Category: running

One year (give or take)…

I have incredible amounts of hope that things can change. It takes people who believe. ~ Morgan Spurlock

I can lead off with the simple statement, “I am really, REALLY glad I am not racing the Leadville 100 this year.” Crap weather has settled into the state this year and it is like Portland in December out there right now. Only colder.

The race started today at 4:00 and I am guessing the leaders are about at Fish Hatchery now. The forecast is for highs in the low 50s with rain mixed with snow and lows in the low 30s. Not stellar conditions for a long run. Call me a wuss but, well… I am not quite sure how to finish that sentence.

My training has been usurped by work the past few days but I plan to get out there today regardless of the drizzle and low cloud ceiling. Our road is like some sort of sick sports bar event (slippery, wet, muddy and not warm at all) so I may head for the tarmac in Boulder or somewhere to get in some flat, fast and less dirty miles. We’ll see how the day progresses. I still plan to launch John Shors’ new site today. At least for private viewing.

So I have started working on preparation for the Las Vegas marathon and am still fine-tuning my training regimen. Shooting for faster pacing and more fluid form that I am hoping will translate into improved results in eventual ultras. This week I did a longer run on Monday with extended tempo, hill repeats on Tuesday (really a short session with 6 200-yard hills) and then a slow run at ~10-minute pace from the cycle shop in Rollinsville back to my place on Wednesday. I intended to do about 12 yesterday but that just didn’t happen so I may shoot for a hard workout today then a longer run tomorrow to finish off the week.

I have been reading a great book that Caleb recommended called Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas. It is helping me figure out strategy, training ideas, how to keep from getting overtrained, and much more. Good stuff.

Incidentally, Pandora pretty much kicks ass. Check it out if you haven’t already. Works on the iPhone too, which is super cool.

Have I mentioned that Rach makes the best granola ever?

If you haven’t seen this blog, check it out. A woman in England is trying to go a month without using plastic. She hasn’t succeeded but it is an interesting read and highlights ways in which we can be better, more conscious consumers. I was actually thinking that one could do a Morgan Spurlock sort of thing with plastic but someone beat me to it.

And I have to say that though I have tried to not pay too much attention to the Olympics due to China’s appalling human rights and pollution records (yes, I know our’s sucks too… I would have to boycott a US hosted Olympics too), the Michael Phelps story has been quite exciting to follow.

Have a good, soggy Saturday.

~stubert.

Stormed off…

Pain is inevitable, suffering optional. ~ Haruki Murakami

Well, my last two efforts have been less than stellar but that is just how it goes sometimes. I felt awesome for the first half of a 13-miler on Saturday but then hit the wall pretty hard. I didn’t really eat well beforehand, which screwed me up. It was a fun run nonetheless. I headed down the Beav then up my super-secret cut-off trail that leads to the bottom of Raccoon Trail in GGCSP. I then ran (did the whole thing!) up up up to Panorama Point and over to Mule Deer. It rained on me pretty much the whole time then tapered off as I turned onto Coyote Trail. This is where I started bonking. Not cool. I struggled back up Elk then managed to run at a fairly decent pace back home. Not my best run ever but whatchagonnado? Running in the rain was a nice treat for sure.

Today, I headed up to do the Devil’s Thumb/King Lake loop above Hessie. I really suffered on the way up (man, that trail is steep and technical) then storms rolled in. I didn’t really feel like being above treeline in a thunderstorm so I headed back down after only about 4.5 miles or so. Not a big deal. Got in about 9.5 or 10 total so that was cool.

I am looking forward to getting a marathon running book that Caleb recommended. It should be here tomorrow. I am hoping to run a 3:30 at Las Vegas (this may be ambitious) and need to figure out how to best train for this accelerated speed. I know I can do the distance but really think that if I can nail down the fluidity and speed of a sub 4/sub 3:30 marathon, it will help me a lot for ultras. We’ll see how that goes. Most programs I have looked at lately have one running daily with really short runs during the week and one longer effort on the weekend. A 3-mile run just seems silly to me at this point but I’m going to give it a shot.

Other than that, I have just been working and hanging with my special lady. She is the best. We are trying to figure out how to get tickets for Obama’s speech at Mile High but apparently there have been 80,000 ticket requests from Colorado residents and only 75,000 seats. So I am guessing that is a no-go. Oh well.

We are also suffering a plague of humming birds right now. Seriously dozens at a time visiting our feeders which we have to fill twice a day. This happens every year but it is still amazing to watch. Rach likes to joke that our sugar bill is going to put us in the poor house. Guess we’ll just have to start selling off the kitties.

Oh. I am now the proud former owner of a Yukon XL. Holmsey was finally sold today. Even got a decent price. Not what he was worth but as Rach’s brother Brian says, “You can’t give those things away right now.” He will be missed. Lots of fun adventures were had in that truck. Hopefully the new owners will enjoy him just as much.

RIP Isaac, Bernie and Spencer.

Whirlwind…

Honk if I start to doze off. ~ Rach

Well I clearly haven’t been keeping up with things around here and am determined to not let things get that out of hand again. Here is a rundown of activities and whatnot over the past couple of weeks:

  • Running: I haven’t been getting out nearly as often as I would like but when I HAVE gotten out, it has been quite good. Since I signed up to do the Las Vegas Marathon in December, I have started trying to focus more on faster pacing. So far I have come to realize that a) running fast is tough and b) I am not very fast. I did a 7-mile run last week in the woods that went really well. I think I kept about a 10-minute pace without killing myself. On Tuesday I ran a 13-miler in Gunnison in about 1:50 or so. I even spun 4 laps on the track to see how fast I can run a mile (not very). Interesting that my “fastest” mile pace is about 7 minutes but I can hook up multiple 7:45s. Gonna have to work on that. Overall, I feel good about where I am right now as I have a long time before the marathon. I’ll probably screw everything up by tossing in a 50-miler sometime in the next couple of months but that is pretty typical of me.
  • Gunnison: I spent the last few days over in Gunny visiting with family and friends. We held my mom’s memorial service on Wednesday so there were a ton of people in town. It was great to get to see everyone but I am a bit exhausted from the festivities. Rach showed how awesome she is by coming over for the service and then entertaining our niece, Kailey for the evening (as well as everyone else). She is taking a well-deserved nap right now.
  • Golf: I continue to stink it up on the course. I did okay on the front 9 (playing with my dad, brother and uncle, John) but fell apart on the back 9. I am guessing finishing a half-marathon less than an hour before tee time didn’t help me any but really, I probably would have been just as bad regardless.
  • Bears: Saw a bear up at my aunt and uncle’s (Betty and Dale) place in Spring Creek. Always neat seeing the big critters.
  • Loss: One of our most beloved bunnies died Monday morning. Poor Sean. He was a great fella and a good friend. I will miss him a ton.

So that’s the Cliff’s Notes version. I’ll be better about updates in the future.

~stubert.

Back on track…

You’re fit but you know it. ~ The Streets

Nine days out of the race and I am feeling pretty great. Not completely back to normal but getting there. My back was feeling better today so I got up off the friggin’ couch and did a fast, fun 8-miler.

Since I am going to run in the Las Vegas marathon in December, I decided no time like the present to try to start picking up the pace a little bit. Hopefully at some point in the not-too-distant future, I’ll be able to combine the quicker pace with low heartrates but today was not the day. So I just went ahead and made it a “hard day” and hammered out the 8 miles in an average sub 10-minute pace. Felt okay about it, actually. I need to get in to have Shirley whale on me to get rid of this hamstring thing that has been bugging me for almost a year now. Yeah. Prompt is my middle name.

Rach has been rockin’ the bunny farm and is on her way home now with Jamba Juice in tow. She rules. I have to jam down to Denver tomorrow for a meeting and then follow up with clients on a couple of designs I banged out over the last couple of days. Tomorrow night is the second Boulder Adventure Film Festival jury meeting so I have a full day. May need to sneak in a run or a ride somewhere but I’m not sure when that will happen. Thursday, I guess.

So in ultra news, Anton is out for this year’s Leadville 100. Bummer. Aparently he has some nerve problems in his feet that have kept him from running for the last month. Drag. I was pretty psyched to go up and watch him kick ass on the course. He is uninterested in just finishing and wants to go into races prepared and able to challenge course records. Not a problem I foresee in my future. I may try to pace someone or sneak in another 50 this fall… haven’t decided yet but I am very excited to keep running.

Okay, all you kiddos be good. Or not. Up to you.

~stubert.

Another one for the "Wish I’d Written It" File…

As Ford posts yet another crazy-ass quarterly loss ($8.7 billion), it makes one wonder how much better the US auto industry (and its unions) would be doing if they had let the government raise CAFE standards, huh? The government could’ve bailed them out of this mess.

And it makes one wonder how much better that industry would be doing if they hadn’t so viciously opposed Bill and Hillary Clinton’s 1993 health care initiative. In 2004, GM spent over $5 billion in health care costs — a number that is likely significantly larger today. That’s billions that would be off its balance sheet had they not opposed universal healthcare.

Lots of industries may shoot themselves in the foot, but none more so than the auto industry. It truly deserves the comeuppance it is getting (and it has gotten a healthy assist from its unions). The people who don’t deserve it — of course — are its workers, who are getting screwed.

~ Markos Moulitsas Zúniga

Yep, classic myopic behavior on the part of U.S. industry. Seems that the auto industry isn’t the only group that can’t see past its wingtips. I watched a film last night (can’t remember the name) that outlined the destruction of Western U.S. wildlands by the oil and gas industry. The gist of the film was that for the first time, environmentalists, ranchers and hunters were coming together to try to save public lands from rampant destruction.

The current administration has deregulated drilling to such an extent that oil companies have been granted leases in most of the Rocky Mountains’ public lands set aside for preservation. Many of these untapped sources of natural gas hold only a few days’ worth of inventory. So the plan is: go in and drill the crap out of these areas, run roads and pipelines throughout and leave these great lands scarred and torn. All for a little gas. Not very cool. Ranch lands are also affected with many unable to raise cattle due to the segmentation of the grasslands and poisoning of the aquafers due to spillage and open evaporation pits. One rancher had his stock tested and 90% of the cattle showed measurable traces of petroleum contamination. Not really something I would recommend getting into the food supply. (Yet another reason to shy away from meat.)

So all of this is pretty awesome. Or not.

On a completely separate note, I feel great, physically. Only a trace of soreness left yesterday after Sunday’s effort and I am fired up to start running again. Looking for the next great adventure. Fortunately for me, Rach is super supportive of these things and is always encouraging me to go out and have some fun. I may see if anyone needs pacing assistance at Leadville. I’ll keep you posted on that.

~stubert.