Tuesday 31MAY2016

I have run with my phone the last couple of days instead of my watch.  Apparently Strava on that right now allows me to see “Live Segments.”  In other words, it informs me on the fly when I am approaching a segment and then how I am performing in that segment.  Interesting stuff, but I’d have to be able to roll before I could attack any segments.

Masters 10 minute circuit … I sort of do this.

I saw one of these “cars” last night. 

Afternoon – an hour.  Achilles held.  Perhaps with my self built heel wedge is doing something.  I decided to see if I could build on the runs from the last couple days and go a touch longer (and so, the hour).  It worked.  Now we will see how worked I am tomorrow.

Monday 30MAY2016

Well, May is over essentially.  I started it with a messed up piece of grizzle and had my lowest mileage month in probably a decade.  Less than 150 miles of running, and about the same of biking.   Perhaps June will bring better things.  I have not engaged with a PT or some other sort of doc because it just does not add up for me based on my past experiences.  I realize that is not the case for everyone, but inevitably, when I have gone down those paths, it is like trying to get a haircut:  you throw money at something, you get what you get and things don’t look much better anyway. 

News stuff

• Living at Barr Camp sounds pretty cool, but I imagine that gets to be pretty arduous in the winter.
• Fitness v. Health article I need to read.

AM – 43 minutes, waking up slow and then moving on it over time.
PM – 42 minutes, easy rolling.

Sunday 29MAY2016

Busy?

I was a bit sore today – which was a given as I ran the longest I had run in a long time yesterday and at a pace far exceeding what I had even been doing short runs in.  As funny as it sounds – I enjoyed being sore.  Sort of a nice wake up call. 

The Achilles was a bit sore, but in odd fashion, not bad.  That is just the way it seems at late.  There is no rhyme or reason as to it being hurt or not.  Not running on it and it can be crappy.  Running on it and it can be good.  And vice versa. 

I was wondered if this all coming about because of a change in my mechanics or something.  I am wondering this because I have noticed on some of the newer shoes I have I am not establishing my typical wear pattern – that is one of the left heel wearing down quickly / the right toe wearing down quickly on the soles.  Of course, I am not running that much so that might be it too. 

I got in a 65 minute bike ride, super easy with KZ as I showed her a few connections to the US 36 bike path.  Later in the afternoon, I got in a 45 minute jog, and while sore in the legs, I felt okay in the Achilles – which was a welcome respite.  Not expecting this to be a turning point at this point, but I was glad to have two days in a row where I could move pretty well.

Saturday 28MAY2016 Georgetown Burro Race

Did the first burro race of the season.  A quick video recap:

A few things I did not mention in the video and a few other items to reiterate:

• Bob had a good first race with Boog.  He and Boog along with Justin and Yukon were WAY off the front to start and I thought the race was over.  They slowed up and a good number of folks caught up (including Jack and me).  If those guys could keep 1/2 that momentum though they’d be the class of all the field.
• Good on Justin and Yukon for making a great race of it.  We were in all through out the day until the town / roundabout / highway underpass slowed us but those two cranked on it until the very end to get a victory.  Really Justin and Yukon have to be considered the faves going into the rest of the races given how they ran and rallied today and the experience they have.
• Huge thanks to TZ and JZ for running the start, running the times, getting the awards assembly going.
• Thanks to Bob for porting Jack along with Boog up to the race and back today.
• Thanks to Dave C for continuing to make this farm set up we have possible.
• Thanks to Brian M for brining in close a dozen new racers.  We had some fast folks – including Shad (2:44 Boston recently), Brandon S (Nolans 14 finisher) and Anita O (winner at Pikes in the past) running today.  It was fun to see them have fun even if they were not crushing the race.
• Thanks to Tim and Steve for all the saddling they did.
• All the best to Brad (who is now home) as he recovers from his crazy near three weeks in the hospital with who knows what. 
• And thanks to Bill Lee for making this race happen.
• I was pleasantly surprised at how my grizzle held up.  I thought it was a very distinct possibility that I would not be able to finish this race outright because of a complete failure of the Achilles.  I wedged the back of the foot WAY up by cutting up several other insoles (3 of em) to make a heel lift.  It still hurt but it was manageable and I kept it together.
• My fitness is certainly a bit behind where I am used to it being and I was feeling it a bit on some of the climbs were were running.  Admittedly, I was even lagging on them a bit rather than pressing as I am just in that sort of shape.  If I can get the grizzle to hold though, I think I ought to be able to round into fitness well enough for Fairplay.  But that is a really really really big if right now.  This was my longest run in probably three weeks … and as expected, I felt it!  And that was sort of fun and good.  A little sore from a lack of training, a little rattle in the lungs from a lack of running hard at altitude.
• Doing all the saddles, getting burros up there … yeesh.  It is a lot more race day stress.  Some of that is good because it keeps you busy.  But when it is 20 plus burros … that is a bit more than I am used to.  I missed Brad.

Thursday 26MAY2016

The Achilles was really yelling today.  Sometimes it is fine on running, sometimes it is fine on rest.  Sometimes it hurts on running, sometimes it hurts on rest.  But no running today.

Headed over to the farm (via the bike) to work with trailering the burros with Bob as a practice for this weekend.  It is fairly entertaining to see the old men from NY and CT work these equine. 

The farm is like a freaking zoo.  Donkeys, cows, skunks, rabbits, and owls.  There was a third one up there but it flew out just before I was able to snap the shot.

Okay – this is a new level of nutty.  Well, maybe not so new as it has been done before.  Bob shared with me that one of his pacers from Leadville last year is looking to row with a team of 3 others from Monterrey to Hawaii.  The record is 43 days.  SELF SUSTAINED.  What the what?  Insane.

Wednesday 25MAY2016

“You know, you get a feeling of satisfaction after you've forced yourself to get out for a long run on a wet and windy day when you'd rather stay indoors. Besides that, when I'm out on my own, feeling fit and the running is coming easy on a bright sunny day, I'm flowing along the roads and it's just good to be alive and well, enjoying the sensation. It's a pleasure in itself, really.”

“If the CAS rules that there is no limit to functional testosterone levels in female athletes, then we might as well forget about women’s racing altogether. Just have one category, human being, and let the chips fall where they may.”

Good interview (interesting) with Michael Pollan on HTT.

When I was at my fittest, I found that altering the recovery during interval workouts was often a greater challenge and hence more effective than manipulating the speed of the rep.  It is pretty fundamental and basic, but in V02 workouts and above, it is usually a pretty important concept.  If someone is looking to break five for the mile they might do the classic 8 x 400 workout in 70 seconds for each rep.  It is a hugely different workout if they do that on 3 minutes rest for each rep versus if they do that on a minute rest.  I found that personally that when I’d get to a certain level of fitness, I would do better to shorten my rest rather than to increase the speed of the rep.  One example – as I was prepping for a 5k, I’d do 6 x 800 at 4 seconds faster per 800 than goal mile pace for the 5k (so if you were looking to run at 6 minutes a mile for the 5k, or about 18:45, you’d do the rep at 2:56).  I’d take a minute rest on these as inactive rest (fwiw, the article is about active rest but the principles are the same to some degree).  Once I started getting to the target where I thought I pretty much be for race day, I dropped the rest to 45 seconds.  Doesn’t sound like much but the 15 second difference sure felt different when I did the workout.

5.3 miles. 

Tuesday 24MAY2016

Items of focus lately …

• Getting my new business off the ground.  I have categorized what I am doing there into four buckets.
• Pitch / Sales – with my peers, selling the services of my new company to prospective clients
• Infrastructure – setting up the LLC, email, doc system, calendars, payroll, buy/sell and operating agreements, etc.
• Company culture – while I have worked with my colleagues for several years in a corporate setting and trust their character and skill set without question, this setting has pitched us new challenges and we are determining who is better at what and hence does certain types of work, while also navigating new issues of trust
• Actual performing of work – in other words, executing on the services we actually get paid for.  All of the above are to support this.
• Getting Jack acclimated to run this season, and down here in a new field in Louisville.  Related to this is helping Bill get ramped up with a bunch of prospective runners for burro racers this summer.
  
• finishing school for the kids which includes getting the senior through graduation, prepping the back yard and house for a party for all the people who came in for that, getting the freshman through finals, ramping up on what is next for Germany (while keeping a now finished senior appropriately focused as there are no lack of other fun things to do …)
• Scouts – planning a trip for two weeks of canoeing in Canada this summer.  The canoeing is the easy part.  Getting flights, rental cars, med forms, passports, etc is not.  (and other Scout camping trips)
• XC/Track assistance – while this has wound down, I have clearly used some of my free time in my transition between jobs to help with the track squad.
  
  

… and of course my own running.  Which is sort of non-existent at the time.  I have been wondering if my Achilles issue is its own stand alone issue (that I think comes about from a failure starting with my lawn mower foot, gets exaggerated by my lack of strength in other mobility directions, gets exaggerated by probably 85k miles on this frame, perhaps a change in my form, another year of aging, etc) or if it is something else.  My right elbow has had a connective issue for about the same time (I tweaked it shoveling some really heavy snow) … and so am I dealing with basic inflammation issues?  Whatever …  I am basically at a point now where if I run I am aggravating an injury and not letting it heal, or if I don’t run I am losing fitness.   Duh …

But outside all of this I have been refocusing on my efforts to  find the so called “perfect day.”  I am not wholly sure what the definition of this completely is other than seeking the right choices in all that I do in a day.  That I choose right in my interactions and communications with my family, my co-workers and friends.  That I choose right in what I put in my mouth from a diet perspective.  That I choose to spend my time and efforts on things appropriately.  “Where ever possible, be kind.  It is always possible.”  In any day I fail.  I eat poorly, have an outburst or snarky comment towards someone, or waste time on useless unnecessary activities. 

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As a part of graduation activities, I learned Boulder Valley School District does not award a valedictorian or similar honor.  Apparently some students got so GPA focused on this that you’d end up with a half dozen kids or more that all took the highest weight classes and aced them all and so you’d have that many valedictorians.  Because of that and in the spirit of having kids pursue classes that were more appropriate for them, rather than for GPA, BVSD dropped it.  BHS did recognize the various cum laude designations and NHS students.  Within the the summa cum lauds there were two designated student speakers and I wondered if they were indeed the two top students.  I can see and understand why BVSD took this approach but I wonder if we have lost something by not recognizing the “winner.”
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Evening – 3 slow miles.

Monday 23MAY2016

Extensive read on Semenya from Ross that I need to dig into.

Recently JT commented how this blog and his are no longer about running but broken guys who used to run and now are learning how to ride a bike.  A little sad, but somewhat true.  I ran today with Bob and Boog and Jack for six and change, with the miles as slow as 18 minutes a mile, and as fast as 7:30, with some sections even under 5.  But the Achilles was barking the whole time even though I had not run on it since Wednesday. 

While I have a fair degree of confidence that I can get through the Georgetown Pack Burro race this weekend (8 miles), there is significant doubt at this point if I could swing through 29 miles at Fairplay.  Part of that is the Achilles but increasingly because of the Achilles, as I am not running I am losing fitness.  With a solid set of connective tissue I could manage my training up based on my history, but as I have been struggling with this for six weeks now, I am not sure that is likely to happen.

All good on that because I have been focused on so many other projects, and a realization that I am just talking about running.  Slowly.  With a donkey.  And compression gear and a HR monitor.  Maybe a visor and most definitely old man pull over sunglasses.   Not pretty anyway.

Graduation Weekend

Kali and Nat on the first day of high school and the last.

Nat is essentially my other daughter.  I have known her since before her birth, as we met her parents in birthing class almost 2 decades ago now.

The weekend … A great weekend of family (folks came in from out of state, there were several reunions), love, song, happiness, and a graduate.

I will put up more videos of Kali and Nat’s senior recital but here is one for now.

I was busy enough over the weekend that I had to take pause at time to consider this rite of passage and what the event meant.   KZ and I talked about it Saturday night (late, way after everyone else went to bed) … high school graduation is not a high academic bar, but this instead represents a social right of passage of child transitioning into adult.  And it is magnified as it is for many young people of this community. 

However, when sitting at KZ’s senior recital, feet away from this amazing young lady who is my daughter, hearing her sing the opposite was true – I almost had to completely separate myself from it to not breakdown in tears of joy.  I almost did it, but when her and Nat put up “Good” together from Wicked, I felt one tear slip as the song closed.

And then I lost it damn it.

I love you KZ.  You might be an adult now, but part of you will always be a little kid like this.

PS – no running.  Achilles not any better.

Thursday 19MAY2016

My day … the state meet in the AM.  It started with the girls in the 3200 where BHS had two sophomore girls entered.  One, seeded 18th PRd big and ended up 10th and other was 12th.  Next up was the boys 3200, and our guys went 9 and 10 – again above their seeds coming into the race.  It was a touch bittersweet because top 9 medal, and they fought for that spot in the last 150 to see who was going to make the podium.  But that is competition. 

The girls 4 x8 had an off day for 14th, but the boys 4x8 was 8th, and came in seeded 13th.   It was awesome as they ran 8:06 for a 5 second team PR – where everyone in the race PR’d by at least a bit (on my watch). 






In the afternoon, it was back up to Broomstock, checked in on the burros.

In the evening, it was off to the HS for a senior graduation honor ceremony – kids getting scholarships, appointments to West Point, department awards, etc.  Pretty inspiring – as the kids collected 8+ million in scholarships (side note, this does not account for KZ’s scholarship to Germany because they don’t have a value associated with that).

Somewhere in there I got about three miles on an unhappy rubber band.

What a day … really rich with so many amazing people doing amazing things:  kids pouring their heart into two laps on the track (or 8) … after training for months for that.  Dragging a donkey up a trail.  Or being recognized as a summa cum laude, NHS pacesetter at the school.  I am a pretty lucky guy to have all these people around me. 

Wednesday 18MAY2016

Graduation week continues to ramp up.

Good quotes

Afternoon – got out for an easy 5 in some Cliftons.  Broke these out of the box to see if they made my Achilles feel any better.  Tried some heel drops to help the situation (side note – Jer, I got JZ the ice cup and he loves it).  I finished that up, checked back in at the house and then jogged over to the school.  Last day of practice as the state meet starts tomorrow.  Added on a few more with Greg to get a total of 5.2.  The Achilles was a bit bothersome but it seemed to warm up well.  Clearly slower paces aggravate it less.

Tuesday 17MAY2016

And then there is the beer two mile.  Nope.  By the way, if I were being really picky:  no emptying of the beer overhead, and a two mile start is another nine meters behind a mile start.

6.5 miles with Bob and Boog and Jack on the Coal Creek trail.  We had a handful of stretches in the low sixes, and probably one under six, with some good stuff in the sevens and eights.  There are definitely some possibilities there  … if I can keep glued together.  While I felt pretty good yesterday, the Achilles was barking a fair amount today.  Still I could not say no to Greg at the track for a couple more miles later in the afternoon.

Monday 16MAY2016

News stuff

• “Every day I wake up unemployed.”
• DD’s book coverage of the early Mount Washington races.
• There were no lack of races over the weekend, including Galen and Maggie winning the inaugural Boulder Mountain Marathon, Quadrock, the Portland Twilight track meet, PAC-12 (or Pac 10?)s, Black Canyon Ascent, and the Shanghai DL meet (where Rudisha got screwed at the start of the 800).  But over the weekend  I was pretty much was glued to the 5A rankings lists for CO track to see where the kids who were on the bubble landed for the state meet.  State meet heat sheets are up.
• 10 ways to screw up your college running career.
• “If the quality of physicists has improved in comparable proportion to the caliber of long-distance runners, there are probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 physicists alive today with the intellectual firepower that Einstein possessed.”
• I might need to pick up this book. 

I recently heard on a podcast interview this question posed, “what is in your opinion the greatest running performance of all time?”  It is an obviously tough question given that there are so many performances to consider over all the years but a few came to mind very quickly:  Zatopek’s triple win in the Olympics of the 5k, 10k and marathon (arguably this is a cheater answer because it is three performances and so maybe it is discounted), Wanjiru’s Beijing win in the marathon, and Jim Ryun’s breaking of 4 on a dirt track in a high school meet with just high schoolers.    There are no lack of other possible candidates so let me know your thoughts.  Yes, I want to put Carpenter’s 2:01PPA/3:16PPM in there but that might be a little too homer of me.  But … does anything beat Rudisha’s 800 at London?

It is commencement time.  So the commencement speeches are coming out.  Most are pretty standard, but they are good to remind us of values we strive for.  This is a great example.  Ideas on their own have no power.  It takes people bringing them into execution.  Work hard and be kind (roll to 5:30 to get past the intro stuff):

Raining pretty good here today but I got out with the track kids.  It is down just to the kids in the State meet now, and those kids who are sticking around because they just want to.  I continued to see if I could claw my way back to some basic fitness without over doing it.  The Achilles mumbled a bit today but it actually felt better than it has in a few days.  But I definitely kept it mellow and decided not to push volume or intensity.  Easy 4.1 miles. 

Most days these days do include core (4-6 minutes of planks), and some split squats, or air squats.  Sometimes a bit more.

Sunday 15MAY2016

Trying to get good pix of the kids is impossible.

AM – 3.7 miles, little jog to check things out.  Achilles sort of felt okay but I was just tired.  Then again it was first thing in the morning and it was a bit chilly.

Afternoon – same exact route on the ditch-creek path to 136 and back, but 2 minutes faster.  It was not that the effort was any different really as much as I think I open up a bit more in the mid day a bit better.

I need to face it:  any goals I had for racing this summer need to be shelved as I am just struggling to run regularly now.  This could change in a few weeks but basically I am just a broken runner at this point.  I am getting in exercise (100+ of biking last week, 20 of running) but it is hardly worth mentioning.  I am to the point where I need to probably go see a Mark P or a Jeremy R, but I am less than enthused to do that.  I cringe at paying for running shoes, and the thought of shelling out hundreds off bucks for someone to tell me to take six weeks off goes against my grain. 

Saturday 14MAY2016

AM  - I helped KK with setting up the new trailer (the one that was replaced as the old one with all the gear was stolen).


In the afternoon, JZ and I headed over check in on the boys and got Jack out for an easy jog.

Four miles and change, and the Achilles while tingly was holding okay. 

In the evening was the BHS “Pops” show – a talent show competition but also has various performances by the choirs.  Here is a couple of the pieces, including one that KZ has a rap in.

Friday 13MAY2016

News stuff

• Latest Lucho and Tawnee show
• I had no idea that surgical steel made folks possibly go deaf and that this impacted Patrick Rizzo.
• Update on Slattery coming back.
• Good interview with Robbie Simpson (he took third at S-Z last year and ran 2:15 at London).
• KZ informed me that it is like this in the house whenever she is there alone. 

Ever notice when you ask people how they have been the answer is almost always, “busy”?  It feels busy here.  Getting going with a new business, getting ready for KZ’s graduation, finishing up the school year for JZ, helping with track, yard projects, donkey projects, prepping for a kid going to Germany for a year … and that is just the stuff I mention here.  Point is – it is pretty easy NOT to run.  But I am much crappier a person and less effective in doing those things if I don’t do some regular endurance something or other.  Or at least I tell myself that and it then becomes true to some degree. 

Yesterday as I pulled up to the house this large red tail was finishing lunch on my neighbor’s lawn.  Left some scraps too.

Some recent shots of various randomness..

I noticed that Strava has flagged some of my rides.  I am not sure if these are automatically flagged by the system because they default as an uploaded run or if because someone has changed them … but I get no notice of it.  I change them to rides of course, but I found it interesting that flagged events give no notification.

Biked to the farm, ran 3 and a half with Jack and then I biked home. 
Beautiful day.  Saw this craziness.

Spent the evening at the St Vrain Invite with JZ watching it as a “last chance meet.”  Lot of kids fighting to preserve their spot or to get their ticket to the state meet.  On top of it there were several elite events in the meet.  This just improved the overall quality and tone of the meet.  There were guys vaulting near 18 feet, and then these dudes tried to crack 4 in the mile. 

They went out in 57, split 1:57 and then reality struck.  3 flat at the 3/4 mark and then 4:05.8 for the finish.  Pretty amazing to watch guys crushing that pace though.