Pies Lijeros

Winter Sports

2012-02-09T18:45:00.001-07:00

A rare day of snowboarding for me.

A lack of snow this winter has given me a chance to appreciate the long Leadville winters. Running on snow has not bother me this winter. I am not running near as much as the past two winters but I still run about one hour every day. Lately we have been getting more snow and lower temperatures and I have been enjoying running even more. Today I had a blast running through a storm, the storm did not bother me even though I did a speed workout. During the last couple of weeks I have learned to appreciate running in the cold and through snow storms. Wind, cold, and wet snow have made me feel alive. Cloudy days make me feel lethargic, I don't feel like going out for a run most of the time. When I feel this way I have learned to head out for a run and feel alive. There is nothing like going from the warmth of the house to the cold and windy atmosphere at 10,00 feet above seal level. As soon as the cold wind hits my face I feel alive, better yet I feel like running all day. This new found appreciation for the cold has allowed me to run a little more than I had been running. I am still not running near as much as I would like but eight hours of running per week are enough for now.
New snow has also attracted me to do other winter sports. I have done a couple of snowshoe runs/walks. The views are pretty amazing a day after a good snow storm. Last time I went snowshoeing I had the bright idea to record a video but the tip of my running glove was right in front of the camera so the video did not turn out very good. After some snowshoeing I decided to go out step farther and go snowboarding. I have only snowboard a couple of times, the last time being fours year ago so I was not very sharp. The first half of the day was even painful from a couple of hard falls that I took. I am hoping to get out there at least a couple more times so I can at least be decent on the snowboard.
Something new for me is not looking forward to the summer as much as I usually do. I do want the snow to be gone so I can run the trails again but meanwhile I am more than happy with running on snow-packed roads as I get in shape for racing season during the summer.

Running out of my shoes

2012-01-22T20:10:00.003-07:00

What happened there?!

Last week I was running so fast during one of my runs that my right foot ran out of my shoe! Not really, actually not even close. This past week kind of sucked running wise. During the last seven days I have only ran two days and I took another step back with training, or stayed the same. Winter seems to finally have reached Leadville and this week the weather was not good for running. It did not help that I felt sick all week and I hardly got anything done. I did manage to play basketball two times during the week so at least I got some exercise. On Tuesday I made the last minute decision to play basketball and had to play with running shoes. The picture above sums up the night of basketball. My legs felt dead and somehow my right foot came out of the shoe when I tried to make a hard cut.
Leadville finally got a decent snow storm and even if I do not run much this week I will have some snow to go snowshoeing. I have not done anything other than run on snow this winter so snowshoeing sounds pretty fun right now. A week with very little training will only push any races farther back. At this point I think the Snowman Stampede on February 18 will be my first race of 2012.

I am sore

2012-01-10T20:13:00.001-07:00

Last week felt like I had a good weak of running and training but I just was not sure of how good it was. Yesterday's workout let me know that I am on track. Yesterday's speed workout was great, I ran fast and I saw improvement on running form and stride length. I also woke up sore today, that means I had a strong workout. I am really happy to see that five days of running per week with some strength and core workouts can be great training. Last week I had three easy runs and two speed sessions. During the weekend I wanted more running, a good sign. Increase speed work is starting to pay off as I am starting to see a change in pace and running form. The shorter runs and speed work are actually making winter running enjoyable.
I have felt strong and fast but now I have to test where I am at. I am planning on having a solo time trail on Friday to see how my training is progressing and to see the effects of taking time off running. A five mile time trail should give me a good idea of where I am at. Since I will be running at 10K feet I will either run from the Leadville Junction towards East Fork or run from town towards East Fork. Running from the Leadville Junction is flat and I should have the wind on my back. Starting in town and running mostly downhill might give me a better idea of what my time would be at a lower elevation, let's say Denver. I might be a good idea to run downhill to offset the elevation but it feels weak at the same time.
Boulder Boulder is the reason why I am doing a 5 mile time trail instead of a 25 mile time trail. I want to see how fast I can run a 10k and a 5K so I will focus on those two distances for the next five months. My goals are to brake 34 minutes for a 10k and break 16 minutes for a 5K. I will focus on Boulder Boulder for the 10K and probably Cherry Creek Sneak for the 5K. Those two goals should keep me motivated and help me get in shape for summer racing. Short races will also give me some time to improve my fueling during ultra marathons during the summer.

Winter Grounds

2012-01-05T20:31:00.002-07:00

Last winter I drove down to Buena Vista once a week to get away from all the snow in Leadville. This winter I don't have to do that since Leadville is warm and there is not much snow on the ground. I still only have four different runs that I do, but at least they are dry.
Lately I have missed the dry and hilly terrain that makes running fun so I have resumed my trips to BV. Last week the trails above BV had some snow and ice but it was great to run short hills and run on dirt. This week was even better. Trails were 98% dry and I felt like flying on the dirt. I did a 60 minute trail run and it made me miss the summer. At least it seems like I will not have to wait until June for dry trails in Leadville.
Running this winter has not been bad at all. Having to run on pavement most of the time is the only thing that is getting old but the running has been fast and warm. I am not running near as much as I did last year but I feel much stronger and faster. Even with OK running in Leadville it nice to take a short drive and run on dirt trails. Roads that serve as the race course for the Collegiate Peaks Trail Run provide enough terrain to go for a LONG run, right now I prefer shorter runs though. Barbara Whipple and the Midland trails are perfect for not so long runs. I am planning to continue running those two trails for a couple more months until Leadville sheds its winter coat.

Looking West from BV.

Cool rock formation East of BV.

Being lazy

2012-01-02T20:36:00.002-07:00

I am not sure if I have been lazy for the past two weeks or if I am just not motivated enough to run. During the past weeks I have only ran 3 times even thought the weather in Leadville has been great. I planed on not running much during the winter but we hardly have any snow and with temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s I have no excuse to go out and run.
I can't say that I like the December's Holidays, specially since I don't feel like doing anything and its cold. I took a two week break from work and I also felt like not running. Work and running are based on each other and when one is gone the other seems like it should be gone too. Today I had a normal work day and I was pretty anxious to go out for a run. The sixty minute run was nice and warm and I felt motivated to get faster and run longer.
I ran Black Cloud and the road is pretty much snow free and almost no ice. I need to take advantage of the lack of snow and warm temperatures and train consistently. I will be much more motivated now that racing season is getting closer. New Year seems like it is a turn of the page and it's time to get back to work. I did not have a great racing year during 2011 so I better be motivated to make 2012 a good one.

Head for the hills

2011-12-15T21:06:00.002-07:00

I love running uphills, specially 14ers, but this time I am talking about shorter hills. A month ago I did a hill workout for the first time in a long time and I felt real bad. I had no kick and my sprint up the short hill was more like a jog. I have been playing basketball a couple of times per week and my explosiveness is just starting to come back, no power in my legs. I blame this on running long hills at a slow pace and not doing much speed work at all. This should be expected and my lack of power reminds me of all the people that told me that running such long distances would make me slow. Time to fix that and get some power back!
I have finally started training consistently and my first workout of a new training period was an uphill workout. According to those who really know running there is nothing better for developing speed and muscle power than sprinting up short hills. That is probably why in my sprinter days during high school we did so many hill workouts. I am a firm believer that even during 100 mile races you need speed and fast leg turnover to be faster. So short hills workouts can be good when training for any distance. Hill work also improves leg strength, running economy, and aerobic capacity and these is good training for any distance.
For this week's hill workout I did 8 hill repeats. I did not feel much power when I sprinted up the hill but I could feel my body working. My upper body had to work much harder than normal. My arms felt heavy after the workout and I could feel how I had to use my core and back muscles to make my way up the hill. My lungs were burning pretty good too, sign of a good workout. I liked this part of the workout but I would like to have a longer warm-up runner next time, only 10 minutes this week. The workout was only 46 minutes so by having a longer warm-up I can add some miles. The rest between hills was an experiment and it varied from 1 minute to 2 minutes. One minutes was plenty after the first couple of hills but after 4 hills I felt like I needed more rest. I don't usually have a set rest period when I do intervals in Leadville because of the lack of oxygen, and I think it is even wore when it is cold, so I just go by how I feel without being a slacker. For this workout I found out that if I walked down the hill I only needed around 30 seconds of rest once I reached the start of the hill.
It seems like I am off to a good start with my training. I am happy to be dedicated to running once again and I am looking forward to running shorter races and doing what I consider harder workouts. Not sure how 8 x 800 is easier than running 50 miles through mountains but that is just me.

How Cold is too cold?

2011-12-07T20:52:00.001-07:00

How cold is too cold to go for a run? For the last couple of winters the answer was "It does not get cold enough during the day." I am going to change the answer to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Last year the cold and seemingly endless winter had a negative effect on running and racing for the rest of the year. This past November I did not have the willingness to run so I got away from everything running and only ran a couple of times a week. I still don't feel "fresh" and I lack motivation to go out and run now that it is cold. The winter in Leadville has been warm compared to last year but it still feels cold at times. The funny thing is that I have ran on shorts on some days when the temperature is in the 20s.
To give my mind a break I have decided that I will only run when it is above 15 degrees. Even when the temperature is in the 20s the wind chill can make running painful. During the next two months I might go days without running so I will lift weights and work on my core while I stay warm. I think once February comes around I will start training consistently. Since I will not be running much during the next couple of months I will do short races during the first 6 months of the year with nothing longer than a half marathon. I am actually looking orward to hurting through speed workouts and being done with races in a matter of minutes not hours. I think this will really payoff during the summer when I do some 50 milers and marathons.

Easier Said Than Done

2011-11-01T20:59:00.000-06:00

First of all I want to congratulate my good friend Mr. Marty Wacker on his first Ultra win at Surf The Murph. Last weekend Marty traveled to Savage, MN, to run his second 50 miler and take the win in 7:58.

Two weeks prior to Surf The Murph Marty and I talked on the phone often to come up with a training plan and race strategy. During those phone conversations I realized that I know a good amount about training and running. Ever since I was in high school I researched running and I now have a decent amount of knowledge. During one of those phone conversations I also realized that I don't really put into practice what I know about running.

For the past seven days I have been coming up with a nine month training plan for the 2012 racing season and I am surprised at how "stupid" I have been. I have come up with training plans before but I have not followed through. Those failed attempts at a more structured training plan have also been lacking key training points. Marty finishing his third 100 miler and wining his first 50 miler along with Dan Goding running a 2:32 for a marathon have inspired me to come up with a training plan and sticking to it.

I have lowered my weekly mileage once again with the goal of increasing the weekly mileage very slowly over the next nine months. This worked nicely two years ago when I peaked at 180 miles per week, not planning on coming close to that this year. I will also incorporate much more speed work to my training. I now feel like I am in great shape and can run far enough but I need to be able to run a faster pace. Getting faster will also take a lot of work on my core and upper body.

I am really excited to have a structured training plan and following it. Following such as plan is what drove me away from running in school but now I have to go back to it if I want to be as fast as I want.

Change of Pace

2011-10-27T17:43:00.002-06:00

Since my 2011 racing season is pretty much over I have been doing more short runs than long runs. I have been enjoying 60 minute runs at medium to high intensity. This new pace has raised many questions inside my head and I hope once I answer some of them I will be faster. The funny question is how and why did I do 4+ hour long runs! Those long runs seem very difficult and painful, but I know they are not that bad.
The short runs that I have been doing along with some speed work and plyos are starting to bring a little "power" back in my legs. I have played basketball a couple of times and I am a bit quicker and have a little more lift on my legs. During last week's runs with Alex Willis I felt much faster than I usually feel. I even did a session of 1K intervals with Alex and I did not do too bad.
The main question going around my head is, what is the right balance between long and short runs? Things would be much easier if there was a straight up answer for that. I think I need to do much more speed workouts than long runs, for the past two years I have been doing the complete opposite. Hopefully the change of pace will be for the better.

Snow and an old friend

2011-10-18T23:30:00.002-06:00

It's the middle of October in Leadville so there has to be some snow. Alex Willis is in town for a couple of days so of course it had to snow the day that we went for a run. On Tuesday I met Alex at the Turquoise Lake Dam to go for a 14 mile run. It had snowed most of the day but the clouds were starting to go away which made for a pretty run. Running on the trail around the lake to just past Mayqueen gave us time to catch up and enjoy the beauty of the lake. Turquoise Lake is windy from September to May and the cold wind turned the snow into ice on the tree tops just to blow it off and hit us as we ran by. The views of the snowy Sawatch and Mosquito mountains provided an awesome background for a run as we remembered our high school runs where we were only allowed to run seven miles. Those are the old days and we mainly talked about our future plans. I have to figure out my nutrition and Alex is starting to prepare to qualify for the Olympic trails in the steeplechase. Even thought the two of us are training for completely different races it is nice that we can still get together a couple of times a year and run together. I really hope next time we run on snow-free trails, maybe in Albuquerque.

May Queen Campground.

"This is why I come back home." - Alex Willis

A rare picture of me while on a run.

Glenwood Canyon Shuffle Race for Literacy Half Marathon

2011-10-05T21:08:00.005-06:00

Once again it was a last minute decision to do this race. The week leading up to the race I had speed workouts on Monday through Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday I did 6 x 400 and 8 x 800 respectively. These two workouts where really good, on Monday I almost passed out but on Wednesday I ran the 8 intervals in 57 seconds each. A 60 minute tempo run on Tuesday was good but I started feeling a small pain inside my left knee. Thursday I was too tired to run and Friday I simply did a 40 minute run.

The course for the Glenwood Canyon Shuffle Race for Literacy Half Marathon is usually all down hill through the Glenwood Canyon but this year it was an out-and-back course because of flood damage to the bike path. Even if the course had some uphills on it I wanted to go out and run sub 1:20. I went out in a moderate pace 5:50/mile and my legs did not seem to respond well to the pace and running on pavement. For the first four miles I ran comfortably in the lead running 6:00 min/mile pace. I could not hear anyone behind me because of the loud traffic on the interstate that managed to plug my hears. At around mile 4.5 I ran into the first turn around point on the course not feeling so well. I had a bad side ache on my right side and my leg turnover had pretty much disappear. At this point I had a 40 second lead on second place but the running downhill along the Colorado River made the side ache much worse. I ran three bad miles and second place caught up to me. I decide to let him pass me and follow him and try to pass him back in the last two miles. As we went past the finish line the uphill part of the course turned out to me much steeper and longer then expected but I managed to run close behind first place until the last turn around point on the course at roughly mile 11.5. At this point I could not move my legs fast and ended up running the last 1.5 miles very slowly. I had build a big enough gap between me and third place to finish in 2nd place with a time of 1:24:43. Josh Hejtmanek won the race in 1:21:43 and Drew Henry rounded up the top three in 1:27:08. After the race I met the women's winner, Abbey Walters, who finished in 1:36:47. I also heard from a couple of the local runners that she was just chilling while she gets ready for the Chicago Marathon this weekend.

This event also offered a 5K which was won by 11-year old Tyler School in 17:15! I did not see him run but by just looking at this kid you can see that he is fast. I am going to start calling his family the Incredibles, his dad was second on the men's 5Kand his mom was the winner of the women's 5K race. His sister Tabor is also fast but she took the day off after winning a 5K race the previous day in 18:45, she is a freshman in high school running for Middle Park. I enjoy following high school XC and look forward to seeing Tabor and Jordyn Colter, freshman at Cherry Creek High School, continue with the great long distance tradition in Colorado.
Now back to my race! I was disappointed at the outcome of the race. Finishing second place is a good thing but at the same time it hurts bad to know you were so close to winning. The bottom line for this race was that I was too tired after a hard week of training and I should have gone out slower for the first 5 miles, but my goal was to run sub 1:20 and not win the race. A $75 gift certificate to Independence Run and Hike in Carbondale and a gift certificate for a free pizza in Uncle's Pizzeria helped make second place feel better.
During the race when I met the other runners along the course I think all of them said something nice to me. After the race I talked to a number of the local and not local runners and they were all really nice. I believe this race might take the tile of friendliest race I have ran. The awards were also amazing. I already mentioned what second place got and first place's price was even better with a $100 cash prize along with other goodies. This is a must do race during the fall. Running along the Colorado River on the Glenwood Canyon is pretty amazing, friendly local runners and volunteers, and great prizes make this race a must do.

Start of the race.

Looking OK before NOT looking OK.

Autumn Color Run

2011-09-17T22:51:00.003-06:00

Back-to-Back Wins.

Once again I tried to register at the last minute for a race and I did not get it. I REALLY wanted to run the Autumn Color Run Half Marathon since it is a fast course and I wanted to go under 1:20. I did not get in so I ended up doing the Autumn Color Run 10K.
This past week I had some problems with my right ankle that I twisted last week at La Sportiva Evergold 11K, so I only ran 3 days since the race. I only had one decent workout during those 3 days but I thought I could run under 35 minutes for the 10K. I did not look at results from previous years or the course for the race. Saturday morning I just drove down to Buena Vista, grabbed a map of the course and drove around it. The course had one long hill that turned out to be longer and steeper than what it seemed from the car.
At the start line I looked around and I saw that there were not that many fast runners. One guy looked fast, Mark Walters, and the race director told us to follow him as he was talking about the course. I was happy to hear that there was a fast runner. Right as the race director finished his sentence Mark turned towards me and said, "follow him."
Around 70 runners lined up at the start line and I took the lead right away. Like every other race, I could hear footsteps behind me so I had a solid mile and a half. I ran by some chickens that took my mind away from the race a little. As I approached the long uphill I shorten my stride and focused on my breathing and arm movement. The uphill was no very difficult but it was very long and that was enough to slow me down and make me fall off a 35 minute 10K pace. The course took a left turn once the uphill finally ended and for some dumb reason I looked back and I did not see anyone. The first thing that came to mind was that I had the win and there was no need to continue to push the pace. I did slow down and it took me a while to get on pace again but I did it and continued to push towards the finish line. My hamstrings tighten up from mile 3.5 to 4 and I realized that I was not going to run under 35 so I stopped pushing and cruised to the finish line. I finished first in 37:15, fallowed by two Buena Vista locals. Mark came in second, 41:38, and Todd Tipton third in 45:57.
The race turned out to be much like a hard tempo run but it was a blast to race. After the race I was able to catch up with some of the locals and even talked to one of my basketball coaches from my sophomore year in high school. I also met Todd Tipton's family which was a lot of fun. Mark is the coach of the Buena Vista High School cross country team and coaches Todd's son Chaz. Buena Vista has a strong running tradition and Mark will continue to build on that. As I waited for the awards the half marathon runners came in. Craig Robertson from Leadville had an awesome race and finished 10 overall, he is 51 years old and ran 1:32! Congrats to him and to all the other participants that made this race such a wonderful event.

Waiting for the awards at Autumn Color Run 2011.

Forgot to mention this, Sportiva Skilite 2.0, prize for winning La Sportiva Evergold.

Everything is difficult at 10,000 feet

2011-09-14T21:32:00.001-06:00

"old" Football field in Leadville.

I prefer to do my speed workouts on the trails so I don't pound my legs on the pavement. Today I decided to visit the only track in Leadville, which also happens to be paved. In my high school days I hated to workout here since the surface is not even and there are some big holes on it. Wind was the main reason why I did not like to run here and today it was windy like always. For some reason, some how, I always seem to be running against the wind on this track. Some times there are parts of the track that are not windy, like it should be, but today was not one of those days. As if doing a speed workout at 10,000 feet above sea level was not hard enough the wind makes it even harder.

The workout for the day was 5 x mile at 5:30/mile and a couple of 400 meter intervals. This is not very fast but it is fast enough to get the heart and legs working at Leadville's elevation. The first two mile repeats were pretty easy but the last three felt like I was putting in a 5:00/mile effort to manage to run a 5:30/mile. By repeat number four I felt like I had enough of fighting the wind and rain, but I was not quite done. For my first 400 meter interval the wind calmed a little bit and I was able to run it in 57 seconds. For the second 400 interval the wind picked up and I pushed much harder to mange to run a 1:07. These two intervals made me realize how much quicker I was during high school. Back in high school I could do 12 x 400 at 57-58 seconds, I don't have that kind of speed right now, but that is where I am heading. I have a really good base and once I am able to run 400s at 57 seconds I will be able win a few races.

Not the best track in the world but you CAN NOT beat the views.

Tonight Leadville is supposed to get some snow. Summer went by way too fast and since we don't have a Fall, doing speed workouts will once again become a pain. Today there was no snow but the cold wind and rain made running fast even more difficult.

I finally decided to download some pictures from La Sportive Evergold 11K so here they are!

Nine month old nephew Kaleb with the thumbs-up before the race.

Taking the lead as soon as the gun went off.

I needed this win!

Pictures after the race.

La Sportiva Evergold 11K

2011-09-11T17:43:00.000-06:00

Boy did I need this race. After years of looking into doing one of La Sportiva races in Vail I finally decided to do the Evergold 11K. Sunday morning I drove down to Vail thinking about how weak my stomach is and not being able to eat in the mornings. I though about how difficult it is for me to fuel during ultras, but thankfully I would not have to worry about fueling during a 11K race.

La Sportiva Evergold 11K is the last race in the racing series and it takes place on some pretty technical sections of single trail and dirt roads. I liked the terrain of the race since it looked difficult and the race would be competitive, the ~1,900 feet of elevation gain was the main attraction. Looking at last year's race results I knew Bernie Boettcher would be there and if he finished 3rd last year I knew the race would be competitive.

The temperature was perfect at the start line and sure enough Bernie Boettcher was there as a couple of other runners lined up towards the front. Right off the gun I took the lead and was surprised to open a ~15 meter gap less than half-a-mile into the race. I was worried about going out too fast but I knew I was not pushing hard so I decided to stay in the lead. Less then a mile into the race we started running on a technical single trail that started with a VERY steep and short uphill. I ran comfortably in the lead for about 15 minutes before I saw four runners behind me as we went up some switchbacks. At mile ~2 my legs felt tight because of a short warm-up and the uphills. From this point to mile 4 the course went into the ski area and I struggled with tight calves. I was also a bit worried about keeping the lead and having no idea how much climbing I had left. At around mile 3 I slow down enough to keep the lead but making sure I was not pulling away in case there was a lot of climbing left. As I continued to struggle with tight calves 2 runner got within 20 meter of me so I decide to speed up and the descent finally started. The two runners behind me hit the descent pretty hard but I was able to stretch my lead a little. After 5 minutes of running down the mountain my calves came alive and I cruised toward the finish line. I struggled a bit on some rolling hills on the single trail but I was able to keep it together for the win in 56:53. Ryan Van Ness was second in 57:25 and John Klish rounded up the top three in 58:33.

Going into the race my goal was to simply do my best effort and not worry too much about competing against others. I was surprised to take the lead right off the gun but I ran smart and it all worked out at the end. This was my first win where I had the lead from start to finish, that made me happy. It did not make me as happy as winning a pair of Sportivas though!

I feel much better about my running after this race. I know I need to figure things out with my diet and nutrition, meanwhile I can do short and painful races.

Moving on

2011-08-28T19:57:00.000-06:00

How often I post on this blog is a good indication of how running is going for me. Since I have not posted anything in a long time it means that running is not going too good, at least racing.
My training leading up to LT 100 was good and I figured I had a good shot at going under 20 hours, things turned out to be much different. The night before the race I got almost no sleep. As soon as the race started I felt nauseous and wanted to sleep. I had an OK first 23 miles but never felt good. Thirty miles into the race I started to walk and wanted to vomit but I just could not vomit and feel better. I finally caught a break getting into Twin Lakes and cruised toward Hope Pass, but once I started the climb my day was over. I felt really weak as I climbed towards the top of Hope Pass and even taking a step was a challenge. Once I got to the aid station I planed on taking a little break but the medical staff made me took a LONG break. As I approached the aid station someone said, "we got our first medical." I thought that someone was doing really bad, I just did not know that it was me. The medical staff checked me and wanted to get me an IV, I can imagine how bad I was doing. I talked them into letting me rest for a while so I could at least cross Hope Pass and see the top runners.
After resting and eating for a long time I made my way to Windfield with no intentions of coming back up the mountain. I was able to run with my good friend Wade which made the trip pleasant.
This past week I have don't my best not to think about running so today has been frustrating as I look back into the race. As of right now I have no intentions of doing a 100 miler any time soon. Fifty milers seems scary too, even though I have done much better on those. I feel almost traumatized from what happened last week, after so much training my body simply broke down after 40 miles. I had done a number of 40+ mile runs in the summer and they almost felt easy. The problem is that once 40 miles are part of a race my body just shuts down. I know I can run 100 miles but I need to get that into my head before I try again.

Leadville to Twin Lakes - Lessons Learned

2011-07-24T21:31:00.000-06:00

It is nice to live in Leadville and be able to train on the course for Leadville Trail 100 whenever I want. In the other hand, I think that knowing the course too well adds stress to a run and I tend to push harder then necessary on training runs and on the day of the race too. This year I have stayed away from the course and will now do a couple of runs on it to refresh my memory.
This past Saturday I ran from Leadville to Twin and here are some of the things I learned/remembered from the first and last 40 miles of Leadville Trail 100.

Leadville - Turquoise Lake
Downhill and rested legs could mean a fast start to a 100 mile journey. I think a faster start on the easiest part of the course can take a toll after mile 23 and even more towards the end of the journey.
Some work has been done on the steep downhill right before Turquoise Lake and it has changed a bit. This uphill is much more even that it used to be. Smaller rocks and dirt, almost dust, were used to make it somewhat even. I found that it was harder to get good grip and push off when walking up the hill. I am guessing on the way down the rocks and lose dirt will make it interesting too.

Turquoise Lake
Not much has changed here. Looking forward to seeing the parade of lights on the way out. Planning on taking easy on the way out to hopefully save something for the way back.

Turquoise Lake to Fish Hatchery
This is one of my favorite sections of the course. The Colorado Trail part is beautiful with some difficult footing. I actually like the climb up Sugar Loaf mountain. I think it is run-able as long as one does not push more then necessary. Going down Poweline can be tricky because of how steep it is. I like to slow down on this down hill to prevent a fall and to save some unnecessary pounding on the legs.

Fish Hatchery to Pipeline
This is my least favorite part of the course and I think it is more difficult then it seems. Even though it is flat, this section is on a paved road and it is very exposed. The temperature should not be too hot in the morning or in the afternoon/evening but it can get hot here. For some reason this section seems to take a long to time to do even when it does not, I don't like it.

Pipeline to Box Creek
This section is flat at the start but it has some short uphills. This section has the possibility of getting hot and it exposed as well but not as much as the previous section. I think this is one of the only few sections, if any, that can be ran on a negative split on the way back.

Box Creek to Colorado Trail
Short section with a couple of gradual downhills that are a pain on the way back.

Colorado Trail to Twin Lakes
My favorite section of the course that I see as two sections. The first section has some uphill running and two short downhill that a pain on the way back, section stretches to the intersection with the Mt Elbert Trail. From the Mt Elbert Trail to Twin lakes it's pretty much all down hill and the best part of the course. This section can get hot, it is closer to Twin Lakes then Leadville. The temperature was well into the 80's on Saturday. The views are amazing while going down to Twin Lakes. It is probably a good idea to hold back on the down hill and save some pounding on the legs. On the way back this uphill can be a bit of a challenge and is often overlooked. Sixty miles on your legs and hot temperatures can make this uphill seem pretty long.

And that is about it. I don't know why I called this blog post lessons learned since it is more of a course description but that is what I intended it to be at first. Overall, the run on Saturday was really good for me. I went out really easy and I was able to run the last ten miles much faster then the rest of the run. I enjoyed the run much more then I usually enjoy runs this long. I can also say that it was an easy run and when I finished I had plenty left on me and did not feel tired once I finished. A day after the run I am not sore or physically tired but I did feel sleepy at times. I would be happy to make this my last really long run before LT 100 2011 but I think I have one more. I will use that run to go over a couple of things before the big day.

What's with running up mountains?

2011-07-17T21:57:00.000-06:00

Running has been full of ups and downs lately but at least this week I found a good rhythm, I also enjoyed my runs. The good week started last Sunday with a long run with Matt Turnbull. I think I ended up running about 34 miles and Matt ran 40, I did not run on the Boulevard since I ran that road too many times in high school. We started running at Twin Lakes and followed the Colorado Trail to Turquoise Lake and then ran around the lake. Matt and I both had a good day and it was great to do a long run with someone. My legs were tight at the start of the adventure but I felt great after that. The Colorado Trail is a great place to run on so that and good company made the run fun. I was happy to do a long run and stay away from the Leadville Trail 100 course. Matt seemed to have a good day too even though he had a high volume week. In top of that Matt had a solid "race" at the Silver Rush 50M even though I think he held back a little.

Waterfall between Fish Hatchery and
Powerline on the Colorado Trail.

The rest of the week I found myself running up mountains most of the time (isn't that all there is around Leadville?). For the first time this Summer I spent good time on the West side of town and I also run up Mosquito Pass. Running up mountains and exploring less-knows trails made running fun as I found myself running two times some days. I did not keep track of my time or mileage and that seemed to work well too. On Thursday I ran a section of the Colorado Trail between Turquoise Lake and Tennessee Pass that I don't run often. I even went off trail a little and ran on a ridge for a while that provided some awesome views of the Twin Towers, Massive and Elbert.

Massive and Elbert from some ridge.

Leadville and Turquoise Lakes from the same ridge as above.

I truly enjoyed the run on Thursday and I think I will continue to explore new runs and run above timberline to enjoy the great views. For Friday's evening run I ran to the top of Mosquito Pass and on the ridge for a while. The steep and rocky road was a good challenge. The views were awesome with a storm moving in. The sun was starting to go behind the Swatch Range which made for some amazing clouds. I was not able to spend too much time on the cold and windy ridge but the run was worth the effort to run up the rocky road. Going down was also good since its a challenge to keep your footing, the quads felt that run.

Fun week of running will hopefully pave the way for more fun leading up to August. I had a big week, volume wise, without thinking about it so I will try to do more of the same. Mt Massive and Elbert are good to run on now so I better get on that before the snow starts to come back!

Top of Mosquito Pass.

Firecracker 5K, 2011

2011-07-06T19:42:00.000-06:00

Since I am having a hard time getting myself to run I have decided to compete more often to see if competing starts a fire inside me. I will try to do as many 5K and 10K as I can during the rest of the summer. This Monday I got lucky and was able to do a 5K in Leadville for $15.

Last year was my first year doing this race and it turned out to be fun. I was going through a good training period last year at that time and since I have not been running much as of late I knew it would be difficult to run faster then last year's 17:20. As I waited for the race to start I saw Brandon Sanchez who is a very good runner, he has run 31:03 10K. I knew that it would be difficult to win the race for a second straight year.

The plan for the race was to find some competition and try to find some motivation to pull away towards the end of the race. I went out fast since the first mile is mostly downhill. I reached mile one right around 5 minutes and knew I would pay for that in mile two. Mile two was slow but I found a nice rhythm for the last mile. I took the W in 17:28 for the second straight year and got an awesome wrestler bobble head for finishing first.

It was nice to win a race but there were a couple of aspects from my race that I did not like. My running form was horrible. My back felt weak and I kept crossing my arms from side to side. My stride was very inconsistent and I running just felt 'funny'. I also kept moving my head from side to side which I found funny and annoying. All of these probably had something to do with my lack of running lately but I can't complain much for running a 17:28 for a 5K at 10K above sea level.

Hopefully I find the time to do a number of other 5K and 10K races in the next couple of months. Those races along with runs longer then 30 miles will make up most of my training from now on until I get my head on straight.

Black Hills 100 report, finally

2011-07-05T20:48:00.000-06:00

Once again it has taken me a while to post anything, this time for a different reason. The Black Hills 100 did not go well, mainly because I did not want to run. Running is one of the things that I enjoy the most but that has not been the case as of late.
The first thing is that I QUIT at Black Hills 100. I dropped out of the race right after the turn around point but I quit the race long before that. I feel real bad about quitting the race and that is the main reason why I have not run much lately. Even thinking about running makes me feel bad. I will get over it though.
For the Black Hills 100. During the days leading up to the race I felt really calm and relaxed, which is not a good thing. I felt great physically and I was really confident but for some reason I could not wrap my head around running 100 miles, or spending a day in the mountains as I call it. I started the race pretty slow and planed on taking it easy the first 50M and see what I could do that second 50 miles. Running felt effortless at the start of the race and I just focused on paying attention to the course for the way back and fueling. The temperature was high for me, 70s, and it felt really humid. I was drinking a lot of water, around 40 oz every ~13 miles. I was worried about drinking too much but my stomach felt great. I also had plenty of electrolytes since I was sweating a lot.
It was difficult to know how the race was developing since there were 50M and 100K runners on the course. I went right through the aid stations as I just grabbed a water bottle with water and one with Perpetum. As the race went on I kept picking up runners. Right after mile 17 a lady told me I was in 4th place, I did not know if it was for the entire race or just the 100M. I decided to slow down a little and started hiking the uphills instead of running. Mile 18 had about 5 creek crossing which felt great on my legs. Thanks to my light shoes and my awesome Melanzana socks my feet would be dry 5 minutes after crossing any creek. I was surprised that I could keep runners within sight even though I was slowing down. At the turn around point for the 50M I stopped seeing foot prints and I started to think I was in first place. As I kept moving forward I kept running through spider webs and I started thinking about winning the race. Most of the time I felt great, when I did go through a rough patch I would talk myself out of it pretty fast. There was one think going wrong though, I stopped enjoying what I was doing.
At mile 42 I talked to Carlos and he told me I was in 1st place and that I had a healthy lead, it was like 30 minutes. At this point I did not want to run and started telling myself that running so long was stupid. I kept going and managed to run for 40 minutes straight. I felt like I could win the race and that it would be hard for me to lost the lead, which was increasing. I did not want to run though. Things went down hill after I missed a turn and got lost for over 20 minutes. I was really mad after getting lost and I lost pretty much all will to run. I kind of hoped that I had lost the lead to get a little motivation. A 7 mile stretch turned out to me more like 15 and I reached the "50" mile point, almost 54 miles on GPS. The 'long 50' miles plus my extra running turned out to be around a 57-58M first half of the race. I stopped at the aid station and 2nd place arrived as I was leaving. I told Carlos that I did not want to run anymore but he told me to keep going and that his friend, April, would pace me at the next aid station and that he would pace me the rest of the way.
I hiked out of the turn round point but I just did not want to run. I decide to stop and take a nap. I gave myself a pep talk but I had NO desire to run so I decided to go back to the turn around point and call it a day. The guy in second place, Ryan, told me to keep going but I just did not have it mentally. The rest is history.
I finally had a race where I felt great physically but I lost it mentally. At one point I had at least a 40 minute lead during a 100 mile race and I did not want to run. I don't know what happened but I do know that if having a good lead at a 100 mile race doesn't excite me there has to be something really wrong. I also feel bad for letting my crew down specially since they did an amazing job. My parents had everything that I needed figured out and Carlos did an awesome job on encouraging me and giving me advice. April was willing to pace even though it was not her plan at the beginning of the day. That really makes me feel bad!
Since the race I have ran 3 times, one time with Matt and one was a 5K race. Running just isn't what it usually is so I got to fix it fast. I think I have lost the will to compete and that is why I will be racing often. That was the reason why I did the Firecracker 5K yesterday and even that did not feel like a victory should feel (more on that tomorrow).
Anyways, I am just feel like a mental case right now. I can ran pretty fast and for along time but I don't enjoy it. The way I see it is that I am being a cry baby and I need to figure it out and move on.

Leading up to Black Hills 100

2011-06-19T20:03:00.000-06:00

This coming week I will be traveling to South Dakota for the Black Hills 100. Today, Sunday, I have spent a good part of the day thinking about the race and coming up with a race plan. Most of the preparation has been completed and now is time to wait for the big day and completely get my mind into the task at hand.
Tapering for a race, specially a 100 mile race, is something I am not very good at. To me tapering is a period to rest but at the same time sharpen the body and the mind for the upcoming race. During this time I struggle to rest. Instead of resting I feel as if I should be training hard for the race. A couple of times I have rested too much before a race and I lose fitness. I have also found that it's very difficult to get into the race mentally after taking some time off from long runs.
Tapering for the Black Hills 100 will be an experiment for me. My tapering period will be of two weeks. This past week my longest runs were 11 miles, 3 runs, and two speed sessions. The 11 mile runs where on hills that took a good effort to run fast. The idea here was to have intense workouts of a decent length. I also wanted to practice on terrain similar to what I will be running next Saturday. The two speed sessions were made up of 1600m and 800m intervals. These workout were kind of short, 60 minutes, and I focused on breathing and staying light on my feet while running fast. Even though the mileage for the week was low I felt like I had a good week of training. I also played basketball for a total of 4 hours and this too was at a high intensity. To finish the week off I took two days off! I want to go into this 100 mile race as rested as possible and ready to roll. The second week of tapering will be somewhat similar to the first week. I will do one 11 mile run at a high intensity, 400m intervals, take another day off, and have two easy days leading up to the race.
I think that is enough for tapering, now for the course. The race starts in Sturgis, South Dakota, and after running for about one mile on a paved bike path runners will run on the Centennial Trail (Trail 89) for most of the day, 98 miles. The turn around point will be at Rapid Creek, mile 50. Running north to south and then south to north is the general direction of the course. I have heard this is beautiful terrain and I am looking forward to spending the better part of a day out there.
The Black Hills 100 has a vertical gain of 16,231 feet, a total of 32,462 feet of elevation change. That is a lot of ups and downs. There will be a couple of good climbs, the course seems to always be changing so that is where a lot of the elevation change comes from. The constant elevation change with the couple of good climbs will make for a challenging course, as if running/walking 100 miles is not challenging by itself.
I will also be playing close attention to the other part of the course, the weather. The race will start at 6:00 AM, I would rather start earlier to spend less time running during the day and not run as much on Saturday night. Plus, I will probably have a hard time sleeping before the race. The temperature for Saturday in the Black Hills is supposed to be in the 70's with 40% chances of precipitation. I love running in the rain but running part of a 100 miler in the rain does not sound too fun. Temperatures in the 70's do not sound too bad and I should be able to handle that well coming from a cold place (it's supposed to snow tonight in Leadville!).
I think that is a good review/preview of the task for this coming weekend. My training the last couple of months has been good, almost great, and I am excited to see what I can do. Racing will be the biggest part of the weekend but spending time in terrain that I have never run before is also a big excitement for me. Meanwhile I will continue to prepare for the race, mentally mainly, and develop my plan for the race.

Leadville to Buena Vista

2011-06-12T22:16:00.000-06:00

On Saturday I woke up at 5am to run from Leadville to Buena Vista, the run did not go as planed but it sill was an awesome day. My plan was to start running 6 miles south of Leadville and make my way down to BV and then run some more until I reached 50 miles. This would be my last long run before Black Hills 100.

At 6am I parked my car about 8 miles south of town near CR 55 to start my journey. The idea was to find the old stagecoach road from Leadville to BV. As soon as I started I kind of knew it would be an interesting day since I had to run on a road that was flooded by the Arkansas River. Twenty minutes into my run I ran into a sign that said 'Private Property' so I had to go around a small mountain to meet the old stagecoach road again. After this I could not find a road and had to go through a bunch of grasses that made running very difficult. After about 30 minutes of running (more like walking) along the Arkansas River I remembered a dirt road above the hills to my right. I ran up those hills until I ran into the road that I ended up following to Granite.

Leaving granite, CO.

Once I left Granite I found what I though was the old stagecoach road and started to feel better about my adventure. I begin to experience great views of the Arkansas and cool rock formations. The 'road' was more of a trail but I just figured it was this way because the road is not used anymore. As I finally started to make good progress towards BV I started to focus more on my running and fueling. I was great time until I reached a gate that said 'Private Property.' I felt really stupid as I realized that I was not even close to where I was supposed to be. I quickly found Highway 24 and headed south again.

Clear Creek Reservoir.

One of the many cool rock formations I got to see.

I was pretty upset at this point but my luck finally turned and I only had to run ~3 miles on the highway until I reached a dirt road that took me to BV. At 4 hours of running I stopped to lose my Melanzana and to eat a 1/4 of a boiled potato. The run started to get hot and windy on this road as I got close to BV but still had 4 hours to run. I planned on running part of the Collegiate Peaks course but there was some car race going on and I continued to BV. Once in BV I ran on the Midland trial for too long, 2 hours.

After I finished running at 7:30 hours and 45 miles I sat by the edge of the river and started my recovery by 'icing' my legs.

Arkansas River from where I sat to ice my legs.

The old stagecoach road from Leadville to Buena Vista has some great stories. A cool story that I found was of a robber that was shot by the Leadville sheriff. The sheriff dressed as a women to catch the robber who was dressed as a man and ended up being the sheriff's wife. This road was a dangerous road in its time and it would some times take 26 hours to make the trip. I wanted to relive some of the road's history and I also wanted to say that I ran from Leadville to Buena Vista, and more!

These is why I love to be able to run as much as I run. In less then 8 hours I was able to run from Leadville to Buena Vista, and more, and experience some of the history behind the trip. Now is time to take it a little easier and figure out the plan for Black Hills.

Turquoise Lake Half Marathon & Fish Hatchery 5K, 2011

2011-06-06T22:07:00.001-06:00

What a weekend! After taking 1st and 2nd place at last year's Turquoise Lake Half Marathon and Fish Hatchery 5K, I knew it would be difficult to have a better weekend. This year's races were even better, even if I finished 3rd at the Fish Hatchery 5K.
Last Thursday I got an email from Brian Goding saying that his wife Lisa, his brother Dan, and himself were thinking about making the trip for the races. This was great news since after going over the entries I did not recognize anyone that could run faster then 1:30 for the half marathon. I did my best to 'sell' the race to Brian and get him to come up but I came up short. He did tell me that Dan might still come up but he still was not sure. I figured Dan was not going to make the drive by himself so I thought it was going to be a solo effort on Saturday.
Even though I had a 40 mile day 3 days before the race I still wanted to race pretty hard and see if I could run close to what I ran last year, 1:25:06. I thought it was a long shot since I felt like I was in better shape and had more rest last year. Since I felt that my training has been the best since last July, I wanted to see if I was taking a step in the right direction. I figured that if I ran a 1:26:xx this year I would be at around the same level as last year.
Saturday morning before the race was pretty relaxed time for me, until I heard someone ask my brother about me, it was Dan Goding. Once I saw him I though, "Great! now I have someone to race with, and he is also probably going to beat me." Dan had a great race at Fruita 25 Miler in April and I truly believed that I could not beat him on that day. While doing a warm up run with him I came up with my racing strategy, go out fast, try to lose him on the paved uphill section, and try to hold on the trail part.
Going out fast is what we did. A sub six minute first mile was a good indication that I was not going to pull away from Dan easily. After the first mile I continued to push the pace but Dan followed right behind me. I could hear him breath heavily and I just continued to push the pace, but also stay at comfortable pace for me. As we got close to Mayqueen, mile ~6.5, Dan started to fade a little bit but not enough for me to be comfortable. The two miles before Mayqueen were really good for me since I felt great and my running form felt great as well. Right before we got into the trail part of the lake I looked back and saw Dan 75 yards behind me. I knew Dan was not going to fade, so I focused on keeping a good pace and staying relaxed. During the trail section I though I kept hearing Dan behind me but the couple of times that I looked back I could not see him. Every time a strong wind hit me I felt like throwing up but slowing down would make me feel normal. I managed this well, but it kept me from pushing as hard as I should have. My plan was to see if I could hold the lead and if Dan cough up to me I thought I had a good chance of holding him off. I reached the Tabor aid station while staying relaxed. I tried to ran a bit faster but my legs were not having it and I was OK since I could not see Dan behind me. A mile before the finish line I turned back and after not seeing Dan I figured that I had the win. I did not look at my watch so I did not realized that I was running at CR pace, I finished 1st in 1:23:49. My time was 4 seconds from the CR. Dan was right behind me, less then a minute 20 seconds, he finished in 2nd place.
The race turned out to be one of the best races I have ever done. Running with Dan was great, he pushed me hard during the race and he was the main reason why I ran the time I ran. The course also turned out to be amazing, the views were great, the trail was muddy in just the right places. The trail even had a few downed-trees that I had to go around, over, and even under!
Sunday morning I woke up very tired and not wanting to run the 5K. The reason why I got out of bed was because I remember that a 8 year old ran the half marathon and was also signed up to do the 5K. When I got to the fish hatchery I saw two guys that looked fast but I did not see Karel Remsen. I did a warm up run with Dan Goding and 10 minutes before the start I saw Karl. I knew I had not chance of winning and I had to beat Dan too.
I felt surprisingly good at the start of the race and was in 1st place for a while until Karl decided to pull away. I could not hear anyone behind me and when I got to the steep uphill, really steep uphill, my legs felt like rocks and I could hardly keep running. Dan passed me in this stretch. I waited for my legs to come back but that took a little too long. I chased Dan during the last mile but I could not catch up to him as he finished 2nd, 19:09. I finished 3rd, 19:12, and Karl won once again with a time in the low 18s. As I said before, this course is extremely challenging and slow.
After the race we hanged-out at the hatchery for the awards and raffle. I talked to Karl and other runners, that is one of the things that makes racing so rewarding. Dan joined us for a barbecue after the race and that put the icing on an amazing weekend.
It was an amazing weekend of racing and spending time with old and new friends. I am really glad that Dan was able to make it to the races and look forward to racing with him in the future. I set a PR at the 5K by 40 seconds and I was still not even close to Karl, he is an amazing runner.

I will post more pictures as I find them.

Start of Turquoise Lake Half Marathon.

Picture with Dan Goding.

A good week of training

2011-05-29T19:34:00.000-06:00

After a couple of months of struggling with my running I finally had a good week of running and training. The weather was nice most of the week, that was a big boost for me. This is the first week in a very long time that I ran in shorts all week and even that seemed to make a big difference. I got in a good long run, 20 miles, that turned out to be fairly easy but fast.
The big amount of snow still left on the ground around here still dictates most of my runs but this week had a little variety. I ran the east side of town, Mineral Belt, trails by Mt Zion, Buena Vista, Turquoise Lake, and Pipeline. These are not the best runs around Leadville but it was great to run something more then the east side of town. The run in Buena Vista was supposed to be a fast workout but the the high winds made it impossible to run fast. Towards the end of the week I felt great but I also wanted to hold back on the weekly mileage so I ran 83 miles instead of what could have been a 100 mile week.
The 20 mile run on Saturday was the longest run I have done since Cheyenne Mtn. 50K and I felt great. I was hoping to feel great so I schedule the run the same day as two of my cousins' graduation, that way I would stop at 20 miles to go to the graduation. This was probably a good idea since the run felt short and easy and I wanted to go longer. After the graduation and today I felt like going for another run but decided to rest instead, which is probably smarter.
This upcoming week will be a little more intense with a planed long run, 35 miles, on Wednesday, the Turquoise Lake Half Marathon on Saturday, and maybe the Fish Hatchery 5K on Sunday. I am looking forward to getting a better idea of my fitness level during that 35 mile run, this is the main goal of the week. With that being said, I will obviously not focus on the races this weekend. I will race on Saturday but I don't expect to be as fast as I was last year when I won this race. If I don't feel tired on Sunday I will run the 5K but not race it.
I did my first Turquoise Lake run last week so I could check the conditions for the half marathon this upcoming weekend. I was surprised to be able to run a good part of the trail around the lake. We need good warm weather, which we are supposed to have, so the trails clear and we might even have to do some snow shoveling but the Turquoise Lake Half Marathon will be run in the same course as other years!

Turquoise Lake is still frozen and there is plenty of snow around it.

A headless Chicken?

2011-05-24T19:32:00.000-06:00

Last week I kept getting snowed on during my runs so I decided to take a trip down to Grand Junction to see my friend Marty Wacker, escape from the snow, and do some running on the trails. I did not get to do any running on the trails but I did have a good weekend of running and fun with a number of new and old friends.
On Saturday morning I drove with Marty to Fruita where we met Randy, Sheryl, and Ernie for the Headless Chicken 5K. I had not plans on doing the race but Marty kind of talked me into doing the race the night before and I ended up signing up for the race. I figured it would be nice to run without any expectations. The race also has a pretty cool story behind it. The race is part of a festival that celebrates a chicken who managed to survive for 18 months without its head!
The race got off to a fast start, Glenn Randall ran right around a 4:40 first mile and Marty was not too far behind. After mile one Glenn started to open up a gap and even though I managed to keep a close gap between me and 3rd place I could not catch up to 3rd palace or Marty in 2nd. My 'official' finish time was 16:50, but I am sure I was much slower then that, Glenn's 'official' time was 14:50s and he also tough his time was slower. Marty smoked me on this race and it seems to me like all the triathlon training has made him even stronger than he was. He seems like a different beast after finishing his first Ironman. It was also fun to catch up with Glenn, he grew up in Leadville and I could not help but to think of how much better our track and XC teams would have been in high school if he would have stayed in Leadville.
It was really nice to run a race without many expectations for once, and it also helped that I did not run too slow. Last week was also a solid training week. I am starting to feel a lot better and running is starting to become pretty effortless once again. I continue doing some running down in Buena Vista and Salida since the trails here are not even close to been dry. This winter continues to hold its grip on Leadville and I am really frustrated now. The good news is that from now on I will start running much more than I have been and I am sure that will make me happy. I might have to continue to go down south to run in order to get out of the snow but at least I am getting used to that too.

A couple of pics from a run in Salida:

Cool tree-rock structure while looking at Salida.

Salida from top of S Mountain.

Collegiate Peaks looking south at the Arkansas Valley.

Starting to Figure Things Out

2011-05-11T20:42:00.000-06:00

Today I finally took a step in the right direction by figuring out what has been causing the side aches and my collapses at races. The last couple of weeks have been really frustrating since I have not been able to get in a good running rhythm. Last week was OK but I had a bad workout on Monday and have not ran since then. Today I saw the doctor to see what was causing the side aches and dizziness and I was told that it is reactive hypoglycemia.

It pretty much mean that I have to stay away from all forms of sugars and that I have to change my diet. The good news is that this is relatively simple to accomplish (maybe), the bad news is that I eat way too much sugar and now I have to stay away from all of that. I am happy to find out the reason why I was getting slower and now I can get back on track.

According to the doc I burn off sugar very fast and since that was mainly what I was using for fuel during races my body was creating too much lactic acid and the lactic acid was causing the side aches. Once I would burn off the sugar I would run out of fuel so that's where the collapsing would happen. Now I have to teach my body to stay away from sugar and burn complex carbohydrates instead.

I don't know how difficult this will be but at least I now know what I need to do to start feeling better. I have some ground to make up but hopefully I will be racing in less then a month.

CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN 50K

2011-04-28T20:10:00.000-06:00

It took me a long time to write about the race but here it is. I went into the race feeling pretty good. I knew I could have an OK race but I did not have very high expectations since it is early in the year for me. The one goal that I did have was to get out slow and have a negative or close to negative split on my second lap of the 25K loop.
As soon as the race started Dan Vega took off and a couple of other runners followed. I felt a little lazy at the start of the race and just hanged back for a while. The first ~8k of the 25K loop were mostly uphill and I settled into a nice pace. With about 20 minute into the race I managed to make my way up to the top 10. I liked the amount of elevation gain on this part of the course so I just settle behind 3 other runners, one of the was Brendan Trimboli. I was pretty happy for the first part of the race as I just focused on running relaxed, fueling, and staying hydrated. As soon as we started to make our way down the mountain the side aches started again. This slowed me down a bit but I still managed to keep the 3 runners in front of me within sight, runners 5 - 7.
At 20K I felt as if I was running pretty slow but I was OK with it since I really wanted to push the last 25K. At 25K I saw that one runner was right behind me and Patrick Garcia was not too far back. As we started the second 25K I started to feel weak and my right hamstring was cramping up. I ran another good ~8K but as soon as I started to decent the mountain the side aches picked up and I started to feel weaker and even dizzy at times. After ~37K the side aches went away and I started to push, catching one of the runners that had passed me after 25K. Soon after that I felt really dizzy, both hamstrings started cramping up, and I was pretty much done. I walked for a short time that seemed as an eternity until I reached a point where I was too dizzy to stand so I just laid by the said of the trail hoping to get some rest and be able to walk to the finish line. I would get up and take some steps until someone yelled 'Hey! are you Marco?" The voice scared me and woke me up a bit. The 'voice' turned out to be Brooks Williams, who I had not met before, but I had heard of. He asked me how I was doing and told me that there was an aid station very close to where I was. He ran to the aid station to get me some help and he and a lady came back with a can of Coke. After drinking the Coke and sitting down for a while I was able to start jugging again. I started to feel better with each step that I took and finished the race in a sprint. The last mile of the race I felt great and the last half mile I felt much better then at any other point during the race. If it had not been for Brooks it would have taken me a very long time to finish, if I would of continued past the last aid station. I was very glad to meet Brooks and I am really looking forward to running with him in Leadville once the snow melts. (By the way I finished 17 overall in 5:26).
With this race it has now been 5 straight marathons and ultra marathons where I have a horrible race. Now that I have had some time to think, it all started at Rocky Mountain Double Marathon. After doing some research, looking back at those races, and talking to fellow runners I think it is now obvious that those side aches are more then what I originally thought. Looking back at my last 5 races I see that between 2 and 3 hours into a race is where the side aches pick up and after that I get really weak. Seems like sugar levels drop and after that its all down hill.
The next step is a painful one but I think it is the right one, I am not planning on racing anytime soon or until I figure out what is wrong with me. I will be seeing a doctor soon and hopefully we can figure out what is happening to me and why I am getting so slow.

Sleep, run, eat.

2011-04-17T19:40:00.000-06:00

One of the many things that I like about weekends is that I can do whatever I want, which is usually run. Today, Sunday, I was able to spend a good part of the day running, eating, and sleeping. This morning I went for a windy 2 hour run. I came back home to have lunch and to take a nap! I woke up to go for another 1 hour run and then I came back home to eat again!
The last two weeks of training have been great. Speed workouts and shorter long runs have me feeling pretty good. The 'Spring' weather in Leadville has also made running a little more enjoyable. That with the one or two weekly runs in BV are making me much happier.
I have been doing two solid speed sessions per week. The roads are pretty much snow free by now and running from the East side of town to the Fish Hatchery makes the workout faster. The speed sessions are sometimes also my long runs except the basic long run towards the end of the week. I have been dividing the long run of the week in two parts. This make the run much easier and faster. Matt Carpenter talked about braking down long runs into two different days but I prefer doing it in one day and taking the other day off. After talking to Frank Mencin about breaking down a long run into two I decided to give it a go since the long run is done in one day. I do not see a 20 mile run in one day as difficult but by braking it down in two I do not get as 'tired' and I run faster. This seems to work great and I stay fast. Instead of feeling as if a long run slows me down a bit I feel like it complements the speed workouts and makes me faster.
I will test this training theory next Saturday at Cheyenne Mountain 50K . It is still early season for me and I will keep that in mind but I also have been feeling great and I am really excited to see the payoff of my new training. The race also has like 5,000 feet of elevation gain so that fits me well. A 50K night be kind of a short distance but the speed work that I have been doing should take care of that. I will also not be running the Collegiate Peak 50 milers since May will be a very busy month for me ( work, graduations to attend, and races to see!). I am a little sad about not running it but I need to increase my mileage for 100 milers and get enough work done so I can focus more on running during the summer.

Here are some pictures from my runs in BV during the last couple of weeks.

What used to be a railroad (Midland).

Good looking rock.

North of BV.

My feet miss dirt trails!

Quality Over Quantity

2011-04-03T22:21:00.000-06:00

This past week I did my best to focus on quality miles instead of the quantity of miles. I did a good job even though there were days when I wanted to run longer. It was a little difficult to run fewer miles, ran 50 miles, and at times I felt like I was cheating myself but I hope this is for the best.
On Monday I skipped running, we got a big Spring storm, so I did a ploy workout. I did 40 minutes of exercises an that was enough to make me sore for 6 days! The reason behind doing ploy workouts is to target the fast-twitch muscle fibers and increase speed over short distances. I know this is smart training but I tend to stay away from it because it's not running. In my experience, I have found that plyos also improve my running form. I though about this workout for the rest of the week and I am trying to figure out how I can fit this workout into mt training schedule.
On Tuesday I was very sore and had the bright idea of doing a pretty crazy workout. I did 3x5k at ~6:30/mile pace. To get away with this workout I found a long downhill so I ran from the East side of 7th street to the Fish Hatchery and more. This workout was very difficult but that is the type of training I need to do.
Wednesday was another day off since I could hardly walk. Thursday and Friday were easy days, I was still too sore to attempt a long run or a speed session. On Saturday, my hamstrings felt better so I tried another crazy workout. I did a pyramid: 3 min hard, 2 easy, 4 hard, 2 easy 5 hard, 2 easy, 4 hard, 2 easy, 3 hard. I did this pyramid three times, which took right around 2 hours, without water or gels. After the workout I was done, I did not even want to walk, I stopped by the side of the golf course and waited for my brother to pick me up. I was not about to run home after that workout.
I ran a total of 50 miles this week and it felt as if I ran around 100 miles. The ploy workout along with the two speed workouts were great and I believe they will help we out in a big way. This upcoming week I will continue to do some of the same speed workouts with maybe one shorter speed session.

Pictures from Run Through Time

2011-03-27T20:42:00.000-06:00

Ryan Burch and I at the start line.

Good turnout for the race.

Walking over to the start line.

Almost done.

Done!

Finding A Rhythm

2011-03-26T12:34:00.000-06:00

Running has been about the only consistent part of my life for the past three years. During all these time I had not gone for longer then three days without running. That was until I took an entire week off. During these time away from running I realized how lucky I am to be able to have such consistency and not go through any major injuries. I did have some minor aches but nothing to keep me from running for too long. In addition to using the week off to make sure my body is rested I also did a lot of thinking about my training.

My high school cross country coach, Don Quinn, always talked about how training in Leadville was so difficult. I though that my weekly mileage back then was way too low and that training in Leadville was not as difficult as everyone said. My mileage last summer was ridiculously high. This winter has showed me that I did not need to run 170 miles/week and that training at +10,000 feet is actually difficult and a very delicate art.

I have been running on snow packed roads and trails since November, that is 5 months. This is my first full summer of running in Leadville so I was not sure how much I needed to run to stay in good racing shape. I quickly found out how much slower and difficult it is to run during the winter in Leadville. I know realize that those 4+ hour runs that I did early in 2011 have made me slower. Going back to my high school XC coach, he would also tell me that quality over quantity was always the key at high altitude. This really makes sense now. I went my own way and tried something different just to find out that Quinny was right and I need to worry about the quality of my workouts not the quantity.

For proof of this I go back to my first ultra marathon, Run Rabbit Run. Leading up to this race my mileage was pretty low. I did have a couple of weeks where my mileage was above 75 miles but on average I only run 50 miles per week, if that. During this time I was also training to run XC at Metro State so I was paying more attention to quality. Speed workouts in Denver and 2 hour runs in Leadville now seems like great training. Heading into Run Rabbit Run I was really nervous about my endurance but it turned out to be fine. After that I figured that if I ran more I would be a better ultra runner. I did not worry much about speed work. My thinking was that I did not need much speed to run ultra marathons and if I could run 2:00 minutes for an 800 meter run I had all the natural speed I needed. That seemed to work for a while since I did win a 5K and a half-marathon last summer but all the running with limited speed work has finally cough up to me.

Now I simply need to run fast and not worry about the my mileage. That is what I have been doing this week and what I will continue to do for a while. During the next few weeks I will try to find a balance between speed and long runs at 10K feet above sea level. This will be very important since during the summer I will run trails that will be well above 10K feet. Ultra running is so simple but at the same time it can be complicated, I love it!

Run Through Time Marathon and other thoughts

2011-03-17T16:28:00.000-06:00

For some reason I always struggle with sporting events in Salida. Back in my old school days I never had a good basketball game, soccer game, or track meet, and I am still struggling. Going into the race I did not have "very high" expectations. I knew Tim Parr, Nick Clark and Ryan Burch would be there so I just wanted to finish top 7. I knew I would not be very fast because of the kind of training I have been doing during the winter but I still wanted to have an OK race.

The race got off to a somewhat slow start with Tim and Nick leading the way. Dan Vega quickly followed and so did Ryan and me. The pace felt very manageable for me so I just settle into the race for the first 3 miles. All these time both shins felt very, very tight and I could not roll my feet very well. The gradual uphill made it even worse on my shins and I just tried to focus on the race and wait for the shins to stretch out. Soon after mile 7, I started slowing down and my hamstrings started to tighten. I managed to run 6 more miles in an OK pace but after that everything went down hill. I could not get good turnover from my legs and they felt tired. The last 13 miles were very slow and I just never found a way to get my legs to move fast. I ended up finishing 17 place in 3:53.

I was and still am very disappointed. A week and a half before the race I did a 28 mile run in 3:58. This training run was at 10K feet, trails/roads packed with snow. I knew going into the race that I was lacking speed but I don't believe the course was that fast and there was no need to ran 6/minute miles.

My first though, and something I talked about with Ryan, was that running has been really slow for me during the winter months and it will take a while to truly get going. This is not a bad thing since I want to peak towards the Fall, but I am still worried about my awful performance last weekend. My second thought was over-training but I don't see that. I feel like my weekly mileage has been well managed and I am even holding back. I have been eating and sleeping well also.

I was pretty upset after the race so I decided to take the week off from all forms of exercise. This is driving me crazy but if I am over-trained or even a little tired this will help on the long run. Plus, I have not stopped running for more then 2 days in over 2 years. I did cheat a little and went on a 10 mile run with Alex Willis, who runs like a horse now days. The run was on Wednesday after 3 days off and I just could not skip a chance to run with Alex when he is in Leadville.

The plan now is to survive two more days without running and then get back to work. I talked to Alex about the situation and got some feed back and now I just need to see the running and speed doctor so I can get back on track. I am thinking about bringing the weekly milage down, way down, and focus more on weights and speed work. A low mileage worked well for my first ultra so that might be a key.

Looking back at February

2011-03-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

The second month of the year is gone but the snow is not, not even close. If I had to pick out the one thing that I though about the most during February it has to be the "need for speed". Snowman Stampede reminded me that winters in Leadville are long and slow, and now I have to work hard and diligently to get back my speed. I have been doing a good job with the speed work after Snowman Stampede but I still have a ways to go.
I have been doing my best to do two sessions of speed per week. This might seem easy enough but with the snow, that has now turned into ice, and the lack of flat terrain to run on, it is a bit difficult to get in a great speed workout now days. During February I was able drive down to Buena Vista once each week for a faster workout which has been good for speed and also to get a break from snow.
I continue to slowly raise the mileage but I am not too worried about that right now. The conditions have led me to pay more attention to the time I spend running than to the miles I ran. I was also able to go on at least one long run each week of the past month. The long runs along with the speed work gives me confidence that I had a good month of running/training.
Another great things from the past month is that I have started running with Matt Turnbull. He is a great runner who already has a win in 2011, Bandera 50K. He might not have a lot of time to run but he sure knows how to take advantage of the time when he does run. It has been great fun to run with him and talk to someone during a run. I look forward to running with him through what is left of winter and the coming summer.
March is going to be a great month!

A couple of pictures from Snowman Stamped

2011-02-24T12:16:00.002-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend's race.

Crowded start with around 500 runners.

Half a mile into the race.

10 Miles in about one hour.

Snowman Stampede 10 Miler

2011-02-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

As of Friday morning I had no intentions of doing this race but once I found out that my parents and my brother were heading to Denver I decided to join them and also run a race. I knew of the existence of the race but not much else. After doing some research and finding out how big it was I decided to give it a try for a change. The 10M race was a Road Runners Club of American Championship race so it was sure to be a fast one. There were some really fast guys who I don't know since I never do any road races, this was my first one.

The goal for the day was to cover the 10 miles in around one hour, so 6 minute-miles. It's not the fastest of times but with no tapering or preparation for a 10 mile race and considering the conditions and where I am training it was fast enough for me. The start was crowded, 489 finishers, and I felt out of place with all the fast looking runners and me wearing trail shoes! As the race started I made my way to the top 30 to get some running room. Some really fast guy, Tyler McCandless, took off right away and I had no intentions of following the top runners. Instead I settle into what felt like a 6 minute-mile pace. At first it was nice to run on flat and non-icy terrain but I knew my legs would be mad at running on this strange terrain. The 5 first miles were mostly a very slight downhill and fast. My first mile was 5:45 and it lead to a 17:40 for the first 3 miles. I hit 5 miles right at 30 minutes, pace was good. When I was near the turn around point I saw runners grabbing water cups and drinking while running so I decided to give it a go since it looked easy enough, it was not! I grabbed a cup of Gatorade just to spill it on my face. I laughed at myself and continued to go. The Gatorade did not seat well on my stomach and caused slight cramping but it did not seem too bad. This did manage to slow me down a bit but I continued to run 6 minute-miles, that was until mile 8. Mile eight seem much longer than the other miles and it was slow, I ran this mile in 7:20ish minutes. I was not tired, legs felt great, and breathing was right on. This is where running a 10K feet, in snowy tarils cough up to me and jumped on my back. I could not stretch my stride or get my legs to move fast enough and I ended up finishing in 1:01:43, 25th overall and 2nd on my age group. I was trully 3rd on my age group but since Tyler McCandless, 24, finished 1st in a CR of 52:08 he did not count on the age group awards. So I received a $15 gift certificate to Runners Roost for finishing "2nd" on my age group.

Despite not being very fast I had a BLAST at the race. I had not run in such a fast race since high school and I really enjoyed seeing the top runners race. The change of scenery was also good sine I got away from the cold, snow, and wind of the mountains. I also learned a few things about where I am at with my running. The pace that I ran was not blazing fast and it felt like it. I felt like I could keep a very similar pace for much longer distances. My body did really well, legs felt great, core felt much stronger and it helped with good running posture, which I some times struggled with. The upper body did not get tired and arm movement was good most of the time. All these are good sings for me and improvements from last year. I think the main problem was not having the leg speed but I know that will come once the snow in Leadville melts away and I can do some higher quality workouts.

All in all it was an amazing day. I was happy with my performance and the gift certificate but what I enjoyed the most was the atmosphere. This was one of the most organized running events I have been part of. There were over 1,000 runners in the 5 and 10 mile races and the event went by really smooth. Day-race registration was fast with no waiting lines. Even the restrooms had no waiting lines. For the old Marco runner it was fun to run "fast" again. Every time I passed or was passed by a runner I smiled to see how smooth and effortless the runners seem to move. Event today I am asked if I regret not knowing what could have been of college running, this race served as a reminder to me that I could have made it but I made the right decisions to run the trail instead.

NYC Half-Marathon and helping inner-city children get a breath of fresh air

2011-02-17T21:03:00.002-07:00

Here is a cool opportunity for all runners that might be interested in running THE New York City Half-Marathon and at the same time help a good cause. The Fresh Air Fund goes to great lengths to provide inner-city children the joy of a summer vacation. One of the ways they raise money is by having runners join the Fresh Air Fund-Racers Team, how cool is that!? In exchange for pledging fundraising before the event, runners are guaranteed an entry to the race.
So, if you would like to run this race and help NYC inner-city children get a breath of fresh air, like you do when you are out on the trails, you might want to give this a go. If pounding the pavement for 13.1 miles is not for you but still would like to help. The Fresh Air Fund is also looking for host families for this summer. If you or someone you know is interested you can check out the links above or get a hold of me if you have questions.

NYC Half-Marathon
March 20, 2011
13.1 mile course goes through Central Park, Times Square, and ends on New York City harbor.

Running in Leadville

2011-02-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

During the short summer months and long winter days, Leadville provides the terrain and conditions for great training, specially for ultra-runners. Weather in the 60's and 70's makes training a very enjoyable experienced. Elevation of 10,000 feet, big climbs, and endless trails provide plenty of challenging terrain to go on short and long runs. A day of running during the summer might consist of a run on Mt Massive (14,421 feet above sea level) and maybe a short run along Turquoise Lake. The winter is a little less enjoyable. Leadville gets enough snow during the long winter months to make running very challenging and cold. One can go on a run on the east side of town or run on some of the many snowmobile tracks around town. The views of the mountains during the winter will make up for the added challenge and cold.

Mt Massive from Ball Mountain.

These characteristics that make Leadville a great place to train for long, challenging races can also make Leadville a challenging place to train for shorter races. This past weekend I went on long run on the east side of town. My plan was to do the "Tri-Peaks Run." I came up with the "Tri-Peaks Run" to describe the run on 5th street, Black Cloud Road, and 7th street. I was not sure how high I could get up Ball Mountain via 5th street and I was surprised to reach the summit of this mountain, 75 minutes after I started running from pretty much downtown. The sunny day and the elevation made for amazing views which I have come to expect from running during the winter. The 2,000 feet climb and snow took more then expected out of my legs and core. I made my way down the mountain and into Black Cloud Road in 2 hours and 10 minutes. For this run I took my phone 'aka' GPS to measure the distance, but my plan kind of backfired when I got a call for a work related meeting, I had to cut my run short. I was still able to run to the top of Black Cloud Rd between California and Iowa Gulch. The climb on California Gulch was surprisingly WAY more difficult then when I run it without running to the summit of Ball Mountain. I still felt great and the run was very enjoyable. I ended up running for 3:08 hours and 18 miles, 10:24min/mile. This is why Leadville can be not so good for training for shorter distances.

Two weeks ago I did a 18 mile run in Buena Vista in 2:14 hours, 7:40min/mile. I know that elevation and elevation gain will account for a slower time, but one hour? In Buena Vista I ran 3 minutes faster per mile! I don't know why I was so shocked to see this but I found it really interesting and I have been thinking about it it way too much. I have always been asked by fellow runners if I track my running based on time or mileage when I train in Leadville. During the past I have kept track of my training in miles but after much thinking I am willing to change into time units.

Midland Trail (Buena Vista)

2011-02-07T11:44:00.005-07:00

This past Friday I had the opportunity to escape the Leadville snow and cold and headed south to Buena Vista for a trail run. The Midland trail is part of the Collegiate Peaks Trail Races so it was nice to run part of the course of a race that I will be running in May. The main reason for doing this run was to work on my speed and get to do a couple of good climbs without too much snow, 2 inches only. The plan for the run was to start out slow and push on a big climb, 5 miles into the run, and then do a sort of tempo run for the rest of the run.

Cold view of Collegiate Peaks.

The first five miles of the run were pretty easy with a good pace. Even though I wanted to escape the cold it was not going to happen. It was cold and windy, the wind made it really cold. After a good warm-up I was able to push during the big climb. Last year during the Collegiate Peaks 50 Miler I really struggled on this climb since I believed I would run down this climb not up. On this day I had the opportunity to work this climb and get a better feel on how to run it. Once I reached the top of the climb I got off the Midland Trail and headed down the mountain following the race course. At this point the wind had picked up and it started to get a little too cold so I turned around after ~10 miles and headed back to where I had started. The way back was mostly downhill or flat terrain so I was able to push and run much faster than I have been as of late.
This was the first long run without much snow that I have done in a few months so I was able to see some of the benefits of running on snow for such an extended period of time.

Legs - Strong quads, calf, and hamstrings make it easier to run up
big climbs and they also help with a longer stride on the flats.

Stabilizing Muscles - The deep and uneven surface made by snow gives
stabilizing muscles a workout which they normally will no get.

These two things alone have made a big difference in the way I run. The biggest improvement I saw during this run was my running posture. I was able to stand taller on the big climb and push pretty hard. On the flat section I felt more relaxed and I felt more power on my stride.

Mt Princeton from Midland Trail.

Time is flying by, again, and racing season is right around the corner. As of right now the Run Through Time Marathon will be my 2011 racing debut. I still have about a month before that so that should give me the time needed to have strong performance there. Mean while, I will continue increasing my mileage, working on my speed, and trying to stay warm. This past weekend was really cold. On Saturday I ran in a cold white-out and Sunday was very cold as well but at least I could see where I was running.

Trying to stay warm

2011-02-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everyone knows how cold it has been the last couple of days and Leadville has probably been a little colder. This morning, Wednesday Feb. 2, it was -32 at my house! Yesterday's run was cold as well, around -5, so it has been a couple of cold days. As long as the temperature stays above 5 degrees it is not too bad, unless I am doing a speed workout.
Doing speed work at 10K feet is difficult enough, throw in cold temperatures and its almost impossible. A speed workout in Leadville when the temperature is under 15 degrees is almost worthless for me, and most other people. The cold air burns my lungs and it is not fun at all. Last Wednesday I had the bright idea, finally, of driving down to Buena Vista and do my tempo run there. It is amazing how different things are 35 miles away from Leadville. My parents had to do some shopping there so I took advantage of the opportunity as they dropped me off about 10 miles north of town.
When I got off the car it was really nice to step on a road with no snow. I ran on CR 371 for about 9 miles before reaching town, then for about 1 mile along the river, and I finished off running for a while on the Barbara Whipple Trail System.
After doing a 10 minute warm-up I started to pick up the pace and getting into a nice tempo run pace. It was a bit hard on my feet to run on snow-free ground once again. I was also waring my NB100 that I had not worn in months so that felt different as well. This shoes ended up cutting my achilles just as they did when I first bought them. I was sill very happy to run fast and in warmer weather, low 40s. I did not pay attention to my pace but I could tell it was much faster then it would have been in Leadville. I had good traction on the road and the wind was not cold.
I reached town way before my parents were ready to go back home so I was able to run on some trails without snow. Running uphills and downhills felt funny, I had plenty of traction on the way up and not as much cushion on the downhills as running on snow.
This experience of running on dry trails was good but at the same time it made me remember summer and we still have a ways to get there. The trails in Leadville will not be dry until mid May so I still have a lot of snow running left. Meanwhile I will continue to try to stay warm and get ready for the high mileage of the summer.

“If you change the way you look at things...

2011-01-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

This morning I found myself in the woods running on snow two feet deep. The temperature was a chilly -3 degrees Fahrenheit so I stopped running and told myself, "Marco, you have lost it this time." I turned around to see Mt Massive and Mt Elbert covered in fresh snow and then thought, "maybe I'm not that crazy. "
Saturday was too windy and snowy to go out for a long run so the long run was postponed for today, Sunday.
I woke up to go for my run and when I checked the weather I found out it was -5, and felt like -18. The sunny day did not seem that cold but it was. Once I started running it really felt like -18 and I started asking myself if I was crazy. Not even ten minutes into the run I realized that I lost two of my gels so I went back kicking snow to find the gels. At this point I really started questioning how crazy I was. I did find the gels so I kept going. Thirty minutes into the run, freezing by this point, I got to a part where the trail was gone and I was running on two feet of snow. I did not care and kept going for about 100 meters. Running became almost impossible and I fell. I got up and told myself that I was not crazy, I was insane. I had been running for about 35 minutes in over a feet of snow and it was way below freezing but I still wanted to keep going. This is when I remembered cutting my runs short last year if there was more then 6 inches of snow on the ground. I remembered a run cut short on Cherry Creek Reservoir because there were four inches of snow on the ground. Then I remembered a quote which I don't even remember where or when I saw for the first time. “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” by Wayne Dyer.
All winter long I have been running on snow and that has changed the way I see it. Running in -10 degree weather is acceptable and one foot of snow is "not that bad." Just like ultra running has changed the way I look at "long runs," this winter has changed the way I look at cold and running on snow.
Two feet of snow is a bit too much to run on so I turned around to find some snowmobile tracks to follow on my journey of four hours. After looking for 40 minutes I found snowmobile track on CR 6, part of Silver Rush 50 miler, and followed the tracks to Black Cloud Road. The snow on CR 6 was runnable but it did have its parts of deep snow. It took a while but after over 2 hours of running I reached a plowed road. At first the ground felt hard compared to the soft snow but once my feet got used to it I begin to move pretty fast. It was a beautiful day to see the amazing views from the east side of Leadville.
After stopping for my routine stop at Oguer's house I ran for 90 more minutes to complete my 4 hour run. This week, just as the two previous ones, I felt really good and I did a good job of fueling. I am now able to take down a gel in 30 minutes, did it only once today though, so that is great news since that has been difficult for me in the past. A four hour run on the conditions I ran today is much harder than a 4 hour run in the summer or in a warm day. This is the type of training that I need to do to become tougher physically and mentally. I like the way things are going and how I feel. I will continue to train the way I am and running should continue to get better and better every week.

Training vs Running

2011-01-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

This post will be the first one where I will talk about training instead of just running. In 2010 most of my training was running. I did a lot of running but not much training. So far this year I have been doing a good job training and not just running. Here is an overview of a week of week training.

Monday:
   Medium effort run
   1 - 2 hours of basketball in the evening

Tuesday:
   Intervals or downhill workout - rotating every week
   Core workout in the evening

Wednesday:
   Easy effort run, mostly uphill
   1 - 2 hours of basketball in the evening

Thursday:
   Tempo run or uphill workout - rotating every week
   Core workout in the evening

Friday:
   Easy effort run

Saturday:
   Long run, 3+ hours with plenty of elevation gain

Sunday:
   No running and weight lifting or plyos and weight lifting - rotating every week

Additionally: I randomly pick a couple of days when I have extra time to do some yoga or some type of flexibility exercise.

This is a good look of what my training looks like as of right now. I have been working out like this for about a month now. During 2010 I was able to get in good running shape and I believe that I can work off of that and not have to run as much to get faster. The speed workouts will help a lot and I am already feeling the benefits.
Something that I find very interesting and motivating to continue to add variety to my training is that my long runs feel easier than they did in the summer. In July of 2010 I felt like I could run all day and 3+ hour runs would be fairly easy. After those runs I did feel a little tired the night of the run and the legs would feel a bit tired as well. It was not much but I could feel it. Two weeks ago I did the first 3+ hour run in a long time and to my surprise it felt really easy, very similar to how I felt during the summer. This past week's long run was even better. I ran faster than the previous week and after the run I felt like I went on a 1 hour run. I was not tired at night and the legs felt great.
I don't think this is a coincidence since I planed on getting to this point. During the next few week I will be writing more about how I believe my change in training philosophy is helping me out. Until then try to stay warm, thats what I will try to do at 10, 000 feet!

Cold, then warm, then cold again.

2011-01-10T21:55:00.001-07:00

Mt Massive from Leadville Junction after a tempo run.

The first week of 2011 was great week of training. The first run this year was a cold one! I ran on the east side of town since it is usually "warmer" but not that day. As I started out my new Droid phone told me that it was -10 degrees! I held it together until I warmed up to see if the cold would get more manageable and it did, since I had the wind on my back. As I turned around on my way up Mosquito Pass I felt the freezing wind in my face, the wind chill had to be at least -23! It was a cold run down the hill to Oguers house.
The rest of the week was not too bad. Sunday was cold but nothing like Saturday. The rest of the week was nice and warm, above freezing!
There was plenty of variety on my training during the past week. Two days were tempo runs, two basketball sessions, three days of 1 hour runs, one day of longish run, one session of weights, and one day of a long run. This long run of 20 miles is the longest one I have done in months, since Oakland I believe. I thought it would be rougher then it was. I started at CMC and ran towards Iowa Gulch for a while then to Black Cloud Road to Oguer's house to refill my water bottle, up 7th street and then back down to Oguer's house. I though the run was pretty easy despite not going for long runs lately. It was also pretty fast considering all the snow that I had to run on while on Iowa Gulch. Legs felt great and never got tired, no soreness the following day either. The best part of the run, and maybe the reason why I felt so good, was the fueling, since I actually had some gels. I started fueling after 30 minutes and stayed consistent through the rest of the run. Now that I think about this is probably the reason for the great run. Fueling is a focus of the New Year and I got started on the right track. Sunday I took the day off, since it was freezing again and to lift weights too.
Today, Monday, I went for a hour run and I felt amazing. I don't ever remember feeling so fast and strong. It was like running on air! It was a cold run, -3 when I went out, but even that did not bother me too much. The deep snow that usually drives me crazy seemed like nothing. I really like how things are going and how I am feeling with this new training theory.
So, as of right now the training will be pretty similar to the past week. Basketball time will start to decrees and running miles will start to increase. Soon it will be racing season again!

Looking Back, 2010

2010-12-31T16:57:00.001-07:00

My First year as an ultra runner is over. It was a year similar to the trails I run, it had many ups and downs. As I look back into 2010 the first thing that came to mind is that I was in school for half of the year. This limited the amount of training that I did during the first 5 months so I am really excited to not have to deal with that anymore.
My first race of 2010 was the Run Through Time Marathon in Salida, which now I see as foreshadowing for the rest of the year. I got off to a great start for the race and when I started to make my move I took a hard fall and the race was over, DNF.
Not long after I also got off to a good start at Desert RATS 50 Miler only to get one of my miserable headaches and stop short at 25 miles. The first two races did not go as planed but I still had high expectations for the year.
Once the month of May came around I did a little better. At Collegiate Peaks 50 Miler I had a great finish. I finished 5th in a very competitive race. My left hamstring cramped up after 38 miles so I know there is plenty of room for improving my time of 7:35. Mentally, the second half of the race was difficult since I had to run the course in the opposite direction I had thought. One of the interesting things from this race is that I had two gels the first 25 miles and I had no food the second 25 miles.
Later in May I finished 2nd at the Rocky Mountain Double Marathon, in this race that I have like the least so far. The course for the race was simply too flat and the paved sections killed my hamstrings. Cattle guards were by far the most annoying part of the race.
After the double marathon I was done with ultra marathons until Leadville 100. Two weeks after Rock Mountain I did different double, a half marathon and 5K on back to back days. At the Turquoise Lake Half marathon my time of 1:25 was good enough for 1st place, over 5 minutes ahead of 2nd place. The trail part of the race was rough since I lost some of my breakfast in 3 occasions. I'm still waiting to have a completed race here and see if I can go sub 1:20. The next day at the Fish Hatchery 5K I finished second to Karl Remsen. This course is really difficult and slow and I am still looking to go under 20 minutes for this 5K!
A 5K on Independence Day was my next race. This was a fun little race that I managed to win in a relatively easy effort as I was training for LT 100.
The summer of running and preparation for LT 100 was on of the most memorable times of my life. Daily running during the summer was very enjoyable. The sights, smells and the friends made it even more fun. Leading up to the summer I had though about peaking my mileage at 140 miles per week but I was easily able to go up to 180 miles in one week! This thought me much about me and humans in general. One Hundred and Eighty miles in a week is a lot of running! It will not be surprising to know that 75% of people do not run that much in a year. I even had one day where I ran 53 miles on a 24 hour period, for training and pacing.
Pacing Marty Walker at the Grand Mesa 100 was on of those amazing long training runs. Running in 100+ degree heat, being attacked by pit-bulls, running into a bear, amazing sunset, walking all night, and a crazy finish made it a very memorable pacing session.
Once LT 100 finally arrived I was more than ready. After getting off to a nice, easy, and strong start, stomach cramps finished my day early at 15 miles. I did not give up though and manage to run 70 more miles in pain. For eighteen hours and 85 miles my legs never got tired, it was all air caught in my stomach that did not go away that day. I am still disappointed about that day but I took very valuable lessons from it and I now have a very good idea of how far and how fast I can go. I will be back for LT 2011.
After this race the year of running was pretty much over. I participated in one more race, a 50K in Oakland. Once again a great start led to a leg injury and a 7th place finish.
All in all it was not a bad year. I was able to get in pretty good shape and learn much from the races I did. All of these experiences will only help me have a better year on 2011 and beyond that.
My running schedule for 2011 is almost done. It will have more variety and more than one 100 miler. I am rested and very anxious to start racing again. Instead of running all the time I will do much more training instead. This past year was a test to see how far I could push my body and get in shape. I think I am in good shape after those 3,500+ miles I ran in 2010. So, Happy New Year and see you in the trails!

Running around, with Alex Willis

2010-12-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Holidays to all!
I'm not a big fan of Holidays but I still get out of them as much as I can. One of the really cool things about Holidays is that I get to see old friends. Two times this week I played basketball with old high school friends. It was "almost" like high school all over again. I don't have as many friends who run but Alex Willis came up and I have been able to go on a couple of runs with him. On Wednesday we were able to go out for a one hour run on Black Cloud Road. If I recall correctly its been close to a year since we last ran together and before the run started I felt like I have not run with him in a really long time. Once the run starts it all changes. I am used to running alone but once I run with Alex it seem like its just another day of high school XC running. The main difference is that we have different things to talk about, we run a bit faster, and we do not get in trouble for going for a one hour run! On Friday we also went for a run but this time it was speed work. Running fast in Leadville is difficult specially in the winter cold and the frozen roads but we still got a good workout. It was a remainder to me that I need to work on my speed since Alex is pretty fast. He only has one semester left of collegiate running and I am sure it will be a good one. I am also already looking forward to see him blaze the trails after college. Before that it will be fun to see what he does in indoor and outdoor track.
This past week of training had good variety, which is something I am planning. I played basketball two times, run with Alex twice, snowshoeing once, weights once, and yoga a couple of days which makes up a great week of training. I feel like I can handle pretty long distances at a good pace with only small amount of running in my training, by small I mean 50 miles. I had two problems this week though. One is that I did not go on a long run and the second one was a pain on the bottom of my left foot. The left foot felt good snowshoeing today and I want to make sure it stays that way.
I feel like I am fully back into this running thing so this makes me very happy. I also feel really strong and refreshed from the variety on my training and I can't wait to see what that does to my running!

Running around, on snow.

2010-12-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

It's December in Leadville so of course there is plenty of snow on the ground, at least enough to make running a bit more difficult and slow. I'm still running on my running grounds for the winter, trails behind CMC, which are now 99% covered with deep snow. Snow accumulation during the last two weeks have made running slower and harder. This past Tuesday running was pretty difficult with the weekend snow so I knew it was time to dust the snowshoes and pack the trails. On this same day I ran into what I am pretty sure were mountain lion tracks, big ones too. I was a bit scared for about ten minutes but it was not too bad after that. From then on I have been paying much more attention to my surrounding and I am even considering running elsewhere.

Thursday marked the first day of snowshoeing this winer. I am not very good on the snowshoes but this

"run" was good. I was able to run for 70 minutes on 40% packed trails, other snowshoers, and 60% powder. Running on one to two feet of snow is difficult to me. I should be used to this since I live in Leadville but I have never been a big fan of snow. Anyways, the "run" went great. It was a cold workout, snow kept flying to my neck, but it was a great, difficult workout. My legs do not get sore very often but on this occasion, my legs, hips, and core were sore the following day. The plan for the rest of the winter is to run on snowshoes at least once a week or whenever the trails need to be packed to make running a bit easier.

Mt Elbert and Mt Massive from Iowa Gulch.

The good news about the snow is the way the mountains look. I love to look at Massive and Elbert on a sunny day. Elbert shines like a silver pyramid in the sky, Massive looks like gigant that is about to fall over you. Massive seems big during the summer but it looks even bigger during the winter. I love the summer but there is something about the mountains' winter coating, it never fails to put a smile on my face and let me know how lucky I am to be able to witness all these.

In other good news, this past Monday at 7:25am I became an uncle. Laura, Oguer's wife, gave birth to a baby boy, Kaleb Liam Peinado. All of the family is really excited, specially me! I missed a few days of running this week to hang out with the little guy, I think this is a valid excuse. Kaleb should be able to pace me sometime soon!

Kaleb Liam Peinado.

Just Running Around

2010-12-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

Once again it has been a while since I have written anything. Its not that I have not been running, its just that running 50 miles does not seem as exciting as it was last year. I believe that running well over one hundred miles per week during the summer "spoiled" me! Last year at this time I could hardly manage to run 50 miles per week and it felt like a big achievement, now I feel like I am a bad person because I don't run more. I don't know how true this is but I think I will use this as my excuse for not writing very often.

Anyways, I continue to run ~50 miles per week. All of my runs take place on the trails behind CMC. This past week snowshoers used some of the trails so I have some clearly marked and snow-packed trail to run on! Not all the trails I used are packed but its nice not run on 2 feet of snow all the time. We had a sunny and warm day on Thursday and it was very difficult to run on the heavy snow. It was a great workout for my hips, ankles, and core. Friday was a bit more of the same as Thursday. Running in the snow is a lot slower so I am not paying too much attention to the distance I run, I will focus more on the time. Depending on how busy I am with work this will I'm planning on spending more time on the trails from now on and I will go back to doing some speed work.

In addition to the weekly running I have also been playing basketball for around 6 hours every week. The main reason I do this is because its fun! As if that was not enough its a great speed workout. All the sprinting, cutting, and jumping help my footing and speed on the trails, specially on the downhills.

With a couple of solid weeks of training I should be able to get back to racing some shorter races. Until then I will continue to enjoy my snow running!

Update During a long Fall

2010-11-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

It has been too long since I have written anything. All this time I have been running five days per week with every run being right around 60 minutes. I guess I have not felt like these is very exciting so that is why I have not being writing, but the truth might be that I have just been slacking!!
The Fall season in Leadville has been long, by Leadville standards. About a week ago we got a four-day storm that brought plenty of snow and cold. During this week I spend 3 days hunting for elk with Carlos Martinez. I did not have a tag, I just "tried" to help Carlos get to a cow that he could shot. After a long and rough week of hunting he finally got something! The hunting season included hiking on the back side of the Fish Hatchery, steep, and the snow and cold made it a hard workout. A couple of times we set for an hour without moving in less than 10 degrees weather. One of those times we saw a HUGE bull. I have seen big bulls that my friends have killed and also the ones I see during my runs but this one was much bigger than any I had seen before. Its antlers where almost the same in both sides except for the top point on its right side that was about two inches longer than the one on the left side. The bull came within 30 feet of us and hanged out for at least 5 minutes, more like 10 probably, this is why we were able to get a good look at it. It was too bad we did not have a camera with us. Carlos did not have a bull tag and two days later we ran into two bulls and a cow and he was able to take the cow down. Thankfully this happened by Pipeline which meant that we did not have to bring the animal down from the trails by the Fish Hatchery.

Cow taken by Carlos, hope no one thinks its too bloody.

Single Trail.

First big snow storm of the season on the lower trails, Wheeler's Way.

Anyways, back to running. Other than the first big storm of the season the weather has made for some really enjoyable running. I have been running on the southeast side of town on relatively easy trails and I throw in some bigger climbs once in a while for an added challenge. Almost every day I ran into some elk or some deer so I have made it a game of guessing where I will ran into them. I think they are getting used to me and I don't even seem to spoke them anymore. Since I am only running 60 minutes every day I can push the pace on my runs and its getting really fun to fly on trails such as Wheeler's way, Old Chub's, Elk's Run, Boulders, and Single Trail. There is some snow on some parts of these trails but I would say that at least 50% is still snow free but with some mud. The rest of the trails are pretty packed so running is pretty normal. My plan is to run on these trails all winter. If I ran enough I think I can keep the trails packed by myself but I hope other people run on them too.
Now that I started taking about plans I guess I can talk about racing plans, which I don't have right now! I am enjoying running and I feel really healthy, fast, and strong. I need to start looking at races to do soon but I have not even started yet. Mean while I think I will soon up my running time, I will not worry about mileage since running at 10K and in the snow is not so easy. Once we get enough snow on the lower trails I will start doing some snowshoeing and I am even considering doing some Nordic Skiing, skate. As for now, on Monday and Wednesday night I will play basketball which is my favorite type of speed work.

First Snow of the Season

2010-10-12T17:07:00.000-06:00

Mt Elbert's winter coat.

Snow has arrived in Leadville but at least I have been able to stay away from it, for now. The higher mountains are covered with snow but the lower trails are still snow free, for the most part, which is good for me. This past weekend temperature started to drop and so did the snow! On Saturday I went to cut wood by Camp Hale and it snowed at least a quarter of the time I was there. I did not pay much attention to the cold or the snow as my back was really tired from cutting wood, no run on Saturday. Sunday I was so sore that I could hardly move so no run on Sunday either.

Monday was a nice day in Leadville and I got out for just a one hour run on Wheeler's way and the CMC Nordic trails. It is really nice to not run as much and get plenty of rest. I feel strong and fast but unfortunately I have not been able to get rid of my left ankle issues. Whenever I run faster than 7min/mile or longer than 90 minutes, I feel a pain on the top of my left foot. I have been taking it easy on the running but the pain does not go away. The good news is that I can get out for enjoyable one hour runs. For the past two weeks most of my runs have been right around one hour and I think I will continue that for a while.

I guess it has now been a while since I have been doing most of mt runs on the southeast side of town. There are some great trail there and it has been a nice change from the LT 100 course and the east side of town. Here are some pictures from this trails, I have even been running on pavement!

Mt Sherman from Wheeler's Way Trail.

Leadville from Mineral Belt Trail.

Mineral Belt Trail near California Gulch.

Random thoughts

2010-10-06T20:36:00.000-06:00

The last couple of weeks have not been very eventful. I have been running right around 50 miles and my runs have not been very eventful, mainly because they are short. Last week I finally started to feel better as my left ankle started to heal. This week I have felt much better and faster than I have felt in a while. The left ankle feels great and I have been running pretty fast the last couple of days.
Mt Massive and Mt Elbert have snowy peaks so it most mean that winter is near. I am not a big fan of winter at all and spending a full winter in Leadville since 2005 does not sound fun at all. Winter running in Leadville is not something to look forward to. It's so bad that I have started to think about snowshoeing and cross country skiing, lets just say that I don't enjoy either of those two activities very much. Anyways, I hope I still have many days of running on trail free of snow.
On the racing side of things I am not sure what is ahead. This year was supposed to be all about LT 100 and since the race did not go as planed that kind of threw all my other racing plans out the window. The Denver Rock N Roll Marathon sounds OK and qualifying to run Boston and New York sounds pretty good too. On the down side I do not feel like running on pavement to teach my legs to run 26.2 miles on pavement as fast as I can go, specially not so close to winter when all I want to do is enjoy the last trail runs of the year. There is a marathon in Colorado Springs this weekend and I have thought about doing it but I really doubt I will race this Saturday. Other than that I don't know of any other races before 2010 is over. I would be more than happy to call it a season but at the same time I feel like I have a great fitness level to not compete in any more races. If I have a good or even an OK day I am sure I can have a good race somewhere at some distance. Half Marathons and 5Ks seem pretty attractive and it would be fun to try to go under 1:15 and under 16 respectively. So, the plan as of right now is to keep my eyes and ears open for some races that I might want to jump in. Meanwhile I will continue to enjoy the last snow free trail runs of 2010.

Red Wood Park 50K

2010-09-21T12:20:00.001-06:00

Since I have been limping around the Bay Area since Saturday, it took me a little longer to post a "race" report but here it is. I arrived at San Francisco late Friday night and ended up going to bed at around 12:30am. When I woke up on Saturday I felt tired and I had a big headache. As soon as Marty and I arrived at Red Wood Park we knew the course would be beautiful. We had plenty of time to pick up or bib number and do a little warm-up. At the pre-race briefing we were informed that there was a horse event going on at the park and they had used pink ribbons to mark their trail, same color as the ribbons that would mark 40K of the 50K. for my race.
As soon as the race started I made my way to the front mainly because the first couple of miles had around 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Two miles into the race I was in third place overall, 3rd in the 20K and first for 30 and 50K. It did take me a while to get used to breathing-in so much oxygen and the high humidity made it hard to breath at times. Throughout the race there were times when I felt as if I was chocking because of the near 100% humidity.
With about 8K into the race Jason Hill started to run along side me. It was fun to chat with someone during the race who also was familiar with the course. Saturday morning was really foggy and hard to see for more than 20 feet. I was able to run with Jason until we got close to 25K and I rolled my ankle. Rolling my ankle was not bad at all at first. As I approached 30K the ankle started to hurt more and more and I started to slow down significantly. At this point I knew I was not going to be able to run like I had been running but I still wanted to go for the finish, plus, I did not know how far ahead of the rest of the field I was.
Right as I reached 30K I was passed by a 50K runner. As I started on my final 20K loop the left ankle was not strong enough and I just had to push with my right leg and use my left leg only for balance. Less than a mile latter I was passed by a second runner and running was pretty painful. I continued on a slow jog as I enjoyed the red woods and the very diverse vegetation in the park. The rolling hills of the course, which is pretty much the entire course, made running very difficult so I was forced to walk much of the rest of the race. At around 40K I was passed by a third runner and I started to get a little cranky and just wanted the race to be over. At this point in the race much of the fog started to go away and I could see much more of the park, this was both good and bad. The forest was beautiful with its gigantic red woods but the course was very different from what I had run earlier. During the first loop I ran this part with Jason and I just followed him without paying much attention. Since I did not know the course at all and the course was marked for two different events I eventually got lost. I reached a high point on the park where I could see a lot of the Bay Area and a casual runner told me that I was in first place. I knew there was a runner no more than 200 meters ahead of me so I realized I was lost. I found a bench nearby and I took a 5 minute break as I enjoyed the great views of the bay area. I walked back to the intersection which had pink ribbons going on in two directions and got back on course. After walking for 5 more minutes I started to run a little faster without rolling my left foot. I knew this would have a negative effect on the rest of my body but I just wanted to finish the "race."
I finally reached the finish line in 4:44, 7th overall and first in my age group, 20-29. Mary also had problems with his knee and was more than happy with finishing the 20K and enjoying the gorgeous course. All in all it was a great but difficult day for both me and Marty. The course was amazing and if I knew I would end up walking so much I would of brought a camera with me to take some pictures.
My left ankle has been bothering me for a couple of weeks now and I am beginning to believe that it is simply overworked and it needs a break. Because of this my near-future racing plans are foggy like San Francisco. The punishment on my knees from poor running form during the race caused vary sore and achy ankles and knees for two days. Today, Tuesday, I feel much better and I am planning a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge from downtown San Francisco which will give me an idea whether or not I need to take some days off.

Leading up to my first 50K

2010-09-17T16:13:00.000-06:00

In less than 24 hours I am schedule to compete in my first 50K, Red Wood Park 50K in Oakland, California. This races is sort of a last time decision and because of this I will face some circumstances that I usually don't have to deal with. First of all I have not really thought about the race and I basically know nothing about it. I have a short time to get myself into competitive mode and I am not even going to bother with trying to find out about the race. Well, maybe if I get too bored while I wait for my flight I might do some research. I know that the race is supposed to be hilly so that is great news for me. I believe there is about 4,500 feet of elevation gain so that sounds fun. Probably the only other things that I do know is that it takes place at a very low elevation. I have never run any race under 5,000 feet above sea level so I am about to find out what running at 500 feet above sea level feels like. With the low elevation and the location of the race I will also have to deal with high humidity, supposed to be 70% tomorrow. All these circumstances should make for a fun and interesting day.

Marty Walker is still nursing his knee so he will only compete in the 30K, "only" 30K! We will get to run for at least some time together so that will we great as always. This weekend will mark my one year anniversary as an ultra runner so I am looking forward to having fun and enjoying the day. Right now the only expectations I have are to finish and to have fun. I know once I line up at the start line things will be different.

Mt Sherman - 14,036 feet Above Sea Level

2010-09-14T18:33:00.000-06:00

Looking West from near the Summit of Mt Sherman.

It is awesome to be an ultra runner! Today I was not sure what I wanted to do for the day's run and I kind of had settle on doing some sort of speed workout. Once I started driving I looked up and saw Mt Sherman and saw that there was no sign of a storm so I decided to head out that way.

I parked at the start of the "trail head," there is no such as thing, and started to run right at 2:00pm. I had 20oz of water, shorts, shirt and cell phone (for the pictures). The first part of the trail is some what runnable. Eight minutes into the hike the terrain turned rough and become difficult to run. The grade of the ascent did not bother me at all but the terrain did. The hike to the summit is either too rocky or just gravel. Many of the rocks are lose and/or sharp so special attention has to be placed on the footing. The gravel part of the hike is really slick and its difficult to get a grip on the trail, specially on the way down.

Despite the less than ideal running conditions I made it to the saddle that connects Sherman to Sheridan in 30 minutes. Once I reached this point my hike/run was much more enjoyable since the terrain was more runnable and the views were great.

East view from the saddle.

From the saddle to the summit the terrain is still rough but its mostly bigger rocks which make running possible. Once I started getting higher than the saddle the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. It was cold but not near as cold as last week hike on Mt Harvard.

Some of the terrain covered during the day.

Before I knew it I reached a false summit and I realized that the summit was near and the ascent over. From the top of the false summit to the real summit the terrain was almost flat so I just walked to enjoy the views. Once I reached the summit I stopped to take a few pictures and headed back down the mountain.

Another picture looking west.

The descent went by really fast. It only took me 12 minutes to get down to the saddle so I decided to take really easy the rest of the way to find some autumn colors around the valley. It sure was a beautiful day, yet another thing to be thankful for.

Some of the fall foliage to the west.

The week that was: September 6 - September 12

2010-09-12T20:04:00.000-06:00

Some sort of structure while heading toward Sherman.

Monday September 6, 2010

13 Miles (7:17) - Mt Harvard

Hiked Harvard with Melissa, Justin, Ogy and Kyle. My left ankle bother me most of the day and it was too windy on the way up the mountain. It was a great hike and fun to spend time with some great friends.

Tuesday September 7, 2010

14 Miles (2:06) - Ski Cooper to Came Hale

Had a hard time running today. Legs felt clumpy and weak. Weather was perfect and the views of the aspens changing colors were amazing.

Aspens starting to change into their fall foliage.

Wednesday September 8, 2010

13 Miles (1:34) - Intervals at CMC

10 X ~800 meter intervals at CMC. Felt slow for the first couple of repeats but after the 3rd one I felt great. I'm starting to feel like I should.

Boulders Trail.

Thursday September 9, 2010

19 Miles (2:56) - Boulders/Elks loop + Mt Sherman loop

Great run overall. I had a hard time running up to Sherman after a good start. The left ankle bother me on Elks Run. I did a good job of fueling which is just what I need to do.

Mt Sherman from top of Boulders Trail.

Friday September 10, 2010

Day off

Mt Sherman.

Saturday September 11, 2010

Day off

Sunday September 12, 2010

9 Miles (1:07) - Hill workout at CMC

I ran around CMC going up hills of different lengths and grades. It was a very good workout. Legs felt great after two days off.

Totals

68 Miles

13:14 Hours

Fall is a great time to run. I had a lot of fun on all of my runs this week. On previous years I have not enjoyed running during the fall but I have really appreciated it this year. The views, the peace and the temperature have made it a blast to run on the trails.

The windy hike on Mt Harvard, my trip to Camp Hale and my long run this week all had the just mentioned characteristics of a great fall run. My two speed workouts this week were great. I felt really fast for the 800 repeats and I felt really strong on the hill repeats.

The two days off are kind of an experiment for me. I have always believed on taking a day or two off to allow proper rest. I did not do it during the summer and I felt good, I now want to see what happens if I do rest.

Mt Harvard

2010-09-08T23:19:00.003-06:00

Looking south west from the Summit.

My friend Kyle Ruzicka and I have a "tradition" of hiking a 14er every year. The past two years we have done Mt Elbert and Mt Massive and this year we decided to make Mt Harvard the 14er of the year. Oguer always comes along with us and this year we were able to get Justin Vijil to come with us. The four of us played high school basketball together so its always a fun time when we get together. Melissa was the last member and the leader of the hike.

The Mt Harvard crew: Melissa, Marco, Kyle, Oguer and Justin.

On Monday we left Leadville at 6:00am, planning on starting to hike at 7am. We started hiking at 7:15 and to my surprise the weather was not cold at all nor windy. I had checked the weather for the day and it was supposed to be "very windy."

The start of the hike was really easy and Justin was the first one to say how easy it was. I used the first few miles to catch up with Justin and Kyle since we drove down in different cars. I was surprised to see that the trail was easy for such a long stretch. We made our way to tree line without having to stop except to lose a layer of clothing. Melissa set a good pace and we continued to make our way up the mountain at a relative fast pace.

Everyones seemed to be doing good except the ultra runner, me. Mt left ankle hurt the entire hike specially at the start. It was a good thing that I was the only one having problems though. I was not worried about Melissa and the other three characters seemed to be doing great. Once we made our way past tree line we started to slow down and we started to take breaks. The temperature started to drop and the winds picked up. The great views kept us moving as started to see the summits of the surrounding mountains.

Myself, Kyle and Justin taking a break.

Melissa climbing down the summit.

Once we reached the last, long climb the wind really picked up and the temperature took a down fall. Oguer, Kyle and Justin had plenty of layers to keep them warm. Melissa had some warm layers as well but both me and her were only wearing shorts. She seemed to be able to stay warm and I did not. I only had a coupe of layer to keep me warm. This usually works when I ran up the mountain but not when I hike it. I had a difficult time staying warm throughout the ascent. The last climb was difficult and the high winds made it even slower. Justin's legs started to cramp and by the time the electrolyte capsules started to work we were almost at the summit. To me it seem like it took forever to hike the last mile as I was really cold. The truth was that it did not took too long and the ascent went great. The final 50 or some meters of the ascent were steeper than anything I had ever seen and we it was more of a climb than a hike. We reached the top welcomed by amazing 360 degree views. To my surprise we could see Leadville as well as Salida and we could easily see Turquoise Lake. One of the things that I love about hiking a 14er is that I am reminded how small this world is and how small we are compared to anything else. We did not spend much time on the summit and we made our way down the mountain a few meters so we could be sheltered from the very high wind to take a break and eat something.

Kyle, Justin and I at the summit.

Melissa and I at the summit.

The decent was much easier then the ascent, as expected, and Justin did not have to deal with the cramps. About a mile and a half from the summit the high winds went away and we could actually hear each other talk.
The rest of the descent was pretty relaxed as we just talk about past and future adventures. After the hike we each other went our separate ways but knowing that we will get together once again for more adventures. Kyle went back to Alamosa to continue school. Justin is back in Eagle but will soon be heading to California. Oguer, Melissa and I are back in Leadville to our everyday lives. We all will meet during Christmas time for some basketball!

Since Oguer was the photographer he is only in the group pictures, here are a few more of the picture he took.

Mt Columbia.

Los Cuatro Amigos, taken by Melissa.

South view from Harvard.

Bear Lake to the south.

The Week That Was: August 30 - September 5

2010-09-07T14:27:00.000-06:00

Monday August 30, 2010

11.5 Miles (1:36) - Wurts Ditch

First 'longish' run after Leadville. After 60 minutes the left ankle started hurting pretty bad.

Tuesday August 31, 2010

1 Mile (0:10) - East Tennessee Pass

Ankle still bothering me and after 5 minutes of running I decided to turn around and head for the car.

Wednesday September 1, 2010

7 Mile (1:07) - Wheeler's Way

Tested out the ankle again today. I was very careful with my footing and I was able to run for a little over an hour.

Thursday September 2, 2010

Walk - 2 Miles (00:400) - Single Trail

Run - 10.5 Miles (1:22) - Single Trail

Felt good on the way out but a little sloppy on the way in. Just getting back into the rhythm of things!

Friday September 3, 2010

7 Miles (1:00) - Mt Zion Trails

Did not feel good the entire run but it was not too bad. At least I ran into a heard of elk with a big bull.

Saturday September 4, 2010

Day off

Sunday September 5, 2010

13 Miles (1:47) - Ball Mountain and East side of town

Beautiful fall run. It was windy and cold on the east side of Ball. Left ankle bothered me after 35 minutes, specially on the downhills.
Totals:

53 Miles

7:42 Hours

This week I finally started to get back into running. I did not have a 'great' week but it was not too bad either. My legs feel great, except my left ankle. I just have not been able to get back into a good running rhythm. I get distracted during my runs and I have not been able to get into a 'runner's high' like I am used to. Hopefully this coming week I can spend more time running and get more into running.

I leave for San Fransisco on September 17 to run a 50K on September 18 and take a week vacation. Other than this race I am not sure about near future races. It is fall in the high country and I am planning on enjoying a few long runs in the coming weeks.

Status Update

2010-08-31T17:15:00.002-06:00

For the first time in a long time I have not been running very much. The week after LT 100 I took it really easy and I waited until Thursday to do my first run. I did manage to get out and play some volleyball and soccer with some friends. On Saturday I played in a local soccer tournament for four hours so that was a great workout.

The plan for this week was to get out and pick up the mileage once again, I'm not sure if that will be possible. I went for a 90 minute run on Monday and right around 60 minutes I started feeling a deep pain on my left ankle. I struggled to run the other 30 minutes which turned into 40 minutes. The pain has not gonna away and today it was strong enough to not allow me to run. I did try running but 5 minutes after I started running the pain was too strong for me to consider it safe to run. I have no idea what the pain could be. I don't remember doing anything to the ankle while playing soccer or volleyball. I guess I will wait and see what happens. If the ankle is not good within a couple of days I guess I can go visit the doc.

Going back to LT 100, I am starting to feel better about the whole things. I still am very disappointed but I am starting to feel better about it and I'm trying to learn from what happened. It's going to be very hard to analyze what went wrong physically, since I never reached a point where I was "tired." I would like to know what I could do better during my training but I don't see how that is going to happen. I do know that I need to practice my fueling a lot more during my training runs. I will pay much more attention to this for my next 100 mile race. I also know that I need to do a lot more strength training. I'm sure this will be very beneficial.

The racing part of running is still a little cloudy. I did look into doing another 100 miler soon but I just don't see it happening. I thought about doing the Bear 100 but after some research about the race it did not seem like a race I wanted to do at this point in time. I also looked into doing Run Rabbit Run but I did not see myself going back to do this race this year. I'm sure I will do this race again but not this year.

In a couple of weeks I will be traveling to San Fransisco for no reason in particular and I might even do a 50k, Redwood Park 50k. Since I have the travel bug I might do a marathon to qualify for the New York and/or Boston Marathons. This are just thoughts but nothing concrete yet. I'm sure once I get running again a race will come in mind.

Here are some Pictures from 2010 LT 100:

Me, Oguer and Laura.

Start line.

Lat minute thoughts.

Coming into Fish Hatchery.

Feeling the pain coming into Pipeline.

Twin Lakes.

Winfield.

Back at Pipeline.

Taking a break at Pipeline on the way in.

Ivan paced me from Pipeline to Fish Hatchery.

Brian Goding paced me from Twin Lakes to Pipeline.

Wondering if I had enough to get back into town.

2010 Leadville Trail 100: DNF

2010-08-25T14:51:00.000-06:00

I had one goal and one goal only for this summer, complete the Leadville Trail 100. After finishing college in Denver I decided to come back to Leadville and dedicate the majority of my time to prepare for the race. After getting off to an amazing start at the race everything was ruined by a simple watermelon slice which ruined my day and caused me to go through the most painful day on my life.
The start of the race was amazing. So amazing that it can not be described in words. The amazing type that you have to live in order to understand. I went out in the front of the pack and as I turned back at the top of the first hill I could see hundreds of lights behinds me which made for one amazing view.
The pace at the start of the race was fast for a 100 mile race so I just chilled until we got to Turquoise Lake. By this time Tony had taken with him a group of front runners. As I made my way around the lake I picked up a few runners. At Tabor boat ramp I was surprised to run into a big crowd of runners holding lights and making way for the runners. This was as exiting as it gets!
As I neared Mayqueen at mile 13.5 I felt great and went through the station at 1:45. The time was 3 minutes faster than my planed time but it felt really easy. Right before leaving the aid station I grabbed a small piece of watermelon, this cost me the race.
As I ran the Colorado Trail part of the course I was a little worried about not being able to see some of the top runners. I was not sure if I went out to slow but I felt great. Right before we got to Hagerman road I saw Dylan Bowman and Duncan Callahan right in front of me so I was more relaxed knowing that I was right behind the lead group, I figured Tony was far in front of me by now. Once we started running up Sugarloaf I got a side ache on the right side of my stomach. At first I did not make too much of it and figured it would go away soon. By the time me and Dylan got to the top of Powerline the pain was much worse and I fell off the pace a bit. I tired different breathing exercise to get rid of the pain as we went down Powerline but it did not work. I was running a nice pace and I was right behind Duncan and Dylan so I was OK. I reached the Fish Hatchery in 3:15 but I was in a lot of pain at that point. From the Hatchery to Pipeline I lost about 5 minutes as the side aches did not let me run a good pace. Pipeline to Halfmoon was painful and I started to ask myself if the pain would ever go away. Going down to Twin Lakes was specially painful because of the gradual downhill. At Twin Lakes I told my crew that things were pretty bad and they encouraged me to continue. I was really encouraged to know that I had run 25 miles in deep pain and I was in 9th place.
Once I left Twin Lakes I looked up to Hope Pass and I felt relived to see the mountain I was about to climb. I knew the side aches would be manageable going uphill. I passed a couple of runners going up the pass and was beginning to feel much better. I had also run the split that I had in mind. When I got to the top of the pass I told myself that if the side aches were gone I would have a good chance at running even splits for the race. The first step down the mountain reminded me that the pain was still there. I had to walk down Hope Pass, running the dirt road to Winfield was very painful. During this section I caught up to Brian Goding who would pace Corey Hanson up Hope Pass. I informed him of how I felt and he cheered me up by telling me that I was in a good position, being in the top ten, and if the side aches went away I could make a good move. At Winfield I stopped to eat some potatoes in hope of easing the side aches. After taking a 5 minute break I headed back to Hope Pass feeling much worse than when I had reached the aid station. The 3 miles stretch from Winfield to the trail head to Hope Pass were miserable and I was once again happy to be heading up the mountain. This time the sides aches were worse but I was able to keep a good pace going up the pass. When I started going down the north side of Hope Pass the side aches were too painful and the thought of dropping out started to cross my mind. Since I told my brother to not let me drop out for any reason I knew this would be my only chance to drop out since he would not be at the Hopeless aid station. When I reached the aid station I took a break and decided to continue my journey, still hoping for the side aches to go away. It took me way to long to reach Twin Lakes and once I got there I told me crew that I was about done. Oguer told me he would not let me drop out and he would start pacing me. Brian Goding hear this and asked me if I wanted him to pace me. At first I said no since I knew he had a bad foot. He responded by saying that we would not be running much so he would be OK. I once again decided to give it a go and figured that if someone could help me finish the race it would be Brian.
The initial climb out of Twin Lakes was really painful and I was beginning to feel sick and got a mild head ache. Brian did an amazing job of cheering me up and helped me to continue to move. I was able to run some sections of the way to Pipeline but I was never able to get rid of the pain. We reached Pipeline where Brian finished off his pacing duties and where my 14 year old cousin Ivan would help me reach my next destination.
The paved road to the Hatchery was horrible and it was easily the worst part of my day so far. Ivan was able to make me laugh and help me forget a bit about the pain. At the Fish Hatchery I stopped to take a break and grab the headlamp and my pacer for the rest of the way home. I was 23.5 miles from the finish line and I knew that I could walk the rest of the way and still finish under 25 hours. As soon as Oguer and I left the aid station I was able to run. We walked the first section of Poweline and after that we run most of the way of one of the steepest sections of the course. For the first time in many hours I started to feel better and hope of being able to run to the finish line started to raise.
Despite all of the positives thoughts I had throughout the day this just was not my day. As soon as I took the first step at the top of Powerline I told Oguer that was it. The first step was much more painful that before and a fear begin to raise within me that I might not be able to finish the race. As we continued to make our way to Hagerman road my body temperature started dropping fast. At Hagerman road I told Oguer to run to the aid station and get me more clothing, I was going to finish no matter what. As soon as Oguer left my body refused to take any more steps. At this point I was way too cold despite wearing warm clothing. Right before reaching the Colorado Trail I was shivering excessively so I told a couple of runners to tell the guy coming up the Colorado Trail that #601 was done and would look for a ride to Mayqueen.
I finally caught a break soon after I passed the Colorado Trail on Hagerman road, I saw car. I asked the driver to stop and he ended up giving me a rid to Mayqueen.
Once I was at the aid station I just wanted to find the person in charge to cut the wrist band. I figured it would be a stranger and even though it would be painful I had pushed myself enough that day. I told a lady that I was done and George Gipson came towards me with a pair of scissors. George is a great guy and after a small pep talk he cut the wrist band which almost felt like cutting a part of me.
I spent about an hour at Mayqueen trying to warm up. I was near the heaters covered in two blankets and I was still shivering pretty bad. I could not talk and cramps in both sides of my core reminded me that I made the right choice by dropping out.
I came back to Leadville to run and finish the Leadville Trail 100. Since I dropped out and because of my competitive nature, the summer turned into a failure as soon as I got a ride to Mayqueen. Since the race friends and family have told me how everything happens for a reason and how it still was a great learning experience. I don't see how much I can take from eating a bad piece of watermelon. I am 100% sure the watermelon was what caused all the problems. The side aches messed up my running posture which destroyed my back. I never reached a point in the race where I was fully into running. When I reached Winfield I knew that if I did not have the side aches I could run an even or negative split back to Leadville. I never got to a point where I used those 1,200 miles that I ran in 10 weeks. Going up Powerline on the way back in was as easy on my legs as it is when I run it with 10 miles under my legs. I had very little soreness on my legs since the race, non after Sunday.
I worked really hard for one race this summer and I still want that race. I know I can't run Leaville this year so that means I have to find a new race. I am not sure what that race will be but I know that in less than a month I will lay out the great race I was supposed to have in Leadville.
Closing things out I would like to thank all the people that had something to do with the race. At every aid station the Leadville folks showed that this is my home. I will never forget the feeling of going through the aid stations with all the Leadville people cheering for me. My crew did an amazing job and even though I feel like I let them down I know I will make up for it. If it was not for Brian Goding I would have dropped out after Twin Lakes. It was a privilege to spend time with Brian during the race, thanks Mr. Consistency! Finally, I want to thank Honey Stinger and Melanzana for all their support. Special thanks to Fritz Howard for all his support and encouragement.
LT 100, I WILL be back!

Leadville Trail 100 Twitter Updates

2010-08-19T19:48:00.000-06:00

Since I recently setup a Twitter account I though it would be a good way to have updates for Leadville Trail 100. I will not have my phone with me during the race but Laura will have it. She will try to tweet every time they see me. She will also try to tweet when other runners come through an aid station. She will use the somewhat standard "#601 just came through Fish Hatchery #lt 100." The "#601" will be the bib number of a runner. You will be able to follow the updates on Twitter or here in my blog.

Leading up to the 2010 Leadville Trail 100

2010-08-17T19:09:00.002-06:00

Eighteen months ago my doctor told me that if I wanted my horrible migraines to go away I had to run, I had to run very far. This is when I remembered a dream that I had yet to achieve, run the Leadville Trail 100. In 2004 I read an article in the Denver Post about Bob Findlay, who would run the "Race Across the Sky." I saw he was running about 50 miles per week and I figured I could also finish the race, even if it took me 30 hours.

Three days from the race the situation is very different from what I pictured that day. I have been running very far, just like the doctor said. All that running has also made me pretty fast. I have completed three 50 mile races and I am ready to have my best race in a couple of days.

My training started out very easy. I started off by doing eighteen minute runs two times per week. I slowly increased the mileage to the point where I had a 170 miles week. This is one of the reason why I believe I will have a great day this coming Saturday. My mileage for my previous three 50 milers was much lower, since I had to deal with school. For Collegiate Peaks, 7:35, I was running 70 miles per week. My training for Leadville Trail 100 has been much better in quantity and quality. When I ran Collegiate Peaks I was doing most of my mileage in Denver, now I am doing all my running in Leadville.

The eight week period of high mileage as preparation for Leadville has been by far the best running I have ever done. I had good long runs, speed sessions, hill sessions and I spent a lot of time running the course for LT 100. Here is a quick summary of what I did during those eight weeks:

Total Miles: 1,068

Average Miles Per Week: 133.5

Low Week: 110

High Week: 170

I am very happy with how many miles I ran in preparation for Leadville. At the beginning of the eight week period I was shooting to peak at 140 but I quickly discover that I could go much higher.

In addition to the high mileage I decided to not compete in any other ultramarathons to stay as consistent as I could with my training. At race day it will have been 67 days of running without a day off, this is by far the longest period I have gone without taking a day off.

Running to Buckeye Lake gave me the elevation gain that I needed for my training. As if that was not enough, Leadville provides plenty of elevation gain anywhere you run. Since it is difficult to find a flat trail to run in Leadville I spend a lot of time running Turquoise Lake to improve my running in the flat sections of the course.

Pacing Marty at the Grand Mesa 100 gave me a little more experience on running and crewing a 100 mile race. That was the 4th time I have paced during a 100 miler, which will give me a little experience going into my first 100 miler.

Going into the race I am feeling great physically and mentally. All the training has made me physically and mentally strong. I know my body is capable of running great distances and I know my mind is strong enough to make my body go even farther. I believe the mind is weak and the body is strong. If one has a strong mind, one can push the body to do amazing feats.

Leading up to the race I am relaxed and feeling good. The training is done, for the most part, and I now find myself "resting." A two week taper will give my body the rest it needs. I have pretty much everything ready for the race and its now time to wait. This week I will spend one day down in Denver to get away from Leadville for a while and to get s few things that I still need. I also have an interview with Telemundo Colorado who is probably going to be following me around for at least part of the race. I was supposed to take care of this before but I just never found the time. This is the last thing I have to do before the big day.

Even though I am looking to compete at the race I have not paid much attention to the competition. I believe that if I have a good day I can compete with the best. I know if Tony shows up he is the favorite to win and will be going for the record. I know Duncan Callahan will be running and competing for a podium spot. Dylan Bowman has been having a strong summer and I believe he will have a very strong showing at LT 100. My training partner Marty Walker looks strong and will be looking to improve from a very strong finish at 2009 LT 100. My other training partner, Lynette Clemons, is running really strong and I know she will also be looking to improve from last year when she finished 1st.

Saturday will be here in no time and it will finally time for me to run Leadville! I have been waiting a long time to run this race. The course for LT 100 is my backyard and playground and I will be looking to give the hometown fans something to be excited about.

The week that was: August 9 - August 15

2010-08-15T22:36:00.000-06:00

Monday August 9, 2010
8.5 Miles (1:00) - Turquoise Lake.
Fun and interesting night run. I figured that night running would be OK since it had been OK when I had paced. It turned out to be a different beast. This was actually my first time running at this speed. I had done very little night running before. When I had paced I had walked not ran and when I did run it was not at tonight's pace. I'm glad I figured this one out now and have some time to go out on a couple of more night runs to get a little more used to running in the dark.
2 Miles (1:00) - Wurts Ditch
Went for a nice little walk with my mom, time to taper!

Tuesday August 10, 2010
14 Miles (1:43) - Pipeline to Colorado Trail.
Run with Lynette on the new part of the course. Did not feel so good on the first half of the run. The second half was much easier and faster. As always its great to have company on my runs.

Wednesday August 11, 2010
13 Miles (1:32) - 9 X ~800 meters repeats at CMC.
I obviously can't count! I ended up doing 9 repeats instead of 10. It was fast workout though, it would be fun to do a half-marathon soon!

Thursday August 12, 2010
10 Miles (1:22) - Elk Trail
Elks Trail out and back. Did not have a great first half. Second half was much better.

Friday August 13, 2010
10 Miles (1:16) - Some hill repeats at CMC followed by a short run on the Mineral Belt.
Feeling pretty good. I like how focused I am and how I am feeling. Race will be here very soon.

Saturday August 14, 2010
11.5 Miles (2:05) - Town to Turquoise Lake.
Ran with Marty and Carson. It was fun to cheer for the bikers as they were coming into town. We walked a good part of the boulevard on the way in.

Sunday August 15, 2010
11 Miles (1:27) - Up 7th street to 5th street to Black Cloud back to 7th via Mineral Belt.
I felt really good today. Its nice to run the east side of town in the evening.

Totals:
80 Miles
11:25 Hours

The 2010 Leadville Trail 100 is right around the corner. I am happy with how I feel and how I have prepared for the race. This week was oblivious very interesting since it was a "low" mileage week. I have been hangrier than usual and I also have been sleeping more than usual. I feel as if I can be eating or sleeping all day. On Sunday I woke up at 11am and took a two hour nap at 3pm and at 7pm I was sleepy once again.
It's hard for me to get into my head that this is the best training I can be doing right now. I feel like I should be running a lot more. At least I am not the only one who feels this way, since Lynett feels the same way. It has been great to run with her this summer as I have had a great time and learned much from her.
In a week Leadville Trail 100 2010 will be history and I will have seen where all my training has taken me. I will have at least one more post during the week to wrap up my training and to write about what I expect from my first "Race Across the Sky."

Time to Tune-up

2010-08-08T17:47:00.000-06:00

Monday August 2, 2010

18 Miles (2:26) - St Kevins Turquoise Lake loop.

Felt like running a bit faster than usual so I let go. Fun run on a rainy evening.

Tuesday August 3, 2010

17 Miles (2:17) - Turquoise Lake via golf course.

Easy run before the big day tomorrow. I had cramps on my stomach for most of the second half of my run. Not sure what this was about.

Wednesday August 4, 2010

AM - 25 Miles (3:41) - First 25 miles of LT 100 course.

Beautiful chilly morning to go for a run. I had a rough start to my run as my hands were really cold and I was chased by three German Shepherds that made me take a re-route. I had side aches for the entire duration of the run. Going up and down Powerline was the best part of my run. Despite how I felt I still ran a little faster than I wanted to.

PM - 10 Miles (1:30) - Halfmoon road to intersection of Colorado Trail and Hagerman road.

Crazy evening run. The weather was fine once I started running. Right before I reached the top of Powerline it started raining really hard. In a couple of minutes I was soaked and freezing. There was thunder and lighting close to me so I picked up the pace to make it to the Colorado Trail. It took me a few minutes to find a signal to call home for someone to pick me up. While I waited I got pretty cold!!

Thursday August 5, 2010

10 Miles (1:24) - Mt Zion roads loop and East Tennessee Pass.

Recovery run after yesterday's two crazy runs. I felt a little tired/sick today from getting so cold during last night's run.

Friday August 6, 2010

AM - 14 Miles (2:00) - 10 X Mile at CMC.

Felt great during the speed workout. The 8th repeate was a little rought but other than that I felt great.

PM - 9 Miles (1:21) - Rock Creek and High-line Trail loop.

Beautiful evening run on and around the Fish Hatchery. It had been almost 4 year since I ran the Colorado Trail to High-line Trail. It was nice to run a trail that I had not run this summer.

(I even took a camera with me this run!)

Saturday August 7, 2010

14 Miles (2:06) - Colorado Trail from Tennessee Pass.

Easy run today. It nice to run places I had not run this summer. Legs felt a little heavy.

(The camera did not capture how red this mushroom is.)

Sunday August 8, 2010
13.5 Miles (1:47) - Elks/Boulders loop.
I don't get lost often and when I do it does not make me very happy. I don't know what I was thinking but I took a wrong turn and got lost for a while. I could not find my way back so I had to find a different route. It all worked out as I only ran half a mile more than planed.

Totals:
130.5 Miles
18:30 Hours

(Old truck at an old mine.)

My eight week period of high mileage for LT 100 is in the books and it is now time to taper. After Wednesday's morning workout I felt as if I had done enough long runs in preparation for the big day. After the evening run I decided to cut back on the mileage and do more quality training. Friday's mile repeats were a great quality workout. After the workout I did not feel so sure about cutting back on the mileage, and I was bored, so I decided to spend some time on the Colorado trail above the Fish Hatchery. On Saturday I once again decided to cut back on the mileage so I went for a run with no water and with a camera to make sure I did not run too far. Friday and Saturday I ran trails that I had not ran this summer and on Sunday I ran a trail that I had only run once this summer. These runs were a great "mental" rest from the preparation for Leadville. I now feel much more relaxed knowing that I am now tapering and most of the work is done. For the following two weeks I will probably hike/run some 14ers and spend most, if not all, of my time on the higher trails away from the LT 100 course.

July is Gone

2010-08-03T21:56:00.027-06:00

Monday July 26, 2010
AM - 17 Miles (2:17) - Turquoise Lake loop via golf course
Easy run after the Grand Mesa 100 pacing. Felt great the entire run. This was one of the warmest runs I have had this summer. I ran into two runners, LT 100 must be near!
PM - 8 Miles (1:09) - Mt Zion dirt roads loop
Felt much better than I expected to. Yet another great run in this trails.

Tuesday July 27, 2010
AM - 17 Miles (2:17) - Turquoise Lake loop via golf course
I was really sleepy this morning. This was expected after the over-nigher on Saturday/Sunday. Once I started running I felt fine. On the way back I felt a little sluggish and I was starving
PM - 8 Miles (1:07) - Mt Zion dirt roads loop
Felt great the entire run.

Wednesday July 28, 2010
AM - 24.5 Miles (3:41) - House to golf course then followed LT 100 course past the Fish Hatchery
Sluggish start to the run, did not feel good until Mayqueen. After this I felt great. I only saw one guy in a bike on Powerline and no runners. This was the easiest run I have had in this part of the course so far this year.
PM - 5 Miles (00:40) - Mt Zion roads
So far this sumer I have felt much better on my evening runs, tonight was also the case.

Thursday July 29, 2010
AM - 25 Miles (5:00) - Hope Pass from Twin Lakes dam
Good long run up Hope Pass. I felt great for most of the run until I made it to the bottom of the pass on the Twin Lakes side. Once I knew the workout for the day was pretty much done my legs "felt" tired. I am starting to realize that when I know I can finish a workout I feel tired all of the sudden. The views at the top of the pass were awesome reminding me why I run up mountains.

(Looking north from the top of Hope Pass)

Friday July 30, 2010
AM - 16 Miles (2:10) - Turquoise Lake loop via golf course
Felt fine after two days of long runs. The Lake is really busy and there are many bikers around town. I ran the last 20 minutes of my run on a downpour.
PM - 8 Miles (1:07) - Mt Zion dirt roads loop
Felt lethargic after the earlier run today and did not plan on going on my evening run. I decided to give it a go and felt much better as soon as I started. The evenings in Leadville are starting to get a little chilly already.

Saturday July 31, 2010
AM - 14.5 Miles (1:53) - Porcupine and St Kevins
Felt a bit tired this morning. The weather was hot and humid. The relative high humidity bother me a bit. I saw 10 bikers going up St Kevins and passed a few.
PM - Skipped the run to go to Denver for the night

Sunday August 1, 2010
AM - 22 Miles (3:30) - Halfmoon past Twin Lakes, out and back
Beautiful morning run with Marty Wacker. Easiest and fastest run I have had in this trails. High humidity after last nights rain.
PM - 5 Miles (00:40) - Mt Zion roads
Easy run on Mt Zion trails.

Week Totals:
170 Miles
25:33 Hours

Totals for July:
625.5 Miles
103:46 Hours

This turned out to be the best week of training I have ever had. Monday and Tuesday were "rest" days from Grand Mesa 100 and also rest for the following two days of longer runs. Wednesday's run was very good. I felt like I ran a good pace but at the same time it was easy. Running the Hope Pass section of the course was also a great workout. I felt really strong going up the Twin Lakes side, having no problem running this section. The descent on the steep side was faster than I usually run the steep downhills. I took it a bit easier going up the steep side of the pass and I stopped at the top to take a break and take some pictures. I ran the rest of my run pretty easy.
These two days were very solid as I am starting to see the benefits of the high mileage.
The rest of the week was more relaxed but still good. I did feel a little tired at the end of the week and I took care of that by heading down to Denver to relax and get out of Leadville for a night.
Sunday morning I was back running, this time I was running alongside Marty. I felt really smooth and strong during this run. The section from Halfmoon to Twin Lakes is a great trail run so that made the run more enjoyable. Without thinking about it I ran almost the entire LT 100 course this week. The race is getting really close and I know I will be ready.
Just as the past week was the best week of training, July was also the best month I have had. I had a blast running in Leadville during this month, which is the main reason why I run. I also put in a bunch of miles, about 625 miles!! I did not plan on running this much but I have paid attention to my body and I know I have handle it well.
I have one more high mileage week before I go on a two week taper period. After that we will see how all these work and dedication pays off.

(Looking south from the top of Hope Pass)

Grand Mesa 100: A pacer's point of view

2010-07-28T13:48:00.004-06:00

Even as a pacer, the Grand Mesa 100 turned out to be one of the greatest adventures in my life. As my parents and I were driving to Island Lake campground to meet Marty I finally started to think about the race. I figured Ryan Burch and Marty Wacker were the favorites to win the race and would finish 1-2. My prediction for the time was somewhere in the 19 hour range.
Friday night we arrived at the campground at around 7pm. I changed into some running clothes and Marty, Mike (Marty's other pacer) and I went for a 20 minute run to get me familiar with the start and finish. After the run we went over the "plan" for the race. Marty had a good plan as he was looking to run a fast race.
On Saturday at 4:30am the alarm went off and we begin to get ready for Marty's big day. After getting something to eat and going over some final details Marty and I jogged to the start line. Here I saw Ryan's wife Megan and wished her good luck on her second 50 miler. I also wished good luck to Ryan. Right before the start of the race, Duncan Callahan and I made our way a little ways down the trail to take some pictures. Once the runner went out Mike, Ed (Marty's dad) and I went back to the campground to get some rest.
An hour and forty minutes later we were back at the starting line to see the runners come in at the 11~ mile mark. Ryan came in first, looking good, followed by Marty two minutes behind and looking strong. Once again we headed to the campground, this time was to pick up my parents and get ready for the rest of the day.
From the campground we went to Flowing Park, aid station at mile 22.5 and 37. At mile 22.5 Ryan came in first looking and feeling good. In this stretch of the race he managed to put 15 minutes between him and Marty. Marty came in looking good too, now 15 minutes behind Ryan. While we waited for over two hours for the runners to go on a 15 mile loop, Duncan managed to get his stove on fire and he also mentioned how hard it is to crew and pace a runner during an ultra marathon. For this race pacing and crewing would be a great task.
The night before the race while we went over "the plan" I figured I would only pace Marty for less than 40 miles, 28 miles maybe. I was OK with this since running in the heat is not really my thing these days. This allowed me to relax a bit more knowing that I would be running less than 40 miles.
At mile 37 Ryan came in leading and looking strong. Marty was still in 2nd, now 25 minutes behind Ryan. At this race the runners are allowed to have a pacer after 42 miles and even though Marty said that he would not have pacers until mile 50 he told me to get ready to take him down the mountain at mile 42. Once Marty left the aid station my dad came up to me and told me that Ryan was lost and kept running up and down a hill not knowing where to go. I told Duncan about it and he drove his car to try to help Ryan find the way. Some guys on a cattle drive told Ryan where to go but he had lost at least 15 minutes.
At the Carson Lake aid station I got ready to start my pacing duties. During this race I tested my Melanzana shirts that I am planning on wearing at LT 100, more about his later. Ryan came in looking really strong and I figured Marty would be right behind him since Ryan lost so much time on the last aid station, this was not the case. Marty also got lost and was not feeling too good. Ryan now had about a 35 minute lead here and was heading into a big downhill.
Once Marty and I started running Marty told me that he had low energy. The next 8 miles were downhill so we used them as a recovery and to sheer Marty up. The run went well despite the high temperature. At the 50 mile aid station Mike took on pacing duties. Ryan now had over an hour lead. Ten minutes after Marty left the aid station Jamil Coury reached the aid station, I was not counting on this.
I figured it would take Marty 3 hours to hike up to the top of the Mesa so after we made the drive to mile 58 I took a nap to get some rest.
I had my dad wake me up when Marty was close to see how he was doing, I was not supposed to pace him for another three miles. When Marty reached the top of the Mesa he told me that I was back to pacing.
We ran 3.5 good miles to the next aid station with Marty feeling better. We grabbed some cantaloupe and headed to Anderson Lake.
On our way to Anderson Lake we had an encounter that could have ended our day. A mile before we reached Anderson Lake two pitbulls came running at us. One of them attacked Marty and Marty threw some punches to scare the dog. While I tired to calm Marty another dog jumped at me and I was able to jump and keep the dog from bitting me. The dog was barely able to get my shorts. Right after this happened the owner of the dogs got to us and scared the dogs away. Both me and Marty got a big scare and talked about this situation on our way to the aid station.
At this aid station we grabbed the headlamps and prepared to continue our journey. I also found out that I was on pacing duties for the rest of the race. That meant that I would pace for 53 miles instead of 28 and instead of 40. We ran 3 great miles to the Mesa Lakes aid station where we were met by our crew and two very nice volunteers. We also took a picture with a girl named Lauren, according to Marty. We left Mesa Lakes feeling good with night getting really close.
Two miles after we left the aid station we had another scary encounter for me and not so scary for Marty. All week Marty kept telling me how he was hoping to see a bear, he got his wish. I heard branches breaking 30 meters to my left and I saw a big black bear. It stopped, looked at us, set down and and continued to eat whatever he was eating. Marty was really happy to see the bear and wanted to stop and look at it. I just wanted to get as far as we could from that bear. We continued to walk up a gradual uphill. As we made our way up this hill we could see one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen, if not the most beautiful. I really have no words to describe it. The orange/red ski above the mesas was more than gorgeous.
After we walked back to the top of the mesa it got dark on us and we reached a part of the course were there is no trail and the "trail" was marked by reflectors and tape. The reflectors were a great way to find the "trail" but at some places there was no reflectors so we could not find the way. This section of the course without trail was very rocky and it was not safe to run here at dark so we continued to walk. As we continued to head back Anderson Lake the reflectors were harder to find and at times it took a couple of minutes to find our way. About a mile from the aid station I came within 5 feet of a porcupine that looked pretty mad at me for directing my flash-light right at his eyes.
At the aid station Marty stopped and grabbed some roasted corn and I grabbed some insect repellent since the mosquito kept attacking me, I probably have 30 mosquito bites on my legs. This was the longest we had spent on and aid station so far and I figured Marty was getting tired. My dad told me that Ryan probably had a 90 minute lead.
On the way back to Carson Lake I had a really hard time finding the reflectors. Cows had been eating the race markers and knocking down the reflectors so it was really difficult to find our way on the meadows. Once we dropped off the meadows into Drop-off trail the trail was easier to follow. This section was difficult for Marty and I told him that once we reached the aid station at Carson Lake he could stop and take a 10 minutes brake. I started to get a little worried about Marty since we were moving slow. Once we reached Carson Lake Marty set down and had two turkey/tomato rolls and got some rest.
We left the aid station with an extra pacer. Marty said that the race management was laid back about this, catching Ryan was almost out of the picture and we had no idea how far back 3rd place was.
The 4.5 miles back to Flowing Park seemed to go great but it took a long time to get there. I think we might have gone off the trail but the 4.5 miles seemed more like 7. We finally reached the aid station at mile 75 where Marty set down for another extended rest. This was the last place we would see the crew before the finish line. I also remembered that I had a pair of socks that I used to play soccer so I put those on to keep the high grassed from scratching my legs.
After this aid station the trail dropped down the mesa and we could see the lights of the near by cities. This provided yet anther gorgeous view. We were moving pretty slow here and it seemed even slower to me. When we left the aid station I was hoping to finish at 5:30 am but I soon figured out that we would finish well after sun rise. This section of the course had really high grasses and at times the reflectors were very difficult to find, cows being the problem again.
It seemed to me to take an eternity and we were not getting to the finish line. At around 4:30 am Mike told us that there was a light behind us. Right after this we heard some noises in front of us as they turned really loud. This scared me a little bit but we just figured it was a heard of elk.
Right before the sun rise the light behind us was really close and we figured whoever it was would catch up to us in a matter of minutes. A few minutes later Jamil appeared out of the aspens behind us.
At first thought this was devastating to me and I thought it would be for Marty too. We had at least an hour lead on this guy 10 miles before and he was now ahead. Marty told me to not lose sight of him and I saw some motivation back on Marty.
Marty made it clear right away that he wanted second place. Jamil came at us fast but we did not know how much he had left. Marty hinted to me about waiting to hike back up to the mesa and than passing him but I told him to get him now. I ran him down so Marty had an idea how far ahead Jamil was and Marty started to push the pace. Half a mile from the second to last aid station I ran up to the aid station to refill our water bottles and to start our push for the finish. Marty hiked right past the aid station as he passed Jamil. I ran up the side of the mesa as I set a manageable pace for Marty and to create some space between us and Jamil. I was amazed to see the new found energy on Marty and before we knew it we were at the last aid station with 4 miles to go. We had dropped Mike at the last aid station so I stopped to refill the water bottles and Marty went right past the aid station. Jamil did not have a pacer and this probably coasted him second place. I am amazed at how he was able, and willing, to run all night without a pacer. This race had some pretty scary section that I would not run by myself at night.
I continued to push the pace for Marty to follow and after some time, a long time to me, we reached a lily pond where I took off and headed for the campground to let the crew know we were finally there.
I waited for Marty half a mile before the finish line and we headed for the end and some well deserved rest. The gradual hill to the finish line seemed to last a long time but we reached the last curve before the end of the race. I was expecting some people to be at the finish line but both me and Marty were shocked to see no one except my dad and his dad at the finish line. The rest of the crew was not there and the same can be said for the race personal. Marty finished his second 100 mile race in 25:05 good for 2nd place overall. Jamil finished 7 minutes behind in an amazing solo performance. Rounding up the top five and the only two more finishers were Garry Curry, 31:23, and Paul Tidmore, 31:23.

This race turned out to be much more difficult than expected. Marty was looking to run well under 20 hours and so was I. Even Duncan mentioned to me that he thought Ryan would run well under 20 hours. The heat, climbing and the lack of running trails made this race difficult and slow. As if running 100 miler was not difficult enough, trying to find a trail made it probably even longer. Out of 30 starters only five finished, this goes to show how difficult the race was. Congrats to Ryan for the win and CR and also to the other 4 finishers that pushed themselves to run 100 miles in a very difficult environment.

For me this race served as a long and slow training run. I was able to run at night and walk, which I don't do very often. While waiting at the aids stations for Marty I was able to see how I wanted to handle my aid station stops at LT 100. I was also able to see how Ryan handles his stops. Watching this two guys has provided me with very valuable information for my first 100 mile race.
Last Friday I had a meeting with Melanzana, a local outdoor clothing company in Leadville, and I became their first and only sponsored athlete! They are a small company but they sure know what they are doing, it is truly an honor to be sponsored by them. Their top of the line products are great for anyone that enjoys the outdoors or anyones that likes quality comfortable clothing . This past weekend I was able to test the gear I will ware at LT 100 and I was more than happy with it. Running down the mesa in 90+ degree heat was manageable thanks to my new Power Dry Top. After this great weekend I only have two more weeks before I start my tampering for the big day. See ya in the trails!

The week that was: July 19 - July 25

2010-07-26T18:10:00.001-06:00

Monday July 19, 2010

AM - 17 Miles (2:20) - Turquoise Lake

Really sore this morning, from soccer. The run was better than any of my runs last week. The weather was hot and running on a cotton shirt made it worse. Grand Mesa will be hotter so that is why I am doing that. I feel rested after the run.

PM - 5 Miles (00:40) - Dirt roads on base of Mt Zion

Good run, still sore from soccer but not near as much as this morning.

Tuesday July 20, 2010

AM - 17 Miles (2:20) - Turquoise Lake

Best run I have had in two weeks. I felt much better today. My hamstrings are a little sore from soccer but not near as much as they were yesterday.

PM - 5 Miles (00:40) - Dirt roads on base of Mt Zion

Rainy run. Felling better.

Wednesday July 21, 2010

AM - 16 Miles (2:11) - Elks/Boulders Trail

Great morning run with Lynette and John. Ran single Trail to some trails that I had not run before! Lynette call it the Elks/Boulders loop. I felt great the entire run.

PM - 7 Miles (00:54) - Elks Trail

Nice and easy run. I really like this trail and will probably run it very often from now on.

Thursday July 22, 2010

AM - 10 Miles (1:27) - CMC Trails

Did 4 x Mile intervals. Felt really bad this morning from all the meat that I ate yesterday, about 3 pounds. I was dizzy in my 4th repeat so I went for a 4 mile cool down and called it a workout. I felt OK during the first 3 repeats.

PM - 8 Miles (1:07) - Dirt roads on base of Zion

Felt great the entire run. It was a beautiful cloudy evening. Summer is flying by and I am going to miss the trails very much in the winter.

Friday July 23, 2010

15 Miles (2:00) - Turquoise Lake

Easy run at the lake. Ready to pace at the grand Mesa!

Saturday July 22 and Sunday July 23, 2010

53 Miles (16:00) - Grand Mesa 100

Paced Marty Walker at his second 100 race. Felt great all the time, even when we ran down the Mesa at 80+ degrees.

Totals

153 Miles

29:39 Hours

Great week of running and preparation for LT 100. I am happy with the miles for the week and really happy with how much time I spent on my feet. This was a great week of training.

I ran around Turquoise Lake for most of the week. After last week I thought that I needed to spend more time running flat trails so I chose Turquoise for this. The run with Lynette and John was very refreshing. I had been having some issues with the second halves of my runs but after running with friends this went away.

I was expecting to have a better speed workout but I just did not have it that morning. I will spend more time on my speed in the next couple of weeks and during my two weeks of tapering.

Pacing at the Grand Mesa 100 was both fun and a great long run.

The week that was: July 12 - July 18

2010-07-18T23:30:00.003-06:00

Monday July 12, 2010
AM - 17 Miles (2:12) - Turquoise Lake
Felt a little tired to start off, had a fast outing. On the way back I was tired and the high winds made me feel even more tired and slower.

PM - 5 Miles (00:39) - Dirt Roads on base of Zion
Felt much better than the morning run. My legs were lose and running was effortless once again. Felt great after the run. The evening was beautiful I need to start doing some later runs.

Tuesday July 13, 2010
AM - 17 Miles (2:31) - Buckeye Lake
Still a little tired specially on the way back. It was a beautiful day above timberline. It's the time of year when the vegetations is really colorful so the sights were amazing. I spent over an hour up there.

PM - 5 Miles (00:40) - Dirt Roads on base of Zion
Another great evening run. It was raining for most of the run so I took it easy and enjoyed the sunset and rainbows.

Wednesday July 14, 2010
32 Miles (5:37) - Twin Lakes to Tabor
Painful run from Twin Lakes to Tabor. My left knee started hurting after 40 minutes of running and it did not get better until I started going up Powerline. This time the Turquois Lake Trail was not too bad. I decided to cut the day short at Tabor to jump in the lake and "ice" my right knee.

Thursday July 15, 2010
AM - 17 Miles (2:14) - Turquoise Lake
Felt good on the way out. The way in was hot and windy and did not feel very good. Legs felt fine but I am a little tired. Right knee is good.

PM - 6 Miles (00:41) - Dirt Roads Below the Turquoise Lake Dam
Easy and fast evening run.

Friday July 16, 2010
17 Miles (2:15) - Turquoise Lake
Felt better than I have the last couple of days, specially on the way out. The way-in was really hot and dry. I still felt tired at the end of the run but I felt great after the run.

Saturday July 17, 2010
Soccer (2:00)
Played soccer in Frisco. First time in 4 years that I have played an outdoor soccer game. Final score 6 -1 us! My little brother Oguer scored 3 of the 6 goals.

After the Game - 5 Miles - Dirt Roads on Base of Zion
Sore, bruised and  tired but happy as I enjoyed a beautiful, cloudy, rainy and warm sunset.

Sunday July 18, 2010
15 Miles (1:58) - Turquoise Lake
Really sore from yesterday's soccer game. It was a good run overall though. I am a more tired than what I want to be.

Totals
   136 Miles
   21: 30 Hours

Times is flying by and LT 100 will be here very soon. The week was characterized my me being more tired than what I would have liked to. Other than Sunday, I was not physically tired but mentally tired. For the first 3/4 of my runs I am not tired and I feel great. The last 1/4 of the runs is tiering and "mentally" I am not into running. I had a stressful week so I hope to take care of that and see if I feel better. If this is not the case, I guess I will have to cut back on the mileage. So far this summer I have been really consistent on where I run so I might mix it up a little bit for a change.
This week my daily morning runs went form 15 to 17 miles. There was nothing too noteworthy in these runs. Wednesday's long run became painful when I shifted my weight to avoid a twisted ankle which than became a cranky right knee. To add to the pain, when I got to the paved road that goes to the Fish Hatchery it was being paved and the workers kept slowing me down. I though Power Lines would be horrible but this section turned out to be the best part of my run. When I finished my run short, 32 instead of 35 miles, I jumped into the lake while I waited for Oguer to pick me up.
The soccer game on Saturday was fun. I played with many of the guys I went to middle school and high school with. It was nice to see that I can still play a little bit.
This coming week is the Grand Mesa 100 Miler where I will pace Marty Walker for 40 miles. This race should be really interesting. From what I have heard the trails are beautiful but I will have to deal with the high heat. Marty knows the trails well and this is his backyard so I am sure he will do great. Another runner that will have a great showing is Ryan Burch. He is a 50 mile specialist but this time he is looking forward to running a 100 Miler, which probably was not the case before. He is having a great year and will be looking to add to his list of great achievements. Looking forward to the weekend!
Congratulations to Duncan Callahan for winning the Leadville Silver Rush Trail run in course record fashion with a time of 6:50.  Dylan Bowmen from Aspen was close behind, also under the previous course record, in 6:53. This two guys had a great day under almost perfect running conditions. I am too anxious about racing so I skipped out on the race and just saw those two guys finish and went home.

The week that was: July 5 - July 11

2010-07-11T21:28:00.002-06:00

Monday July 5, 2010

Am - 15 Miles (2:08) - Buckeye Lake

Felt the best I have felt in a few days. On the way up I even passed a Jeep that was going up there. The way down was the most relaxed I have run in a long time. I almost felt sleepy because I was so relaxed.

Pm - 5 Miles (00:39) - Trails on base of Mt Zion

Great second run of the day. Did not feel tired at all and my legs were really lose.

Tuesday July 6, 2010

Am - 11 Miles (1:30) - Mile Repeats at CMC

9 X Mile with 3 minute rest between intervals. Times: 5:24, 19, 15, 11, 4, 4, 6, 4 and 4:54. Great workout. Felt great the entire workout. I am really happy to be able to run those splits at 10, 000 feet. I need to be more consistent on the splits. I believe that by the end of the summer I can run 10 Mile repeats under 5 minutes. This workout showed me that I have more speed than I thought so I will be able to spend more time running up mountains.

Pm - 7.5 Miles (00:54) - Trails on base of Mt Zion

I have a cut on my right Achilles. I guess it happened this morning during the intervals. Felt great despite the hard workout this morning.

Wednesday July 7, 2010

32 Miles (5:30) - LT 100 Course

Ran from Twin Lakes to Tabor Boat Ramp. It took me a while to get going because of the uphill right out of Twin Lakes. On my way to the Fish Hatchery I felt OK, started feeling good once I got to Halfmoon. I ate some jerky at the start of Power-line and after that I pretty much ran the whole way up. At the top of Sugarloaf I got snowed on. The way to Turquoise Lake was good, I felt pretty good. Once I got to May-queen things got difficult. I also ran out of water here. The way to Tabor was painful. I am happy with the day's workout. I felt yesterday's intervals for sure. My feet hurt because the shoes are so thin. Great day.

Thursday July 8, 2010

15 Miles (2:09) - Turquoise Lake

Not such a great run today. I wanted to go out and have a nice and easy run. The cut that I have in my right Achilles got worst and it bother me the entire run. My run went from slow to slower and it was painful. Other than the cut I felt great. Not sore or tired from yesterday's run so that's good.

Friday July 9, 2010

Am - 15 Miles (2:09) - Buckeye Lake

Felt great during the entire run. I now have cuts on both Achilles. This run was the easiest run I have had in this mountain.
Pm - 6 Miles (00:48) - Dirt roads below the Turquoise Lake dam.
Both Achilles are really messed up because of the cuts. Not running normally is causing pain on my left hip. Going back to the old shoes.

Saturday July 10, 2010
Am - 15 Miles (2:05) - Buckeye Lake
Changed into my old shoes. Felt much better and the way down was much faster. It was cold and rainy above tree line.
Pm - 6.5 Miles (00:46) - Home to the Fish Hatchery
Great evening run felt fast before playing some volleyball.
Pm - Volleyball at Fish Hatchery (2:00)
Beautiful place to play volleyball. Tired from both runs today but still great fun.

Sunday July 11, 2010
Am - 15 Miles (2:07) - Buckeye Lake
Felt tired from volleyball last night. Way up was slower than usual and the way down was faster than usual.
Pm - Volleyball at Fish Hatchery (2:00)
Felt a little tired. My legs had not lift at all.

Totals:
   143 Miles
   24:45 Hours (4:00 Hours were volleyball)

Great speed work, great amount of elevation gain and great mileage equals great week. Monday was a great easy day after feeling tired during the weekend. Tuesday's speed  workout was more than great. I felt great the entire workout and I skipped on the last mile repeat to make it back in time for the Brazil vs Netherlands soccer game. Wednesday's long run was great too. From now on I will have at least two long runs per week. This week I ran up to Buckeye Lake 4 times which provided good time running up and down mountains. Going up and down the mountain is getting easier and faster. Playing volleyball two times for a total of 4 hours is great as well. It's a nice workout for my reflexes and fast twitch muscle.
This week I reached a point where I feel comfortable with the weekly load so it is time to increase it. My daily 15 mile run will increase to 16 or 17. I think I will keep the Pm run at 5 or 6 miles for now. I am planning on having two long runs this week, one of 35 miles and the other one of 23-25 miles.
Needless to say I am really happy with this week's training.