2012: Week 4: The Year's First Race

February, which this year has its full complement of 29 days, is fast approaching.  Looking back on the first month of 2012, it is hard to complain. While I quickly decided that running every day was not a feasible option for me, I have been running consistently, and have noticed the improvement.

With that in mind, I opted to run the Fast and the Flurry-ous on Saturday this week. This is a 4 mile cross country race put on by the Boulder Running Company to support EXPAND Boulder. This particular race also boasts the largest cash purse of any cross country race in Colorado, which I believe was increased this year. The added competition this year saw the Boulder Track Club take on the Boulder Running Company team in a team competition. All this together meant that this year's running of The Fast and the Flurry-ous was the most competitive so far. It also made this a great chance to test my general fitness while contributing to a great cause.

Considering that I was going to race on Saturday, I took the latter half of the week pretty easy. I did not let myself get caught up in the speed games at the Wednesday night BRC run, choosing to hold back after the hill workout I did the previous day. I took Thursday completely off, and Friday consisted of an easy three or so miles with Matt and his dog.

Saturday started out cold. Cold for Boulder, any way. I woke up to a temperature of a balmy 15. This steadily climbed up until the race started, and I would guess the temperature was 30 or so, with a decent west wind, heading into the first lap.

I had tried something new in my approach to this race. I opted for the first time to pop a gu about 15 minutes before the race, to see if that would give me a little extra staying power. Perhaps it did, but it also definitely made my stomach more than a little unhappy.

I went out too fast. The classic mistake. I glanced down at my watch (a mistake, as it later turned out) and it claimed I was hitting 4:55 pace. I consciously slowed down, settling in to a pace that was just on the near edge of forcing me to lose my breakfast.

The first mile marker passed at about 5:50 according to my watch. Still probably too fast, but I was settling into my rhythm now, and felt good. This was the first race of mine that my girlfriend has attended when she hasn't also been in the race, and on the first time by the finish line I caught her eye and stuck out my tongue. Even if my stomach felt less than happy, it was great to have her there and seeing her face flash by every lap and have her waiting at the finish line.

My watch, as it turns out, seems to be a little off. At mile 1 it said 0.98 miles, and it dropped from there. It also showed me a slower pace than I was going. This made my somewhat low mental state lower, and I had to work harder as a result not to give in to the demons saying "Stop!" and keep pushing it through till the end.

Around the last bend to the finish line, I decided it was time to throw it in, and possibly throw it up. My old sprinter's legs came out of the dusty corner where they hide during my long runs and propelled me past three runners in the last 100m, proof enough that, had it not been for my stomach, I could definitely have thrown more into the earlier miles and lowered my time significantly. I have always been proud of my kick, but that day it was too easy.

I did lose at least my gu at the finish line (after the race volunteers screamed at me to "Slow Down" in the finishing chute, like I was going to careen into the person 10m in front of me). Fortunately my girlfriend had correctly taken my wave to mean "step back. "

As it turns out, the race did not go as badly as I had thought from glancing at my GPS the whole time and the feeling in my gut. I came in at 25:36, for a 6:15 pace. My watch gave the same time, but a total of 3.95 miles and 6:35 pace.

Not a time or a pace to wave around, perhaps, but I felt good with the result, given how poorly I had felt throughout the laps. It says much about my fitness that I can have a bad day and still run the fastest 4 miles I've run since getting to Colorado (unless my 10k a few years ago was better, I don't recall). And it was on grass. All in all, a valuable experience with a few lessons learned for the first time, and at least one learned once again.

That said, I hope to see significant improvement over that pace in the next several months.

I will write more about my run today at another time (with pictures included, of course). For now, I will leave you with the group I saw at the Boulder Theater on Thursday: Ladysmith Black Mambazo. You might know them from their work with Paul Simon starting in the 80s, or from their appearance singing the "African Alphabet" on Sesame Street. But I like their own music the best: it's there that their joy and energy in singing  best shines through. I have never before seen a 70 year old kick his foot above his head.

What I love most is the obvious joy they put forward on stage, combined with the occasional goofiness that shines through. The most memorable quote might just be "no kissing on stage," after one member of the group repeatedly, and mischievously, kissed another on the cheek during a song.

2012: Week 3: An unexpected PR

Week three of the year has come and gone.

I continue to build up my mileage total. So far, I have gone over the general 10% per week rule, but I do not seem to be suffering for it in any way beyond what I would expect. I have lately added more focused, concentrated workout to me repertoire, trying to inject some speed and turnover back into my legs. My training last year was adequate, it got me through the race, but it did not allow me to truly complete. I had the endurance to get through the race, but not the speed to get through it quickly.

Hopefully the work I am doing this year will change all that. I have a more defined workout schedule for the time being: Sunday is a long run, Monday or Tuesday I do hills or a fartlek depending on how I feel, Wednesday night, at the BRC, tends to get speedy, and Fridayis a tempo run up Flagstaff. This particular week I ended up with a long, up tempo run on Monday, 6 miles at 6:30 pace on Wednesday (except for the section where the wind literally stopped us in our tracks) and a run up Flagstaff on Friday that equaled my best time from my training in the summer.

This morning (Sunday, the beginning of a new week as I'm tracking it for the moment), I decided last-minute to do the entirety of the Mesa trail for my long run. I had no expectations of time, but figured the 14 or so miles would do me some good.  The additional detail that I was trying my new screw shoes for the first time made me even less certain about my time.

I felt slow on the way out, and down, to Eldorado Springs. The shoes were working well, minus having to take one screw, which was poking into the ball of my foot, out of the bottom of my shoe. Halfway to Eldorado Springs, I ran into Chris, a guy I've run with a couple times, and have also run into up at Eldora cross country skiing. Had I thought about it earlier, I probably could have run with him instead of on my own.

Despite feeling somewhat sluggish, I hit the South Mesa Trailhead in just over an hour. The 5:30 down the hill to the trailhead probably didn't hurt. Without stopping for my usual break, except to tie my shoes, I turned around and headed back up the hill towards Boulder. At this point, my legs felt surprisingly good, but I consciously kept it pretty easy, this being a long, easy run not a tempo run of any sort.

Thus, I was very surprised to find that I reached my car at 1:58:45.

Now, since the last time I did not carry a watch, I am not sure whether this passes my PR for this trail. But, since I did not have a watch, I can mark this down as my fastest timed attempt (so far) at Mesa.

I think this is some fair evidence that my training schedule is doing its job so far. I have learned in the past year or so quite a bit about my own running. First, I can run a decent trail race without much focused, sharp training.

The aforementioned marathon.

 

 

 

Second, I cannot run every day without severe effects on my training. Even with as little as two miles on my low days, the fatigue and minor aches and pains quickly build up to the point where they affect my everyday running and make it significantly less pleasant.

Finally, with more focused training, it appears that I make much more progress than when I simply run the distance. With focus and intelligence, namely the sense to take it easy once in a while, I believe that this year I can make great progress in my running, and just maybe post some decent times.

Gear Review: Shoes

I, like many other M101 enthusiasts, was eagerly awaiting the release of the M110 the first week of this year. I am fortunate enough to know several people at the Boulder Running Company, so as soon as the 110s arrived, they let me know and set aside a size 11.5 for me to pick up. Trusting that the shoe that fit me so well in its prior incarnation would fit me as well now, I bought them and brought them home, eager to test them out the next morning on a run up Flagstaff.

The M110s

 

Initially I was pleased with the shoe. New Balance added some more protection in the forefoot area. The 110s also have a Vibram outsole beneath the forefoot and heel, combined with much more significant lugs. The next morning, this gave me significant traction even on the snow and ice as I ran from work over to Eben G Fine park here in Boulder.

Unfortunately, I also noticed that the fit had changed quite a bit. As Anton Krupicka, who helped designed the shoe, had mentioned, they significantly altered the last of the shoe to be "more true" to the bare human foot. Sadly, my feet do not conform to the "normal" shape of a human foot, with my big toe being a good half inch longer than my second toe. Add to that my unfortunately flat feet, and I noticed a great deal of pressure on the outer portion of my midfoot.

Hoping maybe I would break them in and they would feel more like the 101s, I proceeded to run in them three times. I quickly noticed a pain in my ankles and calves caused, I assume, by the shape of the shoe forcing me to pronate even more than my natural stride.

As far as the actual shoe is concerned, notwithstanding the issues I have with its fit, it is excellent. The deep lugs give better grip, more rock protection, and even more cushioning than the 101s had. They are once again extremely light, and the synthetic uppers drain well and dry quickly. I love the little touches that New Balance included. The colors are flashy and more interesting than the average shoe (my pair would be proudly worn by any Macalester grad, being bright blue and orange). Also, in the heel it has a stamp "Approved by the Flatirons of Boulder" and on the bottom of the shoe are the words "Keep Up" written backwards.

As you have no doubt surmised, you will not see me wearing these shoes any time soon. If you happen to be in the market for what is technically an excellent shoe that just happens not to work for me, leave a comment and we can arrange something.

In the meantime, I headed back to the BRC yesterday to search for a replacement. I had heard good things about the Saucony Peregrines, but found those to be more shoe than I wanted.  I moved on to a pair of Inov8 X-Talons that seemed to work quite well on the rocks, but I wanted something that could also handle stretches of road without feeling too unstable. I quickly found the Brooks Pure Grits to be the shoe I was looking for. Initially worried that they would feel too cushioned while not providing enough rock protection, I found them gratifyingly comfortable, light, and protective on my 11 mile trail jaunt this morning.

I will write more as I put a few more miles on them. I am curious to see how a biodegradable shoe holds up to the miles. But I have been happy with shoes Scott Jurek wears before (the Green Silence being a notable example), so I have high hopes. I am still not sold on the oddly-shaped lugs, but until I take a few more technical trail runs, I will hold off judgment. As far as feel and comfort go, however, these easily beat out the 110s for me. And I am much more comfortable taking a well-cushioned shoe on my more epic runs.

2012: Week 2

After two weeks, I have realized that my body gets very unhappy with me very quickly if I do not take at least one day a week off from running. That's not to say that I have to take one day a week completely off, but I do need to lay off running once a week. So I moved to plan B: running 6 out of 7 days for 2012. Sometimes I might run every day for a week, sometimes I might take two days off running in a row. This will both give me more flexibility in my schedule, and allow my body to recover from the impact. I think on the whole this will let me run more than I would were I to try to run every day.

This week, my "day off" was my first day skate skiing in approximately 10 years. My friend Matt and I went up to Eldora on Saturday and skied there for about an hour and a half. I have been away from skiing so long that I had forgotten some basic facts. First: I love skate skiing. When you get into a good rhythm there's nothing else quite like it. Second: it's exhausting! There were a few muscles yesterday that haven't been used in a while, and are definitely complaining some today.

Sadly I cannot say I hopped on a pair of skis and it all came back to me. Rather, say that I hopped on a pair of skis, pushed off once, and promptly fell flat on my back. Not the most graceful return to skiing ever, but certainly amusing for me and those watching me.

Luckily, my body still remembers how to ski. As soon as I stopped thinking about it and just let myself ski, my muscle memory took over and I was soon back into the old V1 rhythm again. The V2 and Open Field rhythm will take a little bit longer to come back to me, but by the end of the outing on Saturday I could consistently V2 again without losing my balance and flailing around like a startled chicken for a few strides.

Running-wise,  this was another good week. Despite a busy work week, and not feeling as good as I hoped, I still ran 35 miles, 5 more than last week. With my run today, I've gone 70 miles in 2012, and have yet to take a run over 9 miles or so. Once I start putting in a long run every weekend again,  I fully expect that total to increase again. I feel for one as though I am right on track (knock on wood) and getting progressively more fit.

This week also saw the introduction of a little more focused running. One aspect of training that was notably lacking in the lead-up to the Leadville Marathon last year was focused speed and strength workouts. Instead, I did a lot of miles, with the occasional tempo section thrown in for good measure.

Noting this lack and deciding to fix it, I did a Fartlek on Tuesday, and a tempo run up Flagstaff on Friday this past week, and I foresee these becoming a regular part of my week. My normal speedy workout, the Wednesday night run from the Boulder Running Company, was rendered less speedy this week by a nice layer of ice on the bike paths. I can already feel the difference that getting a few sharper workouts makes in my general feeling of fitness. I think if I can hit a regular Saturday ski day as well, that will only help.

On the topic of skiing, and since this post has been much more wordy than i generally prefer, here's a picture I know I've posted before. One of my favorite places to ski in the winter and run in the summer is Hartley Nature Center in Duluth. In 2010, I skied there over Christmas a few times, and managed to capture this pic:

2012: Week 1

So far, so good. I ran 2 or more miles every day this week, and my legs are cooperating well up to this point. I will grant you that this was not a high-mileage week by any means. I ran a grand total of 30 miles, most of it in the second half of the week.

For the first half of the week, I made what I now realize was a mistake. Rather than follow my normal running schedule and take to the trails most days, I started running the roads from home in order to get the 2 miles in more conveniently. My legs very quickly let me know that they were having none of this road junk, and my calves started seizing up. I started to wonder if my running streak would be over almost before it began.

Then, on the Wednesday night run, I got the news I had been waiting for: the new M110s from New Balance had come in. I set a pair aside that night, and came back on Thusday to pick them up. My friend Matt happened to get a new pair of Altras the same day, so we decided to head up Flagstaff the next day to give our new shoes a try.

That run was exactly what I needed. I expected to feel flat, which is how I had been feeling for the past several days, but what happened was quite the opposite. My legs took to the trail like they never seem to do to the roads. The run up ended up taking about as long as I averaged this summer, despite the icy nature of the trail and the fact that neither of us had brought traction.

So my tactics have changed a bit, and when possible I will run at least 2/3rds of my miles on the trails. And if this method does not help, I will drop back to giving myself a day to rest out of each week. Keeping a running streak going is not worth reducing the overall quality of my running.

With that in mind, yesterday I headed to North Foothills Trailhead, with somewhat tired legs, to get in a flat(ish) run. Five and a half miles and 45 minutes later, I had a nice easy run under my belt, and the first few snowflakes were floating on the almost non-existent breeze.

The snow tapered off around 8 at night, so being a Minnesotan, I naturally assumed that the canyon would be passable in the morning. With that in mind, I woke up this morning planning to head up to Eldora and try out my skate-skiing legs for the first time since high school. Unfortunately, half a mile up the canyon, the road was already simply a layer of snow covering a significant layer of ice, the county apparently having decided that a desultory layer of sand, without de-icer, was sufficient. After the second time sliding out at 25 mph (with my snow tires!) I decided to throw in the towel and head over to old faithful: Green Mountain.

As I expected, given the general state of my legs, the run did not start out at, nor did it ever get to, a good pace. It was overall frustrating, fantastic, and frustrating again. Frustrating because I felt slow. Fantastic because of the gorgeous day. And frustrating again because I had significant difficult on the downhill today, for some unknown reason.

The frustration happens. Every time, there is something to learn from it. Today I think that lesson is to loosen, or lighten, up. I was tight when I started out, and I was tense and tight again on the way down from the summit. Not only does that not make for a fun descent, it in fact makes it more dangerous and, possibly, more damaging to your legs. And I can feel that after my run today. My legs are unusually sore for the amount of running I have done lately.  So the note to self is: lighten up.

On to the fantastic.

Today was absolutely gorgeous. We got about 2 inches of snow in Boulder last night, and I awoke this morning to bright sunlight and temperatures in the teens. I took my favorite route up Green: down Mesa to Bear Canyon, up Bear Canyon and Green Bear to the top.

Summer or winter, the Bear Canyon/Green Bear combo is one of my favorite routes. This morning it was even more so. The coat of fresh snow sparkled brilliantly wherever the sunlight hit it. The little creek that run downs the canyon was gurgling and laughing its way through the snow, now under the ice and now breaking free again, keeping me company as I kept a slow-but-steady pace up the canyon to my favorite spot in the Boulder Open Space.

About halfway up Bear Canyon, the trail, which until this point passes through evergreens and over rocks, opens up into a grove of young aspen, none more than 2 or 3 inches in diameter. And suddenly you could be 20 miles up the canyon in the high country, running in the mountains proper rather than their foothills. It is an almost magical transformation, and never fails to bring a smile to my face, no matter how long I have been out that day or how tired my legs are. This is one of the main reasons I choose this route so often.

Some day I will take a picture of the grove, but I fear I can't do it justice.

Through the grove, and on up the canyon, I came on the fork in the trail where you can choose to go up Bear Peak or Green Mountain. While Bear Peak had several sets of tracks on it already, I found that as of yet nobody had ventured up, or down, Green Bear. It is a rare day that, at 11AM, nobody has yet ventured on that trail, and I was glad. Something about making first tracks gives me an extra burst of energy, though I know it means that I will have to work harder for each meter I run.

The way up Green Bear is often a slog. The trail pitches up sharply here, with switchbacks and steps now interspersed with the gradual incline that had been the norm up until this point. I found myself often following in the footsteps of opportunistic deer and foxes, who had used the human-blazed trail to ease their own passage. Up to the intersection with Ranger, I felt good, and powered up the last sharp vertical to the summit of Green, where I found another runner just ready to head down.

The way down, as I already mentioned, was ugly. I would get into a good rhythm, only to foil myself by pulling up and trying to slow down. Several times I slipped on rocks where I normally would not even have planted my foot, and I came far too close to faceplanting more than ones.

After too many minutes of that, I arrived back in the meadow, and jogged the last half mile to the car, not bothering to up the pace as I usually do. Suffice to say I did not exactly PR today on this run. That said, I am also glad I ventured out for this route today, as the way up Bear Canyon was far from the normal experience today.

After all, you have to have the difficult days, or you will never now how to properly appreciate the good days where running is as natural as breathing.

Music

This is a short prelude post. There will be a longer one later.

For some reason, I have had two different songs stuck in my head during my runs the past week, and they could seemingly not be more different. The first is by Dierks Bentley (a country singer), and is all about America.

The second, quite different, song is MIA's (a female British hip hop artist) version of "Paper Planes." Something about rapping with a British accent is amazing . . .