Category: recovery

Quick recovery…

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. ~ Randy Pausch

Mon 15 Feb: 00:30, 2.96 miles, ‘Hood loop night run
Tues 16 Feb: 00:41, 4.05 miles, Janet’s house surges
Wed 17 Feb: 1:39, 10.73 miles, Watson tempo

Really not sure how much “recovery” I had to do post-race as I felt fine immediately afterward (once I got rehydrated and some food in me) but training this week has progressed without incident. I took Sunday off then did a quick night run on Monday. Love running at night. It was quite chilly, however (~5°F) so it wasn’t really a run I wanted to extend in any way. Felt a bit fatigued at the start but as time went by I felt better and better.

Tuesday, I met with Janet and did a few surges and shot some video. We’re making a lot of micro-adjustments now as I seem to have done a pretty good job of evolving my stride to be more efficient and fluid. I still don’t make it look effortless but am getting there.

Yesterday, I headed down to Boulder early and warmed up around Boulder Reservoir. Just took it easy, didn’t worry about pace or anything but loosening up and getting warm. After a few surges, we started the tempo portion of the run along the streets north of Coot Lake. I was planning to roll 8s but felt so well I decided to just let it flow and ended up in the mid-to-low 7s for the 5-mile tempo. Cooled down and called it good. Which it was.

Working today then heading to the Butte with Pete tomorrow for a weekend of skiing. Looks like the conditions aren’t terrible there so I am looking forward to getting in a couple of fun days on the home turf. I am in terrible ski shape right now so we’ll be taking it pretty easy. Still skiing all the fun stuff but not raging all day like usual. Other than hoping A-Basin opens up hiking terrain on East Wall (mostly so I can log some high-altitude stair repeats), I am considering this season a bit of a wash. Happens… just hasn’t in a long, long time.

Tentatively putting the 24-hours of Moab back on the schedule as a team event with Sean. That should be fun. We’ll just do the 12-hour event and I’ll keep you posted about that being finalized.

~stubert.

The road to success…

Get your motor runnin’. ~ Steppenwolf

00:32, 3.27 miles, slow recovery

As we roll into winter months here in the high country, the ability to log miles on trails pretty much goes away. Fortunately, I am close to Boulder/Denver and trails down there stay relatively clear year-round (traction is a plus so I plan to get a lot of time with screw shoes or yaktrax) but one does tend to log a lot of miles on the slab during the course of winter training. Interestingly enough, I have been running on pavement quite a bit of late anyway as I have started running with a group of people who spend a lot of time on the blacktop.

Last year, I purposely started running longer-distance street races in an effort to become more efficient, get my average pace up and get in some late-season racing to jump start my ultra dominance in 2009. We all know how well that worked out as I was injured most of this year and only got in a couple of races. Alas, I do not blame the pavement and still believe that training on roads does help in many ways to translate fitness, efficiency and consistency to the ultra-distance scene and here I am, a year later, approaching the slab with a keener eye for how quickly to ramp up mileage and pacing.

Bryon Powell has a great summary of why he believes road running is great for trail running if you are interested in checking out his post on the subject.

I am not sure what you would call yesterday’s run, to be honest. It certainly wasn’t on pavement (mixed snow, ice, some hardpacked dirt roads) but it wasn’t trail running either. It was a bit chilly and given that I was moving at a very relaxed pace, I piled on the clothing a little bit. I felt better as the run progressed as well – starting out feeling a bit clunky then, by the end, feeling much smoother. All in all, it was good to get out for a quick spin and enjoy the time I get to spend in our beautiful surroundings. I recommend you do the same.

~stubert.

Feel the burn…

Bad shot of my in-car thermometer on the way home from Gunny.


One. ~ Neal Page

Days 9 and 10: Back from a couple of good days at the Butte. Skied with my pops on Saturday for a bit until he got tired. Then I hooked up with Rossi tele dude, Max Mancini, for a bunch of fun-filled runs. The day was pretty great, lots of fresh, some fun runs open and, frankly, blast-able due to the soft conditions. Twister was skiing like a dream with giant, bump-smashing GS turns and following Max off some of the cat-walk jumps that aren’t usually huck-friendly due to the Volkswagen-sized bumps that form up. I am definitely still recovering from Vegas as my quads were screaming at me towards the end of the day. Definitely not back in top form just yet but that is okay. Post-skiing, Dad and I went to see Quantum Solace (could have used some story-line editing but was okay) then hit my favorite restaurant, Donita’s Cantina. Go there immediately if you are anywhere near Crested Butte.

Sunday, CB called in 10 so I was super excited for a big pow day but in my enthusiasm, I mis-interpreted that figure and was a bit bummed to find out they really only got about 2 and the other 8 accumulated the previous day. Oh well. It was really cold and I had to go in for more layers after my first run then spun laps on Twister and Paradise. There was some more terrain open (compared with Saturday) but the coverage was still a bit thin to get anything good opened up. I had to take a break a couple hours in to warm up then managed to meet up with Max, Jen and Drew again for some fun nuker runs. We took a break after a few to warm up then spun a few more before calling it a day as it was about 8 degrees out. Not the coldest day I have had at the Butte by a long shot (I recall a -20 day in High School that was particularly chilly) but definitely not warm.

Jammed back home on snowpacked roads. It never ceases to amaze me how many shitty drivers there are out there. Driving slowly in the fast lane seems to be a bad-weather favorite. Jackasses. In any event, it was an enjoyable weekend but I am very happy to be home with my sweetie. She even baked me more yummy brownies while I was away!

~stubert.

The dreaded snowman…

Obviously, you’re not a golfer. ~ Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski

Well, I could wait no longer and hit the Rock today for a few runs. It was absolutely vacant up there so I strapped on the Antis and let ’em run. Test drove the new knee braces too. I think after some adjustments, they are going to be quite nice.

Post Vegas, I was really sore. Sunday, after the race, I dreaded stairs in any form and even stepping down a curb was quite painful. Monday, things were a bit better and by Tuesday, going up stairs was okay but going back down was still a bit of a challenge. I actually felt okay today. A little more thigh burn than normal but overall not too shabby. Recovery is an incredible thing.

So I head over to Gunnison tomorrow to kick it with my dad for a couple nights and will probably try to make a few turns on the way over and some on Saturday at the Butte. They still don’t have much open but it will be fun to ski with my dad a bit. He took all last year off to take care of my mom so I am sure he is excited to get back out there on the slopes.

Rach and I are just kicking it. She has been taking good care of me post-race and made some of the yummiest brownies I have ever tasted. Vegan, of course. I think they are for my dad but there may not be any left by the time I make it over to the ‘sack. I think they are filled with crack or chocolate chips or chocolate-infused crack or something. I think I’ll go eat another one now, in fact. BRB.

Oh man, that is soooooo good.

~stubert.

Recovering quickly…

All work and no play make Homer something something. ~ Homer Simpson

Aside from spending the last two days chained to my desk, I am recovering fairly well. Not too sore, feeling rested. Good times.

I may get up and go up for some early morning slopeside office action tomorrow. Haven’t quite decided. I also need to look at the program to see what is in store training-wise for the coming weeks and figure out how to work in some volunteering. I also signed up for a meditation class on the 2nd. They took my money but I am not sure whether or not I got in. We’ll see. That is going to be a long day as Rach and I volunteer at the shelter that morning.

All in all a hectic couple of weeks leading up to the election then hopefully things will settle down a little. Or not. You know how it goes around here.

If you haven’t voted, get your butt in gear.

~stubert.