training log 3/30

Pretty good week.  The weather is starting to get nicer and that makes it easier for me to go out and run.

Mon - 3.75 mi - down past the baseball stadium and back to the house

Wed - ~4 mi, Palmer Point loop with a little extra added in.

Sun - 10.2 mi, Incline Club workout

Total 18 mi

first incline club workout

Finally got off my ass and went to an Incline Club workout. Got there a few minutes early, ran into a girl that recognized me from the RunnersWorld forums, signed in and then hit the streets. Ran up to Ute Pass Trail, over to Waldo Canyon about a mile in, and then came back the same way. I forgot how much the first couple of hills on UPT suck. Definitely need to get some more hill training in, but I guess thats why I show up to run with those folks.

Map of the run:


Not near as sore as I thought I would be today. More tired in the legs than anything. Thursday night workouts start on Thursday and I'm planning to make it over to Manitou for that as well.

training log 3/16

Another busy week.

Saturday - 5K; 30:34 (PR)

Sunday - 2.5 mi on treadmill; 33:00 (10 minutes at 10% incline)

5.6 mi; 63 min

yes i ran today and a crazy dream

Josh and I talked yesterday about heading into Palmer Park to run the Templeton loop at some point today.  The weather wasn't great this morning but there was no wind and it was hovering right around the freezing point.  Michelle and I headed out for breakfast and I planned to look Josh up after that.  It started drizzling at breakfast but I decided I'd still like to get a run in. (Michelle insists I plan to run on days like this to get people to question my sanity)  I called Josh and he decided to bail.  I went and scooped up the dog and decided that I would hop on the treadmill at my parents' house instead of getting out in this mess.  The dog gets to play with his sister over there anyway.  I warmed up with a brisk walk for 5 minutes and then cranked the incline to 10% and ran a mile at 3.7mph.  Not blazing by any stretch but it's a manageable pace on steep terrain.  I turned the incline down and finished up a very slow recovery run of just over 2 miles in a little over 30 minutes.

I woke up out of a wicked dream in bed this morning.  I remember running in the Pikes Peak Ascent and having the lungs to actually jog above treeline (I told you it was a dream).  I felt like I was making great time but there weren't any other runners anywhere near me.  I finally made it to the finish line and there were only a few people milling around.  Just like the St Pat's 5K race, the clock was missing.  I don't remember anything after that but I somehow found out that I had run the Ascent in a shade over 7 hours. WTF?!  That's a good half hour past the cutoff and over two hours longer than my goal!  When I finally got my wits about me after waking up, I realized it was only March and I had plenty of time to avoid something like that happening.

Already dreaming about the Ascent.... guess I got it on the brain.

goals

Made a quick update to the goals page.  It's silly to chalk one up so early in the season and not raise the bar a little bit.

st pats 5K

Woke up early on Saturday, had some breakfast, and started getting my head right for the 5K on St. Patrick's Day in downtown Colorado Springs.  I changed clothes a few times because every time I looked out the window the weather was doing something different.  Finally decided I would wear shorts and a tech shirt.  I had a windbreaker with me to stay a little warm before the race and ended up tying it around my waist just before the start.

Once we got the gun we headed off down Tejon St.  About a block in my legs felt already felt weak like I needed food.  Too late now... I kept on.  Once the crowds thinned out a bit, I settled into a comfortable but faster than normal pace.  I caught up with a few people that I was running with after a couple blocks and ran with them for a bit.  The race as a whole was pretty uneventful.  I found myself behind a couple dudes who were juggling the entire time and still holding a pace that was a little quicker than my own.  Badasses!

I was pretty disappointed that there wasn't so much as one water stop or a mile marker anywhere on the course and when I rolled into the finish line all jazzed to see my time, there was no clock to be found.  My stopwatch/hrm has been inop for about 4 months since the dog ate it and nobody else around me seemed to have a watch on.  I was left to wait until the sheets were posted at Runner's Roost later in the day.

I quickly found my parents (how cool of them to come out and cheer me on) and told them that I was going to find my fiance and bring her in.  I made it another two blocks north on Tejon and found her.  I ran with her down to the final turn and stopped and waited for her to cross the line and meet up with my parents and all of our friends.

We decided to head over to Old Chicago to claim seats for the parade and start swilling celebratory beers.  Not long after we were there, Jill came back from Runner's Roost with times for everyone.  My goal was a 32:00 but I would have been pleased with a 33:00 still being well into PR territory for me.  When I saw her sheet, I read my time and threw my hands in the air.  30:34!  I was completely surprised by that and also very pleased.  Granted, it was hardly a maintainable pace for me over any distance more than what we had done, it felt really good destroying an old PR and getting so close to a new milestone.  Hopefully, I can crack out a sub 30 min 5K before the season is out.  Time to update the goals!

race plans

Unlike others, I can't just train for one race until August.  I need some intermediate events to keep me motivated and set benchmarks. Here is what I've got planned between now and the end of the summer:

- 5K on St. Patrick's Day - A fun and fast 5K in downtown COS.  This will mark the one year anniversary of entering a race.  Looking forward to setting a new 5K PR.

- UCCS Bash the Bluffs (27 April)- Finally found some info on active.com.  They are offering a 5K, 10K and children's fun run this year.  New loop course this year.  Leaning towards the 10k.

- Take 5 in the Garden (3 May) - 5 miler in Garden of the Gods

-Garden of the Gods 10 Mile (8 Jun) - First leg of the TCR

- Summer Roundup Trail 12K (6 July) OR Barr Trail Mountain Race (13 July) - Will asses this as it gets closer.

After the early July races, I'll spend the rest of the weekends on the mountain, hopefully above tree line.

pikes peak ascent registration

Kudos to the RDs for a job well done.  Unfortunately, they are still letting active.com handle the business end of things, but it was MUCH smoother than last year.  I logged on at about 10 til noon yesterday and after clicking the "register" button a couple of times only to get the "too busy" errors, I found a registration page.  I quickly entered my info and pasted in my qualifying link and I was in.  A couple minutes went by before I had Josh's entry confirmed as well.

The qualification criteria certainly seemed to have slowed the rush down to a much more sane pace and it took a whole 67 minutes for Wave 2 to fill.  Compare that with 9 last year.

We spent a bunch of weekend nights on the incline last year and I don't think that will cut it this year.  If we get the regular incline crew going over to Ruxton again once things warm up, I'm going to spend time running up Barr instead of trudging up the stairs on the Incline.  Hopefully, I can make the Sunday workouts with the Incline Club as well.

Now that I'm in, it's time to talk about goals.  I'd like to finish in under 5:00:00.  I had trained for this last year and was hitting a pace close to that on the bottom half of the course and also above tree line during training runs.  On race day, I abandoned all pace strategy and settled in with the back of the pack and never pressed the pace after the W's.  Lesson learned.  I'll continue to take my time on the W's again this year, but will certainly look to make up time after No-Name and up to Barr Camp.  I've got a long time to go before I need to get serious about hitting splits on the pace chart.  It's all about putting in the time and miles on the hills for right now.

Got the 5K on St. Pat's Day this Saturday and I'm going to get out on a trail on Sunday also.

On the weight front, I hit 204 this morning.  I finally decided to commit to some dietary changes to go along with the increased training.  I was still eating the same crap and wasn't seeing much in the way of weight coming off.  The changes have already paid off.  I was bouncing between 207 and 210 depending on the day and I feel like I've already busted through a plateau.  I actually weigh less than I did at race time last year, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

palmer point loop

It finally warmed up yesterday afternoon and Josh and I headed out to Palmer Park with intentions of tackling the Palmer Point loop.  Once we found the trailhead, about a quarter mile away from the parking lot behind the stables, we headed out.  The trail is much smoother than the Templeton trail which follows the ridge above the Palmer trail.  I ran for maybe 5 or 6 minutes and was drenched in sweat and had to stop to remove my windbreaker.  We continued on around to Lazy Land and I was beat.  A full day of snowboarding on Saturday had pretty much trashed my calves and they didn't want to move me up the hills on Sunday.

We ended up at the parking lot at the top of the Mesa and found the Templeton trail and headed back to the trailhead.  We hit the cutoff for Edna Mae Bennett and Josh noted it was only 2.5 miles at that point.  Instead of continuing down, we stayed on Templeton and ran the rest of the way around the canyon and back around to the southwest edge of the ridge before doubling back on the spur down to the trailhead.  We ended up with 4.85 miles on the trail in about 1:18.  I did most of the stopping and slowing down.  It was a nice mix of terrain and a beautiful day to get out in the park.

training log 3/9

After all that the week of 3/2, I managed no miles running this past week. Had midterms, weather, and life get in the way. I did manage to get a full day of snowboarding in on Saturday and my legs feel it. My shins do feel a little better, though.

training log 3/2

Felt really good about mileage last week. It's probably been since I was running to Barr Camp and back on the weekends last summer that I have done this many miles in a week. Good thing is I'm starting a lot earlier this year.

Mon - 3.5mi

Tues - 3.75mi

Thurs - strength training

Fri - 5 mi on the bike and strength training

Sat - 3.75 mi

11 mi, 3:45.  All the running this week was on a technical trail that requires some power hiking over pretty nasty rock fields.

Is it summer yet?!

days like today

... are what make living here absolutely amazing.  We headed out to run Templeton yet again today and got to the trailhead a few minutes after 9am.  It was easily already 50 something degrees and no wind.  The trails were packed with people and dogs, but it was a perfect day for a run.  Josh had his Forerunner 201 on so I got an accurate measure of the trail distance.  It's only 3.75mi not the 4.1 according to PPRR.

Shin splints are still bothering me a bit.  I'm sure I upped the mileage way too much this week but it's not too bad.  I've been icing them and eating ibuprofen.  It never bothers me when I run but I can usually feel it for a couple days afterward.  I'm planning on getting most of my work on the bike next week and let the shins rest a bit.

Speaking of the bike, I decided to ride the 2.5mi one-way to the gym last night to get in a workout.  You never notice the hills until you're running or cycling.  Of course, its mostly downhill on the way to the gym and uphill on the way back.  Nothing too terrible and makes for a nice workout.