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.

Settling Into Fall

It seems as if I am settling into my usual fall routine and patterns this past week.  Running less miles is more of the norm as well as not feeling so damned tired and beat up all the time either.  And though I do appreciate the brilliant colors of the leaves on the trees changing, along with that beauty also comes a little heartache knowing what is coming next around the corner.

One of the interesting things that I have seen in the web the past few days... some running group or the other posted something on  Facebook basically asking now that winter is close what do runners do to stay in shape, etc?  I guess this question or more accurately the answer just does not apply to me and my life anymore.  It has been years since I have just sat around during the winter waiting for the sidewalks to clear to start running again in the spring.  Nope... really, the winter months are my building months, my months of my hardest work and effort.  Fall... right now is my backing off phase if you want to call it that.

Of course another part of my fall pattern is weight gain and I hate it.  Of course it is all my fault.  If I would stop eating everything in sight and everything else that I crave and oh yeah, give up the Mountain Dew for the 1,256th time in my life, sure those extra pounds that I have picked up since Leadville would drop right off.   I could start keeping my eating journal again and counting calories and calculating every damned day, calories in vs. calories out and that would help too.  I just don't want to.  And I admit... it is especially difficult with Melissa gone.

Not just my eating habits going to shit... (actually I eat quite well, I just eat way too damned much) but ironically enough, I don't like to run so much when she isn't here... I think that I am so used to figuring out my running schedule and what not based on our weekly and daily schedules that when I have all of the time in the world to go, meaning pretty much anytime, I don't know what to do or more exactly, when to go!   Weird, huh?  I guess I prefer the days when I know that I have to get in 12 miles or any other distance... I can either do it before work, at lunchtime or after work and trying to be home before or not long after Melissa gets home so we can spend our evening together... now it's like I can go anytime I want... eh... no hurry...  Then of course the evening gets here and I still  have to go and yet I still really don't want to.

Picking 12 miles above is not an accident either.... and THAT is another part of fall stand down if  you will... my mental capacity to envision running distances, not just physical fitness to run the miles themselves also takes a vacation on me.  I mean I know if it came down to it I could run 50K or more (not much more) if pushed right now but in my mind it seems impossible.  Not to mention looking back to the 80, 90, 100+ mileage weeks of the summer... from this vantage point I find it inconceivable that I actually crammed in that many miles in one week... and to attempt it now?  No fricking way!   Of course that plays into one of my secrets in training for ultras... I run lots of 20 miler's during heavy training, trying for at least three a week and one of those I even to try to make longer.  Anyway, it isn't the physical aspect of running those distances that I really have to adapt to, it is the mental.  Learning how to manage my mind and thoughts for 20 miles and knowing I can do it... that's where the training really comes in for me.  Anyway... long story short... I am a long way from that mental vantage point right now as well.

And of course... one of the more fun parts of fall is that I actually do focus on the shorter and faster runs like the Fall Series, the Turkey Trot in Frederick and also laps and miles at the track.  I find it fun to go faster, though it is uncomfortable, but at the same time it is all very life affirming in a way.  No, I don't like running on the track so much but for brief glimpses out there... or in a shorter race when I am running all out I get to hold onto some minute vestige of my youth.  Call it hopefulness, call it blind optimism that everything is going to be just great in life... whatever... maybe it is just a pure sense of potential that I don't experience all the time anymore,... I don't know but it makes it all worth it I think to have those little yet positive glimpses.

But speaking of track work.  I was reading about running 800m workouts and I ran across this on letsrun.com.  The subject of the thread was,  How do you run your 800s?  The first answer was the best I think... "On pure hate."  

Looking forward to Fall Series I on Sunday.  I've already picked out my shoes that are going to be sacrificed for the cause and  good news as of this morning, my friend and training buddy Lisa is coming down to visit and race with me.  And bonus!  After that we are going to King's Chef for lunch! (Yeah, that isn't going to help the weight issue. I know.)

Watched this video last night.  If you substitute his activity with ultra-running, the behaviors, the compulsion, the obsessiveness is uncannily the same.  No matter how you look at it, it is funny!