13 miles, easy … well, slow because of the snow. 4100 on the year over 619.25 hours. 67 miles on the week, 10 hours. 346 miles, 50.25 hours on December. At least 250k of vertical on the year.
For the fan, this is probably the best moment in US elite track in 2010.
Winter has finally come it seems
I got a book I have been wanting to get for a while: Peter Strudwick’s “Come Run With Me.” Peter ran Pikes four times, and had a best time of 7:02:28 (twice this time). He did that in 1972 and 73. And without the benefits of hands or feet. He was born without them as his mother had suffered from rubella (German Measles) during her pregnancy with him. Keep in mind, prosthetics nearly 40 years ago were a light years away from what they are now.
Following JT’s lead on this and playing with this Green Monster Challenge. This smoothie was made up of spinach, broch, orange juice, kale, some yogurt, some apples, some grapefruit, some pineapple (all the fruit was lying around the kitchen and getting a bit over ripe) and some red pepper.
The Tanqueray in the background was not in the smoothie.
Forgot to post this shot the other day from when we were heading out to ski
Need to dig into this Joe Grant read.
AM – 20 miles, treadmill. Kept it pretty easy for the first dozen or so (HR sub 150), and then decided it was okay it get it done and let it float up. Started real easy (8:30) and then it was hovering 7-7:30. The dip in the graph is where I had to restart the mill (did not stop the watch)
4087 miles on the year.
AM – easy. 15 miles, all above 10k feet.
KZ turns 13 today. A TEENAGER.
Of course, this recently turned to double digits in age sibling ain’t gonna let the spotlight all go his sister’s way.
GOALS 2011: Get an hour a week of alternative exercise. Could be core, weights, jump rope, biking … can be a one hour shot or 10 minutes a day.
I have a bunch of other goals that I need to formulate, bake in. This is fine. I don’t feel this need to outline them all before the end of the year. It is just that this extended period of time off from work I have had has had me thinking about this stuff a bit. In other words, the time of year lends to it. And there are a lot of family goals, goals I have as a husband, a father, a friend, a guitarist, a home brewer, a student …
A Runner's High by Ben Redmond
Just went back and counted. 20 Greens this year. Sitting at 4067 miles on the year. 33 to get to 4100. Ugh. 4100 in my 41st year sounds nice but 33 miles over the next two days will be a push. Didn’t help that Nick threw down the charge that he was going to look to outgun me on this (although in my mind he already has with the performances he has had this year and that his mileage is with a helluva lot of vertical). Of course, his mileage was with one kid for most of the year. My mileage spreadsheet actually has me at 4080 at current – but I will go with the lower value and what I have been tracking in the blog week over week to be safe. In looking at that, I had 8 weeks at 100 or more and another 8 at 90 or more. Highest week was 111 (week of Burro Race), and lowest was 11 (week of River Trip). 5 weeks less than 51 (I picked 51 because that was Pikes week actually). Best I can gather, Tony was dancing with these mileage numbers – with a helluva lot more vertical than me back in the first half of August.
A few thoughts on the “10000 hour rule” in running, an old list of the Boulder FKT’s (I am thinking of dedicating a separate page to this in 2011, so let me know of any details of any updates – who, what route, what date, etc), Jurek on CNN, AJW kicking around the UROY conversation …
15 miles easy, all above 10k feet. Met a neighbor and his family out walking with their burro Lucy. Had much to talk about of course.
Skiing with the family today at Breck. The kids are getting good. JZ and KZ were both in the moguls today. JZ even tried skiing backwards and did pretty good.
Skiing continues to beat the crap out of me up here this year. Headaches, mild nausea. I am not sure why but I have a new hypothesis. I found that I felt pretty crappy today until I buried myself with some calories – like more than what I would eat for lunch by a good amount. Then I was fine … for a bit. TZ and I started discussing that, perhaps unconsciously slamming in quite a few calories helps combat some of the effects of altitude. I don’t think I have been eating differently when up here recently but maybe? Gonna talk to Lucho a bit about this next chance I get.
4 miles in the evening in the dark. I mean – DARK. It is crazy dark up here at night. Really when it is covered with clouds. I ran with the dogs and could only see them when they came within the funnel of my headlamp light … usually two beady yellow eyes staring back.
AM – 11 miles, out and back, building throughout the run. Solid tempo effort. 2 eagles in the trees down in Lac Amora.
Week in review ... 76 miles, 11 hours. 279 miles, 40.25 hours on December. 4033 miles on the year over 609.25 hours. Decent week as I got in two tempo-ish efforts (on the same course, going to try to do that for a bit), the local hill session and a jaunt over Green. Nothing particularly specific in preparing for XC nats, this week – but that short flat stuff seems to aggravate the p.f a bit more. I feel like I am making progress, maintaining some fitness with this. Next week will probably be a bit down with skiing, and some time in the mountains.
Christmas of course, so we did all that usual wonderful stuff that I am incredibly grateful for because … well, you don’t know how long that is gonna last. Some pix from the day below. An added bonus was that the weather was so ridiculously mild that we all headed out into the Lac Amora wilderness. The family was on bikes and jogged. We hoped to see some of the bald eagles that have taken to nesting down there in the big cottonwoods – but no luck. Instead we saw some couple thousand water fowl hanging out on Sterns Lake.
11 miles easy.
PM – after some AM wrapping and assembly, I got out for some easy miles. Did a little check in the middle and I was rolling around just under 8 minute pace and about 140-145. Nice and mellow. When I got back, KZ talked me into heading to the middle school to do her gym class warm up that they “do everyday.” I got my butt kicked.
About a half mile warm up (.43).
Then 25 jumping jacks,
then some stretching (arm cross, leg cross touch toes – both sides, touch toes straight up, Achilles stretch with palms to ground, then groin stretch
10 crunches,
10 1 leg extended sit ups – both sides,
35 push ups where she called out the up down,
the easy jog 80 seconds, then jog 80 seconds, then run 80 seconds, then sprint 80 seconds,
then jumps – all 30 secs each, in place, side to side, forward backward, square clockwise, square counterclockwise, figure 8, then the opposite direction figure 8 and repeat the whole sequence one legged and then the other leg.
The jumps killed me. And the down and hold it nature of the push ups had quite a few folks laughing as they walked by and she tortured me. Anyway … I will look to do this again. I recorded the audio of me wimping out on this so it may make its way into a future podcast.
11 miles on the day.
GOALS 2011: I want to go from my front door to Bear Peak and back. Mostly because that is the peak I see as head out my front door. I think this is going to be about 50kish round trip.
More post the Hellybuck doping confession, added fellow FF team mate John T’s blog to the feed collector (by the way, if your blog ain’t over there – or one you think I ought to check out, let me know), eyeballing DD’s goals, and part two of a very interesting Brett Sutton interview.
GOALS 2011: Tentative race schedule 2011 (highly subject to change)
January: Lafayette Oatmeal Festival 5k (1/8/2011)
Maybe a snowshoe race in here alternatively?
Pikes Peak Ponderous Posterior 50k (1/15/2011)
February: USATF XC Nationals (San Diego) (2/5/2011)
Xterra Mission Gorge Trail Run (San Diego) (2/6/2011)
March – probably will do a door to Bear Peak and back run
April:
May: Collegiate Peaks 50 mile (5/7/2011)
June: Golden Gate Dirty Thirty (6/4/2011) (?)
Mount Washington Road Race (?) (6/18/2011)
July: Vail Hill Climb (7/2/2011) or LT Marathon (7/2/2011) (or half)
Barr Trail Mountain Race (7/17/2011)
World Championships of Burro Racing (7/31/2011)
August: Pikes Peak Marathon (8/21/2011)
September: Breck Crest (?)
October: Boulder 100 (?) (10/15/2011)
November: Anthem Thanksgiving Day 5k (11/24/2011)
December: Chubby Cheeks 50k (12/17/2011)
I might fill in a thing here or there, but am much more likely to drop a couple, few of these races. Mount Washington is dependent on the lottery, but if it does not happen I may take another crack at the Mount Evans Hill Climb. July looks a little heavy but that is just some of the best racing times. The 100 in October is a total WAG, but the thought is in my head so I will lightly pencil that in there. All of course, depends on how I hold up physically, and in the more important aspects of life. September will probably be a little recovery, and I expect Feb, March, April to be some building block months. Love to get to the Grand Canyon in there but I am not sure I will be able to swing that. Spring Break in March will be a recovery week as I will be bouncing between Phoenix for Spring Training with the family and a conference I need to present at for work in Portland. River trip or some other in there too (early July)? Remains to be seen.
AM – 11 miles. Yeah, so this puts me at 4000 miles for the year.
HIGHLIGHTS 2010: most miles in a year ever, with it coming in at 4000 on December 23. A bit of a silly number. I think Anton may have gotten this number in July? Maybe August? But a representation to me that I have put down a bunch of good base. In some regards I guess it is a fair representation of the 10% rule. I generally got about 10% more miles than I did last year. I am pretty certain I won’t look to specifically surpass this number in 2011.
This AM’s workout included the visit to my local hill for the typical 8 up and 8 down session. I did this last time a bit faster (18:59), and I could feel it a bit today (19:22). Yet again, while my performance was slower today, my HR was higher! All good. It is December. I have visions of doing up to 20 of these at some point.
It is December 22. How’d that happen?
Anyway … dead lifts instruction video, Geoff weighs in on money in ultras, a step towards 470 continuing through to Golden, interview with Grand Master Doug Bell …
CRYSTAL BALL 2011: who becomes the next name in the sport that we are all a’buzz about? Actually, I consider this question on a few fronts. I eyeball the guys who are turning 40 this year … as becoming a Masters runner can be quite a motivation for some to up their game (and possibly become injured). Lucho becomes a Master, as does Brad P. … but beyond that, I am wondering who in the MUT space shows up and we are surprised by. I guess we could see the extension of Siemers and Randall, or it could be new names altogether. I can see a guy like JV really having a bust out year too.
GOALS 2011: I really need to put a structure to this one and break this goal down a bit but it is about strength training. I am tempted to say that I’d do something like 36000 pushups in 2011, but that is a goal that sets up for failure. In regards to strength training, I think I need to take this goal and make it small discernable short term steps. Like, next week I will do core, squats, etc for 10 minutes every day. Just little stuff that I can do that I can build a habit around. I just need to G.A.P and get on it.
I also have some goals in regards to guitar … mostly about expanding my repertoire and using a Kanban board to drive that. More on that later, but it is mostly about getting down another dozen or so songs next year. Maybe even writing some.
Found the files I recorded yesterday and so podcast 5 will probably be up tonight.
AM – ten miles really easy. Really easy. Dog jog. Thought about getting it after this AM for a bit but will look for that tomorrow. 3989 miles and over 600 hours now so tomorrow might be 4k day.
I dig the Tony video but I don’t dig how the video file starts everytime the dang web page loads automatically.
Justin has a nice write up on the 2011 roster for FF.
AM – had a dental appointment in Boulder in the mid AM so I trekked over to Green to get that in. Took it real easy as it was dark, and I was a bit beat up from yesterday’s effort. Came down Bear Canyon and tacked a bit on. Saw some guys yapping in Chaut as I headed out for the tack on but did not realize one of them was Aaron.
Saw two things that were out of the norm … first as I was coming down Bear Canyon, I saw a flash. Well, that got my attention. There is a camera mounted on the side of the trail to pick up wildlife movement, apparently a part of a CSU study. Or maybe it is the TSA. I forget which. Then, on the Mesa, just below Woods Quarry there was a bag of dog crap, but with an OSMP sign labeling it. Basically the sign said it is bad to bag your dog crap and then leave it on the trail, and according to ordinance bladdy blah blah you could be fined for it. What is the fine for leaving a sign on a bag of dog crap?
Beautiful morning. There was a nice cloud layer enveloping the top. I took the whole thing easy, and even hiked sections on the front side. I guess I ought to get a count on the number of Greens, other peaks I have on the year. 10 miles on the day.
Oh, and I recorded most of Podcast 5 but then I put my voice recorder in my rear pocket, and butt dialed erased it all. Probably a sign of some sort.
Happy solsticing. The days get longer from here on out … so that is reason to celebrate! Maybe you enjoyed the eclipse last night? We did.
I noticed this connector being built last year. Looks like it is done.
This is the way to run the hurdles.
Tony in a pretty cool vid showing the local stuff. Thanks for the tip Justin.
Just heard Tool’s version of Led Zep’s “No Quarter” as Lucho hooked me up with some tunes. Holy crap.
11 miles. Got out, felt good and so I just went with it, for a nice steady effort in the afternoon. Bald Eagle was out in the Lac Amora Wilderness … those big cottonwoods down by the bridge down by Stearns Lake. Turned out to be a good tempo run. And it clued me into a goal for 2011.
GOALS 2011: Be consistent. Yeah, I guess you could say I am consistent with 3900 plus miles on the year but I mean consistent in my workouts. I want to become more disciplined where I have a few set routes that I go and do every week. If I feel up for it, I tag those. If I don’t, I don’t. But I want to know every step in that route, and how to break it down. Where to push. Where to hurt. Where to hold back. Ya know?
Considering this program as a skeleton to start to address some leg, core weakness I am facing in the groin, hip areas. I don’t notice these weakness when I run, but I do in other movements – and want to address that. More on this later but I need to get to bed to watch the eclipse later.
This biking thing in Vail … got to check around on it, but ack.
Typically my travel this fall has brought me to nicer climates than CO. Not so much this time.
Pittsburgh today 
AM - 10 miles SUPER easy. Recorded podcast number 4. Meh. Week in review ... 77 miles, 10.75 hours. 133 miles, 19.25 hours on December. 3888 miles, 588.25 hours on the year.
Decent week with a tempo, and two short hill sessions. Next week with travel to Pittsburgh might be a bit low on the running but I ought to make some of that up at the Chubby Cheeks, even the Junior Varsity version. 122 miles to 4k miles for the year, with 19 days … ought to get that unless something goes awry (6.4 a day required).
Little tough to navigate through the results for club nats because of the age sorting they do (masters men), but it looks like Magill took the win, leading his team to that title as well. More on locals competing there here. If you really want to be humbled, check the open results. 196 guys under 32. You will probably never hear of all but 2 or 3 of them.
Free local neat thing to check out with the young ones – a pretty expansive Christmas village over at Arapahoe and 95th.
AM – early. Recorded a podcast while running, but it was mostly me talking in circles about doping in ultras. Scratched it. 6.5 miles easy.
Mid day – got back out, and the winds had picked up. Did a short warm up and got back to the local hill, 8 repeats again, this time in 18:59. WTF? The other day 8 of these shelled me, with the HR reaching 185 over the 8 and it taking me more than 21 minutes. Today was a max of 176 and over two minutes faster. Case for the central governor or what? Still nicely worked after these and rounded it out another 6.5 with the warm down. Not going to sweat the difference here but I will look to continue to do these periodically as they are a nice short challenge, are less than a half mile from my door. I bet if I did them with someone else tomorrow I could make them really hurt and take an other two minutes off the whole set.
Oh yeah, wore my newly arrived Crosslites. The grip on these are sick. They squeal when I walk in our kitchen.
Off to PA next week. Lots of predictions for precip there.
GOALS 2011: I keep at least one full complete honest month of a food log and post it here.
Enjoyed this post.
Boat load of pix here … the BOSTAC took a trip to look at several properties that are potential open space acquisitions in the future. I will comment on my thoughts of each of these in the future, but I needed to get these shots just for mental reference.
