Last night: 4.25 miles, 0:42 , flat footpaths
This morning: 12.1 miles, 2:37, ~3500′ climbing
Yeah, we actually go out like this:
Last night was a recovery run, just some easy miles before dinner with our little neighborhood group. “Easy” is one of those adjectives that means almost nothing, as there are plenty of runners who will go “easy” for 20 miles at a 6-minute-per-mile pace. For perspective on my run last night, there were two pregnant women whose combined current gestation was north of 13 months. With a quicker solo mile thrown into the mix on my route to and from the group meeting spot, my average pace for the 4.25 flat miles was still over 10-minutes-per-mile pace.
Up today at 4am, I was back at the Flagstaff trail trailhead at 5:15am for another summit of Green Mountain with Matt W. I did a better job keeping up with Matt on the uphills than I did the first time we tried this together. It was more of a hike-run up for me and a run-hike up for Matt but we stayed together and made the summit in 1:17. Matt didn’t have on his trail shoes and he let me take off on the downhill and I felt strong, making it back to the start in 0:53, even with a 2-minute delay for taking the wrong trail split near the end. That was pretty much it for the day’s real trail and ups and downs but I was able to squeeze in another 2.5ish miles along Boulder Creek to help get the time-on-my-feet and daily mileage a bit higher.
—–
When “normal” 100-milers don’t even provide sufficient training…
Many residents within and guest visiting Colorado will plan for weeks to take a very full day to do a “Fourteener” (aka “14er”), a hike and/or run to the summit of one of 53 14,000-feet mountain peaks in the state. Doing one such summit takes fitness and determination, and usually quite a few hours. During last week’s Wednesday night run I chatted with an ambitious guy named Eric Lee. He was on pace for a 100,000′ climbing month, which is more than most ultrarunners climb in 3-4 months and more than I probably did in the year before arriving in Boulder. Quite impressive.
Eric’s “A” event (not really a race, exactly), is a Labor Day weekend shot at the Nolan’s 14. It is a non-stop run-hike-trek that involves reaching the summit of 14 consecutive 14,000′ peaks. Most haven’t heard of it, even in the ultra-running community, but it is about as difficult a physical feat as I’ve ever heard of. The only harder event I know of is the Barkley Marathons – which averages something like 1 successful attempt a year despite a 60-hour time limit for the 100 mile suffer-fest.
13 miles in 2:43, mostly between 9,000-10,000′
The morning was spent out at Eldora, where 7 from our rotating crew of Sunday runners hiked-ran the network of cross-country and downhill skiing trails. I was again the young guy and also the least experienced of the majorly accomplished group – one of the guys, not too long ago, was the Master’s National Champion in the 1500M (4:01), 3rd in the world. But they are all amazing at whatever they do, with skill sets within the group including cross-country skiing, track, road, and trail running, triathlon, cycling, swimming, and probably ping-pong, badminton, and cross-stitching.
[Photo below is actually from yesterday’s run – the little creature in the bottom left corner is me, working to make it to the top.]
Photo credit: Ed Terrell
It was up and down for 8 miles but super casual, stopping to take in the views through breaks in the heavily treed area. To get my needed mileage, I ran a couple miles solo out of Eldora, actually getting in some faster pace as I was the only person on the road that descends towards Nederland. Picked up 15 minutes down the road, they dropped me back off 3 miles out of Boulder on the Boulder Creek trail so I could get my final running in to get back to my car. Another beautiful run with good people, bringing me close to 80 miles in the last 7 days.
Here at the Randall headquarters we go out to eat and have some frozen-food and plenty of soup-from-a-can sort of meals. But, more and more, the core of our eating is from food that gets rinsed or peeled then chopped and steamed or sauteed or baked. Since I eat a lot and often, it is quite a bit less expensive to cook at home, and it’s much healthier and usually pretty tasty (though I do screw up about once a week).
Below is a photo of the produce for the week, mostly organic but all bought from Safeway (a “normal” grocery store). Cost for everything pictured is under fifty bucks and will provide the base or entirety of about 10 meals for our family of 3 food eaters (sorry, Story, you’ll get your portion via mom’s boobs).
The actual quantity of food isn’t too clear here since much of it is stacked. For example, there are 16 potatoes (8 sweet, 8 yellow). The variety includes kale, broccoli, mixed green, avocados, zucchini, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, grapes, and bananas.
19.35 Miles with about 5000′ of cumulative elevation gain in 4:20, including some distance along the Continental Divide at over 12,000′.
Photo credit: Glory
Headed out this morning with the Boulder Trail Running Breakfast Club for a long run in the high country. We had another solid group with some veterans and some newbies – I fall somewhere in between with today’s outing being my 3rd with the group. Pressed for time to get in my miles for the day, I pushed a little harder than I probably should since I was pretty tired before we even started. But, the weather was perfect and nothing was injured and I do need to get the training.
Since the run is a “no drop,” where the front runners wait at trail crossings for everyone to regroup, I did my best to run towards the front of the group most of the day, doubling back at trail crossings to catch up with the last in the group and run back over some sections of trail an extra time. This was actually a lot of fun, as I got to try to hang with the speedsters then get the added mileage and conversation with whoever happened to be dragging on any particular stretch. In all, I added right about 3 miles to the group route without having to stay out any later solo, as I sometimes do. Not that it was primarily an altruistic move on my part but it did feel good to be able to lend some support to those who were struggling or just not quite as quick on the day, as there are plenty of times I’m the slower one and it isn’t much fun feeling left behind.
Totally off-topic but what the hell is wrong with companies like Time Warner ? Why do you constantly call without leaving a message?
That’s what I have left before “the big race”. Every day the size of the upcoming challenge becomes a bit more real. My lack of a specific training plan is suiting me well, I think, but it is hard to knock back the jitters from time to time. Two nights ago I did a super steep hike-run in the dark up the front side of Green Mountain – a 2+ hour session that covered less than 8 miles but included thousands of feet of climbing. I followed that up yesterday with 3 hours and 17 miles of rolling hills south of town.
I was able to run with an assortment of trail characters. As I get to know some of them better, I’ll share some of their stories. One does solo 100-mile training runs just for fun, another was in the middle of training month with a goal of 100,000 feet of elevation gain (Everest is 29k’), yet another was out with me to celebrate his birthday while finishing up his 110-mile week of running. A handful of others were out just days after pacing at Hardrock; when I asked one mentioned that she “only” paced for 43 miles – a stretch that took 23 hours. So, I’m still the rookie around here but I’m holding my own, most days.
Time to refuel, finish up this rare rest day, and get ready to hit the high country again in the morning.
Vegetarians, generally, and vegetarian athletes, specifically, are often asked how they get enough protein without meat. While I’m no longer vegetarian (I regularly eat fish and very selectively eat meat), I appreciate the health benefits, variety, convenience, and flavors of vegetarian meals.
Short on time today, I threw together a salad of sorts that is typical of about 5 of my meals a week. Sometimes I’ll have one for lunch or dinner but it is just as common for my breakfast or a snack. There’s not much to it but it tastes great and fills me up. It is about as healthy as anything I can make or buy and is full of all the stuff my body needs to recover and rebuild.
I toss all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl – the volume of the salad is about as big as two entree-size meals from a restaurant. The base is 3-4 large hands-full of mixed greens and the rest is whatever I have around but I make sure to have a couple sources of quality fat and protein.
Today’s included:
- the greens
- 2 chopped hard-boiled eggs (I boil them by the dozen so we always have some ready)
- a handful of almonds
- half a can of garbanzo beans
- a tablespoon or two of hemp seeds
- a bit of balsamic-olive oil dressing
In an effort to find balance between training and the rest of life, it has become clear that I’ll need to run twice a day pretty often to get in the necessary miles and time on my feet. There’s definitely a strong argument for longer, single run days but I can only get up so early and still be helpfully upright during the rest of the day. I’ve actually enjoyed the balancing act lately, where I’ll get in some miles solo before or after (or before AND after) meeting up with others for a run.
[An unrelated photo of me from a trip to Asheville, N.C., fully mustached, with a tray of incinerated human waste.]
And then there are times when I just have to grind it out however and whenever I can. Yesterday, for example, that meant heading out in to the crazy wind and ominous skies over Boulder Valley Ranch, where I pounded out a love-less 8.4 miles in Wizard of Oz-like conditions. I actually had to run some of it with my eyes closed since, even with sunglasses on, the debris in the air was flying around so hard that eyelids were the only protection I could trust. Today, however, I got out for a double, sort of. Out the door at 6:45am, I ran as much as I could fit in (7.25mi with about 1500′ of climb) around the foothills close to home, including Hogback Ridge loop, which my tired legs and body struggled to get up and over. Back at 8:15am for a shake and out the door by 8:30am to carpool Sagan and friends across town for yoga camp. Back at the South Mesa Trail Head by 9:15am for another 75 minutes, 6 miles, and roughly 1200′ more climbing.
So, another sorta double run, though the sections were separated by only about an hour of relative rest. Tomorrow I’m looking for a more traditional double run, with a morning run then a night run up Green Mountain starting at 8pm. This stuff is draining but, aside from the heavy legs I’m holding up. My average per-mile pace on some of these runs is borderline depressing but I am getting marginally better at slowly running some of the longer, less-steep climbs.
I think that I’ll try to limit the double runs to just once or twice a week. But, it is nice to just head out for an errand and hop onto whatever trail happens to be nearby, as I did today. This sort of schedule-free training is a nice change from the heavily regimented route I’ve followed in the past. I just run as much as I can, whenever it makes sense, wherever is most convenient and inspiring, and with whomever is around. And then I eat and sleep. Kind of like fun for a guy like me.
It was kind of like a marathon weekend, without the running part. There was an out-of-town trip, lack of sleep, logistical screw-ups, and high anticipation. Including me, 11 Mizzou college buddies got together for a weekend in the mountains, with guys coming to Colorado from Seattle, Chicago, and St. Louis. We got to Breckenridge in waves on Thursday and Friday, spending the weekend debating who slept where (ridiculous considering we were in a massive, luxury 7-bedroom mountain mansion), hiking a bit of trail until the sea-levelers got wobbly-legged, white-water rafting down the Arkansas River, ping-ponging, and eating enough Costco food to help offset the cases of beer and couple gallons of the hard stuff. I did a reasonably good job of avoiding puking and fitting in a couple of easy runs, just to remind myself that I can (almost) hang with my more party-centric friends and still hoof it up the sides of mountains.
It was great to have so much unstructured time with friends I see so rarely. Though our lives and lifestyles have diverged since the college days, some with a handful of kids, some divorced, some not yet married for a first go-around, and all following different career paths, surprisingly little has changed in the friendship dynamics from the 1990s. I’m happy to say all seem to be doing well, both in the macro-sense (“life is going roughly as planned”) and micro-sense (“despite drinking Tito’s from a pint glass all weekend long, I haven’t injured myself!”). If I can get some pictures from the guys and there isn’t too much to object to, I’ll post them here later.
With a total of only 12.5 miles on the weekend, I’ve got some work ahead this week. While it isn’t exactly the home stretch for my October race, the days are falling off the calendar pretty quickly. I’m looking at a big second half for July before I get to the meat of the training, which will be a ball-busting training block in August and September. I’m looking to hit 15-20 hours a week on my feet, peaking at around 100 miles a week at altitude, mostly on trail, with quite a bit of climbing.
This one took a little longer but can still be done from start to finish in about an hour, much of which is just waiting while the food cooks. It is still simple enough for the average college student (even at a state school!) to cook and, as usual, costs only a couple of dollars per person even with all organic ingredients.
Ingredients
Veggie: broccoli, tomatoes, and carrots – to be chopped and sauteed in just a little olive oil, then a can of Amy’s tomato bisque soup added and everything simmered together
Carb: sweet potatoes – half baked in microwave, then sliced and baked in oven until slightly crispy
Protein: baked beans from a can, again from Amy’s. I add avocado to lots of stuff – partly to get more calories and good fat – so I’ll have some sliced over the beans.
Other than the Amy’s tomato bisque soup, which has a bit of cream, the meal is vegan.
It started like this…
And ended like this…
I was back up at 4am for my 2nd Green Mountain summit run in 3 days, got back home to do my part of the kid morning routine, and was back out for another run around Wonderland Lake and the foothills trails near the house. 15.36 miles on the day and a total of 38 miles over the last 3 days. While maybe that’s not a huge amount of miles, it included about 8000′ of climbing and almost all of the running was on trail, which is more interesting than the paved stuff but also adds an extra element of full-body and mental fatigue.
Oh, but I should point out that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this lifestyle. Today alone I saw mule deer, prairie dogs, chipmunks, a skunk, and all sorts of birds. I was able to enjoy the sunrise, the cool shady trails of the mountain, and the sunny blue sky during the 2nd run. Yeah, I got to run for over 3 hours but I also I was able to spend time with both my kids and get Sagan off to camp and catch up on some work and help around the house, all before 11am.
It’s worth mentioning that none of this would be possible without Alison’s support. I really am thankful that she’s on board with changing things up and giving Boulder a shot. So far it has been exactly what I was hoping for – all the comforts and conveniences of a major American city without the suburban/commercial/consumerist wasteland, with mountain trails and parks and local restaurants and interesting people everywhere you go.
Kind of Like Fun 