Thursday 101515

Today’s listening:

The solo in the Audioslave song is just awesome use of effects.  And yes, those are the RAM guys behind Cornell.  And I got stuck on the Barenaked Ladies tune because a kid nailed it at the Top 40 and Tapas show the other night.

Love it to death  baby – talk that the Manitou Incline may incur fees.

Lot of good stuff on the LRC week wrap.

It is sort of mind boggling to me how fast some of these old guys run. 

Katelyn Kaltenbach had a nice chat/Q&A with the BHS XC squad yesterday.  The kids asked decent questions.  I really appreciated how Katelyn spoke of how to turn negative situations in races into positive ones.  Rather than think “I am hurting, I have a mile to go” in a 5k race it becomes “Nobody has trained for this last mile like I have.”  It seems so subtle but it is really really powerful.  I can see how kids that are taking the pre-race nerves and translating them into how it is gonna suck end up having races that, well, suck.  Those that embrace the situation do much better. 

Helped with a XC team dinner tonight.  League meet tomorrow!

3 miles with Steve M at the office.  We went back and forth on 100 mile pacing and I might post a video on that in the next day or too.  Basically, the question is if I went out too fast to Mayqueen. 

About an hour after that another 7 from the house.  Last night I texted JV that I was getting scared to run hard.  It is true, and it sort of bugged me so I figured I needed to get over that.  I did 4 half miles with a half mile rest and then a mile to finish out the run.  I was going to do six half miles but I ran out of time and just put that mile in there. It was pretty ugly but I needed to start again somewhere.  None of them were below six minute pace.  Aerobically I felt fine but my legs just felt like hell.  I guess I could say I am still not recovered but I am sort of tired of saying that even if it is true. 

Wednesday 12031

News stuff – Hal’s book, Full Tilt Boogie is up for purchase. 
- on the heels about me blubbering about the crew heading up Green the other day, here is a post on the SF community pounding up Tam.
- Clark’s Chubby Cheeks is coming up.
- Deena says that the key to being an effective master is to maintain quality workouts, ditch junk miles and sleep.  I completely agree.  I can tend to get lazy with getting after quality workouts, chase miles for the sake of miles (I do fairly well with sleep).  But all that said I think the number one thing I could do to improve my fitness and performance is … lose 10 pounds. 
- want to figure your chances of getting into Hardrock?
- World Beer Mile Championships in case somehow you missed that.
- I need to get this entire thing of how I am going to carry stuff figured out.  I watched this today and noticed how many different ways there seems to do this.  The vests seem popular but check out that hip thing that Krar has.  And it seems that once the pacer in the mix the racers don’t carry anything.

Mid afternoon – 7.2 with Steve M easy.  He didn’t want to go faster than 8 pace and so we didn’t.  I added on another 3 when he was done and tossed in a few of sub sevens to just keep at that.  10.3 on the day.

Thursday 070314

Louis Zamperini passed away.  I am currently reading the latest book about his life, Hilllenbrand’s Unbroken.  It is an amazing story.

Good read (actually a compilation of several) on Long Peaks and its dangers.

Good insight by Burch on how to approach a 100 based on his recent Black Hills win.  A similar theme (start slow), Anton’s report from his recent win.  What is up with those late night starts with races in Europe?

Catching up on a variety of Western reports:  Vargo, Aish, Sharman.  Looking forward most the Clark and Bowman posts (his blog seems dead though) as I know those guys a little.  Bowman had a big breakout performance which I am interested in reading about, and Nick had the opposite.  I am interested in reading how he dealt with that.  I did see a post on FB from someone who DNF’d who said:  My WS100 DNF taught me, for the first time in 17 ultra marathons, that a strong will cannot overcome all else.  It was good to hear that as I think the community tends to over pump up the “mental strength” thing quite a bit.  I get that there is a significant mental component, but there is a reason you don’t see the yogi’s running 2:08.

Admittedly, while I don’t have the 100 mile bug, I can see the small itch to consider one.  Again.   Thinking of doing such silliness, and actually executing one as something other than a stunt however are very different acts.  I can screw around with my general everyday more than the typical person exercise program and get away with jumping in all comers track meets (and get sub par results), or slipping into a burro race or two, or even getting a lap on Pikes.  A 100 … well, yeah, I can probably finish one, but doing what I am doing ain’t going to make that come to easily.  Not that any race is easy, but with my one experience at a 100, lack of prep (and off execution) really brings a heavy tax to pay.

Anyway, the posts on the 100s get me thinking about it a tiny bit.  But out of all of those posts on LONG distance races … I enjoyed Tony’s commentary on coffee the most.

More later tonight after the track meet.  Hoping to better the 4:59 from last go around but admittedly am a bit pessimistic on it given a hack I seem to be dealing with.

How your body responds to exercise.

More Hardrock porn …

… that part near Handies … Sort of different than I remember it.  Of course it was the middle of the night when I went through that part.

blah, blah, blah.  That long to come up with that? 

Evening – the hack was still in the rattle, and the legs didn’t feel great on the warm up.  In light of that, decided, I would look to get out very easy and see if I could pick it up.  Steve M said he was dead set on starting at 79, coming through in 2:39.  I dumped my watch as that sounded fair and  I looked to settle in behind him on the start.  I found myself needed to chop my stride a bit, but I went with the plan. 

I was in last place.

As we came up on the 400, the person reading the splits was saying 87, 88, 89.  Surprised, I quickly thought, “oh screw this.”  If we were indeed going at 6 minute pace, and I was already breathing hard, it was going to be a fughedabutit night.  I started to step off, and she said, “no, I mean 80, yes, 81, 82.”  And rolled back from lane four and back into it.  Stupid move on my part but my head was only partly into it.  Steve began to falter a bit and sensing this I went around him in the next 200.  There was a guy about 4 or five seconds up, and I thought about seeing if I could slowly close the gap on him.  Came through the 800 in 2:41 – so about even.  I never felt great but I began smell the line a touch here.  4:02 for 1200 with Steve fading back and the guy in front of me coming back just a touch.  I went for a next gear, and it was actually there and I managed to get to the guy with 100 to go and put a fair pass on him.  I expected him to come back so I tried to get the knees up in the last stretch and I managed to hold the gap.  5 flat.  About the same as what I did about a month ago and so no improvement, but I feel strangely more confident off this one – I ran it in almost reverse of what I did when I ran 4:59, and it felt a helluva lot better.

10.3 on the night, with a longish warm down on the Creek path.  Seems that there are about the same number of folks smoking pot along the creek as there were 15 years ago when it was illegal.  Ran into Straka out there and yapped with him a bit too.

Thursday 062614

I often work in the office from the cafe in the building.  This was the view mid morning:

Joined Steve at work for his workout, which was 60 seconds on at mile pace (which was about 300 meters or so), 60 seconds off at half that pace (or 150 meters).  Six of these for Steve before he was done.  Hot (probably near 90F or a touch over it).  Never felt the groove here as my legs feel a bit dead and I have had a bit of a hack since the last mile race, but it was good to roll a bit.  I did have a bit of lift, but again this workout is pretty easy for me to fake as it is only minute efforts.  True, it builds, but it ain’t like kilos or something.  4.2 miles.

9.1 later in the afternoon.  Again hot.  Easy.  100 yards into this one as I hit the dirt around the corner I nearly face planted as I found a new hole that had not been there before.  On the way home I saw 3 kids canoeing in the ditch.  That was pretty awesome, particularly since they had to get pretty low to duck under the road culverts.

Aish is always entertaining in an interview.  In particular I think his comments about getting into a hole and then coming out (around 5:30) are pretty interesting.  And Bowman’s chances have obviously increased with the beard.  Max King shoots smart by stating his only goal is the 24 belt buckle.

Braces off (again).

The Pikes Peak Marathon page has a vid up about the Incline Club.

One heck of a crafty passing move from 1987 IM.

Thursday 052914

I have warned my wife.  If I am ever in England when this race happens … sorry, it never gets old.

Article on the beer mile (also with a 8 minute audio segment) … interesting note that the Ben & Jerry’s 4 x 4 is referenced.  4 pints, 4 miles and the record is 66:55.

Drone flyover of the Incline, scheduled to close later this summer for repairs.  You get the idea after about 2 minutes or so.  Wonder if they could do the whole Barr.

Preview of Mount Washington …

Got together with Steve M at work for a workout that included some faster stuff, on his plan.  His rests are always pretty long, but I go with it to do the work with him.  Warmed up, did 4 x a quarter (70, 70, 69, 69) and then did a warm down with him.  I decided to get back after it to get a bit more work in and did 4 more on shorter (but I’d say still full) rest in 75, 76, 74, 73.  10 miles on the day, and while I could feel the arse cheek a bit these were not overly straining and it was actually okay.  Nuthin’ stellar here but hitting 70 a month ago would have been too much to handle, so handling it today will be considered some sort of progress.

In the evening … having fun making noise.

Tuesday 050614

When I die I want to come back doing field events, specifically the pole vault and the flaming hammer throw.

The upcoming Portland meet will have a 32 x 50 meter relay.  That sounds like awesome chaos waiting to happen.

JZ now has braces.  He is not happy about it. 

He is pissed that he needs to relearn how to play the trumpet, how to whistle, that he can’t chew gum …

Meb twitter posted this great photo from his past days.
Two guys who became American citizens, went on to represent our country at the highest athletic levels, and are killing it as “old men.”

It might be that I am coming from Europe where soccer is a bit more the sport than our football, but this commercial is pretty cool.

Mid day – got out with Steve M and Dave B at work.  Steve had the idea to do 1800 meter repeats.  Why, I don’t know.  I give him crap about his nutty workout but I really don’t care.  It is all good work … we did a few strides to dial in pace, and then did the workout.  I was at 5:45 pace on both, not overly pressing but not comfortable either.  8 miles.

5.2 on Lake Link a bit later.

Wednesday 041614

More on Carpenter and the Hall … fair amount of action over on the FB group.   Good number of private messages.  I tried to encapsulate my feelings with this post. 

 
Maybe Matt was snubbed.  I wouldn’t be surprised.  I can’t say that I have not snubbed people in my life that pissed me off.  Rather than turn it into a witch hunt of why that happened, I am just looking to drive it to positive conclusion next year.

Justin’s weekly article on MUT.  Dude that won Sonoma trained on a BOAT.  What is your excuse?

Impressive speed.  And sweet looking stride.   Pretty sure even at my fastest I would have had my work cut out for me with with her on that workout.  It seems obvious to me that this kid will be competing at the highest level for our country some day, but kids are hard to predict … I particularly wonder how she will hold up under the scrutiny.  I am pretty glad in retrospect that I did not have folks out there videoing my workouts to later publish on the net.

I have mumbled here before that I think HS runners on whole are just overall better than they were 30 years ago.  I talked to a kid at JZ’s Scout meeting last night that is a freshman at BHS.  He just ran 4:51 for the 1600.  The school record for freshman is 4:36.  That seems pretty stout for a freshman to me.  Okay, that is just a single case, and it ain’t unusual, but I seem to hear about it more than I did before.  And 19 kids broke 9:00 minutes at the Arcadia meet this year, and Brentwood TN has four guys on their team that have run 9:12 or better (3200).  That sort of thing was just not happening “back in the day.”

And with that … Word is local kid and speedster Ethan G signed a letter of intent with CU today.  A 4;16 mile probably used to get you some cake.  Probably not so much any more.

#GOM rant  … the quality of audio on conference calls has just progressed to utter crap.  With half the folks on cell phones, another half on some conference room speaker phone, another half half multi-tasking with their dog or cat and forgetting they are not muted (or that they say they were on mute when asked something) and me losing half my hearing to listening to Foo too loud, everyone sounds like they are talking from under a wet blanket with traffic running in the background.

Latest HOR has good perspective/wrap up on London, preview of Boston.

Was feeling a bit slothlike today, so when coworker Steve M swung by to see if I wanted go for a jog, I bit (he said he only came by because I prompted him this morning in the cafe).  Steve is coming back from an injury so we started really slow (like 12 min pace0 but it wound up being sub 8s by the end.  We did the Johnson loop and then I swung out for another one.  10.5 miles on the day.  Saw Shad at the end of it and we talked smack at each other about Strava CRs.

Thursday 010914

The athletes who continued running generally adopted non-competitive frameworks such as “putting things in perspective” or “winning was never the only motive.” One interviewee commented that too many runners “just stare at the watch, and their times are the only motivation for training. I see this as a poverty of the mind.”  I have seen folks come and go from the sport, but I clearly have seen guys leave the sport because they are less than enthused with no longer being as competitive or as fast. 

My son is a Dr. Who fan.  For him, from Google Maps … click on the double forward arrow…

|
and …

Hmmm … first Symmonds, now Goucher?  I’d have to guess with Coburn and Simpson working with Wetmore in Boulder and Kara going to there as well, Team NB has to be in the mix.  Tony’s team mates can probably dust most ant of us in a workout …

Bounced into Steve M in the cafe at work and he asked if I’d join him for an afternoon run.  Agreed.  He was going to do in and out miles.  I gave him a fair lead, would run with him for a bit and then work the last quarter some.  Helped that these were down wind. 5:57, 5:40, 5:35.  Not a lot of room up top there but I can see it coming back with some work.  Followed it up with 4 x 30 seconds hard (faster than mile pace) and was hitting those pretty well.  So I have some turn over, I just need to be able to hold it.

Monday 121613

Footlocker boys race from the weekend:  if you can;t bear to watch the whole thing, tune in around 13 minutes into the video.  Four lead changes and elbows flying in the last half mile.

Yeah, I love a good race.  I don’t care if it is guys like that above racing each other, or a couple of six year olds, or ninety year olds.  Or just one dude against the clock and his own PR.  I sort of down care if it is trail, road, track, hill or flat.  I like a race. 

Which is why I sort of find this sort of funny:  Flotrack which does a pretty bang up job of tracking the sport, caught that some team of guys in Belgium broke the 100km treadmill record (a record once previously held by a team that included IM multiple time champ Craig Alexander), but no word of the 12 hour action in Arizona.  Impressive that they did do it at sub five minute mile pace for the whole thing I guess.  More funny:  Getting more play on Letsrun than Bitter’s run is Japan’s Kawauchi running 11 marathons this year including six sub 2:12s.  Gotta love the threads that spawn from that in the Letsrun message board hell hole.

Interesting blast from the past on Goucher in HS.  If you are a real XC geek for CO, this article is crazy.   Fun to see some familiar names in there (Ricks, Crandall, Briney, Samuelson, Brittan).

Really, these guys are our allies?  Yup, I am okay with fraking if we can cut that relationship off (yes, that is a foray into the political arena that I might just go all charlie sierra on and remove).

Windy day – again.

At least the wind keeps the bugs away.

Seeing the trees billow and office flags fully furled had me less than stoked to get out.  I got a message from co-worker Steve M that he was up for a run, and that broke the ice.  At high 8s, 9s and 10s heading west into the big winds, it was low 7s, sixes and even touching five on the way back.  I was motivated enough after doing five and a half with him that I headed out for another 4.5 to round it for 10 on the day.  Fastest running I have done over a month, but heavily wind assisted when it happened.  Fun though.

Post the run I hit the gym – working a variety of things from arms (bi dumbell curls, tri extensions) and chest (machine press, pretty sure I’d be hurting to get a 135 weighted bar up at this point) and abs … and legs.  I got about 2/3rds of the way through Bring Sally Up doing squats with a dumbbell before I caved.  Damn.  Also quad extensions, hammie curls, dumbbell squats, and eccentric calf drops.  With the run and the gym, I was fried.  Post a run, I usually feel good.  Post a gym workout I feel like I want to barf.  Post a gym workout where I ran before I feel like I want to go to bed and barf in it.

A friend sent me this picture from the summer when I had a hair cut. 

This hair thing is highly over rated.

Got five definites on the Solstice Slog.  Well at least according to FB.  That means probably me and one other person in reality.  :)  I’d drop FB in three heart beats but when I get to read gems like this from my friends, I realize I am hooked for life.

and

Tuesday 100813

I try to avoid general politics … well, I look to steer clear of it in this blog but … really?  The government is shutdown.  Unless they are fining you.  In other closure news, someone I know recently posted this on FB.

Apparently there is an OSMP BOT meeting tomorrow night where the public can voice concerns on these matters.

…a tempo run can be simply defined as a 20 minute run at threshold pace which is 25-30 seconds per mile slower than current 5k pace or a run at 90 % of your maximum heart rate. Of course if you feel 90% is too hard then 75-85 % of max heart rate is also tempo intensity as is a run of 20-25 minutes in duration at between 10k and 15k race pace.If you are very fit it’s your 15-21k pace. It can also be defined as 70-80% of your aerobic capacity or a run of 20-25 minutes at 20-25 seconds per mile slower than your 5k pace or 40-45 minutes at 15-20 seconds slower than your 10k pace. The fastest pace you can manage for an hour is another common way of describing tempo intensity….

So while youngsters like Cranny have been cleaning the clock of collegians by winning races outright, it is apparently occurring via old fogeys as well.

How come I can see Timko staging something like this?

Easy jogging today, the Owens loop from the office, twice and once with Steve M.  10.4 miles.  Tired – not surprising.

Friday 090911

MUT guys, do your homework and check this out from RunColo.  References to Smead (who set the 60yo Ascent record at Pikes this year)

PM – 7 miles with Steve M from work.  Easy.  A bit tired from yesterday.  :)  Hit the gym for a bit post and got in a variety of work, including the dreaded squats and lunges.

Meanwhile, Miles Davis on Pandora now means our new trumpet player (first lesson today) gets some action duet style (first fifth grade lesson today).