Cheyenne Mountain 25k

Got out for my first longer race of the year.  It was great to seem to be making a come back from the shitty March that I had.  My plan was to just roll with how ever I was feeling.  Ran every step of this race and only stopped at the halfway aid station to refill my handheld.  I was a little depleted at the end but worked out good.  I think the 25k may become a yearly race.  It was a blast to run some trails that were new to me and not take a single step on mud or snow.

Map and Elevation Profile

Post race beers of course.

Double Boulder Skyline Traverse

Got out for a great run with Basit on Saturday.  Now this was not a true Skyline Traverse because South Boulder Peak is still closed but good enough to count as one of the 20 milers I wanted for this month.  With the snow/mud/ice out there it took way longer than expected so I bailed on the second trip up Mount Sanitas so the dogs would not shit all over the house.  I still got in 22 plus miles and almost 8k of climbing so still a great day on the trail with a very entertaining running partner.

Map

Elevation Profile

Basit flying down Green, must have been the shoes, the new Saloman Ultras.  Think I need a pair.

Me slowly picking my way down pussy footing it.

Mount Sanitas Madness

My buddy Fred is out on Mount Sanitas in Boulder doing 48 hour of Sanitas with the loose goal of doing 30 laps or just over 100 miles with a shit ton of climbing.  I had one vacation day that I had to use or lose by the 19th of this month so I took the day off to go play on the some trails.

We started about 8:10 am and just hiked along.  The first two laps the 3 of us stayed together telling stories and enjoying such a beautiful  spring day.  After those first two laps we all kind of spread out and went at our own paces.  Ashley even came out about noon and did a lap with me.  Love it.

In case you are not familiar with Mount Sanitas you can look at the info here and here.

I tapped out after crossing over the 20 mile mark.  It has been months since I have hit 20 in a run and I want to be careful with how quick I build up.  Keeping going to 30 or 40 would not be smart considering what I just did and still am over coming.  You can read about that here if you don't know to what I am talking about.

I ended the day with 20.8 miles and 8500ft of gain.  Not a bad way to spend a Friday.

Love this elevation profile.

Little trashed but not to bad, especially after spending the evening drinking beers at BJs, that always helps.  Tomorrow will be an easy flat 5 miles to recover and Sunday morning is back to Green Mountain.

If your bored Fred should still be out there and would love the company, especially at night.

Update 9:10pm--- Text from Fred "Dude I developed a serious case of the fuck-its and bailed.  I am at home eating ice cream."  LOL.

Another Failed Month

I am not sure what the HELL is going on this year.  It is just one thing after another.  January was a kick ass month and I have been on a downward spiral since.  February was a disaster which you can read about here and here.

I set some goals for March thinking that it would help me get back on track only to fail at 3 out of 4 of them.  They were:

1.  Get back to normal training with a goal of ~250 miles and ~40K of vertical this month. -- Came close considering how many days I took off.  Just under 32K.

2.  Hit the weight room at least 2 times a week.-- FAIL

3. Do one 14er.-- FAIL

4.  Do at least one shorter race (5K or so) to get a measurement of fitness. -- Complete! RMRR 5K.

Anyways here are the numbers for March (click on the photo to enlarge):

As you can see I missed 9 days last month with 8 of them being in a row and the 31st due to Easter (family day).

What happened???
Low Pressure Headaches that made it so I could not even get out of bed without puking and falling over.   I could not even go to my desk job.

What is a Low Pressure Headache?
I just tell people my brain was leaking but really it is,  "Low CSF Pressure Headache is caused by an internal spinal fluid leak and may range from obvious and disabling to subtle and nagging. The brain normally sits inside a “bag” filled with spinal fluid which extends down from the skull into the spine. The “bag” consists of membranes called the meninges (as in meningitis). The fluid helps to circulate waste products out of the brain and provides cushioning and support. When the pressure of this fluid is too low – typically when there is a small leak somewhere in the meninges – the brain may “sag” downward when the patient is upright, stretching the meninges and nerves lining the brain and causing pain."

So moving forward for April I need to re-look at what my approach has been this year.  I started the year with the thought that I was going to add Crossfit into my running thinking that the added strength would do me good not just in the longer races/runs but in life in general.  I think this was just to much to recover from day to day with all the high intensity weight lifting plus running plus all the life stress in general which is why my body has been breaking down so much the past 2 months.  I really really did enjoy the Crossfit workouts and what not but they did take their toll.  My experiment has failed so it is time for a new approach.  With that said I cancelled my membership to the Crossfit gym as of the 1st of April and decided to start lifting at the rec center solo where I can do the same type of workouts in a less intense and controlled environment.  I still my do a drop in class every now and again, especially when the workout has 400 or 800 runs in it.  So with that said here are my goals for April.  Pretty much the same as March to get going again.

1.  Get back to normal training with a goal of ~250 miles and ~40K of vertical this month.
2.  Hit the weight room at least 2 times a week.
3.  Do one 14er.
4.  Do at least one race of any distance.
5.  At least 2- 20 mile runs this month.
6.  2-3 weekly afternoon walk breaks at work. 1-3 miles each depending on my workload that day.

Here's a great article that I came across this morning about How Athletes Can Avoid Burnout.  How well timed was that article for me?

I am also pondering on going back to getting a coach again to reel me in a little or if I should just go back to the way I was training back in 2010.  Not sure what I want to do.

Here's to a better and healthier April!