Tuesday Track

I am sort of grateful now that I flaked on the 800's last Tuesday.  I think that it made today a little easier, mentally at least as I didn't feel like I was just at the track grinding out 800's AGAIN!

One mile warm up, 6 x 800m with 200m RBI and then a one mile cool down. 3:16, 3:16, 3:11, 3:16, 3:19, 3:16, 3:14. This is the first time I have kept all 800's below 3:20; since I started doing the 800m instead of the mile repeats on Sept, 11.  Felt pretty good and the moonrise seen from the track was amazing.

Taking a half a day tomorrow so doing my Canyon run early then headed up to Boulder for fun and games for Halloween.  Track again on Thursday, 400's...

And since tomorrow is Halloween... scenes from two of my favorite scary movies!





Oh the horror! 

FS III, Bikes and Stuff

So this morning I am tying my shoes and getting ready to go to the FS III race and I look at the bikes that I had sitting in the dining room and what do I see?

Two bikes, two flats pretty much at the same time.  What are the odds?

Yup!  Both freaking bike tires are flat! You can't tell on the MTB tire as much right now because I rotated it but trust me it is flat.  That sort of shot a hole in my riding plans for the afternoon.  What really pisses me off to no end is that I just put a new tube in the MTB on THURSDAY cause it was flat then.

On the upside, Larry and I met at Pro Cycling on Saturday and picked up all of the goods we will need to convert my MTB to tubeless.  Hopefully I won't have any more issues, or at least less after this.  But now I need to get the Cannondale fixed too.  I swear I hate bikes.

When I was a kid I rode A LOT of BMX type stuff.  Hard riding, jumping stuff, trails, all sorts of stuff and I rarely ever got flats.  Now it seems if I look at bike funny there goes a tire.  Not to mention my number one bitch of all time when it comes to bikes... Schrader vs. Presta valves.  ARGH!  Seriously... Why can't there be just one size and we just go with that universally???  I know why Presta valves are used on thin narrow rims as not to weaken them but god I hate messing with them.   I have hated Presta valves ever since I got my first bike with them in 1988.  I swear they were only invented to piss me off.

But anyway, if there one thing that scares the hell out of me in this potential Leadman quest it is just that... the bike part.  Not that I don't think that I can ride 100 miles, I think that is quite possible but can I ride 100 miles without a bike or a tire falling apart on me?  Maybe I will just put so much damned sealant in the tire that nothing will cause it to blow and say screw the weight!  I have already said that when I cross the finish line in Leadville for the MTB race that I am going to immediately put a "For Sale" sign on the bike to get some money back hopefully. 

Bottom line though, no ride today. 

Fall Series III went okay today.  I ran it solid the first 3.1 miles like I wanted then kept going.  My pace really slowed down the second half of the race but that is where the majority of the elevation gain was and the race was about a mile longer than advertised... 6.53 compared to 5.5 miles.  I really didn't want to kill myself today (I have decided that FS races just don't merit that great of an effort for many reasons) and just use the first part of the race as practice for my November race.  And I do believe that things are shaping up quite well for a new 5K PR in November! 

Still all in all not the worst weekend.  Melissa was home and that is great and we went to a fun Halloween Party Saturday night.  Annie came down from CSU and spent some time with us on Friday night. Some things never change as the three of us were having quite the cutthroat game of dominoes Friday night with everyone being as mercenary as ever.  God I love my family!  :)

Thursday Track - A Change Up

I have to admit that I have been feeling a certain degree of angst over slacking off on Tuesday's track workout.  Wind or no wind, JT powered through on Tuesday's crappy weather so I figured I had to do something to make up for it.

Tonight should have been 6x200m with 200m RBI like most Thursday's but I figured a happy medium and penance for dropping the 800's on Tuesday would be 10x400m with 200m RBI so that is what I did.  I have to say that after weeks of doing 800's and 200's, 400's are a real different kind of stress on the system.

Anyway... tonight... One mile warmup, 10x400m with 200m RBI then a one mile cool down.  86,84, 87, 89, 87, 88, 89, 87, 88, 87.  I didn't mind the cold and snow.  I would much rather have that than the nasty wind that we had on Tuesday night.  I finished that last one and I have to say that I was pretty damned happy.  My goal was to keep all of the repeats under 90 seconds and I was pleasantly surprised to do that.

I am enjoying watching my HR data.  Those would be the red lines on the graph above.  This is from today's workout.

From Oakley to Petzl

Ran North Cheyenne Canyon last night.  I got a late start due to the weekly staff meeting running on and on and on with stupid questions.  Just to be safe I threw the headlamp in my small pack when I left the Jeep.

The first part of the run was tough.  Lately it seems like my breathing and  heart rate at the start of any run is very ragged and strained.  Overall just a huge shock to the system not too unlike taking a blow to the chest with baseball bat.  It didn't last long and by the time I really started to climb and things got steep I was feeling a lot better.

I couldn't help but feel that this was probably the last nice fall/after work run of the season.  The days are getting shorter way to quickly now and the temps while trying to hang on are dropping as well.  As I climbed the canyon I could see the descending clouds enveloping the ridges and peaks above.  Below and behind me I could see that the air above the city had become heavy with moisture and not nearly as clear as it had been.  Whatever weather system we were supposed to get was definitely coming in.

I also got the strangest suspicion that I could be wearing screw shoes for Sunday's race possibly. 

After turning around at the top and heading down I was so grateful that I had packed my headlamp because about halfway down the canyon I had to take my sunglasses off of the top of my head and put the headlamp on.  It made for a nice run the rest of the way down to the Jeep.

I walked the last few hundred yards to the Jeep and the air was calm with some sort of precipitation falling and starting the Jeep showed that the temperature had dropped a full 10 degrees in the time that I was gone.

Melissa and I went out after the run for drinks and I wanted to have a cigar.  When we walked outside the club the snow was blowing horizontal down Tejon street.  I wasn't ready to see that at all.  It definitely feels like summer is really over.

Tuesday Track - Not So Much

Waited for Melissa to get home and we went to the track.  It was windy.  I ran a mile warmup then proceeded to start my 800m repeats.  I ran a 400m lap and said screw it. The wind, it was getting dark, dodging people and basically my heart was not in it so I decided to bail.

Ended up running another three miles with Melissa around the track and talking.  I think that I got a lot more out of that than if I did repeats.  Followed that up with a great dinner at Saigon Grill. 

Today may be the last day of decent weather for the week.  Tomorrow isn't supposed to be that cold but windy again.  I'll definitely run the Canyon tomorrow after work to pay penance for today then I will hit the track for 200's on Thursday.

That's really about all of it... After so many hard Tuesday workouts the past several weeks, I'm not going to sweat it...

Last Week's Numbers

Just for S's and G's, here are last weeks numbers.

Total Training Time:  15:12. One hour stationary bike. 7:46 cycling and 6:25 riding.
Total distance including riding and running: 75:83 miles. 41:31 miles cycling, 34.53 miles running.
Elevation gains in feet: Cycling, 10,605.  Running, 5,219.
Weight... 148.

I thought a lot last night about yesterday's ride and how it took a chunk out of me but I have to admit that in the final analysis I am pretty damned happy with myself.  The last time I did this ride, I did about 14 miles less of it and to be honest, I was 26 I think.  So despite the hours of abuse out there by myself yesterday I think in the big scheme of things I did pretty damned good.

All of this led me to another train of thought.  I really don't have any concept of what a normal 44 year old American male's average fitness level is.  Period.  All of my friends are way faster and mostly younger so that is my baseline for comparison.  So that is skewed.   I think I spend a lot of time thinking that I perform sub-par when in fact I don't.  Maybe.

I would really like to find the avg. fitness stats for Americans though.  Could be interesting.

Then I thought about attempting Leadman.  Well, that just ain't normal you know?  It is not like I got the bright idea one day while sitting on the couch while my arm was elbow deep in a bag of Doritos watching bowling on ESPN Ocho... No. At the root level this is something that I have calculated as doable and with some hard work and effort and is definitely achievable.  It is going to be awesome!

Bottom line... things are a lot better than I tend to believe a lot of times and I need to be more grateful of that a lot more often than I am.

Worse comes to worse.. at least I am not following this path regardless of how slow I am!

Sunday - The Rest of the Story

Okay I want to write all of this down before I crash.  As I said earlier today was definitely an education.  Later in the ride I began to ask myself if rebooting my mountain biking career at age 44 after so many years away from it was really that bright of an idea?

Today worked me no doubt.  Pretty much from the word go there were issues.  I'd say mostly my biggest problem though was the road and trail conditions.  Everything that I learned today is as follows.

1.  The north part of High Drive is a mess to ride above the Bear Creek Canyon Trail cutoff.  The road is not packed at all right now and there is so much loose gravel (Pikes Peak Granite type) and it is so deep in spots that you just sink and stop.  And in my case, if an unplanned stop a subsequent tipping over.  I would equate to trying to ride up High Drive right now to be on par with trying to roller skate up a waterfall.

2.  Old Stage Road has the worse washboard on it that I have ever seen.  It was constant work to try to find smooth surface to ride on.  The washboard just made the bike undulate up and and it was not fun.  When I was finally able to get some speed at one point I thought that I was going to fall apart due to the violent nature of the rattling.  Secondly... Old Stage Road needs to be renamed to the white trash/redneck, NASCAR wannabe highway... Too much traffic on that road going way too fast.

3.  Trail 701 from Frosty's to Jones Park... damn.  This used to be a great trail to ride.  It was so nice that it made any and all of the work to get there well worth it.  Now it just sucks.  It is more of an eroded sand filled ditch strewn with bread loaf sized rocks or larger blocking the "channel" as it were.  Let me reiterate... it was like riding in a DITCH!  Like two - three feet deep in spots.  Dirt bikes have always used this trail in the past but my god I have never seen it do destroyed.   It wasn't fun riding at all.

4.  Trails 666 and 667 down Bear Creek Canyon were pretty torn up as well.  Not only was the trail deeply eroded and lots of large loose rocks littering the trail but more deep Pikes Peak Granite and sand which made it hard to have any traction.  Past the Buckhorn Trail cutoff (and below motorcycle traffic) things got a little better but not by much.  It wasn't until the last 1/2 mile of trail before hitting High Drive again that it was actually fun.  I had never been more glad to hit pavement than I was when I got back down to the caretaker's house.

5.  The bike and stuff... god I miss my little framed old Trek.  Plenty of times today I found myself to be uncomfortable that far up off of the ground.  Clipless pedals are a challenge as well especially on technical stuff and especially if I need to get out of them in a hurry.  I bet that I wrecked and tipped over at least a dozen times today.  I still need to get the suspension and lock-outs dialed in and set right for me.  In all of the deep and loose gravel I did not like the way that my front wheel/tire floated in the scree.  I don't know if it is a function of the 29" wheels or the nature of the tires that I have or just the crap they were on but their traction was less than optimal on the loose stuff as far as I was concerned. I felt the front tire wanting to "power-slide" a hell of a lot more than I would like.  My old Trek was a bit heavier too and I think that also plays into the traction issues that I experienced today.  Lots of times in a low gear and climbing the back wheel would slip and if I were up and out of the saddle I had to make sure that I was geared to help prevent slipping also.   Bottom line is I just need a lot more practice on the bike riding somewhat technical stuff and just getting more comfortable over all.  Just not this route.

6.  I should have bailed when I got to Old Stage and rode down to town and then home.  It would have been a shorter ride but I would probably have enjoyed it more.  I hope that Rampart Range Road reopens soon as I think that would be better to ride on.  The one upside with today's ride is that I learned where I won't go riding again in the future.  Especially up High Drive and everything up Old Stage and down Bear Creek Canyon.  

Lessons learned the hard way.  I learned enough today to know what I need to work on in anticipation of riding in Leadville next summer.  I know what parts of the trail I could have problems on and I need to start addressing that stuff now.  So while today was FAR from fun... it was a great experience, eye-opener and I learned so much so it was definitely worth it.  And hey... it WAS a good workout.  :)

Another view of today's ride.

Today's Ride

There is a lot to talk about but for now I will just call today's ride a success based on the criteria that I didn't end up bleeding... well externally anyway.  Got my but kicked not so much by the trails as much as the trail conditions.  I'll explain that later when I write up more about the ride.

But for now I will just call it 41.3 miles of getting an education. Time for food and getting cleaned up.

From the house, up through Bear Creek Park, up and over High Drive, Gold Camp to Old Stage then to Penrose Res.  Across to Jones park then down Bear Creek Canyon to High Drive then home pretty much.

Hurt

Holy crap today hurt and kicked my butt and let me know in no uncertain terms that I am now officially out of shape, de-trained, still suck and am slow!  I sort of figure that for the off-season I will try to get in a longish run on Saturday and then a longish bike ride on Sunday.  Well, at least on the weekends that I don't have a Fall Series Disgrace... I mean Fall Series Race.

Had some pretty big projects going on around the house and errands to do like return the rental car from yesterday's trip so it was late before I got to start on my run and when I did it was warm.

I wore my Hoka Sinson Tarmac road shoes since was to be primarily an inner-city run.  Mostly to break them in more and to save the tread on my trail shoes.  They did great... me not so much.

Even from the get go my breathing and heart-rate seemed through the roof.  If I were the Jeep I'd be doing 7,000 RPM but only doing 34 MPH.  That is what it felt like.  I tried to slow it down get a rhythm going but that didn't quite work out either.

To be honest the first ten miles went okay... nothing great but okay.  After that though it was just a struggle.  I bet I had to talk myself out of calling a cab at least a half a dozen times to come pick me up. It was that bad.  I altered the route at about mile 14 just to give myself a shorter/straight shot home to end the misery.   That was about the time that I called Melissa too and was whining about the run and wanting to be done and wishing she were here instead of there so she could come and get me!  Yeah, it was that bad.

But during today's run, as much as it sucked I got to thinking.  The past few weeks I have really not felt like myself.  I've been depressed, moody, crabby, and not in the good way like I usually am. No.. the past few weeks I have felt tired...  Old and tired.  Like most of the time I feel like a 15  year-old in the body of a 44 year-old and the 15 year-old is strong enough to motivate and move.... Lately I have felt like a 70 year-old in a 44 year-old body and it is not fun.   But I think I know why...

I am not in what is my "sweet spot" mileage-wise and it is taking a toll.  70 miles per week... that seems to be the number.  Anything  under and I tend to feel crappy.  Anything significantly over for an extended period of time and I feel like poo as well.  BUT!  If I am to err, I feel much better over 70 MPW than under.  Important data.

Coach Weber once told me in a specific context that anything under 50 MPW is suspect and I have always sort of subscribed to that. For me, that is the baseline... 50 MPW to just function.  It's no secret that my mileage these past several weeks has been extremely low compared to last year... it is also public knowledge that my Fall Series times are about 3-4 minutes off from last year as well.  More important data...

Now, let's look at the speedwork I have been doing.  Both my times in the 800 and 200 repeats have been coming down.  But is that progress taking tolls in other areas?  Are my speedwork sessions, even with the improving times doing more harm than good possibly?  Important question.

Now I haven't talked about this directly... I have talked around it a lot for sure, but I have never really stated my grand intention for 2013.  I'll skip the details for now and save those for a later date but I am going to register for Leadman once that opens up on December 1st. Very Important Data right there.

But today's run got me thinking and I am SURE that Tim will make it all clear in the future but really how in the hell am I going to rack up 100+ mile weeks next July AND get good quality volume on the bike?  I wonder.  I am also a touch concerned since it seems that I don't function well with low mileage as indicated the past few weeks.  I don't think I can be one of those guys who can rob Peter to pay Paul as it were.

Of course it is all part of the fun, the challenge, the unknown and will be part of the process of figuring things out during training.  I am not going to freak out about today's run as a harbinger of doom and disaster... it was a tough day and that was that.  No doubt that it let me know exactly where I stand and what all I need to get done.

Long bike ride tomorrow.  Should be fun!

Some kick ass guitar right here...

Wednesday Slack, Thursday Track

I just couldn't make myself run yesterday.  I was feeling pretty wiped out and to be honest, the wind, the cooler temps and all of the leaves flying around really depressed the hell out of me.  So I didn't do anything.  I just hung out at the house, ate a salad, watched Game of Thrones and went to bed early.  I figure right now that I should enjoy days like that while I still can, before I start training hard again in December.
 
I also wanted to go to the track a little more fresh and rested today than I have been just to see how that worked out for me.  Overall, maybe a touch faster, definitely more consistent. One mile warmup, 6x200m with 200m RBI then a one mile cool down.  38, 37, 36, 37, 37, 36.  To be honest, that fourth one hurt!  It really is getting dark in a hurry now. I got to the track earlier than usual and it seemed like the sun was already behind the mountains when I was done.

Going up to FOCO tomorrow and I am really looking forward to that.  I would like to get in a longish run this weekend on Saturday, maybe Mt. Rosa if anyone is interested. Sunday I think that I will do a multi-hour bike ride.  

I love Halloween!  I can't count how many things are "right" with this picture.  I just can't! 

Tuesday Track

An okay day.  I got some good sleep last night and I woke up this morning feeling rather rested, fresh and recovered.  Did an hour on the track stand today and then of course track this evening.

One mile warm up, 6 x 800m with 200m RBI and then a one mile cool down. 3:05, 3:12, 3:26, 3:13, 3:19 and 3:19.  The 3:26?  There were all sorts of gnats flying around the track and I inhaled one on the third lap.  Yuck.

This came in the mail today.  :)  Pretty cool!

A Mixed Bag

The weekend was a complete mix of the good and the bad... not much in between.

Melissa left Saturday morning... bad.
Cut myself shaving.  TWICE!  -  bad.
Talked to my new coach about Leadman next year Saturday morning... good.
Went and got my Trek Superfly racing bike... good.
Tipped the hell over on the Supefly Saturday night playing on the bike when I didn't get my feet unclipped... bad. (But funny as hell  because I was laughing.)

Fall Series II Sunday morning... bad.  It hurt.
I was seven lbs lighter for FSII than I was for FS I.  Good!
Went to Kings Chef for lunch...  good but probably bad for me overall.
50 mile bike ride... Good!

Kinda really bummed this weekend to be honest.  Melissa's short turn-around between trips was tough.  We barely had enough time to get her unpacked, laundry done and packed up again and out the door which left precious little time for hanging out.  I have to admit though, as crazy as it sounds we both enjoyed sitting on the couch together during the VP debate (with the TV muted) and being together and working on some projects together.  That was our first "couch time" together in months!

Fall Series II didn't go exactly as planned.  I just couldn't execute when the time came.  It is sort of discouraging but as I have figured out, this year the Fall Series is just a set of stepping stones on my way to my bigger goal in November.  I have to say though of all the years I have done FSII the rope climb was the best this year... well; until the asshole standing on the rope at the top stepped off of it when I was two feet from the rim causing me to slip down a few feet rather unexpectedly... now that sort of pissed me off. 

Now for the craziest news of all... Rocky Racoon is FULL!  Full!  What does that mean?  I registered for that race last November 18 and more than a month earlier this year it is completely full?  It will be interesting to see what happens down there for the 2013 race compared to 2012.  Typically RR1000 has a 85% finisher rate, last year it was 58%.  I wonder now how quickly other races will fill up now?  Leadville, etc? Didn't Leadville have a higher DNF rate this year too than normal?

Using the HRM for my Garmin now.  Interesting to say the least. 

Probably the best rendition of Pearl Jam's Black from their 2006 concert in Vienna.

Not sure if this is before or after whoever was standing on the rope stepped off and I yelled the F-word.

Thursday Track

Blech... nothing special but got it done.  One mile warmup, 6x200m with 200m RBI then a one mile cool down.  37, 40, 37, 39, 38, 36.  To be honest the 40 surprised the hell out of me.  I was sure that one was faster.  Guess that shows what I know.

Saw the most confusing thing today and I am still perplexed by it.  I drove past a house with Tibetan Prayer Flags adorning the porch with a vote for Romney sign in front yard.  Maybe it is just me but these things seem to be mutually exclusive, no?

Went with Larry this morning to check out the bike.  We ended up going with the 17.5in frame that they had per Larry's suggestion.  Glad I took a pro with me.  I will pick the bike up on Saturday and I can't wait.

This morning's fictional piece The Best Job Ever was a lot of fun to write out and took only like ten minutes to regurgitate.  There will be three installments for the next piece which is entitled funny enough, The Worst Job Ever. 

The Best Job Ever

In 1989 there were five of us.  To see us in an everyday setting nothing about any of us would stand out as special.  We were nondescript. However, put the five of us together and we formed quite the unit and one of the nastiest fire teams you would ever come across.

We were all pulled into a briefing when the job came down late that morning.  Across the border, a warehouse, kidnappers and their victims.  We assumed it was either a full family or maybe just the kids who were being held.  We were never told that much in regards to who it was.  It was always safe to assume that one or both of the parents were significant in the scientific or political settings of their county of origin.  Important enough for them to be in danger and for "us" to want them and to want to get them out.

This was the 80's and as fun as the 80's were, they were rather unsophisticated.  This was old school.  We were going in Mathias Rust style... That stunt of his taught us a lot.  Our team and our pilot Ryan were going in low all crammed into a Cessna 182 without any seats.  Like I said, unsophisticated.  The reason for the Cessna and not any other fancy transport was that the warehouse in question was located right next to a small but regularly used airfield.  This was something that we all were thankful for.... the less exotic the insertion the better and bonus, no long-assed walk to the objective dodging locals and the sort.

We took off.  All of us and our gear.  Minimal at best.  We were never outfitted for a protracted outing and if a major firefight ever broke out we were screwed really.  Nothing about us, our equipment or what we wore was "standard" either.  Everybody had their own special stuff.  Me, I had some old 70's vintage jungle fatigues complete with my ever present boonie hat.  No rank, name or any tags for that matter. This stuff could have come out of a dumpster behind any surplus store in the world.  Past that I had my knife in my waistband, a Gerber Mark I which was beat to hell and my weapon.  Again completely generic, a Ruger Mini-30 with one full 30 round magazine tucked into the cargo pocket of my  pants.  The Mini-30 was practical because the places where we ended up, well, everyone had an abundance of 7.62x39 ammo.  EVERYONE!

We landed at the airfield and while the plane was taxiing, we all went out the door on the right side of the plane facing away from the warehouse and ducked behind a snow plow to check things out.  Ryan and the Cessna continued on to the far side of the airstrip far away from the warehouse but still close enough to observe.

Time was not on our side.  It never was.  We studied the warehouse intensely for five minutes and determined that we could make it there without being observed.  There were no sentries posted and nobody else around the strip to interfere at the moment.  We "knew" they were in there but where?  Across the strip we went running flat out... all of us arriving at the side of the warehouse at the same time right by the white door.

Nothing dramatic had happened.  Quite the opposite.  Steve the team leader casually put his hand on the door knob, turned it and the door opened.  Just like that... nothing Hollywood about it. No explosions, C-4, locks being shot off or any of that nonsense.  This is how thing really happen.

We rushed into the building silently and cleared the entire structure in about 12 seconds.  Nobody was home, or were they?  On the north side of the structure there was another door that apparently went to a lower or basement level.  That is why nobody was upstairs, they were  hiding in the basement.  Great, now what?

We congregated in an office in the middle of the warehouse and hunkered down to plot the next move.  We had to flush them out.  Steve found an old water bottle and ran out into the warehouse and filled with with some gas from the motor on a compressor and put some other flammable stuff in the bottle as well.  Voila... Molotov Cocktail!  How apropos.  We had to move quick.  Everybody took up positions in the office facing the door and I went up through a hatch in the office ceiling to the catwalk above.  I always prefer being higher whenever possible.  In an ambush I was known to frequently climb trees.  People just never never look up.  It always sort of felt like cheating to me to do that but who was I to argue, that tactic had kept me alive and it worked.

Steve ran to the basement door, kicked it open and threw the lit firebomb down the steps and ran like like hell back to the office area for cover.  As soon as he had ducked and turned back around we heard the yelling and the noise.  It was chaos as everyone came rushing out of the basement door and so easy to tell the good guys from the bad.  In just seconds and after a couple dozen loud "pops" it was all over. Our team had effectively separated the wheat from the chaff for eternity.  All of the bad guys were down.

Mark, who was our youngest team member (we were all young really, this meant he was 19 or 20 at the most) ran and opened the wide garage style door on the warehouse which was the signal for Ryan the pilot to use this radio on the plane to make his call.  In just minutes after opening that door two vehicles came speeding up to the building. A large car and a truck.  The family (all unhurt) were loaded into the car and it was gone.  The truck... what looked like a local farm truck, was loaded with the bodies of the four dead men and taken away to who knows where. It was done.

Ryan had already taxied the Cessna to the warehouse and we all jumped in and were rolling to take off.  All in all we were on the ground less than 30 minutes, more like 27 and change if I remember right, everybody was safe and we were going going back to our side of the border and the quicker the better.  We were  home by dinner and the most fun part of the day for me was that Ryan let me fly the plane a bit once we were back in our airspace.  That was the best job ever.

Tuesday Track

Things are definitely clicking and moving in the right direction it seems.  Still feeling tired, and OLD this week but hoping to move out of it sooner rather than later.  Was able to pull an hour on the track stand today and of course it is Tuesday so that means to the track I go.

Same workout as my standard Tuesday...  I wanted to try to sneak in an extra 800m and go for seven but after the second 800m I just didn't have the balls for it.  Really.  Plus the first 800m was a little hot and that was with a small stutter in there around one of the turns.  Anyway... One mile warm up, 6 x 800m with 200m RBI and then a one mile cool down. 3:08, 3:10, 3;18, 3:16, 3:21, 3:17 and 3:08 is definitely a new region to be playing in.  Not as consistent as I would like but it definitely seems that things are moving in the right direction.  I am interested to see what Thursday (yeah that one is really going to hurt) looks like with the 200m repeats.

And of course after the track I went and gorged on sushi with Melissa at Fujiyama.  I think that Tuesday's are the best night to go there, later, after all of the riff-raff is gone because the fish and everything is so much more fresh for some reason. 

Had a long heart to heart with Dr. Lisa yesterday and we are going to be in lockstep next summer training and racing together like this past year but more so with a loftier and more a grandiose goal structure.  Should be a blast.  More about this in the future, but except for a few details, 2013 is sort of a done deal already.

Going to look at the Superfly on Thursday with Larry at lunchtime.   Unless he waves me off on it I intend to pull the trigger and buy it.  Melissa asked me tonight, "If you get this bike you ARE going to guard it with your life, right?"  I told her of course and I wasn't even going to leave it in the garage it would be kept in the house.  She asked me where and I asked her if she had ever seen THIS photo...

Apparently our senses of humor weren't as in sync as usual when I told her about it as I was the only one laughing.

FS II is Sunday... I hope to have a better showing than FS I for certain.  I think that of all of the Fall Series races, II is the easiest in a way.  You don't have the stupid creek to worry about, and it isn't as long as FS III or FS IV... but it is very hilly and there is that goofy rope climb towards the end.  It also just seems that this one just goes better for me than the others.  I hope that is true because I could use a shot of confidence right now.  Last weeks 7th overall and 1st 40+ really doesn't count. 

Finally... I am reading The Secret Race after reading about on GZ's Blog.  All I can say at this point is damn!!!  I have never been a fan of LA but this book makes me even less of one.  So far it is an awesome read and I am learning more about bicycle racing and pharmacology than I ever hoped to.  I will write more about it once I finish the book and at the rate I am reading it won't take long.

N. Cheyenne Canyon/Columbine Trail tomorrow night if anyone is interested.

Crazy numbers for the week.

Okay here it is... miles ran, 41.28 with 16648 feet of elevation gain in 11 hours and 53 minutes.  Four hours and 30 minutes on the track stand riding so a grand total of 16 hours and 23 minutes of training volume for the week.  Crazy, especially the vertical but it is accurate.

Did the peak this a.m. and that accounts for a huge chunk of the vertical, but damned it was cold.  Beautiful but cold.

This morning the Sasquatch on Sasquatch Rock was a lot more like a Yeti.

 

Saturday

A fun day... cold, wet and nasty for the Pawtoberfest 5K this morning but thanks to a very, extremely non-existent field pretty much I finished 7th overall and first in the 40-50 age group with a time of 23:31.  If it makes any difference there WAS a huge hill in there.

I think I found my bike.  It is a lot more than I want to spend and the discount on the bastard is about what my budget was but I tooled around on it in the shop and loved it.  It is like the damn thing wants to move on it's own.  It is a carbon fiber Trek Superfly 100 Elite SL.  Hopefully I can get some more knowledgeable eyes to take a look at it with me and help me to make the call.  Mountain bikes have come a long damned ways from the early 90's and my old reliable Trek 850 which I could ride on anything.

Climbing the peak tomorrow and leaving the Cog at 5:30.  Should be an interesting day.  Have to get home soon though cause Melissa has the first day of Fall Open House II at CC tomorrow.

Here it is, the Superfly 100.  15.5" frame that fits me with 29" tires.  It rolls like a dream.

Routine

In the fall while I am in this weird state of limbo and waiting to figure out my next goal or series of goals I find it best to try to establish some form or routine.  Even if my workouts are not huge and my weekly mileage is half of what it used to be, it does help me to have a plan to execute daily and weekly.

So far I have been filling my weeks with a Monday Incline workout, a Tuesday Track workout and starting this week a Wednesday Columbine Trail workout and a second track workout on Thursdays.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday are not structured yet do to racing etc.  But at least every other week (Non-Fall Series Weekends) I want to get in a good long trail run of 20 miles or more.  Doing the Peak on Sunday that will take care of that for this week.

Track tonight...  One mile warmup, 6x200m with 200m RBI then a one mile cool down.  37, 39, 39, 38, 39, 38.  Who knew that 200m could hurt so damned much and take so damned long to run.  The last two had me buckled over gasping like a dying fish out of water when I was done.  

Otherwise the week is going quite well.  The weight is dropping which is a good thing and I am being consistent with the daily bike rides. I am not so jazzed about the cooler weather coming in but it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Melissa came home today... I think... some woman left a ton of luggage in the living room and brought me sushi for lunch so I will just assume it was her.  I guess I will see her again as all of the luggage is STILL in the living room and she has to come back for it... so I'll let you all know. 

Channel 189 on Comcast, at 1400 the show Esto Es Insolito is on LATV.  I think that 1400 will now be my bike riding time as the show makes it a heck of a lot more bueno!

Thoughts on the debate... I'd say if it were a boxing match that Romney definitely spent the 12 rounds pushing President Obama around the ring and I don't think it had a damned thing to do with the altitude as Al Gore alluded to.  Personally I don't believe that either candidate really said or communicated anything of value but Romney definitely seemed more "in shape" than President Obama did.  It will be interesting to see how the other debates play out.

Anyway... enough serious stuff... another great classic SNL skit.

HR100 Application Mailed

As is now a custom every fall I filled out and mailed my Hardrock 100 application.  This is something that to be honest I am becoming more and more ambivalent about as time passes.  Why exactly am I so disenchanted with the idea of Hardrock now I do not know. 

Maybe it is the all or nothing facet of the race.  You get in or you don't.  You finish or you don't.  And if you DNF, god-forbid, there may not ever be a chance for redemption.  Maybe it is because the drawing for this race takes place in December (which is way better than when they did it in February) which sort of puts the racing plans on hold for most of the following year.   Hell, lots of plans.  Logistically it's a big race to plan for and it asks for way more of crew and pacers than any other race demands.   

To be honest my plan B for an unsuccessful drawing result to be honest excites me more I think.  But who knows.  If I get in, I get in and I will go for certain.  It could very well be a one time shot to never happen again and I would be foolish to not attempt it or throw my name in the hat as long as I am eligible and qualify.  Enough on that.

Last nights track workout devastated me and I slept like a corpse last night.  I felt better today I think in part to a new supplement that I am trying out.  It really isn't supposed to kick in for awhile but I can't dismiss how my quads instantly felt better this morning after feeling as if they had been clubbed like a couple of baby seals for the past three days.  The one hour today on the bike on the track stand went really well.  Spent 90% of the time in the highest gear, moderate pace and except for the boredom of pedaling there were no issues like yesterday.  I did raise the seat a smidge after riding yesterday and that I think is helped the fit quite a bit.

Going to run in North Cheyenne Canyon tonight but then the track again tomorrow evening.  JT thinks that I would benefit from some shorter repeats as well.  I agree as I think that my goals for the next two months warrant that kind of work.  Running a 5K on Saturday with Melissa when she gets back and that will be fun!  Registered for the Canya Canon 6K today as well.  That is another fun one.

Maybe for my next gig I can copy Matt Foley's approach and become an ultrarunning motivational speaker!  Seriously though, this is some classic SNL where both Phil Hartman and Chris Farley were excellent.  It is well worth watching.

Tuesday Track

I went, did the same workout as last week but struggled all the way through.  To be honest I have felt yucky, tired, head-achy and blah all day.  Even the bike ride on the track-stand was less than optimum this afternoon.

Melissa left again this evening but it was a great 20 hours having her here.  It was nice to catch up in person and actually have dinner together.  She will be back this weekend.

Got the Bully Dog GT Tuner for the Jeep today.  The new download seems to make a power difference in the lower speeds but not sure of the highway speed yet.  Since I am now working on the performance mods it won't be long before I get a cold-air dam intake and different exhaust to make the engine breathe better overall.

Fall Series I

Well that one is over thankfully.  I really don't have a lot to say about it but I am disappointed.  Nothing went wrong per se, but it definitely did not play out like anticipated.  I can't fault my running level of effort as it was all there but it just wasn't fast or as fast as I wanted.

My Garmin called it 3.89 miles, total time 33:24.  The first two miles were going great at 14:18 for those two miles but it was the next .7 miles in the creek that sunk me and took 9:20 to get through.  The next 1.19 miles were not bad especially considering how tired my legs were from the creek.  (They are still sore.) But it still wasn't great.

So I am definitely in a hole.  I placed 106th overall, 98th in the men's division and 19/39 in my age group.  Speaking of age groups... my 40-44 group is freaking stacked with a lot of great talent in the younger section of the band... Let me put it this way... it is so bad that I almost look forward to being 45 for next year's fall season to have a chance.  Anyway...

Went to Kings Chef after the race and chowed down.  Call it a last supper if you will because as of today it is back to tracking the diet in earnest.  Two seconds per mile per pound definitely adds up when you are ten pounds over where you would like to be.

But overall the week was not bad.  I got to see Annie twice, once in FOCO and she was down here for the weekend.  Melissa comes home late tonight  for a 20 hour turnaround so I am definitely looking forward to that. 

Incline tonight, track tomorrow... start looking forward to the FSII at Bear Creek Park.  Hopefully I can drop about ten pounds between then and now.   Hopefully.

Me in center frame, green/greyish shirt. The only two words I think that can describe this are "no bueno."  Photo from Pikes Peaks Sports.