Friday fluff

Some random stuff......

* The latest indication that I am getting old: last night at dinner, chatting away with the family, talking with my wife about what we are going to take with us during the race - I mentioned that I will not be taking my walkman.
Full disclosure, I don't own a walkman anymore.  I do however own an ipod.  I don't ever call it a walkman - but last night I apparently did.
My children looked at me like I was speaking a different language.  Youngest daughter asked: "What is a walkman?"  I had to explain what it was.  Oldest daughter responded: "Oh, I thought it might be someone who walks alongside you when you are running slow."

* Speaking of different languages.  My son went to the library earlier this week and brought home a device that is basically a book on tape / digital recording.  I don't remember what the device is called, but it is like an ipod.  The name of the book / recording: "Speaking Italian for Dummies".  Apparently he wants to learn a new language this Summer.  I think it is just a teenage boy's ploy to get an accent that teenage girls admire and swoon after.  Hey, being from New Zealand - it worked for me when I moved to the US.

* I go to see the Chiropractor every couple of weeks - have been doing so for about 1 1/2 years now (started going after a car accident - rear ended by a Trash truck).  I don't know if I am in the best shape of my life right now, but I am in the best shape I have been in a while - thanks to running, eating (mostly) better and I really think going to get cracked has helped too.  So, shout out and big thanks to Dr. Harvey for my continued improvement.

* I have a Garmin Nuvi - GPS for the road - yesterday it froze - despite unplugging it several times and trying to restart it - still froze on the start up.  Bummer.  I let it sit overnight, still nothing - I believe it has spoken it's last "recalculating" so patiently to me - despite my constant ignoring of the directions - because I know a shortcut.  Probably time to get a new one.  I've had this one for about 4 years.  I literally feel lost without it.

* Slacker Half Marathon tomorrow.  Really looking forward to it.  3 goals:
C) beat my PR (also set there, 2 years ago) of 1:36:06
B) Run 7 min mile average for a finish time of 1:31:30
A) Go nuts and beat 1:30 (6:53 pace - yikes, that's going to hurt)
Race report Monday assuming I can walk / type / see straight.

Sailing and Slacking

In my past life, I was a landscaper - really enjoyed transforming landscapes from barren to beautiful.  I was not afraid of the tough physical labor that it involved - and as a result, I hurt, still do.  Doing that for 7 years beat me up physically and I am still affected by it today - 9 years since I "retired".  It's not that I regret it, but I do wish for a few less aches and pains.

Fortunately, running makes me work hard also - in a different kind of way than landscaping did.  I enjoy the work that it requires of me - it also results in some aches and pains, along with being often pleased with the achievements.  I guess what I am saying is that I enjoy - and always have - achieving things.  Plus - I don't mind commiting to working hard to achieve a favorable result.  It is nice to set a goal, work hard and meet it.

Enter: Sailin Shoes 10k fun run this past Saturday morning.  Tuesday last week I remembered that it was happening, thought about entering - but held off.  Wanted to see how I felt later in the week.  Thursday came and amongst a decent flare up of arthritis (more swelling than hurting) in the knee - I ran Waldo Canyon, pushing the pace going up, really taking it easy on the way down.  Was leaning to doing the race, but not committed.

Friday morning, the knee wasn't right - but I knew enough that by Saturday it would be better - not fully okay, but runnable / bearable.  So, I signed up for the race Friday afternoon.  My goal - use it as a last tempo run before next Saturday's Slacker Half Marathon.

The Slacker is named such because of the 2300 foot elevation drop from start to finish.  Tis therefore potentially a speedy course, one would think that a faster pace can be achieved on that course than on most other (flatter? / rolling / uphill) courses.

For the Slacker - I have trained and set myself up to believe that I should be able to run at a 7 minute pace average throughout - and possibly faster.  It certainly won't be easy, admittedly I have not been able to run that far at that pace ever before - but training has given me glimpses that it is achievable.  I am going to make a go at it for sure.  So, for Sailin shoes I wanted to run the 6.2 miles at a 7 minute average per mile.

The race was downtown Colorado Springs and has a total of just over 150' elevation gain - enough to keep runners focused, if not honest.  A noticeable Northerly breeze at race time, plus a doozy (thankfully short) of a hill climb a 1/2 mile from the end - kept my pace for the first 6 miles at 7:03 average.  (Bounced around the mile splits from 6:55 to 7:12).  But a surge over the last 1/5th of a mile got my average down to 7 minutes.

My time was 43:35 = official time was a few seconds slower.  In doing that I achieved my goal, plus set a 10K PR by almost 2 minutes - a nice bonus.  (29th place out of 313 finishers).

So - a couple more easy runs this week - then time to start Slacking - in a way that is, if not speedy, is sure to hurt a little - with hopefully a result I will be pleased with.

Family Track time - week 2

Seems like the family had more fun than suffering last Thursday when we went running together, so we went to a nearby track yesterday for some more (fun and suffering).

It's nice, because we are all together and yet all doing our own separate thing as far as distances and speeds go.  Plus we get to watch and cheer each other along.  Watching my kids run is something that I totally enjoy and can never get enough of.

Was a little less breezy but a few degrees warmer than last week.  It's kind of odd to look at the data afterwards and note that for 7 miles on a "flat track" - I had almost 100' elevation gain.

In any case, everyone ran hard and fast - seems like we all did better this time around and around and around and around etc.....

I got my 1600 time faster by 12 seconds.   My (2 sets of) 800's were also a couple of seconds faster.  I did 4 sets of 400's (with a 400 easy lap in between each) and those were at least consistent with each other - but the same time as last weeks couple that I did.

As for the 100's - I saved those till the end and admittedly I was ready to be done as I did 4 of them, averaging around 16 seconds - slightly slower than last week.

Pleased with the (my) effort and times - I know last week when I did them on Thursday I was still feeling it on Saturdays long run and again for an 8 mile tempo run on Sunday.  Today - I feel like I have recovered better already. 

Will enjoy a rest day today and see what Waldo Canyon holds tomorrow.  Contemplating a local 10K on Saturday to check the tempo / pace for the following weekend's Slacker half marathon.

Falcon Trail Run

Peer Pressure sometimes works in a positive way.  About 9 miles into a 13 mile run when you hear "Walkers coming through!!" and it is aimed at your group - a notable response happens.

Prior to that, my son - (1 month in to being a teenager - if turning 13 years old is when that officially happens) - and I met up with Steve and Kathleen - of Happy Trails fame at the US Air Force Academy.  While Kathleen biked 30 miles along the roads at the Academy - Steve guided myself and the teenager around the 13 mile loop.

Temps were warm to start (just after 8 am it was already in the 70's) and continued to heat up as we moved on.  The plan was twofold: 1) run for 13 miles, 2) get used to being on our feet for 2 1/2 hours or so.  It was to be a training run for the 2 next races coming up for the kid and I.

The pace - easy (just wanted to get out and enjoy it). 
The trail (13 miles w/ just under 1400' climbing) - fantastic. 
The weather - noted already, by the time we were done was upper 80's.
The guide (Steve) - very gracious and patient with us. 
The other runners (my son and I) - weary.  Thursday's track workout was lingering still.

We set off going clockwise and about 3 miles in, I was spent.  Wasn't hurting - was just plain old tired.  My boy was too.  He was carrying a 20 ounce bottle and had almost used it all up.  We stopped and Steve pointed out the Burger King - couldn't smell the food cooking yet, but if we had gone the other direction and come by there a couple hours later - might have been tempted to stop in.

We kept going SW, heading towards Peregrine and Blodgett Peak

Moon setting above the Peak

At 4 miles in I filled up the teenagers water bottle (I was carrying my Camelbak) and we set off on a gradual 2 1/3 mile climb to the high point of the trail.

By this time our pace had slowed, the temps were toasty and we were tired.  Several creek crossings were nice and tempting to get a quick soak in.

But we kept going, slow running, walking at times, lots of Mountain Bikers and other runners / hikers out enjoying the trail.

Running in the trees was a little cooler, the trails are smooth, just a few technical areas and the "steep, climbing section" was only about a 1/2 mile.

We made the high point, which is almost 1/2 way, where the parking lot to "Stanley Canyon" was filled with cars - people looking to get some notable climbing in heading up there.

Steve had been leading the way to this point.   Shortly after cresting the high point we put the teenager up front as it was time to start heading down for a while and I thought he might be interested in leading for a while.  Not really. 

We continued along though - he ran the (8 mile) Greenland Trail race 4 weeks earlier - the longest he has run in a while.  So, notably the boys wagon was dragging.  Some good glimpses of the Chapel from the trail as we came up on the South side of it.

Shortly after passing by it, we started on the last climb of the day, with the teenager up front, we started into it and were about a third of the way up, he was up front but slowed to a walk.

A couple of switchbacks faced us, coming down towards us was a group of scouts.  The leading couple was about 30 feet in front of us, saw us, turned around to annouce to the rest of the troup, "Walkers coming through".  Not really thinking, I immediately spoke up and told the teenager that they were calling us walkers instead of runners.

He started running, possibly the fastest, certainly with the most effort all day - as we passed the leading group - they turned around and yelled back to their group: "Runners, coming through!!!".  I heard Steve chuckle behind me as I was smiling.

The kid ran all the way to the top of that high point, well and truly past the Scouts.

4 miles to go, almost all downhill so much easier and potentially quicker.  But he was done, tired, hot, had some stomach cramping which really didn't help.  We walked, ran some and took our time, going past the (2) Golf courses and about a mile from the end the kid kicked into gear and finished well.  2 3/4 hours on the trail.  A zippy 13 minute mile average pace.  I think the goal was achieved of time on the feet.  Next time we will not do it after a hard track workout and hopefully in some cooler weather.

A big thanks again to Steve for your patience and for introducing us to a great trail - one that we both would like to do again.