Run To Work Day

Morning Leg: 12.55 Miles in 1:39.10, 7:54 pace
Afternoon Leg: 12.59 Miles in 1:37.17, 7:43 pace
Total: 25.14 Miles in 3 hours 16 minutes and 27 seconds, 7:48 pace

A run to and from work has been on my radar for some time now. Always figured it was a marathon distance round trip and could easily be done mid week at a comfortable pace. Down side was who the hell wants to run thru the DTC? Regardless, a few weeks back I pegged today as the day to do it. Work and weather have played havoc with my training schedule as of late so was really curious to see how my body would respond by taking on my 2nd 20+ miler in 4 days.

Morning Session: This morning started out early! Out the door by 5am. The pace started out slow, 8 plus minute pace, and I let the body figure it out over the first few miles and before I knew I was cruising along at a very comfortable pace. At times I had to check myself speed wise. The roads were quite, the sunrise amazing and before I knew it, I was just a mile plus away from the office and turning it down a notch. Got to the office feeling great. Not winded, not tired, just fresh. I was extremely happy with how the morning run went. Honestly could not have gone better considering a return trip was still on the plate.

Work Day: Then it happened. A long work day of sitting around at my cube, in meetings, with the boss. I could just feel it as the day went by that my legs were starting to tighten up. Nothing major but enough to be concerned about with 12+ miles left to run. Tried stretching out the legs, taking in lots of liquids, carbs, electrolytes and doing whatever I needed to do to prevent them from crapping out on me.

Afternoon Session: Started this session at 4:40pm and it was warm out there. And warm early spring days equal wind. A stiff wind at that blowing in from the west with gusts reported in the 35mph range. Running any route west straight sucked and chunks of my run were due west. With all that said, I kept up a pretty good pace early on. Faster then I wanted to run. 7:20 pace. Legs were feeling it too. Muscle fatigue was never an issue but the on going bursa sack and runners knee were not liking me by this point. Got to about 3 miles from home and just down shifted to a pedestrian 8+ minute pace. Figured there was no need to push it by this point. Got home tired but satisfied with what I had just accomplished.

Aftermath: Laying around the house, I can tell a few things. 1) My nagging issues will be extremely obvious the next day or two. 2) Muscle fatigue will be nonexistent. A mix reaction to this obviously. So close to be 100% yet so far from it.

Green/Flagstaff/Sanitas Loop

With it being Easter and given a rare 3 day weekend, I had plans of heading off to Utah for some warm desert running. A long workday Thursday basically cancelled those plans. Probably best as I-70 over Vail Pass was closed most of the day leaving it almost impossible for me to make it to Moab anyway.

So I opted for a long run on trails in town. Choose Boulder and specifically Green Mt, Flagstaff Mt, and Mt Sanitas. Just recently it occurred to me that I can make it to Sanitas from Green via trails. Never knew this option was available and was all about it this morning.

Normally I get my long runs in on the weekends due to work constraints so getting this run in on a Friday got me excited. What didn't excite me was a dip in temps and lots of cold wind.

Headed out of Chautauqua up Gregory and then Ranger and summited Green in 50 minutes. Legs from the get go were tight and tired and the trail conditions the last mile plus made running almost impossible. Windy at top and spring snow storms hammering the divide. Good old Bear Peak below full of winter love.



From there I made it back down Ranger over to Ute, thru Flagstaff and over to Valley Point trail on my way to Sanitas. This was my first time on Valley Point and was it beautiful. Views of Sanitas and all of Boulder were breath taking. The view below reveals what I still had to climb.



Finally at the doorsteps of Sanitas I felt a bit exhausted but eager to make that climb up that mother. Trails were busy, as to be expected, and considering how tired I was by this point, I was happy with my ascent. 25 minutes flat. Far from my best but felt mentally strong the whole way up. Green Mt didn't look so snowy an hour ago.



Yet another windy mountain top and from there I was heading back down the south trail thru the Red Rocks area and back to my car in Chautauqua. 3 hours of slow running, 14 miles and a solid 5K of up and down.

Here's to days off spent on trails beating up the body in preparation for race day!

March Summary

Runs - 24
Work Outs - 8
Injured - 0

The Bad: So the left knee issues I've been having starting late last year are kind of still there. The issues have nothing to do with the tendon thankfully. However it's the damn bursa sack that lies underneath the patella tendon and above the tibia. I've been pretty religious on icing but the reality with this injury is it needs time off. However the bursa being inflamed doesn't bother me at all during running so I'll wait to rest it a bit during my taper period prior to the Jemez 50K.

Also bummed out about the lack of vert I've gotten in over the month. Mother nature decided snow storms would be a nice way to introduce spring this year. That left me with no choice but to get my long runs in around town.

The Good: A healthy month of solid running. Tripled my Feb miles and easily doubled Jan and Febs mileage. I was consistent and worked on turnover, consistent pace over long miles and ran on tired legs. Extremely happy with the month. As noted, stuck to the city streets for a few of my long runs. Not ideal but beneficial. Nice to see I can log in a 20 one day and still get some good hill workouts the next day.

Bottom Line: While I'm very happy with March's numbers, I need to carry this thru April. This will be tough with work about to get very, very busy. I'll stick with what's worked best this past month. Early morning runs starting in the dark cold 5am hour. But here's to longer warmer days that April brings.

3rd Time a Charm?

During all my years of running, I've stuck primarily to one brand of shoe. Mizuno road shoes. Whether it be the road worthy Precision or the Maverick/Elixir that's carried me on my journeys on the trails, I've rarely ever strayed away from either shoe.

The two times I have resulted in very poor outcomes. Years ago I went with a North Face shoe that got great reviews in Trail Runner. Think it got some yearly award from them. I thought to myself "I run trails and Trail Runner is legit, so why not try them out." The shoe from the get go was heavy, clunky and slow. Wore them during my first Ascent of Pikes Peak and did I regret straying away from my Maverick's. I think I put in 10 runs with those shoes before retiring them. The experience wasn't so much $100 lost but rather a lesson learned that my road shoes worked great on trails.

Upon moving to Durango, I thought to myself again, I need trail shoes since I run trails. This time was different. I'd actually run trails every day. Not just on the weekends as the Denver lifestyle lent. So I stuck with a Mizuno brand. The Ascends. Sales rep at the Boulder Running Company hyped them saying they'd be no different then my Elixir's. No different my ass. They were heavier, which wasn't the biggest deal. What was a big deal was the amount of space I had in the shoe. I like a shoe that fits like a glove. The Ascend was the opposite. Every time I ran in them I rolled an ankle. Left ankle rolled along the Animas Mt trail. Right ankle rolled on The Colorado Trail. Left rolled while in the San Juans. Right rolled...you get the pic. So these got retired quickly and are now used on day hikes with the wifey and dog.

So here I am a few years later and I got another pair of trail running shoes. After much reading of this shoe and that shoe, I decided on the following:



La Sportiva Crosslite. They fit like a glove. They're extremely lightweight. Now the real test comes in the upcoming weeks to see how they perform. If these fockers don't work, it'll be back to the Elixir's.

Hell they've carried me up and down Pikes, over Imogene and around countless of other trails around this country. Not that I think about, why the hell did I decide on another trail shoe. Time will tell I guess.

February Summary

Runs - 12
Workouts - 17
Injured - 10

The Bad: Pretty simple here. 10 days to start the month on the DL due to some inflammation at the point where the Patella tendon connects to the Tibia. It doesn't sound like much but it hurt like a mother. Once I did get back, I started extremely conservatively. Tough to loose out here since I had been building up nicely in January. However it needed to be done otherwise this injury could have gotten a lot worse.

The Good: Numerous days of cross training at the gym helped maintain a good level of fitness. I also focused a lot of my down time with patella tendon rehab exercise, stretching and massage therapy with the ice. While I hate the elliptical machine, it did it's job with the cardio. The running, while starting out slowly, came around nicely by months end.

Bottom Line: Patience paid big dividends here. My knee is feeling it's best in months and the rest of the body and mind is eager to pick up the miles and get to some real training. I just have to remember to keep up the stretching, massage therapy and cross training thru March. Gotta feeling this will be a solid month.

Dawn Patrol on Mt Falcon

Most days I'm in the office between 7am and 8am. However today with a late conference call schedule with our corporate office in Sydney, I had the rare opportunity to head in late. Opting out of sleeping in or running more miles around the hood, I thought it would be fun to run Mt. Falcon before sunrise.

Goal was to simply head up and down the main face since I haven't ran trails in 3 weeks and had no idea what the trails would be like. At the TH before 6am and was pleasantly surprised by how much light there was from the night sky. Within minutes, the sunrise glow was glaring all over the place making visibility a non-issue.

Sunrise itself was an amazing experience. Just bringing everything around to life.



Got in about 55 minutes of easy running during my little adventure. This route during more normal conditions has been done a good 10 minutes quicker. Regardless, this was a great way to start out the day.

First Run in February

11 days into the month of February and I finally got a run in. At the end of January I told myself to take some time off to rest up since the pain in my left knee was getting annoying. The pain to be exact is the area where the Patella Tendon connects with the Tibia. Never had issues there till just recently. Not sure what set it off, but my sister in law/physical therapist suggested I heal it up cause if I didn't, it would continue to nag well into the summer.

The past days have been filled with cross training in the gym, lots of stretching and lots more massage icing.

This mornings run was 3+ miles at a slow 8 minute pace. Mentally, I felt like I could have gone all day. Physically, a few hours at this pace could easily be sustained. Knee feels fine but I think I'll know more in the weeks to come. The goal for the rest of the month is to continue the stretching and icing and log in many short and easy run. Hopefully by March and I can pick it up leaving me all of April and most of May to step it up.