Run to Work Day

With work a lot less hectic lately, today was a perfect day to run to work and back home. Stats are:

Home to Work - 1 Hour 43 Minutes, 13.1 Miles, 7:55 Pace
Work to Home - 1 Hour 44 Minutes, 13.7 Miles, 7:37 Pace
Total Commute - 3 Hours 27 Minutes, 26.8 Miles, 7:46 Pace

Morning started out really early. 5:00am specifically. Started out very slow, very easy and very tired. Honestly couldn't recall the first hour of the run. Thankfully a quick stop to visit the can at a DTC gas station woke me up and got me moving a lot quicker the last few miles in. The morning session went by so easily and left me looking forward to the return trip.



Now the toughest part of today's runs aren't the runs itself but the down time between runs. During my 9 hour work day, I struggled with being sleepy and muscles getting tight. Lots of liquid, a smart diet and random walks around the office helped as the work day came to an end at 4pm.

Lucky for me, showers and winds were held in check and blue skies greeted me as I started my journey back home. While not delicious singletrack, I'll take a detour thru the Cherry Creek State Park over pavement any day.



Once within the heart of the DTC, I hit damn near every light while crossing an intersection. A good 7 to 8 minutes ticked by on my watch as I stood and waited patiently for a green light go. After crossing I-25, it was non-stop running all the way home. These shoes, while awful looking, held up great all day. So damn comfortable.



Not sure how beneficial this run is for the upcoming Dirty Thirty. Regardless I was on my feet running for a good amount of time. More important, my fuel and hydration intake were on point. At the end of my run, I had more energy then at any other time of the day. The last handful of miles were easily my fastest of the day. All good signs as the summer months come knocking.

Collegiate Peaks 25 - A mental kick in the...

Before I get into any details surrounding the race, I've got to hand to all those who help make this race happen. From my perspective, the event ran flawlessly and the volunteers out there were awesome.

What this race lacks in single track, huge climbs and alpine terrain easily makes up for with stunning views of a snow capped Mt Princeton and a constant up and down course. I've run more difficult courses, but this course has variety of terrain that is thrown at you for most of the day. Just a fun course to run on and I had blast out there.

Within 15 minutes of arriving to the start line, I got the pleasure of catching up with WA and from there I bumped into, was introduced to or chatted with so many fine people. That list includes, Todd G, Brian F, Darcy A, Leila D, GZ, JT, MH, and numerous others whose names I have unfortunately forgotten but made the day that much more enjoyable.

As for the race, well let's just say mentally I wasn't all that into it.

I love keeping my life simple. However you mix 4 weeks of in-laws living with us, 12 to 16 hour work shifts for weeks at a time and it's impact on family time and training and well....I'm pretty much left mentally deflated come race day.

Departed Denver Friday afternoon with my mom tagging along for the road trip. While she's visited me a few times over the years, she's never been to the mountains and I thought this would be a nice distraction for her as she's spent the past week locked up in the house baby sitting. Arrived to Buena in time to pick up race pack and check into the Thunder Lodge. Not the nicest place in town but with a kitchenette and a respectable nightly fee, it really couldn't be beat.

Saturday morning I was awake early and ran to the start line from the lodge. It was only a mile plus away and wasn't about to make my mom walk that distance. Even at 5:30am, the temps in the Arkansas Valley were comfortable. My pace was a shuffle at 9:30 minute pace and right off the bat I could tell two things: 1) My body felt great and 2) I had no interest in racing. So I quickly got my mind set that today would be a nice slow long run in which I enjoyed every facet of race day without actually racing.

The first few miles of the race were chilly but them sun rays wasted no time warming you up once they broke thru. The first 15 miles of the race just cruised by. Conversation with many and the accompanying views were simply fantastic. The pace very comfortable. Hydration and fueling were extremely solid.

Then the #3 aid station at Mile 15 came along. I was chugging my water bottle and didn't bother to stop for a refill. I remember running thru not really caring even though I knew the last big climb of the day was in front of me.

I got to the base of the last climb with no water and at that point I simply didn't have the drive to push myself like I normally do during races. I walked, maybe half?, of the hill for no real reason. I ran portions of the climb but then I would stop just for the hell of it. I had the energy to run but just didn't care too. Remember getting to Aid #4 around mile 19, grabbing a handful of chips and a few gulps of water and ran off. My bottle still empty.

I proceeded to walk small bits of the downhill and bigger portions of the flat. Got to Aid #5 and jogged right thru it. Still no water refill.

Couldn't tell you a damn thing about the last few miles other then all dozen or so 50 mile folks looking fantastic on the return trip. A few years ago, I bumped into one 50 miler before finishing. At the bridge just before the finish and that was AK.

Finish line came and went at something like 4 hours 4 minutes and the effects of not drinking water over the past hour plus had hit me hard and put me in a nice state of dehydration. Rest of the body felt fine. Figured that would be the case with all that walking and comfortable paced running.

(The finish/turn-around area that was so confusing to folks)

I have to say it's very hard for me to be disappointed about the time and effort posted on Saturday. Life has simply been hectic and I've done my best in balancing all things important to me over the past month. I could have easily said the hell with this race and stayed home but to me that would have been the true disappointment.

April 2011 Summary

Sometimes life just gets in the way of running and the latter part of this month was a perfect example of that.

Runs - 25
Workouts - 0
Injured - 0

The Bad: The wife going back to work, the mother-in-law moving in to help out with the little one and myself working back to back 75 plus hour work weeks. When you're working as much as I was over the past few weeks, there ain't much time left to run, sleep well and spend time with family.

Early this month I got the thumbs up to start working out again. At that time, I had been away from pushing weights for 2 months. Well you can make that 3 months now. Some folks get better at running by running more. I become a better runner when I run more and lift weights. Something about the balance between the two just works well for me.

The Good: I did have the first 10 days of the month working for me. Averaging something like 9.7 miles a day during that stretch. I also got in every scheduled long run leading up to Collegiate Peaks. So I got that working for me.

Looking Forward: One of the positives to take out of the brutal stretch at the end of April is that I can consider this span as an extreme taper with the CP25 just around the corner. In all honesty, I can't say I'm overly confident as I enter the race. I've always read "trust your training" and my training for the past few months has been strong and consistent. However I live by the line "what have you done for me lately?" And as far as I'm concerned, I have done squat over the past few weeks to justify a strong showing down in Buena Vista.

I did purchase Relentless Forward Progress last week. Went back and forth regarding the puchase, but for $10 via Amazon, it was easy to justify. Pretty much done with the book. Easy read, interesting topics but not really sharing stuff I didn't already know. But I'll say it's nice to have a reference manual like this in a small book that I can keep stashed with my other running mags next to the can in the bathroom.

Did stumble across this new race in Moab. Sounds very interesting but the timing of it is pretty bad for me as it's weeks after Steamboat. Single loop routes for the 50M and 100M is pretty cool and being out in Moab in early October usually offers up some fantastic weather. Rarely too hot or too cold. Will seriously consider the 50M if I'm able to string together a strong summer training pattern.