Almost Go TIme

In 24 hours from when I am typing this I will be crossing the start line of the Boston Marathon.  Almost go time. 

Been struggling with the race plan as far as pace and goals all week.  My left ankle and achilles have been flared up all week.  This is not new by any means, I have been dealing with this on and off since last spring before Leadman.  Just bad timing with it flaring up this week.  So with that said the plan is to go out at about 1:22 to 1:25 for the first 13.1 miles and then see what the second half gives me.  If the achilles is barking hard at me then I will pull up and enjoy the jog into the finish line and chug a few beers along the route.  If all systems are a go and everything feels ok then it is on for time.

Ran a quick report from the log to see year to date on the training, hopefully it is enough.

Some photos I have taken the past couple of days down in Dartmouth MA where and I am staying with my college roommate Shawn along with a few photos from Newport RI where he took me yesterday to hang out.  Kind of nice not to be in the craziness of the city.

2 Weeks To Go- Boston Thoughts

Think this is a great theme song for me leading into Boston this year considering everything that is has happened the past 4 to 5 months.  It came on the radio as I was driving home from my last long run today before the taper and just reminded me of everything I had to push through leading up to this upcoming adventure.  I could have easily just scrapped the whole thing and wallowed in self pity but that is not who I am and I'm very lucky to have good friends that remind me of that when it is needed.  This song just seemed right in today's reflections.



Anyways onto the reason for this post, trying to come up with a race plan/goal.  When I signed up for Boston the whole goal was to just break 3 hours, yes I used the word "just" and you will see why here in a second.  Based on workouts the past month or so and input from the GOMs, I've had seed planted in my head that maybe I am short changing myself a bit like I did last year if I am only shooting for a 2:59.  To me 2:59 is hard enough to wrap my mind around considering my marathon PR right now is 3:11 yet alone 2:50 which is the time the discussion has been around.  But based on a long run I did on last weekend (3/27) where on tired/sore legs from running/lifting all week I did 1 mile warmup/ 18 at marathon effort/ 1 mile cooldown so 20 miles total and ended up with a 6:33 average pace including the warmup/cooldown in that average (Strava data).  That has me wondering, am I short changing myself?  Are the GOMs right?  My biggest fear is going out to fast for my fitness and slogging in over 3 hours. That fear was reaffirmed on today's last long run where I was supposed to do a "Steady" 20 miles.  In my mind a "Steady" pace would have been 7 minute miles or so but my average was only 7:26 (Strava data), yes I did get in 1500 feet of vertical, yes it was hotter today than I am used to, and yes it has been a big week for me mileage wise (just shy of 80) with throwing in a lot of intensity work but those are all just excuses in my mind.  It could be hot on race day, it is a hilly course, yadda yadda yadda... excuses. 

So with all that rambling you can see where my head is right now, swimming in BS.  I could go on and on and on but I will spare you that internal talk that I am having with myself right now.  At least the work is done and now I have two weeks to get my head straight, come up with a pacing/fueling plan, and maybe not feel so lethargic every time I run or workout.  Hopefully I will turn the corner this week sometime. At least I am really looking forward to the trip and seeing my college roommate Shawn and his family.  No matter what happens on race day it is going to be a fun and exciting weekend.

That is it for now, at least until I come up with my strategy.  Then I will be back.  Until then, as Donald always says, Peace!

March Check In

Not quite the month I was shooting for leading up to Boston but I will take it.  I was hoping to be more in the range of 340ish miles instead rolled in at just under 300.  There was 4 complete days off from running that were not planned and a few days where I shortened the run that I felt that I needed to otherwise I would have easily been over 340.  Oh well, better to come out with a little less mileage uninjured instead of hurt which I was flirting with a few times.  I had a 3 scares this month, a shoulder from a hard fall at the Salida Marathon, lower back from deadlifting, and currently struggling with either a bruised heel or plantar (can't tell which it is).  Also been struggling with energy levels and motivation in general.  So this has made me become a lot more conservative over the past month than I would have liked.  Think it is good that the taper is almost here.

One thing I was thinking about was even with my lack of doing vertical and trail running the past few months I was able to have what I thought was a very successful race at the Salida Marathon which is a trail race with almost 4000ft of climb and mostly single track.  Maybe just doing quality running and not just putting in the miles on the trail is the way to go.  This will require a little bit of a shift in my thinking after Boston as I try and figure out the best way to get ready for Bighorn 100 in June.  Do I keep up with the quality runs?  Scrap the quality and just focus on vertical and trails?  Do a mixture of both?  Lots to think about, one thing for sure, the bike has to come back into the mix more.  Lucho has my saddle right now doing some custom leather work on it so I am excited to see what the final product is and get that back.

Oh got this in the mail this past week also.  Maybe he is not such a douche after all.  Thanks bud.

Salida Marathon

Awesome day!!  First time running this one and I plan on going back.  Great course with lots of fun single track and great company.  I can't believe that this race has been on the to do list for so many years and I am just now getting it done. 

The plan was just to use it as an easy long run in my Boston plan but ended up running it more like a tempo, not the smartest plan but hopefully I get a small fitness bump from it.  End up 11th overall and 4th in the age group which is not correct, should have been lower but in the overall picture of things it does not matter.  Talking to Nick Clark after the race he stated this course runs 15 minutes slower than the old course so that is promising.  Strava data.

One month to Boston.  Spent this week doing all easy runs to recover from this race then it is back into full swing training for a few more weeks until the taper.

February Check In

Quick check in and thoughts on February's numbers.  First the numbers.

 
As I have said in the past, the first 4 months of 2016 is all about getting ready for my first Boston in April and actually following a hard marathon program with the thought riding that fitness for the rest of summer.  I have been using a plan from a Brad Hudson book making modifications to it based on how I feel day to day and input from the GOMs.  Seems to be working so far.  Solid month even though I felt like crap through most of it.  Funny how hard training works.  The harder I train the worse I feel but the faster I get.  Where is that point of no return?  Even though I feel like I am starting to slide backwards, on my Sunday long run this past weekend with BTC while feeling low energy I ended up having a half marathon PR in the last 13 miles of a 18 mile run.  That was not planned, not even a little.  I am a little confused on where to go from here.  Even though I have been feeling like I have been sliding backwards since Redhot 33K a few weeks ago, I keep putting up stronger numbers while feeling low energy and like shit in general, almost to the point of not wanting to do anything but lay around the house.  Am I dancing with the line to much?  Do I keep with the plan and see where it goes?  I want to push this as far as my ability will let me but at the same time I don't want to "run" my Boston in a training run.  Lots to ponder for the next 4-5 weeks before the taper. Also signed up  Salida Marathon on March 12th and that should be interesting also.  I have been racking my brain trying to decide how to approach that race and not ruin Boston.  More to come on that.  Had some input today from a few sources and still pondering that.

On a different note, actually got out and did something fun that was not running or racing related thanks to tickets from my work Medtronic.  Awesome seats and company that joined me, nine rows up from the floor at half court.  We spent half of the game trying to figure out how tall the female ref was.  Of course the Nuggets lost again which would explain why the Pepsi Center was only half full but at least they sell Dale's Pale Ale on tab there now so all was fine.

Fan winning the halftime slam dunk contest.

Moab Redhot Weekend

What a fun and great weekend!  I needed that get away.  Was going to type up long race report but just can't find the motivation and/or time to do so.  So instead here are a bunch of photos to tell the story.  By the way, it was colder in Moab all weekend than it was in Denver/Boulder.  Pondering another trip out there to put in a hard training weekend in the next 6 weeks.

Pre race shake out around the rental house after a drive the to Moab on Friday.

You can say I had an OK race that day.  One take away was that all the road miles did not hurt me in a trail race like I thought it would.  To have the turn over to throw down the last 5 miles played a huge part in being able to pull away from a pack that I was running/navigating with.

Rebecca finishing up her 34 mile run through the desert.

Bike ride in Arches National Park on Sunday before the 7-8 hour drive home where we would be sitting on Vail pass while the open and close it due to snow.

How I spend my evenings now.

Had a couple of thoughts I wanted to put down just because.  Sitting here going through another webinar and I realized how this is pretty much how I spend every evening now.  Man things have changed over the past 3 months.  Before it was coming home, dinner, then either Braden's hockey or just watching TV in the evenings.

Now it is getting home, walking the dogs, weights or trainer ride for an hour, dinner, then either reading or studying something until 7pm, then work until 8ish and finally off to read for enjoyment until I fall asleep.  Boring to some I am sure but I am thriving right now in this routine.   I even cancelled cable so if I want to watch TV it is either local channels, Netflix, or Amazon Prime.  If you know me well you know that was a hard step for me to take.  I have always been a TV addict.

Tonight's study was a live on-line webinar on how to design your own strength programs following the Mountain Athlete protocol, which I really dig and have been doing for a while now in the garage gym I have put together.  Pondering making a trip up to Jackson Hole sometime to train there for a couple of days just for shits and grins.

Bunch of screenshots from from the webinar.

Solid 2016 Kick Off

Looking at the total hours this month makes me almost wish I was training for Leadman again.

Solid month to kick off the year, even though I did brake the rules on introducing more than one new stress to training at a time.  Not only did I jump up the volume this month a bunch but also added a lot of quality workouts both with the GOMs and within the long runs with the Boulder Track Club.  If I can hold this together for the next 10 weeks, the Boston Marathon looks to be very promising.  Here is an example of one of the workouts I did with the GOMs this week https://www.strava.com/activities/479092669 and one that I did today with BTC https://www.strava.com/activities/482969817.  Lots of good work happening as long as I can stay injury free and hold it together.  Looking at the graph below I noticed that it has been a while since I have taken a day off from running so I think tomorrow (Monday) will be that day with all the snow we are supposed to get in the next 48 hours.  But then again if we get enough maybe I will dig out the racing snowshoes I have and take them out for a spin tomorrow night, it has been a few years since they have been used.

I have not talked about this on here at all or with friends much but I have also done a diet challenge through my gym this month just to see what happens.  I mean we are all an experiment of one right?  Basically I did Whole 30 all month which is Paleo with fruit and potatoes allowed, basically no processed food or added sugar.  It went very well.  The only complaint is the amount of food one has to eat to get enough calories when you are only eating whole foods and doing all this endurance work.  At times it felt like all I was doing was eating or pooping, lots of fiber that is for sure.

When I started the challenge I did underwater body fat % measure on Jan 2nd and then did it again yesterday on Jan 30th to truly measure any progress or lack of.  Here is my results for both times.

I went from 9.9% body fat at 165lbs to 8.3% bodyfat at 162.6 pounds losing 3 pounds of fat and gaining 1 pound of muscle.  The fact that I gained muscle and not lose muscle shocked me.  I thought for sure with all the cardio I would lose muscle but most likely the 15 hours in the weight room this month and the high protein prevented that from happening.  I did focus on making sure I ate at least my body weight in grams of protein everyday which I am sure made the difference.  I was going to add a selfie mirror shot but realized I am not a 20 year old dude showing off on Facebook, so no.  But I will say that I have never been this lean or have had abs like this.  Fun experiment...

Not sure where it will go from here.  There is no way I am going to stay this strict with my diet moving forward but think I can find a good balance.  Still pondering that and thinking over a few ideas.

Anyways on wards and upwards.   Here are some photos from the month and yes I had to include another baby photo of my sister's family and the new nephew that was born this month.  Have a great Feb everyone!

About how I feel tonight.

Why The Hell Not?

Two in one year?  Well this will be a first for me.

Welcome to the World Caleb Nolan!

Been sitting on this post since last night, oh the horror!  See, not everything on here is running or cycling related although close since I don't share a lot of my personal/family life on here.  Anyways....

Great news last night!  My 3rd nephew was born, Caleb Nolan Schmitt.  Now I have 3 nephews and 1 niece to spoil!

Caleb Nolan
Born 8:21pm
9 lbs 1 oz
22 in