference right now is that, when I was training for Chicago, as the days and workouts came and went, I really felt like I was never getting anywhere. Looking back, I still think I could have saved the Chicago Marathon this year, I just didn't have it in me to continue on in the training when I knew it wasn't working for me. I could have worked throught the IT issue and still run it. I just don't think I had the fire in my belly to go out in front of all these people I knew, and not be able to perform to the standard I had set for myself. Not one anyone else has set for me. I don't feel that way right now. I have made tremendous gains in my training this time, with Thursday night's run really showing me how far I have come, in really what has been a short time. I was running less than 35 mpw when I first started this program, and although I only hit 70 one out of the three times I was supposed to, and even with this time off, this marathon is not only doable, but I can still get in around the time I want to I believe.

I will hopefully return to running tomorrow, for 5 miles or so. Then run the rest of the week, leading up to Sunday. The Daniels' program Q1 workouts are now out the window. My next 4 sunday workouts will go as follows (hopefully) 19 this Sunday, 20 the following, 21 the weekend after, then the Horsetooth Half Marathon, then my 2 week taper. The 2 marathons that I have made the starting line to, that's how I did my 20's. The Q2s will still be run each week, but the long stuff will change.

No worries people.

The Big Toe

2009-03-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

So last week after my Q2 workout, I came down with a sprain in my big toe on my right foot. When I went out and did my 19 mile run on Sunday, about 14 miles in, it really started bothering me to the point that I really was worried about it. I had to pick up the pace at that point and go back to 7 minute miles, and for a couple minutes I really thought I was in a bad way. I had been reading about Turf Toe, and how it can put people out of action for almost a month. Upon further review though, the pain was on the top of my foot, and resonating it's way down to the toe. A little ice and some Advil, and after yesterday's 13.1, I am unconcerned about it. I think it was just a ding from all the miles I have been running.

I don't rant much in my blogs, mostly because I figure "what does anyone care what I think?", but I've never made any secret of the fact that I love Colorado, and Ft. Collins in particular. But here lately, as I get out and about on these longer runs, I am tending to notice some things, and they are some things that bother me about my little community. At the corner of Mulberry and Lemay, right out in front of the Home Depot/Wal Mart complex the past week or so, there has been a guy with a sign asking for money. Don't get me wrong, I am not here to say "I hate the homeless.", or anything like that. It's just that we never have had much of that around here. Ft. Collins actually has a decent sized homeless population, and about 3/4 mile away from where I work, there is a park where they are allowed to habitat, sleep, and such. The police allow them to stay there and don't bother them, and in agreement, they do not populate the neighboring parks and areas. And literally, there is pretty much never any trouble that comes from them, but seeing this really reminds me of areas in Denver that I have been to, and it makes me feel like my little town isn't quite so little anymore. I hope that makes sense...

6 days ago, I was on a 19 mile run, and as I came down to the last 4 miles or so, I was on Drake heading west. With the exception of College Ave, Mullberry, Drake, Prospect, Horsetooth, and Harmony roads ( the main roads here in Ft. Collins) almost every road in this town has a bike lane on it. I spend a lot of time running in bike lanes, mostly because it's asphalt instead of concrete, and because the sidewalks are either full of people walking, or, people on bikes????even though they have a bike lane. So as I headed west, there were 3 guys walking west and the sidewalk was only wide enough for 2, so one of them was pretty much walking in the street. A car honked at the guy to get out of the road, and had to go into the other lane to get around him. As the car drove to the next light, one of the guys picked up a rock and started running to try and get within throwing distance. I'm watching this happen, thinking to myself that if this guy hits that cars window with a rock and breaks it, I'm going to have to step in. I'm 15 miles into a run, there are 3 of them, but I can't just let it slide. So the light turns green and the Pontiac speeds away, unharmed. The guy goes to his knees, hacking because he ran about 300 feet and as I pass him, he looks sideways at me, and I utter "dumbass" as I go by. He heard me, but said nothing in return. Kids in general are idiots these days. When I was young, even up till I was just getting into high school, if I acted up, my dad whipped my ass. And good. Fear of an ass kicking didn't keep me from drinking, or smoking, or things like that, but stupid shit, like that kid, you didn't do because you knew there were consiquences for your actions. It doesn't seem to be that way anymore.

End rant.

Lower miles than I wanted this week, I did the 13.1 over the hills of Horsetooth on Tuesday, after doing the 19.1 on Sunday. I was about 5 minutes quicker over the HTH course than I was about 10 days prior, which was good, and I figured I would head out for a 10 mile run on Wednesday after work...well I got 3 miles and that was it. My thighs were pretty trashed from the hills. I took Thursday off and did my Q2 last night, totaling about 8.2 miles of interval work. At the beginning of this training cycle, I was running a lot of doubles, just getting miles. Now that we are within two months of the marathon, that will change for me. Praise Jesus for daylight savings. Most of my runs from now till the end of the cycle will be of double digit miles or more, with the possible exception of the occasional recovery run, or if my Q2 calls for less than 10. This gets my body ready for longer runs, plus it will probably give me an extra day off during the week, as I start doing some 22's and really get to the hard part of this training plan.

That said, maybe 5 or 6 after work to finish the week, then into my pickup and to the other side of the state. My sister is in failing health right now, at age 33 and I need to go visit, before I don't get the chance to again...

Q2

2009-03-05T10:11:00.000-08:00

This is the first time so far this training session that I have written about a specific workout that I have done. My running log is available for everyone to see on RWOL.

http://traininglog.runnersworld.com/profiles/e1195ed2a8194cf6bbd220a914b648c6

It doesn't tell the whole story on certain runs though. On a workout like yesterdays, my average pace was very good, but it was an interval workout, so 40 of the 50 minutes were spend at what would be a higher intensity.

I left work at 5pm, still daylight, and still shorts weather here in Fort Collins. I knew that barring a setback, that I would finish right after sunset. I mapped the run earlier in the day, and thought I had put together a nice 11 and some odd mile route that would be perfect for the run. I took off up Mountain Ave to the west. The wind was blowing out of the west pretty good, so the 2 easy miles at the beginning were a little harder intensity than I had hoped for. I started the 20 minutes at Threshold Pace still heading west. At 2 minutes, I got caught by a traffic light, just for a second, but stopped my Garmin. About 2 minutes later into the run, I looked down to find that I had never restarted it.

I'll give a little backround into my Threshold runs here lately. Last weeks Q2 was 2 easy, followed by 2 x 15 minutes @ T pace with 3 minute rests. I was staring at the Garmin at about 10 minutes into the first one, counting the seconds till the rest period. The week before was 4 x 1 mile @ T pace, with 1 minute rests, followed by 5 easy minutes, then another 3x 1 mile @ T pace. Needless to say that I didn't even do the last 3 repeats of that workout. 2 weekends ago, I ran a 5k on the Colorado State campus with the intention of running it at T pace, (which is about 30 seconds slower than I have run some 5k's in my life). Near the end I was gasping, but the biggest reason I did it was to work on my breathing. I read a lot about it in the Daniels' book, but seem to be stuggling with it. It's something that I needed to get figured out.

So as I got around 7 minutes into the first 20 minutes, I was coming up over a pretty good hill where I needed to take a right and continue up another. I shut down for about 30 seconds at that point and started to walk, sucking wind. I restarted and as the road flattened out and I seemed to be doing just fine. I finished the 20 minutes and went into a 10 minutes E after that. As I was coming to the end of that interval, I hung the corner onto the bike path that is the home stretch of both the Horestooth Half and the Colorado Marathon. The last 6 miles or so are raced on this stretch. I started the 2nd interval and after about 3 minutes, BINGO. My breathing was there. I nailed the last 17 minutes and probably could have easily carried it another 20 minutes or so. I got to the end, ran the 2 easy miles for a cooldown, and called it a night. I've had my 2 best Q workouts this week. It's quite exciting, don't you think?

I closed the night at Coopersmiths, enjoying the $18.68 dinner deal with a friend of mine. Nachos, a large pepperoni and sausage pizza, and a pitcher of Poudre Pale Ale. It's part of the Great Plates deal here in town.

http://downtownfortcollins.com/pdf-gateway.php/documents/GP_09_insert_final

I should go out for dinner again tonight.

Halfway Home

2009-02-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

So I had been blogging at Runners World for a while, but have decided to return here and just link to there from now on again. I like the format here a lot better and really don't spend much time on RW anymore.

As of Saturday I had completed 50% of the training for my upcoming marathon. 9 weeks down, 9 to go. More truthfully I actually have 7 weeks of real training left, 6 really if I really want to try and nail the Horsetooth Half 2 weeks prior. About a week and a half ago, I hit a wall in my training. It happened right around the same time as it did when I tried to prepare for Chicago last year. I backed off, took an extra rest day and missed some miles that week, and came back to have my best Q1 in about 3 weeks after that. It was very encouraging. I've done 32+ miles in the last 2 days, and am well on my way to the 70 mile week that is my peak mileage. Making sure that I am running at the right "easy pace" is really important for me at this point. Part of the reason I hit the wall again I think is because I get to doing too many workouts too fast and don't leave myself enough gas in the tank to run the "fast" workouts when the time comes.

3:15:59. I have to be realistic. I've gone into both of my previous marathons thinking about a sub 3:10, and the truth is that right now I am not ready to be able to run one that fast. My fitness level when I started this program was behind where it was for the previous 2. I still have no doubts that I can run a really nice sub 3:10, or maybe even a sub 3:00 at some point, but the base that I started this training program at was not nearly good enough. I was only about 25-30 mpw before I jumped into this due to injury. It's true what they say, that to really run a good marathon, it's a lot more than just 18 weeks. There is a lot of time beforehand, building base, doing the things that set you up aerobically, so you are stronger, in better shape to handle the taxing Quality workouts. My MP for Phoenix and Ft. Collins last year was 7:00 per mile. On Wednesday last week, I had a workout that had me run @ 6:55 for 20 minutes and I was cooked after that. I still have a ways to go with the training program, but I don't see myself being able to run 7:00 miles for 20 something miles at this point. What I do see is me being able to run them for about 17 on the downhills and then me crashing and burning like I did last year, and the results being exactly the same. I didn't marathon for a year after that happened last year, and I am not going to let it happen again. RNRAZ was such a positive experience for me, but mostly because I had no clue what to expect, I was ignorant to what a marathon was at that time. Ft. Collins was a much worse experience for me, and left me sour. As long as I stay realistic, there is no reason that I can't come out of Colorado healthy, happy, and having run a time that I will be satisfied with, hopefully leading me to a better race at the Denver Marathon in October, and hopefully Boston and NY the following year if things fall the right way.

Another kind of stupid thing I did at the beginning of all this was change shoes. I had been a Nike Structure Triax guy for the first 2 marys, but moved into a set of Asics DS Trainers and a set of Nike Zoom Elite 4s. I am very happy with both shoes. I got lucky, lol. Also I upgraded to the Garmin 405 when my 205 broke. Pros: The 405 acquires signal very quickly, and is much smaller. Plus I can actually wear the heartrate monitor it came with. Cons: It's too quick in how it adjusts your real time pace. The 205 processed info much slower, so if you were under trees and bridges and such, the pace didn't jump around so much. The 405 will almost instantly show you running a minute or two slower than you actually are, till you get into the clear. It's a little annoying, that and I really don't like the touch face on it. I am still music free on every workout this cycle. Even the 2.5 hour one on Sunday was no problem without it.

February closed here in Ft Collins with near record high temps, and we are still pushing the 60's and 70's almost every day. It's been a mild snow winter, but the wind has been so rough on us. It's blowing again here today, but it was 61 degrees at 6:55 this morning when I came to work. I actually have run in shorts for the last week or so.

I'll try and be better about keeping this up, but these are busy times.

Cheers

Thanksgiving, dead birds, and Boulder

2008-12-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

So the 2nd of the fall/winter holidays has come and gone. I spent Thanksgiving with my family, the first time I've seen them in 11 months. Gas at 1.49 a gallon made the drive a little easier to swallow in my pickup as compared to last year. We closed early at work on Wednesday, at 1 pm and Jaz and I loaded up and made the trip. I arrived, had dinner with my brother and his g/f and her kid, and my mom even came down and joined us. Back to his place, sat in the hot tub and drank beer till all hours of the night, then off to bed. I got up the next morning and did my 6 miles that I scheduled with Jaz. The bike path that runs from Aspen to Glenwood was pretty much deserted that morning, so Jaz got to run free with no leash, that was very cool. I went back, worked on my brothers computer, started on some beer, and had dinner with my family. I lost a cool $100 on the Cardinals in the late game that night, somehow changing my mind from betting the over in the NFL game to thinking that the Cards could somehow beat the Eagles.

We got up the next morning, and headed to Delta for some pheasant hunting. It snowed overnight and all the way over McClure Pass. We had 5 guys/guns and 6 dogs. Jaz, Alex, Haley, and 3 others I didn't know. 4 labs and one pointer. We got a message from the guy who ran the bird ranch that it had rained over there all night and that the cover was really wet. We still hunted, finding 11 birds, with Jaz finding 5 and retrieving 4. Did I mention that she only hunted for less than an hour because of her bad hip? She was the rock star she has always been. We rode back to Carbondale, then I loaded up and headed back to Ft. Fun in a blizzard. I reached home safely and headed to work the next day.

On Dec 7th I made a return trip to run the Colder Boulder for the 2nd year in a row. Cool beanie, same crappy results. I was actually a minute faster than last year, but still got out too fast. I was in the 5:30's for parts of the first mile and flamed out again, I ran a 20:40. As tough as the course treats me, Neelia ran another PR on it. Strange.

This last weekend I ran the Christmas Classic 4 miler here in Ft. Collins. It snowed the night before and was below zero at the start. I suited up with 79 others and tackled the tough course, lots of uphills in this one, plus my lungs hurt from the cold. Steve Cathcart, who owns Runners Roost, and is a 16 something 5k dude and has BQ'd more times than I've raced only finished less than a minute ahead of me. Not that I am fast, it just shows how tough the course was, along with the conditions that we ran in. 25:18 was the winning time, hell I ran a 26:something last year in a 4 mile. I raced, won a pair of free socks for kicking Santa's ass, but got done, changed socks and shoes, and drove my truck, that was warmed up when I finished, to a place across town for breakfast, and still couldn't feel my toes. It was almost 40 minutes after the race that they finally felt normal again. A good tune up run for the Resolution Run that takes place on the 31st at 7pm. :-)

On a personal note, I am through feeling responsible for online relationships/freindships. With the exception of 2 people in my life, one being my brother, they are the only people that I am in contact with every day of my life. The people I work with are an exception as well. I don't talk to my mom every day, not even the lesbians that I live with. I care about a lot of people in my life, and with 11 hour work days and life the way that it is, I cannot text/pm/myspace/facebook/IM/E-mail every day. If the weekend gets by and we don't catch up, sorry, but life gets busy. I would hope that a message from me might not be the most importaint thing that happens in your day. I'm not trying to be a dick, but my life needs to involve more than that.

Merry Christmas all.

The Chicago Aftermath

2008-10-21T07:52:00.001-07:00

"Why are you still going to go and torture yourself?"

I was asked that a handfull of times as I prepared for my trip to Chicago for the marathon this year. Knowing I couldn't run the whole thing , I still went. For starters, a few of my favorite people in the world were going to be there. Chris, Squirrel, Larua, the Bills, Chooch. Plus I made new friends this year, Erin, Joel, Reid, Eddy, Kristen, Vera and the like. I ate too much, drank too much, slept too little, and had the most fun I've had in a long time.

I got to spend a few hours with Squirrel before the FE, definatly had fun with everyone there at Trader Todds. Millers Pub was very cool both days we were there for sure. I think I may have scared Erin off of Sprite forever, and eating a huge breakfast including sausage, eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns is probably not the best thing before a 6 mile run for sure. I loved riding the El, more taxi adventures for sure, and generally just a good time. I spent 10 minutes at the expo and very little time with anything to do with the marathon.

What came out of all this was me being re enegrgized about running again. Last year, I went, saw the race, came home and ran a half mary in Denver the next weekend after running about 5 miles in a month. The wave carried me all the way to Arizona and Colorado before injuries and I think just exhaustion took it's toll on me. After my knee injury, I took a little time off, and when I returned to running, it still wasn't working for me.

One thing that I have thought a lot about here lately is that all I've done is marathon train for almost a year. I'm not any faster than I was last year when I do things such as 5k's. A change is in order for me I think. I have tentivly targeted Colorado again in May as my next marathon, although I'm not 100% sure. I won't run another one with some things in my life the way they sit right now. If things seem t get squared away, then I'll be mentally prepared. Something someone said to me a few weeks ago about balance and such. The Colder Boulder invite 5k is the next targeted race for me. Instead of a "marathon" training schedule that includes a 5k the first week of December, the next 5 or so weeks will be dedicated to getting faster for that 3.1 miles. Which means a lot of speedwork, lots of hard, short runs. At my worst in June, I was 20:30 for a 5k, to shave those 31 seconds should happen if I'll concentrate on it. I figure my half marathon times will come down when I really buckle down for marathon training again. But this is something I can do without throwing myself full bore into a training program again that requires 70 miles per week.

Enjoy the rest of your October if I don't write again, it's supposed to snow here tonight :-o

A new month

2008-09-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been keeping up everyone, but life has been busy and really haven't felt like sharing a lot of what's been going on with everything in my life. As the kalendar turns to a new month, hopefully better things are on the horizon and the month closed pretty well for me all things considered. I ran less miles in September than I had since I started running. I took almost 3 of the 4 weeks off completely. My weight has jumped up to almost 180 pounds, a combonation of too much junk food/beer and no running. It actually probably isn't that bad, I just never changed my diet after I stopped training for Chicago. I have been struggling with pain in my abdomen for the last 3 weeks or so and the sad truth is that I finally after all this time may have found out what keeps bothering it. I wear a uniform that is supplied to me at work. All of the pants have a 32 inch waist. I remember when I first got them, I had a pair or two of them that were a little snug...over the last month, they have all become that way as my waist has grown a little. Bottom line is I spend 12 hours wearing pants that are too tight in the waist and its pushing on my midsection, causing pain in my ab. I went out and bought a couple pairs of "dress pants" last night to wear for a couple weeks till my weight comes back down.

From a family standpoint, I have been trying to keep up with my family on the Western Slope a little bit more here lately, but that hasn't gone great. I called my mom on Sunday and she was a mess so I kind of let her cry a little, did what I could, but in the end we just said goodbye and left it at a 5 minute conversation or so.

Mustache week was a success for a local establishment and I could not help but take part. The deal was that Road 34, which is a combo bike shop/bar/deli that always has Original Coors on tap for $1 a pint would give you 1-10 free Coors every day, depending on the quality of your mustache. I walked in Monday night and the dude behind the bar promplty handed me a free beer. My mustache was worth only one free beer each day. By the time it was all said and done, I grew a crappy looking mustache to get 4 free Coors that would have cost me 4 dollars had I just bought them...totally worth it. It was a little late in the evening when they drew for the motorized cooler, so no new wheels for me.

Sorry everyone, no pics of mine, I must have forgotten, but it was still a good time for everyone involved and in retrospect, a great promotion for the bar. Thursdays in their dollar beer night and that was the big night for it. Lots of fun. :-)

I also returned to running yesterday, with 2 miles in just under 16 minutes, nothing too stellar, but I need to get some miles in before Chicago, partially to see if I can get my weight under control. Plus I need to see if the change in my pants solves the ab pain because it does get to hurting when I run. I plan to push to 2.5 tonight and see how I feel. I'm kind of getting excited about running again, if I can feel good and do it. The plan right now is for me to begin to get healthy, build some miles, and kick full training in again 18 weeks out of the Colorado Marathon and retry that one again.

Jaz is doing great, she's down almost 4 pounds since they put her on thyroid medcation and she is far and away faster than she used to be. Plus she's got a lot more "spirit". Very cool.

That's all for now.

September

2008-09-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a long stretch, but life goes on. I have returned to running, and have been pounding out a consistant 5-6 miles per day again, with a couple on the TM on Saturday morning. My legs seem ok and knees seem healthy, hopefully it will all stay that way. Although Chicago is still out of the picture, I think the Crossroads Half, the Denver Half, the HCOTR Half, and the PF Chang Half are all still in sight. I'm really going to try to be attentive to my weight during this stretch, but all the while I need to probably start thinking about a spring marathon, or at least if I have it in me to run another one in the spring. I think more and more that I may stick with shorter stuff for now. I am really struggling with my concentration it seems. I'll let everyone know when I make that decision.

Jaz has been steadily improving, but a trip to the vet on Friday revealed that her weight has not moved since her surgery. She looks so much better, but after a quick blood test and and couple hours, we have found her to be hypo thyroid. Basically they said that I could feed her so little to the point that she might starve and still exercise her, and she probably wouldn't lose weight. 13 dollars worth of pills later, and they say it's quite possible that she'll be 10 pounds lighter in a month. She just has to take 2 a day for the rest of her life. Her coat feels so much better already. :-)

Tour De Fat was Saturday here in Ft. Collins, although I didn't get to participate because of work, I did get to spend some time in Old Town afterwards having a beer and talking to the people around

You can see how people are dressed and how busy it was down at the Trailhead. I actually spent the day before over at New Belgium Brewery, taking the tour, sampling some beers, just hanging out with Jaz in tow. The staff was already dressed up, getting in the spirit. One guy was wearing a lime green suit, but in the pocket were a turkey feather and a claw. He reached down to pet Jaz and she grabbed the feather out of his pocket and turned to me to give it like she had just retrieved a bird. Everyone thought it was the funniest thing.

There she is guarding the door of one of our watering holes.

With fall coming came the growing of the beard. This happens every year around this time. I think it's the long weekend for Labor Day that I don't have to shave over. I made it 11 days this time before the itching took it's toll. I was inspired by Tyler Foos, winner of the Horsetooth Half last year and bartender at New Belgium's Tap Room. I was thinking that his speed came from his beard, plus Squirrel has one too, but turns out that's not the case, as I am still slow. The beard is gone and that gets rid of my once a year urge to grow one. Plus I think they suck to run in anyways.

That's all for now.

Stormy Weather

2008-08-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

So as I wrote previous, my knee had been giving me some trouble after my long runs and I decided to give it some time off, and see what it would do with some rest. Last weekends post long run knee pain was pretty bad, so I basically took the entire week as unscheduled rest, with the exception of Wednesday, which I ran just 3 miles. I figured at this point that if I took a week off and the knee was ok, I could pick back up my MP run yesterday and my 19 miler today and not really have it effect my Chicago marathon training. But if it was still problematic at that point, chances are that I would not be able to recover in time to run the Chicago Marathon anyways. At least not run in the way that I want to.

Thursday brought crazy weather to Colorado, with temps in the 50's and low 60's for the weekend and a constant barrage of rain. I don't normally mind rain, but as cold as it was made for a real pain in the ass day at work and just general miserable conditions. As I left work on Thursday night, this was the scene from under a gas station awning.

I had dinner in Old Town on Friday night in advance of my run on Saturday, then actually slept in and waited to do the run after I was fully awake and aware. It was still raining pretty good, but I knew I couldn't wait any longer, nor could I skip the run. I told myself that after almost 5 full days off that I was going to set my MP for the run around 7:15, instead of the normal 7:00 that I usually do. I took off and was able to hold the pace pretty good for about the first 5 miles. I felt my knee start to ache a little and so I slowed, not wanting to push it. Within the next mile though, I had to stop and walk, feeling as much pain, if not more from it than I did the previous 2 weeks. Also, both times before, it didn't hurt till after the run was over, this one hurt while I was running. I alternated walking and painful jogging the rest of the way home...

The only decision that I have made right now is that I will not be running the Chicago Marathon. I refuse to do it just to do it, and with the amount of time off that I will probably have to take to get healthy, there is no way that I can run the BQ that I want.

Part of me is thinking about a month off, then re starting the 18 week program, and trying R&R AZ again in January. Another part of me is thinking maybe Colorado again in May, after some signifigant recovery time. Not just from the knee, but also from the fact that I was trying to run a third marathon this year before this happened, and that might be a little much for me. From a dicipline standpoint as well as a health one. I'm just not sure right now. I still fully intend to make the trip to Chicago in Oct. It just looks like for the 2nd year in a row, I'll do it as a spectator.

And when I stopped at one place, this was the scene I saw...

Where do we go from here?

2008-08-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Where to start...A recap from last weekend had me with a bum knee that hurt after my LR. I took Monday off, skipping a short 3 mile recovery run, then tried to hit my 6x800 intervals the next day. I got through 2 before the skies opened up and the lightning started, when I tried to return to the run, I got through one more before I started to tighten up. I ran only 2 on Wednesday, did my tempo run on Thursday, which went fine, and took Friday off. I ran the Fort Collins Human Race on Saturday in Old Town. This is where things begin to turn for me. I ran a 44:45 for the 10k. My knee and leg started to ache after about 3 miles or so. I was on pace for a PR, then just had to cruise in, hoping not to push the leg too much. I went out for my LR this morning and started to feel it around my 6, but same as last weekend, I finished fine, but about 30-45 minutes after the run, I could hardly walk on it. I could barely shift the clutch in my pickup after Jaz and I left breakfast this morning. It feels better after some time has passed and a trip to the hot tub, but I know if I pick things back up tomorrow, I'll be right back in the same boat next weekend, and next weekend is the hardest stretch of my training cycle. 9 @ MP on Saturday, followed by an 18 miler that comes on Sunday. I really have only missed one or two workouts for this training plan, but at this point I am planning on taking Monday and Tuesday off. I will be missing a recovery run tomorrow, but on Tuesday I have hill intervals scheduled, and I hate to miss the speedwork, especially after not getting all my miles in last Tuesday because of the same problem.

So now I am faced with a tough week ahead. Bottom line is that if I only miss a couple days, even into Wednesday, I can pick up my tempo run on Thursday, take Friday off and hit my workouts over the weekend. If my leg is ok, then I probably don't miss a beat and am still on schedule for Chicago. BUT, if I don't bounce back on Wednesday and wind up being out of action for any significant length of time, what do I do? I know that if I took a week or two off because of this, that I could pick up my plan, go to Chicago and run. I could do the 26.2 miles tomorrow if healthy, the problem is, how fast could I do them? Could I BQ...Probably not. Could I run a 3:30 marathon or so. Most likely. So, do I go and hope that maybe I catch lightning in a bottle, that the drop in altitude, the crowds, and the people I know who will be there to cheer me on, thinking that they might give me the 15 minutes I need to run the 3:15:59. Or do I close up shop, let myself get healthy and once again look at Phoenix. That would give me almost a month to heal and then resume from square one.

I've been sick to my stomach all day long with this turn of events. To think that I may not be able to see this through, that I may go run Chicago just to say I've run it. It fucking sucks. I'll know more in the next couple days...

Return to Racing

2008-08-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, which is a SRD for me every day going into Chicago except for the Friday before the race. It's my toughest day of the week though. It's hard for me not to want to run, bike, swim, anything athletic that helps take the edge off. Amd with my two hardest workouts being Saturday and Sunday every week, I can't spend the day eating poorly or drinking beer or anything like that. Without work to kill the time today, I get to do laundry, play with the dog, and just try and keep myself busy.

So, the hamstring issue from last week turned out to be cramps it looks like. My body has responded ok to returning to running. It's been a goofy week though. I skipped Mondays 3 miles because of the hamstring pain I had. Tueday was interval day, and I tried to do them in the evening after work and wound up getting dumped on by the rain. That's ok, except for it started to lightning so I had to stop after 2 of the 6 to let the weather pass, and when I tried to restart again, I could feel tightness in my hamstring, so I bagged it. Wednesday I cut the run short in the morning because I took Jaz to City Park so she could run with me on the grass. So I was nervous about yesterdays 40 minute tempo run, feeling like I hadn't really run good forever, but it turned out fine, and the leg is ok. :-)

I was scheduled for 9 at MP tomorrow morning, but have decided to run the Fort Collins Human Race 10k tomorrow in Old Town. I commited earlier on in the month that I would run a sub 42 10k, and this is my first attempt. It's also a good way for me to gauge how my Chicago training is coming. I usually don't race on Saturdays because of work, but made arrangments for this one. I like that it's right off a day off for me, plus I get a cut back LR this weekend of 12 miles on Sunday. This will be my first race in about a month and a half, so we shall see.

I also changed shoes finally this week. I went to the Nike Dart VI. No frills, nothing too special. More neutral than stability shoe. Probably not something I plan to stay in long term, but the Triaxs that I've worn for about a year now are really heavy and thought I might try something different to see if I can get out of having to wear one specific shoe. If it doesn't work out, I can always dive into the closet for another set of Triax 10's. But we shall see on that too.

Time to change the laundry...have a great weekend everyone. Race report to come this weekend.

Trouble...Maybe

2008-08-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

So I've been writing a little about how my workouts for my Chicago training have been getting better and better. So as the weekend arrived, I knew I had some longer workouts, but nothing that would be too taxing from a speed standpoint. After just 4 on Wednesday at about 8:15 per mile, I had just 3 @ MP on Thursday morning. After work I went to Tony's with a couple guys and had a couple beers, but wound up leaving and going with Jaz to the Trailhead for another and just sitting on the deck and letting people pet her while I relaxed a little. I got up and nailed my Thursday workout, then took Friday as my SRD. Saturdays run was 8, but at MP +90 seconds, which put me at around 8:30 per mile. I did that and then off to work, after work, I had dinner. I got to bed late, but felt good getting up for yesterdays run. I ran the mile to the park where the bike trail begins up near my house and then another 7.5 down and the 8.5 back. I stuck the 8:30 pace that I wanted to pretty much the whole way. I finished the run feeling good and took a shower and headed out to breakfast. Jaz and I usually go to Gibs NY Bagels here in town on my days off to grab something to eat on the 2 days a week that I don't work. I eat a bagel sandwich and have coffee there on my days off from work. Fridays are usually pretty easy because it's my rest day, but Sundays we go after my Long Run and chill out. After my 17 though, I decided to head downtown to a little place here on Mountain Ave, right up from where I work and the Trailhead and all and actually sit and have breakfast. They have a dog-friendly patio out back and the food is pretty good. So I climbed out of the truck to go let Jaz out and make my way to their patio, and my left hamstring felt a little funny, plus I was limping a little. I had remembered looking at my Garmin when I finished the run, and it had said that I had burned 2300 calories on my work out, so I figured I had a free pass within reason for breakfast. Steak, eggs, hashbrowns, toast, and a huge ass pancake, with SF syrup, lol. I drove Jaz down to the river and let her swim for a while, and during the walk, my leg actually felt worse. After I got back to the house, I tried to relax it and it just hurt worse and worse as the day went on. After I sat down over dinner last night, I decided to take the day off today from running, (it was just 3 recovery miles) and we'll see how it looks tomorrow. I was just talking on Saturday about replacing my shoes, since I've been in them for a long time. Hopefully I didn't wait a day too long.

I have a speed workout tomorrow, and we'll see how it reacts in the morning, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see...

July Come and Gone...almost

2008-07-26T19:57:00.000-07:00

It's almost the end of the month of July, and as we get ready to head into August, I start to think about how the summer is almost gone. We'll have a couple more months of good warm weather here, but with the end of August starts the college football season, the Broncos reported to camp yesterday, meaning the first exhibition game of the season isn't too far behind, these mean the ushering in of fall.

Work has been busy this summer. We are having the biggest month we have had since I rejoined my company, I am happy to say that Jaz's surgery about 10 days ago was a success and that she is doing well, she will return to swimming tomorrow, and has really started to slim down. Her mammory glands have started to shrink just a little, I really need to get her weighed, I may do that one night this week if I can sneak off to the vets at some point. She's a little less obidient right now as she has began to feel better for the first time in months, and I couldn't be happier with her progress.

Marathon training has been a little up and down, a lot of that is my fault, as I think I had been over cross training a little, thus leaving my legs a little tired to really give everything I can to my Chicago workouts. As I have really quieted the other stuff besides running down, the last two really hard workouts for me have gone very well. My 40 minute tempo run on Thursday, and my 8 miles at MP (the MP workouts have been the toughest on me so far) today were both the best workouts I've had so far. I remember preparing for the Flying Pig...er Colorado Marathon, that when I had a LR on Sunday, I used to go easy on Saturdays. This plan has me doing that MP run today, then backing it up with a 16 miler tomorrow. Plus afterwards I get to help my roommate move a bunch of stuff. Fun filled day for me tomorrow. I'm fried right now and I have to get up and pound out 16 in less than 9 hours. LR's never bother me though, probably because they are slower pace, I've always joked that I could run 8 minute miles all day long, it's when they need to be in the 7's and 6's...

Besides that stuff, life is the same as always. Biggest change for me right now is that I put the camper shell back on my truck today, it'll be better for Jaz when she needs to be in the pickup for any stretch of time.

Small Miracles

2008-07-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

So the 4th of July has come and gone. It is my favorite holiday by far of all of them. It's always warm because its right in the middle of summer, work is closed, and the 4th is more about friends than family. Don't get me wrong, if your married and spend the day with your SO and kids and stuff, that's cool. But holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving are where you spend time with your parents and aunts and uncles and shit. The 4th is about being with people you WANT to be with, not people you HAVE to be with. New Years Day is a close 2nd to the 4th. Notice I say New Years Day, and not New Years Eve. New Years Eve sucks. Sucks bad. New Years Day is great because of football and beer and relaxing and all that. Something about the 4th makes it the best though. I had 2 seperate wedding receptions to attend over the weekend, one for a buddy of mine from Iowa, one for my bosses brother. I also enjoyed an awesome dinner with my friend Ryan and his SO down in Denver. As a whole I had a great 4th weekend. Best weekend I've had in months actually.

On Wednesday this week, after about a month of unsuccesfully trying to rid Jaz of this psudopregnancy that she is in, I contacted the vet and made an appointment to have her spayed. This is what they say will take care of it, and truth be told its been way too long coming. They freaked when I told them the length of time that Jaz had been false pregnant and so we made the appointment to have her looked at and blood tested to make sure she could go through the surgery at 6 years old. Thank god, she passed with flying colors. All in her blood work was ok, except being a little anemic, from the false pregnancy, everything else was great. I was so afraid they might find something wrong with her. They also said that some of the weird things with her, the balding tail, her bald nose, and the dryness on the edges of her ears, should all clear up after the surgery. Her body never rid itself of it's last heat cycle, so she's been in heat for almost half a year. Jaz is the most mellow dog you will ever meet when it's not time for hunting, or hunt training. They said that a little of the piss and vinigar that she used to have in her should return. So I'm very excited, plus it should remove about a 6th of her body weight from not carrying milk in her mammory glands anymore. Her quality of life should be greatly improved. I am saddened that she will not carry on her lineage, but there are others who can from her litter and others by her parents. She is just such a cool, unique dog.

The dog in the grass is Jaz's mother Max, and the one on the right is her father Jax. Both are over 9 years old now, so they probably will not be having anymore litters, but Jaz got very cool traits from these dogs. A couple of the best dogs I've ever hunted with.

I'll keep everyone updated on Jaz's surgery next week.

Marathon Pace/Brewfest/Josh Turner

2008-06-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

So this morning's workout called for 6 mile at MP. This is my 3rd MP workout since I started this training program, and the first 2 did not go well. I warmed up for a half mile or so, then let it rip for 6 miles @ 6:55 per. The run went really well this morning actually, and looking back, the fact that I had the flu really hampered my 2 previous MP runs. Todays was a great workout, and I actually was a little faster than I was supposed to be some of the time. I'm having trouble knowing my speed right not, but it started to come to me near the end of the run today, so hopefully it will continue on into next weeks workouts. Cutback long run this weekend of just 8 miles on Sunday. I wasn't feeling good about my training plan the first couple weeks, thinking maybe it wasn't going to push me enough to improve me, but I am really feeling better about it now. Next week starts to get a lot tougher.

Today and tommorow are the annual Brewfest weekend here in Old Town Fort Collins. God I love summers down here.

http://downtownfortcollins.com/festivals.php/brewfest

With all of our breweries here in town and the brew pubs, this is one of the more popular events each summer. Work will probably be pretty slow today though. People either come down to get their drink on, or they avoid Old Town all together. I usually do the latter after my day is done. I remember last year, Mica and I were going to come down after I got done with work and hang out downtown, thinking it would be a cool party night. We walked into one bar, turned around and left. It gets pretty messy when people spend all day drinking like that. We went bowling instead. Lol

After I get off tonight, I will run the 3 miles with Jaz that we are trying to do everynight but Fridays, then I'm off to Greeley to see the Josh Turner concert at the Greeley Stampede. I really wanted to see Tim McGraw who is playing tomorrow night, but ponying up 90 bucks to stand in a rodeo arena is a little more than I wanted to pay, and the tickets for tonight are free. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eapjR5QfVB4 Soulmate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLn6maxATvQ Your Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLn6maxATvQ Would You Go With Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPPXHiaiKqs Firecracker. Perfect for the 4th of July, lol.

Should be a good time anyways. Plus there's a Del Taco in Greeley...

Tempo, Tempo, Tempo

2008-06-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to keep up with this folks, I really am. Life has been a little crazy lately with the new training starting and with me gettin sick a couple weeks ago. Work has been so busy lately too, I hardly find time to keep up with it all. Since getting over the flu, I have been a morning run person each day, and have started to pick up about 3 miles at night on top of any lifting or cross training. Those are mostly for the dog to get exercise since she sleeps most of the day. I figure bumper sessions in the morning, at lunch, then 3 miles at night is a good regiment for anyone.

Found myself about a minute short of my 10 minutes at 10k pace this morning on my run, hopefully attributed to the fact that I did 6 with my running group last night and really brought the speed the last two miles. Me and Paublo probably erased a 1/3 of a mile deficit to a couple pretty good runners in about a mile or so, then he faded on the last hill, and me and another guy finished neck and neck. Don't get me wrong, I'm not there to race, but after being sick last week and really not looking very fit in front of my new running friends, I wanted to show that I do have some skill. The key word being "some".

Off day tomorrow. Enjoy.

Fathers Day Weekend

2008-06-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late writing all this, but Fathers Day Weekend is a neat one here in Old Town Fort Collins. It starts on the Saturday morning before with the Old Town Car Show, Sunday morning is the Fathers Day 5k, and all weekend long was the Taste of Ft. Collins. We had beautiful weather for the whole weekend.

A little back story on the place I work, it was owned by the same person for over 2 decades, then while I was out in Chicago last Oct on vacation, it was sold while I was gone. Our new owner is a good guy, an active Mormon in his church, and generally a nice boss. In years past we have always been business as usual on days that Old Town would be shut down for these kinds of things. The ex store manager, "The Old Man" made sure of it. But this year we embraced the atmoshpere, the new owner came down and greeted people, spent the day saying hi and petting Jaz. Some pics...

So I got up Sunday morning to run the Fathers Day 5k. I had dropped a hint a couple times to my new friend and running pal Doug that he should come out and run it. He also was looking for the magical sub 20, although he was one week out from the Mt. Evans ascent. He decided to and we ran the race together. A little backdrop on Doug. He and I have run 6 races together now, and in the first 4 I was anywhere from 2-9 minutes behind me, depending on the distance, but the last 2, Boulder and now this 5k, he has finished faster than me in both races. He's really getting quick and becoming a terrific runner. I woke up with my stomach not feeling right. I spent over 2 hours nursing it, trying to get it ready to race. When the gun went off, I felt ok. Doug and I ran the first half of the race together, but around then, I started to fall off a little. Around 2.5 I knew I wasn't going to get in under 20, but Doug was still going strong and was able to get in at 19:43. I came across 20:30. I didn't think much about it at the time and chalked it up to stomach problems, but by noon that day I had a 101 degree fever and my stomach was really hurting. Looks like I had the flu. My fever broke the next day, and this morning finally I ran without stomach issues again for the first time. I still feel weak, but at least I can really get going again.

Hey, the 4th is coming up. My favorite holiday...

6/11/08 5 Easy

2008-06-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

Nothing really to report from this mornings run. 5 miles, about 7:50 per average. My legs were a little tired near the end, but didn't really wear me out too much. My change in the time I am getting to work this morning really worked to my advantage this morning. I ran, showered, went to the park, played with Jaz, stopped at the supermarket to buy food for work, and was still was far enough ahead in my day to stop by another park and play with the dog for another 15 minutes or so.

I look forward to tomorrows tempo run, as I am starting to grow fond of them. The Higdon training site says that at the end of them you should feel refreshed, not drained. And that's the way the couple I have done have worked out. I am a little nervous with the weekends workouts though. 5 miles at marathon pace on Saturday, followed by 10 on Sunday. Plus before the 10, I am racing a 5k here in old town hoping once again for the magical sub 20.

And it was Subway for dinner last night John, but I might try your suggestion tonight...

6/10/08 3xHills

2008-06-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

I got up and out around 4:30 this morning. The weather was perfect for a morning run, and I am getting to the point where I actually look forward to rolling out of bed and going again. I'm sure it hast to do with the low miles that the workouts are right now, but whatever gets me up and out of bed.

I made my way to Hughes Stadium, parked in the lot and started down the trail. A little over a mile in, there is a hill that stretches about a 1/4 mile from the bottom to the top and back to the bottom again on the other side. The elevation gain is 356 feet in the 1/8th mile to the top and then the same back down the other 1/8th. So I did 12 repeats up and down with what is known as a 3/1 as well. Meaning every third time I went up, instead of jogging the downhill, I still ran as hard as I could on the way down. I got to just over 4 miles and turned home. 5 total for the day.

Breakfast consisted of a wheat mini bagel and a bowl of rice chex. Lunch will probably be soft shell tacos - cheese.

Not sure about dinner.

3 Easy Miles 06/09/08

2008-06-09T04:35:00.000-07:00

I got up around 4:30 this morning and hit the trails next to the house with Jaz for my 3 mile scheduled workout. Today starts it all. Plus with Jaz not being able to go to work with me anymore, I am going to start biking the 5 or so miles to work everyday. I'll return home on my bike at night, then head for the gym, play with her, or whatever I do that evening. Since I moved in her, I pretty much haven't gone anywhere where she's not attached to my hip. It'll be quite the change.

As far as the run goes, not to much to report, my side did cramp a little, but I'm sure that's more dehydration than anything else. Really got to work on this bottle thing.

Sweet Home Chicago

2008-06-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

So the 4th of June came and ended and they drew the lottery for the ING NYC Marathon that day. As many of you know, I got the big, bold NO next to my name in the accepted column. I really wanted to run this race this year, and that feeling of grew over the course of the day, after I found out my friend Chooch was accepted earlier in the day. To be able to run the same race as him and the world famous Squirrel would have been very cool. I am not in the same league as either of these guys as far as speed right now, although in my first two marathons, my performances haven't been that far away from what they did in their first two. So there's still hope for me I guess.

So I was really bummed for a couple days, but then I really got to thinking about this trip as a whole. First and formost, I really wanted to run with Squirrel, but in reality, I had my chance to do that in May in Cinci, and bypassed it to stay here and run the marathon in my hometown instead. So I can't feel bad about that. Chooch and I have never run the same race, but I know we'll get that chance soon. A trip to Chciago will cost me a fraction of what a trip to NY will, I think right now, RT airline tickets are right in the 160-175 range. And I'll stay a little different this year than I did last year. Probably closer to Midway, to downtown, and closer to the El, because cab fare just kills you. And really I am way more a Chicago guy than a New York guy anyways. I love the Cubs, although not a big fan of the rest of the sports teams. It really is my kind of city. I've traveled a lot the last year or so, and it's the one I enjoyed the most from a city standpoint. Chooch was a great Chicago host, while TJ was awesome in Phoenix when I was there, and I did love LA and all that went with it. The Blues Brothers is one of my favorite movies, and I've been called Clark Griswold a time or two while decorating the house for Christmas, lol. It's my kind of feel, my kind of town. Plus I really wanted to run the one there last year, so thank GOD I registered when I did. I can't seem to get my corral status fixed with them, but hopefully we'll work it out.

So my training program starts on Monday, so today I am sitting over a couple (the word couple used very loosly) beers, will probably head to the Trailhead for lunch or something, and enjoy my last day before I start a very serious training cycle. I will start updating in this blog pretty much every day the workouts that have been done, how I feel, and how I think things are coming along. It will really be a Daily paper at that time. Some updates may be short, but I'll try and check in every day.

The clock is ticking...

The Mojo Returnith

2008-05-30T20:22:00.000-07:00

So Boulder brought me back to the world of runners again. And just in time I would say. In a phone call on Memorial Day, I was reminded by Chooch that the Chicago Marathon, which is the next one I am scheduled to run, is 18 weeks out as of June 9th. Meaning that's the day that I have to start my training. I have selected the Hal Higdon Advanced II marathon training program for use in Chicago. I will not try to write my own stuff and decided on this one, more so than the Daniels or the Pfitz plans becuase of the marathon I am running. Hal and Chicago go together like a hot shower and a cold beer :-p. It is a proven plan that works for this marathon. I will probably run a few more miles than what is in the plan, but the workouts are what have drawn me to this particular one. Where it fits for me is that I have Fridays and Sundays off from work. Every Friday in this plan is a scheduled rest day, which means I can give my body the full day off. No work, no running, just playing with the dog and enjoying the sunshine. I will just have to resist the urge to spend the day drinking beer while I'm at it. Although I pretty much planning on going booze free for the summer as I head to Chicago. The other part of the plan I like is the back to back hard workouts that take place on the weekends. Thus the Friday off before hand. For example in week 10, after doing hills on Tuesday, that Saturday I am to run 9 miles at "pace" , (meaning marathon pace), which is quite the workout in intself, but then the next day, I have a 19 mile run to do the next day. Sounds fun, huh? Actually to me it does. I talked a little a couple blogs ago about how I felt like my mid week stuff, my non LR or speedwork runs were not very good as I trained for Colorado. I mixed long runs and pace runs together, thinking it would make me stronger, but it just cut the corner and allowed my mid week runs to just be miles instead of anything beneificial.

As we enter the month of June, I am embarking on the North v. South Challenge on RW as well as many others from the forums. The first 3 weeks of this plan, my miles will be a little higher than what's scheduled, as I will be logging quite a few miles for the North team. I am beginning the month tomorrow with my longest run since my marathon at the begining of last month, and if all goes well, will surpass the 100 mile mark at least once during the month, although I am hoping for twice, but I'm not going to risk my marathon over it. I figure around 350 for the month for me. And that still leaves me where my long runs for my plan are 13, 14, and 10 as we enter the first 3 weeks of July. I talked about being very business like when I ran Boulder at the beginning of this last week, well, that's the way this training is going to be.

I am still trying to get back into the routine of getting up early in the morning again. I so want to be an early morning runner, but am not there yet. By the 9th of June, I hope to be doing my running in the morning, then after work, I can head to the gym for 2 nights a week of light weight lifting, 2 nights a week of core work, 2 nights a week of swimming, and then still making Friday go to the gym and sit in the hot tub and resting day. It's hard to believe that it's almost time for me to start training again, yet here we go.

I plan to run the Bakers Dozen trail half marathon next Sunday and have a 5k scheduled the week after that. I will probably keep racing throughout the summer, just to keep me moving and motivated, while working it in with my training.

Happy last day of May folks...

Bolder Boulder

2008-05-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

So I got back in action today for the first time since running the Colorado Marathon on May 4th and ran the Bolder Boulder for the 2nd consecutive year today. I've talked with a few people on this site in PM's and over email and phone calls, but I've been in a funk since the marathon went south for me earlier this month. I haven't been running much, I haven't been rising at 4 to go to the gym, I usually get up around 5:30 to play with the dog and make sure she gets exercise, then shower and off to work. I stepped foot in my gym for the first time in a week on Sunday, and then I just sat in the hot tub and relaxed. I needed a kick in the a/s/s and started by signing up for a trail half marathon in two weeks, but was hoping a good race today would go a long ways to getting me going again. I've never run a good race in Boulder. Last years BB 10k I ran a 46:32, and at the Colder Boulder invite in December, I ran a 21:56 for a 5k. This is was actually only my 3rd ever 10k, and my PR of 44:57 has stood for almost a year.One thing I can say about today is that I really like the 10k distance. I will probably try and do more of these.I think about 53000 people ran Boulder this year. It was a cooler day than last year, and rained for a lot of the morning before the race. I started in the AB wave for the 2nd straight year as well. Last year I showed up in Boulder with no IPOD because they are prohibited, and saw 90% of the people running wearing one. I didn't bring one again this year, it's only 10k and there's a buttload of entertainment on the course. I set my Garmin for 42:59 as the target finish time. 6:59 per mile is what it said I needed to run. And something in the 42:'s was what I was shooting for. As the waves moved forward and were being released, I stood back and waited for everyone in mine to go before I took off. I was hoping that the people would thin a little and I wouldn't get stuck behind people or hung up.

Mile 1. 6:39. A little quick, but didn't think too much about it knowing I could slow up a little and had lots of race to run.

Mile 2. 6:50. Settled in at a good pace, passed a kid I blogged about once who worked out at my old gym, he was struggling already and I offered some words of encouragement as I passed.

Mile 3. 6:58. I was pretty much right on the money with this mile. A couple things that took place during this mile. #1 I started to really struggle during this part last year, and recognized the stretch that I actually walked during this mile last year, but held tough today. #2. The guys with the slip and slide who were drinking beer at 7:30 in the morning, wearing straw cowboy hats and asking if we wanted to stop and party...If I had felt at this point in the race like I did last year, game on boys, but not today. It was kinda cool though.

Mile 4. 7:01. I was starting to feel it a little in my legs, as when you hit the mile 4 marker, its a pretty good uphill. I was watching my Forerunner, but instead of trying to run at 6:59 pace up the hill, I ran at 6:59 exertion, and picked the time up on the way back down the other side. As this mile ended, you start to enter the business districts again and know your getting close.

Mile 5. 6:52. Another good mile for me, was really starting to feel a little fatigue, but the coolest part was that instead of backing off, I pushed ahead, never really getting off pace. This was another section last year where I stopped and walked.Mile 6. 7:05.

Mile 6 is decieving in it's time because of the finish of the race. You hang the right onto Folsom Street, which begins to lead you to Folsom Field. It's a slight uphill that ends with a pretty good climb as you run the last 1000 meters or so. The part I really don't like is at 8.8 they start hanging banners that tell you your KM run. When I saw the first one from a distance, I remember last year seeing a 9k one, so I thought that was it and I was in great shape. Come to find out I was .2km off. So I picked up the pace a little, climbed the hill to the stadium, and crossed the finish line at 42:58:84, less than one second faster than my target I set on my Garmin. 1:59 seconds ahead of my 10k PR.I didn't run a really fast race today. I set a goal and acheived it. I refound a little dicipline today, and was almost scientific in the way I tried to hit my mile times. With the exception of getting out a little quick, I was pretty much right where I wanted to be for most of my miles. I was tired at the end, but wasn't hanging on for dear life. Like I said, I set a goal, and I acheived it.

I have talked recently about my lack of motivation, my not really wanting to run, or work out, or do much of anything except hide from life it seems. I got up this morning and ran. I wasn't hung over because I didn't go out and party after the race. I feel like I might be ready to return to normal, to fight on like I used to be able to. I think I'm ready to put all the outside distractions behind me and try to get back to what I enjoy doing. Running

A Year Gone By

2008-05-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

Today is the Sunday before Memorial Day. That day last year was a biggie for me. Tomorrow morning I will get up and make my way down to Boulder to run the 10k down there for the 2nd year in a row. I think about all the racing I've done since last years race and how excited I am for this years. Boulder is the biggest event, at least by number of people, that I have ever done. I race a buttload, and most of the stuff is very small though. I did PF Chang in AZ and that was big, watched Chicago last year, and ran the half at the Denver Marathon, and those where the places I saw the most people. Last year 50,816 people laced it up to run the Bolder Boulder. This is its 30th year and I imagine it will be more like 52,000 this year. Luckily I get to start in the AB wave, which is like the 4th wave out so 99% of those people will start and finish behind me. It's just a 10k and when it's all said and done, probably not worth the 30 bucks in gas I'll spend to drive there, fight the traffic to find a parking space, and wait in the port o potty lines for half an hour before the race to run for 40 some minutes. The town is very cool though, a lot like Ft. Collins, although a little less laid back and a lot more political. I'm not huge into politics and a person can be as laid back as they want to be, so that stuff has no effect on me. I will probably take my camera tomorrow and get some pics, as it is a beautiful town.

This is a huge reflection weekend for me, as my life has changed a lot since Memorial Day last year. And it will be a day or two full of reflection for me. How things have changes, how some have stayed the same. How the decisions I've made in the last year have really affected my life. It's almost an anniversery of some kind. A time to look back and look forward. It's been a big weekend so far, with more to come.

Race report to come tomorrow...

Answers Found On The Road

2008-05-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

It's been 2 weeks since the Colorado Marathon, and I was thinking about another one in Steamboat before cooler heads prevailed and I opted to just run the Bolder Boulder, and do some local 5 and 10K stuff as I headed into the summer and get ready for my next marathon training session to begin twords the middle July. One thing that was said to me when I thought about running Steamboat was that if I was serious about it, I needed to figure out what went wrong in Colorado, and while out for a 5 mile run yesterday, I found out just that.

I did all the miles necessary to run a complete marathon, probably more than needed, where I fell short was in the intensity of those workouts. As I tried to get ready for that first marathon, I lived by the motto that I only ran fast on the days I was supposed to. I felt like it kept me healthy, got me to the starting line in one piece. My speed workouts were always good, but the longer stuff, and even the non speed days were very easy. After having very good success with that at PF Chang, I went the same route for the Colorado Marathon, although at this point I believe that what I came up with was 1 speed workout per week, (or hills), one long run per week, and 4 days of junk miles. Just miles is all they were. I never really pushed myself as hard as I could, for fear of injury. And my body adjusted to the mileage, and only really got taxed for a couple workouts a week. Thus explaining how I could run borderline 70 miles per week average and show almost no signs of weight loss, my body physically not changing, ect. My diet was almost identical to the training I did for Phoenix, but obviously with much different results. My body was ready to run 26.2 miles. It just was not ready to run it at the pace I set out to do. The shitty part of that is, that I still probably could have run a 3:25 marathon, if I had run 7:20 miles instead of 7:00 minute ones instead. It wasn't the distance that got me, it was the speed in which I was trying to cover that distance in that cooked my goose. I recall the early days of my running last summer, where it seemed i couldn't get healthy, and a big part of that was that I would run as fast as I could on a daily basis, and my body wouldn't hold up to it. This round, I was hardly running fast at all, so there has to be some middle ground somewhere for me to find. Which I will I think during my down time over the next couple months.

The other thing that came to me on that run was about race goals. I mentioned that I would like to race Boulder in around 42:something. I did it in 46:something last year, but it was one of my worst races. That goal is probably one of the more realistic ones I've set in recent memory. I think about my 2 marathons, although I think that BQ'ing in Co was not that far of a stretch when I set it, when I was thinking BQ in AZ, since it was my first one, that may have been over the top a little. To PR the Horsetooth Half in April, which I missed by 29 seconds on one of the hardest couses I've ever done, may have been a stretch as well, due to the elevatiojn changes of the race. Anyways I got to thinking. How many times have I ever walked from a race and done what I set out to do. I ran my first 5k and finished it, that's one. I ran my second and finished faster than my first. That's two. I ran my third and was faster than my second, that's three, but also that got me in the 20:something range and every other 5k since except when I placed in my age group at the Cinco Cinco 5k and got a plaque for it, has been the sub 20 quest which I havent obtained. But we'll say 4 times on 5k's have I done what I wanted. Finishing races after my exprience in Boulder last year is no longer an accomplishment. I had no doubts that at the begining of any of my halfs, or even my two fulls that I would cross the finish line. For me that is not even something that crosses my mind. Although happy with my time at my first Horsetooth Half last year, I didn't make the time I wanted. Hell I didn't make the time I wanted last year, this year. Under 1:35 was last years goal, to PR was this years, and neither came true. The day in November last year when I did set my half PR, I did accomplish what I set out to do that day. So that's five times. And really that's it. I went through the 5k mark at the Turkey Trot in Denver in under 20 minutes, but they didn't do a 5k split, and I ran that in about 26 minutes, which for me was smoking fast, but I had no real goal. So there we go. I have raced 21 times since Super Bowl Sunday in 2007, and 5 times I have crossed the finish line not acheiving what I was looking for, and 3 of those were not even very specific. I'm left with a half marathon PR, and a plaque for a race that I coveted, although I think it only ranks #5 in my fastest 5k's.

So the question becomes: Does this drive me to race faster than I ever have, or does it begin to break me down? I have a little bit of a history when racing that I would run well for a race, then not so good the next one. Like I might over enjoy my sucesses until a failure knocked me on my ass again. A little taste of success in Boulder may be just what the doctor ordered.

But did I set a realistic goal time, lol...

Happy start to the week everyone.

Change of Heart

2008-05-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

So, I sit here with a lot on my mind. I was thinking of doing another marathon on June 1 in Steamboat Springs after the disaster that was the Colorado Marathon here in Fort Collins. After discussing it with the 2 people who's opinions I think the most of when it comes to running and the RW forums, I have decided to forgo this marathon. It was further confirmed when today, after work, I attempted my second hard workout in a row for the first time since the marathon. After 5 miles on the hills of Horsetooth yesterday, I attempted 5 miles at 10k pace and crashed after 4 miles. Even with 2 weeks rest, the conclusion is that my body is not ready to run another marathon. And I was asked today, that if I couldn't BQ or PR the race, why run it. With the exception of a 5k I did on Fathers Day weekend last year, I have run every race ever to PR, and that one I didn't because I had finished a 10k for the same event just about 20 minutes before it started. Is going up and running a 3:20 or so going to make it all better? No. It might make me feel a little better, but I am probably better off using the fuel in my training for Chicago or NY. Also, I ran back to back hard workouts this weekend and at the end of the 2nd, I really struggled. My body won't be ready for another marathon in just 2+ weeks.

I plan to run the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day, probably start to hit the abundance of 5k's here untill about the 4th of July, then I should know if its a October or November marathon for me, then I can start training accordingly. I have yet to run a good race at Boulder. I ran last years Bolder Boulder in 46:32. That's 23:16 per 5k. And I remember the run vividly, how lousy it went. I reappeared in Boulder for the Colder Boulder Invite in December, about a month before the PF Chang marathon in Phoenix. It's a 5k and I ran a blistering 21:56. I remember that race too. I led it for about a mile and half before I started to come apart. My PR for a 10k is 44:57, which was 3 weeks after the Bolder Boulder last year. I've only run two of them, but I expect my PR should fall on Memorial Day. I'm looking for something in the 42's. I think that would be ok. 21:30 per 5k should be doable. With that being said, I do love the Bolder Boulder. I get to start in the 3rd wave, so the 50000 people behind me are not a problem. I might have trouble liking this race if I had to start in the middle, or run the Open race. It should be fun, and hopefully the weather is nice.

Happy Friday all...

Change In Venue

2008-05-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

So we are one week removed from the Colorado Marathon, and life has been very busy for me. I have started running again and feel very good actually, I think I should be near a regular running schedule again by Monday of next week. At the completion of last weekend, when all was said and done, I felt I had to make a change. I've been told that I never do anything half assed, and this was no exception. From time to time I mention Jasmine, my chocolate lab, who I love very much, but have been seperated from for quite a while now. I decided that on Tuesday of last week that I wasn't going to live this way anymore. I posted a quick listing on Craigslist that basically said that I was ready to move, I am almost never home, and have a dog that is coming with me. I got over a dozen responses that first day, and by the end of the night, I had a key to a new place, the price is awesome, and now some of that emptiness that I've had is filled. Plus, Jaz needs to be taken care of, and now she can be.

Fort Collins backs up against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. I-25 runs north out of Denver and as you make your way twords the Wyoming border, Fort Collins sits on the west side between the foothills and the interstate. My new place is right off Overland Trail Road. The last, most western major street in town. When I walk outside my front door, this is what I see...

There is open space, all around. The road right across the way leads up to Horsetooth Resivior, and the start of the Horsetooth Half Marathon course is right there as well. (I guess I have no excuse to run anything under a 1:30 at the one next year) The drive in is only about a 1/4 mile away too. It's about 5 miles from where I work, so I may do some days where I run to work and back after Jaz gets settled in at the new place, but at the very least some bike to work days will be in order.

I was thinking last night after Jaz and I returned from a short run, that I almost feel like I've moved into a training facility. All the tools are here for me to have a summer that should make me into a much better runner as I prepare for my fall marathon. I have hills, miles of open space, trails, all good for running or biking. My gym has a pool, hot tub, and all the weights I need. This could be one of the best things I could have done for myself. From a personal standpoint without a doubt, but also from an athletic standpoint as well.

In the wake of last Sunday's marathon disaster, this may be exactly what I needed to kick start my running and my life.

Up next: Bolder Boulder 10k 5/26/08

Steamboat Springs Marathon 6/01/08

Chicago or NYC Marathon TBD

Plus lots of little races in between.

When Good Marathons Go Bad. My Race Report

2008-05-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

I want to start this blog by saying a couple things. #1 is that I know that I finished above the top 25% of people in the matathon. I know a lot of people have said things along the lines that they would be happy with a 3:40 marathon, or "that's a great time", and things of that nature. And to that I say, with no disrespect intended to people, that you are way off base when you look at it that way. I would be happy with a 3:40 marathon, if I had been training for a 3:40 or a 3:45 or something in that time frame. But I had trained and expected a 3:05-3:08. Those who run 4 hour marathons, imagine going out and posting a 4:40 and tell me that you wouldn't be disappointed. #2 is that at this very moment, I still have no clue as to why this happened. Overtraining, under nourishment, distractions? None of those seem to be any better or worse than the marathon I did in Phoenix. I felt better and stronger throughout my training. 3 weeks ago, I ran a harder than hell half marathon that I came within 29 seconds of a PR. Logically, I have no reason as to why I could lose that much over that little amount of time. I'll think about it over the next few days, but right now, it's a mystery.

The race kicked off at 6:15 am. It was about 32 degrees at the start and the sun was coming up. I actaully was walking from the port a potty when the gun went off, but it was chip timed, so no biggie. Probably about 90% of the race participants started before I got to the starting line. The downhills on the first couple miles changed my starting pace some, but it actually felt very easy with the hills. I carried my own water and gels, and had recruited some help at mile 17 to take my water bottle and give me a G2 and another gel pack, so I was hoping not to have to mess with stations and just be able to run. By mile 7, I knew I was in trouble though. In my first marathon, the pace was easy to keep, untill about mile 20. This time, I was feeling it and having to work to try and keep the mile times around where I needed them. By mile 10, I was doing the math in my head. I figured that if I could hold the pace until I popped out of the canyon at 17.5 then I only had less than 9 miles to go. And I could let my mile times creep upwards of 8:20 because of the time I saved during the first couple of miles and the wiggle room I had given myself at the end. I knew I would be hurting and that the times would go up, but I never could have expected what came. Right before I came out of the canyon, my stomach cramped for a minute, it didn't stay, but it was long enough to break my rhythm. After getting my G2, and I'll say I put on a great show in front of my friend, even though I was dying, I straightened up and found the strength to at least not look like a train wreck in progress, I walked through the subsequent water station and drank all 20 ounces of it. Right around 19.5, my calves started to cramp up really bad, and that was it. It shut me down almost instantly. I stopped dead in my tracks and I still had a long ways to go. At this point it became a walk/run to the finish. With me having to stop and walk every 1/4 mile or so. I could hold a 9:30 pace or so while running, I just couldn't run very long. The course is designed so that I essentaly had to finish, or else I would have probably walked. If I had different people waiting for me at the finish line too. But for a couple of them, it was their first time to watch me race, and when the time clock said 3:10:59, they were going to be worried enough without me walking all the way in, or not showing up for a while.

I came across the finish line at 3:40:55, a far cry from the 3:07 I was looking for.

The mile times:
1. 7:53
2. 7:28
3. 7:20
4. 7:23
5: 6:55
6. 6:58
7. 7:03
8. 6:59
9. 7:04
10. 6:55
11. 7:11
12. 7:08
13. 7:14
14. 7:12
15. 7:19
16. 7:26
17. 7:36 Exit of the canyon and end of most of the downhill stuff
18. 7:44
19. 8:35
20. 9:03
21. 10:08
22. 11:20
23. 12:28
24. 10:22
25. 10:50
26. 11:45
.23 2:22

As I was coming in, I was pretty much alone, and the crowd support was very thin through most of the race, but the last .4 or so people were everywhere, and the entry to Old Town rivaled PF Chang in PHX with the number of people that lined the finish gates though. They announced my name and everything, and people cheered, but I felt disgust for what had happened and just wanted to get across the finish line and put this mess behind me.

So, I have been thinking today that I might recover from this for a few days, start with some light running later in the week and just try to maintain myself and stay fit. On Memorial Day, run the Bolder Boulder, then turn around the next weekend and run the Steamboat Marathon that is about an hour and a half drive away from me. I'm not 100% sold on that yet, but it's in my thought process.

Thanks for all the good thoughts and support people, I know it didn't go the way I wanted it to, but there's always another day.

The Final Week

2008-04-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

I'm posting what could be one of the last blogs I write between now and my marathon. I can feel the weirdness creeping in, my stress level has started to rise a little, and honestly, I'm making changes in my running schedule on the fly as I get within a week of the race. First off, I honestly looked at the running I was doing during my taper. The miles were low, but the number of days that I was running was not really going down. For the 2 weeks I was tapering, I was going to run 9 out of 14 days. I decided at the last minute yesterday to take the day off, and while sitting in the hot tub at my gym I sent a text message to Squirrel1.1 asking him how much he was running these 2 weeks, as him and I are running on the same day. Let's just say I think I had too many days in there. Tomorrows 10 miler will be replaced by some yoga and a half hour or so on the exercise bike. Then Monday will be 3 miles. Wednesday probably 4 or 5, then 3 on Friday to make sure all systems are go.

I think I am more nervous now than I was at my first marathon, the expectaions are up for me. Not from others, but from myself. I feel deep down that if I wanted to push this, I could do the Sub 3 hour marathon, but am going to stick to my pace chart and get my BQ hopefully. I'm posting it here for the first time. 3:06. That is the goal time. That is what I am looking to run. I'll try for something grand in Chicago or NY, knowing that if I blow up, I still have my BQ done. I am scared that when I hit mile 20 again that my body will do the same thing that it did to me in Phoenix. That the result could be the same as before, that I may do worse. That I may just not be able to do this. I saw better runners than me put up times in Boston that were higher than my goal time, and that's been a little bit of a reality check this week.

I've had a good weeks running, and can feel my body getting stronger, although I feel like a whale with the eating and not running as much as I'm used to. From a personal standpoint, it's been a tough week in spots, although I did have an awesome night sandwiched in the middle of it. Although a 1:30 bedtime may not be the best thing for someone who's supposed to be resting :-p. As the days tick off for this race, I imagine I'll just continue to get more and more nervous and these posts, if I have time, will get stranger and stranger.

Enjoy your weekend.

Purgatory

2008-04-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

I once read a book called "On A Pale Horse". It was written by Piers Anthony, a famous Sci-Fi writer. The book was about a man, who attempted suicide, and his soul was so much in balance that death had to come for him personally to collect his soul. When I say death, I mean death the person, the Incarnation of Death. Well Zane, the main characters name, shot Death in the head instead of taking his own life, thus he was forced to assume the roll of Death. When a persons soul was so close in balance, they were sent to a place called Purgatory, there they would exist untill the balance of their soul shifted good or bad and they could move onto heaven or hell. With the exception of all the paperwork they were doing in the book, the actual description is very close to what the catholic religion, (mine) also believes.

It's a word that also means in limbo, to wait, to not move forward, or backwards even I guess. It's a word used to describe the after life, but sometimes we find ourselves living this way and not even knowing it. I look at myself sometimes for instance. The half marathon I just did on the 13th of this month was symbolic to me, things began to change for me in my life last year around that exact event. I look now at where I sit, just one year later in my life, and what has changed? I've run a marathon, getting ready to run another here in 9 days. I've traveled to a few cities I'd never been to, met some new people. I took the position in my company that I hold now on May 4th last year. That's coming up too. I make the same exact wage I did the day I took it. Granted, they pay me well for what I do, some work, post on RWOL, write blogs, fuck around on myspace, lol. Which is exactly what I was doing when I started this job about a year ago. Don't get me wrong, I work my ass off, but I also have some leeway in my job, because I do as good a job as I do.

I was told a story on Wednesday night, one that kind of mirrored my life in ways. And as we talked for a while, I began to realize that I have left myself in my own little Purgatory, drifting, happy to live for the day, but not addressing tomorrow.

I should really start addressing today, but I think I'll start tomorrow...

The Taper Begins

2008-04-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

So on Sunday I did my last long run prior to my upcoming marathon. 22 miles. As I did before my last (and only) marathon, I used the first 5 miles of the run to simulate the pace that I plan to begin the first 5 miles of the race. I went 9:10, 8:30, 7:45, 7:20, then down to 6:55, where I hope to keep my pace for the last 21.2 miles. I know 2 things, 9:10 will not happen during the race, it didn't in AZ and it wont here. Probably more like 8:30, 8:30 for the first couple miles. The other is that 6:55 for 21.2 miles probably will not happen either. In AZ, I ran 15 straight miles @ 7:00 before I started to fall off. This time I'm hoping for around 17-18 miles at my target pace, anything on top of that is gravy. This said, even if my times begin to drop off after mile 22, I'll still get home in under 3:10. I may be way off base as well, I may be able to hold that pace for the entire last 21.2 of the race, but right now, 12 days out. I am being realistic with my goals.

My 22 mile run went very well, I was stronger at the end of it than I had been at any of my other previous 20+ mile runs in this training session, or the previous. I did have a bit of a "euraka" moment a day or so prior. While coming off the Horsetooth Half last weekend, I ran Monday (8 recovery), took Tuesday off, then on Wednesday I had 15 miles scheduled. Usually I break up that run into at least 2 runs, because of work. But this time I had to do all 15 in a row, after an 11 hour day at work. Thurday and Friday both had double digit mile runs, and I struggle through both. The 15 straight in the middle of the week really took it out of me. I do a lot of miles when I train, but probably don't get the benifit I should because I split my runs. I have decided that as I prepare for Chicago, (or NY, god willing), that I may still run more than once a day, but my target mileages and workouts for each day will be done as one run. With the summer upon us and the weather nice, if I need to run 15 that day, I will do all 15 before work, not just 3 in the morning, then 6 at lunch, then 6 after work. I feel like I'm letting my body off easy, instead of maybe getting everything I can out of each work out. Something different anyways for next time. But maybe a little early to start thinking about the next one, at least till we see how this one turns out.

Anyways. I took my camera with me as I ran the last 17 miles on Sunday and took some pics around Ft. Collins

Old Town Square right across from where I work.

The First National bank building and the Key bank building. The 2 tallest buildings in town, lol.

I love this house up the street from where I work.

City Park Lake. They run the Firekracker 5k around here on the 4th of July.

City Park gold course. My favorite course in town. 16$ for a nine hole loop on all our city courses, suckers. :-P

Moby Arena where the CSU basketball teams play, and a view of the mountains from the common area here at Colorado State.

The admin building on the oval at Colorado State University. I ran a 5k here last year.

16 Days And Counting

2008-04-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

So I'm about an hour away from taking off on my last 13.1 mile Friday run before my upcoming marathon. It'll be a longer run, although not very fast, and I probably won't push myself a lot today. When I finished my speedwork yesterday, it was probably the last real hard workout that I will do. I have a 22 mile run scheduled for Sunday, but will do the first 5 as I plan to do the first 5 of the marathon, then will probably just jog and cruise for the last 17. Just one more long run. Now the question comes...am I ready? Have I done everything that I could do to make myself successful on May 4th. Probably not, but who ever really does? It's more about have I done enough. Hopefully so. Most of the people I read about or know who are running marathons that day, from the Flying Pig in Cinci, to the Vancouver Marathon in...well I forget where that ones at :-p, to the people running here in my hometown of Ft. Collins in the Colorado Marathon, are tapering right now. Resting, letting their bodies recover. I am out pounding miles, even after a pretty successful race over the weekend.

Plus during all this here lately, my weight, which I worry about pretty much all the time, has dropped off very nicely here lately. I'm down around 163 this morning and after my run today and everything all finished out, I'll probably end the weekend somewhere around 161.5-162, which is right about where I want to be when I race. Even with all the miles before PHX, my weight stayed the same most of the time, while this time, it's dropped as I've trained. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing going into a 26.2 mile race, but I'll have 2 weeks to recover and try to maintain, so we will see. I said to someone last night when she asked how my run went, that "running is stupid". lol It's not, I just think I'm ready for the race to come, and the 2 hour long runs and training sessions to be done for a while.

The Colorado Avalanche went up 3-2 on the Minnesota Wild in the NHL playoffs last night. I love hockey, and am really starting to enjoy the playoffs, it's been a nice distraction in the evenings here lately. Plus the Cubs are off to a descent start this year so that keeps my mind occupied as the days pass.

Not much else here except to say that I'm off to run, happy Friday to everyone.

My Sunday run will include my camera as I basically just run all over town, so a bunch of pictures to come in the next entry.

Horsetooth Half Marathon Race Report

2008-04-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

I ran the Horsetooth Half Marathon yesterday here in Ft. Collins and here's the race report that goes with it.

I woke up around 4:00 or so in the morning, just like I usually do, made my way to my gym and sat in the hot tub there for about 5 minutes or so, just to help loosen me up a little. I showered there and made my way to the place where I work, it's where I usually base all my longer runs and races out of anyways, and wanted everything to be the same as it usually is. I posted on RW for a few, got changed into my clothes, had a little coffee and answered some text messages. One asked what my goal time for the race was, and I realized that I hadn't really set one. Last year I ran this race in 1:37:49 and finished 73rd. It was THE race I had been training for too. This year it was just a little half marathon 3 weeks before my full marathon. Just a training run. Plus, on this course, how many minutes could I really pick up. I'm sure I'm a better runner this year, but it's still a tough course where the uphills are going to make your avg. pace climb. Anyways, I thought about how I was going to run this race after getting that text. And I decided that after the top of the 2nd hill, I was just going to cut it loose with all I had. Leaving me two more hills and about 5 miles of flat after Dam Hill. hve been training for a marathon, and it shouldn't be that big of a deal to be able to run 13.1 pretty close to all out. The most nervous part for me was that the course was the same as last year, the weather was too. Only one thing had changed and that was me, and it was time to find out how much I had improved. I met up with John Bender for a little while at the start line, told him my plan, we joked around for a while, then it was time for the race to start.

That is the race profile it you haven't seen it before. As the gun sounded and off we went, I started at the front and was passed by about 3/4 of the field in the first 1/4 mile. Pictured below is the first mile or so of the race.

I took it easy on Mile 1, clocking an 8:06 mile. The first hill is a bitch, and it eats you up. 8:14 at Mile 2. Not so much taking it easy, as much as the hills really influencing my pace. Mile 3 was 6:30. Upon reaching the first aid station between Mile 3 and 4 I took 1 of the 2 Gu packs that I brought. I learned during this race, that gel packs are not for me during a half marathon. At that speed, all they do is upset your stomach. I never took the other pack I brought. Note as well, I carried my own water, so I never even stopped at an aid station, Mile 4 was at 6:59, as I started up Dam Hill during that mile. Mile 5 netted a 6:57 mile and the start of the long run to Bingham Hill Road. Mile 6 was at 6:42, with the tail end of that mile starting the climb up Bingham Hill. Around Mile 4, me, another guy, and a girl started running together, and as we made the accent up Bingham Hill, we were talking a little, and it really helped us all I think. Mile 7 was at 7:19 with the majority of it taking the hills. As we came over the 2nd to last hill on Bingham and started the decent, my legs got a little rubbery but came back to me pretty quickly. Mile 8 was 7:26. Now from here on out, it's a gentle slight decent, and I'm just trying to do 7 something miles to get myself to the finish. Last year on the stretch that leads you from Overland and the start of the bike trail (about mile 9), I was probably in about 25th place when we hit that aid station. I finshed 73rd. I gave up that many spots in the last 4 miles. This year I lost 5 and gained 2 back. Mile 9 was 7:08, Mile 10 was 7:12, Mile 11 was 7:17, Mile 12 was 7:27, and Mile 13 was 7:22. And 43 seconds or so for the last .10. I finished in 66th place, up 7 spots from last year. And the total time was 1:35:34, just 29 seconds of my half marathon PR, and that was on a very flat course.

I think I could have probably been closer to about 1:32-1:33 on a flat even course, I also think my PR goes down with maybe 1 more days rest, or maybe a Thursday off, run a little Friday and take Saturday off approach. I might play with that a little next time. All and all, it was possibly the best race I've run to date. I am very close to where I want to be with my running right now. At this point I'm pretty much as ready as I can get for May 4th. I'll do big miles again this week, run a 22 miler on Sunday then taper. I'm very happy with yesterdays run, and very encouraged with the results.

Have a good day folks.

Dogs

2008-04-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

The day Mica and I closed on out house after apartment living for a couple years together, I drove the moving truck to the new house after I got off work, said "have fun" then hopped in my car and drove down to Denver. While her and her sister carried all of out stuff inside, I was down picking up Sierra, my black lab. She moved into that house the day we did. Over the next 8 years or so, she's been a great dog. A hunting partner, a friend, a pillow from time to time, and now a bridge more than anything else. One day I came home from work and found a huge growth on her side, I took her to the vet and had it checked. Cancer was the diagnosis, and Sierra was operated on almost immediatly. That was 5 years ago, and you can still feel the divot in her side where she had a huge chunk of her body removed.

Two years after Sierra came Jasmine the Chocolate. The Chosen One as dubbed by my friends, the dog that could do no wrong. Jasmine is my dog through and through. I paid $1000 for her, her hunting lineage is awesome. Her mother and father are both Master Hunting Retrievers. I had hunted with both Jax and Max (mom and dad) before and knew I wanted a puppy from them. Hell I paid the 1000 before she was even conceived. Jaz can hunt, handle (where she can be guided by hand signals and whistle) and is the coolest little dog in the world. On the first day of our first hunting season together, the guy I was hunting with, hit Jaz with his pick up, pulling her under the L/R tire and pulling her hip out of its socket. After the surgery, she almost lost the leg to infection. Jaz runs with me from time to time in the morning when the situation allows it and I spend time with her every chance I get.

Riley belongs to Mica. A yellow lab, that I haven't really spent much time with. She's a cool little dog, don't get me wrong, but she hasn't been trained by me and she's wild still and has poor manners. Mica was given Riley at the time when our marrage was really coming apart. I had pretty much checked out of it at the time. We were living in the same house, sleeping in seperate beds. We never fought because I pretty much worked all the time and when I was home, I was sleeping, or just closed off. She needed something or somebody and so along came dog #3. Riley was mauled by a Chesepeke Bay Retreiver owned by the people who owned her before us. Her right eye still tears and she is missing teeth on the side that they had to do surgery on her to put her face back together.

Through all this, all three dogs are still alive, still living up at the house. On a day like yesterday, my day off from work during the week, I was able to go and spend the day with them. They are like children to me, and many dog owners are this way.

The person who is one of my best friends in the entire world, is living what could prove to be the toughest weekend of her life, as she faces having to put her dog, her baby, to sleep at the end of the weekend. Because we both love dogs, we talk a lot about them, hers and mine. We've never met each others, but feel like we know them personally. I thought a lot about her and her dog yesterday as I spent the day with mine. I'm sorry Chris. I don't know what else to say.

Race report on my half to come tomorrow.

5 X 3 = 13.1

2008-04-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

So after taking yesterday off and lower mileage since Friday, I went out for a 5 mile run at lunch today. I still have 5 to run at the end of the day and 5 more tomorrow. Then I'm off till Sunday morning for my half marathon. When I train, I usually do speed/hill work once a week, a recovery run the day after my LR's and take one day a week off. During my LR's, I usually will do a section of them at MP, instead of a tempo run. For example, if I do a 21 mile run, I will do 7 warm up, 7 at MP, then finish the last 7 in a cool down, with the warm up and cool down somewhere in the 8:00-8:15 per mile range. Wednesdays and Saturdays re usually just mileage days for me. I usually just rack up about 25-30 miles those 2 days, paying attention to form, gait, and getting miles in without hurting myself, and without going overly fast. I am usually in the 8:00 minute range per mile on these things as well. Mostly because I'm usually tired and that's what my body will give me without really pushing it on days I'm not supposed to. I run fast on the days I'm supposed to, the one's I'm not, I don't. It's how I've stayed healty through 2 marathon training sessions when before I couldn't through a few 5k's.

So I stepped out for the first of my 2 five mile runs today. I never felt good, I never felt bad. I never really pushed myself that much, just trying to maintain and recover for the upcoming half. I didn't feel like I was giving any more effort than I would on just a normal Wednesday run, but my mile times dropped to about 7:30 per average. Rest and recovery are a beautiful thing people. I feel strong, ready to tackle this half marathon. I've struggled a little this week as it loomed. With all the miles I log during training, sometimes it's hard for me to gauge how strong I am, how fast I can go untill I taper. I have gone from very nervous to very encouraged with todays run.

That's all for today, cheers...

The Morning Fog

2008-04-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

Where to start about the weekend. So I got up yesterday morning and did my long Sunday morning run of 10 miles. It has been a long time since I had a Sunday run that short. I slept in a little, came down to my work computer to pick up my Forerunner 205, posted a little on RW and took off. Left my IPOD sitting on my desk and realized it a few miles in, but no biggie. I left at aroun 8:45 wearing shorts and a t-shirt. One of the nicest mornings we've had so far this year. The run was good. My hamstring cooperated and is healing just fine, actually better than I thought. I went to my gym, did ab work and sat in the hot tub, then grabbed a bite to eat.

I awoke this morning to snow outside, and as I got everything together for the day, I went out to warm up my pickup for just a couple minutes, while I was inside having a bowl of Fruit Loops. I started to head to the gym, when I began to smell something sweet, then poof. All the windows fogged up and I couldn't see anything. Fucking heater core popped on the pickup. I thought when the intake was leaking on it before that it might be the heater core so I had already looked into what it took to fix it. 6 fucking hours. :-( It's actually in the process of going back together now, but some pics of what the pickup looked like.

Anyways, no biggie, just one of lifes little inconviences I guess. Can't have the truck smelling of antifreeze now, next month, or next year.

Take care...

The Calm Before The Storm

2008-04-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

As I came down the stretch from yesterdays 13.1 mile run. I was thinking to myself, boy am I ready to taper. I've run a lot here lately, and am feeling it in my legs and body. I'm also just ready to run this fucking thing and get it done. After May 4th, I will run the Bolder Boulder, and am thinking about the half that goes with the Post-News Colfax Marathon, mostly just to keep my competitive juices flowing. I won't know till July if NY accepts me, or if I will be running the Chicago Marathon in October. What I do know is that I will be taking a break from training for a little while after this marathon.

One of the things that came up during my run with John yesterday was what did I expect out of this marathon, and it raises a lot of questions. I have no problem saying that with the training I've put in, and the course, that I feel like the 3:10 that I was chasing in Phx should happen. I sit here now with the question in front of me, do I run this race, knowing that by running it safely, that I can probably get what I need for my BQ. Or do I try for that extra push, that extra little bit, and try to get this done in under 3 hours. But with that comes the risk of buring out and possibly running a worse time than I did in Phx. I feel that if I ran the exact same pace chart that I did in Phx, that between training, being a better, more experienced runner, and having run a marathon before, that the crash that came in the last 6.2 miles there, should not happen. Don't get me wrong, nothing is in the bag, but I feel good about what I've done, especially in the last month and a half or so. Also, the subject of what would I do if the situation came up and I essentially ran the same exact marathon as Phx? What if I crash at mile 20 again, what if I run a 3:15? Where would I go from there? Obviously I would have to look at my training, but I have written each of my own plans, feeling that I know my body, and my schedule best. Do I turn to someone else's plan, or tweak my own, or what happens from there. With everything that goes into marathon training, each training session is very importaint, and if it doesn't work this time, can I afford to gamble again before Chicago? Lots of things were covered, although none could be answered at the time. When it was all said and done, we finished the run within about 30 seconds of what I told him we would when we first started. And I ran with nothing but a stopwatch running on my wrist. The coolest part was that just over a week out, on a very easy training run, John finished within 5 minutes of his time for this race last year, so his goal time of 5 minutes faster than last year should be attainable. Me on the other hand finished the training run roughly about 20 minutes slower than my race time last year. But what I was looking for out of the run was to find my rhythim on the hills. The right lean, the right stride, the right pace, and I found that. I know how to run flats, and the distance doesn't bother me either, so that's what I needed out of the run.

All and all, it was a great run. Enjoy your weekend, more later...

Me and John, (or John and Me, or John and I, whichever)

2008-04-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

I'm taking off in about an hour or so do the last run of the Horsetooth Half course before the race next weekend. I'll start by saying on last nights last 3 mile run, I tweaked my right hamstring, bad enough that it does have me concerned, but after some time in the therapy pool and use of my Stick, it feels good enough that I'm still going to make the run without too much thought. I was thinking this morning though, with the exception of the half next Sunday, this will be my last real big workout and the marathon is still about a month away. After todays 13.1, I do 5 tomorrow and 10 on Sunday. Next week I will run, but will mostly be like a weeklong taper to rest me for the half. Coming out of the half I do have a big mileage week the following week, but nothing that will be too fast and too intense. It comes to an end with a 22 mile run that Sunday. But that one will be like my last one before PHX in the sense that I will run the first 5 miles at the pace I plan to run the first 5 of the marathon at, to get the feel of pacing myself out, then it will be very easy. I might take a camera and photo some landmarks around town. Lucky for me, in 22 miles I can pretty much see all of the meca that is Ft. Collins, Colorado.

Anyways, I plan to run this morning with John Bender. John is a customer in the auto shop that I work in. One day a little over a year ago, while he was in getting his car worked on, we struck up a conversation. It turned to running because he is a marathoner and I was finding my was as a runner then as well. We didn't really talk too much after that for a while, but at the start of the Horestooth Half last year, we saw each other and talked as the race got started. Then little by little, each time he would come into where I work, we would talk running more and more. I would listen to him, try to pick up little pieces of advice as I could. He has always been very complimentary of me and has great faith in my abilities. He was key to my success in Phx, and the oppritunity to run with him today is a huge deal for me. I'm really looking forward to todays run. We both are running the Horsetooth Half this year again. He is really working his ass of because he is running the San Francisco Marathon this summer, and in his 50's he's looking for one more BQ to try and run there in 09. Hopefully we'll get a chance to race together there too.

Have a great day everyone. Nothing but love...

Into Each Life, A Little Rain Must Fall

2008-04-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

I got up around 4 this morning, just like usual. I wearily dragged myself to the dresser to grab my running gear and get ready to get on my way. Just 2 quick miles this morning, just to get my heartrate going. I would do the other 8 miles later in the day. I don't really like to run in the morning, I never have, but it's a ritual that I am getting more and more used to. Plus on the rare occasion, I love to get to take Jasmine the Chocolate Wonder Lab with me.

So this morning, when I stepped onto the sidewalk here in beautiful Ft. Collins, I looked around and the streets were wet, and it smelled like fresh rain. As I passed my pickup truck, there was water beaded on the pait and windows. I have no clue how much it rained, but it did. It smelled great and felt like everything had been washed clean.

Honstly, I do not like the rain. Almost everything I do for recreation involves being outside and rain doesn't really enhance anything like that. The signifigance of last nights rain is that it was supposed to be snow in the forcast. Finally the nights are staying above freezing. We get great days here all year round, but when the sun goes away in the winter and even in the spring, the weather gets cold. The first overnight rain for us means Spring has really sprung. And I couldn't be happier.

Enjoy your day. I am

The Nervous 3

2008-04-02T06:08:00.000-07:00

So, after e-mails, texts, and phone calls yesterday, and after a quick trip to the hot tub at my gym. More on that later. I headed down to Dicks Sporting Goods last night to purchase my new running shoes. Well, they did not have the Air Structure Triax 10+ in my size anymore. Since it's last years model, they are just about out of them. So enter the Zoom Structure Triax 11+. Almost identical in look and build, except no air bag in the heel area. Blue and black are the color they had in stock. They gave me 3 pretty good miles this morning, but still have 12 more to do before the end of the day. Stay tuned.

The Structure Triax 10+ that I wore before this worked for me very well. As it was explained to me, as a beginning runner, who honestly was probably putting in too many miles in to early on in his running career. Without my legs being very strong, at least not running strong, when I would get tired, my gait would get out of whack, thus causing me to pull and tweak my muscles while my stride was not right. The structure shoe, while a little heavy and beefy for most long distance runners, provides me with the cushioning and support I need while running tired. I think after I recover from my May marathon, I may actually go another way, because my legs should be strong enough and my posture and form are much better now than they were just a few months ago.

And while we are on the Nike subject, is it just me or is everything they do anymore geared to running? When I was growing up, Air Jordan stuff was everywhere, basketball was what Nike pushed, and those were the shoes that they made and sold the most of. Every other commercial had Jordans mug on it selling 100$ sneakers. Once Jordan retired and basketball fell victim to the hip-hop image that it spent a decade building, all of a sudden it's all running. When Lance Armstrong decided not to bike the Tour De France anymore, how much money do you think Nike paid him to run the NYC marathon? He was their second most popular sponsered athlete after Tiger Woods, and I would bet that they banged on him pretty hard to do it, to try and bring them back to the forefront of running. I swore off Nike shoes about 13 months ago, then refound them with the Triax models. Strange how that happens.

Ok, off for another 6 in the new shoes soon. But I'm sure they'll be fine. Have a great day.

What Guides You? Logic or Feel?

2008-04-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

A lot of my running career, (a little over a year or so, hahaha), like a lot of my life is guided by feel. How I feel about anything in any given moment, is how I make decisions. Besides running, the other thing that I really enjoy is playing golf. I love it, walking the course, being outside, the sun, the smells, plus the fact that it is very challenging, mentally. I am what you call a 150 yard 7 iron guy. That means the I hit my 7 iron about 150 yards. Progressively down there is a yardage associated with each club. I know this from time on the driving range, and previous rounds of golf. More often than not though, I will look at the distance I have left to go, not by looking for yard markers or landmarks, but just by looking with my eyes. It happens a lot when I play, where the guys your playing with will shout to you "138 out" before you pull a club. But at that given moment, I feel like the 8 iron wont do it, whether its the lie, how my body feels right then, or even the wind, and I'll grab the 7. Even though I know I am a 150 yard 7 iron guy. And more often then not I'm right. Although it goes against all logic. And more often then not, I don't even think twice.

I bring this up because of something that I posted on RW yesterday and actually brought up in a phone conversation with someone else, well ok actually 2 things I posted. First off, I let my Garmin keep track of my miles, and rarely do I look to see a monthly total, but I was able to post my miles for the month because I had my training schedule for my upcoming marathon in front of me, it had my daily logs, and I know for a fact I didn't miss a run. 284.3, and I took 6 days off and ran 3.1 only on the Sunday before St. Patricks day. Someone after that was posted had asked how often I went through shoes, and of course, like I said, that had been brought up before over the phone recently too. I still on the same pair that I ran my last marathon in....

I came back from Chicago last Oct. I had been hurt and not running, I decided to do the half that went with the Denver Marathon that next weekend. I was at the expo, picking up my race number and was looking at some shoes they had their. I was talking on the phone, trying some on and the voice on the other end of the line said, "just buy them" or something like that. So I did. I ran a half in them for their opening run and loved them. About a month our of Phoenix, I purchased a second pair. I trained in them all the way to the marathon, and am still in them. My dilema is that I know the shoes that I am running in are probably well over the 500 mile mark at this point, but they still feel good. I get no leg tweaks, no pains, no nothing right now when I run, except for the normal aches and pains that go with 70 mile weeks. I fought and fought with the New Balances, Adidas, Avia, and even previous versions of Nikes that I had bought. These have been great, and I'm afraid to change them this close, but I also know if I don't soon, I'll probably get to the point where it'll be too late before the marathon. I do know 2 things. The shoe has been discontinued so eventually I'll have to change. But also that this is by far the longest I've been healthy as a runner in my short career.

Logic or feel?

100 years? There Must Be Some Mistake

2008-03-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

Today is the last Monday in March, Opening Day for the Chicago Cubs. Somehow things have been shifted a little. Usually the Monday of Opening Day is followed that night by the NCAA Final Four Championship game, making this day, probably my favorite of the year. Since they didn't fall on the same day for the first time in as long as I can remember, I didn't take today off for the first time in years as well.

100 fucking years. How is that possible. How could they not fall ass backwards into at least one World Series title in all that time? Statistically, it's next to impossible. Some how, some way, it should have happened. There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball, less than that a few years ago, before the Rockies, D-backs, Rays, and Marlins came along. Three of those teams have played in a World Series, two of them have won titles. During this 100 year stretch over 1/4 of those years can be written off to trophys that reside in Yankee Stadium. For whatever its worth Yankee fans, once every 4 years winning a World Series is pretty good average. Not once every 4 years going, once every 4 years winning. The Colorado Rockies played in the W. S. last year, although I am not a fan, they are the hometown team and so easily followed. They are probably one of the worst run teams in baseball, it's reported and printed all the time, yet they made the Series last year.

The Cubs are favored to repeat as winners of the Central Division, (probably the weakest in baseball again this year), but the 162 game schedule will tell us if they do. The law of averages should tell us that they should probably win the World Series this year, and for a bunch to come, lol, but after all this time, the law of averages don't seem to apply in Wrigleyville. But you gotta love baseball season. Spring oficially starts today people. :-)

From a running standpoint, I did 2 miles this morning and looked like the Mummy for the first mile because I was so stiff from yesterdays 22. I will do 5 at lunch and then take tomorrow off. Funny, I feel better after the 22 than I did after the 20 a week prior. Fairly big week of running upcoming, with 13 days to the half marathon. God bless healthy legs.

Have a great day!

Before and After

2008-03-30T05:42:00.000-07:00

Good morning all. It's about 6:45 here in Ft. Collins. I am preparing to drag myself out for this 22 mile run, I am working on a cup of coffee, plotting the course I plan to run. After todays run, I'll begin to settle in a little before Horsetooth. I have 4 double digit runs next week, including a 15 and the Horsetooth course with my friend John Bender on Friday, but next Sundays run is a 10 miler, not a 20 something. And honestly, I'm ready for a little break. I know I'll go crazy during my taper before May 4, I did before Jan 13th too, but a little breather can be a good thing. Yesterday was a great example of that. I picked up my training schedule, which I have on paper, plus keep in my blackberry, right before I left for my run. I had already set my Garmin to 5 miles, because that's what I had always been doing on Saturdays before my LR on Sunday, I was changed into my shorts and Nike's, but I just wanted to double check it. 10 miles scheduled for today it said. "Sweet" I muttered to myself as I rolled my eyes. I reset the Garmin for 10, and off I went, never giving it a second thought. I had a great run, made up the route on the fly and had to run about an extra half block is all to finish right where I wanted to at 10 miles. I had a cup of water, walked up the street to the Trailhead and had a brat and a bud light (3.50 on Saturdays), then made my way home. Bedtime was somwhere around 9:30 I think. Pre LR dinner was a steak and potatoes last night instead of pasta, so we'll see how that goes too.

Ok, I'm going to work my way out for this run now, the rest of this blog will be written after the 22 mile run...stay tuned...

Not a bad 22 miler for me this morning. About minutes faster than the 22 I did before PHX. I could feel it in my legs for sure near the end, but once again, I took no gel packs or anything during the entire run, vs. probably 5 or so on the pre PHX 22. Overall I am very satisfied with the run, although one thing that did happen was that I got through the half marathon point a lot quicker than I did on my 20. By almost 7 minutes. The run was only about 4 minutes longer for 22 miles than my 20 was last weekend. Just a little quick on the beginning for me, I'll have to watch that.

Below are some pictures of todays run. Snowy and cold here today, but hell spring is almost here. Poudre Canyon sure is pretty though. Have a great Sunday everyone. Only 10 next Sunday, then the half the following weekend. Now time for a Bud Light and a shower. :-)

Two a days

2008-03-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

It's actually a football practice term, meaning that you practice twice a day. I use it to describe when I run more than once in a day, splitting miles up due to time restraints. If I had my way, I wouldn't have to do it this way. I much prefer a 10 mile run straight, rather than 2 5's or something like that. Some people call them doubles, or split runs, whatever. But actually today I use that term in the title because I have 2 things to cover today. I should save one for tomorrow, lol, but I know that I have the 22 mile run tomorrow to talk about for sure. One came to me during my run, the other while I was having a phone conversation with a fellow runner.

While out on my 13.1 mile run yesterday, my body was sore. Lots of miles, lots of training right now. This and next week are the biggest mile weeks of this training session, and for as well as I'm running, I'm just a little beat up right now. In my mypace blog I wrote about how last Sunday when i did my 20 miler, that 6 months ago, if I had felt like I did before that run, I probably would have taken at least 2 or 3 days off. Now I don't even think about skipping a run, let alone a day. The days preceeding yesterdays run were 15 on Wed, and 10 on Thur, both of them having some intense parts of the workout, not just out eating up miles. Anyways, I flashed back to a run, one that I did about 13 months ago. I used to be off on Sundays and Tuesdays. And as a less experienced runner, having only 1 day in between to recover from my longer run on Sunday, would make it hard. Now remember, my longer run on Sunday then was usually 6 of 7 miles. So I was thinking about this Tuesday run. The Sunday right before it, I had broken the double digit mark for miles for the first time ever. I did 10 that Sunday, so I wanted to follow it up with another 10 on Tuesday. Worst run of my life I think, man it was bad. I remembered walking, cramping, just doing everything I could to get finished. I was trying to get ready for my first half marathon then, and thought for sure I was never going to make it, that I would never finish. Now double digit days are the norm. It just made me smile a little bit. If you read this and think about how you may be doing lower miles, it wasn't that long ago that I was too. Stay with it.

Second thought...running has made me a rock star. Far greater than I could have imagined. And far more than what I deserve for my ability level. But day in and out, it's what drives me, my life, hell even my love life here lately, all of it based around running. There is another person who posts on Runners World that I am friends with. He is a better runner than I am. Some people like him, others don't because he's opinionated, pulls no punches, speaks his mind. I have a lot of respect for him, but actually very little of that has to do with running, don't get me wrong, I would love to be able to run like him, but I'm talking more about the other things in his life. His S/O, family stuff, and work are all very importaint to him. When I hit the big time, I rode the wave of popularity, I'm still riding it. To the demise of a lot of other things. My marrige, my job, friendships, relationships. I've damaged or ended everything in that list. And it's all fleeting, here today, gone tomorrow. The Entertainer by Billy Joel, check it out. Is the difference that he was always a runner and I am just becoming one? Or is it more about the kind of person I am? I guess here the last few days, I have been wondering who I'm running for? Am I running for myself, or for the accolades of people that with the exception of one or two of them, I could give a fuck less what they think. I don't mean to be harsh, but on race day when I line up, I look around and want to whip ass on everyone who is around. Just people I want to finish behind me. So the question is...Springsteen or Axle Rose...Is it really better to burn out, then fade away?

So I did 10 miles today. I thought it was only supposed to be 5, but did all 10 and with a 22 on the schedule for tomorrow, it'll make 5 days in a row of double digit miles. 15, 10, 13.1, 10, and 22. That's 70.10 miles in 5 days. Tomorrow makes my May 4th marathon in my opinion. My strength and resolve will be as closely tested tomorrow as it will be in May. We'll see tomorrow.

Goodnight all :-) May your evening be as good as mine.

13.1 Friday

2008-03-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

It's Friday morning, about 7:30 here in my little corner of the world. My Friday routine is pretty much normal most weeks. I don't have to work today, so I get up and go to the gym, stop by work and make sure that the day starts right for the people who work for me, (actually it usually equates to very little work, lol), then I do a 13.1 mile run. There is a course that starts less than a quarter mile that they use for the Crossroads Half Marathon here in September, so it works perfectly. I had my worst half marathon I had ever run on that course, and I actually don't care much for it. It's partially streets and partially bike trail, but there are way prettier places to run in Ft. Collins. You would figure that a guy armed with a Garmin might be able to find something different, but I also like the challenge of running it over and over. Making it a tedious actvity. I feel that it makes me stronger. Takes away the distraction of looking around, and makes me concentrate on my run, listen to my body.

Running is one of the most enjoyable things I do in my life, probably THE most enjoyable. Training is not. It gives me satisfaction, it makes me feel undescribable, it builds my mind and body into what it is. But if the act of training is enjoyable, I'm not training hard enough. Not preparing myself for all possiblities. I was deadly afraid of my last 21 mile run before PHX. I was afraid it would go bad, leaving me with shattered confidence and no time or way to bounce back. My running guru told me the opposite. If it goes bad he said, then see how you react, how you respond, how you are able to push through. Bad dress rehearsal, great opening night I've been told too. Racing is fun, running for the sake of running is fun too. Speedwork, hills, intervals, not so much. Ha, ha, ha.

Off I go for todays standard 13.1, same course, same scenery, same music probably too. Have a great day everyone.

5 weeks out, time to make a marathon

2008-03-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been an interesting stretch since Jan 13th and the Rock and Roll Marathon in Phoenix AZ. I sit here, Thursday, March 27th, right in the middle of my highest mileage, most intense week of training for my upcoming May 4th marathon. Right at about 77 miles is where the week will peak out at. I started my real training program for this marathon about 12 weeks out from the race, I will taper for 2 of them, and actually cut back the week of April 7-13 for a half marathon that I am running here in Ft. Collins. 9 full weeks, that will include a 20 and 2 22 mile training runs. From 2/17 I will do miles per week of 61,62,60,72,42,56,75,74,32,65,50, and 26. My recent 20 was almost 5 minutes faster than the same 20 mile run before Phoenix, and it was done with very little water and no gels or anything. My runs get more and more encouraging each day at this point and the prospect of what I might accomplish begins to creep in to my head with each good run. I continue to push those thoughts away. I always think to the scene in the movie Tin Cup with Kevin Costner, on the first day of the US Open when he tees off on the first hole. He whispers to himself "be humble" as he swings the club and drives the ball down the fairway. A lot of words have been used to describe me in my life, everything from "hidden treasure" to "strong willed" to "sweet and smart".

Humble is not one that I've ever been called. Probably never will. I used cockiness to mask insecurity when I was young and overweight. As I grew older and became who I am today, I find that I am very good at a lot of things now, but really not great at anything. I play a decent round of golf, swim, bike, basketball, all that stuff I am ok at. I'm good at running, it's probably what I do best. Personal life stuff my track record continues to speak for itself. Family and relationship stuff, maybe we'll go into that another time, not today. None of us have that kind of time right now.

From a running standpoint though, I feel better than I ever have, and this is the week that it happens. The past 4 and upcoming 3 days are the ones that will put me in place to do what I couldn't in Phoenix, coming to a head with my 22 mile run on Sunday. Each LR before Phoenix, I worried. Now I can't wait for this 22 mile run on Sunday, I can't wait to prove to myself I can do it, I can make it happen.

Not much here besides a guy who is wound up about a big week and his job is not keeping his mind from wandering. More later...