Finally started learning how to run in '09 after totally botching it up for the 14 years prior and dealing with chronic IT injury...have had zero IT band pain since fall of '09 and have run way more than ever before in my life...loving it.
PR's
Road Mile: 4:44 - Pearl St Mile August 2011
2K: 6:32 - Uni HIll 2K 2011
3K: 10:07 - West end 3K 2011
5K - 16:53 - Turkey Leg 5K 2011
10K - 38:38 - Butte to Butte Eugene OR 2003
Half - Never raced a half
Road Marathon - 2:57:19 - 11/12/2011 - solo.
Trail Marathon - 4:48 - Kings peak August 2011
55K - 4:59:54 - Moab red hot 55K 2011
Short-Term Running Goals:
Be healthy, run injury-free, listen to my body.
Sub 16 min 5K
Sub 34 min 10K
Sub 2:40 Marathon
2012 Tentative Schedule
Quicker Quaker 5K January
Boston Marathon - April
??
Long-Term Running Goals:
Get stronger, faster and more fit as a runner and biker to allow for bigger adventures as the years go on.
Still be running in my 80's.
Personal:
I'm married to Nan Kennard and she kicks my butt at running. She has beat me handily in every race we have done together except for a downhill mile we did once. She is my running inspiration. I'd like to run a marathon with her someday and actually keep up.
It was a gloriously sunny and beautiful spring day in Colorado today.
I did an hour kenpo p90X workout first thing in the morning while Nan was at a workout with her running team.
Then later in the day we took the kids hiking over in Boulder and I got to sneak in a VERY fun but quick trail run.
I ran about 3.5 miles in 9:18 pace. Time: 32:50. My last mile was a 6 minute mile, with the last half being 5:24. It felt good to go fast, but it required a straight smooth steep down hill for this 186 pounder to get going that fast for that long. I was pretty pleased with the 9:18th pace that felt totally comfortable and easy even though the run had 1000 Feet of elevation gain in the first 2 miles. The 2nd 1.5 miles back were down hill.
Gorgeous sunny day:
I realized after and during this run that I really like running with a hat when its hot, because if I don't I just have sweat pouring into my eyes. That's definitely going to be a new habit for me.
When I came back down the trail I met up with the family who was hiking up and we hiked around for a couple miles. The kids loved it. We both thought it was about a billion times more peaceful and relaxing, and just as fun as Disneyland, and free, and in our own back yard. The kids actually seemed to have more fun running around and climbing rocks and jumping through rivers than much of the time spent at Disneyland.
Although in LA we did go to the beach one night last week, made a fire and some s'mores, which was really fun, and the best part was watching my 4 year old Breanne who is a total dare-devil'ette'. She was just launching herself off this 4.5 foot ledge onto the sand with no regard, check out one of the better pics where she ended up just eating a face full of dirt and laughing it off. It was pretty awesome watching her go after this ledge drop over and over.
It was an amazing sunset and a really fun evening playing with the fam and hanging out with my friend Ryan Nicholls and his family who we haven't seen in a few years.
I'm a sucker for trails through the mountains. And I'm totally spoiled...luckily enough.
Here are a couple of my views this morning, which don't even do it justice at all.
Ran 7.5 glorious sunny miles of mountainous trails. Exactly 1 hour 30 minutes. pace showed 12:06/mile and 3300 Feet of elevation gain. The sun was already fully up when I started driving to the trail head. It was really windy by my house, but perfect in the foothills.
This is one of those mornings where I feel completely blessed to be able to run and not be injured.
And now I'm getting super excited to go to Crested Butte this weekend. Nan and I are getting away for the weekend for our 8th anniversary. 3 days in the mountains running and biking and hanging out with my best friend and not changing diapers or putting out fights. Yes, it is going to be very nice indeed.
As I ran down the trail in that 2nd picture today though, my mind was filled with memories of hiking that exact section with my 2 year old Ali holding on tight to my finger just 3 days ago and it brought joy to my heart as I ran, and I couldn't help just laughing out loud and grinning at how blessed I am. Each time I jumped a mud puddle I heard Ali say 'muddies' in the cutest way ever. It was a cool way to end the run, and made me very grateful to be able to share trail experiences with my family.
On vacation, just Nan and I and a weekend in Crested Butte. Here's what I did today:
Slept in until 8:45, Did an hour long core synergistics workout with Nan in our Hotel Suite which is a great workout because it works every core area on the body plus shoulders and upper legs and leaves you feeling great all over and ready to pounce on the day.
Then went into town and had a delicious omelet and french toast breakfast at a little cafe.
Then went trail running for and hour and a half with Nan on the 'lower loop' right outside the town of Crested Butte. Fun run. Muddy and snowy in a couple spots, but gorgeous single track rolling up a canyon and back.
Then back to the Hotel so Nan could take a Nap.
Then another 2 hours of trail running on the 'upper loop' from our hotel. An absolutely amazing single track through the forests with awesome views and lots of good climbing. I went out for 5 1/4 miles and came back. This was the highlight of the day, so much FUN!
I took an s-cap every hour and a Vespa before running and felt great on my runs the whole day. About 3.5 hours total. I ran out of water the last 25 minutes and so the last mile up a super steep hill to our hotel was kind of tough, but was a nice way to finish off an epic day of running. The first part of my run was about 7 miles pretty slow and easy in about 1:20. The 2nd part was 10.5 miles in 1:51:30 - 10:37/mile pace - 3200 Feet of climbing.
Then we both got an hour massage, ate at a delicious burrito joint which hit the spot, then saw a movie at the local theater and then hit the hot tub and headed to bed about 10 or so.
It's nice to have no set schedule and no rush to be anywhere as a change of pace here and there. Here are some pictures I took on my phone of the trail running today:
Another great day in Crested Butte and Gunnison. As great as yesterday was today rivaled it for sure.
We woke up and ran first thing in the morning. Nan did an intense workout of 1000m repeats and I did a fun hour long loop on a trail down into town and back up to the hotel. I met her on the trail on part of the run and tried to keep up with her in her 5:35 pace for 1000m and I was not hacking it. I stuck with her about 500 m and then I was back to my leisurely 7:30 pace. Then I hit the uphill again and it was 10-11 min pace. Splits for this run: 10:40, 7:52, 7:25, 7:10, 10:01, 10:03, 9:59 - 8:59 avg - exactly 1 hour - 1000 Ft down then 1000 Ft up.
After running we cooked up a delicious breakfast, did Yoga until about noon and then took a nap.
Then we went to Gunnison and hit up an AMAZING mountain biking/trail running scene at Hartman Rocks. We road our bikes and the single track was simply awesome. Here's a quick video...
Today I ran from Eldorado Canyon, up the mesa trail, up Bear Canyon, to the top of Green Mountain.
Ascent was 1:16 for 6.25 miles - 12:09/mile
Total: 12.5 Miles - 2:18 - 11:06/mile - 5240 Ft of climbing! I love running to the top of mountains. Its the best feeling and the most scenic way to run!
Despite my low mileage recently, I am pleased with my fitness level increase. Today I ran the 3 miles from the base of Bear Canyon to the top of Green mtn in 41 minutes. The other times I have run up Green it has taken me at least 55 min. Partially due to snow, but I can feel that doing p90X ever day has been improving my fitness level a lot over the past 6 weeks. Another good indicator of improvement is 2 months ago I ran trails for two hours around flagstaff mtn. Total elevation gain of 3600 feet, and I averaged 12:43/mile. Today with 5200 feet of elevation I ran 20 minutes longer and averaged 11:06/mile, including slowing down a bunch going down because of the excruciating pain of stubbing my same toe twice.
The boy scouts on the peak snapped a picture of me in my pasty whiteness - this is my 4th run up Green mt. this year I believe.
My foot is feeling pretty much back to normal today so I headed out for a run this afternoon. I wore my NB 790's for some foot protection since my foot is still slightly tender, but I don't think I needed them, and they gave me a couple small blisters, so i'm back to the FF's next run.
It was a gorgeous run. 70 degrees and sunny. My legs felt great. I ran a pretty hilly almost 10K route on rocky trails and really enjoyed it (except for a few moments when I found myself pushing too hard to try to keep my speed up and then my lungs/legs started burning so I backed off a bit in order to enjoy it again.) I felt it would be a shame not to fully enjoy the entire run because it was so gorgeous out there.
I ran 6.15 miles in 44:39 - 7:15/mile. It felt good to get out and run hard. My lungs were kind of feeling it toward the end though because they aren't used to working that hard.
I'm in Phoenix this weekend with the family because one of my real estate mentors Dan Doran flew us down here because he wanted me to be in his new infomercial. So look for me soon on late night TV...don't ask me why I agreed. He's a great guy though, really helped me out a lot and I wanted to do what I could to help him, plus it was a free trip and we can see some family down here.
So congrats to Nan who SLAUGHTERED the competition this morning at a local charity 5K. OK, there wasn't any competition really, but she did slaughter it with a 17:30 5K. There were only 2 other guys who could actually be classified as runners and they were multiple minutes behind her at the finish.
Then I headed to the hills 15 minutes away for a trail run. It was a phenomenal morning for a run. 85-90 Degrees, on the hot side, but not too hot. I really liked it. I love running with just shorts and some water. I found a trailhead in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve that looked cool and started running up. It was a pretty easy/moderate uphill run for the first 2 miles that kept getting gradually harder and harder. The last mile was a true butt kicker in every sense of the word, but I was ABSOLUTELY determined to run the entire way to the top (of the pass. I didn't see trails to the peaks, and I didn't want to be away from the fam all day, so I settled for the pass as my goal from the onset which was a 3.5 mile run out and then 3.5 back.)
Well, I was within 1/4 mile of the top and I stubbed my SAME STINKING INJURED LEFT TOE! Such a pain. I was barely moving going uphill at that point in about a 16 min/mile. It hurt decently bad and I had to stop and sit down for a minute. Which bummed me out, because I was feeling awesome.
By this point I was so close to the top I wasn't turning back yet, even though it was now hurting my foot a little bit to run on. I figured I had to make it down 3+ miles still anyway, so it wasn't going to make a difference to go a bit more to the top.
But the next 1/4 mile was pretty much straight up. I love super steep running, it feels so cool even though I'm going so slow, it just feels cool to keep running even though its so steep, and passing hikers and blowing by them at a sizzling 18 min/mile is kind of funny. Its just funny that I'm going so slow and yet everyone else is moving at about 30 min/mile or less at that point.
I made it, and I felt really good about making it and not bailing because my stupid foot hurt a little. But coming down was really slow going. I was ultra cautious with my foot and I descended the 3.5 miles back to the car probably 10+ minutes SLOWER than I had ascended it. It was between 35-40 minutes to get up, and a total of about 1:30 of total time out. I don't know because my watch died after 2 miles, and my phone battery died, so I had no clue what time it was.
Also, on the way down, the pads of my feet started hurting a lot, it was the weirdest thing. I think I figured out why, and it was because of all the fine desert sand that got in my FF's and was grinding against the front of my forefoot.
Super interesting roller coaster of a run. Never had that unpleasant of a downhill run before, usually I really enjoy the downhill, but because of my hurt left foot and the pads of my feet hurting, it was just kind of surviving the downhill. LOVED the uphill though.
And I'm really considering getting some different shoes to try out to protect my toes a bit better. It seems that when I'm tired, I get sloppier and I'm at risk of painful toe stubbs, which seems to be a drawback of the FF's in mountain running.
So anyone recommend a great shoe with a TOTALLY FLAT sole?! I really don't like a raised heal at all and I'd like to find a mountain shoe that will work as a supplement for me. I love running in my FF treks, but I would like an alternative for certain occasions when I want more protection, specifically like right now when my foot is trying to recover from injury.
Haven't been running this week yet. My foot is feeling a bit better each day, but I'm glad I'm still resting it. I'm going to run 2 or 3 times later this week, once I get some other shoes to test out.
I purchased 4 pairs of Inov-8's of various styles and sizes in order to try them on.
Nobody in Colorado sells them, so fortunately Zappos has free shipping both ways and no tax, so I'm just going to try on a bunch and send back all but the best one and then give those a shot.
I got 1 pair today, the Talons. I think I got them too long, but the problem is all Inov-8's seem to be medium width with no other width options and I have wide feet. So I ordered longer to see if that would help, but all it does it make them feel like clown shoes. Taking out the insole seems to help, but I'm not sure there is a really good shoe solution out there for my wide foot that because all the wide shoes I can find all have big raised heals. I really wish stubbing my toe wasn't an issue because I really love running in my FF's and they fit me perfectly.
I managed to get a 90 minute p90X workout in today, but no running, because I was waiting for more shoes to come since the first pair didn't fit well.
Well, after stubbing my left pinky toe REPEATEDLY in an EXCRUCIATINGLY painful way the last 2 weeks while mountain running, I have decided I need to do something to protect my toes better on certain types of runs.
So I'm in the market for some flat soled shoes that give my feet as much room to perform naturally as possible.
Zappos.com folks...WOW! If you want fast service, go there. Free overnight shipping, both ways, and no tax?!? Who needs a shoe store? Last night at 8:00 pm I placed an order online for 3 new pairs of inov-8's so I could try them on, and the package was on my door step tonight at 6:30 pm...with ZERO shipping charge.
Now I just need to decide on a pair and ship the rest back for free. But its a tough decision because I appear to have 3 great shoes to choose from.
Here's what I got:
From left to right, the roclite 295, mudroc 290, and the X-Talon 212.
All of them would work fine I think. I like them all for different reasons.
This is the roclite 295, it is by far the roomiest and most comfortable. I was very surprised and pleased with how much space there is in the toe box. But its also the most bulky (not that its even bulky at all by the normal trail shoe standards)
This is the X-Talon. It's only comfortable for me if I remove the insole, otherwise its too tight. But I found while running around the house that this one is by far the lightest and lowest profile, with the flattest sole and most flexibility. This one definitely gives the foot the most natural flexibility. But its pretty narrow and doesn't give the toes much room to move around. It feels good enough though, and I'm leaning toward this one because I'm so accustomed to my soles being right on the ground, and this one gets me closest to that out of the options I'm faced with.
How do I decide?? Or maybe I keep them both and try them both out. But that's an extra hundred bucks I have to drop to do that and I don't think that's necessary because I only really would use 1 pair, the one I liked more.
I brought all my various shoes to the trailhead this morning because I still couldn't figure out which shoes to go with and I thought maybe the trail would fill me in on the decision.
As I compared I remembered that the only reason to get different shoes was for protection from breaking my foot on rocks and stumps. And the roclites were the best choice in that regard.
Also, they are by far the most comfortable fitting. No tightness in the toes...and I didn't even have to remove the insole to get no tightness like I did in the NB 790's and the inov-8 talons.
Plus, jun and nevels, how could I resist your convincing conviction in the roclite 295's? You guys may as well be sponsored by that exact shoe with how much you raved about it.
Well, I ran an easy 5.4 miles, about 45 minutes on a rocky, hilly trail by my house and they felt great and did the job well of protecting my hurt left foot from pain and further injury. I'm very pleased with them and glad I went with the comfortable route rather than succombing to my ingrained desire to have as little sole as possible. I think these are going to be a good trail shoe for me.
Today I just did about 90 min of p90X. 125 pullups and a bunch of lunges and squats and the glorious Ab Ripper X.
But last evening I got another 3.5 miles in, totally leisurely and half of it was hiking. Nan and I got a baby sitter and went out to eat in Boulder. Then we hiked Mt. Sanitas. It's a 1200 foot climb in about 1.25 miles, pretty steep. I hiked most of it and enjoyed it a lot. But at the top I couldn't resist the urge to run the last 3-400 yards up to the peak, which felt great. Then we ran the last mile or so down the end of the loop. It was a nice date. So much better than dinner and a movie. Sitting on the peak at sunset looking at the lights come on over Boulder was a great way to enjoy time with my amazing wife.
That was an interesting run, it totally surprised me. It was a blazing fast 6.75 miles in 1:38.
I went to run Green Mountain because I wanted to see how my fitness level was coming along with a run up green as a test (and because its just a sweet fun trail).
It was a COMPLETELY GLORIOUS spring day and ALL of Boulder was out on the trails enjoying it. There were people everywhere, but the trail is wide enough it didn't make it hard to run. Seriously, its crazy how many cars and people there were around the base of the trails. But once in the mountains it didn't seem like there were that many people around at all.
The first mile is super steep, tons of stair stepper sections, and climbs over 900 Feet in 1 mile - And I did it in about 16 minutes...which was actually really fast for me.
The second mile is more than twice as easy since it only climbs 400 Feet. I got my avg pace down to 13:59 by the end of that mile. I was shooting for a 15 min/mile avg total to the peak, so I knew I had some work to do in the last mile because it climbs another 1000 Feet in the last 1.3 miles.
Then all of a sudden I found myself mysteriously trying to make out a faint trail with dead tree fall crossing the trail all over. At first I thought it was just a bit odd, and since I had never been this high without snow cover I just assumed that's what the trail looked like. But the faint trail I was on was now going straight up an insane incline and I realized I was off track. I had no idea where I had lost the real trail. so just decided to keep heading up. I got really disoriented and couldn't even tell if I was on the right mountain any more, it was really strange. And it was disheartening. And did I mention it was now insanely steep? I was barely even walking at this point. And at points I was scrambling up cliffs...yeah, I'm pretty sure I was off the trail.
Eventually (20 minutes later) I popped out on a trail and saw people and I was a 100 feet from the peak of Green, happily still on the right mountain so my bushwhacking could come to an end.
My detour had shortened the distance to the top by over 1/4 mile. And I learned very clearly that you would have to be in some AMAZING shape to be able to actually run up an incline of 700 Feet over .4 miles which is what the last portion of my 'run' today was. At that point in the run I was barely walking, let alone running up something that steep. My avg pace for the ascent ended up at 20:10 per mile...SMOKING FAST EH!?
I felt like I could relate to the Barkley runners in some really tiny small way, and it did not give me any desire to ever do that race for some crazy reason.
By the time I was on top I was dripping sweat like crazy and it took me 10 minutes longer than it would have if I had stayed on track.
I felt great running down and felt like I was almost cheating being able to blast down rocky sections with my padded and protective roclites.
I hope all the steep running I've been doing lately has prepared me well enough for MY FIRST ULTRA THIS COMING SATURDAY! The race I'm doing has about 9,000 feet of climbing over 30 miles, but none of it is quite as steep as the Green mtn. ascent, so I think I've been training on the right terrain. But also, 31 miles is way farther than I have ever run before, I'm excited to see how it goes. My body, legs, and feet all feel like they are finally ready to go and not injured, so I'm pretty stoked to go into next weekend feeling good...its going to be fun...I can feel it.
Bolder Boulder (6.2 Miles) 00:39:51, Place overall: 522, Place in age division: 16
Easy Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Threshold Miles
VO2 Max Miles
Total Distance
3.00
0.00
6.20
0.00
9.20
Races are fun! I really enjoyed the anticipation leading up to the race yesterday and then the subsequent morning of, and feeling like I'm on vacation, etc. Good times.
I didn't train at all for a road 10K, I think I did 1 half of a interval about a month ago with Nan when I was in between trails and that's about it. So I had no idea what to expect out of this race...but I felt like I was in good shape even though I've only been running 15-20 miles a week the last month.
My plan was to go out in just under 6:30 pace and hold that the whole race and my goal was just to do the race in sub 40 minutes. But I also didn't want to kill myself on this race or go all out because I've got my first 30 mile trail race this weekend and I'm a lot more interested in feeling ready for that. I decided to wear my nathan water bottle waist strap for this race with just one 10 oz. bottle in it. I'm so accustomed to wearing it, that I would almost feel weird without it...but also, I really like having water when I want it, and it is about 1 bazillion times easier to drink from a bottle than a little paper cup they hand you as you're flying by. It was a great decision, I loved having it during the race.
Nan and I warmed up for 2 miles before the race which was perfect for me. Then we waited about 7 minutes and we were off with the huge crowd. Everyone was going out at 5:45 pace or faster as I was in the very front in the first wave. That was not in my game plan so I just took it easy and let everyone go, as I held back to a 6 min/mile the first 1/2 mile. After that it starts up hill and I settled in right under 6:30 pace.
Mile 1: 6:15
The 2nd mile is uphill and I felt good, just held to my goal of sub 6:30 and it felt smooth and easy
Mile 2: 6:28
The 3rd mile was similar, mostly uphill. I felt great, in fact I wished the hills were steeper because I felt like I would pass more people if they were
Mile 3: 6:29
The fourth mile had a couple steeper sections and I knew this was the last of the main uphill of the course so I pushed harder and passed some people I had been tailing for a couple miles and my pace was stronger on this mile
Mile 4: 6:23
Then it was downhill for a mile, and I probably could have pushed a lot harder here, but I suppose I was content to recover on the downhill and save up for the final 3/4 mile uphill finish that I knew was coming...so I cruised pretty comfortably in mile 5 and a girl who I had been following who looked exactly like my wife from behind caught back up to me
Mile 5: 6:23
Then the race started to feel a little challenging on the final uphill mile. But I felt strong and I wasn't maxing out so I was pretty sure I could hit my goal. But it wasn't super easy at that point. I pushed hard and then the final hill into the stadium I knew I had to keep cranking in order to hit my goal of sub 40 because I was cutting it close.
Mile 6: 6:31
I sprinted onto the track and around half way to the finish and was very pleased to see a 39 on the clock.
Final time: 39:51
That was fun, and felt great. It felt good to hit my goal. And I was very pleased to see I could hold a 6:24 pace for 10K pretty comfortably on zero road training. Makes me wonder what kind of pace I could run if I actually ran 40-50 miles a week on the roads. But it doesn't make me wonder hard enough to actually care to do that, because the mountains call my name way too loudly.
Nan was waiting in the finish area for me with Scott Ensign, and they both had really solid races! Nan killed it in 35:50 taking 2nd for women. I'll never keep up with her in a road race! And Scott clobbered me also, the website says 38:02 for him. I think he was trying to go under 38 so he JUST missed it! But hey...I would say its close enough, its a great time for a 48 year old dude.
Afterward we hung out for a little while and got some free massages, ate some pretty tasty burritos at the expo and then jogged back to the car. It was a beautiful spring morning for a race, absolutely perfect morning actually. We had a great time. Now its time for me to not run anymore this week and save up all my energy for a 30 mile mountainous beat down of fun this Saturday. I hope the weather next weekend matches this weekend, that would be ideal. It was an amazing weekend for running Boulder this weekend.
