April 13th- April 19th

“People are always looking for the single magic bullet that will completely change everything. There is no single magic bullet. Progress is about bridging the gap between what we observe and what we can imagine—one careful step at a time.”

— Temple Grandin, animal behavior scientist, reminding us to show up and put in the unsexy but necessary work to move the needle a little bit every day.

Monday:

11:30 AM: 8.4 miles averaging 7:30pace.  Easy cruise from work heading out around Sterns Lake and back on Rock Creek and neighborhood paths, exact same as last Monday. This may become my normal Monday run. Super tired legs today from the race yesterday but got a little better after the first 3 miles. Guess I went harder yesterday than I thought I did.

5 PM: Lifting 50mins...  VASA Lift with Paula- Leg day, lots of heavy back squats

Tuesday:  

6 AM: 10.8 miles averaging 7:20pace.  Easy laps of Davidson Mesa w/ 4x20sec in the middle before work this morning. I do love running early but sometimes like today it can be hard to get out the door. Today my only time I had was before work or after work, had meetings all day today so choose to get it done early due to the rain in the forecast in the afternoon. Felt good after the first few miles that it seems to take anymore to get warmed up. Legs are dead but that was expected.  Sunrise was showing off this morning too.

Wednesday:

9 AM:  12.25 miles averaging 6:40pace.  Workout Wednesday at Davidson Mesa yet again. Tired and felt flat today but got through the workout better than I thought I would. The workout was:

20 min warm up

3x10 min at half marathon effort with 3 min jog between each

20 min cool down

Of course I was tired when I was done but was not wasted like I have been in the past, think I paced the workout better than I usual. With that said, I am counting down to the taper.   Saw Hans Troyer out there doing his intervals in the opposite direction, that kid can fly.

5 PM:  Lifting 50mins.  VASA Lift class solo- Upper body day with lots of strict pullups.

Thursday:  

 9 AM:  12 miles w/ 750ft of vert averaging 7:25pace.  Easy cruise from the house this morning doing a large lap of the hood. Running up to Hwy 128 then back down to the lake and around the hood back to the house. About the only way I can get really any vertical around here. Felt chill the whole time.

4 PM: 2 mile walk with Venus since Paula is in the Outerbanks until next Wednesday to help her mom get the house ready for rental season.  Wish I could have gone as well, love it there.

Friday:

  -NOTE:  Weight check in:  164lbs @ 7.8% bodyfat.  Down over 3lbs in a week, little concerning, guess it is back to bed time snacking again.

7 AM:  8.1 miles w/ 750ft of vert averaging 7:35pace.  Easy cruise this morning before the snow from the Coalton Trailhead west into Rocky Flats and back. Kept it really chill for the most part and feeling okay today. Still struggling with sleeping well due to the Hypoxico unit I have been sleeping in. It is not that is is set to 9000ft that is the issue, I just get so damn hot in there and wake up around midnight sweating bullets every night.  I have to open it up and cool it down in there. This just may not work as I wanted it too but it has been a fun experiment so far.

9 AM: 2 mile walk with Venus getting done just as the snow started flying.

--  Another postcard for the board today from Don.

5 PM: 50mins full body lifting at VASA Lift class.  Lots of deadlifts and shoulder work tonight.

-- Decided not to use the Hypoxico through the half marathon this weekend.  I need to make sure I am getting good sleep to recover from the workouts I have been doing.

Saturday: 

7 AM:  8.3 miles averaging 7:15pace.  Easy cruise on some of the flatter trails east of Broadway in Boulder. Had to meet Donnie to give him some shoes I ordered for him then just went for my shakeout jog from the Runners Roost store heading east to Bobolink and back. Felt pretty good today.

-- Ran to Fort Collins mid-day with Venus to get my bib for tomorrow's half marathon just to make the morning a little less stressful tomorrow.  Finished book number 11 of the year when I got home this afternoon, Project Hail Mary* .  Damn good book and now I need to go be disappointed by watching the movie next week.  Yes I had a co-pilot on the drive today and she always gets a pup cup on our outings. 

Sunday:  

8 AM: RACE- Horsetooth Half Marathon- 13.1 miles w/ 900ft of vert in 1:17:25 or 5:54 pace.  I shocked myself to be totally honest. My goal going in was to get as close to 1:20 as I could which I knew would put me on the Masters podium, I have been training hard lately, have been very tired, and did not taper for this race so 1:20 seemed like a good goal, basically what I ran last weekend. I was not expecting to win the Masters by 4 plus minutes over people 8-10 years younger than me or also being 11th overall nor was I expecting a half marathon PR on such a tough course with shit ton of climbing. Chatting with Nick Clark who also is the race director, he told me that this course with the hills and altitude is about 3-4mins slower than flat at sea level, if that is truly the case than maybe 2:30-2:33 could be in the cards on a perfect day in South Africa... I just got back my mental mojo to finish out the last few weeks of this training block strong. 

Oh yeah, I did puke on myself at mile 13 just before the finish and after finishing in front of Dale (Hardrock race director) who was working the finish line. I left it all out there so there is that.

Total Weekly Numbers

Another solid week in the books for the build up ending with a half marathon PR.   I was on the brink of losing my so called mojo and getting burnt out in marathon training but nothing is more motivating than seeing some results from all the work one has been putting in.  I got my mojo back, at least for now.  Have 2-3 more hard weeks of training then the taper will begin.  Can't believe how quickly time is passing this Spring.  5 weeks until Cape Town.....