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
Quicker Quaker 5K January
Boston Marathon - April
??
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.
Did a really easy and slow 7 miles in 1:01 around our neighborhood with Nan. It was nice to run with her and chat for an hour. Nan normally wouldn't be caught dead running 8:40 pace for an hour, but I think she agreed it was probably good for her to take it easy the day before a race. I personally just didn't feel like going hard at all because I would rather save my energy for the weekend trail running (probably motivated by wondering how the heck I'm going to try and keep up with cody and/or jon tomorrow?)
We went to Logan and stayed with Scott Ensign and his family last night. Thanks Scott!!
Nan ran the 15K Freedom run down Blacksmith fork this morning, won the women's race and set a course record I think in 53:15 or so. Congrats and nice run Nan!
After the race Cody Draper was nice enough to take me on an amazingly fun trail run starting at Richards Hollow up Blacksmith Fork. Fortunately I was feeling good, and he is still in recovery mode from winning the Logan peak race last week, so I was able to hang with him for the 8.75 mile run straight up. The run up felt great, weather was outstanding, and the scenery and trail incredible. We caught sight of a moose walking out of the meadow as we entered at one point, 100 yards away or so. And all but 2 miles of the uphill was a gorgeous single track.
We cruised the downhill pretty fast, and the most fun section for me was the 2-3 mile section through smooth single track, blasting through river crossings and running sub 6 min/pace. The river crossings were awesome because it just drenched my legs and feet in brisk water...felt so good. There were probably 10 of them but I would have loved more.
The last 2.5 miles down hill were pretty steep and sometimes technical, so I hung back a bit there, content to cruise in at 8:30 pace back to the car and just lose myself in the mountain.
What a perfect run, and great company. Thanks Cody...that was a blast!! I usually run by myself, it was great to have good company on a great trail.
We did a total of 17.5 miles, avg about 9:20 pace, in about 2:44 total time (I forgot to stop the clock for maybe 5 minutes of stop time) - Garmin says 6000 Feet Ascent - which has got to be high...we started at 5300 feet and topped out at 8900 - so 3600ft. Of course there were ups and downs along the way, but an extra 2400 feet? I'm sure the garmin is generous.
It was a perfect training run for me since it was 2 weeks out from the northfork 50K and the elevation gain was slightly more challenging than the race but not much. Feeling that good during that run got me excited to see what I can do at my 2nd 50K.
Here are some pictures and a video of last night hanging out at Scott's house with some other FRBers, the race this AM, and the subsequent trail run. What a fun time:
Nan and Ali at Scotts house
Paul P and Dave S
good times at the Ensign house
Scott and Cody
Paul finishing strong, actually he made it look like a stroll through the park to blow everyone away
15K under 48 minutes? ummmm...yeah, that's fast.
Nan mirroring Paul's insanely fast finish that didn't even look hard to her.
Scott pushing strong to the finish
Early on in the run up Richards hollow, what is cody stopping for? Oh...yeah, that.
View down into logan from the high point of our run around 9000 ft.
It was great running with jun and twinkies this morning. We ran a pretty steady pace up past a lake and on to summit mt. Baldy at Alta, then down the other side. Coming down the north slope there were a few fun snow fields to skate down.
My running time was about 1:40 for the 8 miles total up and back. The last half a mile to the top was a 23 min/mile pace, with some super steep scrambling before it leveled off near the peak. And coming down initially was really slow because of the steep grade there as well. Very amazing morning for a run. Too bad for us though that Nan scared off the moose running up there earlier (or it scared her off, or both perhaps)
It was nice to have great company on the run, and we're close in fitness level so we all ran pretty close together.
Jun and twinkies, thanks for the great run. I really look forward to running kings peak with you guys next month, that's going to be a fun trip.
----
When I got back to camp at Tanners flat, the family was napping...and I was still itching to run, so I headed up the trail from the camp. Its a gorgeous single track along the river. It hooked up with the red pine trail, and I could not make myself stop and turn around...it was too sweet of a trail.
After 3 miles up the trail I was getting pretty close to red pine lake, but I didn't know how much farther it was and it was getting late, so I headed back down.
Totals for the day were 14 miles, 3:04, 13:10/mile avg - 4500 feet ascent. (thanks to sport tracks, that's a lot more accurate than the 5700 ft garmin training center said)
Didn't plan on running for 3 hours today, but I just couldn't resist given the circumstances. It has been a phenomenal extended weekend of trail running. And I'm really pleased with how good my body feels at this point. Now off to the foam roller to preemptively strike any potential issues from a bigger mileage weekend.
No running today...because I'm going to hit up green mtn. again tomorrow so I figured I'd take a rest day. My legs feel surprisingly great though despite running about 32 miles with about 9,000 feet of ascent between sat and mon.
Here's a quick video of the really fun run up little cottonwood yesterday:
My body told me today as I was ascending green mountain that it was time for a break.
I put my body to the test over the last week...between last wednesday to this wednesday I ran about 55 miles, 11 hours of running, with about 14,700 feet of ascent and 14,700 feet of descent.
That isn't much for some people, and would be a very light recovery week for others. But for me, it was definitely taking it up a notch from my normal 25-30 miles per week, and raising the bar a bit.
And I could feel it on the climb today. I was hiking a bunch of it, that I could have run if I was fresh. I did the climb up green today in 50:08. Total today up and down was 1:31 - 7.42 miles - 2846 ft ascent - 12:23 avg pace.
But despite feeling fatigued from a longer week of running, I was thoroughly enjoying myself. It was a stunning morning for a run up green mtn. I ran with my friend Zach, and we were both in awe at how we felt like we were running through a rain forest. The rain was drizzling slightly the whole time, there was fog around us everywhere so we could only see a couple hundred feet in any direction. It was absolutely gorgeous out there.
Now to take a few days off of hard and steep mountain running and give my body a needed break.
Woah! Not into the running thing today. Could barely get myself moving as I stepped out the door, and proceeded to shuffle through 2 really slow miles before throwing in the towel. Not feeling it, just felt tired and sluggish, and mentally not into it. I can't remember the last time I felt that about running. I think I'll go run again 4-5 miles easy on Wednesday and otherwise spend my time on core work and yoga this week until the 50K this weekend. I'm looking forward to the week off of running actually, after the past 2 weeks of bigger, longer trail runs every other day. I can tell I'm still recovering from that. And I just want to feel completely fresh this weekend so I can fully enjoy all 31 miles of the race through the mountains.
I did an hour of core synergistics this morning after the pathetic attempt at a run, and that was just what I needed. It felt great. I hadn't done any core work or p90X for the past 2 weeks because I was running so much more, and I can really feel the benefit of it in my glutes, hams, and core.
90 minutes of Yoga, while watching the Tour De France on the other half of the screen (moderately fun stage to watch, not as good as Sundays when Schleck dropped contador), While my girls watched Dora the Explorer, while Nan was at her workout. Multi-tasking. OK...90 minutes of Dora the explorer probably isn't the best way to be a parent...but I'm not always that lame...and hey...the kids learned some espanol I guess.
My week of lighter running and rest is paying off and a couple more days is going to cap it off nicely I think.
41:49 - 5.5 Miles - 7:36/mile avg - 350 ft ascent
Its interesting to me that Monday, even after a day of rest I was struggling to hold 10 min miles on flat as a pancake 2 miles. Then today, after 1 more day of rest, Averaging 7:30's barefoot felt extremely easy and almost effortless. Funny how the body and mind changes so much from one day to the next.
It was sunny and comfortable, and running around the neighborhood today I just had a smile on my face the whole time. Now I'm getting really excited for Saturday.
North Fork 50K (31.3 Miles) 05:39:15, Place overall: 10, Place in age division: 1
Easy Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Threshold Miles
VO2 Max Miles
Total Distance
22.00
0.00
10.00
0.00
32.00
***warning, kind of a long report***
It was a beauty of a day in the Colorado Mountains today near Pine....well...3 hours of it was exceptionally beautiful...the other couple hours I can't testify of specifically because my mind was not appreciating it at the time. More on that below...but here's my race report:
Started at the front this time
I regretted starting at the back of the pack in my first 50K, so I flip-flopped and started right in the front this time. I'm glad I did. I warmed up really slow for about 3/4 mile before the race also which felt good.
My goal going into this race was to do it in 5 hours. It was an arbitrary goal based on a training run with Cody in Logan a couple weeks ago where I felt good for 17.5 miles at 9:20/mile pace. That run had as much total climbing as this race, so I figured, why not shoot for a 9:30/mile pace at this race and see what happens? (I can give you several reasons why not in hindsight, but I'm glad I shot high in the end).
20 Miles of purely joyful single track in mostly shade
That pretty much sums up the first 20 miles of the race. I was LOVING being out there, and thoroughly enjoying the trail and the mountains. Made a few acquaintances with people on the trail, which was nice, but mostly ran alone the entire time.
I settled in by myself just behind the lead group of about 10-12 runners. Most of those were doing the 50 Mile course and so not in my race. Apparently the 50 miler had deeper competition, since a bunch of them were going out very strong. I wanted to do my own comfortable pace and within a mile and half they were mostly out of sight. But I was ahead of and out of sight of the remainder of the runners.
Once I got to the top of the first climb I decided to take advantage of my weight and open it up on the down hill. After a while I caught the lead 50 mile woman who was running a really strong pace. I didn't pass her, and I actually eased up a bit and let her go a little ahead...I really didn't want to go out too fast and zap all my energy.
I passed right through the first aid station, didn't need anything. I was carrying a 20 and 10 oz. handheld bottle, which ended up working perfect for me. We just got a 10 oz nathan bottle with a strap, and I liked using that because it has a nozzle which just squirts water out when you squeeze the bottle without having to open the top. I highly recommend that type of bottle cap, so much easier to use.
At the 2nd aid station at mile 9.9, the female 50 miler was leaving as I got there and I took 20 seconds just to fill my 10 oz and headed out. I was carrying a clif shot and 10 power gel gummy things, which was plenty for the time being.
Here are my splits:
Aid 1 - 4.53 Miles - 42:44 - 9:25/mi - 1100 feet up
Aid 2 - 9.83 miles into race - 5.30 Mile from last aid - 42:48 - 8:04/mi - 300 feet up - 1000 Feet down
My pace at this point was in the 8:40/mile range, which I knew was faster than I was shooting for. I'm not completely sure how to judge my overall pace in mountain runs, and I felt like I needed to take advantage of gaining time while I felt good...maybe the wrong feeling to follow, I'm not sure actually in hindsight. I'm still trying to determine that.
20 seconds in Aid 2
Aid 3 - 5.63 Miles - 58:35 - 10:24/mi - 1000 feet up in 2.5 miles - then 300 feet down over 3 miles
I took it pretty easy going up this uphill, I was steady though. I ran the whole thing, then I opened up my speed going down a bit, not as fast as the first big down hill though. I caught up to Steve who was in the 50K about mile 13 and we chatted, then I proceeded forth. Neither of us knew how many other 50K runners were ahead of us, but we were pretty sure it wasn't many (found out later from Steve that it was none, so apparently I took the lead of the race at this point. Wish I would have known that, I would have probably eased up a bit. Although, I really wasn't racing to win, I was just shooting for an overall time goal at this point.)
I was in Aid 3 for 1:31 refilling both bottles and eating some watermelon.
Aid 4 - 19.54 miles into the race - 4.08 Miles from last aid - 37:19 - 9:09/mi - 700 foot descent for 3.25 and then up 100 to the aid station
I was in Aid 4 for 3 minutes, I had to jog back to my drop bag and deposit my shirt so it wouldn't be dangling behind my pants. My overall average at this point was up to about 9:11/mile. I figured I still had a shot of averaging 9:30/mile overall, this would get me at the finish in about 4:55 if I could pull that off. I had one more 1000 ft climb, some down hill, then a 3-400 foot climb, and downhill to the finish. The first two 10 mile sections were pretty similar, and I figured that was pretty good figuring.
Then within a half mile after aid 4 all my figuring started to be rapidly thrown out as invalid.
Half mile up the trail I realized that I left my Vespa pouch on the water jug at the aid station. Since that was a critical element of my race nutrition plan, I was somewhat dismayed and annoyed at myself for this. This started a trigger of mental events that led me pretty much to mental worthlessness. It was a strange and difficult experience.
This next section of the course annihilated me. But I'm pretty sure I helped the course out a lot with a bunch of self-annihilation.
The mind is a funny thing I found out, and mine happens to be pretty stubborn and annoying at times like these. Here is what was going on with my mind at this point:
Mind: That sucks that you forgot that VESPA pouch...stupid.
Me: I'll just run back and get it...no...that's lame, would add a mile and cost me tons of energy.
Mind: You really screwed up not taking that vespa.
Me: It will be fine, I've got plenty of gel, salt and water.
Mind: Nope, its totally going to screw up your race.
Me: huh....we'll see I guess
Mind: You're tired. You only got 4.5 hours of sleep last night and 5 the night before...you can't expect to keep running fast on so little sleep. You may as well quit now...you're way too tired.
Me: Yeah....I do feel pretty tired all of a sudden (strange how I felt fantastic half a mile ago).
Mind: This is getting hot, and tiring. Why are we still running, this isn't fun anymore? Let's just stop.
At about Mile 22 I succumbed to this one, stopped and stretched for 2 minutes, got passed by a dude.
Mind: This really sucks...and we still have 9 more miles of this...I really wish we could just quit at this point:
OK you get the picture. It was a battle with my mind, , and my mind's demands grew stronger and stronger and would not let up, and I lost that battle unfortunately. I suffered pretty bad between these aid stations, and walked up the hill a lot, and lost huge time on my average. And that was also a very handy little tool in my minds arsenal to dig at me with and discourage me with.
Aid 5 - I don't know...Not good. stopped to stretch in the middle there somewhere. Suffered through the 1100 foot climb. Walked a lot.
At this aid station they had Ice, which was REALLY nice. I was really sick of warm water at that point. It felt good. But it also felt kind of weird and messed with me a bit. The ice and cold in my system was kind of a shock.
Suffer Fest 2010!
If someone would have notified me that Suffer Fest 2010 was starting today at precisely 10:15 AM, I'm pretty sure I would have stayed home and sat that one out. (Glad they didn't tell me that, because overall I loved the race...but did not enjoy the suffer fest portion.)
At mile 25 I was running down hill slowly and any slight uphill rise I was now walking. My mind was out of it. I didn't want to be out there anymore...I had definitely lost all competitive drive. I just wanted to be done running, and went through my options of quitting. Fortunately there weren't any quitting options, because I would have taken them. I'm glad I didn't.
But I did feel perfectly justified at this point when I found a shady grove of trees off the side of the road and proceeded to crawl in and lay down on the ground. My main justification to myself was that Killian Jornet was passed by Geoff Roes in the Western States 100 as he was laying in the river for who knows how long, and he still pulled off a 3rd place finish. Perhaps a quick rest was just what I needed! (it certainly was all the excuse I needed at that point)
Ahhhh. Done. Not running anymore. Running sucks. Why was I still trying to run? Haven't I run far enough for one day? Running is not fun for me right now...I've had enough fun for one day. So I'll just lay here and that will be nicer.
It was nicer for the moment. I was glad to not be running any more. I was stretching, and relaxing. But soon, my logic (and pride) kicked into gear and told me that I really didn't want to throw away a perfectly fine race out of complete mental weakness and that I would not be happy with myself for caving in to my mind completely.
A couple people (one guy, one gal, in the 50K) passed me unawares as I was laying there vegging. I got up and got moving again after being in there for almost 4 minutes. I did feel a little better. But I walked for a couple minutes, and the backs of my hammies were kind of tight when I walked, so it was actually more comfortable to run again and I did. It wasn't fun though, I assure you of that. It was mentally painful. It wasn't really physically painful, mostly mental. It was really strange.
Why??? What's up with that? Why couldn't I just kick my mind into gear and keep loving the run? I was still in beautiful country, single track, gorgeous day. But I couldn't convince myself it was fun anymore for the life of me. Weird. So I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other as best I could.
Finally after summiting the climb and running a LONG plateau, I hit the last aid station and it was virtually 3 miles of down hill from there. I was able to pick up my pace to 7:30's and was FINALLY recovering energy and feeling pretty decent again. Still not fantastic, but much better. It was nice to be moving somewhat quickly again.
Finished! Nice, very glad to stop running.
It was fun running in the last half mile to the finish with all my kids! I couldn't keep up with Abe though...I tried...but by that point I was ready to stop and was content with my 8 min mile pace on the flat trail to the finish.
Total time: 5:39:15 - 10:52/mile average - 4800 feet ascent - 4800 feet descent.
Turns out I was 10th overall and 1st in my age group of 30-39. I was pretty pleased with that result after the major breakdown I had.
I didn't hit my goal of sub 5 hours, but I did hit my goal of being in the top 10, so that's cool I guess.
In thinking back now, I realize that I could have won that thing possibly. OK, ok, 10th place is a far cry from first, but it is certainly possible that if I could have staved off the bonk somehow I could have taken won. I was in the lead at Mile 20 and feeling good before my mistake and the ensuing mental drama. I ended up losing by about 22 minutes to the first guy who came in at 5:17. So take out the 6 minute nap stop, the 3 minute stretch stop, and remove the bonk and I think I really could have done it closer to 5 hours. Which is kind of cool to think of. I could see how running with the attempt to actually win a race would add another element of fun into the mix. But I wasn't attempting to win this race at any point today, I was jut focused on hitting a time goal, which happened to be faster than the eventual winning time.
Even though running completely sucked for about 5-6 miles today...I'm over that. I'm grateful for the the 20 miles of pure running bliss and the opportunity to put my body and mind to the test and see what I'm made of. Definitely some room for improvement, which is great. I'm happy that I shot for a high goal, even though I missed it, because I think I'm better for it. It was a cool experience to attempt it. And you miss all the shots you don't take right?
As far as the North Fork 50 race, I give it two big thumbs up! A fantastic trail system and location for a race, a very runnable and very smooth, fun course, and well put on. Great food and atmosphere afterward etc. Great La Sportiva race shirts. I'm guessing I'll be back next year to try to beat my time by an hour. I'm pretty sure I could run that course in under 4:45 with another year of experience. It would be fun to do it (or maybe it would hurt even worse the last 10 miles...either way it would be less time in the pain cave I suppose).
Here are some shots running into the finish with the kids. It was REALLY nice to see them at that point.
Ali catching up
The kids loving the finish sprint
Me loving being so close to the finish
This guy absolutely smashed the 50 Miler in about 7 1/2 hours...he looked spent from the fast pace on a hot afternoon.
I felt like running again yesterday but didn't have much time. Did a p90X workout in the AM while Nan was out running.
Today I got out for a quick barefoot run in the afternoon. My legs felt pretty good. Hips and hamstrings could still feel really light residual soreness from the weekend, but it went away after a half mile and it was a nice quick recovery run to get my legs moving again. Just did 4 miles slow - 34:45 - 8:45 pace. It felt good to run again. Running is so addicting.
We're camping in Alpine WY this weekend and doing some rafting today and tomorrow. So I got up early and drove up the canyon toward jackson and stopped at the first thing that looked like a possible trail up a canyon.
It turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for. It was an unmarked, rarely used trail that went up a canyon and toward some passes and peaks in the distance. The trail had lots of growth coming in on it from the little use, and the only tracks on the trail were deer tracks, which were fresh on the trail all the way up almost.
It started out moderate, only 400 feet ascent in the first mile or so, and it felt good to go slow and get warm.
It was a beautiful morning and perfect temp. I saw a few deer, but otherwise had the canyon to myself and thoroughly enjoyed the quiet morning and peaceful mountain sounds.
I got near the convergence of 2 valleys and the trail turned and got steeper. And just kept getting steeper and steeper. The last stretch before a plateau between two valleys that I topped on was insanely steep for a while, but I ran the entire thing and it felt good.
When I reached this plateau it was totally beautiful. The sun was hitting the one ridge, I was surrounded by ridges and peaks on all sides and I just sat on a rock for a few minutes taking it all in and enjoying the silence and peace of being by myself in the mountains far away from everything.
Then I ran comfortably down.
I checked the garmin as I went down and realized that the last 1/4 mile to where I stopped I climbed 450 feet. Which I believe is an average grade of 33%. Wow...I knew it was steep, didn't realize it was that steep. Kind of felt good to be able to run that without even maxing out my HOUR (granted it was super slow I'm sure, but my legs felt good).
Total was 6 miles, 2200 feet ascent and 2200 descent in about 1:20. Slow, very enjoyable mountain run.
Tomorrow I want to get out earlier and run up to a couple of the peaks I didn't quite make it to this am. I didn't have enough time this am, but there were some incredible looking treeless ridgelines up there that I REALLY want to run tomorrow.
Todays run consisted of going up tons of insanely steep trail and non-trail for 5.75 Miles gaining 4150 feet. Then running straight down 5.25 miles back to the car (lost the trail part of the way down and cut out 1/2 mile of the run on accident).
I definitely set a new slow PR for actual running. The first 4 miles were actually runnable and I did it in 1:12 minutes - 18 min/mile, and I was actually running the entire time. I was taking it pretty easy, but it was just plain steep. Then the trail ended or I lost it, once I reached the ridge. And at that exact same time I came upon two gargantuous bucks with huge antlers. It was impressive. They didn't like hanging around me much though, I probably stunk, so they took off down the other side of the ridge and were completely out of sight by the time I could run the 50 yards to where they were to catch another glimpse.
At that point I couldn't see a trail anymore so I bushwhacked/ran up a really cool ridge line for 1.75 miles until I arrived at some unknown peak at 9800 feet (started the run at 5800).
Coming down I found a trail on the ridge that I hadn't seen on the way up and that allowed me to run down most of the ridge pretty quick. Then I successfully lost that trail after a mile and found myself charging through 2-3 foot sage brush and climbing over fallen trees etc. Really slowed the progress, but I finally re-connected with my trail and headed down. Then I saw a big fat mountain goat charge across the trail and blast through the sage brush with ease, and that was cool.
It is apparent that people don't go to Alpine Wyoming to hike or run because I had the entire mountain range to myself (minus the deer and goats I never saw another soul anywhere). And it was really cool standing on the peak and being surrounded for hundreds of miles of peaks on all sides of me. It was a pretty epic view, and well worth the effort of getting there. The Grand Tetons loomed to the north, daring any more people to try to climb them this week after a lightning storm on the peak blasted a whole bunch of people on Wednesday, blowing one guy off the mountain to his death.
Time: 2:40 - 11 Miles - ~15:30/mile - 4150 Feet ascent and 4150 Descent. (13.67% avg grade - ouch, no wonder it was so slow. But also the 2-3 miles without trail slowed me down quite a bit.)
The steep ascending and descending was sure a good workout on the quads and hips for me today. But its nice now that my quads don't get sore at all after runs like that. I like that a lot. I still roll everything out with the foam roller though, for injury prevention and because it feels really good.
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.)
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
