Got down to AZ a couple of weeks ago. Not much to report on the running front. 50 mile weeks, typically with a couple of days off in each.
Spent some time watching sunsets.
Some time hiking.
Went and hung with Shad as he won a 100 miler.
AM - met up with Bob and Shad over in Superior and convinced them to go slow with me for a bit (as a part of their longer runs). 5 miles. Significant therapy via ridicule and sarcasm.
Talked Tacos actually, as I am a relatively new owner of one of those. The entire trailer, camper, pop-up, build out, slide in, topper, cover options were all on the table for discussion.
Oddball week of training for me. But I think inching fitness forward.
Monday - 10 miles. Just crunched it out in the AM solo. Felt sort of tired.
Tuesday AM - a few with TZ and then a little less than a handful on my own. 7.3 miles. Legs were feeling a bit beat.
Tuesday PM - with Greg and Syd, out and back towards the J-Pond. 5.8 miles at a respectable easy run clip.
Wednesday AM - got talked into going for a run with Greg the night before. Met up and did 400s. I really didn't want to do them but figured that is exactly why I should do them. I thought I'd be moving at 90 plus pace but managed 85 for an average. I am clearly uncomfortable at that speed and doing "track work" so 8 x near 90 seconds (on 200m rest except after #4 where it was 400) on the oval was as good a workout for above the neck as it probably was below it. 6.4 miles
Wednesday mid day - met up with Bob and Shad over at Davidson Mesa for a couple of loops of that. 8.1 miles at a fair clip.
Didn't run with the team at practice but did an hour in the weight room. Pretty well trounced post that.
Thursday AM - slow wake up jog of 4 miles before calls started for the day.
Thursday afternoon - I was dragging but plugged through 6.1 miles.
Friday AM - I was to head out the door at 5AM to catch my flight to SFO to SIN. I seriously considering getting up at 4 "just to get a few miles in." I succumbed however, and didn't do it - rationalizing that I'd get little benefit out of it other than ego.
Of course, heading to Singapore means a lost day on the week because of the international date line. And given it takes about 26 hours of near continuous travel to get to it ... well a day is lost. I left the house at 4:45, flew the 2+ hours to SFO, made a short transfer there and then did the 16.5 hour flight to get to Singapore - or at about 8:30PM on Saturday wheels down.
After checking in, etc ... I got out for a little jog. It was only 7AM mountain time so why not?
You might think with a day of rest, I'd feel great. Coming off the plane always leaves me a bit wonky, and feeling a bit uncoordinated. And running in 85 degrees with 85 percent humidity makes it more like a swim for me. At some point, I can feel the challenge even with breathing that water laden air.
Sunday ... was up early and so I headed out along the river path. Beaut of a run. I was hoping to beat the heat but the humidity had me soaked anyway. 10.3 miles getting cooked.
Was able to successfully cool off however in a post run pool soak.
63.7 miles on the week on six days and 9 runs. Good workout on Wednesday and then worked it a bit with a bit more volume on the front of the week.
I'd be remiss in this post if I did not mention the passing of (who I think of as) the greatest rock drummer of all time - Neal Peart. I got turned onto Rush as a 12 year old. First being exposed to "Moving Pictures," I quickly picked up all their albums to that point. And I fell for all of it. The big anthems of "2112," the fantasies of Dionysus and Apollo, the star journey to the black hole "Cygnus X-1," and being lost in the "Subdivisions." It (along with Led Zep) drove me to the guitar. I still love their music (and I still covet a Gibson ES-335 just like Alex). Neal was the the brain behind it all, and while I can occasionally fathom copying a riff of Mr. Lifeson - the things that Neal did on the kit still blow my mind. This is the best read I have come across on the guy.
Wandered around a bit in the afternoon with Tom and checked out Chinatown and a few other places in the city.
I got out with Shad and Bob last night.
It was a rare “3-fer” day … meaning I ran three times in the day. It felt fine but that right foot is still feeling like I stepped on a rock hard on its bottom and bruised it (even though I did not step on a rock and bruise it).
We later connected up with Donnie and Neeraj for some catching up. It was a blast. Anyone who watched us probably thought we ready to break into a fight while also watching the best comedy we had ever seen – just a bunch of brothers giving each other well positioned crap while supporting each other. I love it.
Of course, we also discussed what potential plans there were for 2019 … there was a broad swath from almost declaring nothing to putting up that line of fourteen 14ers in about a 100 mile line.
For me, and I recognize it might be just December arm chair quarterbacking … it seems like I’d play it like this:
- various mile and 5k efforts
- potentially the Leadville Trail Marathon
- potentially the Barr Trail Mountain Race
- Fairplay Pack Burro Race World Championship
- Pikes Peak Marathon
- California International Marathon
The thinking on this is that I would use the shorter stuff as part of overall development and bridge to the longer stuff in the summer. Leadville Trail Marathon was not on the list before last night but then became an agreed upon possible show down between the old dogs who still think they have it. I also have never done that one so it is interesting. The Barr Trail Mountain Race is a good run as prep for Pikes. Pikes is of course the bomb, and then there is CIM. The draw there is I’d be 50, it would serve as my first official road marathon (that’s right – I have never done one but I did bandit Boston back in the 90s before it was considered some sort of mortal sin to do so) and I’d take a crack at breaking 3 – a time goal that has a window that seems to be closing on me quickly.
Of course the World Championship of Pack Burro Racing in Fairplay is in there too. I feel that is a race that I might just do for the rest of my life – but such things are easily said. The trick with this race is that is could lead to a bunch of other races if you get on the “Triple Crown” train.
I may also do some pacing at Leadville, which is now a week before Pikes, but that is tentative.
I have a couple of weeks here to contemplate this further but I need to get on the mouse click trigger soon as registrations are coming up.
Fri – it was a long day of travel after a morning at the job site: Cleveland MS to Memphis TN across the cotton fields of northern Mississippi and the upper delta via car. Then a flight from Memphis to Chicago and then from Chicago to Denver and then the ride home. 
I hit the door at 11PM. TZ was out at a concert, JZ was out with friends and so I did what was necessary: laced them up for five miles.
Sat – nice sunrise – good to be home. The Lac Amora loop in the afternoon (7.7 miles)
Enjoyed a little hometown hoops with the Eagles taking on HF in the evening. Eagles win!
Sunday was the Slog. It is the fifth running of this affair. We did a different route than past years, hitting a bunch of new places in Louisville and Lafayette. We ended up getting in 23 plus miles. It was a smaller crew and we limited the time we spent at any stop so the whole affair was done by 7. It helped that we did not have to jump any fences this year. Nonetheless, names will be kept confidential and we limit the photo evidence by design so that those with interviews for jobs Monday morning are not incriminated.
The bigger run on Sunday bumped me over 80 miles on the week – the first time I have seen that since June. My legs were pretty beat most of the day on the Slog, but it is a gift to be able to get around like that in any case and share some laughs, some ridicule and sarcasm with great guys.
Shad put the email flag up for a run and I took it, but him know that his plan for hard hills was not something I was really game for. My stomach was none too happy. I enjoyed a bit too much pizza last night and I was feeling it.
Shad mentioned that we did this same workout nearly a year ago to the day so I had to go look it up. I recalled the run and I was pleasantly surprised to see that while I was not feeling the groove today, my half hearted attempts to move with some effort up the hill were significantly faster this go around over a year ago (even though I think I was trying a bit harder last year). I’ll take that. And it helped the stomach as well. 7 miles.
Great photos from the NB meet over the weekend from Dave Albo.
I connected up with the HS squad in the afternoon (and then Neeraj joined us) and did more hills: 2 x 1 minute, 4 x 40 seconds, 4 x 20 seconds with the jog down as the recovery. I had little “pop” today as the legs were not “popping” with the Saturday tempo effort, the longish effort yesterday and a hill run this AM. Still – I ended up breathing hard. 5.5 miles.
I ended up chatting with Neeraj a bit about “running principles.” I am pretty sure that I have posted this sort of thing before but I will give it a shot here again. First, I think it is important to note that such principles are general considerations … in other words, the broad approach that applies to most people. But the applicability of principles is almost a thing that never happens because you take these and then make them appropriate for the individual.
I first started thinking of these when folks would come to me around this time of the year and ask something like, “last year I ran the Bolder Boulder in 60 minutes. This year I want to break 50. What should I do?” I’d probe back with a few questions like, “how much do you run? do you have an injury history? how important is this to you?” and I’d hear things like “I run 3 times a week for 30 to 45 minutes.” It made my advice back to them painfully easy and almost so blunt it was probably sometimes received as unhelpful.
1.) Run more.
That principle holds true not just for the weekend warrior athlete looking to improve their 10k in May but for most of us. The HS athlete who is just starting needs to run more as does the HS senior needs to comparatively to their frosh self (remember the principles are broad and not always true for all individuals).
The other principles that come into play …
2.) Mix the speeds. There is probably a host of posts here in strides to short speed work to V02 work to tempo work to long run work to easy run paces. Touching all of these in your training at the right time is necessary for improvement.
3.) Do hills. It is sort of a corollary to 1 and 2.
4.) Do a longer run. It does not matter if you are running 5k or a marathon – you need a longer set of stimulus (also a corollary to 1 and 2).
5.) Everything else. This is all those other things: diet, altitude training, ketosis, forefoot running, cadence, HR, metabolic rate, ketosis, etc … this is not to say there is not an importance in these things as they may be very important to the individual, but I think for most the other things are of greater importance (and in fact, a lot of people go with this principle first … which probably sets them up for a bit of failure in reaching optimal results).
Clearly it is MORE specific than this. But that is where you get into the needs of the individual: training a competitive HS female is different than training a newbie runner masters male (and even within those stereotypes there are differences) …
Yeah, I have posted this previously. At least twice.
Good run this morning with Shad and Neeraj that had me re-realize for the millionth time the value of the group run. Had I run on my own, I’d probably would have averaged 30 seconds a mile slower and would have run a couple less miles. In the group however, the quicker pace just rolled easy and without significant thought. Between laughs and busting each others chops, we hit those points in the run where there was just the quiet synchronization of our footfalls hit the road. Yeah, the group thing is the way to go.
Big theme topic today was whether older guys like us ought to take a last crack at a PR (or at least a masters PR) at a shorter distance or roll with the risk / reward of the ultra scene. I tend to favor the former of those options (even if the shorter distance is a marathon) simply because the days to set PRs become even more fleeting as the gray hair.
As I was reflecting on this, I saw Benji D’s pictures of his race log from 1979-80:
Wow, just wow. That is just bad ass.
Finished reading “The Revenant” last night. Lucho lent that to me this summer. I have become a bit of a horrible reader of books, as I end up consuming lots of other articles which are more a scan and peck operation. In the close of the book, the author has provided an additional chapter to reveal what is believed to be historically accurate versus what he made up. It sort of reminded me of “Life of Pi” where the main character is asks his interrogators if they like the story with or without the animals. They choose the one with the animals as it is more interesting. “And so it goes with God.”
I started the Revenant movie on my last travel flight but it is a two and a half hour affair the flight was only an hour … which gives you about 40 minutes of watching time because of the various interruptions to tell you that you are now at 38,342 feet and that you will arrive on time and please keep your seat belt fastened because your safety in this metal tube hurling through the sky is paramount. So I got to about the bear scene. Leonardo is great in the flick but the bear is a great actor and should have got the Academy Award.
Is it true that we burn the same number of calories per mile regardless of how fast we go? So while we may run faster and expend more heat doing a five minute mile (or trying to do that) we burn as much for that distance as we do at a slower pace because while we are not working as hard, we are taking longer. If that is true, I have toyed with an idea of heart beats per mile. Could you also extrapolate a number of beats it takes to cover a mile? I know this is not wholly true as the heart rate to effort relationship is not entirely linear … which makes me wonder if the calorie one is as well.
