Sunday 110214

AM – 16.2 miles. 
Felt pretty good despite the Green trip yesterday.  I then ran into Tim and Riley and they put the screws to me for a few miles.

I had been content floating along at an easy pace, but Riley was in a tempo run.  I was talking (family friendly) smack with Timmy when he got a flat.  I agreed to go on with Riley and then realized her pace was a tad hotter than I was accustomed too.  Nice wake up call and good to see those two.

Sort of crashed out a bit towards the end on the climb back home as not bringing fluids caught up to me.  Ended up with 71 and change on the week.  Not a great week as I missed two days, and had nothing big or stellar but I did some make up work on the days I had, either getting in longer days, doing some speed work or getting some vertical.  Last three days were 46 and change.  I can say that I do feel fitter than I was this summer in some regards.  I am not sharp but I have got a bit better at the underlying strength with some of the longer stuff at an easy steady pace.  Where I take that … well …

Off to Atlanta for a few days, so will be another mixed week, and one of “taking it where I can.”

News – of course was interested to see what happened in NY. Winds played some havoc with times out there but guess what – it was a great race!   And it is sort of insane that the top American marathon is like 85 years old.  And the top US 5k guy too.  As long as I am talking about old guys, it is worth mentioning Lee Troop pulled 2:25.
- interesting stuff … running advice from 160 years ago
- another touching article from Hal.

25 who are more influential … I don’t expect most the MUT folks to know this guy, but he is a big deal in the road and track world.  Jay Johnson (pic from his Twitter account)

For many of us, our first exposure to Jay was when he was a Buff, and came on strong in the late parts of the text Running With the Buffaloes that followed the 1998 XC team, Goucher’s national title win, and the death of Chris Severy.

After that he went off and was a coach at the DII level, but then came back to the growing powerhouse of CU to be a part of the coaching staff there for another five years. 

That is pretty important.  The guy goes to CU for 5 years, gets a kinesiology degree, but then gets 6 more years at CU under Wetmore – the guy who topped Justin’s list (and no argument from me that he should).  A decade with a guy who is arguably one of the best coaches in the nation … and it translates into him then coaching folks that are national champs (Metvier, Cabada and Vaughn).

He has not solely focused on coaching the elites.  His influence is felt wide with a variey of projects he is involved in.  He is the director of the Boulder Running Camps each summer. He produced the DVD set RunningDVDs.com, where he pushed the concepts of general strength exercises (activities other than running).  Much of this content has been replicated on his youtube channel.  He has a regular podcast with coaches, runners, and thought leaders in running off his informative website.  His latest two projects are the High School Running Coach site and Distance Recruiting project – efforts specifically aimed at high schoolers looking to bring their running to the next level and into the college realm.   His reach is vast, detailed, informative, and moving the sport forward. 

Sunday 112512

Family completed the required Colorado Hunter Education course today – and we all got our cards.  Nice.

Afternoon – got out with Timmy G and did 11 miles off the Rock Creek Trailhead off 120th.  Good to run with him again.  We meant to go easy but the pace floated down (faster) a bit as we got worked up talking about short courses, etc.  Did a bit of rope work to finish it out.  Left foot is coming along, but still hugely weaker on that side than the right.

Good week – 72 miles over 9.5 hours, with the 3 mile tempo on Monday, the race on Thursday and a bit of a longer run on Friday (16 miles).  The race taught me that I can be hitting paces under 6 for the first two miles, as I had some doubt about that going into this race with the tempo work I had been doing.  To get to sub 17, I need to run 5:28s or better.  So work to be done there.  Looking forward to it!  I will continue to approach my workouts in a fashion similar to what I have been doing, but I think will tweak the intervals to start with a longer 5:30 to sub 6 mile or longer of some sort, and then run on top of that – just to work through pace once I have done that initial work.  I sort of feel that my goal of sub 37 (just under six minute pace for six miles plus) is closer. 

Post script – I should not have said sub 37 there … that is much softer than a sub 17.  Sub 36 would be more in line with that, probably more like sub 35:30.  All that said, while I have confidence that my training is moving in the right direction – I have a good amount of work to do to reach these goals AND I MIGHT NOT REACH THEM ANYWAY.  My 17:30 the other day was probably only nominally better than the 18:20 I did on the track.  I need to work through a sub 18 legit, a sub 17:37 and then from there … one step at a time.

Next week I am back in ATL so it will be a challenge. 

This vid is for JV.  Also check this reference.

Sunday 072212

Early AM – 20.5 with Tim Geldean.  I was hesitant to committing to the 20, as I was a bit tired, but having him there dragged me along well.  Just under 8s out (Coal Creek trail) and 7:30s on the way back.  Beat the heat which was nice.  Good to run with Tim as it has been a long time since I have done that, and particularly long since he has been comfortable to go that long outdoors.

75.5 miles on the week over 10 hours, very flat, with the track races in Thursday.  Good to get another mile in – even if not as fast as I would like it – but I think I can be looking at sub 5 if I worked on it.  Nice to get a good 20 in, as it has been a couple of months (pacing duties aside) to do that.  1842 on the year.

Off to SFO for the week, and then the World Championships of Burro Racing in Fairplay next week.