Go slow to go fast.

Feeling pretty good this week for shorter runs.  My hip hasn't hurt at all on my runs the last 3 days.

7:49 pace for the run this morning, just taking it really easy except that I ran the 1/2 mile down simms hill pretty hard which was probably close to 5 min pace because that's a steep hill and I like testing my down hill running muscles.  I felt really good and the legs felt strong.

Did some p90X legs and back, and abripper afterward. 

Another great pre-sunrise fall morning run...perfect weather...perfect, easy pace around the neighborhood.

In hindsight I must admit that I could possibly be accused of being weird.

I did my usual weekly loops around the sidewalks in my neighborhood barefoot, short shorts, and shirtless.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Except this time I was listening to 'Chi Running' and practicing better posture and pelvis rotations during the run.   But hey, I'm close enough to Boulder where this type of behavior is entirely viewed as normal and acceptable, so I'm going with it.

Interesting book too, intrigued to see what kind of new running tips I get tomorrow.

AM - Super easy 6.5 around the dog park in about an hour.  9 something pace - HR 115-120 avg.  Listening to Chi Running...kind of interesting

PM - 4 more easy - 8:20's - HR ~130 around the Dog park again after dinner.  I snuck out for a quick run while the family was watching a movie.

Not sure what's gotten into me all of sudden...two runs in a day?  That's odd.  Since I've been running so easy this week I seem to be itching to get out more. 

Not feeling 100% this morning.  Nothing major, mostly just the last mile or 2 my legs/hips seemed to be kind of tired even though I was taking it really easy.  Probably not used to only a 12 hour break between runs.  5 miles - 45 minutes. HR 125 avg

Did an hour of core synergistics afterward and felt really good after that. 

Feeling great this morning after a 24 hour break.  Looks like after I find a nice mountain to run tomorrow, this will be the first time I've ever run 6 days in a row in my life.  I'm liking it.  My one year anniversary of being IT band injury free and ditching heal striking is at the end of this month. I have been pretty religious about listening to my body and trying to adequately rest between runs this past year so as to prevent injury and build up my mileage consistently over time.  And I'm finally to the point where I feel comfortable running every day, rather than every other day, or only 4 days per week.  It's kind of nice to be there because this coming year I think I'll be able to get a much bigger mileage base in.

5 miles - 39:21 - 7:53/mile - 139 HR avg

I took it pretty easy this morning except for mile 3.  I did 2 miles warm up pretty slow and easy, then I ran pretty hard up and down Simms hill which is a 180 feet up over 1/2 mile and then back down.  6:56 for that mile.  Then just ran easy to moderate pace home.

Finished off the morning with 1:15 of p90x legs and back and ab ripper. 

***later - these just in - a size 11.5 of the 101's in black - check out these totally sweet looking shoes...makes me want to get out for another run right now!  And regarding the recent dialogue on looks...if just the looks of a shoe can make me want to run more and feel faster, maybe there is something to the looks after all?  But then again, if all the elite fast people were wearing Hoka's and kicking butt and taking names, I'm guessing wearing those would make me feel faster too since I would associate them with speed...and they might magically start looking cooler too.  But alas, despite the tempting looks of my new shoes, I'm going to hold off this afternoon because I just committed to doing 6 by 1 mile repeats at v02 max up lookout mountain in the morning with some really fast dudes (lucho and scott J for at least two of whom I probably won't be anywhere near keeping up to), so I'm in energy conservation mode until then. 

Ouch!  Started running this morning and my right hamstring didn't like it at all!  Guess I pushed a bit too hard on saturday's workout.  

I thought it might warm up and be fine...I stopped and stretched it, but that aggravated it more...so I called it a morning pretty quick. 

Super fun 8 miles in exactly 1 hour (7:30 pace).  I started out really slow (9 min pace ish) but I had a lot to do back home so progressed to a pretty steady 6:30 to 7:15 pace for the rest of the run.  Felt fantastic.

So...crazy week!!  My office manager was out of the office all week on possibly the worst week she could have been since I was leaving on thursday to go to Baltimore.

 OH WELL!  I survived, and here we are in Baltimore! 

Having fun hanging out with Nan here and relaxing (and getting some business done in between unfortunately, but I just shut that off for the weekend).

We ran a few miles together this morning and that was really nice.

Tonight at the elite athlete dinner Max King sat down next to me.  That was pretty cool!

Max is a really nice dude, and we chatted a lot over dinner for an hour or so.  I, basically asking him about all the really big and cool races he has won (american river 50 (his first 50), trans rockies, etc..etc..etc..)  It was a total surprise to me that one of the super studs of the Ultra scene would happen to show up at a road marathon.  And holy crap is that one fast ultra runner!  He's already qualified for the olympic trials with his 1:03+ half marathon and a couple fast marathons.  I don't think there are any other ultra runners that I know of that could compare to him on the roads at this point...there may be, but he couldn't think of any right off hand either and he would probably know.

 Anyway...super excited for tomorrow morning!  I got myself a bike so I'm going to be all over the course taking photos and twittering race updates.  Can't wait!  Super stoked to watch Nan tear it up and give those russians and kenyans a serious run for their money!!  Wish her luck. 

What a cool day!  I absolutely loved touring Baltimore on my bike and watching the Marathon unfold.  Such a cool way to see a new city.  It's great because there were police officers stopping traffic for me at every corner.  So I was able to cruise easily back and forth all over the course watching it all go down, snapping pictures, and checking in on Nan's water and food at the aid stations etc.  

And Nan had such an awesome race.  She raced really smart and super tough.  I was a bit concerned when I saw her in 2nd place at mile because I thought she might be going out too fast.  Especially when the course record holder was 45 seconds behind at that point.  

I was further concerned, when between 9-10 miles she was losing ground on a group of 6 runners up front, and then the CR holder had brought the gap to 10 seconds and was gaining fast. 

Its funny because Nan could see my nervousness on my face, she told me after the race.  I'm an open book I guess.  But she just thought to herself, "he'll see soon enough".

I was really hoping I was wrong, and that she was just pacing herself smarter to save for the 4-6 miles of hills coming up.

Fortunately that was the case indeed. The CR holder passed Nan at the half marathon point.  By Mile 16 (the start of the hill climbing) Nan was only 35 seconds off the leaders.

When I saw her next at mile 21 after all the major climbing, she was running in 3rd with a Kenyan girl drafting on her...Awesome!!!!  I was so stoked for her at this point.  I knew she was going to get at least 3rd, and I still had hope that she could really turn it on on the down hill and catch at least one of the leaders. 

She then proceeded to drop the Kenyan girl Salome.  But at mile 23.7 The lead Russian had already put another minute on her in less than 3 miles.  Wow...that girl was flying.  Nan held 6:01/mile the last 4 miles, so Nan wasn't totally falling off pace.  But in order to even keep the gap at a minute she needed to be doing 5:40s down that hill.  Which is obviously a lot harder to do after you've been hammering out 5:50 something average pace for 22 miles up and down hills into seriously STIFF headwinds much of the time.  

I'm totally impressed with her 2:35:49 performance today.  It is an incredible performance. As a perspective for you, that time on that course is probably equivalent to well below 2:30 on the  St. George course, and close to 2:30 on the Flat chicago course.  There was just nothing easy about the Baltimore course today.  The stiff head winds in combo with long stretches of up hill take a serious toll on the pace.  

I'm so happy for Nan!  And I'm already totally stoked to go to the trials with her in 15 months, and for the fun times and trips on the agenda leading up to that.

It was also cool to watch Max King and John Crews bust out solid PR's on that course today, both of whom are solidly qualified for the Olympic Trials also. 

Check out a picture report from the day here. 

Easy 8 miles around the Standley lake.  8:00/mile avg - no heart rate or watch, just checked the clock before and after.  My mind was reminiscing on the weekend and caught up in thoughts of how cool its going to be to go to the trials with Nan and other stuff, so I never got around to turning my music on.  It was a nice morning run in the beautiful crisp fall sunrise.  It has been an exceptional fall so far.

Really nice day/weather for barefoot easy run.  Just cruising again with my thoughts and a sunny, cool morning.  Liked it a lot.

Feeling good.  Did a slightly hilly 11 mile loop through the dog park, up Indiana to hwy 128, then down simms hill to home.

Started at 6:15 in a slightly bluish very starry sky.  Gradually the skyline turned gorgeous pink/orange/red shades and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the day come alive for over an hour before official sunrise.

11 miles - 1:26:49 - 7:54/mile pace avg - HR 142 Avg - 740 Feet ascent. 

Great run to start the day off right.  My body feels good...no aches or pains anywhere right now. 

Nice moderately paced run up and down the standley lake damn.  Kind of nice to mix in some short steep sections straight up the damn here and there.

6 miles - 47:37 - 7:56/mi - 143 HR  

Really slow and easy run this morning.  Wandering in the silence of my thoughts the whole time.  Running was smooth and effortless, just kind of floating through the neighborhood as I pondered the stuff going on currently in my vida.

5 miles - 44.30 - 8:55/mile - 121 HR 

Met up with Steve Young in Boulder, you know.. the famous football player...he's pretty into running now apparently, and about 100 pounds skinnier I'm guessing.

Anyway, we headed up to Walker ranch up flagstaff road.  Ran the loop once, then biked it in the reverse direction.  Such an awesome loop!  Loved every second of it.  It has 12-1500feet of ascent per loop (~7.5 miles), so nothing too steep, but enough climbing to make it a blast.

 Really enjoyed running with company, and then biking it was totally fun.  Walker ranch basically starts by dropping a couple miles down into the river valley, then climbing a couple up the other side, then dropping back down in lower, then climbing out.  Its really cool and beautiful, especially right now.  This fall has been treating us VERY right her in CO.  The weather has been phenomenal so far.  It can't last...its got to start getting cold soon, but in the meantime, its been so awesome.

Saw Tim and Nicole DeBoom running past I think as we were on our bike loop.   

I'm still itching to run some more though, I think I'll go out for a few more miles to loosen up the biking legs. 

***at 12:30

4 more miles around the dog park ~30 min.  Felt really good.  Seriously liking the run every day thing these days.  I feel like I'm going to be able to establish a really solid base this winter which will really help me improve my running on all accounts next year.

Todays run - 6.5 miles - 54:26 - (8:23) - 287 Feet ascent/descent - Really easy relaxed run this morning around countryside.  

On the last 2 miles toward home I was running into the arc of an incredible and huge full double rainbow as the sun was rising behind me.  It was pretty spectacular.  Then it started raining pretty steady the last half mile which was cold but kind of refreshing. 

Oh and it looks like we're going to move to South Boulder (near Table Mesa) in the next few weeks...odd turn of events that is kind of exciting (and somewhat daunting) to think about.  I can't help but feeling a little giddy at the thought of my doorstep being 1/4 mile from the trail start to skunk canyon that connects to all the Boulder mountain parks trails.

Beautiful morning - albeit a little chilly at first...winter is on its way it seems.

8.55 Miles - 1:09 (8:05/mile) - 139 HR avg

Ran around Standley Lake on the single track by the lake and back...nice, enjoyable, fairly easy base miles.

busy week this week...leading to all I'm doing for workout is running each day and not getting my core workouts in.  Feel like I'm getting weaker, but it feels good to run every day at least.

6 miles - up simms hill and back - 45:30 (7:35) - HR: 146 - 550 feet ascent.  Took it pretty slow on the way out, and then after the 2:45 half mile coming down simms hill it kicked me into a slightly faster gear the rest of the way home.

Such a gorgeous sunny afternoon, felt really good to get out and run after missing this morning because of sleeping in because of being up working until nearly 4.  was going to do a long run today...not happening on that little of sleep.  maybe saturday.

5 miles - 37:02 (7:24) - HR 139 -  250 feet ascent

Really easy 7:24 effort down the hill for 2.5, then increased the effort a little to get back up the hill in the same pace. 

What an incredibly beautiful morning. I've been continually astounded for the past month and a half at how perfect the running weather has been. And today was as good as it gets.

Got started my run at 6:05 with a clear sky full of stars. 50 or so degrees and I was really comfortable in shorts and a tshirt Wore my nathan pack forthe first time in a while and was reminded how much I like that thing. All except for the sticky hard to open mouth piece. I have been itching for a long run lately and today I finally found the time.

But I needed to be back by 8:30 to take Abe to his last soccer game. So I planned to run out on the dry creek trail for 1:15 minutes easy, and then come back a little harder paced because its uphill on the way back. The first 4 miles were super easy with HR in 120's at 8:30 pace. Then the next 4 were in the 130's for HRwith about 7:45 pace.

Then a guy named Brett randomly joined the trail and we were running a low 7 min. pace together and chatting for 3-4 miles and I kind of lost track of the time chatting with him. I looked at my watch and realized it had been 1:20 so I bid Brett farewell and turned around for home, curious if I would make it back in 1:10 what took me 1:20 on the way out and downhill.

For a couple miles I was in the 140 HR range running 7-7:15 pace. Then I picked up the pace a bit in order to try to get home on time. The next 4-5 miles were in the 150 HR range running between 6:30-6:45 pace and just feeling really good. I was kind of holding myself back a bit all run so far and this section the sun was out and I was fully warmed up and ready to roll. Plus I knew I needed to get home faster than I went out.

The last 2 miles go up hill pretty steadily. My hips and core started getting tired at this point, and I started having a tougher time pushing below 7 min. pace. Probably the slight incline plus the legs getting tired. Then once it started going uphill steeper though I was digging that and was able to push the HR up into the 160's for the last mile and keep the pace around 7:20 which felt great.

I saw a guy about a third of a mile away up the hill, and I ended up just blowing by him at about 7 min. pace a few minutes later. And as I turned onto my street the clock ticked over to 2:30. Perfect! I paced it perfectly, got a nice solid 2 miles of tough pushing to finish a fantastic run on the morning and actually made it home on time with more miles than I anticipated.

19.5 miles - 2:30 - 7:44/mile - 141 avg Heart Rate. - 550' ascent/descent - good times. It was nice to finally get out for a longer run after a 45 day hiatus from longer than 2 hour stuff.