Go slow to go fast.

Week starting Jul 24, 2011

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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 

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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
49.500.004.000.0053.50
NB MT101 - Black 11 Miles: 8.00NB 205 Kimbia Miles: 10.00NB MT101 - Black 11.5 Miles: 7.00Altra Instinct July '10 Miles: 21.00Bare Feet Miles: 7.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.000.000.000.008.00

Shaking some rust off for the first 20 minutes or so today...nice and slow.  

Ran with Eric starting at the trailhead at NCAR this morning.

8 miles - 1:24:01 - 10:24/avg - 1770' vertical.

Ran a loop out the mesa trail to skunk canyon and back on the connector to mesa.  That trail has a lot more vertical than it seems.  It feels like you're running along the foothills and not gaining much, but always either up or down something steep about 15 different times, and the vert adds up quick.  I love the mesa trail, its a really fantastic trail through the forest with awesome views of the valley and the flatirons.

NB MT101 - Black 11 Miles: 8.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.000.003.000.0010.00

Sometimes directly after a 28-30 second 200 meter repeat when my heart is pounding and the nausea approaches rapidly, I ask myself as I walk or sloooowly plod around the curve, “Why the heck do you want to try and run a faster mile?”  And for the next 30 seconds I am nearly convinced that mile training sucks and I’ll just go back to training only for 50K to 50 mile events.

But then 30 seconds later I’m running another 200 meter repeat and loving the speed…until about the last 15 meters when the cycle and questions start over again.

Other times, when I have some company on the repeats, none of those questions pop up, and 28 seconds feels great.

Its an odd thing.

This morning I was able to start out the first couple 200′s with Patrick Hunt over at Fairview.  That was motivating enough to get me started right out the gate at 28′s.

Then I was on my own for the next 10 of them.  Halfway through, 90 seconds was still not quite enough recovery, and mentally I was caving in a bit as well.

Then I was able to jump in with Kenyon Newman and Bob on the last few, and I was right back to running 28′s.  Granted, I had a little more recovery between the last few.  But it was odd that at that point I felt like I could have done a few more at 28 whereas earlier I was falling off pace hard.

Here were my splits for the day.

4 X 100 to get moving: 19, 19, 18, 15

14 X 200: 28, 29, 28, 29, 31, 30, 29, 32, 32, 32, 33, 31, 28, 28

Felt good to get a decent set of fast running in the legs.  Next up is a saturday session of 400′s with some 200′s to finish off.  I’m shooting for 69-70 second quarters and will see how many of those I can hold.  My last set of 400′s I was averaging 73′s a couple weeks ago, so its going to be a bit of a stretch I think.  But I’m going to give it a shot.  Because if I’m going to come anywhere close to a 4:40 at the pearl street mile in a couple weeks I’m going to need to be able to hold the pace for a set of 400′s.

So how is this all going to help me run a 50 miler in steamboat in september you ask?

I have no idea.  But I find myself drawn to speed work at this point.  At least I’m still getting in a 15-20+ mile run in each week.  I see the 50 miler as a fun day running through the mountains.   I guess I’m not all that ambitious about running hard and fast at that distance at this point.  I really just want to complete a 50 miler.

And after last saturday when I bailed on my planned 24 mile route after only 16.5 miles of running in the heat, it makes me wonder a bit about that.  But that was in 90 degrees so I guess I can’t beat myself up too bad.  The heat was getting brutal.

NB 205 Kimbia Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.000.000.000.008.00

 

 

Ouch.

I obviously over-cooked the legs yesterday doing all those sub 30 second 200's.

I guess I should have stayed focused on 32-33 second 200's allowing me to do them all with less recovery in between.  Because from the stiffness in my hips, groin, and other areas today, I think I was pushing too hard.  I don't think its necessary or necessarily the best idea to be running sub 4:00 mile pace when my goal pace is 4:40.  I think I just allowed myself to get caught up in the fast splits since I was running with fast dudes who legitimately should be running that fast.

Oh well...I don't think one session is going to injure me as long as I allow myself a number of easy days to fully recover.  But I will be more careful next time.  I was pretty stiff starting out my run this morning.  I loosened up though, and felt decent most of the run after the first couple miles.

1:03 - seven-ish miles pretty flat and slow.

Oh and I crossed paths and ran with a dude named David from Tasmania who was really cool.  I learned that he's just here for a couple months doing some altitude training.  He reminded me of something of a mohican warrior, covered head to toe in tattoos, wearing virtually a loin cloth and shoes, with a shaved head, and a long dreadlock pony tail coming just off the base of his head.  Unique appearance for sure.  But ladies, don't let that scare you off, he was a super nice dude, and seems like a pretty stout runner as well.  I never know who I'm going to meet when I head out the door to run in Boulder.  Though we both spoke a form of English, some of our conversation was a little out of sync, here's an example:

Me: How do you like it here?

David: I miss Tasmania, the Tracks are a lot better mate.

Me: What could be so much better about the tracks there, are they super soft or something?

David: Na mate, a lot more hilly than here.

Me: They make hilly tracks in Tasmania??

Apparently tracks means trails in Tasmania.  And apparently the tracks are pretty epic over there.  He couldn't stop raving about them.  But when I inquired further, I learned that thus far he had not ventured into the foothills above Boulder, but had been sticking to the valley trails.  So the jury is still out, because the tracks around here are pretty nice in my opinion.

David said he was running the Freeman Myre 5K tonight.  I decided to stop by to check out the last 5 minutes of the race.  Jason Hartmann won in 15 flat I believe.  David was 5th, somewhere in the 15 minute range.   A solid runner indeed.  Especially being his first race at altitude possibly ever.  Adriana Pirtea won for the ladies in 16:59.  Wasn't as fast of a year as last year.  Benita Willis won last year in 16:21.

Oh...I guess I didn't need to describe David's look in such detail, since you can judge for yourself as he is racing here in 5th.  But he definitely appeared more warrior-esque without his shirt on.

"See you on the tracks mate!"

 

 

NB MT101 - Black 11.5 Miles: 7.00Altra Instinct July '10 Miles: 1.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.500.000.000.008.50

 These shoes are money.  Jun wasn't lying.

The Altra Instinct – www.altrarunning.com

Thank you Golden Harper and Brian Beckstead.  For creating a shoe that fits a normal foot and doesn’t have a built in heel lift.

I mean honestly, how hard would it be for more shoe companies to just make a shoe like this?  Its not that hard people.  But while its not rocket science, I applaud and appreciate Brian and Golden for taking the risk to start a new shoe company to create footwear that promotes natural running form, since its obviously so hard for all the big companies to do it.

Sure they have been coming around slowly over the last number of years, but as I look around I still can’t find a shoe like this anywhere else.  Even the new balance minimus shoes still have a slight heel to toe drop and the shape of the shoe still isn’t ideal in my opinion.   And it doesn’t have to have a pocket for each toe and require odd looks and stares from all passers by in order to allow the foot to move like it should.  Its really quite simple:

A – make the shoe conform to the shape of a foot and not a foot to the shape of the shoe.  (granted, not all feet are created equal, I get that, so perhaps this is just the shoe that fits my foot best.  But I have a hunch a lot of people would like this shoe)

B – Make it the same thickness under the forefoot as at the heel.  I mean seriously…why rob the body of its natural propulsive power and efficiency by sticking a wedge under the heel?  That doesn’t make any sense at all to me.

This is the first shoe I have ever worn that truly fits my foot and allows my foot to ‘feel free to move about the cabin’, freely and comfortably.

After testing it on an 8.5 mile hour long run this morning, I am definitely digging it.

I’m very glad to finally have a shoe that fits and doesn’t have a built in heel lift.  Soooo glad.  Its quite refreshing and still making my day.

The shoes arrived yesterday and though I already had a nice road bike ride up to the top of flagstaff with Nan this morning, I had to get out and break them in afterward.  And they did not disappoint.  

Altra Instinct July '10 Miles: 8.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.500.000.000.007.50

7.5 miles easy barefoot on the bike paths with Nan.  About 1:03.  It has turned into a Friday routine to run with Nan, which I really like.  We have a girl who lives with us right now who watches the kids for us when we want in exchange for free rent.  It allows Nan and I to get out and run and ride together a couple times a week, not to mention free babysitting for date nights every week.  It's really nice.  Nan has been running barefoot with me for the last 10 minutes of our runs, working on strengthening her feet a bit more which should benefit her.

Bare Feet Miles: 7.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.500.001.000.0011.50

AM:  Attempted a 4 X 100 meter at goal mile pace (70 second intervals) workout this morning.

After 200 meters into the first one the top of each of my quads were feeling sore and strained.  I could tell I still wasn't quite recovered from Tuesdays 200's.  Further emphasizing with clarity that the repeated 28-29 second 200's was a bit too much for me at the moment.

I decided to try one more to see if I would warm up.

Nope, still straining.

I did both of the 400's in exactly 70 seconds.  But I called it quits and jogged home.

 PM: Got out for another easy run.  After warming up a mile or so it turned into one of those effortless runs that left me completely invigorated at 9:15pm when I got home.  I am thoroughly enjoying cruising around in the Altras.  Definitely the best fitting shoe I can ever recall wearing.  They contribute a lot to the smoothness and comfort of the run because my toes can spread out and it is the closest feeling to barefoot I have experienced while wearing a shoe.  Other than the fivefingers, but the fivefingers chaff me in a few spots which is annoying.  So I'm happy to have a shoe that is flat, fits the foot right, and doesn't chaff.


Altra Instinct July '10 Miles: 11.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
49.500.004.000.0053.50
NB MT101 - Black 11 Miles: 8.00NB 205 Kimbia Miles: 10.00NB MT101 - Black 11.5 Miles: 7.00Altra Instinct July '10 Miles: 21.00Bare Feet Miles: 7.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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