Go slow to go fast.

1:02:30 - 8.75 Miles - 7:08 avg - 0 vert. - HR: 155 avg

Negative 8 degrees this morning in Boulder...perfect running weather!!  If you're indoors that is.  Fortunately Jason was up for meeting at the indoor track, which comes in really handy on a day like today. 

Unfortunately, Jason had banged his knee and decided once he showed up that he was going to need to take the bus home to make sure he didn't tweak his knee the week of a race.

But my friend Ryan had shown up, so luckily I wasn't going to be all alone for the workout.

After a warmup, strides and stretching, I jumped into a 4 x 1600 meter with 400m rest workout.

Here were my splits: 5:33, 5:38, 5:26, 5:37.  I threw in 2 x 200 for good measure afterward at 29 and 30 seconds.

Not super even on my mile splits.  I was on track on the 2nd mile for another 5:33 or so, and I kind of slacked on the last 200 and lost 4 seconds.  Kind of lame to give up on the last lap.  So the third mile I went after it the whole time and nailed that one.  Ryan was basically running 2 out of the 4 400's with me, and then recovering.  It was nice to have him to chase during the later laps in the mile.  But after the third mile he left to go home, so I was on my own.  And it was surprising how much that affected me mentally during the final mile.  It would have been easy to bail half way through that last mile, and that mile was definitely a tough effort to hold onto that pace the last few laps.  Mostly mentally.  I think just the fact that I knew I was going to have to write down my splits on here gave me some mental power to push the last few though.  Interesting how that works.

Great workout this morning.  I am really enjoying the consistency of a weekly flat speed workout.  And it has been really beneficial to my overall running fitness. 

6.3 miles - 51 min - 8:07 avg - HR: 136 avg - 810' vertical

Really easy run up to NCAR and back on Table Mesa.  Ran in the afternoon sun so it was way warmer than this morning...it was a scorching 8 degrees by the time I ran.  But really 8 degrees is not bad if you wear enough layers.  It was great to be outside running.  It was cool to watch the shadow extending across Boulder Valley as the sun went farther behind the mountains.  Still no treadmill for me this winter, and I don't see any reason to change that. 

Indulged myself with 4 gloriously slow and flat miles in about 40 minutes.  Recharging the legs.

Well, the training is officially in the bank...not much more to it now than a couple taper weeks.

Today's run I was unsure how I'd feel, because I had kind of a big early week of solid workouts.  But I felt great and everything felt solid and enjoyable today, which was really pleasing.   The last mile or so I started to feel tired in a couple spots, but minus that it was a great feeling run.

18 Miles - 2:48:27 - 9:22 avg - HR 142 avg -  3150' vertical.

The route today was up McClintock to Mesa.  Across mesa all the way to the eldorado trailhead (about 6 miles), then back across mesa to Chataqua, then down baseline and across broadway to home. 

It started snowing right when I started my run and it didn't ever stop.  By the time I came back across the mesa trail it was dumping and all the tracks were filled in.  The fresh, sticky snow provided great traction, and softer than normal surface the entire run, which was kind of nice. 

Weekly summary: 61.5 miles - 9 hr 45 min. - 9500' vertical 

Easy jog to start the week off: 

4.75 - 45 min - 9:28 avg - 400' vertical

I'm going to scale back to the low 40's in the mileage this week.  I'll probably do one flat speed work day, one trip up green, and the rest just easy cruising. 

FAIL!

I finally succumbed to the treadmill this morning, thus failing in my no-treadmill winter resolution.

I was going to do Green mtn. with Jason, but watching the howling wind and snow at 10pm last night, and knowing it would be about 5 degrees outside and plodding through 1-2 foot snow drifts, I decided to turn in my man card this morning and head over to the gym.

Oh well...it was a fun goal while it lasted.  But I have to admit it was nice running in shorts and a t-shirt and running fast without slipping and sliding.  Especially considering the alternative snow slog hiking in 5 degrees.

9 miles - 1:03:30 - 7:03 avg - HR: 150 avg

I put it on level 1 incline,  did a 2.5 mile warmup, then a mile worth of 4 strides.  Then I did a 2 mile interval in 11:30 (5:45 pace) - Then a half mile slow, then 1 mile at 5:45 (170 avg HR).   I was considering doing two 2 mile intervals, but I was ready to be done running fast after the 3rd mile.  The workout felt good though, my legs are feeling pretty recovered right now.

4.75 miles - ~48 minutes - ~500' vert - Watch died 1/4 mile in so I don't know for sure, but what  beautiful sunny morning to be out running in the foot hills!  Absolutely loved the run this morning.  One of those runs where time seemed non-existent and being out moving through the mountains was all there was.  

Couldn't ever get out for a run today until 8:30 pm.  I hate it when that happens.  I always have better days when I go running first, rather than thinking I may not have time to run all day.

But it sure felt good to run when I finally did get out.  

4 miles really easy -  32:56 - 280' vertical

Just ran up table mesa and back.  For road running, I love running up table mesa.  It's really wide with a huge bike lane and a decent amount of incline. 

Really nice easy run with Steve and Brendan this morning.  We all live within a few blocks of each other, but for some reason we haven't all been out running together yet.  

Today the plan was a casual pace up to mesa, and across for a while.  Maybe 10 miles.  Worked out perfectly.  The weather really warmed up this weekend too, which was really nice.  Made it comfortable running in shorts outside for the first time in a while.

9.75 miles - 1:30:57 - 9:21 avg - HR: 144 avg - 1550'

Weekly summary

44 Miles - 6 hrs 5 min. - 3100' vertical.  Good taper week. 

Easy 4 miles - 7:45 pace - 320' vert.  Just ran up table mesa and back.  Already itching to run faster and longer.

And then this....http://ryanwburch.blogspot.com/2011/02/final-race-before-fun-on-slickrock.html

Crap.  He had to do that, and put all this pressure on me!  Fortunately I know he's joking, and that he and I are both well aware that he is likely to obliterate me in a 55K race despite the fact that I beat him at the line in a 5K last month.  But hey, at least now I have a little extra motivation.  And while I cannot claim to have much hope that I'm going to blow by Ryan in the final miles of the race, I'm sure it will be fun trying!  My guess is that I'm going to let him and just about everyone else go ahead early on in the up hills because I will likely need to go slower at first to keep my HR in the range I want it in.  And then just hope after 25 miles I have conserved enough energy and quad strength to blast the down hills all out and catch a few people.

Cool interview with Nan published today on Runner's World

Felt the desire to get some turn over going today.  It's hard to just go slow all the time when you're accustomed to going faster a couple days a week, and Nan convinced me it would be a good day to do a really light easy workout.

So I did an easy run with a number of 45 second strides mixed in just to make sure my legs and heart don't forget their job.

The strides felt surprisingly easy even at a fairly decent pace, which is always nice.  They were so short though, that any pace probably would have felt easy.

Ran with Steve this morning which was great.  He's also doing Moab this weekend, fun to chat about that and other stuff.

paces for the 45 second intervals: 5:16, 5:17, 5:21, 4:11, 4:10, 4:16, 4:18 - I'm enjoying how a quicker pace has become pretty comfortable now after close to 3 months of consistent speed work.  Those paces would have felt really awkward for any amount of time a few months ago.

totals: 7.5 miles - 59:30 - 7:57/avg - 570' vertical - HR 139 avg 

4 slow recovery miles.  Flat.  Slow.  The end.

4 easy miles up Table Mesa and back.  32 min. 320' vert.

Legs starting to feel pretty fresh.  I'm guessing they will be itching to move come Saturday. 

Some easy shakeout miles...last little jaunt before the race tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to actually running again tomorrow...I'm kind of bored with these little 4 mile warm up jogs that end before they begin.  

But todays was a little more interesting because after a mile of like 9:30 pace waking up, Brendan Trimboli caught up with me from behind, so it woke me up and we ran the dirt road loop together in a more normal 7:30 ish pace before I headed the .5 to home.  He's a cool kid, and I imagine we'll run more often this year as we live a few blocks away from each other.

Also, I broke out some new shoes that came yesterday in the mail from shopnewbalance.com that I got for 39 dollars including shipping.  They're pretty nice, I'm pleased.  I really like how soft and comfortable the uppers are.  It's the first pair of road flats I've ever worn.   The heal to toe drop ratio is almost identical to the mt101's, very minimal .  Which is still more than the zero I would like, but good enough.  Plus, I get to stay in the Christmas spirit year round with these beauties!

Great Race!  Loved the event.  Survived the wind, and just enjoyed being out there running through the slick rock.  

Here's a brief race report and pics.  Probably more to follow later. 

Wow...slow running at its finest!  3 miles in about 36 minutes....nice!  At least my knees weren't totally wobbly by the end.  It felt good to get some movement.

Well...still slow.  But not wobbly this time, that's a plus

3 miles flatish in about 32:30. 

And what do you know?  Still slow!  But feeling better each day.  Today I felt totally normal starting out the run.  But my legs still feel like they have a slow governor on them.

4.75 Miles - 47:50 (10:01) - 500' vertical.  

Who knows, maybe by tomorrow I might be able to get my speed down to like 9:30 avg pace at this rate!

I clearly need the slower, easy miles right now though.  Even though my muscles weren't sore at all after the race, my joints (hips and knees) were somewhat tender and are the seemingly limiting factors right now.  Good to take a slow week though to fully recover. 

Very nice morning easy run in the sun with my neighbor Steve (the one who took 8th place on Saturday handily kicking my butt).  We just took it really easy up skunk canyon across mesa and down bear back to lower skunk and home.  Really fun run.  Great to be cruising easy on single track and chatting for an hour catching up on the race and talking about plans for the year etc.

And the legs are coming around more and more each day getting closer to normal again.  Felt almost normal today actually...still a bit slow and a minor twinge around my left knee at one point.  But I went to Richey for some ART directly after the run and I can already tell that was really beneficial.

8 miles - 1:13:29 (9:13)  - HR 140 avg - 1080' vertical

My good friend Eric was in town for the Pearl Izumi trail team summit, he was hired as the photographer.  And so he invited me out to run with the group Friday morning.  

It was cool to meet Tim Olson and Ian Sharman, as well as to run and chat for a while with Nick Clark and Scott Jaime.  A bunch of cool people in that group.

We ended up navigating sheets of ice under and inch of fresh powder on the mesa trail which was interesting since nobody had spikes on and everyone was falling all over the place.  It was kind of comical.  But we managed to get a run in.

Although my left knee started feeling pain on the back/side periodically throughout the easy run, and made me well aware that something is going on in my left leg that needs attention.  I made it through the run ok by stretching my hip/glut a couple times, but realized I need to get some knots and junk worked out in my upper calf, hammy, and glut before I should be running on this thing and aggravating it.  

Scheduled a massage for saturday and an extended ART session for Monday. 

no running today...got a good short massage on my left leg mostly.

I'm glad I have plenty of time and no rush to fully recover from Moab, because I obviously need it.  I never felt any pain in the race...but its obvious that the 34 miles of steady effort taxed my left glut/hamstring, and upper left calf.  So I will just take it really easy this next week, and get a couple good ART sessions in, and do very light active recovery.  

Its annoying to have tight/painful spots...but the timing is as good as it could possibly be if I have to have them.

No Running.  Did pushups, pullups, and 15 min. core work via Ab ripper X.

40 min. ART session in the AM with Richey.  There are definitely some knots in various places in my left leg.  He recommended waiting until Wednesday to run.