Category: running

Decembrrrr…

Balmy.

When I was your age, we had to walk 5 miles to school. Snowin’ in the summertime. Uphill both ways. ~ Someone’s Grandpa

Thurs: 00:40, 4 miles, treadmill easy
Sat: 00:40, 4.75 miles, treadmill with surges
Sun: 1:55, 13 miles, treadmill/track easy

I have been grossly negligent about posting this past week. Perhaps the cold weather has slowed my mojo or something. Apologies all around.

The treadmill and I have become friendly this past weeks as the temps have plummeted. Thursday, I hit the gym for a post-tempo recovery run and felt great. Really nothing to complain about or remarkable about the effort aside from its genuine lack of any issues. Just jumped on, spun through 4 miles or so, then went home. Good stuff.

I took Friday off then headed up to the Basin with Pete on Saturday morning. We were greeted with chilly temps and fresh corduroy which I used to my advantage spinning blazing laps on my AK Maidens. Not really what the skis were designed to do but they do it admirably. Tip those puppies up on edge and they just accelerate away from you. I hit the gym on the way home to say hello to Mr. Treadmill again and busted out 4.75 miles in about 40 minutes with 5 sets of 1×1 surges. Again, felt awesome.

Sunday, Rach and I headed down to the shelter early to help out with the bunnies and it was cold. And snowy. And windy. Not the best combo. The plan was to drive back home, then jam down to Boulder for a long run but that simply wasn’t in the cards with temps and conditions that were not much better than those found at home. So back to the gym for more treadmill action. Spun 8 miles at a leisurely 10-minute pace then hopped on the track for 5 more. 13 total in a bit less than 2 hours. Didn’t push it at all and felt smooth. Boredom was the only battle I had to fight, really.

So I’m hoping we get back into some more normal “cold-up-top, warmer-down-below” style weather soon or I am going to have to break out the balaclava and mittens. Running indoors serves its purpose but is not the best companion long-term. I did get my skate boot back from Larry today so I envision some skinny skiing in my not-too-distant future.

~stubert.

Links, snow and walls…

He may have driven us into a wall, but at least he didn’t blink. ~ Jon Stewart

Fri: Golf @ Deer Creek
Sat: 00:40, 4.19 miles, Snow trails and surges
Sun: 3:30ish, 18ish, LSD bonk-a-thon

Where’d the time go? After last week’s efforts, I tossed in some golf with my pops then got back on the running plan for a nice little jaunt on Saturday near the house then a long, slow run on Sunday that was pretty awesome for the first 2+ hours then turned south quickly. Headed out from the Cottonwood trailhead in Boulder and made our way north to Jay then up past the Res and on to the Eagle trailhead. It was a beautiful day for a run and there were tons of people out enjoying the cool, clear weather. I ran for a bit with Janet Runyan along the Eagle trail until she turned around to head back home. The group split apart as we headed west and by the time we reached the Foothills trail, I was running comfortably with Art Ives, a top-10 Leadville finisher.

Art and I made our way south along the Foothills trail, up and over the ridge to Sanitas and then back down to Eben G. Fine Park where we went our separate ways. I needed to get in 3:10 for the day so jammed up and over the flank of Flagstaff and back down to Chautauqua. This… was ill-conceived and given my lack of water and food, quickly made for the rapid approach of the proverbial wall. So I sucked it up and kept going since my car was on the other side of town and I wasn’t about to let a little thing like 6 miles get me down.

I made my way over to the Boulder Creek bike path and started to work a run/walk cycle that eventually got me where I needed to go, albeit much more slowly than I had anticipated. But that is what happens sometimes, particularly in ultras… you have to just suck it up and keep moving. All told, it was a good run and I learned a lot. Plus, I wasn’t too destroyed the following day as I was able to rehydrate and get some calories moving quickly. A good day of training, for sure.

I took Monday off then didn’t manage to get out for a run on Tuesday so I am really interested to see how today goes. There is snow in Boulder so it could be a total cluster but I’ll go give it a whirl and report back soon.

~stubert.

Ski, run, run, run…

If one could run without getting tired I don’t think one would often want to do anything else. – C.S. Lewis

Tues: 2:00, ski, A-Basin, 00:40, 4.5 miles, treadmill surges
Wed: 1:30ish, 11.4ish miles, Boulder tempo
Thurs: 00:36, 3.45 miles, Casa recovery

Crazy week. My mojo has been thrown off a bit by the holiday but that does not seem to have affected my running. Which is nice. I have continued to be consistent and even tossed in some turns at the Basin on Tuesday for good measure.

Tuesday featured early morning snow sliding with Caleb, a buddy who hadn’t skied since last March when he suffered a broken leg while skiing at the Basin. So it was a celebration of sorts, welcoming him back to the world of tele turns. A-Basin still has really only one run of man-made open but it was fun to get out there and spin a few laps. It wasn’t too crowded on Tuesday morning so we just burned vert until we felt like we had explored the one run enough then called it good. Caleb is a two-time Leadville runner and has logged a bunch of really cool marathon experience as well. He has done a lot of the major events (Chicago, New York, Boston, San Fran) and logged a PR of 3:02 at New York two years ago (if memory serves). I definitely am putting that one on the list and may just toss my name in the lottery for next year’s event for good measure.

Post skiing, I hit the gym for some surges on the treadmill and felt great. Good, solid warm up then 5 strong, 1-minute surges. Apparently the skiing treated me well as I felt awesome and just cranked through the workout in good form

Wednesday, I got up early and headed down to Boulder for a tempo run. I forgot my Garmin and iMapMyRun didn’t work for me so well but I survived the technical difficulties to pull together a pretty amazing run. I warmed up really slowly then chased through the group to log over 11 miles total in about 1:30. Considering the warm up (~50 minutes, 4+miles), that is a really fast tempo for a Stu. I was pretty much done by mile 11 and coasted in the last half mile for a really solid tempo run. Too fast, yeah. But good to get things moving and sustain for that duration.

Today featured a quick recovery run. It was a gorgeous day up here and I was treated to virtual silence throughout the run. With everyone indoors watching football or whacking down enough food to keep an African village well fed for a week, I had the roads and trails to myself. I put it on auto-pilot and just ran at a slow, comfortable pace throughout. Headed up through Mountain Meadows and unconsciously, turned onto one of my favorite trails near my house. It was snowpacked and icy but that didn’t seem to bother me much at all as I worked my way through the forest, the tempo of my footsteps providing the rhythm to carry me up and over hills and obstacles along the way. The trail became progressively less traveled as I made my way through the woods until I was breaking trail through 6 inches of untracked snow left over from our last storm. I popped out on the main thoroughfare and headed back towards my house. A red-tailed hawk was circling lazily overhead, ducking courageously through the tall pines until it drew the attention of a single crow who quickly made its way up to make its challenge. They danced, providing me ample entertainment to carry me over the last hill effortlessly. I made it home shortly thereafter, energized from the time spent out among the flora and fauna of the Colorado high-country.

~stubert.

Slow and low…

Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. ~ William Faulkner

Sun: 3:00, 18 miles, LSD road and trails

Ah, the long slow day. Time to reflect, mingle and just keep putting one foot in front of the other for 3 hours or so.

Today I met up with the group in Boulder to get in some time on the old feet. I parked at the mall then jogged over to Pott’s Field for the meet up. After a short delay, we were off, making our way through the mostly abandoned Boulder surface streets on a crisp, cool Sunday morning.

We headed west and ended up at Eben G. Fine park at the mouth of Boulder Canyon then meandered up to Chautauqua. Enchanted Forest to Mesa to Bear featured mixed running with variable conditions. Many areas were completely dry but north-facing sections were icy. If you are planning to log longer hours Mesa-west, traction might be advisable.

One item of note: there were TONS of runners out today on Mesa. Many traveling in packs and most who really appeared to know what they were doing (vs. casual runners). Boulder is a running town but this was an interesting phenomenon, even for Boulder. Great to see groups of people out there getting after it for sure.

After jamming back down Bear Canyon Drive we worked surface streets again to Martin Park then jumped back on Boulder’s extensive network of bike paths. With about an hour remaining in my scheduled run, I headed back north flying solo and picked up the tempo to try to log a full 18 miles in the 3-hours scheduled. Mission accomplished.

I learned some things today: I can sustain a mellow pace for a significant amount of time; public restrooms are available at the Chautauqua dining hall if you need them; miles tick off quickly when running with a large group (I actually knew this one); I sweat like a hypertensive gorilla even when it is cold out (um… I knew this too).

All in all, it was a very good run. I did have some lingering issues later in the effort with the spot between my shoulder blades catching fire and some slight abdominal and sciatic nerve involvement but post run I wasn’t completely wiped out nor do I feel damaged in any way. I even had the energy to do a little more work on the house I started yesterday. Project finished. Bring on the snow!

~stubert.

Screw shoes rule…

Remember, if you are puking, you are running well. ~ Timmy Parr (2009 Leadville 100 Winner)

00:55, 5.67 miles, 10x1minute surges

I may make it through this winter after all. Finally got out today on my new screw shoes and they work great. Definitely a TON more traction and less distracting than YakTrax. I suppose they aren’t quite as adaptable as the YTs and your mom will KILL you if you wear them indoors but as far as hooking up a fear-free snow run, these things rule.

Headed out in nice temps (35°, bluebird) and did a warm-up jaunt around the ‘hood. Just explored a little to see what was open and stayed on plowed but snowpacked roads. Felt fine, just cruised. Then I headed back to the Beav’ for ten surges. These went fairly well. The Beav’ isn’t exactly flat so that, coupled with the conditions, made it a bit of a challenge. But I like challenges. Like the time I tried to pick up Daryl Hannah at a juice bar in Telluride. But that is another story…

I am working on the race schedule and believe I am going to forgo the short, fast-paced races for longer events. Targeting the Moab Red Hot 50K on February 13th as my first of the season. Should be super cool (if I can still get in). Seeing what happens for the remainder of the year as well with the big event, Leadville, being my main focus. Trying to get a feel for how much I should be racing vs. doing big, fun, self-supported, adventure runs. I definitely want to toss in a 60/40 Pbville jaunt in July so put that on your calendar. The first 60 miles of the course on Saturday, sleep in Twin Lakes, the run the last 40 on Sunday. Should be good times.

I also want to give a big shout out to Russ Bolig at Podium Custom Footwear. Totally hooked a brotha up on some insole fixes. These things are working very well and just needed a little attention and Russ made it happen and I didn’t even miss out on any training runs. Thanks, Russ!

Tomorrow, tempo. Gonna get my fast on.

~stubert.