Changes for Pikes

JT alerted me that Pikes has changed its schedule. 

First, even though I haven’t seen JT in like 14 years, it is great that he continues to reach out, keep in touch with me and even send me loving post cards on occasion.  He might be my new man crush from the Springs area over Matt.

Well, at least a distant second.  I mean really.

The changes to Pikes are interesting, especially in light of their challenges they had with weather this past year.  For what it is worth, I recall being rerouted for the Imogene Pass Run due to weather in early September … so it could be argued that chasing (or running from) the weather is a fool’s errand.  I dunno.

It will be interesting to see how many nut cases turn this into a double or a triple event.

On a personal level, I find the shift interesting in that I recognize I have been at Pikes or Leadville every weekend since 2006 … and I sort of have the feeling like I’ll be at one of those for the rest of my life.  That ain’t a hard core commitment but it is sort of like me expecting that I will run some sort of race on Thanksgiving day morning for the rest of my life.  With the two split, it creates some choices I guess. 

I did, unrelated to this announcement, dust off this book this week and have it on my desk.

Week ending 28OCT2018

The fall tour ended this week … PHX-DC-BOS-DAL-SHV-PHL-YVR-MCO-SFO-ATL-EWR-ATL with a bunch of reroutes in between.  26 hotel work nights in there out of the 64 on the year.  And a good amount of time in airports.

I have a few weeks before I am obliged for any travel and that happens to be a family get away to PHX for a couple of days (NXR).  I have had some travel this year at least 20 weeks of the year (and it is the 43rd week of the year).

I had some time in NJ this week.  Jersey gets a bad rap but when I have been there I have always found some nice trails.  




Later in the week I was in west Georgia.

I came skidding in Friday night from Atlanta on a flight where I watched most of the first 9 innings of the Red Sox-Dodgers Game 3 of the World Series.  I got off the bird, got a ride home from TZ, decompressed a bit and went to bed at 1 and the game was still in the 15th inning. 

I rolled up at 5AM Saturday AM to head down to the Springs for the State XC meet.  All the races for boys, girls, all the classifications happen in one day so it is quite an affair. 

Our kids that were racing (the girls squad based on a 2nd place berth out of the region and one of the boys who earned a spot as an individual with a top 15 placing in the region meet) all ran very well.  The girls ran their best team race they have all season and placed sixth, well above anywhere they were ranked this year and beating several teams that were probably better “on paper” than them.  It was a good day for the team and the athletes competing all around.

My running this week was a bit less than usual because of the travel, but I did get out for a little less than 2 hours today, heading north and then back along Coal Creek, running easy.  The typical thoughts related to about getting into something representing racing fitness and goals for 2019 bubbled up.  I’d ramble on them here but I think I want to sit on them a bit before making any sort of commitment that would likely, and has been typical as of late, unravel. 

Week ending 21OCT2018

I finished the week with just over 60 miles, with a couple of “quicker “efforts in there. 

While this week was pretty good for travel and with what my general exercise approach has been for the last few year, today was a bit tough.  I slept poorly, woke up swollen and thirsty (probably the dinner out we had last night) and was jogging with that heavy sore leg feeling and sweating like I was in a sauna.  I almost bagged the idea of getting out but I knew a run would “flush it out” and so I stuck with it.

The last eight weeks have included some level of business travel.  I have another one this week – hitting two locations (NJ and GA) and then I get a few weeks of a break from the travel game.  Looking ahead for the rest of the year, I have a trip to PHX for NXR, a DC 2 day trip and maybe a 10 day swing to Singapore. 

I have a handful of ideas of things I think I might post about what I have learned from this “my own business” / entrepreneur / consultant / traveler thing, but they are not really great insights … mostly it is showing up, doing the reps, learning, seeking the work I want, etc.    So probably boring posts. 

The thing with the travel for work … is not the work itself actually, but it is the challenge of time being wasted.  Time being wasted going through security at the airport, wasted with delays of flights for all sort of reasons from weather to parts for the plane to a late crew or someone having checked their luggage onto the plane but now they are not on the plane because they are drunk somewhere in the airport.  These things happen but it is sum of the time wasted that you become hugely aware of.  You are sort of trapped in the travel circuit and you wish you could be out somewhere else, with family, out running, anywhere but where you are. 

This time waste has a way of wearing on you, breaking you down, so I have turned it into my own test of how can I not let this get to me and how can I focus this time appropriately.  I recognize it is not worth griping about because it is what I have signed up for.  I look to maximize the time by flipping open the laptop and banging on the keys or reading a book (or listening to one) or catching up on calls.   The challenge is when you get to the airport and they tell you, “well the flight is going to leave 2 hours later than you thought” and you just think about how you could have left home a bit later, maybe did something else instead. 

Just think about when that actual Star Trek transporter stuff comes down …

I’m kicking around a few races for the rest of the year, including a local XC race in Boulder in a few weeks, the open 5k at NXR and probably a Thanksgiving affair.  I have no specific or hard set goals for these other than to keep lining up … I enjoy the efforts. 

It was a beautiful weekend in Colorado … fall but warm enough for t-shirt and shorts.

The boy-man has taken up off season training.


On Saturday TZ had to speak at the new local cider house (Stem Ciders) in Lafayette.  She is on the board for an effort called “Anchor House”  - which is a project to build out transitional housing for emancipated foster youth. 

It is a great project –different community resources pulling together to help people in need and giving them a place to make the next step.  I am super proud of TZ in being involved in this effort.

And while I am not a cider guy, the cider house was pretty cool too.

Roads, tracks and trails

Couple of days in Atlanta this week.  Runs were in AM in the burbs where I didn’t have to fight traffic.

One morning I found a nicely lit track.

I was a bit bummed to learn I’d miss the Regional XC meet this week.  It was Thursday and I had planned it being a Friday event.

The girls earned a State meet berth with a 2nd place in the region. 

The boys season finished with them taking seventh, about where they were all year, in the region.  One of the boys made it as an individual (top 15 can earn such a berth) and so his team mates were still at practice to train with him today.

Turning a corner perhaps

JZ seems to have turned a corner a bit in his health and thus his running.  After slipping out of the varsity ranks and into the middle of the JV, he managed a race where he finished grinning, and made the crew to head to regionals next week. 

For about 2/3rd of the team the season is "officially” over.  Teams get pared down to nine that race at the regional meet.  The top four teams from the regional go to the State meet – with seven being represented from those teams.  Individuals can qualify if they are in the top 15 in the region.  It is going to be tough for either squad to make it this year.

We enjoyed a last bit of fall, at least for now as a storm is supposed to blow in tonight, with the squads this AM.




Earlier in the week I was in the “Silicon Valley” area.  It was super cool work, but I can’t say I found the area outside of that to be that great.  I guess it might of been that I only got to see it when it was dark, but I can tell you that the traffic made it a place I could not imagine living in.

Two more weeks of the crazy fall tour and then I get a bit of a reprieve.

Another benefit of Strava (or similar) that I had not really expected … often with XC races there is some debate if a course is long or short.  First, I sort of dismiss the whole thing.  It really doesn’t matter in XC.  I think that the whole movement towards all courses being PR at the 5K affairs is completely inappropriate.  Courses could be anywhere from 2.5 to 4 miles in my mind and ought to be something where the time is mostly an after thought – because XC is about place. 

But that said, there are times when a time can be a bit informative – like your performance on a course year over year.  And in the case where there are days when 90% of the team claims PRs, you sort of wonder if the course was accurate. 

What I have found is that since I am often using my watch while running around and then this data gets uploaded into Strava later, I can use the flyby feature for that run, locate kids that did the run (and have made their run publicly viewable) and then look over a handful to see where the course lines up.  Pretty neat. 

XC

I had thoughts at some point this blog would morph from a training log to a place where I’d actually share some thoughts on running, training, life, business, politics, etc … where I’d have to say something worthwhile. 

But it ain’t gonna be that.  This sort of stuff from Kieran is way better for that sort of thing. 

This spot has become a place to show the pix I have taken with the phone that is in my paw on every run.  As I travel a fair amount for work these days, it has become the photo journal of the places I have decided to do the left right repeat dance.  Occasionally I’ll pepper in some update on XC endeavors with the team or family life or the rare race I line up for. 

Which is to say, it might not be much more than sort of an Instagram feed with a few more words.  You have been warned.
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I have long known that athletics, and in particular running, is a game that comes to an end that is coming up short.  You don’t win the race, your race plan falls apart, you don’t PR, you get injured, you get old, you don’t make the cut, life gets in the way.  Five nines of us don’t win double Olympic gold twice or set world records or go undefeated.  Running competitively is a game that will punch you in the teeth at some point.  Even if you find your limits, nearly all of us recognize those are not quite what we thought they would be. 

And perhaps paradoxically, I actually see it as one of the beauties of running.  Things don’t go all dreamy and purple unicorn and rainbows for people that don’t live in a movie world and what we choose to do with that is more important that the result.  Running is just another version of that.  One that can be particularly basic and objective and thus maybe a lesson for broader life considerations.

Nonetheless, it has been difficult to watch JZ come to grips with such realities this season – his senior high school year of cross country.  He dealt with lower leg issues through the summer, and the goals of laying down the monster base in the heat of July and August slipped away.  Nonetheless, he was able to make a go of it and set up for a fair start come the start of school.  But shortly after, he came down with some crazy funk of a cold, lung infection, hack that he can’t just shake.  It has been in excess of a month, and medical visits and medications have not cure him of this ailment.  It has been a month with him coughing, blowing snot, and dealing occasionally with some fever conditions.

His performances have slipped over the season, and there is the inevitable assigning of some self worth to that, and then a gripping even harder at the whole affair which perpetuates the negative loop. 

Of course, in his mind, “it is just a cold” and in my mind I am convinced he has West Nile virus.  In his mind it is just something “in his head” and not physical and therefore he must work harder.  It is so easy to see when you are not the athlete but having been on that side of the equation, I completely understand his perspective. 

And the time of the senior cross season marches on.

I can see how long term it is not a big deal.  These things happen and he is only 17.  He has plenty of time to be a better runner, enjoy some fast days with the wind at his ears, and maybe breaking a tape or two.  But I can also see how this opportunity slipping by him is a cruel reality, and I can feel that.  It is frustrating, but it is  … well it is life, and it is now about what he does with it rather than what has happened.

The season is not done of course, and there is another race or two in the cards.  We’ll see how those go. 
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My whirlwind late summer – autumn of work travel continues this week as I head out to Palo Alto for a couple of days. 

People say, “you travel a lot.”  It is sort of true, especially over the last couple of months as I have had some travel every week for the last seven weeks and will likely have this go for another couple weeks after this.  But it is also an opportunity in my business life at this point I feel the need to take advantage of. 

Broader picture, I will have had 54 business travel nights after this week.  That puts the business travel at 20% if you consider the counts on the days of the year, but that might not be a fair way to do that.  I have had 21 weeks this year where I have had some travel (and we are in the 41st week of the year).  Sometimes is five days, and sometimes it is one day.  Once, it was travel to a location (Dallas) where I left my home in the AM, and was back in the evening.

There is a bit of a joy I get though in being away and then coming back home.  It makes me realize how wonderful a place this is and how amazing a life I have. 

A quick trip to KC

Did a quick trip to KC with the Z clan to attend a wedding of a family member.  It was fun … dress up, kids catching up with cousins and aunts and uncles, some dancing and good food.

I got out with JZ for a few miles in KC (MO side).  Pretty industrial area along the Missouri river …

I think the shot above with the large square stones is some sort of scale for the trains or even nuttier a way for them to get the train cars onto a higher track … sort of like a canal lock for trains and that is just crazy.

Couple of days in YVR

I have been up in Vancouver for a couple days for a conference as a speaker.  The running in the Stanley Park area has been ridiculously good.

Side note regarding Uber that I discovered on this trip … there is no Uber in Vancouver.  And dealing with that made me realize how accostomed I have come to having that available everywhere.  And then when I got home tonight, the fact that the Uber wait was going to be 35 minutes at DIA and charge me 75 bucks to get home … well, I had not encountered that before (and I passed on it).