Go slow to go fast.

Week starting Jul 25, 2010

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2009201020112012
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Location:

Westminster,CO,USA

Member Since:

Nov 11, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

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

  1.  Quicker Quaker 5K January
  2. Boston Marathon - April
  3. ??

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.  

My Personal Blog

My Family Blog

My Business Blog 

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Bare Feet Lifetime Miles: 282.68
Cycling 2011 Lifetime Miles: 291.40
Altra Instinct July '10 Lifetime Miles: 637.35
Altra Instinct Sep '11 Lifetime Miles: 481.45
Altra Lone Peak Lifetime Miles: 157.50
Altra Instinct Black Lifetime Miles: 69.00
Altra Adam Lifetime Miles: 27.50
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
22.500.003.000.0025.50
Five Finger Treks Miles: 13.20Bare Feet Miles: 3.30Inov-8 Roclite 295 Miles: 9.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.50Weight: 187.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Here are some pics of my run on saturday.

 

The ridge at about 8300 feet - I saw two bucks and they disappeared down this insanely steep slope and out of sight almost immediately.
View from the top of whatever peak I summited. The Grand Tetons are visible off in the distance behind me.
View looking back up at the peaks and down the trail to where I came up from

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.200.000.000.006.20

Just a slow, easy 10K in about 52 minutes.  Felt kind of nice to do a lazy flat cruise after my last 2 runs were so insanely steep.

Five Finger Treks Miles: 6.20
Night Sleep Time: 7.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.50Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Didn't sneak a run in at all today, but had fun watching a lot of other people do so!

Here's a race report and pics from an Elite 5K Nan ran in in the evening 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.000.003.000.007.00

After seeing all the happy runners yesterday I must have gotten the bug.  Tonight when I went out for a 7 mile jaunt I couldn't resist the urge to throw in a 5K tempo run in the middle to see what my 5K fitness level is currently.

For dinner I happened to load up on steak and potatoes.  Then at about 7:30 I enjoyed a nice helping of pumpkin pie and ice cream to get myself all fueled up and ready to run.  Then I finished off my kids pie and ice cream.  Then I was ready to roll!

Nan said she would puke if she tried to run on that...I just felt well fueled.

I threw 10 oz. in my water bottle and headed out. 

Decided to warm up for 2 miles and then do a  5K tempo attempting to hold 6 min. pace as long as I could.

I was surprised to feel that for two miles it was pretty comfortable and felt great to hold 6 min. pace.  Then with about 3/4 mile to go it started a slight incline and my pace weakened.  

I finished 5K in 18:55 at a 6:07/mile pace.  Felt pretty good about that actually.   I would have been last place by far against all the skinny elite dudes last night, but for this 187 pounder, 18:55 is moving the right direction for a 5K pace.  I've never done one under 18 min.  I know I could if I trained consistently for that, but I prefer mountain running at easy slash fun pace over killing myself on speed workouts at this point.

But it is fun to go out and push the limits of my speed/pain threshold every now and then.  I got it out of my system tonight.  Now I'm ready to go run Grays and Torreys peaks early this sat. AM.  Anybody want to come do run some 14ers?

(oh yeah...and happily all the pumpkin pie stayed inside my body very nicely!  Maybe I had a lot more pace pushing in me?....no...no I don't have the desire to push the pace to puke levels...that's never fun.)

Five Finger Treks Miles: 7.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 187.00
Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.300.000.000.003.30

My calves felt a bit tight and took a mile or so to loosen up.  From pushing the pace last night I'm sure.

Otherwise it felt really good to cruise some really slow easy miles this evening just to loosen up my legs. 

Bare Feet Miles: 3.30
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.000.000.000.009.00

That was a cool run...very difficult, but very enjoyable.  It was really cool running at high altitude.  I started the run at 11,100 feet.  Almost to the tree line already, and then climbed 2 14,300 foot peaks, Grays peak, and Torreys peak which are right next to each other (seperated by a mile and a 600 foot descent and ascent).  Here's how my run splits went:

.36 miles from the car to the trailhead in 5:41 - slow, walking with Pat and Chris, some realtor friends with the brokerage, Your Castle, that I have a license with.  (a group of them had put together the hike, so I came along...but not to hike per se)

The Ascent: 3.64 miles from the trailhead to the summit of Grays peak at 11,170 up to 14,310 ft.  That was tougher than I thought it would be.  I thought, no big deal, 3000 feet ascent over a 9 mile run, no biggie.  Not nearly as much climbing as my run last weekend.  WRONG.  Between the two peaks it was actually 3800 Feet ascent and descent over 9 miles total, which is significantly (30%) more than 3000.  Anyway, I climbed 3140 Feet in 3.64 miles, in 1:13:33 (20 min/mile).  Avg is 862 feet ascent per mile...umm...yeah, that's pretty steep.  I was able to run the first 2 miles of that.  The last 1.6 was mostly power hiking, with brief run spurts on the less rocky, less steep sections.  It was a lot steeper than I anticipated.  Also, the altitude...wow!  I knew to expect an affect, but I didn't know exactly what to expect it to feel like.  It was pretty interesting to feel how my body reacted to the altitude.  I could definitely notice a decrease in my output ability as I got up into the 13-14000 foot range.  But I think my body acclimated somewhat once I was up there.  The 2nd climb up to Torreys felt like I handled it more easily and smoothly.  It was REALLY cool to be so high and be running/hiking for so long above the tree line.  The views were incredible (which I only started noticing for the most part once I reached the summit because my head was just buried in the trail trying to hit the peak until then.)

There were literally herds of people up there, which was the only drawback to the run.  I passed AT LEAST 200 people on the run up.  It was kind of crazy actually.  That apparently is the most popular hike in the front range or something...better do that one mid-week next time...holy smokes.  It definitely slowed the progress having to step around so many people.  Oh well...glad for them that they were up there enjoying the beauty also.

I hung out on the peak of Grays for about 4:29, then headed over to Torrey's peak.

It was .82 miles to Torreys - it took me 20:44 - 25 min/mile - it was super rocky, technical and slow descending the 600 feet to the saddle, then it was basically straight up 600 feet in 1/3 of a mile to Torreys peak.  Steep stuff up there.  It was beautiful from both peaks, and I enjoyed 5 minutes on the peak there too.  Just taking pictures and loving the views of everything.

Then I headed down to the trailhead - 3.62 miles in 44:07 - 12 min avg - I actually stopped for about 5 minutes or so on the way down when I ran into Charles and Pat who were still on the way up.  This was about about 2.5 miles up the trail, they still had about a mile to go, and probably 45 min to an hour more of hiking to reach the first peak.  I was down to my car about 20 minutes later.  Its a pretty big difference of time on the trail between hiking and running.

My total time out there was 2:37.  My running time was about 2:22:30 - 15:50/mile avg. It was a really enjoyable run.  I'd like to run some more 14K peaks this summer while I have the chance, its really cool up there.  Unfortunately I've got most eekends booked already and the community service time I need to finish in August isn't going to help my cause of getting out mid-week, but we'll see what I can pull off I guess...I'm sure I'll be pulling some early mornings out to try to squeeze in a couple more high altitude runs.

 

The valley where the trail comes up, from Grays peak

 

 

Part of the herd on the peak of Grays...it was impeccably gorgeous up there on the peaks and I really applaud all these folks for getting out and taking advantage of the beauty in our back yard

 

 

better view of hikers coming up the switchback scree field to grays

 

 

Yours truly with Torreys peak in the back ground courtesy of a random dude

 

 

Grays peak from Torreys peak

 

 

Crazy looking 2000+ foot insanely steep decent off of one side of Torreys

Inov-8 Roclite 295 Miles: 9.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
22.500.003.000.0025.50
Five Finger Treks Miles: 13.20Bare Feet Miles: 3.30Inov-8 Roclite 295 Miles: 9.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.50Weight: 187.00
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