March 16th- March 22nd

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” – Simone Weil

Put down that phone.... I have been really intentional of not being on social media as much as I used to be the past 6 months or more.  Thinking of taking it up another notch.  Right now it is blocked during the workday 8am to 4pm Monday thru Friday.  May start blocking it at night too only allowing myself on there in the mornings when I am drinking coffee or maybe during the weekends too.  Have to give this more thought on the best approach.  Tired of all the bullshit AI stuff among other things.

Monday:

10:30 AM: 8.7 miles w/ 400ft of vert averaging 7:40pace.  Easy lunch time cruiser from work over around Link Lake and back hitting up all the small hills around work. Still tired and sore in the legs, especially the quads but a lot better this week than I was after Black Canyon which has the same amount of downhills. Progress for sure!!

5 PM: 50mins VASA lift class with Paula--  Legs but kept it light, still recovering from the weekend some what.

Tuesday:  

2 PM:  10 miles w/ 500ft of vert averaging 7:25pace.  Easy afternoon cruise from work at the hottest part of the day. It was 70 out and felt so damn hot today. A few 20sec strides thrown in about halfway to help my legs remember how to turn over a bit. Can still feel the marathon a little bit in the quads but that is about it.

Wednesday:

9 AM:  13 miles averaging 6:25pace.  That one got me after interval 5... I was dry heaving some and the rest periods kept getting longer and longer after 5 through 8 but got it done.  Pacing was better than I was expecting I could hit, I thought I would struggle to hit 6min pace but guess I was wrong.  First half mile of every rep was in the 5:30s then got slower has the heartrate got high... might have to take bi-carb before one of these one week to see if there is a difference.  Another brick in the wall.

20 min warm up

8x1 mile at half marathon effort (start these at marathon effort and work into it if feeling tired) 60-90 sec rest between each

20 min cool down

5 PM:  50mins VASA Lift class with Paula…. Upper body day

Thursday:  

  -NOTE:  Weight check in:  165.4lbs w/ 7.9% bodyfat.  Been a long time since I have been 165lbs... might have to keep an eye on this so I don't drop much lower.  Over 10lbs lost in the past 8 weeks.

6 AM:  4.1 miles averaging 7:40pace.  Quick shakeout jog before heading to the airport to fly to San Fran for the weekend. Just an easy cruise around the open space next to the house.

-- Hell of a travel day today.  Took FOREVER to get to the hotel about 20 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Spent over an hour in TSA line at DIA, then they lost my luggage in San Fran but I did find it about an hour later in a different terminal, then it was about 90min wait to get my rental car, and finally, the normal 40min drive was doubled to the hotel.  Just one of those travel days where nothing went right.  Just have to roll with it, not a damn thing I can do about it.

Friday:

8 AM:  10 miles w/ 2100ft of vert averaging 8:45pace.  Went to the start of the Big Alta 50K and took off about 15mins before them to get up the trail some and take some photos and video. Then ran out to mile 5 on the course and turned around. What awesome trails this race is on! I think I may come back next year to run the 50K and also maybe the 28K.

-- Spent the rest of the day exploring around San Fran getting back to the hotel about 11pm.  That is a late night for me!  Hit up Christi Fields, Golden Gate Park, Fisherman's Wharf and did the tour over to Alcatraz.  What an awesome day!  Also got to visit a little bit with Tom (Bob's brother) since I parked my car at his house and took a Waymo around the city. 

Saturday: 

11 AM:  11 miles w/ 3300ft of vert averaging 9min pace.  Started at the finish line of the Big Alta 100K and ran the course backwards until I could find a hill that would work good for this workout below. This hill and the heat (80ish) kicked my ass. I spent the rest of the day licking my wounds and being unproductive at the hotel.

20 min warm up
4x8 min hill reps with run down recovery think 10k uphill effort
20 min cool down

Sunday:  

5 AM: 4.3 miles averaging 8:30pace.  Easy treadmill miles at the hotel early before leaving to fly home.  Ended up having to sit on the plane for over 2 hours before we could take off.  Another challenging travel day getting home.  I don't have anymore travel planned right now until my marathon at the end of May.

Total Weekly Numbers

I thought I was going to have a bigger week mileage wise this week but at least I got a bunch of quality work in both in speedwork and hill work, so guess that will have to do.  Looking back I guess it was not a bad week considering I did run the marathon pretty hard last weekend then rolled right into this week with no days off.  Don't have anymore travel plans as of today until the marathon at the end of May so time to buckle down and grind for the next 6 weeks or so. 

March 9th- March 15th

 "The bounty of nature is also one of the deep needs of man." -Lady Bird Johnson

Seemed like a good quote for this week.  I needed that trail time in Salida this weekend.  Way to much road running the past 6 months or so, starting to wear on me a bit.

Monday:

1 PM: 8 miles averaging 7:30pace.  Easy afternoon cruise in the afternoon with Taylor from work before going to PT. Not actually a hamstring issue I have been dealing with but an abductor issue caused by super tight quads. Needled the shit out of my quads and the problem abductor. Right into the hot tub when I got home, that made me sore.

--  Another postcard for the board arrived today as well.

Tuesday:  

11:30 AM:  10.9 miles w/ 400ft of vert averaging 7:15 pace.  Hopefully last manual entry in my online workout log, new watch should arrive tomorrow.  Had to visit a supplier in Longmont this morning so did loops around Lagerman afterwards. Workout was 40mins of 50K pace in the middle which I took at around 7min pace for a flatter trail.  Felt okay for the most part.  Still trying to figure out how I am going to approach the Salida Marathon this weekend, most likely will just be a long easy supported run.

5 PM: 53 mins VASA Lift Class with Paula- Leg day.  Lots of RDLs.

Wednesday:

9:30 AM:  11.4 miles w/ 500ft of vert averaging 7:30pace.  New watch day!!! Whooo!! Anyways long loop from work between meetings this morning. Just cruising and not pushing. Legs still a little sore from the needling on Monday but much better than yesterday.  

Heading back in to get more blood work this afternoon, good times....  Love getting old.  

Thursday:  

9 AM:  7.75 miles averaging 7:45pace.  Easy cruise from work... holy shit that wind just kept getting worse and worse... glad I got out when I did, looks like it is increasing through out the day.  Legs are dead today, or at least felt like it.

5 PM: 50mins VASA Lift with Paula, upper body

Friday:

  -NOTE:  Weight check in: 168.4lbs w/ 8.4% bodyfat.  Been a bit since I have been under 170.

10 AM:  4.3 miles w/ 1200ft of vert averaging 10min pace.  Shake out jog...  Very tired legs today… felt awkward on trails, couldn’t find a rhythm. I can tell I’ve been doing too much road running. All good… I’m thinking tomorrow is just gonna be a long run and not a real race, but we’ll see in the morning how the body responds and how it plays out.

Saturday: 

8 AM:  26.4 miles w/ 3800ft of vert averaging 8:30pace.  Salida Marathon- 16th overall and 1st in 50-59 age group. Also a PR time for this race by about 3 mins which surprised me. I did not go out hard with the intent to race. Just went out moderate for the first 8 miles settling on the single track. When we hit the 5 mile climb up a dirt road at mile 8 I started grinding some and basically pushed until mile 24 where I started dry heaving on the last climb up S Mountain, HR got to high. LOL... just cruised it in from there. Basically it turned into a progression run with a 2 mile cooldown.  Super happy with today.... my previous PR is from 10 years ago at the age of 40.  

Had plans to say until Sunday morning then drive home early but the weather forecast changed on me and decided to head home shortly after the race.  They were calling for 4-10 inches of snow with 70mph winds on the mountain passes I had to drive over to get home... not doing that in the van.

Sunday:  

8 AM: 7.4 miles averaging 8:35pace.  Super chill recovery jog on the treadmill at VASA. Windchill outside was 0 degrees and it was icy. Considering how sore I was, I did not want to risk falling so treadmill it was.

Paula and I spent the afternoon with Don and Tasha checking out the Legos exhibit at the Denver Museum.  If you can make it there before it leaves, DO IT!  So cool!!

Total Weekly Numbers

Not a bad week overall with a trail marathon thrown in the mix.  Seem to be recovering better this Monday morning as I type this than after Black Canyon last month so I will take that as a win.  Was supposed to do the Big Alta 100K next weekend in San Fran but I am pulling out of it.  Not quite the stimulus that I need to get ready for the marathon in May and I don't want to lose 2 weeks of training trying to recover from the 100K.  I am still making the trip and spending the weekend at sea level training instead of racing.  Actually really excited for the trip and have a few things I want to do there that I never had time to do on past trips.  Hopefully another solid week of over 70 miles with efforts this week... Starting to feel like I am getting on a roll.