Jinx…

I told him that a player on a streak has to respect the streak. ~ Crash Davis

Wed: 1:27, 10.55 miles, Gunbarrel tempo

Never mess with a streak. Don’t call it out. Don’t switch things up. If it ain’t broke, fix it and it soon will be.

I opted for a double dose of stupid and actually paid attention to my form while running on the treadmill. Bad idea #1. I have a bit of a loop in the pick up phase of my left-foot stride. Gotta fix that nonsense, right? Also, I have a bit of a chicken wing effect going on with my left arm so I dedicated a solid 15 minutes to trying to get that straightened out. These adjustments (which were quickly abandoned, I’m sure), coupled with idiot maneuver #2, did me in.

For my second dose of dipshittery, I decided to test drive some Pear Izumi Peak XC shoes I wore a few times last spring to see if the changes I have made in my stride over the past months made them worthy of a second look. Though I am sure these are awesome shoes for the right person, I just need more stability and volume than they seem to provide and this, along with my self-diagnosed changes to my wacky stride made my right glute extremely unhappy – with a vengeance. Seriously though, if you are in the market for a super light trail flat, these are quite nice. (I’ll sell you a pair of lightly used size 10s super cheap. Hell, if you want them, drop a note in the comments and I’ll give them to you.) And from now on, I am calling any inefficiencies in my stride “style” unless someone who knows better tells me they need to be fixed.

In any event, my hamstring and glute started getting cranky towards the end of my surges yesterday and by the evening, I was paying dearly for my misguided experiments. Nothing lots of stretching and a good night’s sleep couldn’t cure, right? Guess again. Woke up with some serious cranky butt and stiffness down to my mid hamstring.

What goes well with impeded range of motion? Tempo work, of course. I jammed down to Boulder to meet up with the crew for the standard Wednesday Tempo run. I gave myself 25 minutes to make it to 63rd/Jay where we were to meet up for the start and was spinning easy, albeit hobbled 9:30s then I took a wrong turn. Bonus. So I started my tempo solo and managed to get back on the right track. Made it to the start with seconds to spare and actually was feeling better (this isn’t saying much) when we started the “real” tempo. Spun mid to high 7s to start then worked down to low 7s. Actually, ended up feeling pretty good about the effort given the complications. I figured out a couple of techniques to lessen the ouchiness and learned a valuable lesson about change. Resist it at all costs.

~stubert.

Double deuce and another…


Aaagh! My groin!!! ~ George C. Scott (as impersonated by someone on the Simpsons)

Greetings blog readers.

Now that I have the formal bs out of the way, I would like to tell you about the last couple of days which notched 22 and 23 on the belt of the 08/09 season. Which reminds me… I need to purchase a belt notcher. And a belt, I suppose.

We got the serious posse together yesterday for Luke and Nichole’s triumphant return to the Basin. They were greeted by pretty chilly temps and funky snow conditions. Luke still skis like a champ but for once, I was able to out-pace him. Only because he is not acclimated, really… but I’ll take it however I can get it.

Pete, Edy and Caleb rounded out the crüe and we hooked up with Jodi for some nice, hard-charging laps off Pali. The Spine was flowing smoothly the first part of the day then got some nice blow-in later, which was pretty cool. The Rock Garden was skiing really well (as usual) and there were great turns to be found in the lower alleys. All around a great day.

I headed to the gym on the way home in a misguided attempt to get some miles under my belt. I lifted for a bit then did manage to run 1/16 of a mile. Not my best effort. My entire pelvic region is just completely messed up right now. Psoas muscles giving me a lot of trouble and now my groin muscles have decided to join the party. I suppose I should stop doing everything but it bugs me less skiing and I am feeling great otherwise so I’ll probably be an idiot and keep hammering. Yeah. Not much has changed when it comes to self-abuse dipshittery in the casa del stubert.

I did swim for a bit, which actually seemed to loosen things up. Then my left foot cramped up. Which is not on my list of recommended things to have happen in the deep end. I do like my new goggles, however; and even suggested to Rach that I wear them full-time. She did not give the thumbs-up on that idea.

So today we headed up to Eldora which lived up to its name admirably. It is a little-known fact that Native Americans coined the word “eldora” to mean “cold as hell and windy as all get out”. Most belive this was a reference to someone tribesman’s bitchy and flatulant aunt but the origin is a bit foggy. Wait, what? It doesn’t mean that? Well it should.

Caleb, Pete, Evelyn and I met early for a morning assault on the Rock and though it actually wasn’t that cold, it was blowing like crazy which made it feel about minus eleventy million degrees. Yes, Centigrade… duh. Salto was skiing really well though so we braved the conditions until around noon. We hooked up with Morgan about 11 so got to spend some time skiing with her, which is always a treat. I also found a sweet nook at the top of Salto in which to hide from the blasting wind. I did my best Totoro impression but I don’t think anyone got it but me. But as long as I am entertained, I’m happy.

I really, really need to get my office set up so maybe that will be today’s afternoon project. If you think of anything else that I could use as a distraction, please let me know.

~stubert.