February 16th- February 22nd

“I think the words we use to choose how we describe ourselves and what we’re doing, I think those words are important. There’s the positive, ‘what might happen that would be really good’ outlook, as opposed to the ‘man, oh man, I don’t know’ [outlook]...Lean into success instead of waiting for failure.” - Don Swartz 

Monday:

A day of nothing.... had to get to the airport in Phoenix by 4:30am to drop off Don for his flight then return the rental car and go to our flight that was a little bit later.  Of course we did not go to bed until midnight so we were wiped.  Once we got home around 10am the rest of the day was spending time with Venus (the dog) and napping throughout the day.  Of course hobbling around as well, that race fucked me up more than I was expecting it too.

Tuesday:  

Had the option for a short jog or another rest day and chose to have another rest day today.  Walking around like the tin man today because I am that sore in my quads.  This DOMS is real this time.  If I decide to ever do Black Canyon again (which I probably will) I will be putting in a lot of time of beating down the quads with fast downhill repeats like I did before Western States last year so this does not happen again.  Lesson learned......

Wednesday:

10 AM:  5 miles averaging 8:15pace.  Figured 2 complete days off was enough, might need more time off physically but mentally I needed to do something, even if super easy which this was. My legs are still sore as shit in the quads, hips, and knee but much better than the past few days. Things did start to loosen up around mile 4 but still pulled the plug at mile 5 to be safe even though I wanted to go longer. Trying to ease into this next training block which will be an intense one for the marathon in May.

-- Cool photo and funny comment that hit Des Linden's Instagram this morning.  Laughed my ass off being called an old man.

5 PM:  50mins VASA Lift class with Paula. Today was mostly back and doing different types of DB Rows.  Followed this up with 45mins in the airboots this evening.

Thursday:  

Took today off... just felt like I needed a day...stress is killing me lately, mostly work related. Also not recovering very well either from the weekend. Someone that was in the house with us last weekend told me he got Covid in AZ. Starting to wonder if I do to with all the body aches I have had this week. May test tomorrow or not.... I honestly think I finally hit my burnout mark, fell like I have been going non-stop for the past 60 plus weeks.

Friday:

-- Had to do one of the getting older things this morning.  Had to go get a heart scan to check out the pipes and make sure there are no blockages.  Good times.  Not the best results either, genetics are catching up to me.

"You have evidence of coronary artery disease. Given the family history and the findings on your CT calcium score, I highly recommend that we start statin therapy. If you like to discuss further, please make an appointment with me either telehealth or in person"

Well, I am going to get a few more options before going on statins, the possible side effects are not good for an athlete.  I already eat somewhat good, might just have to go all in on eating clean.  The only issue with that is getting enough calories to support all the training I do.... have lots to ponder and an appointment to talk to Dina who is one of the best sports dietitians in Colorado in the next week.

2 PM: 8 miles averaging 7:40pace.  Easy loop from work into Louisville and back. Best I have felt all week but still feel some soreness in the legs. Really struggling with recovering and motivation this week for some reason. Guessing it is all do to life stress with getting rejected from a job I put in for at work and my current job blowing up this week plus recovery from Black Canyon. Been a hellish of a week.

5 PM: 1 hour VASA Lift class with Paula. Today was total body so lots of RDLs and upper body pushes.

Saturday: 

9 AM:  13.7 miles averaging 7:55pace.  Easy laps of Davidson Mesa with Donnie going at his pace. Super chill and great to catch up with him. Almost went longer (he went 20 miles) but stuck to the plan and stopped.  Legs tired still from last weekend... over it.

--- My friend Ryan is writing his Master's thesis on the history of the Bolder Boulder 10K so it has been cool to see some of the things he has collected.  Here is the very first graphic that the Bolder Boulder put out in 1979.  That is supposed to be Frank Shorter up front.

Sunday:  

8 AM: 15.7 miles w/ 1200ft of vert averaging 7:15pace. Boulder Track Club Sunday long run.. Lap of Dirty Bizmark from Marshall Mesa Trailhead. Tried to stay with the cool kids up front. Not quite the workout that was typed out for me with 8x5mins but some what the same amount of time doing efforts. 3 miles easy, then about 8 miles harder, then 4 easy back to the van. They were cranking on the hard efforts and got dropped by 2 people and I dropped everyone else. Of course the guy that dropped us all is a 2:15 marathoner and just got his OQ at the Marathon Project a few months ago. LOL. Good morning and wiped me out the rest of the day.

Noon: Walk 1.5 miles-  Venus duties.....  I try to take her over the weekend at least once since Paula walks her everyday during the week.

Total Weekly Numbers

Not a bad recovery week but wish I was not struggling so much this week.  Could never really put my finger on why.... I know I ran a 50K but it seemed worse this week than after races last year.  My guess is all the stress at work was compounding on everything else.  Sunday was probably the most normal  day of the week last week.  12 weeks to the marathon now, time to get back to work.......