Go slow to go fast.

Easy 10.5-11 miles on the trails.  Skunk, Koehler, Mesa, etc. 1700' vert.  1:52

Ran into Caballo blanco in Skunk Canyon and ran with him for about an hour or so.  Had an enjoyable conversation, and slow easy running.  Then I realized I should get moving because I was supposed to be home at 8, so I ran a more steady pace the last 20-25 minutes.

Was going to be out for 90 minutes, but it ended up being almost 2 hours with the leisurely hour plus in the middle.  Did 8 x 8 second hill sprints up the steepest part of the mesa in the middle. 

Nan had surgery on her hip tonight in Vail.  She had a torn labrum.  We were fortunate to have Marc Phillipon, one of the most experienced surgeons with that specific injury in the world, call her last night and offer to operate today after he diagnosed her.  He is confident he’ll have her healed and back to running in 7-8 weeks.  For Nan, after 3 months of discouraging non-improvement in her hip, this was very welcome news.

Since we had to get up at 5 AM and drive to Vail, I didn’t get a chance to run until after getting the kids to bed at 8:30 tonight.

My goal for the day was a session of 10 X 400 at 70 second pace.

Despite only 5 hours of sleep, and a full and exhausting day, oddly I felt like going after the track workout still rather than delaying it.  Probably because I have no idea when I’ll have time to hit the track again since I’ll be in Vail the rest of the week supporting Nan as she is recovering from Surgery and doing rehab.

It was pretty cool running on the track at night actually.  The surrounding street lights around Fairview offer just enough light to see the lines.  It was a unique experience flying around the track without being able to see the ground other than two white lines to keep me on track.

I quickly found myself in a mental battle however.  Thoughts of my thick, soft, mattress waiting for me at home lured me into settling for 5 x 400.  But I beat down those thoughts as I pounded out the repeats.

After 8 of them though, I was feeling queezy, and I had to visit port-0-johnny – Relieving as that was, I was done with speed work after sitting down like that.  I jogged over to lehigh and home for another 3.5 miles to round out 10 for the evening.

My splits for the 400′s:  69, 71, 72, 70, 71, 72, 72, 73

Active recovery splits 200M: 65, 70, 75, 78, 2:43 (400), 79, 84

Felt good about the work.  I wish I would have nailed 10 of them at 69 seconds.  But I’m not there yet obviously.  And its no use trying to force it.  Then again, if it were the morning and I were rested and fresh, my result may have been better.  But tonight, judging from my recovery times and my splits starting to fade at the end, its probably good I stopped at 8.  I’d rather do an amount that lets me recover after 2 or 3 days and get after it again.  Rather than overdoing it and requiring a week like last tuesdays 200′s did to me.

Not sure how I'm still functioning, since my nightly sleep average this week is at or below 5 and I'm pretty accustomed to closer to 7.5-8.  Maybe I would just get a lot more done in a day if I just slept less?  hmmmm....naah.  I'll pass.  I like sleep.

I ran up the berry picker trail to close to about 9700' from Vail Village in the afternoon.  Great trail.  Pretty steep in parts.  Really fun to be running on new trails.  Vail is a beautiful place.  Nan getting surgery here is a nice excuse to spend time here...surely wouldn't have done that this year otherwise.

6 miles - ~1800' vertical - 1:02.

Yesterday was my first day as a full-time Dad/Nurse/Business owner.  And I found that the business owner role only received about 10 minutes of half-attention all day.  Busy day!  Nan is on crutches and needs assistance with basically everything for the moment.  So to get a run in, I'm feeling pretty lucky actually.  I need to head out now in fact, while there is still an hour left on 'Ant Bully'.  I have to time my runs just right this week, because Nan can't do much to help the kids if they need anything.  Fortunately my kids are pretty amazingly well-behaved and independent.  I am thoroughly impressed by them in this circumstance actually.  It could be way harder if they weren't so helpful.

Easy hour cruise down the gore valley trail toward the west end of Vail Valley and back.

 What a gorgeous area that is!  Really cool bike/running path just rolling along down the river forever. 

What a fantastic run that was.  I turned on Megamind for the kids and headed out the door to take advantage of as many minutes of running as possible between pressing kid and husband duties.

I jogged up to the top of Vail and back down, via the berry picker trail to the Eagle's nest, then up the ridge to Wildwood at 11,000' via the great escape trail.  Really gorgeous conditions, sunny and light breeze.  I should have worn sun screen though because after 2 hours exposed my back got a bit parched.  I normally always wear sunscreen, but I couldn't find it on my way out the door.  It wasn't that bad of a burn, but I find getting sunburned at all to be pointless and annoying.

11 miles - 1:59:20 - ~3200' vertical

Got back just in time to feed the kids lunch and take Nan to her next rehab appointment.

The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming with the kids.  Then making a big breakfast for dinner in the condo.  Then taking the girls on an unforgettable date strolling through Vail Village, eating ice cream, playing at the pirate park, etc.   Due to the circumstances I didn't quite get my normal 35 hours of work done this week.  Bummer.  OK, I'm over it.

Apparently I like the Altra instincts...since that's the only shoe I have run in now in over a week.  They just feel good to run in, what can I say?  And they seem to handle just fine on roads, tracks, and mountains so far.  I'm a fan.

AM: Last run in Vail before packing it in.  Ran up the Vail valley this time past the golf course and on toward east vail and then back.

7 miles - 1:02 - slow and easy jogging, not a ton of vert, 4-500 hundred feet tops.

PM:  4.25 miles around buffalo ranch after dark and getting the kids to bed.  Another nice evening cruise. 

Another gorgeous morning run.  Sunrise is getting later though, which is a bummer, but we still have a couple good months of awesome light mornings left.

Warmed up for 6 miles with Eric W. this morning, and then hit the track for a few short intervals at mile goal pace - 4:40.

I did 4 x 100 to get the turnover going, and surprisingly felt good starting out right on pace at 16 and 17 for each one.

Then I did an 800, a 400, and a 200.  My main goal was to run an 800 at race pace to get a feel for it.  And wow...I got a feel for it.  And the feeling wasn't all that amazing.  Meaning after the first 400 meters at 69 seconds I started to feel a healthy burning sensation throughout my body and could tell I was taking myself to a place where I have not been before, or in a long long time. 

That second lap of the 800 felt steady and controlled, but also, kind of scared me for the mile.  Because if it hurts like that in only the 2nd lap, what am I going to feel for laps 3 and 4?  

Its kind of unsettling, but kind of exciting also.  I'm intrigued to find out what it feels like to try and hold that pace for the full mile.  And I'm pretty certain its going to hurt.  And for some reason I don't think I fully understand, I am looking forward to that with some excitement.

I did the 800 in 2:21.  So pretty close to right on pace.

Then I rested for 3 or 4 minutes.

Then I ran a 400 in 65 seconds.  Huh...that was faster than planned, but felt easy relative to the 2:21 800.

Then after some rest I did a 28 second 200.

Still not sure why I feel compelled to run 200's so fast, because I can't even come close to holding that pace for any longer distances intervals.  But for some reason I gravitate toward that speed on the 200's.

After that, I'm not feeling all that confident in being able to hit a 4:40 mile.  But I'm going to give it my best shot, because I do believe its possible with the adrenaline of race day, and I'm curious to find out if it is.

I'm fairly certain I can run a 4:50 right now, and I could definitely run a 5:00.  But 4:40, based on the paces of my workouts, seems to be pushing the edge a bit for me.  Which I guess is why I'm motivated by it.  We'll find out soon enough.

I believe I could get my mile time down below 4:20 with another year or so of consistent training for it.  Not sure if I'm motivated enough to do that type of training or not.  But I do enjoy getting at least one flat speed session in each week, even when training for longer distances.  And I plan to continue that.

Speaking of longer distances, I'm also planning on running a marathon this weekend up Kings peak and back in Utah.  So I'll be racing twice this week, and my pace for the 2nd should be close to double my pace for the first.  Hopefully an all out mile effort doesn't zap me too much for the marathon two days later.  How bad could it be though right?  It's less than 5 minutes of running after all.

Nice easy jog this morning out marshall, up s. boulder creek, to mesa, N. bluestem, mesa, down bear canyon to table mesa, to bear creek path, creekside elementary, home.

10 miles - 1:31 - ~1500' vertical 

Had a great time racing my first ever flat road mile tonight, and was mostly quite pleased with where I ended up.  

See full report and pics here  

6 miles - 45 min.  - Barefoot easy recovery run on the bike paths.  Feeling good and excited to run long in the mountains tomorrow.

Here's my Quest for Kings race report

I had a great time running with facelessghost and trevor the first 10 miles and then was solo from there.  Thanks Jun for organizing a fun day, it was a huge bummer you weren't able to make it, you were missed.

Easy 45 minutes barefoot.  Breanne, my 5 year old, rode along with me on her bike.  It was a blast having her along.  She is a joy to be with, and I'm totally impressed she can do rides like that already. 

Easy 4 mile jog, 30 minutes or so - didn't have much time this morning because I had a bike ride planned with Eric

95 minute ride around south boulder trails.  Super fun. Always great to get out on the mountain bike.

Officially kicking off marathon training today.  Todd inspired.  I don't know which one I'm going to do, but I have decided I'm going to turn my focus to the road marathon for the next 4-5 months.  Todd is doing New York, and is about 12 weeks out.

I was kind of stoked today to find out we were only doing 6:00 mile pace!  Nice and easy!

I felt like I was cheating or slacking off or something only running 6:00 pace, after being so focused on 4:40 pace for the last month or so.  And there is a BIG difference between those two paces.

Granted we were doing 1K repeats.  But...it was a lot easier effort.

~3 miles warm up, stretch.  8 x 1K repeats with 45-50 seconds rest in between each.  ~3.5 miles cooldown.

Splits for the 1K's: 3:51, 3:30, 3:35, 3:33, 3:46, 3:39, 3:42, 3:40 

We were working on hitting them in 3:43-3:53 range.  Took us a few to dial it in, we were going a bit hot at first, but then we got it dialed pretty well.  Still only 2 out of the 8 were in the range, but I guess we're both still so used to doing faster intervals its hard to slow down to that pace.

The pace range we were hitting was 5:37 up to 6:11.  We averaged about 5:54 pace (3:40's per K).  So a little faster than goal marathon pace, but not much.  It was a good run, getting used to doing the pace.  But doing a 2:34 marathon (5:54 pace) is a little faster than both of our goals at this point.

My goal right at this moment is to prep for a sub 2:45.  But I would really like to be in the sub 2:40 range on my first marathon.  I just think that sounds cooler I guess.  But considering it will be my first road marathon, I may cut myself some slack/be a little more realistic, and just stick with the 2:45 goal.  What I'd really like to do is run a sub 2:30, and eventually faster.  But I'm not going to be forcing/rushing anything on that front, since realistically that's going to take some very consistent training and experience at the distance/pace that I shouldn't be expecting to be able to get to in one training cycle.  I do have a growing desire to get to that point over the next couple years though.

Easy 7.5 miles on bike paths with Todd Straka and Eric W.  Nice 74 degree morning...so gorgeous here right now.  Taking advantage of as many shirtless runs as I can before it starts to get dark and cold in the mornings.

Decided to get after the long run a bit more today and do a bit of steady running for a while.  Wasn't sure for how long setting out, but figured a total of 13-14 miles would suffice for the morning.

I ended up doing a really nice loop out to the S boulder creek trail and down to S. Boulder Road, then up to Cherryvale, up the hills, back to Marshall, back down S. Boulder Creek trail, past East boulder rec, and up bear creek to home.

It ended up being exactly a 13.1 mile figure 8 loop...which was convenient to know for future reference.

I warmed up the first couple miles, even though the 2nd mile was 6:38, it was down hill so was still pretty chill pace.  Then I ran steady for 9 miles.  Then jogged it in the last couple miles up hill.

Finished the 13.1 in 1:29:45 - Which was my goal 1/2 marathon time last year.  I never did race a half marathon.  But obviously I need to increase my goal.

My new goal is 1:15.  I do plan to race a half sometime this fall and go after that time or better.

Here were my splits for the run today:

8:17, 6:38, 6:21, 6:38, 6:51, 6:35, 5:56, 6:24, 6:26, 6:42, 7:06, 7:41, 7:27 

About 450' vert for the loop. 

Slow and easy this morning.  11 miles in about 1:50.  ~1200' vertical.  Skunk/Koehler/mesa/bear canyons.  Then a few miles around campus and running 8 hill sprints up the stairs at the stadium.

I picked a random workout from Brad Hudson's marathon training program this morning.

I'm not interested in starting at the beginning of a marathon program right now...because the workouts look boring and way too easy.

So I landed on a progression run in week 11 of one of his marathon example training programs.

3 miles easy, 3 miles progression with 1 mile at marathon, 1 at half marathon, 1 at 5K pace.

I did a 6:10, 5:45, 5:40 for the progression miles, with a U-turn between each that slowed me down way more than I thought it would.  Miles 1 and 3 were uphill on marshall road from stop sign to stop sign.  Mile two was down hill on the same stretch.

My goal marathon pace right now is about 6:00-6:05.  My half goal pace is about 5:45, and my 5K goal is about 5:25.  Miles 1 and 2 were straightforward and not too difficult at all.  But it was a definite challenge holding 5:40 on that last mile uphill.  I've got my work cut out for me to hit those goals. 

9 miles - 1:07 - ~200' vert.  

PS - My buddy hooked me up with a compex a few months ago...and I don't know what I would do without that thing now.  I haven't had an ART appointment ever since I got it, because I just do tons of active recovery with the electrodes any time I start to feel tightness anywhere.  And the tightness is gone within a day, or 2 max.  I'm a huge fan now.  Glad I didn't have to fork out the $850 for the thing though.  Although over a year it would pay for itself for sure with all the money I'm saving on ART appointments. 

PM: 4 barefoot around fairview track infield with the kids biking and running along and around. 

easy 54 min. out marshall, bluestem, lehigh, home.  400' vert. 7 ish miles w/Eric 

Easy barefoot jog w/todd on bike paths.

Easy Long run, sobo creek to mesa to dowdy draw, flatirons vista loop, marshall mesa, cherryvale, table mesa, home. Miles 13 & 14 moderate in 6:20, 6:18 down cherryvale - 1100' vert - 2:22:35 - 8:23 avg total.

After about an hour of 9-10/min miles I started feeling noticeably more warmed up and ready to run.  Most of the 1100' vert was in that first hour though.

This was my longest mileage week ever so far - 68 miles, close to 10 hours running.  Looking forward to bumping it up into the 70's consistently over the next weeks, and probably topping out in the 80s.  We'll see. 

I'm running at the Wasatch 100!!  Totally stoked.  I just found out today that I get to pace my buddy Steve Young from Brighton to Midway, the last 25 miles of Wasatch.  I've wanted to be a part of the wasatch 100 ever since I was a kid and I would hear stories of my Home Teacher Dave Blaylock running that thing every year.  I always thought he was the toughest dude around...which he probably was.  I don't see myself running a 100 miler for many more years.  Someday probably.  But in the meantime, I'm excited to get to be a part of the epic-ness and try to help in any way I can getting Steve through the night in the Wasatch mountains. 

Easy run, ~10.5 miles - 1:28, marshall road, s.bo creek, bluestem, s.bo creek, table mesa, home. ~550' vert

Easy run with Todd at 5:30 am.  5:30 am is dark these days.  Which is a bummer kind of.  But its also really nice running through sunrise.  And its nice to have 12.5 miles in by close to 7 AM.  Nice way to start off the day.

1:42 - 12.5 miles - easy and mostly flat, bobolink, cherryvale, marshall, bear creek.