Thanksgiving, dead birds, and Boulder

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

"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

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

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

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?

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

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.