Training Grounds

I had a good week of training last week.  I didn't get my long run(or any run) in on Saturday but still racked up 42 miles.  My training took one for the team as the family and I headed up to Palisade and Colorado National Monument for the weekend.  A bizarre dust storm mixed with smoke from a fire in Montrose made for a surreal scene on Saturday.  Fortunately, Sunday cleared up and we got to the Monument for a hike and drive.  The rest of the weekend was spent tasting wine, drinking beer and hanging out at the pool.  Palisade is Colorado's wine country.  Meanwhile Tim F was putting up an unbelievable time at Pinelands 50.  Congrats on a tremendous race.

Golden Gate Dirty Thirty is coming up on Saturday.  I'm treating the rest of the week as a normal week with the exception of cutting the Thursday run down to 5 miles.

We headed back Monday and I got a long run in on the Ken Caryl and Willow Springs trail systems.  This is where I do the most of my runs and I've really fallen in love with the trails.  The system is twice as big as I thought it was.  Here are some pics from the hills around my house.  

 Heading up Massey Draw

 Some 3 pt climbing.  700 ft in 1 mile.

 View back down Massey Draw

 View from Gothic Point

 Shaffer Trail from Gothic Point

 Old burn area on Shaffer Trail

 Newly rerouted section of Shaffer Trail

 Shaffer Trail down to Lost Canyon intersect

 Aspen grove Shaffer Trail after LC intersect

 Shaffer Trail

 Manor House Trail

 Coming down Beacon Hill Trail

 View back West on Bradford Trail

 Wildflowers everywhere.  Here is nice section on Bradford.

 view back to Gothic Point from high point on Bradford Trail.

 Millenium

 Dark Canyon

 looking up at Baldy Summit from Dark Canyon Trail

 Wild Turkey Trail

 Fence Post Trail back up towards Baldy

 Mountain Lion Killing Stone.  I carried this for about 3 miles in a high activity area.

 Coyote Cutoff

 Wild Turkey with 3 chicks on Millennium.  Mom was acting wounded to draw attention away from her chicks.  She came out on the trail and motioned toward me before retreating back into the woods.

 Shaffer Trail East side

 Shaffer Trail with Denver in distance

 Shaffer back down into the valley

View from Manor House of Lost Canyon and Manor House trails

5/12-5/19

Weather has been the real story the past couple of weeks.  The last 2 weekends have been rainy.  Unfortunately that has kept me off the trails for my long runs.  I logged a bit over 54 miles this week which is good.  I will try to log 50+ miles this week before heading up to Grand Junction with the family for Memorial Day.

I plan on increasing mileage to 60+/wk in June and 70/wk in July.  The June goal should be easy to achieve with 2 50k's and a long weekend in Silverton.  July will require some creativity.  There have been some trips I have had on my radar for some time.  I hope to knock a few of them out.

All this running is tough on the family.  I'm lucky they are so supportive but this type of training is demanding on time and energies.  I'm trying my best to be around as much as I can but it won't be easy as the summer rolls on.  I know that they are making as big a sacrifice as I am for this race.  It is also a motivation not to let them down.  I feel lucky and also a bit guilty.  They should give buckles to the families of finishers at some of these races.

The hip has remained tight but manageable for the mileage I am doing.  I know I need to get it worked out soon though.  I can't expect to have productive races with the hip remaining the same.  Rolling and stretching have made a great difference.  I have been sneaking into a conference room at lunch to work on core training and stretching.  Diet has been great.  Hopefully a little adjustment can get things right again.

Good luck to Tim F next week with his 2nd 50 miler in 5 weeks.  It exhausting just following your training!

roll, stretch, roll, stretch, run, repeat....

It was a pretty uneventful week.  I ran a little over 44 miles over 4 days.  My hip is giving me some problems.  It continues to stiffen up throughout the day and into my runs.  I probably spent 10 hours this week doing core exercise, stretching and rolling while watching TV at night.  It is helping but there is no doubt it is causing me problems during my runs.  Sometimes it feels like a slab of meat is hanging off my glut but mostly it is stiffness that really jams me up later in the run.

I'll try to get in for a massage this week and go from there.  I did sign up for the Dirty Thirty 50k on June 2nd.  Joe Grant won it last year with Nick Clark coming in second.  I don't recognize any big names this year but that doesn't mean there won't be some great runners.  Depending on what report you read the course has 7,500 - 9,000 feet of vertical gain over 31 miles.  I'm hoping to break 6 1/2 hours but that might be ambitious.  It would be great to get my leg worked out by then or it will be another slog through the hills.

www.goldengatedirtythirty.org

I have been working on my diet and I am happy to report that I lost 5 pounds in the past 2 weeks.  I didn't believe it at first but I have had 3 consecutive days with weights 5 below my average.  I'd love to lose another 5-8 pounds by Leadville.

On an unrelated note Meg and I watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night and we were both impressed.  Some parts are tough to watch but it was a great story and the movie was well done.

Restful Week

I had a pretty simple week in terms of training.  I had one basketball game and 2 runs totaling 12 miles.  I feel recovered and I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.  I used this week to reflect on the race and start working on the take aways.  Viewing the Leadville course, picking Tim F's brain, and the result of CPTR were invaluable.

I have just over 100 days until Leadville.  This race is too big not be prepared and I'll be damned if I don't finish because I didn't give it my all.  Take aways from last week are:

1) Daily Diet
My diet is pretty good but I have some bad habits.  I'm committing to cutting out the fast food, eating a lot of fruits, nuts, vegetables, lean proteins, healthy carbs and cutting out some sugar.  I'm giving myself 1 cheat day a week.  I have a weakness when it comes to Ben & Jerry's and I don't want to get discouraged if I give in one day.

I am also going to have some post-run protein available in my car to eat immediately after my runs.  I need to do a better job with recovery.

2) Race Day Diet
I was cleaning out my race gear and discovered I only ate 5 gels during CPTR.  I thought I was eating about 1 an hour.  Nope!  At the turnaround I ate some food but I forgot to drink my Ensure.  I'll make sure my crew is forcing me to eat at each stop for Leadville but I need to do a better job deliberately taking in calories and carbs during my runs.  No more crashes due to nutrition!

Tim and I have been talking about alternatives to gel.  This is going to be a side project this summer.  I need to find something I don't despise eating.  The criteria is it has to be easy to chew and process, taste ok and won't go bad after 2 hours in the heat.  I tried some dried Mango today and was happy with it.  I'm thinking of going with some some dried blueberries, dried mango and ensure on my next long run and see how it goes.

3) Stretching
I have to do it every day before and after my runs.  No exceptions.

4) Roll
I ordered the Trigger Point.  It is a torturous device that rolls out all the knots and promotes muscle healing.  It hurts like hell but the benefits are worth it

5) Core training
I picked a core training plan I will do a minimum of 4 times a week.

I am hanging a picture of Hope Pass on my computer at work, on the fridge, the mirror in my bathroom, the back of the remote, the visor of my car and on my water bottle.  I will not lose focus.  100 days to commit 100%.  If I can wear that race buckle it will all be worth it.