Monday 013111

Last year I jokingly-sort-of-seriously-cuz-I-was-curious asked my ward’s council member if funeral pyres were legal in the backyard.  In fairness, it came after a conversation we had where I learned that you can still do a burial in your own backyard in my town (much to the chagrin of coroners).  Apparently open funeral pyres are an actuality in Colorado.   (AP Photo/Ivan Moreno)

Karl posts Rocky Racoon odds.

Tim Van Orden (TiVO) is running pretty well as a Master.

The Oly Marathon Trial standards have changed this go around, including dropping the “B” standard.  Interesting post-read-argument for it.

Facebook never gives you good news (notice there is no “dislike” button?).  So why does it make folks feel sad?  Forget the second life, live your real life.

Been enjoying Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk podcast. 

Nick Clark interview.

Apparently it is going to be cold tomorrow:  Due to predicted extreme cold temperatures, BVSD (that is the local school district) will be closed all day Tuesday, Feb. 1, including all after-school activities. This notice is being issued at 3:15 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31, in order to give parents early notice to allow for planning. A decision regarding Wed., Feb. 2, will be announced on Tuesday. Sorry BVSD – because it is going to be zero we now need to close the schools?  Weak.

10 miles on the mill, 2 at 11.5%, and 2 at 6.5% and then the rest at 1.5% to feel it out a bit.  Still a bit tight but getting better.  328 miles on January, 51 hours, 29000 feet.  One missed day.  3 Green Mountains, 2 nights at 10k feet.  1 race.

Sunday 013011

This is excellent listening. Eyles podcast is definitely one of my favorites. While I have not kept a food log this week, this podcast was timely for me as I continue to consider how I eat, fuel and drug myself. the connections that Kessler draws between food and athletic cues (and addictions) are significant. For what it is worth, we also went to church this AM where the sermon was on gluttony. The universe may be trying to tell me something …

Bill W does a winter Pikes trip and Rickey does a marathon at the pole.

AM – mill again – 7 miles. 3 miles at 11.5 percent grade, 3 at 6.5 and then 1 at 1.5. TZ asked me how my knee felt. I am at that point where I can’t really tell if it still feels a bit tweaked and I ought to be careful or if I am just hyper conscious of it because I tweaked it earlier this week. In other words, if nothing had happened earlier this week, I probably would think nothing of what I feel there now. But as something did happen, I will continue to baby it. And while I have been describing it as a knee thing, it is really more a strain of the tendon connecting the hamstring, so a hamstring tendonitis.

Oh yeah, more silly observations from the mill: generally speaking my “easy” efforts seem to correlate to the mill’s feedback that I am using 900 cals an hour. That is the general threshold line right now. Above that and it is getting to be a bit more than easy and below that is easier. I realize that this is a bit of BS number, because it is figuring this out based on my weight, speed and incline around some industry average. But that said, if it is a stable calculation, then I can also look at this and see if the number changes at similar HRs down the road. Or not. I think I have seen other psuedo equivalent calculations on hotel mills called METS.

Week = 50 miles, 9.5 hours (I also got another 1:50 of biking in). Given the knee issue mileage was down of course, and then given the turn to the mill, vertical was up. 13885 vertical on the week, which was greater in one week than I had done thus far this year.
Month and Year = 3188 miles, 50.25 hours, 27500 ascending feet.

In regards to next week’s racing, it is hard for me to formulate a plan around that right now – as I just want to be able to run hard at all. And that may not be an option. That would be a bummer if I could not race, but we will take it day to day. Truly my mind has shifted from being a scorer on the team to running healthy again.

Shots from the Pinewood Derby …

In the comments I noted that my build up to San Diego was a total botch job. That is true. I got a good jump on it with a couple of 5ks in near Thanksgiving, but then I failed to do the regular turn over workouts to move forward on that. Instead, in December, I ended up thinking more about miles to reach 4100 versus doing 800 meter repeats. Yeah, some of December was because of the natural “distraction” of life, but I clearly did not execute any significant focus towards prepping for a faster 8k (Justin does a quick CO prelude of the SD race over here). I started (finally) to get the message after the Oatmeal 5k (along with hearing it appropriately from Nick and Footfeathers) but only managed one decent workout before messing myself up last week. The mess up last week was a bit of stupidity too … the 20 I did last Sunday was fine, but I ran a bit more than I should have the following day. I could hear the leg barking a bit on that run, but I decided to overlook it and press on. I paid for that in the rest of the week.

In any case, January is a wrap, and San Diego will be what it is (and I am still actually hoping that I can run hard – I am not sure of that yet). I have been able to continue to meet my goal of getting an hour of alternative exercise every week – and I am going to continue that, and if possible ramp into a more structured weight lifting program.

As the days get a bit longer, I also do need to get my head back around waking up early and getting some training in before “the day.” This habit is good for a variety of reasons, including “getting it done,” but also making it so that I am ready to beat the heat in the summer months. I tend to lax off on this in the winter months with the colder darker days.

I have done okay with the food log goal that I had for January, but admittedly lost motivation around it when my leg went south last week. That there is an interesting observation. Training begets training. Good habit beget other good habits. One goes south and the rest of the house of cards start to fall … in any case, I am going to try to continue to educate myself about food choices for greater consciousness in what I fuel and drug my body with. I realize this is not a “SMART” objective and so it is a bit namby pamby – but it is where I am at on the journey there now. In some regards, I guess it is similar to some other things I am educating myself on … guitar, Buddhism … I don’t have hard and fast objectives about these things but I am wading in the waters of education (albeit, all my education is slow).

My objectives for February in terms of running include in priority order, at least at this point:

1.) get this leg healthy,
2.) survive Nationals (see number 1)
3.) Ramp up the mileage and the vertical,
4.) continue to engage in regular harder sessions with Jason and Aaron
5.) continue the alternative exercise goal, and
6.) continue to explore healthier eating.

So yeah, in priority order, up the miles, up the vertical and start to include some regular injections of quality in there – assuming I have a good foundation to run on. The regular inclusion of some level of quality work aligns well with later summer goals, the approach the Incline Club takes, and frankly is fun. I felt super jazzed after the walloping I took earlier this month at Balch with Jason Jason and Aaron. I ain’t look to kill these … just regular pushes over the easy stuff that will make up the other 90 percent I do.

Saturday 012911

AM – mill, 5 miles, 11.5% grade.  12:24, 11:58, 11:45, 11:46, 11:00.  AHR 157, maxing at 175.

Couple of things I notice here … my heart rate on runs like this seems to outpace my breathing and perceived effort.  In other words, I felt like I was running real easy (to start) but the HR climbed more quickly.  Just an observation.  And when I was at 5.7 mph towards the end, the 175 HR, it did not feel easy, but it certainly was not hard.  Mostly just uncomfortable.

Of course, small changes to pace (like from a 12 minute mile to an 11:30) change the game pretty quickly.  But even when the HR was at 170, I was able to comfortably talk to TZ.  I do, however, sweat like I am in Iowa on a summer day while on the mill.  But I finished BSG Season 4 today on the mill … I dug the series.

Anyway, even with the nice weather, hit the mill at grade to continue to baby the knee.

PM – dog jog and a little easy test on the knee.  Overall, improving but certainly not ready to push or race on.  5 miles.

Friday 012811

I know I have not done a lot of training specific to XC next weekend, but I had turned the corner last week, and the turnover session I had done with Jason and Aaron had me moving in the right direction.  With the back of my knee flaring up, I see that my thoughts have gone from not being DFL for the FF team (or the whole race) to just getting back to running again.  Nice shift eh?  Injuries like this quickly put race goals quickly into perspective.

Anyways, I was churning on this quite a bit yesterday, realizing that there was not much I could do about it, realizing that anything I did try to do about it wouldn’t make a lot of difference anyway (including if I was not dealing with this issue), that worrying about it was stupid, blah, blah, blah.  Life goes on. 

But today was almost a bigger kick in the teeth.  60 degree temps.  Clear skies.  NO WIND.  And the leg felt better enough to rope me into wanting to test it.  I knew however, I could feel, that if I did it would just get aggravated, and I be pissed off.  Oh, but what is this?  A day full of conference calls.  Hmmm … make the best of all of it.  Make the mill the office, dial in, and do easy work on the mill at grade – as that sort of stuff does not seem to bother the back of the knee right now.  And given that I have been essentially on a three day taper – why not do something truly insane?  Yup – PPA emulation (although you get all the air you want here at 5400 feet).  13 miles, with grades varying to emulate the Pikes conditions.  Yes, this is MUCH easier than Pikes because it is a mill, yada yada yada, but I was not looking to race.  Just get a good little sweat in … AHR  = 140.  Knee actually felt better post run versus pre run.

Last night was car impounding for the Pinewood Derby.  JZ’s car came right in at the max allowable weight – 5 ounces.  He was ready to pull off his Lego driver’s helmet if he was a touch over.  He had to get out his cars over the years for comparison.

Hmmm … Look you want to know the truth?  I really don’t care about the stats, or the cup or the trophy or anything like that.  Umm…  In fact the game is not that important to me.  Not really.  What matters to me is the perfect throw, making the perfect catch, the perfect step and block.  It is Perfection. That's what it's about. It's about those moments. When you can feel the perfection of creation. The beauty the physics you know the wonder of mathematics. You know the elations of action and reaction and that is the kind of perfection that I want to be connected to.  Sam Anders, BSG4

Thursday 122711

MikeinAustin posted this sad ... insight (?) recently. Like him, I am not sure to where to even start with this one.

1996 - Riis - Admitted Doper
1997 - Ullrich - Busted Doper
1998 - Pantani - Busted Doper
1999-2005 Armstrong - To be determined
2006 - Landis - Busted Doper & Admitted Doper.
2007 - Contador - Busted Doper
2008 - Sastre - Clean?
2009-2010 - Contador - Busted Doper

AM - met Aaron and Justin over at the Fairview track. I was doubtful that I'd pull off any sort of significant workout and just hoped to get some miles while enjoying some time with the guys. The aggravation in the back of my left knee is isolated to the inner left tendon (so while I have said it is the knee, it is really the connective tissue behind it ...), but I could feel that I was negatively stressing it even after a couple of laps on the track with Justin. Pulled the plug, easy 4 miles. It is getting better - it just is not better yet. Probably would be best if I just took a few days off but, well ... ya' know.

Felt a bit bad that Justin hauled up to get a workout in and it did not work out. Learned that I can form a band potentially with Aaron, but he is going to have to pull ukulele duty.

Anton article at Colorado Runner Mag.

Wednesday 012611

Hour on the recumbent bike at work (AHR – 128, max HR – 143, distance = 21, on a level setting of 10).  Left knee felt nicely loosened after this so I did 3 on the mill at 10, 8 and 6 percent grade.  Still a little funk in there but getting better.

I can “see” the brain working here … a bit of concern about losing days, hence a desire to do something (bike and weights), realization that it probably does not matter (river trip from last year before BTMR as evidence), a recognition that I need to relax, a “seeing” that I feel very entitled to do something everyday and that probably that “clinging” is setting myself up for some good old fashioned suffering.

Tuesday 012511

JZ working the car

Nominate John "Homie" Prater for this contest.

Food log: AM: 2 eggs over easy (cooked in olive oil), over two pieces of toast w/provolone and pepperoni. Coffee.
Lunch - left over shepherd's pie, salad, some cookies and yogurt

Dinner – chili and cornbread.

Desert with the kiddos – ice cream

I did not do it last year, and it is not on my agenda for this year, but the Bolder Boulder 10k is probably the road race I have done most often since moving to Colorado - and it is clearly the most competitive race in the state (with the exception being if there is something like USATF XC here). The course changes significantly next year, pulling out the first downhill mile.

AM - headed out with the intention to do a tempo run. I had a slight "hot spot" behind my knee, but did not think much of it. At a mile however, it barked (spasmed) and got my attention. I slowed, jogging to see if it would work out. It did not and so I circled back home - very slowly. 3 miles. This may take a day or two to clear.

 

JZ on the five foot uni.

Evening – got 50 minutes on the stat bike at the gym.  After 10 minutes of warming up, I did a 7 x 4 minutes on, 1 minute off.  I suck at these.  My legs give way before my heart does.  Definitely left me wobbling when I got off.   No strain on the knee with this.

Then hit the weights.  When I started lifting weights in the USAF (yes, this is a memory lane stroll), I struggled to get a single rep of 95 lbs up on the bench press.  Over the course of about 6 months I got up to 205 (never got to two plates on a side though – 225, which was a goal for a bit – then I broke my hand).    So failing to do any significant lifting for about 20 years plus, well, I am nearly back to that starting point.  But I was a happy that I got out a few reps of 135 up tonight (no way on this a couple of weeks ago).  In any case, I guess today’s sidelined run got me my hour of alternative exercise.

Monday 012411

10 miles, easy with MK. Always very good for me spiritually to run with MK.

Food log - AM: 2 bowls of Cheerios, PM - banana w/PB, toast w/PB&honey. Dinner - salad, shepherd's pie, couple of Odells.

Exercise more, be happy.

Or just freeze your arse off.

Sunday 012310

Mill – 20 miles. Easy just cruising. AHR = 138.

Week = 80 miles, 11.25 hours (6 days)
Month and Year = 268 miles, 40.75 hours, 13660 ascending feet

I totally can see that my vertical is dragging way behind what "part" of my head thinks it ought to be (mostly those parts that read others blogs). But I know that and am specifically skipping a bit of vert here in January ...

Good week though ... a tempo session, a track session that felt really good (in a work sort of way), a good long run and even a day off.

Tahosa January 2011

Saturday – no running, but playing in the snow at Tahosa BSA camp.

Friday 012111

AM – 12 miles.

Food log -  breakfast – made everyone blueberry pancakes and bacon.  Coffee.
Lunch – OJ, yogurt, and some PB.
Mid afternoon - apple

Probably will miss running tomorrow because I heading camping up outside of Ward with the Scouts.

Justin has posted some good reads on RT.  One is an article he wrote on the Grand Canyon. The other is on how to get sponsorship as a trail runner.

PM – 5 miles, super easy treadmill.  Then 45 minutes with weights.

Are you a GAM? (credits to Zentri)

And just an oldie but a goodie.  Seems to have some modern day parallels.

Thursday 012011

Headed into Boulder this AM to run with Jason and Aaron.  Took me a bit longer than usual as there was a rollover accident on 36.  I got there as the guys were essentially ready to start the workout.  I curtailed any significant warmup (maybe 3/4’s of a mile) and jumped right into it.  Let’s say jumping into 800s like this is a more effective wake up than a cup of coffee.

No need to over analyze these – it was good work; a bit out of my element (read – I struggled over the workout) because of the infrequency of how I do this sort of stuff, but something that will come back with some consistency (although not much over 3 weeks!).  6 x 800, 400 rest (2:38, :2:41, 2:41, 2:44, 2:43, 2:46), then 2 by 400 (81, 78) and then 2 by 200 (35 each).  9 miles.

Good to get out with Jason and Aaron.  Certainly if I were solo – there would have been a lot less to this run.

Food log – AM – coffee, breakfast burrito
Mid day, Ham, red pepper sandwich, cup of fruit salad
Mid afternoon – apple and 2 of the cookies that TZ was baking
Dinner – spag, bread, salad. OJ

Food log thinking

As I have been keeping a food log for the last few weeks, I am getting a little dialed in on some observations.  Really, my eating is a habit (or a system of habits) and I am not even completely aware of what those habits are.  It is sort of like your stride mechanics.  When you watch yourself on video for the first time, you may be left thinking “I run like that?  I never knew I did xxx!”  Same sort of thing here.  Sure, I know that keeping the log has influenced my behavior on eating (not a bad thing), but not a whole heck of a lot.  Generally speaking, what I have put in the log here for the last few weeks is pretty much how I eat most of the year.  In past years, I have done things like cut beer out or dropped second helpings to drop some pounds – but nothing particularly drastic.

I certainly do need to up my fruit and vegetable consumption – simply it ain’t where it needs to be.  I get a lot of carbs from breads and pasta.  I do okay on proteins and fats as we get a good amount of eggs, meats, and yogurt.  I have seen a tiny bit of sensitivity to milk (which I do very little of), nuts, corn, heavy fiber stuff …

I know some folks would say I should spread out my meals more, taking on more of a grazing approach.  That may be some benefit to that, but I am not one that feels particularly uneven in my energy levels throughout the day.  I eat when I am hungry, or pretty close to that based on our next meal.  In a pinch, I grab a something to hold me over.

In doing this, I have upped my reading a bit on the topic.  Which is to say, I am reading a little bit on the topic (when it has been zero, there is no place to go but up).  I have been a bit purposely agnostic of diet reading – simply because I have always felt that it is basic … make good choices, if you want to lose weight – eat less exercise more.  The literature on all of this is mind boggling.  For example, tonight I listened to a Ben Greenfield podcast where he was running down a variety of supplements.  It was rather eye (ear) opening … I am assuming everything he was talking about was legal, but some stuff like beta alanine seemed to provide training effects that I would think would be suspect.  I have taken iron, vitamin B, C, D, and a few other basic vitamins in the past … all tablet form … but I don’t do that regularly.  It leaves my gut rather wrenched.  It seems that some folks are pretty hard core with this stuff.  I am not saying that is right or wrong (as long as it is not a PED banned substance) … but just seeing a different take there that I may chew on a bit.

In any case, that is one example.  I know that my habits in eating are pretty immature – hardly regularly conscious, particularly as I look at it a bit more and seeing folks focused on various diets, anti inflammatory foods, supplements, vegan approaches, quiona, chia seeds, blended foods, eating times, etc.  More to come (although it may take me a few years to get there). 

Wednesday 011911

AM – dog jog with Lucy, 3 miles.  These runs are really “shake outs” or wake ups for me – particularly when I do them first thing in the morning.  I start really slow, but it initially does not feel easy.  I am not breathing hard – just waking all the parts up.  Over the course of about 10 minutes, or about a mile I wake up and the pace begins to open up a bit … but hardly ever quicker than 8 minutes a mile.  AHR = 133, MHR = 149.

Projected US presence at UTMB is pretty darn good.

Trying to get an FKT listing going for Green routes (Gregory and the front side), also linked to from the reads widget to the right.  Very much a work in progress and data collecting mode, so send me updates, comments, etc.

JZ working car weight a bit last night for the upcoming Pinewood Derby,

PM – holy crow.  Started this run and it was 50 degrees.  Within an hour it dropped 25 degrees and was snowing.  8 miles. Easy with SM and DB at work, but the wind really started blowing at times so we were fighting that a bit.

I was checking this video out at my work today, but I think it has implications for training as well.

Food log – breakfast, eggs, toast, banana w/PB, coffee
Mid day (post run) – yogurt w/w.g.
Dinner – chicken, salad, potatos, bread, OJ, … beer (later)

Tuesday 011811

Registered for XC Nats and the Mission Gorge run today.  I don’t have high expectations for the Mission Gorge race, being the day after XC Nats.  It will be a tall order for me to effectively contribute to that team effort with Ames, Robbins, Johnson, Straka, Hegelbach, Bromberg and Miller lining up (five score).

Video from last week’s BTR talk with Roes, Anton, Jurek and Mackey.
.

Good quick read from Byrn.

I have no true aspirations to do a tri, but I would say that I am a  far observing “fan” of the sport.  In that vein, I have enjoyed several of the recent Macca podcast interviews post his win in Kona.  I have found the way he approached this year’s race in regard as to how to race Crowie to be very interesting.  He knew Crowie is a better runner than him, and so he outwardly approached other racers that were strong on the bike and said - (not an actual quote but in the spirit of what I have heard him say in several interviews) “we need to get away from this guy.  We can’t be coming off the bike with him or he will win.  He is weaker on the bike than us so we need to get away from him or make him hurt on the bike to make it a race.  Are you with me?”  Some saw this approach, and his comments afterwards as arrogant.  Others see it as smart. 

Some good vids interviewing with Macca over here … and a good interview with him here … with lots of comments on his motivation, his next steps in regards to family … I love his transparency.  When you race somebody, like with Andreas, I think I got to know Andreas in Kona, better than many people know him.  Because you suffer next to him, you know … you don’t say a word.  But you feel you learn their character and you learn a lot about the person.  I think that is the bond you have as athletes.  Some will never understand that point.

PM – 10 miles, treadmill.  Did 3 mile warm up (super easy) and then ~25 minutes of tempo (starting at 6:30 pace and building to 5:45).  Was definitely feeling the mill out a bit as I have not done that sort of work at that pace in a bit.  Took a bio break at the end of this and then warmed down, with 7 x 30 second strides in there.

Food log – AM – bagel, cream cheese, and some cookies.
As a side note, I probably had too many Odell’s last night.
Dinner – salad, bread

The Lance story is flaring up again.  I certainly have no idea if he took PED’s or not, but the story is interesting.  Either this guy is incredibly hated because of his success, or he has pulled off an incredible deception and … maybe because of the good he has done, there is some thought we ought to look in a different direction.  Ah, sports … the original reality TV.

Monday 011711

AM – dog jog, easy 10 miles.  AHR – 139.  Then 3 miles with TZ.

Food log AM – coffee
Mid AM – some yogurt, cold pizza, couple of eggs w/peps, onions and some sweet potato hash browns.  OJ.
Dinner – couple of Odells, salad, homemade bread and home made stuffed shells

Story has been told a bunch of times before, but I never saw this co-interview with these guys.  Pretty cool.  You can feel the respect these guys have for each other, but you can also sense they ain’t sharing beers together post this interview.

I am still musing on this … but UROY and performance (male) are up.