08.16 - 08.22 Recap, BRR 5000m, etc.

I continued to struggle last week with a bit of achilles trouble. It's better than it was, but just not back to where I need it to be to really dig into this final 50 days business. But again, it IS better, and I'm hopeful that this week it will improve even more.

Week Highlights
Thursday 08.19 [DAY 6] Boulder Road Runners All-Comers Track Meet: 5000m (17:15, 5th?) This was both an interesting and humbling experience for me. I went in thinking that, despite the lack of race pace or faster work, I could run sub 16:40. When the gun went off and the mad dash followed, I assumed that when we came through the finish line for the first time, my first 200m would be a little too quick. 41 - ouch. I was already off pace. And other than the final 200m, I never did run faster than the necessary 80-second pace. My kilo splits: 3:23.6, 3:25.5, 3:29.2, 3:30.7, 3:26. The interesting element was the weather. Before the race, the dark clouds threatened, but we saw no lightning, and there was never anything more than a little spitting rain. With about 3.5 laps to go (for me), all of a sudden the winds gusted fiercely, blowing me sideways a bit as I turned into the homestretch with just over 3 to go. I guess the rapid weather change gave me something to focus on, as my final K featured my best running of the race. I finally reeled in the guy I was chasing, and managed to lap a couple more runners down the stretch. Pete Remien helped pace a few other BRC guys, hoping to dip under 16:00. I believe the winning time was around 16:15. So that was a humbling affair. I know I'm not prepared to run a 5000m to be excited about, but I was still counting on my strength carrying me through to a better performance. And it's hard not to think about faster efforts that I've had "in my prime" on that very track. In the same last BRR meet of the year in 2004, I ran 15:09 in what was one of the most enjoyable races of my life. That version of myself would have easily lapped the current version, and then some. I still think I have some good 5K running in me, but it will take some serious work and injury-free training and racing to make it happen.

Saturday 08.21 [DAY 8] 20.5M @ Teller Farm/White Rock/Gunbarrel Farm/Niwot trails (2:37:05) AHR119/MHR145. I started out deliberately easy on this run, running the out portion very much under control, taking it really easy on the uphills, and basically just practicing for how a great portion of the 50M race is going to have to go. I hit the turnaround (~9.72M) at the end of the dirt in Niwot in 1:19:11 (8:10/M), and significantly picked up my pace/effort. It felt good to get after it on the uphills, let it go on the downhills a bit, and run harder over several miles. My return trip took me 1:09:36 (7:08/M), and I tagged on a mile+ of easy running. This was my 15th 20M+ run since May 29th.

Weekly/Monthly Totals
Running: 56.5M / 262.6M (took one day off, and had 4 short days)
Rowing: 26K / 50K 
Elliptical: 7M / 27M


My main goals for this week are:

• Improve the health/feeling of my achilles - I plan to log much of my running on the treadmill in an effort to do this and still log some good mileage.
• Back to back 20M+ runs on the weekend (Saturday with BoldRunning group, Sunday on the treadmill).

08.15.10: Double Long Runs, Weekly Update

I started off the week recovering from last weekend's 38M adventure. For the first 2 days, I skipped running altogether, which was easy to do as my left achilles was tight and sore. So I stuck to the elliptical and rower on Monday and Tuesday, before returning to running on Wednesday. The weird thing is that other than my achilles, my legs were never really beat up or especially tired after the 38M run. Very odd.

I also kept my runs for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday on the treadmill and easy, as a) it was a lot easier on my body than outside running, and b) I knew I had a long weekend of outside running planned.

So through Friday, I had logged 37M of running, 20M on the elliptical and 16K on the rower.

Weekend Highlights
Saturday 08.14 BoldRunning group run @ Wash Park/roads/Cheesman Park. 20M (2:45:55). Ran for only the 2nd time ever at Wash Park in Denver, and for the 1st time at Cheesman Park. I got one loop in around Wash Park before the group run, and then we ran from Wash Park to Cheesman Park, ran around once, headed back to Cheesman, and then did quite a bit of running around Wash Park. It was a pretty nice morning, a little cooler with a nice breeze. I know I have a plethora of trail running options in the Boulder area, but I was digging the urban park thing in Denver yesterday. And another thing - there was just an AMAZING amount of runners out yesterday. I've seen that in general since I've been heading down for these runs - usually on the Highline Canal Trail. I've seen WAY more runners than I used to see several years ago in the early to mid 2000s. Very cool.

Sunday 08.15 20M @ Bear Creek Lake Park, Lakewood (2:46:34). So after the successful 38M experiment, I'm planning on running the Bear Chase Trail Race 50M. With that in mind, I headed to the site of the race to scout out the course. They have course maps and some very detailed course descriptions here. It's a bit of a drive to get down there, so as my family is still out of town (thankfully they get back tomorrow), this was the best opportunity I'll have for awhile. This race should be interesting. I've run down there a few times before, so I was somewhat familiar with the area. While there is only supposed to be 900' of climbing per 12.5M loop, I imagine that some of these climbs will hurt in laps 3 and 4 (and I should run them very conservatively early on). There's some shade, but much of the course will be out in the open. That might not be so great on a hot or windy day. It's hard to say what October 3rd will bring for weather. Some of the trails are a bit rocky, some are a bit sandy (I have a habit of crashing on the sandy trails), and in general the course is pretty diverse: gravel roads, narrow and wide singletrack, doubletrack, concrete bike path, asphalt road, water, etc. Yes, water. Each loop includes 3 creek crossings, all within about a 1/2 mile. Today, the crossings got to maybe 20" deep, and maybe 40' wide. Interesting. Crossing the creek 12 times over 50 miles could play havoc the feet of the 50 milers. One climb is up Mt. Carbon, which sounds worse than it actually is. It's maybe a 200' climb a nice long, gradual singletrack descent. This will be a crucial point in every loop, though. I'm determined to take the climbs very easy on race day. I'm hoping that the course is very well marked. There are so many turns, going from one trail to another, that if it's not marked perfectly, there's going to be problems out there.

Later: added on 6M on the treadmill (55:58) at 5% incline for 26M on the day, and 46M for the weekend. This was the 3rd time since the July 10th/11th weekend that I've run back-to-back 20M runs. Also, I have 14 20M+ runs since May 29th. I'm pretty confident that these 2 training stats will be big for me heading into the 50M.

Weekly/Monthly Totals
Running: 83M / 206.1M
Elliptical: 20M / 20M
Rowing: 16K / 24K

A few days ago, I was leaning away from racing this week, but now it's closer to 50/50 that I'll do the BRR 5000m on Thursday evening.

I realized on Friday evening, that starting on Saturday I would have exactly 50 days to prepare for the 50M. So my plan is to focus on good eating, good sleeping, good flexibility and core work, and just plain healthy living for these final 50 days. 50 days for 50 miles. Day 1 & Day 2 are in the books.

08.08.08: The Week in Review, 38MHCTEXP, etc.

I have finally done it. I have a new (outside) long run to my credit, and I’m flying high as a result. More on that in a bit – a quick recap on the week:

Tuesday 08.03 13M treadmill (1:20:26). 10M building to just under LT (1:00:49@AHR138)), then 3M gradually back down. I had done this run back on 07.07 with a little better time/HR numbers, but it was good work nonetheless. Later – a 2.8M run with RG for a nice 15.8M day.

Saturday 08.07 11.1M Highline Canal Trail w/ BoldRunning group. Easy, but I was still nervous that I was running a bit much with such a big day lined up to start less than 20 hours after this run ended…

Sunday 08.08 The Highline Canal Trail 38M Experiment:

38M (4:59:44)
AHR120 / MHR 146

After years of thinking about it, trying to do it, and wondering if I’d ever come close to running that far with all the foot injury stuff, I’ve finally pulled it off. The run went quite well, though a bit differently and quicker than I thought it would.

The Garmin measured the full out & back from mile marker 36 to mile marker 17 as 18.84M on the way out / 18.88M on the way back, and I added on the additional .28M as I made my way back to the parking lot.

I tried to move up my start time a bit, as I felt how hot it was when I got done with Saturday’s run around 9 am. It was raining during the drive down through Denver, but I didn’t have any rain during the run – just lots of humidity. I carried a Camelback w/ 100 oz of water (with about 1 tbsp of salt added) and an Ultimate single bottle pack (~20 oz of Gatorade G2).

I started at 4:17 am, and my heart rate spiked right away, as I was definitely excited to kick off this run. This was funny as I was running slowly down the trail, completely alone in the early morning darkness. Things settled in, and my heart rate was a little higher than I expected, but I attribute that to a) all the water and gear I was carrying, and b) the high humidity. I was wet pretty quickly – that’s just not right at that early in the morning in Colorado. Nonetheless, I tried to establish a conservative pace that felt comfortable and kept my HR down. Early on, that meant keeping my pace around 8:30/M to 8:50/M, with a corresponding HR around 115. I stopped twice to pee in the first 6M or so, finished my G2 bottle and dropped it off (picked it up on the way back). I gradually increased the pace to the 8:10 to 8:25 range and actually dropped the HR a bit (110 to 115 range). I was very conscious of my effort level – the run was going well, so I wanted to keep things under control during the “out” portion of the run. Still, the pace gradually quickened, and I was running at or a little under 8:00 miles by the time I made it to the turnaround.

I slapped the 17-mile marker, and turned back for home. I split 2:36:44 for “half-way” – (let’s call it 18.86M), which was an average of 8:19/M with an AHR of 114. As I was feeling pretty good, things predictably picked up a bit. I had been doing the math on pace, how much I could drop the average pace on the return trip, and what I could pull off for a total time. I figured if I could keep it rolling OK, I could easily repeat the first half time and maybe drop my pace all the way down to an average of 8:00/M. I hit the first mile back around 7:50, and never saw anything slower than 7:40 for mile splits from that point on. I had some 7:30s, but most of the splits were in the 7:20s - the HR definitely rose along with it, and I typically had a HR in the 120s. Things rolled along pretty well through the mid to late 20s, but the last several miles got progressively tough. That said I really didn’t have any problems during this run – amazing. I went through most, but not all of my water. I had plenty of food left in the Camelbak, but I went through everything in the easily accessible Ultimate pack (note – the Sport Beans were fantastic!). My neck got a little tight/sore, but it was manageable. My feet were a little sore at times, but that’s pretty normal.

I did not expect to be able to pull off the faster running I did over the last 25M or so. I ended up splitting 2:20:49 for the return trip (average of 7:28/M). Over the last several miles, I knew I needed to average ~7:30/M to dip under 5:00, so that kept me very focused through the finish.

During the run, I inevitably thought about the 50M race, and had the scary thought at 25M that I would only be halfway along in a 50. I’ll definitely have to go in with a similar mindset of keeping things under control, only much longer. So, yeah, I’m pretty much decided on doing that race. I’m planning a trip down to Lakewood next Sunday to scout the course if anyone’s interested in tagging along. I’m planning on doing a single 12.5M loop of the course – the course map & description are available on the Bear Chase Trail Race website. It definitely seems more possible now, but I’m still a bit daunted by the prospect of another 12M, and on a course that has more elevation change and more technical footing. The Highline is flat with light inclines/declines at times, with a very consistent crusher fine surface the whole way. I’ll learn a little more about the 50M course next weekend.

Today’s run gave me 101.1M for the week, with 11 20M+ runs since May 29th. I’ll be putting a little more thought into the next 55 days of prep work. And I’m still undecided if I’ll do the Boulder Marathon as well, 2 weeks prior to the 50.

End of Month Update, August Plans, New Blogging Goal

So I’ve really never established any regular blogging habits. Instead of trying to blog once a day, my new goal is at least one update per week.

July training recap – one week at a time (just the highlights and totals):

07.05 – 07.11
Monday 07.05 15.3M (2:01:02) A long, slow run the day after the Firecracker 4K – a bit more than I was planning.
Wednesday 07.07 13M treadmill (1:19:28) Building to just under my LT heart rate (going with 145-155 for an LT range), and holding it there through 10M, then gradually back down over next 3M
Saturday 07.10 20.3M (2:37:56) City Park – Denver. Ran my first long run as a coach for BoldRunning – helping out the 7-8:00 pace groups for marathon/half-marathon. This run consisted of ~9M with group members, and another 11 or so tagged on afterwards as the morning continued to heat up. Ugh. More on the BoldRunning gig later.
Sunday 07.11 20M treadmill (2:40:00) A bit of an experiment here, with back to back 20 milers, but this one was quite easy. I dialed in at 8:00/M pace, and was excited to see just how easy it was – AHR101/MHR107.

Weekly Total = 108M (+ 5M elliptical)

07.12 – 07.18
Wednesday 07.14 8K Tempo @ Erie Middle School (EMS) Track (29:55.4) AHR146/MHR154 on a very warm morning. My left foot was a bit sore during run, and my left calf was a bit tight/sore during warm-up.
Thursday 07.15 13M treadmill, easy (1:26:52)
Saturday 07.17 20.5M on Highline Canal Trail (HCT) in (2:43:55). BoldRunning: ran 8M solo before the group run, and then spent time running with different group runners. Got warm by end of run, but we were done by around 9 am, so not too bad on a day that hovered around 100 degrees.
Sunday 07.18 10.4M (1:14:16). Ran first 5.2M while RG rode her bike and Niwot ran along side me (39:33), then dropped them at home and repeated the same local course for another 5.2M (34:43). I really felt good on a morning that was quickly turning hot. Strong.

Weekly Total = 76.55M (+ 20K rowing, 5M elliptical, 1 running day off)

07.19 – 07.25
Tuesday 07.20 4.05M Tempo Run @ Teller Farm (TF) in (24:23.7) AHR148/MHR159. Rained on me a little bit (nice with how hot it’s been)
Friday 07.23 3.84M Tempo Run @ Thomas Res near my place (22:40.5) AHR148/MHR152. Felt better and quicker here than on Tuesday.
Saturday 07.24 20.3M on HCT (2:38:06). BoldRunning: ran 6M solo (44:16), then 14.3M with different members of group. AHR112/MHR129.
Sunday 07.25 15M treadmill (1:59:55). Stuck it on 8:00/M and sat there – just like 07.11, but shorter, and even lower HR #s: AHR98/MHR104.

Weekly Total = 71.7M (+ 16K rowing, 13.5M elliptical, 2 running days off)

07.26 – 07.31
Wednesday 07.28 3M shakeout in AM on treadmill (22:35). In the evening…
Freeman Myre Corporate Challenge “Elite Race”5K: 16:45, 17th Male, 2nd Masters. Peter Hegelbach nicely coordinated a rare team racing night, with 5 of us running (Justin, James, GZ, Peter and myself – see the official results here). There seemed to be the feeling that a) the course might have been a touch short, but that b) the 6 hairpin turns kind of negated the shortness. I know GZ GPS’d it short, but others were just going off of time, I guess – I don’t get how the turns then negated the shortness. Whatever. I was pretty happy with the effort. I hit the first loop in 5:25, slowed to a 5:39, but held solid on the 3rd circuit with a 5:41. My form is feeling off – my left foot was bothering me some, my left leg bowing seems to have tweaked my form some more, and it just added up to a less than smooth gait. Tagged on ~7M for a warm-down with GZ and James that was a bit quicker than I was expecting. I’ve got some work to do…
Saturday 07.31 21M on HCT (2:49:25). BoldRunning: Ran 5.5M solo before group run, and 15.5M during, sharing time between Megan and Greg. Solid effort on both of their parts for 2+ hours. Warm – and more humid than normal for CO.

Monthly Total = 350.6M (+ 60K rowing, 31.5M elliptical)

Sunday 08.01 20M treadmill (2:39:58) AHR105/MHR111. Later – 2M @ EMS track with RG.

Weekly Total = 84.3M (+ 16K rowing, 4M elliptical, 1 running day off)

While I didn’t plan to have my usual marathon build-up heading into the Boulder Marathon, I don’t know if I’ll be able to prepare the way I want and need to reach an acceptable level of success. I haven’t ruled it out, and there’s still 1.5 months to go, but I’m also being pulled in a different direction. I’m still quite interested in the Bear Chase Trail Race 50M down in Lakewood on 10.03. And with that in mind, I’m going to be performing an experiment next Sunday, 08.08:

The Highline Canal Trail 38M Experiment
So there’s a 19M unpaved section of the HCT that runs from Colorado/Hampden to County Line Rd. On a couple of occasions (several years ago), I’ve attempted to run this entire section as an out & back, and crashed and burned both times. Once, I even had to call a cab to get back to my car.

Since then, it’s always been stuck in my brain as an unfulfilled goal. In the past, I was more fit, but I know that part of my issue was simply running too fast. I aim to correct that next weekend. I haven’t decided on a pace/HR quite yet, but what I’ve learned from some of these long, easy, low HR workouts on the treadmill is that I can run 8:00/M pace on the treadmill for a long time, and keep my HR around 100. Now, I can run quicker on the treadmill than outside at most any HR, but I figure that the key is to find an easy pace at a low HR (100? 105? 110?), and just hang out there and pile up the miles on the trail.

My main concern is how my body will hold up structurally – specifically my feet (damn left foot), my Achilles, and my neck/upper back that tends to tighten up on extra-long runs.

My longest outdoor run has been a 35M run that I completed back in 2005 (I also ran 40M on a treadmill in my basement, but that’s another story). I’m planning for a run that could take 5:30, depending on how things go. I’m undecided if I want to just maintain that low HR/slow pace, or pick it up if I’m feeling good in the 2nd half of the run. I hope to start some time around 4:30 AM to beat the heat, as that would have me finishing by 10 AM if things go OK. I’m still sorting out the fueling/hydrating logistics – more later on that. The exciting (and scary) thing about this experiment is that I really DON'T know if I can pull it off.

If things go well during and after this 38M adventure, I’ll likely be signing up for the 50M. And I’ll probably go check out the 12.5M loop at Bear Creek Lake Park the following Sunday (08.15) to see what I’d be in for.

Past that, I’d like to run the 5000m at the Boulder Road Runners All-Comers meet on 08.19. And I still like the idea of running in the Coal Creek Challenge 10M on Labor Day.

In the meantime, I need to get my eating and weight in order. My weight has crept up over the past few weeks – I average 179# this week, and I’m very much heading in the wrong direction. Stop it.

Again (to me!) - I'll be updating at least once a week.