Run Focused Week (May 11-17)

Solid week all around!  Would have liked to get a little bit more vertical in this week but I can not complain considering I ended the week with the Colfax Marathon and getting a Boston qualifying time for 2016!  I will take that any day.  I got my BQ the day after a 36 mile/5,000ft of gain MTB ride up and down Lookout Mountain and at the end of a big run week.  Think the fitness is really starting to come around, just need to be careful not to over do it.

Look at the week (click to enlarge)

As far as the Colfax Marathon goes I started off super easy and just cruised to what felt like an easy long road run pace up to mile 13ish then decided I would do a few miles at a higher effort to get in a better workout.  When I hit mile 18 I looked at my watch and started running the math in my head and realized if I could keep sub 7:25 miles for the next 8 miles I could get my Boston qualifying time and PR.  Game on!  Finished in a solid 3:11:44.   Ran the first half around 1:41 (with 4 potty breaks), then dropped a 1:30 half to finish it out.  I think this was the best run race I have done in a long long time.  Sitting here tonight I am not trashed, just a little sore in the hips from all the concrete.  Even took the dogs out for another super easy 3 miles when I got home.

Love looking at these splits.

	split	time	mi	pace
1	8:45.2	8:45.2	1	8:45
2	7:54.7	16:39.9	1	7:55
3	7:28.8	24:08.6	1	7:29
4	7:26.3	31:35.0	1	7:26
5	8:24.9	39:59.8	1	8:25
6	7:24.9	47:24.7	1	7:25
7	7:44.3	55:09.0	1	7:44
8	7:33.0	1:02:42.0	1	7:33
9	7:16.1	1:09:58.1	1	7:16
10	7:19.0	1:17:17.1	1	7:19
11	7:13.9	1:24:31.0	1	7:14
12	7:16.6	1:31:47.6	1	7:17
13	7:46.6	1:39:34.3	1	7:47
14	6:59.9	1:46:34.2	1	7:00
15	7:20.8	1:53:54.9	1	7:21
16	6:58.9	2:00:53.8	1	6:59
17	6:49.5	2:07:43.3	1	6:49
18	6:51.9	2:14:35.2	1	6:52
19	6:57.7	2:21:32.9	1	6:58
20	6:41.1	2:28:14.0	1	6:41
21	6:38.0	2:34:52.0	1	6:38
22	6:48.4	2:41:40.4	1	6:48
23	6:57.8	2:48:38.2	1	6:58
24	6:59.2	2:55:37.4	1	6:59
25	6:53.4	3:02:30.8	1	6:53
26	6:30.6	3:09:01.4	1	6:31
27	2:44.1	3:11:45.5	0.41	6:36

This week is going to be a bike focused week so I should only get about 30-40 miles running.  That should help with recovery from the marathon.

(Photos taken at mile 26 by Melody Drummond)

Recovery Focused (May 4-10)

Pretty cool that I came across this article at the beginning of a "recovery" week.  There are a lot of things in here that I need to get better at.  Yes I know that it is gym focused but this can be applied across the board to any athlete.

Key points for me to think and focus on.

1. Better stress management - I get worked up and stressed out over things that I just need to let go.  How can I tell things are starting to pile up?  When I start yelling at other drivers on my 8 mile drive commute to work.  I mean really?  It is only a 15 minute drive.

2. Recovery Practices- Really really really need to be better about getting work in EVERY night on the roller or with the stick.  I was doing good for about 2-3 weeks and felt great.  Need to really focus on this the upcoming months leading into Leadman.

3. Recovery workouts-  Been doing ok here but could be better.  Easy means easy.  A lot of time my recovery jogs turn into a moderate effort and I need to knock that off.

Best quote from the article to think about: "The training is the easy part. What happens the other 22 hours of the day is where the battle will be won or lost. Remember that when you leave the gym, the real work begins."

I know I have posted this before from Gym Jones but love this chart from the article. (click to enlarge)

So as far as this week goes.  All of the god damn rain this week really kind of forced it to be more of a recovery week than in past recovery weeks I have planned.  First of all the MTB race that was scheduled for Saturday was cancelled due to mud.  Yes I had a 60 mile MTB race planned on a recovery week.  Little more gym time this week due to the rain but that is all good and a great jog Sunday with JP and James at Lair O' Bear.   Overall it was a good recovery week.

Click to enlarge

This week will be a more "run" focused week with the Colfax Marathon coming at the end of the week.  Not planning on racing or running for time but just to use it as a long run.  Been wanting to run it for a few years for fun so figured why not.  Not sure yet what mileage goals I will shoot for this week on the run and bike but just play it by ear daily.

Have a great week everyone!

Not a bad week (April 27-May 3)

I can live with this week.  Would have liked to have more biking mileage but like I said in my last post I am not willing to give up my gym/weights/crossfit time yet but will come mid July.  Good weekly overall volume with the Greenland 50k race thrown in there on Saturday.

Speaking of Greenland 50k it did not go quite as planned.  The goal was to just jog the whole thing with very little walking.  I figured that would be a good goal since the last 2 50k's that I have ran this year I did a bunch of walking due to walking with JT, steep hills, issues, ect.  Well about mile 27 issues started popping up again, yes my famous glass stomach issues.  Every time I started jogging my core cramped and I puked, even downhill.  Now I could have pushed it the last 3 miles and put myself into a deep hole for the next few days but decided since this was supposed to be a "training" run I would just walk it in and live to train another day.  Walked the last 3 miles in about 43 minutes and still finished in 5:02 which is a PR for me on that course. When I got done, I went to the car and chugged a big bottle of Gatorade and laid down for a bit. 30 minutes later I was fine.  Yep, once again I did not drink enough.  Thought I did but nope.  Oh well, lesson learned again for the 100th time.

As I was looking at my weekly volume this week I started wondering where am I year to date?  What have I done since Jan 1st when I signed up for Leadman?  So I ran that report from the training log.  Should be interesting to see what the total numbers are come taper time in Aug.  I don't plan on really tapering for the first events of the series, maybe a mini taper for the 50 ride and run in July.  The real taper will start around Aug 1st. 

This week is suppose to be a "recovery" week but I am really not sure how to approach this once again.  I have been messing up my "recovery" weeks the last couple of times.  I do have a 60 mile MTB race this Saturday which will throw a wrench in the week.  Any suggestions?  I am all ears.

Have a great week everyone!

April Numbers

As always I feel like I could have done more but with that said it was still a solid month.  I would have liked to hit more miles on the bike and run but I will always say that no matter how much I do.  I know I could jump the total mileage up quite a bit if I spent that 10 hours I spent in the weight room biking or running instead but I am not willing to give that up.  I feel healthier overall and my joints don't hurt like they usually do when training for a 100.  I actually jump out of bed in the mornings verses rolling out of bed all stiff so that is a win.  Did do another 50k this month and my first MTB race which was 50 miles.  Solid 70 hour month, second month in a row over 70 total hours.

(click to enlarge)

May is going to be a big month hour wise I think, I have 2 50Ks, a marathon, and a MTB race planned.  So yes a long race every weekend.  Greenland 50k this Saturday.  Jogging it as a long easy run.   Also taking ideas for a race kit to wear for the MTB races in Leadville.

Going to be a fun month!  Oh yeah- 50 days until the start of Leadman.

April 13th -19th

Solid run focused week.  Would have been closer to 85ish miles if the weather on Thursday and Friday would not have happened.  I skipped a 10 miler that was planned on Friday due to hail during lunch time and skipped the 2nd run on Thursday.  Did get in a solid run on Saturday doing the Rattler 50K down in Colorado Springs.  Just jogged it out with JT enjoying the day and catching up.  I could feel the volume of the week on my legs so this was good solid work. 

This week is supposed to be a bike focused week with my first ever mountain bike race on Saturday down in Castle Rock.  Needless to say I am a little freaked out about it.  Good to get this freaked out feeling out of the way before the start of Leadman I guess.  Not sure outside of the race how many more miles on the bike I will be able to do this week due to work and life commitments happening this week but I will give it my best shot.  I was thinking 200 miles at first but I think that would be a huge stretch, just hope to be over 100-120 with some running and lifting mixed in.

Totals for this week.

Came across this blog post this week and thought it good stuff to keep in mind as we setup our training the last few months heading into race season.

These are the principles that I use to guide me on journey on the Functional Path:
# 1 Have a current accurate road map - Start with a plan, execute it, and evaluate it constantly
# 2 Think big picture - Build and rebuild the complete athlete
# 3 Fundamental movement skills must be mastered before specific sport skills can be acquired and advanced  training undertaken
# 4 Learn to use the ground - Build & rebuild the athlete from the ground up
# 5 Train the core as the center of the action
# 6 Train sport appropriate - You are what you train to be
# 7  Build a work capacity base appropriate for your sport
# 8  Train Linkage - Connect toenails to fingernails
# 9  Think Long-Term - Training is cumulative
# 10 The individual athlete is the focus - Recognize, train and rehab the individual

Photo credit Pikes Peak Sports

My Pull-Up Bar.

Where do you do your pull-ups at?

"Recovery" week... whatever

Not sure this was a real recovery week like it should have been.  Yes the overall mileage from both the bike and run are down but the overall time is only down 2ish hours from last week and the vertical is higher this week.  At least everything this week was at an easy pace with the exceptions of the climbs on Saturday's real mountain bike ride I did at Green Mountain in Lakewood.  Hard to keep the effort low when you are grinding up a steep rocky single track on a bike. 

Overview Hours/Mileage for the week (started tracking mobility/massage work also this week)

Changing the order of my weeks this next 4 week cycle making next week a run focused week since I have another 50K next week down in Colorado Springs, Rattler 50K.  The only goal of the week is to do more run mileage than the last run focused week which was 3 weeks ago in Moab with 60 miles of running and 70 miles of cycling.  This week should be lighter than that on the bike but hopefully heavier on the run.

Mountain biking on Green Mountain in Lakewood

Summit of Green Mountain in Boulder

March 30th- April 5th Training

Solid week of balance training with a lot of it coming on the weekend.   The kiddo was in the hospital half the week with a C-Diff infection and this made the week way more challenging to try and balance "life".  He is slowly recovering but lost about 11% of his 110 pound body weight, getting down to 97 pounds and looks like a starving child from Africa but at least he is eating again now and went back to school for the first time yesterday (Monday) in almost 3 weeks, progress that Ashley and I are very happy about.  Now we just need to keep working on rebuilding his gut flora health and get some muscle and weight back on him slowly.

Anyways, last week's "balance" training.  Most of the vertical was done on the weekend, with a 4K trail run on Saturday (double Mesa trail crossing) and 5K ride on Sunday, with him in the hospital vertical during the week was not possible.  Also started tracking mobility work in the log but not sure I will keep doing that or not.

This week I have marked as a "recovery" week but not really sure what that is going to mean and what I should do.  Getting into the groove of turning out 16-19 hour weeks has been fun and cutting that back to what?  That is what I am trying to figure out.   I have a fear that by cutting it back to far I will get lazy and will struggle getting back into this groove that I am currently in.  Yesterday was not a good start to a "recovery" week.  I had yesterday off work so I hit up a 8.5 mile 3K trail run in the Boulder hills followed directly by a Crossfit workout, that is not a recovery day.  I guess I will play it by ear all week.  In my mind I think going easy the rest of the work week (Tues-Fri) and then get back to a long run and ride over the weekend?  Or so I cut the volume on the weekend also?  First world problems.

Lot of truth in this.

Have a great week!

March Numbers

Solid month.  I'll take it.  Next month going to try and shoot for 250 miles running and 400 biking, just keep slowly increasing it.

(click to enlarge)

Red Dirt Fun.

Solid week.

This week was a run focused week with my original goal to be to jump my mileage over 70 for the first time this year but with the Behind the Rocks 50k at the end of the week it did not quite work out that way.  As the week went on I kind of started running a little less in order not to be too tired for the race on Saturday.  I figured since this is my first ultra of the year I wanted to not go in wasted by volume to badly so I cut my planned 10 miler the day before the race and went MTB in Moab instead getting in over a my head a little which was really fun even though I did endo over the handle bars and sprained both of my wrists, good thing I was wearing a pack on Saturday and not using hand bottles.  Anyways here is the break down for this week.  Nice mileage and vertical.

MTB in Moab on Friday-- really need to plan a trip next year where the whole focus of the week is just riding.

Saturday was the longest run I have done year to date.  Behind the Rocks 50K.  Not going to get into a full race report mostly because I am unmotivated to type it all out tonight but basically it went great until about mile 27 when the heat became to much for me, 85 degrees and being in direct sunlight just killed me.  Started puking and quit sweating which is never a good sign so I just walked it in dumping water from one of my bottles over my head the whole time, still ended with a 6:04 which I am ok with.  Now I just need to find another 50K for April.  I think doing one of these a month the next few months will really help the build up to Leadman.

Bike Focused Week

Back to what I would consider a "normal" volume type of week that this Leadman challenge is going to require, pretty happy about that even though I am a little tired this Monday morning. 

Per my last post I stated that I am taking James advice to try and have a little bit of focus each week within a 4 week cycle, those being biking, running, balance, and recovery.  Last week was a bike focus week for me in which I hit my highest weekly biking mileage so far this year, 122.7 miles.  I will take it.  Yesterday I hit the dirt trails of the Dirty Bizmark loop on the bike during my long ride and was able to ride everything that I could not at the beginning of the year, another big win.  Really enjoying seeing such large jumps in improvement with my cycling, I never get to see that in my running anymore it seems.

Anyways here are the number for this week (click to enlarge).

 

The focus for this week will be running.  Not sure what mileage I will shoot for but will just roll with what the week gives me and how I am feeling. I really do not plan my weeks as much anymore and just do my training based on how I am feeling that day, I am trying to listen to my body so I don't bury myself too bad.  I am heading to Moab on Friday morning to run the Behind the Rocks 50K on Saturday as a long training run so at least 31 miles will come there, should be a solid week and I   should also have some photos to share next week.

Have a great week everyone!

Back to Forward Progress

Now we are back on track, knock on wood.  Second week in a row of hitting ~15 total hours and the stupid sinus infection is now gone, thank God I am over it. 

Click to enlarge

Last week I stated that I was pondering on how to put the plan together.  Up to this point I have been trying to balance it as much as I can which may not be the best the best route. 

James Walsh had the suggestion of following this format:
1. Bike focus week
2. Run focus week
3. Balance focus week
4. Recovery focus week

I like the sound of it.  So I am starting with a bike focus week this week since I am heading out to Moab next week to do a 50K run.  I will give this a shot over the next 4 weeks and see how it goes.  Some of the focus may change week to week or I may change up the order a little due to races that I am already signed up for but it should be a fun experiment. 

Until next week.....

That's more like it.

Starting to get back to what I think should be a normal week of 15 hours.  After being sick in February then taking a few weeks to build back up so I didn't run the risk of getting sick again which I did this week anyways.  Started getting a running nose on Tuesday and now I sit here on Sunday with a full blown head cold.  At least this one is only in my sinuses and did not come with the body aches that the last one did.  I feel like I lost quite a bit of fitness for this week was a little bit of a struggle and the ride yesterday up in Coal Creek Canyon was more challenging on the hills than I remember, is that lost of fitness or just due to this head cold?  Good thing there is still lots time to get after it and keep building up volume.

Been really pondering how to move forward with the training plan and trying to fit everything in so that it increases my fitness in both sports and not just bury myself under a mound of fatigue.   How much running? Biking? Lifting?  That is the challenge of Leadman I guess.  Been pondering hiring a coach but not sure if I can spend the $.  Food for thought I guess.

Numbers for this week. (click on the photo to enlarge it)

Enjoy the weather out there this week as this white crap melts and turns everything to mud.  I am ready for some dry trails to ride.

Month of Sickness- Feb's Numbers

What a shitty month.  My total hours were more than half of what I did in January, 28 hours verses 72 hours which is why it has been so quite on here, nothing to report.  As you can see from the chart below I took off 9 days off this month, all due to being sick the first 2 weeks of the month with the flu.  Half of those days I had to call into work also.  Of course when I was sick is when the weather was in the 50-70 degree range and when I started getting back to training the snow started to fly.  Go figure.  Just chalking this month up to what it is and moving on.

So where do I go from here?  Well hopefully the snow melts off and days go back to being warmer so I can get out on the bike outside again, but with that said I just need to get back into the groove of training 2x a day like I was in January and back to doing long runs and rides with some weights thrown in.  Goal for the month is to get back around 60 hours. 

Guess I better quit whining on here and go meet Charles for a 3-4 hour trail slog though the snow to kick the month off right.

Until next time.

Forced Rest Week

Sometimes I guess you don't have a choice when your rest week falls.   This was one of those weeks.  Started feeling the tingling feeling in the nose on Monday so I wrapped in warm clothes on a 65 degree and tried to sweat it out Lucho style.  Did not work, by Tuesday I was going home from work early where I would sleep from 6pm Tuesday night until 6pm Wednesday night only waking up once to use the rest room.  Since then it has been a battle between head cold, to sinus infection, to pink eye.  Just won't go away.  I know it is not from training to much because my wife is battling the same issues, fun when both parents are sick but the kid did give it to us, he was sick 2 weeks ago.  By the time the weekend came around I said fuck it and just took it off with the intent to restart slowly on Monday.

Anyways my hours for the week.

Even though this was not caused by training to much but by a bug I have been known to over do it in the past at times.  Came across this on Gym Jones and love it.  Posting it for future references.  If you have not heard of Gym Jones Google it and get educated.  This came from his Instagram feed which is where he is most active at.
(Click to enlarge)

Another good reminder popped on my Facebook feed today also.