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Back on trails…

Anyone can start strong. ~ me

Thurs 13 May: 1:40, 7.03 miles, Boulder Creek/Sanitas run/hike
Sat 15 May: 00:50, 5.77 miles, Peak-to-Peak surges
Sun 16 May: 3:45, 19.01 miles, Boulder Creek, Flag, Green
Mon 17 May: 00:20, 2.16 miles, Mtn Meadows barefoot
Tues 18 May: 00:49, 5.02 miles, Casa trails to Beaver Creek surges
Wed 19 May: 1:50, 10.86 miles, GGCSP Raccoon to Thorne Lake tempo
Thurs 20 May: 2:11, 9.3 miles, Mesa to Saddle Rock to Green to Gregory run/hike

One would think, that with my abundance of free time, I’d be posting more. Well you thought wrong, my friend as apparently the last 10 days got away from me. Now it’s catch-up time and you better get ready. Or not, your call.

Decent week of training/recovery. Lower mileage than I would have liked but moving to trails definitely slows things up, I am working in more hiking into my routine and I am still not 100% recovered. Getting there, however and starting to feel a lot better, thank you.

I guess the highlight of the week was just getting out on trails that weren’t completely packed with snow. Refreshing, to say the least. Yesterday’s run/hike found Green to be completely snow-free – a marked change even from last Sunday. Things are opening up in the high(er) country as well with trails east of the P2P getting more and more thawed out. Springtime in the Rockies… gotta love it.

I’m off today for a little rest then back at it Saturday and Sunday. Looking forward to a good weekend of training then another solid week to finish up a fairly weak May then ready to really open it up in June.

Three months until the LT100. Getting pretty psyched.

~stubert.

Give your all…

Ask yourself: ‘Can I give more?’. The answer is usually: ‘Yes’. ~Paul Tergat

Tues May 11: 00:24, 2.55 miles, Janet’s house
Wed May 12: 1:30, 10.5 miles, Gilpin Rec Center Track

Two decent (albeit somewhat congested) runs. Starting to feel normal again, which is nice. yesterday was super mellow. Ran with Janet Runyan who worked with me on relaxation, grounding and posture. Mostly relaxation. Gave me this awesome focus of letting my ribcage relax down on my diaphragm. Good stuff. Mostly just cruised and tested the waters.

Today I was hoping to get outside but a relatively decent spring storm rolled in and dumped about a foot of snow. This made even road travel a challenge so I just hit the gym and got dizzy. Started out mellow and just settled into a groove of 9:00 miles. Spun 8 of these then ramped up to sub 7:30s for two, then did the last 1/2 mile barefoot. Actually felt great. Had a bit of a coughing fit once when I stopped briefly but as soon as I got moving again, it was all systems go.

Tomorrow, I have a 30-minute run and 1:15 hike on the docket. Anyone interested in a mid-afternoon jaunt in Boulder?

~stubert.

Vests are handsome…

Nathan HPL-008 Race Vest — This doesn't make my butt look big.

Put on approachable airs this summer in our dapper Brisbane Vest, a breezy and brilliant choice for the 19th century gentleman’s mild-weather wardrobe. ~Gentleman’s Emporium

Since I am all laid up, I thought I’d provide a gear review for all you runners out there just dying to know what I think about stuff. So for this installment of Stu’s Reviews™ I bring you (drumroll)… The Nathan HPL #008 Race Vest. (You can stop drumrolling now.)

I had been trying to move exclusively to a bottle system for hydration but found that either I would start to chafe from my running belt on longer runs or would simply not be able to carry enough water to get me from station to station. After talking with Charles Corfield, I decided to give the Nathan HPL #008 a try.

First impressions:
From the very first run, the 008 felt incredibly natural and comfortable and immediately felt like “my” vest. The reservoir holds 1.5 liters of water (about 2.5 regular bottles) and rides well in the pack. Little details make the 008 work really well with a small stash pocket on the back (big enough for a light jacket and gloves); a mesh pocket on the front for energy gel and a zippered pocket up front as well for a camera, extra food, etc.; and a cool reservoir retention system to help keep the bladder upright and kink-free.

Overall impressions:
After using the 008 for over a month, I have come to really appreciate the benefits of the Nathan vest system. So much so that I purchased a second vest (the larger, HPL #020). Occasionally, I will get some light chafing under my arms but this, I think, can be attributed more to using arm warmers than the vest. One note, do not cut the reservoir tube until you have used the pack a couple of times. What seems like ample length when empty, turns out to be just about right when the reservoir is full. Overall, the vest is unbelievably comfortable, keeps my hands free, provides ample storage and is a great addition to any ultra runners go-to gear.

This puppy should set you back ~$80 and can be found both online at a variety of vendors and through many local shops.

~stubert.

Snotastic…

I can’t blow that far. ~ Bunny Lebowski

Tues 4 May: 00:44, 4.5 miles, Casa Trails surges
Wed 5 May: short hike
Thurs 6 May: 1:00, 3.5 miles, Sanitas hike

Weak sauce. Still apparently not invincible, I have succumbed to some foul virus and have been leaking goo from my head and trying to cough up my gall bladder for the past week or so. I checked my training schedule and this definitely wasn’t part of the program but I am dealing with it, have destroyed a small forest via Kleenex use and only lost my voice for a couple of days so far. When looking up “Health: Picture of” in the dictionary, don’t be surprised to my smiling visage in the antonym section.

So that brings us to the “rolling with the punches” section of our training regimen and frankly, I am getting pretty good at it. Sometimes things happen that are just beyond our control. We can either get super stressed and obsessive about them or, the tack I have grown to embrace, just relax, take things in stride and get back with the program when we can. Though having ones lungs fill with something more familiar with the bottom of Lake Superior is disheartening, at best, there is no added benefit to getting too tweaked about it. Particularly when there are 3.5 more months of training to which to look forward before the big event. This week’s super-long run will have to wait. It’ll be there next week, or the week after that.

Rach has been just awesome, providing care around the clock and making delicious food that unfortunately, I am unable to taste – even when she is not feeling any better than I. Time is our friend at this point and aside from treating symptoms, there is not much more we can do besides wait. Though I am getting pretty antsy to get my run on, rest is my friend and so we’ll just sit this one out and come out of it with a new-found appreciation for speech and lotion-infused tissue.

~stubert.

The Big Five-Oh…

La Quinta Resort Casita — My crib in La Quinta

I feel like hammered crap. ~ me

Tues 27 April: 00:54, 6.29 miles, Wash Park Surges (Denver)
Wed 28 April: 2:08, 14.04 miles, Gunbarrel tempo (Boulder)
Thurs 29 April: 00:52, 5.25 miles, Eldora run/hike (Eldora)
Totals, April: 37.47 hours, 203.31 miles
Sat 1 May: 3:29, 18.56 miles, The Cove trail run (La Quinta, CA)
Sun 2 May: 00:56, 6.31 miles, La Quinta road run (La Quinta, CA)
Week total: 8.31 hours, 50.45 miles

Whew. That’s a lot of numbers. One additional number (per the title) is my total weight loss from my top-end digits. Sometime in the summer of 2006 I weighed a solid 211 pounds. As of yesterday, I was down to 161. Craziness.

Overall, training is going well. I currently have a bit of a cold, which is a thorough drag but I will get through this as well. Just a minor bump on the road to Leadville. There will be others, I am sure. One thing I have learned over the course of the last 4 years of running and training for ultras is to not get too hung up on minor setbacks. Progress over the longer-term is the key.

So April, though filled with little, annoying issues and lots of distractions, ended up just fine in the grand scheme of things. I certainly didn’t want to start May off with an illness but by the end of the month, am confident progress will be made.

The running highlight of the last week was certainly getting to log some miles in the California desert. I was in La Quinta for a wedding and managed to get out a couple of times for fun runs. MUCH different terrain and conditions than I am used to and great to soak in some new scenery. Even got stabbed by a cactus, which you don’t get to do every day in Colorado. Though I am pretty confident I wouldn’t want to live in the Palm Springs area, it is a decent destination for someone seeking to get in some good, warm-weather training in months when Colorado is still buried under piles of snow or suffering from the dreaded “mud season”. I even had some company on my long run with two other wedding guests, Vance and Beth, joining in for a bit of the run and Rockin’ TR leading the way on his mountain bike. All in all a great day.

Got up early the following day to get in a short road run as well. Shirtlessness in the early morning was a definite treat for someone who has been buried under layers of winter clothing for the past 6 months. I suspect I may have blinded some commuters with my frog belly, however.

It’s super windy here today but the snow has melted a lot over the past week. May be time to give the local trails a go. As always, I’ll keep you posted.

~stubert.