ouch

Spent most of the day Saturday in the yard bent over pulling weeds and then shoveling 6+ cubic yards of mulch into a wheelbarrow and dumping it in the newly weeded areas. Yard looks much nicer but my hamstrings and back are hating me for it.

Hope I can get a run in tomorrow at some point.

friday 8/28

Thought about doubling up yesterday but the knees felt a little stiff so I hung out at home and made dinner for the wife.

Left work a little early and grabbed the dog and headed to Manitou to go up the Incline. Temps were nearing 90 per the thermometer in my Jeep when I got there but most of the trail was covered in shade. I wore the HR monitor and kept an eye on it trying to stay aerobic. I only had problems in the steep stretch between the bailout and the false summit but kept things under control outside of that section. Dragging the dog up is quite the chore. He gets hot pretty quick and drinks most of my water and still gets stubborn. Nearing the bailout, I gave him a lengthy break to lay down in the dirt and cool off for a few. We would do this 3 more times before the false summit and just as many after it.

I hit the top in 1:04 which is my second slowest time ever, but wasn't terribly upset because the effort was extremely easy. I didn't even feel the need to stop at the top and quickly made my way down the steep trail and back onto Barr. Hung out at Ruxton creek for a few minutes letting the dog cool off and get a drink and then headed back to the car.

Went 3.6 mi in a blistering 1:44:17.

thursday 8/27

I was stoked to get out and get a run in Palmer Park this morning. Got about 15 minutes in before my stomach twisted up in knots. A lot of starting and stopping and squeezing to keep things intact. I would have gone Brownie style but the park was pretty crowded this morning and I didn't want to give anyone a free show. Ended up walking most of the last mile. Got a total of 3mi in and heart rate was well under what it the usual range.

weekend in grand lake

Went up to Grand Lake with the fam this weekend. I did some recon on the internets before heading up to find some runs close by to get me out of the condo for a few hours in the mornings.

Sat - planned on heading up to Shadow Mountain Lookout via a 4.8 mile singletrack trail in the forest. About the time I got to the trailhead I realized I had forgotten to grab my water bottle when I headed out. I got about a half mile up the trail and then headed back into town with a long loop around the main drag and back to the condo. Made it a 4 mi run, avg HR 139.

Sun - take 2 on Shadow Mountain. Geared up and drove to the trailhead so as not to turn it into a death march getting back to the condo when I was done. Made it to the top in 1:30 and ran a lot more of the trail than I thought I would be able to. Backed off when the HR alert went off. Felt really good. Snapped a couple pics from the lookout and ran back down.



Monday - Woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep so I got in another 3.5 easy miles around the town of Grand Lake.

Looking forward to doing another MAF test this week and see how things are progressing.

ascent pics

A few pics from Saturday


pikes peak ascent race report

After a week of anticipation and rest, Saturday morning finally got here and it was time to get down to business. I felt really good about the week leading up to the race and pretty confident that I could go out and get a sub 5.

We got to Manitou a few minutes before the gun went off for wave 1 and started making preparations. I couldn't decide what to carry with me. I figured it would be nice to have a poly long sleeve in case it got cold at the top but with the possibility of rain in the forecast I decided on a light waterproof windbreaker. I stuffed a fleece beanie in the pocket and tied the jacket around my waist.

I made my way to the back of the pack at the start line and jogged up and down the block behind the line a couple times to warm up. Shortly thereafter the gun went off and the crowd snaked through the streets of Manitou. About a block into the race, I noticed my shorts were falling off. I had 4 GUs stuffed into one of the pockets and the extra weight was pulling them down. I quickly tied the drawstring and didn't have to worry about mooning the crowd behind me for the rest of the day. No sooner than I had my shorts tied up, the HR alert went off on my watch. Dammit, what the hell was I doing in the half hour standing around before the race? I shuffled through the menus and finally made the beeping stop. Before I even got to Ruxton, the jacket I had tied around my waist started unrolling and flapping around. I removed it, tied a knot in the middle of it, and then knotted it tightly around my waist again. Finally, about 6 minutes into the race, the junkshow was over and it was time to focus on getting to the top of a mountain.

I yelled at GZ on the curb as I was heading up Ruxton. The rest of the race up to Barr Camp was fairly uneventful. I felt really good with the pace I was able to maintain versus the effort I was putting in. Clearly, the aerobic training is paying off. I was definitely above an aerobic heart rate but it seemed much easier than the trip up to Barr Camp a month prior in the BTMR. I hit all my splits for a sub 5 up to Barr Camp right on target and came into camp at 2:30.

My lack of altitude training really started to shine past Barr Camp, however. I was about 10 minutes behind pace getting to A-Frame and it didn't get much better above that. I focused on keeping a decent pace and not doing anything to spike the HR into the red zone. I think I stopped once during the first mile above treeline for about a minute and then kept crawling towards the summit. The final mile would prove slow with a lot of traffic in front of me. Once we got past the Fred Barr memorial plaque, I found an opening and passed about seven runners in the final couple of switchbacks and darted across the line at 5:28:37. Certainly well short of my "A" goal of sub 5 but I was under 5:30 and set a new PR by 14 minutes and change. Considering the training I was doing in the month since BTMR, I'm pretty pleased with my race.

Of course, I am grateful that my wife and my mom came up to hang out in the wind on the summit to cheer me on even if they could only see me for 4 minutes of the 5+ hours that I was on the course. It truly is an amazing feeling when I hear them yelling at me from the top.

Going forward, I will probably just keep running at slow pace and continue to build an aerobic base. This is the first time since I started running a few years ago that I have some semblance of reason for why I'm doing what I'm doing when I go out running and its nice to see some progress as well. I read Hadd before when I first started running and thought I put those principles into practice in my running. Thanks to GZ and Lucho for ranting on their blogs about how slow and how easy "slow and easy" is really supposed to be. Reading these guys really drove it home and I just took what I read and ran with it (pun intended).

wednesday aug 12

Rolled out of the rack at 10 after 5 this morning and noticed it was still REALLY dark outside. I took my sweet time getting ready and was worried that I might have to take a light with me when I finally got on the trails at Palmer Park. Luckily, when I got to the trailhead, the sun had moved close enough to the horizon that the trail was just visible enough.

I took the dog for a nice 4 mi jaunt in the park. The weather was perfect and I felt pretty good. I had the HR monitor on the entire time but I really think the battery is shot. It still provides a reading but unless my fitness has improved by leaps and bounds over the past couple weeks, I'm inclined to believe it's reading about 15 beats low.

Kept things pretty tame and let the effort run up on a couple of the longer hills.

I was looking at the pace chart yesterday on MC's site. After a quick review, I feel pretty good mentally about going sub 5 on Saturday. I can only hope that my legs and lungs cooperate. Going for a massage this afternoon and will be taking it easy until Saturday morning.

week recap 8/8

Aug 4
Got a long run in after work. Battery on the watch died about 30 min in. Mapped the run to 5.6 mi and really tried to keep the HR low.

Aug 5
Half hour on the bike. Avg HR 146, max 152.
1 mi on the treadmill at 4% - Avg HR 147, max 152.

Aug 6
Indigo Joe's group run. 3.3 mi, Avg HR 150, max 168 (pushed a little hard to get out of the sprinklers before the finish of the course)

Aug 8
Started at Memorial Park around 8am and headed towards the Incline. Had the dog in tow, and he wasn't ready to do the full course. Bailed halfway so I wouldn't have to carry him back down. Kept the HR in check for most of the climb with a couple spikes into the low 160s. And the spike to 224(WTF?) before I even got to Ruxton. I will be replacing the battery in the HR strap before the race on Saturday.

Not looking to do much this week. I'll probably hit Palmer Park on Wednesday morning to get in 5-6 and then a short run Thursday morning. Looks like the weather might be decent for Saturday and I'm getting excited.