Category: running

Sage Burner update…

Well I’ll be damned. ~ Beavis

So the results have been posted and I ended up 34th overall with an official time of 2:45.11. This put my in 5th place for my division. Pretty sweet!

This week has been kinda nuts but I have been getting out. Monday’s run was short but really sweet. Virtually pain-free. It started a little clunky but quickly smoothed out to a really efficient effort. I was able to just get in a zone and go, which just felt great.

Tuesday I went a lot harder and busted out 5 miles in about 45 minutes. I ran sections of trail that up until now this year, I have had to walk. Starting to feel a lot more fit. I went for a hike on Wednesday that ended up being a lot longer than anticipated and then just hammered out 4 miles on Thursday on the roads down in Boulder. That too was a pretty good effort though I didn’t feel particularly awesome.

I am going out for a 10-miler today (at least that is the plan) and am hoping to hook up with Bobby T for a long one tomorrow. Still contemplating Leadville but I am rally wanting to do it again this year. As always, I’ll keep you posted.

~stubert.

Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…

Couloir above Lake Isabelle

Hey Ma, get off the dang roof! ~ Cletus

Good end of last week/start of this week, activity-wise. Saturday saw gorgeous conditions in the high-country so I headed up higher to do 13 miles on Rollins Pass. I started above the tunnel and made my way up the old railroad grade. There were still several large sections socked in with drifts so car traffic was virtually non-existent.

View east from Rollins Pass

Unfortunately, I felt like hammered crap and my abs were really, really angry with me all day so I didn’t turn over the miles as quickly or painlessly as I had hoped given the past week’s progress. It was good to be out, however, and I have learned that there is no such thing as a bad run so though I felt a little discouraged by the set-back, I took it in stride.

Sunday I stuck close to home as one of our foster bunnies was at the end of his journey. Rach does an amazing job giving these special guys a loving home but it is still very hard to see them go. Louis was not an old bunny but had a terminal condition that required additional care and attention so he and his friend, Bruscetta, came to live with us. Rach paired them with two other great bunnies, Sidney and Peanut, then Homer was added to the group for a really cool fivesome. Louis will be missed but Bruscetta can now stay with her new friends, which makes it easier on her for sure.

On Monday Luke, Ben and I headed up to the Brainard Lake area to do some skiing. We got a fairly early start but an inversion made it incredibly warm up high and we were met with breakable crust conditions on the hike in and sloppy, punchy snow on the bootpack up towards Isabelle Glacier. It was a gorgeous day (albeit warm) but the going was much slower than we expected. We decided to ski a protected coulior but I bailed about halfway up to get home to get some work done. I actually felt great. I was a little slow but was being really cautious as every time my right leg postholed in the weird conditions, my right knee would become very grumpy.

I apologized for calling him “Snotter”.

On the way back out, I was treated by a river otter playing in the freshly thawed far-eastern edge of Long Lake. He was playing in the shallow water near the tip of the lake and even posed for me a bit while I took photos. River otters were recently declassified as endangered and are now listed as a threatened species so getting to see the little fella (actually, not that little) was really cool.

Tuesday I ran up near my house. Just kept a steady, relatively slow pace and ran a fun figure eight in the woods. I hit up some of my favorites: Tupperware, Funky Boss, Diver Down and power hiked the steeper sections. Felt okay, actually. I didn’t push the pace really at all and was able to just stay relaxed and comfortable.

Today I doubled down and did a quick run in the woods on some pirate trails (actually got a little off track due to early-season conditions) and then did a fun exploratory moto ride with Luke. We jammed up Rollins Pass to see how much snow had melted in the past three days of seriously intense heat (for May, at least) then went up Mammoth Gulch (which is still pretty socked in) and then checked out the Fourth of July road, which is open and clear all the way to the trailhead. Luke then stole my motorcycle. He has a knack for swiping people’s bikes. (Hey Pete, if you are reading this, your moto is in my garage.) It won’t be long until Luke is kicking my ass in yet another activity but for now, I’ll relish not having to chase him around.

I head to Gunnison on Friday to race the Sage Burner Saturday morning. Since my abs are still being jerks, I am just going to do the 25K event with explicit instructions to take it easy. I’ll let you know how that goes.

She’s just a bean.

And here is a shot of Molly for your viewing pleasure.

~stubert.

Where was I…

Hills are speedwork in disguise. ~ Frank Shorter

Somehow another week has blown by. That seems to happen a lot lately.

Spent the week working, getting some fun runs in and trying to get healthy. I feel like I succeeded on all counts. Nothing too major on the running front, just staying consistent. I took Monday off, then ran a hard 5 on Tuesday and felt awesome. Wednesday I went to see Janet for coaching then did short runs on Thursday and Friday. Starting to really feel it and think I am getting more fit every day and figuring out the new running mojo. Good times.

Hoping to do a high-altitude run tomorrow then maybe squeeze in a morning ski on Sunday. We’ll see how it goes and I’ll keep you posted.

~stubert.

Two in a row…

The greatest pleasure in life, is doing the things people say we cannot do. ~ Walter Bagehot

Nothing better than two solid runs in a row. Well, except for three, or seventeen, or twenty-eig.. SHUT UP! I’m writing this post.

So I have now logged two good efforts in a row and I am pretty excited about it. I have been seeing another awesome Physical Therapist who is helping out a lot. If you are having problems that you can’t seem to figure out, call Sandy Bertrand. She’s great. Thursday’s run was good as well but only about 40 minutes so I am not going to count that one but Friday was fun and amazing. Hit the trails around the casa which are now mostly free of snow. There were a few sections I had to put on my trudging hat but for the most part they were clear. Did a fun, 8-mile loop with only minor ab discomfort and finished strong. Good stuff. Was able to hammer up the hills and just felt really solid throughout the run.

Saturday I took “off”. By “off” I mean Luke and I rode dirt bikes for something like 6 hours so there you go. I put the DR through its first real tests and it rode like a champ. A LOT heavier than the Husky (which is kindof a pig itself) but I managed to make it up some pretty hairy stuff (for me anyway). Only dropped it twice. Nice! Really had a good time and explored some fun terrain between Rowena and Rollinsville.

Today the weather was kinda crap so I went to the gym and ran on the dreadmill for a bit. I felt awesome and super strong, which was refreshing. After a warm-up, I put the hammer down for an hour then ran laps on the track for another 30 minutes. I am definitely getting there and am pretty psyched. Really figuring out this new stride and think it is helping me a lot.

I am going to continue to wait until the end of the month to decide about Leadville but am feeling more confident every day. Excited to see how I continue to improve in the next few weeks. My first race is in Gunnison on the 23rd and I am hoping to do the full 50K but may have to back that down to 25K. I’ll keep you posted on that.

~stubert.

I think I may have met Yo…

Keep your god damned hands off my wife. ~ H.I. McDunnough

Recently, I started visiting a running coach, Janet Runyan, in an effort to see if changing my form could help with my abdominal problems and make me a more efficient (and subsequently less injured) runner. I found out about Janet several weeks ago when she hosted a seminar about “running with injuries”. I liked what I heard and signed up to have her take a stab at improving my steeze.

Janet won a bunch of prestigious ultradistance races including Leadville in 2001, and is the current record-holder for Masters Women in that event with a finishing time of 21:47:44. Pretty amazing. So far, she is really helping me a lot and today’s short run was a huge improvement in the pain department over anything I have experienced since some time in early October. Not pain-free by any means but a marked improvement over the past week’s runs for sure.

She has also helped me run “lighter” and so it feels at least like I am able to go the same speed at a decreased effort. That isn’t to say I am looking like a gazelle out there but I am starting to feel a lot more efficient. Good times.

Today, I took a little time to goof around on the ‘net and looked up Janet’s bio just to see what she had accomplished. Along with her race prowess, she is a music teacher with a performance degree in piano. She also was (or still is) a member of Divine Madness.

For those of you unfamiliar with Boulder running, there is a group of distance runners here called “Divine Madness” that has made quite an impression on the Ultradistance community. Their influence has dimmed a bit of late but in their heyday they were frequent podium finishers in many of the sport’s toughest races. Five-time Leadville champ Steve Peterson comes from the DM camp. They have been likened to a cult by some circles and if one believes the stories, practiced some definitely untraditional methods to achieve their running successes.

Their leader, Marc “Yo” Tizer, is an interesting character (or worse) and has been accused of some pretty heinous behavior. There is quite a bit of information out there that details the DM lifestyle and allegations but this article by Michael Finkel is probably the most thorough. I actually read this several years ago when researching ultradistance running and wondering about Divine Madness and their influence on the sport. Funny how things come full circle.

So anyway, I was meeting with Janet last night and her housemates were cooking dinner. One of them looked suspiciously like Yo. He was wearing a towel. Given what I have read, that sounds just about right.

~stubert.