Mesa PR

First things first: clearly, from the title of the post, I broke some sort of PR on the Mesa Trail recently.

Actually, it was this morning, and there are a few caveats to put in place before talking about it. First: I rarely run just the Mesa trail. I generally run part of the Mesa trail on the way to or from somewhere else (Green, Bear, South Boulder, etc . . .). Second, I have never really pushed myself on the Mesa trail, since I usually focus on the nearby peaks when I am trying to get into shape for a race. Third, I was not at my prime this morning, having had a hard week beforehand.

Next time I decide to keep up with Peter Bakwin on the way up Flagstaff, somebody please knock a little sense into my skull.

The final caveat is that I only decided to attempt a PR on Mesa early this morning, when I was having trouble (for the first time in some time) motivating myself to get out for a longish run on Sunday morning. There's nothing like a little competition to provide some extra motivation, even if it's only with yourself.

With that in mind, I drove up to Chautauqua, a rarity for me, only to find that, when I strapped my watch onto my wrist, it stopped functioning completely. This was not unexpected: this particular watch (a Timex Ironman, failure engineered) had been trying to give up the ghost for some time, I had just been too stubborn to spend the money on a newer watch. Since it was falling apart in any case, I tossed it in the trash reading 9:57AM (it was a little slow).

With that as the last time I saw, I figure I started the run at about 10AM after a short pit stop. I focused on the way out on keeping the pace honest, but not brutal. I pushed on the uphills, but kept thinking that this should feel like the first quarter of a marathon, and consciously kept myself from going to fast. Nevertheless, when I reached the South Mesa trail head, a friendly hiker let me know that the time was "five to eleven on the dot." Not bad: 55 minutes for the first half. Eight minutes off Dave Mackey's record, but that's a serious time to chase.

After another pit stop (I need to lay off the coffee a bit) I took off back up the two-mile climb out of South Mesa. On the way out, I had decided that this is where I'd push it, and see how I felt. The answer was not as good as I hoped, but I still managed what felt like a decent pace. Unfortunately on the way back I seemed to run afoul of more rocks than I usually do, including one that jammed my right big toe to the point that it's still hurting as I sit here a few hours later.

Such is the life of a trail runner. Gotta keep your eyes on the trail.

When I descended back into the Chautauqua trail head, I figured it was a little after noon, and I was right. It took me significantly longer to do the second half of the run, and I pulled in with a round trip time of almost exactly 2 hours. Not bad, but I think I can do better.

This week looks to be a good one as far as running is concerned. It doesn't hurt that it's a three day work week. For those of you who might be in Boulder and looking for a training group, I recommend Boldrunning. It's run by the husband and wife team of Ewen and Heather North. Ewen is an accomplished runner and excellent coach, former course record holder at the Canyonlands Half (or is it the Other Half, I can never remember). Heather is both an excellent runner and a PT. And both have excellent taste in beer.

I myself utilized Boldrunning, partially under its prior name, the Bolder Boulder Training Club, to get back into shape after a broken ankle left me with a right leg approximately the size of my left arm, and found them both fun and helpful.

The reason I mention this is that they will be having free "trial" training sessions over the next two weeks. Tuesdays ( the 22nd and 29th) will be hill workouts, meeting at Harlow Platts Park in South Boulder. Wednesdays (the 23rd and 30th) will be an easy run leaving from the Boulder Running Company, and followed by food and beer. Those all start at 6PM. There is a rumor about a longer run on the intervening Saturday, but there are no firm plans yet.

As I said, a fun group of people. I highly recommend them.

Thursday morning, the normal Boulder Trail Runners Happy Hour Run group will be heading out for a rare, pre-turkey, morning run for a couple hours, followed by mimosas at Chautauqua. I am thoroughly looking forward to that particular run. As for the rest of the week, who knows? With a few interesting runs on the calendar, I have to keep fit.