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.....

April 6th- April 12th

"Unfortunately, many people do not consider fun an important item on their daily agenda.  For me, that was always a high priority in whatever I was doing." -Chuck Yeager

"Trying to be happy is like trying to fall asleep. Forcing it prevents it." - Mark Manson

Seemed like a 2 quote week this week for no real reason... 

Monday:

11 AM: 8.4 miles averaging 7:20pace.  Easy cruise from work heading out around Sterns Lake and back on Rock Creek and neighborhood paths. Started out super chill as my right knee is grumpy today but naturally got quicker as things warmed and loosed up. Can tell that the miles are piling up over the past few weeks.

5 PM: 50mins VASA Lift with Paula-  Lower body

Tuesday:  

2:30 PM:  Got sucked into work a little to much today and just could not get out the door today.  Just did not have that mental toughness today I guess and honestly feeling a little beat up as well.  Been about 45 days or so since I took a day off running so figured this was my body telling me it was time for a day off.  Of course I felt super guilty about it.

Wednesday:

9 AM:  10.8 miles averaging 7:50pace.  Done over at Davidson Mesa. Was going to use my 1000m loop by work but needed a bathroom close by just in case, stomach was not happy this morning. Anyways, went well until the wind kicked up on the Mesa and the last few reps into the wind were much slower at a much higher HR and effort. All good though. I programmed the workout into my watch so the overall time includes all the standing around rest between intervals. Without the rest being counted the average pace was 6:24.  Workout was: 

20 min warm up

8x1k at half marathon effort with 90-120 sec rest between each

20 min cool down

3:30 PM:  7.1 miles w/ 650ft of vert averaging 7:15pace.  Second run of the day starting from the Louisville Community Park. Was supposed to run with Taylor but he forgot and left a little bit before I got there. Was not sure which way he went on Coal Creek so I choose a direction and was the wrong one. Oh well... 8x45sec hill strides in the middle of this run as well.

Spent 45mins in the airboots tonight as well to see if that helps with recovery from all the miles today.

--  Finished book number 10 on the year tonight..  14 to go for 2026...

Thursday:  

6 AM:  10.4 miles averaging 7:15pace.  Sunrise miles over at Davidson Mesa with 4x30sec strides in the middle of the run.  Had to get this done early so that I was not stressing out all day about when I can break away from a busy work meeting day.  I actually love running early before work, just haven't been lately due to the cold and wanting to run in the sun.

5 PM: Lifting 50mins- VASA Lift class- Upper body, lots and lots of strict pullups tonight.

Friday:

9 AM:  11 miles w/ 1800ft of vert averaging 8:45 pace.  Easy cruise around Springbrook via Dowdy Draw trailhead with Taylor then after dropping him off at the trailhead went across the road and did my favorite short loop over there of Mesa/Homestead/Shadow/Bluebell/Mesa... love this loop and it has been to long. What I get for doing 2 training blocks in a row for road marathons, not enough time for trails as well. Anyways felt good today and focused on just keeping it chill. To the point that I made myself walk a few of the steeper sections to keep it easy and the heart rate down.

Saturday: 

9 AM:  8.5 miles w/ 1600ft of vert averaging 9:30pace.  Cruise from Wonderland Lake in Boulder up the goat trail to the east ridge leading to Mount Sanitas summit. Then down Lions Lair and back to Wonderland Lake via 4th Street. Really like this loop I made up on the fly a lot. Ran from there today because I came with Paula to run while she was doing an orienteering meet at Wonderland Lake.  Ran into a lot of people I know, Eric, Kylo, Fred, Jon, and another Eric.  We had a great day goofing around today and eating all the treats from Lucky's Bakery.

-- Dog walk with Venus in the afternoon.- 2 miles.

Sunday:  

-- 2.3 mile warmup before the half marathon below and 2.7 mile cooldown afterwards. 5 miles.. 

8 AM: 13.2 miles w/ 600ft of vert averaging 6:03 pace for 1:19:52.  Prairie Dog Half Marathon in Arvada. Started out really strong the first 6 or so miles but then lost first when the course people sent me the wrong way for about 100ft at a 3 way intersection while they sent 2nd place the right direction and I just let it go after that. Had one mile of self pity and convinced myself I would just jog it in but then about a mile later I got over it and finished it out strong. Missed a PR by 30secs or so and would have had it without that mix up, my stupid mind games and if the course was not long. All good though, and a great training day.  2nd overall and 18 plus miles on the day.

Also got this in the mail on Saturday and finally set it up this afternoon.  I won a one month free rental at a Hardrock raffle last year and noticed it was about to expire so I pulled the trigger on it.  Figured more red blood cells for South Africa could not hurt.  More to come on this as I experiment with it.  Open to suggestions and tips if you have played around with one of these before as well.  I started out setting it 11,000ft  but after a few hours of reading in bed I turned it down to 8,000ft.   When it was set at 11,000ft my heartrate just laying there was 85 and I could not fall asleep, once I turned it down my heartrate dropped to 50ish.  CRAZY...  Of course as I type this on Monday morning I still have a little bit of a headache, wondering if it is from this or not the best sleep due to not being used to being in a head tent.   I usually don't have issues sleeping at 11,000ft so it also makes me wonder if in reality I was at a much higher elevation in there than 11,000, had the same thought for the 8,000ft setting.  Going to have to also watch how I am recovering from my training, I want this to help me and not hurt the recovery in this build.

Total Weekly Numbers

Not a bad training week considering I took Tuesday off completely.  That trail time on Friday and Saturday were much needed, getting tired of the marathon training blocks I have been putting myself through, only about 4 weeks left before the taper.  Have another half marathon this coming weekend in Fort Collins on the 19th called Horsetooth Half which I am really excited to run again.  Last time I ran the Horsetooth Half was in 2005 and it was my first half marathon ever and I finished in 1:51:25. I would have been 30 years old and just getting into running.  I think I can beat that now.  LOL...

March 30th- April 5th

"How many times have you noticed that it's the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?" -Mister Rogers

Came across this during the week from Mark Manson... Good food for thought.

Scarcity dictates what’s meaningful.

When you are alone, a relationship feels meaningful.
When you’re in a relationship, time to yourself feels meaningful.

When you are overworked, time off feels meaningful.
When you have plenty of downtime, work feels meaningful.

The scarcity never gets solved, it simply changes form.

Monday:

9:30 AM: 12.4 miles averaging 7:35pace.  Easy miles around Davidson Mesa yet again. Realized yesterday that I lost my local legend which does not surprise me since I have been running more by work lately. I did enough loops yesterday to tie it then the dude went out and then he added 7 more loops to get ahead again. Think he just declared war. Added 4 more laps today, going to focus over there for a few weeks and see what happens.  I find it somewhat entertaining.  Also coming up to 1000 clock wise loops of Davidson according to Strava as well.  Sitting at 976 laps after today.

2 PM: 50mins lifting weights between meetings- leg focus but super light, legs are trashed today for some reason.

-- Another postcard in the mail... board is filling up faster this year than previous years it seems.

Tuesday:  

9 AM:  10.1 miles w/ 600ft of vert averaging 7:20pace.  Easy cruise from the house up to HWY 128 then back a different way. 4x30sec pickup through out the run, did most of them down the hill to really work on turn over getting under 5min pace on a couple of them. Overall feel okay even though the legs are a little sore but they are better than yesterday so that is good.

--20min hot tub in the afternoon

-- Had a surprise visitor last night and today.... always good to see Dad and Sherryl. 

Wednesday: 

9:30 AM:  10.6 miles averaging 6:40 pace.  Over at Davidson Mesa yet again. Took back the clock-wise Local Legend as well during this run, let see if the dude goes to take it back, I only took it by one just to tempt him. HAAA... Anyways, not a bad run but not the best. Stomach was a mess from eating out big dinners the last 2 nights with my dad being in town which is why I went to Davidson Mesa, bathroom every lap if needed.  Basically bounced between 5:40 and 6:15ish after warming into it the first few reps. I actually enjoyed this format a lot.

20 min warm up

10x30 seconds fast/2:30 moderate (think 5k effort on fast and marathon effort on moderate)

20 min cool down

5 PM:  50mins VASA Lift class with Paula- full body again today but different lifts.

Thursday:  

 9 AM: 11.6 miles w/ 600ft of vert averaging 7:30pace.  Easy big loop from work between meetings this morning. High gravity day today, felt slow and sore but the average pace was what is expected, all part of the process. Plan on hitting the hot tub when I get home from work later this afternoon so see if that will help bring the legs around some.  I have also been eating like shit all week so cleaning that up some should help as well.

--  Finally got my hands on the Puma R3 Elites which has been a challenge to find in my size.  Grabbed this shoe because everyone says it is a 3% increase in speed over other supershoes which if it is true is bonkers.  Now I have 2 pairs to choose from for Cape Town, Puma R3 Elites and the ASICS MetaSpeed.  The hard part is to figure out which one will help me get the best time possible.  I did start with weighing them both below, I was expecting the R3 to be lighter but I was wrong as you can see.  Will try one of them on Saturday's workout, just have to decide which one to try first.

Friday:

 -NOTE:  Weight check in:  167.6 lbs at 8% bodyfat.  Not surprised I gained a little with all the eating out and crap I have been eating earlier this week.  Time to get back into the routine again.  Have to quit the before bed snacking I have been doing so much of lately.

9 AM:  8.6 miles w/ 500ft of vert averaging 7:20pace.  Easy cruise from work with Taylor who joined me for the first 45mins then finished out the hour solo adding in a bunch of 20sec pickups. Never seen sub 5min pace on the pickups before so that was cool to see on the watch.

Saturday: 

8 AM:  18 miles w/ 500ft averaging 6:40pace. Done in the Colorado Tech Center by work because there is no traffic over there on the weekends and easy to make loops to keep my bottle in the van to refuel through out the run without having to carry anything.  Took in a 30g gel and a 40g gel along with one bottle of Precision w/ 45g in it for a total of 115g of carbs in 2 hours. Need to work on getting more in I think.

Workout was:

3-4 miles easy

10 miles of 1 mile at marathon effort /1 mile at 50k or a lil slower effort

3-4 miles easy

Ran the warmup and the 10miles of in/outs in the Puma R3 Elite (photo w/ 6.5oz shoe above), hell of a shoe.  At what I consider my marathon effort I was about 15sec faster per mile than in the ASICS MetaSky Paris that I ran CIM in last December.  I still want to try the other ASICS shoe (MetaSpeed) I have just to compare sometime in the next week or two but think I found my shoe in the R3's.  Did take them off and change into the Mount to Coast H1 for the 4 mile cooldown and felt like I suddenly got a flat tire.  LOL... such a drastic difference. 

Rolled over 1000 miles in 2026 already, fastest I have gotten to that milestone I believe and got another postcard in the mail, JT is on a roll lately.

Sunday:  

8 AM: 12.6 miles w/ 1000ft of vert averaging 7:13 pace.  Joined the Boulder Track Club today for the first time in a while. Training just has not be meshing well with what they have been doing. Wore the new RX;LDVL since they were doing a trail run through Marshall Mesa/Dowdy Draw/Mesa trails looping back. LOVE this shoe. I trained and ran Western States last year in the prototype and it is really cool to see it now hitting the market. Ran much quicker than planning today and felt really good considering the workout I did yesterday.

-- Right after I got home Paula and headed over to get some photos in the new RX:LDVL's for a post on Instagram for Speedland.  You can find that here but below are a few of the shots she took.

1 PM: Biked 17.6 miles w/ 1100ft of vert..  Easy MTB around Rocky Flats and Stanley Lake from the house with Paula.  Much needed date to spend some time together doing something fun and active.  As you can tell from the photo below she hates trying to keep up with me on the hills.  HAAA....  First time I have been on my bikes in 2026, so sad...  20mins in the hot tub afterwards as well.

Total Weekly Numbers

Another solid week laid down in the buildup.... 6 weeks to Cape Town so shit is getting real and I can definitely feel the fatigue starting to build somewhat but I have also noticed that my recovery from the hard days aren't as taxing as they were last month.  Means fitness is building....  Going to throw my hat into a local half marathon next Sunday just to see where I am at, of course I am not tapering so I will be going into it fairly fatigued, so the time I do will be what it is and I shouldn't really draw a lot of conclusions from it but my brain will try too.  

March Recap

  "You can't just keep doing what works one time, everything around you is changing.  To succeed, stay out in front of change." - Sam Walton

Little bit different approach in the build up to this next marathon at the end of May.  More miles and marathon pace work than I have done in the past but still trying to keep some trail running and vertical in there so when I switch to training for Hardrock at the beginning of June my body is not totally shocked and sore from the hills.  Anyway a very solid month this month... just need to keep this rolling!  At almost 1000 miles on the year already, I will roll over that milestone later this week.

My Girls

March 23rd- March 29th

"A good friend is like a four-leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have." - Irish Proverb

-- Lucky to have the friend group that I have.... will always cherish you all.  You all know who you are.  

Monday:

11 AM: 8.7 miles w/ 400ft of vert averaging 7:30pace.  Easy cruise from work around Link Lake and back. This is becoming my normal hour'ish run from work and also really the only way to get some hills around work too.  Legs little tired from the hills this weekend but otherwise good.

5 PM: 55mins VASA Lift with Paula this evening with a leg focus..  lot of RDL's

Tuesday:  

Finally had time early this morning before work to look through all the Salida Marathon photos from 2 weeks ago.  Looks like I am barely running but still ran the best time I have there... 

11:30 AM:  7.8 miles averaging 7:40pace. Super chill jog from work over the lunch hour. Legs are trash today, probably a combo of all the vert from the weekend and lifting yesterday. Hopefully they will come around for tomorrow's hard run.

-- Had me an visitor outside my office window at work today.

Wednesday:

--  This was in my inbox this morning... only 60 days to go... fuck I feel like I am not even close to be ready.

10:30 AM:  14 miles averaging 6:45pace.  Workout Wednesday done over at Davidson Mesa over the lunch hour.

20 min warm up

15k at marathon pace working down to finishing the last 4-5k at half marathon pace

20 min cool down

One of the worse workouts I have done in a while. Just could not keep pace and the HR was super high for the pace I was going. Also stopped a lot when the HR got to high to let it come down. Did not realize it was over 80 degrees until after I was done so guessing that was a huge part of my problem plus the wind coming from the west. Paces where so much slower heading towards the hills (west) into the wind (constant 10mph with 20mph gust). Basically the Inner Bitch won today... nothing else to say.

5 PM:  50mins VASA Lift with Paula... upper body today.

Thursday:  

  -NOTE:  Weight check in:  166.6lbs w/ 8% bodyfat... gained a little bit but not surprised since my miles were down a little bit last week while also eating like an asshole for 4 days while in San Fran.  Still right were I want to be, around 165...

9:30 AM:  9.8 miles averaging 7:35pace.  Easy cruise from work mid morning before it got to hot out again. Learned my lesson yesterday, it was still 70 degrees out when I got done which is way better than over 80 that it was yesterday. Legs are pretty shot today but whatever, onwards.....  20mins in the hot tub in the afternoon when I got home from work.

--  This evening a bunch of us went to "The Cutoff" down in Denver. Soooo good!!!!  I just love that they are making a movie about the back of the pack instead of all the elite front runners.  These people are the true heartbeat of the sport.  

Friday:

7 AM:  Treadmill 5.2 miles averaging 7:15pace.  Metabolic testing to see my resting calorie burn and also what my burn rate is at different running paces. We started at 7.5mph (8min pace) and worked down to marathon pace which was 10mph (6 min pace).  Spent 4mins at every 0.5mph increase for measurements.  This test breaks down the burn into how much fat verses carbs you are burning as well at each pace to see where that crossover is. I don't have the results yet but did see some raw data. It was interesting because I crossover at an easy pace but my fat burn rate stays about the same no matter how fast I am going, I am an even fat burner at about 50% all the time verses those who end up dropping to 10% fat/ 90% carbs. That somewhat explains why I don't need as many gels and carbs during a marathon.  More to come on this once I get the results back next week.  If  you are interested in this let me know and I will pass on the information to Dina.

10 AM:  6.5miles w/ 1300ft of vert averaging 8:45pace.  Lap of Flagstaff from Chapman shortly after the metabolic testing this morning. Took the whole day off just to burn some vacation time since I have to much right now. Testing of the new Nike ACG Ultraflys, these shoes are awesome.... Not sure they will be a Hardrock shoe but about any other 100 miler they would be at the top of the list.

5 PM: 50mins VASA Lift with Paula... today was full body.  Pretty active day today, tired tonight.

Saturday: 

7 AM:  10 miles w/ 2100ft of vert averaging 9min pace.  Some miles over at White Ranch solo while Paula was running with her friends. Been a bit since I have been over here and always forget how nice the trails are here once you get up the hill a little bit. The first - to 2 miles are not that great but everything on top is fantastic! Took the new Ultraflys out again and they were awesome, maybe they might be a Hardrock shoe after all, more testing to be done.  Went for a treat after the run and  finally found the best cinnamon roll in Denver  after years of searching, Mr. Biscuits in Wheatridge.

Sunday:  

7:30 AM: 20.2miles averaging 7:15 pace. Laps at Davidson Mesa to make fueling easy and Taylor joined me for the first lap. Legs were tired today from the past 2 days of trail running and vert, well that is why I think they were tired. Just cruised and worked on fueling for the most part keeping a bottle and gels at the trailhead for each lap, 2 bottles of 45g of carbs each, 1 Beta Fuel, and 1 Precision for a total of 160g of carbs. Then 60g carbs and 20g protein drink right when I got done. Little bit of a gut training day. Pretty tired after this one but not wasted.

-- Speaking of shoes, I came across these in my size at Boulder Sports Recycle this afternoon for $55 a pair and they are all brand new.  More new shoes in the stable.  HAAAA!!  I will have to put up a photo of all the running shoes I have, it is somewhat silly.

Total Weekly Numbers

Finally an awesome week of training in the bank.  Little tired and sore this Monday morning as I am typing this but that is just part of the process.  Have another 90min jog on tap this morning.  Building is going well right now, tired but well so just rolling with it. Don't have any other travel plans on the schedule for the next 6 weeks so it is time to buckle down and get as fit as possible.  LFG! 

Food for thought I came across this week..

ONE THING FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT

Your life simply reflects what you’ve prioritized.

What you've achieved tells you what you were willing to suffer for.

What you failed at tells you the opposite.