Quinoa cooked in low-sodium chicken broth, veggie chili from a can (Amy’s brand), fresh kale sauteed with garlic in olive oil.
I cook quinoa in pretty big batches every few days so that was already prepared. The rest of the meal took about 10 minutes. Total cost for the meal with all organic ingredients was about $3/person. With non-organics this meal would cost about $1.50 per person.
Cheaper than the slop from an extra value menu and quicker than a drive-through. Yes, everyone has enough time and money to eat well!
Easy 7 miles this morning with Marty K., Mike S., and Scott W. on the rolling single track at Betasso Preserve. With the exception of about a mile halfway through I felt pretty beat – heavy legs, not enough rest – but nothing hurt and I was able to get through it and enjoy the cool, sunny morning on the mostly empty trail.
Some friends ask about what I eat. I usually respond with one-off rambling monologues full of “and LOTS of quinoa” and “you can’t eat too many vegetables”. While I stand by those foodie cliches they don’t really help anyone looking to put together meals. So, I’m going to make a regular habit of included posts with my meals. These aren’t meant to be recipes, as I rarely measure anything and usually make as big of dishes as my ingredients will allow. Here’s my first installment, the breakfast I just ate:
The veggie mix is broccoli, tomatoes, onions, and spinach, stir fried in olive oil with some green chili salsa. The toasted english muffin is from the Food for Life line of sprouted grain products. (A wide variety of sprouted grain products from Food for Life and other manufacturers is available at “normal” grocery stores.” Three eggs scrambled with coconut milk and half an avocado on top. A glass of OJ and some water. With the exception of the avocado and green chili salsa, the meal is made with organic ingredients. It took me about 15 minutes to make and while I don’t have an exact price breakdown, I’m guessing it cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $5. Without organic ingredients a similar meal would be about half the price.
Photo credit: Lesley Hempfling and crew (via http://endurancebuzz.com)
I will be running at next month’s Leadville 100 run. My goal is to finish half of it. Specifically, the second half, where I’ll be pacing 5-time 100-mile racer Harry Hamilton. This is something of a leap for me, as 50 miles is a good chunk to run in the high mountains at night and it will be my debut as pacer for an ultra. Both components of the event – the running and the pacing – are pretty exciting for me and I’m really looking forward to enjoying the course and helping a fellow runner achieve something meaningful.
Harry is based in New Jersey, which makes getting to and planning for a Colorado race something of a challenge. He emailed out an open call for pacers through the Boulder Trail Runners list and I jumped at the chance to be part of his run. After talking a couple of times by phone, we’ve decided we’re a good fit and we’re now talking race strategy. And we’re both working to be physically ready for the very long day of running – Harry is actually running the Vermont 100 Endurance Race later this month, presumably as something of a warm-up for Leadville. Running a 100-miler, ever, is a major accomplishment and one that I’ve been working up to for years. He’s doing two in less than a month. Super impressive.
For those who aren’t familiar with a pacer’s duties at an ultra-marathon, a great overview can be found on Tim Long’s blog. Basically, the pacer runs (or hikes, then walks, then stumbles) along with the runner for the latter stages of a long race, in order to provide emotional, psychological, physical, navigational, nutritional, and logistical support. Late into a long race – some ultras literally take days to finish – the runner can get loopy and it helps just to have another person around who can sympathize, empathize, encourage, and, if necessary, spare a sock for an unanticipated deep-in-the-woods bathroom clean-up. I get to be that guy!
Of course, tagging along for upwards of 50 miles can be something of a genuine effort for the pacer. So, I’ll get in a long training day for my own upcoming 100 and get a unique opportunity to experience the iconic Leadville 100 course (it is an out-and-back so I’ll get to see pretty much all of it). Though I’m taking nothing for granted in my own running and am unsure what goals to rejigger after October 27th, I’m hoping to be back out on the Leadville course next year myself, to tackle the full distance. I’ll be looking for pacers, too, so keep me in mind if you’d like to give pacing a try and you have some extra socks.
Got home, recovery shake, took Sagan to camp, snuggled with Story for an hour, and back out to complete a second run, all before noon. Pretty cool how much can be done when the day starts at 4am. Met up with Marty K. and Dave S. for their regular Tuesday morning 10k along the Boulder Creek path. Nice time hearing stories that can’t be blogged about and what it was like for Marty to a debut marathon at 2:28 (so-so) and follow-up with a Boston marathon in 2:23 (disappointing).
Roughly 16 miles on the day with most of the 3500′ (estimate) of climb in the first 5. Feeling much better than yesterday and, even after a nap, still have much of the day ahead. Might I become a morning person? Probably not but I can see the appeal.
My ankle hurts but not as much as not running so I was up at 4am to get ready for my first run up Green Mountain. For those not familiar with Green Mountain, it is the highest peak in Boulder, topping out at 8100′. It is a favorite training ground for Anton Krupicka, one of the greatest ultra-runners of our time. If neither Green nor Anton are familiar, check this out:
Matt W. and I were on our way at 5:15am and he lead me up the series of trails top the top, which took about 1:20. He was running and I was speed-hiking with poles. He was impressed I could almost keep up “just hiking” and I was impressed he could run virtually all of it with such little obvious effort. A quick stop at the summit and we were on our way back down (which I did run). It took us less than an hour to make it back to the start and I now have a better understanding why people so love those trails. With the trail head an easy walk from the center of town, you can still hike 3000′ up in less than 5 miles, almost all of which is on single track of various terrain.
Photo credit: Protrails.com
While 2:18 for the 9.5-mile hike-run isn’t too quick, I was working the whole time and the hiking up was easily as much of a workout as running 8-something per mile pace on the flats. Next time I’ll probably go without the poles to see how much difference they make. Opting for some of my more stout Salomon trail shoes, I substituted stability and protection for lighter weight and better grip, resulting in a few slips, including one where I shaved some skin off my arm. No real damage done, thankfully.
I woke up lacking in motivation and it hasn’t gotten much better since. My right ankle is either broken from the weekend or maybe just sore. Even pull-ups didn’t set things right and you know what they say, “If pull-ups don’t make you feel better, best to just go to bed early.”. On a side note, I’m also struggling with the the-punctuation-of-a-period-inside-a-quote-before-the-end-of-a-sentence issues.
I skipped a Monday run and instead headed out on a rocky foothills hike with Alison and Story, the latter of whom was strapped and wrapped all snuggly-like against my torso. All three of us happily made the 2.5 mile trek, which included a mini-summit by way of Hogback Ridge, which peaks out about 1000′ over Boulder right over our neighborhood.
The hike didn’t help my ankle but it was nice to get out on trail with 3/4 of the family. Sagan was enjoying Day 1 of this week’s space-themed camp. So, we all had reason to celebrate the day, even if an ankle amputation is all but certain for me.
Off to bed now while the sun is still up in order to get myself up at 4am, well before the sun returns. Assuming that my ankle is semi-functional by the time I finish my morning coffee, I’ll be hitting another early run with Matt W., this time a sunrise run of a few hours on Green Mountain and surrounding trails.
The bad news is that I have a new, small blister on my penis. The good news is that this is the first time. The better news is that it’s origin is unambiguous and, as far as penis blisters go, reasonably comfortable to explain.
This morning’s run was 21.6 miles in 3:32 around Boulder Valley Ranch. I got out early with Matt W., a 37-time marathoner with multiple Boston Qualifying times. Matt is training for his first 50-miler, which he is sure to crush given his base of training, good attitude, and habit of adding on an extra hour of running each day AFTER everyone else in his running group calls it quits after just 3 or 4 hours.
With the exception of one killer section up and over Hogback Ridge, most of our course was flat to just slightly rolling so we were able to run a relatively consistent pace. Despite having spent more hours running (6.5) than sleeping (5.5) since yesterday and another 3-long-runs-in-4-days stretch, I was mostly able to stick with Matt, other than anytime the ground moved upwardly.
This run was my first time since landing in Boulder where I had to deal with real humidity. Though the temps were only in the 70s, the humidity had me soaked/gross/glistening? within the first 20 minutes of the run. This brings me back to my penis.
Over the last few years I’ve experimented with all sorts of gear. Based in Austin, much of my mileage is done in the heat and humidity, which means anything touching my skin is wet and clingy and uncomfortable. About a year ago I gave tri-shorts (like biker shorts – tight in all the places, right and wrong) and found they are relatively better for chaffing and general comfort since they don’t have flappy parts to whip at my thighs. But, when totally wet, they can cause some near-catastrophic crotch situations. This is simply remedied but slathering on Vaseline between my shorts and, uh, my”self”. But, this is only an issue when my shorts are wet and with the dry air in CO I haven’t had any reason to think much about undesirable rubbing for the last few weeks. So, I got lazy, skipped the lube, and got undesirably rubbed for a couple of hours this morning. It isn’t funny.
13.73 miles (though convinced Garmin 305 is a bastard liar) in 3:03, including pee stops, some walking with an injured runner, tromping through creeks and bogs trying to find my way back to the group when I inevitably went off-trail, and pauses to collect stray runners at trail crossings, with a whole lot of climbing for a CO newbie.
Today’s photos, courtesy of an assortment of fellow runners.
I got back up to the high country today with the Boulder Trail Running Breakfast Club. 18 of us set off for a route described on the site as follows:
Another attempt at a high country epic run again. We will be starting at Hessie Trailhead and running into the Indian Peaks Wilderness area. We will plan to run up the Devils Thumb trail until the Diamond Lake turnoff and up to the Arapaho trail. The plan is a loop returning via the 4th of July road (and Trail Head). The loop is 14+ , with the last few miles downhill on the dirt road to get us back to Hessie.
Photo credit: me
I don’t know about “epic” but is was a fun run with lots of climbing (3-4k’?) and chilly temps up top where the clouds hovered low enough to have our visibility at right about the length of a nipple. Well, my nipple length and they are kind of puny.
Photo credit: Matt W.
Running in a big group outside of a race environment is really good for me. Along with all the nice social aspects it gives a range of runners to try to keep up with or even pull ahead of when I’m feeling good and some encouragement from the mid-packers when I’m dragging. And it is really interesting to see what others are up to as far as gear and training strategies.
Photo credit: Marcy Willerton
For example, I now am completely sold on hiking the climbs even when I’m strong enough to run them after seeing that I often actually pull away from strong runners who insist on running the ups, leaving me with more energy to bomb down the descents and salvage a reasonable pace on the flats.
With the relatively lower mileage the past few days (amazing to me that a 61-mile week now feels light), I felt good from the start this morning. That rarely happens any more and I didn’t want to waste the good vibes or mojo or perhaps just somewhat rested legs.
Photo credit: Marcy Willerton
About 10 miles into the run, after running from the back of the pack after taking a wrong turn from the front, I came across one of our runners who had tweaked an ankle. We walked together for a bit to make sure the ankle would be able to keep her moving forward then I ran ahead to let the rest of the group know she’d be coming in slowly. The group decided to have someone run ahead to the cars – about 4 miles away – and drive back to pick her up. My rare stretch of front-running resulted in me being that someone but I recruited a few others to come with me for something like a 4-mile “tempo fun run”. 2.5+ hours into running through the wet, up the hills, squishing in the marshes, and across the creeks had us all somewhat worn but we set off with purpose. Yeah, it was down hill and, yeah, it wasn’t technical and, yeah, it didn’t look pretty but one fellow runner and I covered the final stretch really fast. Really fast for not-too-fast trail runners in under 7min/mile pace – we weren’t setting any records but my Garmin was showing 6:30-ish pace for a good chunk of that part.
Photo credit: Andy Montgomery
So, I got in some unexpected speedish work that I neither planned for nor particularly wanted but it felt good – really good – to run quicker for even a few miles when so much of my recent training has been without any pushing. And I was able to help a hobbled runner, which means a lot as I’ve been an injured runner quite a bit and maybe karma is real and probably it isn’t but it can’t hurt to be nice.
Yet another good day on the mountain(s). Happy to come back home to a house full of kids and neighbor friends. Even if it means endless crumbs and an afternoon of Transformers (Prime, horrible cartoon). Nice family evening ahead and back on the trails in about 14 hours!
Easy 40 minutes through the foothills, with just enough climbing and rocky single-track to call it a trail run. With big days planned up in the high mountains tomorrow and the next day I wanted to make sure I didn’t tire myself out too much.
It is SO nice having the foothills right outside out door. In about 3 minutes I can get here:
Another shot:
And it is push-ups day. I’ve gotten through 6 of the 8 sets (8 X 60 reps with mixed grips whenever I can fit them into the day is my routine) and will have to gut out the last 120 reps before I get too tired. I’m finding that both push-ups and pull-ups are getting harder with the thin air and increased running. But, as a great man (the greatest?) once said:
Al and the kids got some time out today at Amante for a walk and coffee. And tonight is My Pie night – genuine Chicago deep dish shipped across country for our dining bliss. $33 for a pizza seems like a lot but per mile traveled to reach our table, I’d say it is a great deal.
I’ve been taking it a little easier this week to recover from the last few. Casual short runs on Monday (4m) and Tuesday (6m), then a solid effort on the rolling single track up at Batasso yesterday (7.6m). What used to count for major running – 4-8 miles a day with some heat and altitude and trail terrain – now truly feels like a series of recovery days. That’s pretty cool.
Though I do still put in a bit of effort within the framework of increasing mileage, most of what I’m doing is just running often and as much as I can handle physically while still taking care of the rest of life. I think that I’ll be able to work up to legitimate “high mileage” if my build continues as it has. It’ll be interesting if I’m right – if I can handle 15-20 mile days 5-6 days a week, with the occasional really long day thrown in.
Today I felt good enough to push the distance a bit again and pieced together about 16.5 miles, mostly solo but I was able to join up with Marty K. and Dave S. for a few miles along Boulder Creek. I just kind of cruised, slowly, taking in some Adam Carolla and Endurance Planet podcast episodes.
It never felt easy, exactly, but I never really felt tired and when I got home, after a shake and shower, I headed downtown with Story. Just dad and baby girl, hopping on the SK!P bus and walking for miles up and down and around Pearl Street. Lunch at Hapa Sushi, iced coffee at Trident, and ducking into shops and people watching. A 12-pound smiling drooler snuggled up in a wrap on a guy is quite the attention getter and each time I’m out with her like that I get just a taste of celebrity attention. Good times.
Kind of Like Fun 