Category: running

Holy moly finally a weekly update…

Stay on target. ~ Gold Five

Aw crap. Did I just quote Star Wars?!?!

Ok… the last couple of weeks were just nuts so I am finally getting around to a weekly summary. It is spotty, at best, so bear with me a little.

Anyway, needless to say, I have been pretty stressed. Working the campaign, several client projects, and trying to get back in the groove of training. “Busy” doesn’t begin to describe… So here is a feeble attempt to reenact the last couple of weeks — for your reading pleasure:

  • Sunday 10/26: Obama rally in Denver.
  • Monday 10/27: South Beaver run, 8 miles, 1:08. Felt like hammered crap. Couldn’t keep my heartrate down to save my life. Post race, I have really been struggling. I am going to lose the nail on my right index toe and my left index toe appears to have a bit of tissue damage that I am going to have to treat with rest and ice. It’ll get better and there is nothing wrong with a little rest.
  • Tuesday 10/28: Swim, 00:30. Just getting my low-impact on.
  • Wednesday 10/29: SKI DAY #1, 1:30. Toe was killing me but Pete and I had a great time at the Basin. More swimming, 00:42.
  • Friday 10/31: Halloween swim, 00:42. Not eaten by any zombie sharks.
  • Saturday 11/1: Swim, 00:45. I am getting better at this but am not a huge fan.
  • Sunday 11/2: Ran on the track, 2 miles then swam for about 30 minutes.
  • Monday 11/3: Lifted weights and swam a bit, 00:45. Cold and windy up here so I went to the gym for a bit.
  • Tuesday 11/4: Election day recovery run, 6 miles on the track, 00:48. Felt ok, not great. I was working the election for most of the day then did my run, swam a little, then worked some more and listened for the results. Needless to say, by the end of the day I was exhausted but thrilled to death to have a new President. Rach made phone calls to people all across the country to GOTV. I can’t wait until January 20th.
  • Wednesday 11/5: Aero run on the track with strides and barefoot, 9.5 miles, 1:12. Finally a great post-race run. Took awhile but I felt awesome and kept a solid 8-minute pace throughout. Did strides at every mile and then did 1/2 mile of barefoot. I think this is the fastest 9 miles I have run and running barefoot was actually kinda cool. Swam for a bit afterwards.
  • Thursday 11/6: Sat in front of the computer. Ugh.
  • Friday 11/7: Aero run with strides and a couple fast miles, 9+ miles, 1:10. Ran at the track, late in the evening because work took up the rest of my day. I felt great, actually, and was able to keep the HR down even at an 8-minute pace. Started doing strides at every mile then tossed in sub 7 miles at mile 7 and 9. Feeling really solid. Swam for about 15 afterwards to cool down.
  • Saturday 11/8: Recovery run in the woods, 5 miles, 00:47. Didn’t feel so red hot today but given the last couple of efforts, I am okay with that. First time outdoors for awhile and it was nice to get back out to nature.

All in all, I am feeling more and more recovered and am getting back in the swing of things. With the marathon in about 4 weeks, I am feeling fairly confident. I am not really looking forward to the aftermath but am hoping that my second foray onto the tarmac will be a little less painful. Very enthusiastic about laying down solid 8-minute miles without killing myself. Skiing is going to be a real distraction and work has been slaying me of late but I think I can manage to stay focused and do well at Vegas.

The Community Center has been a really awesome resource. Psyched I gave it a whirl. I anticipate spending some time there over the winter staying in good running shape.

~stubert.

Marathons really hurt…

But Grandpa, what about my asthma? ~ Spaulding Smails

First of all, marathons on pavement are just brutal (as far as I know) and the Denver Marathon was no exception. Now that I have that off my chest, here is a full on race report for all you race report lovin’ fools out there.

I am a little too wrecked to provide a Citizen Kane-style non-linear story line right now so we’ll just do this the old fashioned way. Work for you guys?

Get up, stand up…

The alarm clock is a wonderful creature. Even though mine has been replaced by my iPhone (another wonderful creature), I have to give some shouts to the little fella that helps a brotha get up at 4:00 in the a.m. So up, eat, drink and out the door to downtown Denver.

I parked at GroundFloor Media Global Headquarters to save the hassle of trying to find parking closer to the event. Changed into my garb (no dolphin shorts, thank you very much) and then walked the three blocks over to the 16th Street Mall to catch the early morning shuttle up to the Capit0l area. Did you know that the johns at the Bus Station don’t have doors? True story. So now you know that. Which is nice.

So the official marathon information claimed that shuttles would be running as early as 5:00 but apparently, they were sadly mistaken. So I got an unscheduled warm up by walking the length of the Mall. Not a big deal, probably a mile and a half or two miles.

Got to the event with plenty of time to spare. Watered the bushes in front of the Capitol building (just call me Groundskeeper Stu) then went to get into position with the rest of the wacky people. The corral was completely full by the time I got there but fortunately, the event is chip timed so you officially start when you cross the start/finish, vs. when the gun goes off. Sweet!

And away we go…
The plan for the day was to take it fairly easy for the first 6 miles or so. Since I got stuck way back behind my target time (and my target time for the first 6 miles), I picked up the pace a little bit until I was slightly in front of the Clif Bar 4:00 pace crew and settled into a comfortable pace. The early going was a bit hectic with everyone all piled together (relay people, half marathoners and those doing the full) and we ran past Lodo’s landmarks (The Convention Center, The Can 1 and 2, back over by the Capitol) then headed out to City Park. Things got a little tight on the first part of that loop but quickly spread back out again as we made our way to Cheesman Park (about 9.5 miles in).

By this time, my eyeballs were floating and the first batch of Porta Potties had a line a mile long (no racers, I may add) so I kept going and decided that I would have to find a tree and hopefully not frighten any children. Just as we were leaving the park, 5 vacant johns appeared miraculously and lucky me, I only needed one of them!

Shortly thereafter, we said goodbye to the half marathon crew and I set out to start really pushing it in the attempt to run negative splits.
The Second Half…

So into the second half I ran, trying to keep a steady sub-8 pace. Mission accomplished for the most part. I really wanted to have a good segment between miles 17 and 22 and focused on my form during this chunk of miles. Unfortunately, the hammering I was taking running on pavement started to catch up with me after mile 20 and my times really started to suffer. The last 4-5 miles were excruciating with my feet really taking a beating along with my shoulders. I also started to experience some exercise induced asthma, something with which I have not had problems for many years. Weird. So the last several miles were fairly miserable and I lost a lot of positions in the last 20-30 minutes of the race. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I was just happy to get it done.

Post event…

Wow, hammered crap does not do justice to how I felt immediately post race. I stopped after crossing the finish line to get my chip removed, grab some water and apples then started getting tunnel vision to the point where I had to lie down on the Capitol lawn for a bit. I then made my way very slowly back down the Mall (finally catching a shuttle) and back to my car where I changed and headed home.

My left shoulder was hurting so much I could barely lift my arm, my feet were really quite sore and my legs were tight and sore. Probably pretty standard for pounding pavement for 26 miles. Oh and there is a bobcat in our yard just kicking it on a rock. But I digress. My blistered heels didn’t give me any troubles, which was nice and I never really pushed my heartrate to their upper limits. My abdomen hurt a little (and quite a bit afterward) but not so much during the event that I felt like it was hindering my performance. My troubles seemed to be abuse-based which is something I may be able to work on by focusing a lot more on running pavement. I’ll get some advice and see. All in all, a great event and a really fun day.

Official results:
Chip time: 3:41:31 (2:30 faster than my goal)
Overall place: 348 out of 1719
Place in class: 37 out of 188
Overall pace: 8:27
Negative splits? Negatory.
Motionbased data

Caleb finished in 3:22:36 for 145th place and 30th in his class. Way to go Caleb!

Ok. Back to feet up, brain off.

~stubert.

Tomorrow’s the first of two. Weekly wrap-up…

Let’s get it on. ~ Marvin Gaye

Well, tomorrow’s the big day. Or at least the first of two scheduled big days. Though I am very excited and psyched to see what I can do, I am treating tomorrow’s event as a training race/test drive of sorts. After talking with Caleb today, I plan to take things really easy for the first 6 miles or so, then pick things up and see how it goes.

Here’s the weekly summary for October 12-18:

  • Sunday (10/12): Treadmill and swim, 11 miles, 1:32 (if memory serves). I let the day get away from me and the weather was shitty so I just hit the treadmill to run a portion of the scheduled 15 (12 at pace). Actually, I felt pretty great. So that was nice. Swam for about 1/2 hour afterwards.
  • Monday (10/13): Lift and row, 1 hour. Hit the gym for a bit. I was going to swim too but the pool was full of racer kids and I didn’t feel like schooling them (read: getting my ass handed to me by an 8 year old). Also went to another doc who said my abdominal problems were muscular vs. organ-based. So two weeks blown on anti-biotics. Good for me.
  • Tuesday (10/14): Recovery run in Boulder, 5 miles, 00:42. Had to squeeze in a run between appointments so just hit the Boulder Creek Trail then did some 400 repeats on the High School track. Did 3 repeats which felt pretty awful, really but I am not a fast man. Otherwise, felt okay. Stomach bugging me a bit but my second appointment was with Mark at In Motion Rehab who diagnosed my problem located in my psoas muscles. So he crammed his fingers through my stomach and, after several minutes of excruciating pain, told me that things would be better soon. Ya know, he was right.
  • Wednesday (10/15): Test-drive, 7 miles, 00:56. Had to be in Denver for meetings so I jammed down to City Park to do my pre-race test run on the race course. Felt a little crappy for the first couple of miles then got into a groove and logged several sub 8s in a row. Overall, feeling pretty solid, which is a good way to feel.
  • Friday (10/17): Recovery trail run, 5-miles with strides, 00:47. Just hit the trails around the house. Didn’t feel great but was still working out some of the kinks from some fast running this week so with some stretching and the post-run ice-bath, think I’ll be in good shape come Sunday.
  • Saturday: Was supposed to do a 4-miler today but had to jam down to Denver to pick up my race pack and ended up with blisters on both heels. Ha. How much does that rule? I rode the motorbike down and honestly am not sure what happened that resulted in blisters. I have had these motorbike boots for at least 3 years and have never had problems in the past. So Rach picked up some blister stuff and we’ll give it the old college try tomorrow. This will be great practice for Leadville.

Total mileage for the week: 28 miles
Total time for the week: 5:15 ish

So I have been eating carbs like there is no tomorrow and resting, watching movies, etc. Have to be in Denver by 6:15 tomorrow so I’ll be getting up very early to whack down some breakfast and get my run on. Though the event is chipped, there apparently is not any real-time tracking but I’ll let you know how it goes ASAP.

~stubert.

T-Minus 4 days…

Tick, tick, tick. ~ Mark McKinney

The Denver Marathon is this Sunday (October 19) and I am finalizing my preparations. Today I did a “Practice Run” as Advanced Marathoning calls it… 7 miles with 5 at pace on part of the course (City Park). Well, in typical Stu fashion I did the 5 at my Las Vegas pace (actually faster). I guess I am getting pretty fired up. I didn’t feel great for the first 2-3 miles but then really established a rhythm and laid down several 7:30s in a row. Again, not blazing by any stretch of the imagination but pretty good for a Stu.

So three days of “training” to go then we see what I am made of in a practice-run capacity. I am targeting 3:45 or so and would be really happy with a 3:40-3:50 finish. We’ll see how things go.

Tonight is the last Presidential debate and I encourage everyone to watch. Early voting starts Monday for Coloradoans so go do that too.

More to come…

~stubert.

Weak-ly summary…

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. ~ Muhammad Ali

This wasn’t much of a training week but sometimes rest does a body good. (Please don’t sue me, National Dairy Council). I am still having my abdomen issues but the tendonitis seems to have healed, so I guess I am back to where I was two weeks ago. And that will have to be okay.

October 5-11, 2008

  • Monday (10/6): Gym – lift and swim, 1:30. Since the doc said I wasn’t supposed to run for a few days, I hit the gym to lift some weights and swim (albeit briefly). I am not much of a swimmer and though I went through a bit of a lifting phase a few years back, am really just working on high reps at this point. No need to bulk back up to super-sized Stu.
  • Wednesday (10/8): Gym – lift and row, 1:15. Went to the gym intending to run on the treadmill but I forgot my shoes and Crocks are not only fugly but are not particularly awesome when it comes to running. So I lifted for a bit then used the rowing machine. Then I went home. I think the going home part was the most fun.
  • Thursday (10/9): Treadmill and swim, 5 miles/20 lengths, 1:15. Lost track of time due to work stuff (again) and had to jam down to the community center to run on the treadmill for a bit. Just mixed up the speed and decided 5 miles would suffice for the day as I just wasn’t feeling the love on the hamster wheel today. I did manage to keep a 9:00 pace, so that wasn’t too bad. How the crap did Dean Karnazes run on this stupid thing for 48 hours? He logged 211.7 miles. And that is just silly.
    After my run, I swam for a bit. Actually getting better and did something like 20 lengths in about 20 minutes. I told you I was slow.
  • Saturday (10/11): Peak-to-Peak popsicle, 7 miles, 00:57. Supposedly a recovery run but since I couldn’t really figure out from what I was supposedly recovering (too many to choose from), I just kinda went with what felt right. Did about 6, 100-meter strides and felt okay for the most part. I was not really able to keep my heartrate down so just focused on having fun. My calves were fine, my abdomen hurt a bit but overall it was a good run in the very cool, misty October weather. Had to break out the gloves even.

Total mileage for the week: 12 miles
Total time for the week: 5 hours

The Denver Marathon is next Sunday so I have a week to go. Right now I am planning to just generally stick to my schedule the first half of the week then take it easy leading into the race. This is just a training race for me (shooting for 3:45-3:52) but my main goal is to run negative splits or to at least get a better feel for pacing and holding back the first half of the race. I have a tendency to go out a little hard and definitely can get swept up in the emotion of the event so I will really be practicing keeping my cool in hope that I learn something to apply to Vegas.

It is looking like it actually might snow for reals this time (currently 32 degrees, light drizzle and super foggy at my house). I’ll keep you posted.

~stubert.