October 20th- October 26th

"A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self." - Charles Dickens, "A Tale of Two Cities"

Seemed like the perfect quote for this week.  Spend the first half the week still watching Don's dogs and the back half of the week going to Phoenix to help Neal run the Javalina 100.  Will only be home on Wednesday which means over the last 3 weeks Paula and I will only see each other for about 3 days total between her travel and mine.  Sucks....  bad planning on our part.

Monday:

10:30 AM: 11.5 miles averaging 7:40pace.  Easy mid morning cruise between meetings on the Highline Canal trail from Don's house again. Nice out and back. Wind was nasty today and legs are pretty heavy as well. Basically 45mins out then ran back.  Ready to go home tomorrow afternoon.  I will only be home for about 36 hours before flying out to Phoenix Thursday morning but I am ready to be home.

4 PM: Was planning on lifting this afternoon in Don's garage gym but wasn't feeling it so just jumped into the sauna instead for 20mins.  These sauna sessions should pay off this weekend in Phoenix.

Tuesday:  

7 AM:  8 miles averaging 7:40pace.  Easy miles pre-work from Don's house on the Highline Canal yet again. Last run down south before heading back home this afternoon after a bunch of online job interviews. Super chill run and it was 31 degrees out this morning. Winter is coming.

-- Followed this up a few hours later with 20mins in the sauna.  

Finally back home for a day and half...  Missed this girl and of course Paula too.  

Wednesday:

6:45 AM:  9.2 miles averaging 6:55pace.  

20 min warm up

6x3 min fast/1 min easy think half marathon working down to 10k effort on these.

20 min cool down

Felt better than I was expecting. Might have pushed a little bit to hard on some of these for after the 5th interval I stopped for a few seconds dry heaving. LOL.... Been a long week and ready to head to the desert early tomorrow morning.  

  

Thursday:  

-- super early flight to Phoenix this morning.  Got up at 2:30am so we could leave by 3:30am to make it in time to the airport.  Normally I don't go 2 hours early for early flights but glad I did today, security was really slow this morning, not well staffed.  Guessing that is due to the government shutdown.

Noon:  9.75 miles w/ 900ft of vert averaging 8min pace.  Easy jog in the mid day heat on the Javalina course. Small loop from the Pemberton trail going over to the Four Stage area and back. Struggled a little bit with the heat even though I did some heat training but was fine. Going to be a fun weekend!

Friday:

9 AM:  4.5 miles averaging 10min pace.  Hoka Javalina shakeout run from the start/finish line. Ran the loop with the Deathmarch crew. Good times!  There was about 500-600 people there this morning.

Saturday: 

11 PM:  19.1 miles w/ 1200ft of vert averaging 18:30pace.  Pacing Neal one lap at Javalina 100... he got it done! We had a lot of issue for him to work through during the night and the next morning. I will leave those stories for him to tell since they are not mine to tell but he did learn something about himself, at least I hope he did.

Sunday:  

Rest day for the most part since I was up all night either pacing or crewing.  Neal did not get done until around 10:30am this morning and it was a few hours after that before we got back to the house.  Rest of the day was wasted laying around trying to stay awake so I could sleep some tonight before heading to the airport super early tomorrow morning to fly home.  

Total Weekly Numbers

The week started out great but fell off quickly with the lack of sleep from Wednesday night onward.... I don't think I got more than 4 hours a night from Wednesday night until I got home on Monday night.  I was also supposed to do 2 laps with Neal on Saturday night but only did 1 lap so I was short 19 miles this week, but that is okay since it would have been mostly 19 miles of walking with some short jogs in there.  I have 5 more hard weeks of training for CIM marathon before the taper.  To be honest I don't feel like I am even close to being in the shape I need to be in to hit my A goal of sub- 2:44 but will go out there anyways and give it a shot.  Could be a huge disaster but that is part of the fun of this sport.

October 13th- October 19th

 "Three secrets to success: Be willing to learn new things. Be able to assimilate new information quickly. Be able to get along with and work with other people." - Sally Ride

Monday:

7 AM:  9.4 miles averaging 7:25 pace.  Easy Monday morning mileage over at Davidson Mesa again before work. Had to force this one somewhat, hard to get out the door this morning. Never looked at my watch at all under all the long sleeves, just ran by RPE today.

10 AM:  1 hour at Koda this morning.

A) Every 3:00 for 5 Sets
2.2 Front Squats 115-135lbs
7 DB Z Press - 30lbs

B) Every 2min for 10 Sets
E: 16 Alt DB Lunges 30lbs
O: 15 Dips

C) 5min AMRAP
3 Pushups
3 Banded Tricep Extensios
3 Squat Jumps
(+3/Rnd)
-- made it through the round of 15reps each

--  Got home to finish the day at home working and took Venus out for another 2 mile walk.  Paula finally gets home tonight so that will be the end of the walks for a little bit.  Heading to watch Don's dogs and house on Wednesday through next Tuesday in South Denver while he is overseas racing Worlds 24 Hour.  

Tuesday:  

9:30 AM:  9.25 miles averaging 7:14 pace.  Big loop from work between meetings this morning. Had plans to do it before work but woke up coughing and sneezing really bad so put it off until the head cleared up some. Body is still feeling good but the cold just keeps hanging on.  

-- Looks like I sold my Gen2 Starlink on Facebook market place so a big upgrade for the van with a Starlink Mini coming soon.  Hopefully they show up tonight to pay and grab it.

Wednesday:

6:30 AM:  10.4 miles averaging 6:50pace.  

20 min warm up

3 sets of 3/2/1 min fast/1 min easy at 5k effort with equal recovery between each rep. Then 3 min jog between each set.

20 min cool down

First set my legs did not want to turn over very quickly but got better the second and third set. Little dry heaving might have been involved, been a bit since I have gotten the HR that high (over 165). Did use 2 gels and a bottle of Skratch this morning just to make sure I did this with fuel. Legs are good and cold was better this morning, more than it has been anyways.

 ---  Headed down to Don's this afternoon where I will be house/dog sitting until next Tuesday afternoon.  Here are the 2 babies I am caring for.

Thursday:  

10 AM:  11.6 miles averaging 7:25pace.  Easy run from Don's house on the Highline Canal trail behind his house. Out and back going out to University and back. Felt super chill for the most part. Tomorrow I will go in the other direction to see what is that way.  Head cold was much better this morning than it has been, but it is still there for the first hour to two in a major way then I am good the rest of the day.  I was thinking of doing a 5 or 10 mile race on Saturday but going to go join Neal who I am pacing at Javalina next weekend for his last longer run at Waterton Canyon instead.

3 PM:  33mins Garage gym at Don's house, less choices of equipment here than at home.

Warmup- step ups for 3 mins plus mobility

30 pull-ups broken up as needed

3x10 barbell bent over rows @95lbs

3x10 dumbbell pull overs @35lbs

3 rounds
10 DB bicep curl @20lbs
10 DB hammer curls @20lbs

-- Followed this up with 20mins in his barrel sauna in the backyard.  Gotta get in some heat before going to the desert next weekend.

Friday:

-- Finished book 22 of the year this morning, American Kings. It is a new book that was just released about a month ago.  If you are a football fan this is a must read on how the quarterback became the most important position in sports.  Covers all levels from high school, college, and the NFL.  

10 AM:  8 miles averaging 7:25pace.  Easy run in the other direction on the Highline Canal trail from the house. I could run on this without getting to bored if I lived here. With all the people out there it reminds me of Davidson Mesa and people watching there.  Tomorrow we will go over to Waterton Canyon and run with Neal's group.  Neal is a buddy of mine I first meet when I started running over 20 years ago.  I am pacing him at Javalina next weekend so thought it would be good to touch base before the trip to Phoenix next weekend.

3 PM: 20 mins in the sauna again... 

Saturday: 

7:30 AM:  12.5 miles w/ 500ft of vert averaging 8:40pace.  Joined Neal and group over at Waterton Canyon for his last longer run before Javalina next weekend. Super chill and stayed mostly with him the whole time talking about next weekend. Windy cold morning this morning.  Came across about 20 wild turkeys, lots of Rams, and 2 bucks fighting locking horns.

Sunday:  

8 AM:  14.4 miles w/ 1100ft of vert averaging 7:35pace.  Back to Waterton again this morning to run it at my pace and to get in my 2ish hours. Went about a mile farther than yesterday up onto the single track of the Colorado Trail getting in a little bit of climbing as well. Was hard to get motivated today but once I got going all was good. Did pick up up the last 3ish miles to finish strong around 6:15-6:30 pace. 

Total Weekly Numbers

Solid week overall getting back to somewhat higher mileage with one workout in the middle of the week.  Been somewhat challenging this week being at Don's all week to get motivated, I don't do well when I am out of my normal routine when it comes to training.  Anyways, this next week is going to be worse, at Don's until late afternoon on Tuesday.  Then I am home one day on Wednesday which I have to be in the office, before flying out to Phoenix to pace at Javalina 100 super early on Thursday morning (5am flight) until Monday morning.  Going to be a busy/stressful damn week.

October 6th- October 12th

http://

"Confidence is the freedom to set your own standards and unshackle yourself from the need to prove yourself." -Ryan Holiday

-- This photo of Venus pretty much sums up how I have been feeling all week..... 

Monday:

Woke up feeling like I was run over by a truck while I was sleeping.  Took the day completely off from working out just to be on the safe side.  I think that it is from the drastic weather change last night plus a little touch of something.  Hope so and that I am not getting full blown sick.  Needed DayQuil to function normally today at work.  

Tuesday:  

9 AM:  5.1 miles averaging 8:20pace.  Easy cruise from work around the CTC. Shorter today for I still feeling the sickness that hit me yesterday. Better overall but needed to move some. Trying to build up some daily momentum again which is always easier said than done.

Wednesday:

10 AM:  5 miles averaging 7:15 pace.  Easy lap of Davidson plus a few extra to get my 5 miles today. Today things seem to be turning a corner. I ran at what felt like an easy pace but much quicker than yesterday. Hopefully we are coming back. Plan this week is 5-6 miles at an easy RPE this whole week.

2 PM:  Walk 1.6 miles with Venus in 25mins since Paula left today for Michigan until Monday.  She is going out there to pace her friend Erica at the Wolverine 100.  May have to put that one on the calendar in the next few years if Paula likes it.

3 PM:  30mins Garage gym session- Super light leg session for range of motion.

Warmup: Airbike, Crossover, and Mobility

Barbell Box Back Squat
10@ 135lbs
10@ 135lbs
10@135lbs
10@135lbs

Trap bar Deadlift
10@ 155lbs
10@ 155lbs
10@ 155lbs
10@ 155lbs

Single Leg Calf Raises
4x10 @ 25lbs each leg

Thursday:  

10 AM:  5 miles averaging 7:15pace.  Easy cruise at Davidson again. Body feels great but this head cold is getting worse, all in the sinuses. Came home from work so I don't get others sick.  Most likely will work from home tomorrow as well which I am sure Venus loves since Paula is out of town all weekend.

2 PM: Walk 1.5 miles in 25min followed by 20 mins in the hot tub.  Hoping that doing a bunch of heat exposure will help whatever this head cold is.  Tired of hacking shit up all week.

Friday:

8 AM:  5.6 miles w/ 400ft of vert averaging 7:15pace.  Out and back going west from the Coalton trailhead up the hill. Super chill effort wise but the body felt good this morning even though I was stuffed up from this head cold. Think I am finally getting into a groove and will start increasing the daily mileage again.

3 PM: Easy 2 mile walk with Venus followed by a 5K row in the garage gym.  Followed this all up with another 20mins in the hot tub.  Hoping that the hot tub will help get rid of this stupid cold and help get ready for the heat of pacing at Javalina in 3 weeks.

Saturday: 

8 AM:  8 miles w/ 400ft of vert averaging 7:20pace.  Easy cruise from Stern's Lake doing the 8 mile loop over to Link Lake and across the hwy and back. Good 8 mile loop both close to work and home. Super chill and was raining on and off during the run.

10 AM: Another 2 mile walk with Venus and 20mins of hot tub.

Sunday:  

7:30 AM: 12.3 miles w/ 900ft of vert averaging 7:35pace.  Sunday Long Run with the Boulder Track Club. Time to get back to these. Turned into sort of a progression run where the last few miles were faster than the beginning by quite a bit. Will miss next week since I will be house sitting in South Denver so made it a point to go today. Had plans to cut it short before the start but so glad that I did not, felt much better than I thought I would.

Noon: Another 2 mile walk with Venus and 20mins of hot tub.

Total Weekly Numbers

Not a bad week starting to get back to it after a recovery week.  Still battling this stupid head cold that will not go away.  The mornings are the worse for the first 2-3 hours that I am up.  Hopefully that goes away soon and we can get back to normal programming.  Sorry about all the weird links in this post, there is an automatic AI generated link button that I tried out for this post.  Not impressed, will not be doing it in the future.  Could not figure out how to reverse it back.

September 29th- October 5th

"The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you'll grow out of it." - Doris Day

Monday:

Another rest day today.  Might be a few of these this week and this could be some boring reading the rest of the week.  Did get in for a 90min massage this morning so that was much needed.  Ate all the foods I could today as well.  According to the tracker I only burned 18,000 calories on Saturday.

Got everything put away, laundry done, packed for work tomorrow, and even did some chores around the house like installing a new Nest in the house.

Tuesday:  

Rest day again... I had the plan to try and get out on the bike after work today but just did not happen.  Went home and chilled instead.  Did sneak out to the van over my lunch hour and take a nap.  LOL... that always helps.  

Wednesday:

11 AM:  1 hour at Koda

 

Every 90s for 10 Sets (5 of ea)
E: 3-5 Weighted Chinups
O: 10 Snatch Grip RDLs (35% DL)

B1) 3 Sets
15-30s Bent Arm Bar Hang +
10 Bent Over BB Rows

B2) 3x30/30 1LEG Banded
Hamstring Curls (Prone)

3x60s Chinese Plank

4 PM:  Gravel bike 10.4 miles w/ 500ft of vert in 44mins.  Easy cruise on the neighborhood loop making it a little bit shorter than I normally do. Felt good to get in some movement today.  Going to try and do this a few more times this week.  Missed my bikes.

Thursday:  

Rest day yet again... body wise I feel fine but energy wise I just don't have the energy or motivation to get back at it yet.  Guess this year is starting to pile on me a bit.  I had the whole week off on my plan so not concerned quite yet but I don't want these days off to become a habit.  Once you start doing that it gets harder and harder to get back to it with every passing day.  

Friday:

Happy Birthday to Don!!!  Welcome to the 40s!

7:45 AM:  1 hour at Koda

A) 4 Sets
10 Bent Over A-T-Ys
40s Conc Crunch w/Med Ball
10/10 Alt SA Russian KBS

B) 6x 2:30 ON, 2:30 OFF
400m Run, then
In time remaining
E: ME C2B Pullups
O: ME Line Facing Burpees

4 PM: Biked 11.5 miles w/ 500ft of vert in 54mins.  Easy ride around the hood on MTB with Paula. We wanted to go over to the new bridge over Indiana connecting Westminster Hills to Rocky Flats but even though the bridge is done they have it fenced off. Some kind of stand off between the Federal government at Rocky Flats and the local government of Westminster. Such bullshit...

---  Got this in the mail today as well.  Thanks JT!

Saturday: 

7 AM:  5.5 miles averaging 8min pace.  Easy run with Taylor and Veronica from Stern's lake trailhead. First real run back since last weekend. Rough but okay.... 

--- Spent all afternoon over at Koda Crossfit being a judge for the Koda Iron Games.  Doing shit like this really makes me want to go back to the gym.  

Sunday:  

8 AM: 10.1 miles averaging 8:30pace.  Easy cruise around Wash Park with Don and Darian. Worked out well because Don is tapering for 24 hour Worlds in France in a few weeks and this was my first real run back so easy pace was perfect.  Felt pretty good until mile 8ish then the legs got really heavy quickly. Also a bad choice on where to meet, the Hot Chocolate run was going on this morning so there was about 5,000 runners in the park. Little bit of a cluster fuck.

Total Weekly Numbers

Not a bad week back.  About the same amount of miles this week as did the week after my last 2 hundreds this year.  Super run down this Monday morning as I am typing this though.  Woke up with a sore throat which I hope is nothing.  The weather changed drastically last night so I am just hoping that is the cause of it.  Would like to get up in the 40ish mile range this week.  May also throw my hand into a Cyclocross race next weekend and do that for the rest of the month.  Love getting my ass kicked at something I suck at.

September Recap

 “Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.” - Haruki Murakami

Another solid overall month with of course the Cowboy 100 at the end of the month.  That should it this year for ultras but I am still on the fence if I am going to CIM or not.  Need to make up my mind in the next day before my free entry from Asics expires.  May just go do it even if I don't go all in on the training the next 8 weeks, I do have a solid base but the turn over to get a PR is not quite there.  Anyways, enough race talk.  

Still dealing with some brain fog post 100 but much better than it was earlier in the week.  This week is all about getting caught up at work and starting to slowly get back to some sort of training.  

September 22nd - September 28th

 "When you start a new trail equipped with courage, strength, and conviction, the only thing that can stop you is you." - Ruby Bridges

"Worrying gets you nowhere.  If you turn up worrying about how you're going to perform, you've already lost." - Usain Bolt

---  Seemed like a 2 quote week with the Cowboy 100 this weekend.  I put a lot of effort in getting ready for this one so fingers crossed.

Monday:

6:30 AM:  7.6 miles averaging 7:55pace.  Easy hour cruise around the roads and trails from work. Made it an effort to go super chill today. Tired today due to the late night airport pick up of Paula last night. Need to focus on sleep this week.  We plan on heading up there on Thursday morning.

11 AM: 1 hour at Koda...

Warmup: Run and mobility

A) 12min AMRAP
200m Run
1 CB Pullups (+1/Rnd)

B) 3 Sets
60s Wgt Chinese Plank - R90s
60s Weighted Plank - R90s

C) 12min AMRAP
250m Row
5 WBS (+5/Rnd)

--  This evening went in to PT and had the calves dry needled to try and get them as loose as possible before this weekend.  Always hurts like hell on the calves do to how tight they always are.

Tuesday:  

-- Woke up to dumping rain and the calves being sore from the dry needling last night.  With the rain I did not get out before work like I have been.  We will see if I can get way from work today or not, weather dependent, no need to suffer through the rain this close to the race.  What is the point?

-- Took a complete rest day today, never stopped raining and since I have not run on a treadmill in ages it was not worth the risk of getting sore from it with the race being only 4 days away.  Rest will do me good.  Spent the day trying to get ahead a bit at work since I will be off from Thursday through Monday.

Wednesday:

6 AM:  5.7 miles averaging 8min pace. Easy cruise before work on the roads and trails close by. Super chill taking my time and just getting the blood moving some. Glad I took yesterday off for the calves feel a LOT better today but at the same time I hate taking a day off, always feel sluggish the next day. Anyways, the countdown to Saturday is on.  Looks like Longs Peak and Indian Peaks got a bunch of snow while we got rain yesterday.

--  Hit the hot tub for 20mins when I got home from work then finished packing for the weekend, plan is to leave around 9am tomorrow morning.

Thursday:  

6:30 AM:  6.1 miles averaging 7:25pace.  Easy miles this morning at Davidson Mesa before hitting the road to Nebraska. Legs were snappy and ready to go this morning after the first mile. Funny how one both dreads and can be excited for a 100 mile race at the same time.

-- left around 9am to start the drive to northern Nebraska.  Realized we would be driving right through Arnold Nebraska which is where one set of my grandparents are buried so had to make the stop to say hi.  Have not been here since 2010.

Friday:

8 AM:  4 miles averaging 7:30pace.  Easy out and back from the hotel on the Cowboy trail. This section I will not be doing in the 100 mile race for we start about 15 miles west of here in Atkinson but the 200 milers who started early this morning should start coming through tonight. This would be mile 85ish for them. Threw in 4 strides on the way back as well.

-- After my run I picked up Paula and drove her to the trailhead and told her I would pick her up in the next town 10 miles away. So she got in her run as well on the Cowboy trail today.  

Saturday: 

8 AM:  Cowboy 100-- 98.26 miles w/ 900ft of vert averaging 10:04 pace which is 16:31:36 overall time.  Got it done... Cowboy 100 for first place and a new course record bringing it down from 18:48 to 16:31. This course can be run so much faster but this is about all this old man had on this day. I would say for the right person this could easy be a 13 hour course, weather dependent. One of my better 100s overall in how I managed everything from heat (it was HOT!) to lack of aid stations for long stretches.  I could not have asked for a better day. Of course I owe a lot of this to Paula and Donnie, they both kept me on track and on the goal of going below the course record. Donnie did exactly what I wanted him to do, keep me on pace to run the last 26 miles in 4:30 or less, we ran it in 4:29ish. That was my A goal for this race, to go under the course record and where ever I fell placing wise is where I fell. Today it just happened to be 1st. This is now my 100 mile PR.  Lots of stories of course coming out of this day that I am still processing.  Always up for a run or coffee if you would like to hear some of them.  My brain is not working well enough yet to type them all out.  I owe a huge thank you to Paula, Donnie, and Matt.   

Sunday:  

We had plans to stay in Valentine at an Airbnb until Monday before driving home but the house we rented was pretty bad.  The whole place smelled like cat piss and it was making Paula sick so we headed out first thing in the morning.  Of course both of us were functioning off of 3 hours or so of sleep last night so we had to stop a few times along the way to nap and took turns driving while the other was napping in the bed with Venus.  We took an hour detour to Sidney to spend an hour or so with my Grandma.  Just had too even if it meant we got home a lot later.  Yes I am almost 50 and still have a grandparent that is alive. ;o)

Total Weekly Numbers

Hell of a week..... Finished my #1 goal for 2025 by completing my 3rd 100 mile run this year.  I have never done three of them in one year before and thought it would be a stretch considering I am getting older but it was a damn good year.  Won 2 of the 3 (no way I could ever be top 10 at Western) which actually blows my mind.  I never would have thought that was possible.  Yes I know they were smaller races but still, I can only race who shows up.  Next on the agenda is California International Marathon in December.  Right now I am not sure if I am going to go all in on this or not, I am so tired from this year currently.  My original goal was to try and break my PR of 2:44 that I set at the age of 40 during the Boston Marathon.  I thought it would be cool to break that at the age of 50 which I will be in December.  Right now I have no desire to put in 6-7 weeks of hard training again but that could change after taking a week off.  More to come on that decision over the next few weeks.  Guess I better get back to work and get caught up from being gone.  Until next week......