January 2014 Summary

Running Days - 22
Average Miles per Running Day - 10.1
Vertical Feet - 27,500
Weightlifting Days - 11
Push Ups per Month - 108
365 Beer Challenge (year) - 14

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty damn tired.  Going through the newborn stage and a soon to be 3 year old stage wears on you.  I feel like when I'm at work and home, it's go go go time.  Always thinking about the task at hand and at the same time already planning out the next few tasks I need to do.  By the end of the day, which is normally around 10pm or 11pm, I am wired!  Finding it difficult to fall asleep right away.  Even though I'm exhausted.

Don't get me wrong here.  All is great, just, tiring.  Thankfully it's only a matter of time till the family finds a nice routine.  

"Habits are easy to start.  Difficult to break."  This is what my college baseball coach told our team my freshman year.  When my daughter was born, I started getting my training in during the early hours of the morning.  It's the reason why I now wake up almost every morning at 5am without an alarm.  It's the reason why I was able to run and weight lift as much as I have this month.

All these workouts have also been some of my most peaceful moments. All is calm and I'm allowed this brief moment of clarity on the upcoming day.  Balancing out life.  Without these workouts, I no doubt would be a complete train wreck.  

This will be one of the few times I talk about my Push Ups.  I will continues with the 100/day average with a little switch up.  Doing only 2 sets of as many push ups as I can do.  Not a big deal till you factor in making up for missed days.  Which I tend to do at least once a week.  It's the making up the missed day that will make this a challenge.

I've always been a Garmin Connect person but this year I'm giving Strava a shot.  The free version. Some really cool stuff, some very interesting stuff and of course, as to be expected, some douchey stuff.  

As for the Running, I was consistent and strong all month putting an emphasis on vert and time, not miles. Highlight was a great 26 miler down in the Springs for their annual fat ass.  Even went 29:30 on the incline which I think is good?  JT was gracious again playing host and I had a great time down there with so many awesome folks.

The slight increase in Weight Lifting has resulted in me weighting in at 188. However, as I pointed out last month, I've pretty much hit a ceiling.  My current diet is geared towards running.  Along with my current running and weight lifting pattern, there's no way I put on any more weight.  Getting stronger will occur but at a slow progression.  This I'm fine with.  The gym right now mixes things up, focuses on muscles I would normally neglect and is a nice refuge away from the dark and cold early morning runs I experience most days this time of year.

No way in hell I come close to this awesome yearly beer challenge, but I'll give it a strong effort.  I'm so focused on family once I get home that I forget to take care of myself with a beer.  It's been a lot of fun mixing up the beers I drink since I tend to be a creature of habit and stick to IPAs.  

(Red highlights beers awarded to me by Front Range Denver for now Rambler)

Looking Forward

More of the same with me taking it literally one day at a time.  Have to approach it this way with the newborn and Mother Nature making most of the calls.  I'm really hoping to add some structure to my running in February in preparation to Salida.  A focus on more leg turnover, a true heart rate focused recovery run for example.  I'm feeling really good and starting to think I might be in decent race shape come March 15th after all.

Weekly goals will remain the same.  Still keeping it to 5 running days per week with a few days on the trails. 3 visits to the weight room per week as well just for the hell of it.  I likely won't hit these numbers and that's fine.  I'm still putting in a solid base for this summers fun.

December 2013 Summary

Runs - 23
Running Days - 22
Weightlifting Days - 8
Average Miles per Running Day - 9.9
Vertical Feet Ran - 29,000
Push Ups per Day for Mth - 147
Push Ups per Day for Year - 111.03 or 40,525 Total Push Ups

Too keep a theme going that many of my friends back home in San Francisco had going on, my top 3 moments at Candlestick Park.  Candlestick Park is where I had my first job.  It's where I feel in love with the game of baseball.  It's where I watched literally hundreds of baseball games between 1978 and 1999. Another 50 football games.  An absolute dump that I loved since I spent so much of my childhood there.

#3 - Sneaking into the stadium and onto the field as a 14 year old.  It was baseball season and the Giants were away.  We played catch on the infield for roughly 15 minutes till getting kick out of the stadium.

#2 - Roughly 12 years old and attending one of the lonely weekday night games.  Stadium crowd around 2,000 folks.  Hanging out with a few of my friends near the Giants bullpen and chatting with Vida Blue.  Vida Blue threatening to throw a baseball at a bobblehead roaming the seats nearby.  The bobblehead was my buddies little brother who was maybe 6 years old and wore a baseball cap that was meant for a teenage. Early 80s, 6 kids between the ages of 6 and 13 going to a baseball game in the hood via public transportation without any parental guidance.  I loved growing up in the Four One Five!

#1 - Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.  I was working there selling hot dogs and I was situated right where the opposing team entered/exited the field.  Jose Canseco had just entered the playing field.  The whole section was booing and flipping him off.  Then the earth shock. 

Funny how scared to death I was of reliving the first few months of a newborn.  Yeah, sleepless nights, rocking the little one to sleep at 11pm and changing way to many diapers can be rough.  Hell, being completely cashed by days end is rough.  Once reality hit, I was excited (not scared) to be dealing with a newborn, my son.  It's actually pretty amazing.  I mean, how often does one get to experience the first months of someones life?  I now have amazing memories of walking in circles around my basement of trying to get both my daughter and son to sleep.  I know, far from glamorous, but it's some of my fondest memories of being able to hold either of my kids in just one arm.          

The rest of my selfish activities were done when it impacted the family least.  Taking advantage of any window I had.  Sometimes it was before the sun rose, other times during naps.  When all said and done, I gave the month a good run.

Running happened surprisingly frequently this month.  Instead of running around town for 13 miles while the family napped, I took the December Mt Falcon Challenge instead.  No established "challenge", just me punishing myself with a lot of Mt Falcon as much.  10 visits total for the month.  The result was me posting a big climbing month.  You exclude out my Run Rabbit Run 100 Miler, and I ran as much vert in 5 weeks of December as I have in the previous 14 weeks. Ended up being one of my better running months of the year and best since August!

(Stupid toe nails)

My weightlifting is still going strong but I've hit the same crossroads I always do with lifting.  I can either do more (like say increase my weekly visits to the gym to 3 or 4) or stick to what I'm doing now.  Doing more would result in getting much stronger while sacrificing running.   Sticking to my current plan would yield positive results but at a much slower rate then I've seen over the past 3 months.

Running is still my passion and I've hit my goal winter weight of 185, but a part of me would like to push my weight up to 190 while maintaining 50 miles a week.  Time will dictate how much I focus on gaining another 5 pounds of muscle.  

The Push Up Challenge.  What started out as a challenged ended as a routine.  One that I did without putting much thought into.  Most days, I simply woke up and knocked out push ups. Sometimes 0. Sometimes 200. Most days somewhere that got me to over 100 push ups a day.

At the end of the day, running is going to put you in great running shape.  But I swear that all the weightlifting and push ups I've done over the past year has made me a much better runner.

Lastly, excited to enter a new Age Group and duke it out with my fellow Master Runners!  Which basically means I'll continue to get smoked by those around me.  

LOOKING FORWARD

There will be little focus on a training routine right now.  Simply sticking with staying in shape and building a strong base.  I literally will be taking it day by day and hoping to replicate December as much as possible (which will be tough due to less time off).

My next race will be the Salida Marathon in March. I won't be in any racing shape but I plan to be in strong running shape.

March will also mean the little one is 4 months old, that spring is near and the start of me getting 100% focused for the San Juan Solstice 50 Miler in June!  I'm already very excited for this race and have started putting down splits and figuring out what I need to do to get in 10 hours flat shape.  I won't even think about training for the Bear till early July.      

Kind of Looking Back at 2013

I wasn't planning on discussing anything regarding the past year till I read PGs honest reflection of his 2013.

I'm still reluctant to post much as I'd rather talk about stuff that's important.  Family, friends, the ups and downs we all go through in life and THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ALL THIS LOOKING BACK IS how we are better for it...but I have no interest in discussing that on this forum. I'd rather discuss those items during a nice long trail run or over a few beers. 

In all aspects of my life, I strive to be the best I can be. I'm pretty hard on myself and believe I have a lot to figure out still.  Hell, I mess up enough to consider myself a fuck up a times.  But I do care.  A lot.  When it comes to running, I care about performing to the best of my running ability without it ever impacting those things that are most important to me.

That said, random observations from my 2013 races:

Moab Red Hot 55K - A race where I learned the so much about myself as a runner.  Learning that I can still run even when it hurts.  Running when I least want to.  Gaining so much confidence for the remainder of the year.  

Collegiate Peaks 25M - A race that I simply didn't need to do.  That signing up for one to many races can negatively impact future races.  Yes, I hung out with a lot of friends that weekend and loved every aspect of that. However I didn't hold back as much as I should have during this race and it cost me to perform at levels I expected to in the following 2 races due to an injury and fatigue I incurred during the race.    

Sun Mountain 50K - When on a family vacation, schedule the race at the start of it.  Not at the end of one. Combine that with being off my game since CP25 and I missed out on a great opportunity of performing really well here.

Running highlight of my year being a 1K kids trail race I shared with my beautiful daughter.

  (Running Highlight Of The Year Captured in Photo: Credit to Tachiyama)

San Juan Solstice 50M - My all time favorite race.  One that I executed nicely on considering the injuries and inconsistent training over the past month plus. This was an A goal race for me so to not be 100% prepared was a real downer.  

It's also the race where I thought I was a total fuck up. Mile 35 running mad and focused and I thought of my daughter and how badly I just wanted to be with her instead.  For a moment I just lost it.  How horrible of a dad I was by running a race instead of chasing her around at the park.  

I gathered myself rather quickly and put everything into perspective but not a run goes by today without me thinking of my 2 kids.  About what I might be sacrificing.  That at the end of the day, I'm a better father and husband because of running but it still doesn't make being away from them any easier.    

Run Rabbit Run 100M - I have a whole other post drafted regarding this race that I'll put up some other time. For now, months after the race has ended, I still have incredible memories of spending so much time with family and friends. 

Reflecting on the past is fun and all but at times, there needs to be some kind of purpose in doing so.  I've made many positive strides as a person...as a runner in the past year.  Yet this fight to be better father, husband, runner continues. It's a very frustrating fight because it's one I will never win regardless of how hard I try.

Reality is I'll never be happy with the end result (even the best for my family isn't good enough in my eyes). But thankfully that's all on me and I wouldn't want it any other way.  

         

    

November 2013 Summary

Thanksgiving Morning:

Woken up at 3:45am and my wife alerted me she's in labor but not to far along. Thinking a lunch time baby. Wait, ain't this baby due in 10 days and not now?
Fast forward 45 minutes and she's going to have our son any moment. Thankfully already packed.  
Realizing we don't have a game plan for anyone to watch our daughter.
Running red lights along Downing on the way to the hospital. Now that was fun.
Explaining to my daughter how babies are really delivered and getting this reaction:

Actually that reaction is more from the lack of sleep combined with the sugar rush of a 6am popsicle!

6:30am baby boy born.  

So what did you do for Thanksgiving?

Now on to lesser important running related items.....

Runs - 22
Running Days - 22
Weightlifting Days - 11
Avg Miles per Running Day - 8.5
Vertical Feet Ran - 14,000
Injured - 0
Push Ups per Day/Month - 156
Push Ups per Day/Year - 108

I'll start with my Weightlifting first yet again as it's been my main focus for a few months now.  I had a goal of hitting the weight room 12 times this month but had to adjust to baby boys schedule.  Still, the progress I've made since making the weights a focus has been great.

Focus is still on every body part.  One of the biggest improvements I've noticed over the past few months is finding that muscle balance between the right and left side of the body.  For example, I noticed on my dumbbell lunges, my right leg was weaker then my left.  I've noticed slight muscle imbalances all over the place and I've made it a goal to even them out as much as possible...specifically the legs.  

Hitting the weights pretty frequently rarely left me fresh when it came to Running.  Squats, lunges, calf raises take their toll when trying to run a 8 miler around the hood or up Mt Morrison later that same day or the next.  Or even a few days later.  

But whatever.  I'm not training for anything and enjoying the simple act of running.  And this past month has been very enjoyable!  3 random summits, 2 short races in one day, 1 twenty mile pancake run.  All with friends who share the same passion of running and breakfast beers!  While the weights have rarely left me fresh, the focus on balancing out the muscle strength has been very noticeable as of late.  Hard to explain but the simple act of running has felt its smoothest in months.  I am sure this is also a sign of being fully recovered from all the races I've done since February.

(Santa Fe has many fun trail running options!)

Speaking of being recovered, it's funny how ones mind quickly shifts to "now what!".  Part of me really wants to start up a new training cycle for an upcoming race but thankfully there is nothing on the race radar till March.  As for the month end numbers, I was hoping for slightly more but baby boy altered plans during the last long weekend of the month.

Push Up Challenge. The stats are now up above.  I made a huge push this past month thinking time would be limited with baby boy's arrival in early December.  What resulted was my best number of push ups in one month.

Looking Forward

Finding that sweet balance of family with a new born, work and running.  It won't be easy, especially with such short cold days in the immediate future.  But the challenge in finding that balance is all the motivation I need to get after it with all I got.  I already see a lot of 4am wake up calls for my week day runs.

I won't make a separate post for my 2014 schedule, but for now I'm looking at the following - Salida, Colorado in March. Lake City, Colorado in June.  Logan, Utah in September.  Many mountain adventures in between.

2013 Pumpkin Pie 5K & 10K Race Report

Short Version:

That hurt.  That sucked.  Especially when I was slightly hungover and hadn't trained for this fast running crap in months!

Slightly Longer Version:

Not sure why I thought this would be a good idea.  To run a 5K followed by a 10K 45 minutes later.  But I signed up and suffered.  

My initial goal was to go under 60 minutes for both races combined.  As far as I was concerned, I didn't think I had a chance in hell.  Last time I focused on any leg turnover need for a 5K (much less 10K) was way back in January as I prepared for the Red Hot Moab 55K.  The race outcome was as follows:

5K -  18:58 (6:07 pace).  4th in my age group.  26th out of 2060 finishers.  

10K - 40:04 (6:27 pace). 4th in my age group.  30th out of 1008 finishers.  (20:17 1st 5K & 19:47 2nd 5K)

Total Time of 59 minutes and 2 seconds.  0 Pumpkin Pie Slices consumed.  Though my daughter ate 1/4 of a slice for me.    

My game plan for the first race.  To not crash and burn during the 5K race.  A one loop course.  I worked it pretty good but left some in the tank. The easy warm up and cool down before this race helped tremendously.    

Game plan for the second race.  Try and run a first lap 5K pace that I could hold for 3 straight laps.  No way in hell I could have ran 3 straight 20 minute 5Ks but thankfully I knew I had one more in me.  Not sure how I carved of 30 seconds on my second lap.  

Not training for these types of races was extremely evident during that last lap of the 10K.  I simply didn't have the muscle focus to turn my legs over.  My breathing wasn't labored and my running form pretty relaxed but I simply couldn't run faster.  At the same time, the fact that I was able to run at under a 6 minute pace for anything longer then a few strides kind of blew me away.  I'm pretty sure the last 1/2 mile of the 10K came close to a 5:40 pace.  I felt it though. Afterwards I was pretty sore and tight.  

Thankfully for me there were a few folks who had the perfect recovery plan and drink for the efforts exerted that morning.   

(Photo courtesy of JT....surprise surprise)

Someone asked me afterwards if I was going to focus any of my running attention to these shorter distances. HA!  First of all I love the trails way to much.  Second, running these road races are for losers who like to put 13.1 bumper stickers on their cars.  Lastly, these races are tough as hell and would destroy me within a few months!  

October 2013 Summary

Runs - 16
Running Days - 16
Weightlifting Days - 10
Avg Miles per Running Day - 6.9
Vertical Feet Ran - 6,000
Injured Days - 0

I'll start with the main focus this month and that being Weightlifting.  In past years, I would have taken most of the summer off from the weight room, leaving me in position that required a few months to get back into the swing of things.  Not the case this year.  I saw a few weeks of finding a groove starting late last month which allowed for solid efforts this month.

I focused on everything this month.  Upper body, core, legs.  Put on a solid 7 pounds this month.  Spending 60 to 90 minutes in there with each visit.  I also made each visit a cardio session of sorts making sure that rest between each set was no longer then a minute.  I would find myself knocking out 5 sets of bench press while some clown next to me did maybe one but shared stories of how he hooked up with the hottest chick in Denver over the weekend.  Nice work there you lying meathead.  My gosh I hate meatheads regardless of sport they are into.

I also continued on with my Push Up Challenge.  For the month, I averaged 132 push ups a day.  For the year, I'm averaging 103 a day.  

As for Running, my goal was to just let it happen.  I tried forcing it a few times early in the month, getting out for a run here and there at some set distance only to realize that a) I had no interest in running or b) had no interest in running that far.  The first 18 days of the month saw me run 8 times at an average of 4 miles per run.

One simple trail run in Durango got me rejuvenated and saw much better running to close out the month.  The running was still very unstructured and done to simply stay in running shape, but it's the best I have felt since Run Rabbit Run.

It's also been nice to run in the dark and cold again.  For some reason I thought this would deter my running, but that hasn't been the case.  I've actually really enjoyed the calm that comes with running at 5:30am around my hood this time of year.  The next 4 months of early morning running is going to be awesome.

Speaking of Durango!

(pics of Steamworks & Carvers Brewery not included)

Looking Forward

20 miles.  Pancakes.  Highlands Ranch.  Yeah baby!

More of the same for the month of November.  Lots of weightlifting and a healthy increase in miles and vert.  Might even mix in a 10K to show off how slow of a runner I really am.  

   

September 2013 Summary

Runs - 8

Running Days - 8

Weightlifting Days - 3 

Avg Miles per Running Day - 16

Vertical Feet Ran - 23,000

Injured Days - 0

The Running highlight of the month wasn't finishing the RRR100 but rather the experience of running the race AND sharing it with family and friends.  This is what I remember most of the experience.  What I will always remember.  How lucky I am to have my pacers sacrifice their weekends to assist me in my selfish journey.  My family sacrificing a day plus of our 5 day vacation to follow me around town.  I am forever grateful for their selfless acts that weekend.  

I was pretty surprised by how great I felt within a week of the race.  However I just didn't see much of a point in running.  Granted I did, but only a few times at a very limited distance.  Never once tracking any of the runs.  I simply woke up and dragged my lazy dog around a few blocks for runs never exceeding 15 minutes (poop time included).

The only issue I have is some tenderness surrounding my right knee.  Not at all surprised about it considering I easily spent the last 15 miles of my race running/walking with a very poor gait.  With each passing day, the tightness slowly goes away.  Mix in some stretching and icing and the knee responds great.

I honestly had no intention of Weightlifting this month.  As I wanted to focus all of my attention on the taper and recovery of the race.  However, roughly 10 days after my race, I got up out of bed at 5:15am.  No alarm and not at all tired.  So I threw on my running gear and hit the weight room.  Did that a few more times before the month ended.  In hindsight, I was actually very happy to be back in the weight room so quickly after the race as it gave me a way to burn some energy that didn't involve running.

Similar to the weightlifting, I had no intention of making any progress with my Push Up Challenge.  I honestly thought I'd take a huge step back in this challenge.  I took a good 2 weeks off during the month yet I still averaged 84 push ups per day for the month.  Most of my push ups coming near the end of the month.  Year To Date I'm at 99.8 push ups per day.      

Looking Forward
Running is going to come around when it comes around.  I won't force it one bit but I do look forward to one last escape to the high country and possibly a little weekend getaway to Moab by months end.

I do plan on spending a lot of time back in the gym and my short term goal is to put on 5 to 10 pounds of muscle.  This would put me at a nice weight of 185-190.  Right where I was at this past fall/winter/spring. I seem to run at my healthiest in this weight range.

The one thing I am looking forward to the most though is finally, FINALLY getting a chance to submit my name into the Hardrock 100 Lottery.  My dream race and not to be confused with some dumb bucket list race.  The only real reason I've ever wanted to run a 100 miler was in hopes of giving myself a shot of running this race.

Trust me, I know my odds here and they are terrible at best!  But you know what, these are the best odds I've ever had and I couldn't be more excited!