Past few weeks

Been really busy at work lately, but a quick summary of the past few weeks. Two weeks ago I hit 87 miles and last week was 91 miles. I have been doing 2 workouts and a long run each week. Usually it's hills and a track workout and a long run of 1:45 (about 14-15 miles). I have been holding up pretty well so far but this week has been rough for me. Art and I did a workout with Mike Aish on Monday that consisted of 1600m, 4:00 rest, 8x500m w/ 60 sec. Mike did a 2k instead of 1600m and took a little less rest. The weather has been good so we were able to get on the Mines outdoor track. I just never felt smooth during the workout and ended up cutting the last 4 500's down to 400's so I got a little more rest. That worked a lot better and I was able to run 65's pretty comfortably. Wednesday was a quick workout of 8x200m w/ 200m jog. Again, I didn't feel very good and it was getting pretty cold out by the time I was able to get out of work. I should have just gone inside to do it, because I started in shorts but had to put the pants back on after 2 of them because it was too cold.

I will be racing the DMR tonight with Paul, Art and Mark Husted. We are going to try and help the collegiate guys qualify their teams for nationals. I will be leading off and trying to take the 1200m out in around 2:02 for the 800...then just see what I can do the last 400m. Should be fun to get back to racing since I haven't done anything for over a month.

Looking ahead, I am going to run the 3k at Grand Valley and hope to run under 8:10. With 8:03 qualifying for USA Indoors I am going to see how I feel and try to go after the second half of the race. After that, Paul, Jason and I (and maybe Tommy?) will be going to Jacksonville for the 15k champs.

I did a workout with Kevin Bacon!

Yesterday morning, I got to do my favorite-ever workout that is called Bridge-to-Bridge. Nope, I didn't give it that name, but given the fact that you run from this one bridge down to this other bridge, the title is quite appropriate. Basically it goes like this: there is this dirt trail loop we have that is a total of 2140 meters. Beginning at the "top" of the loop, you run your hard interval down to the next bridge 1440 meters away. Then you run straight into the recovery part of the loop that's 600 meters--where you run easy down the trail, around the corner, up the hill, back to the beginning, and straight into the next interval. I did four reps of it. Usually, the hard intervals take me about 5:09-5:12, and get a second or two faster each rep. Yesterday however, I did a horrendous pacing job and got really nervous/overly-excited (but I really wanted to run a P.R.!) and did the first rep in 5:02, and gradually died like a dog on the next...um...three. It was embarassing. Nevertheless, I was like 30 seconds off of my best time and considering the trail was good, but not great, with a few rutted-out areas and a couple icy corners and ice on the uphill, I'm not thoroughly disgusted with it. I'm only disgusted with my initial decision to take it out like I did when I was six years old and competing at the Mountain View Elementary School Two Mile Fun Run (which is to say, like an amateur. But that time I really wanted to win that pop-sicle). Rookie mistakes! Bah! But I'm over it, and definitely felt it on this morning's run, so I'd say the effort was there even though the brains were not. Just don't do it in a race, right?

The effort for the day was aided by UCCS' track coach David Harmer. He turned up to generously donate his energy in rabbiting the workout despite having done a workout with his track kids the day before, and despite having another workout lined up for the following day as well. In his quaint Enlgish accent he stated "Right now I'm everyone's training-b****!" So charming. And Misch showed up to holler and stand around in chilly temps despite having finished his own workout a couple hours before. So with those factors, the workout was almost like a real race, minus the actual competitors and starting gun and finishing tape. The added encouragement was very much appreciated though.

Now, every so often in the midst of an especially difficult workout or run, I am sometimes struck with unusual and sometimes startling revelations. I had one such revelation during this workout. Somewhere around middle of the second rep as I struggled to keep up with Harmer, I came to the sudden realization that he bears an astonishing resemblance to Kevin Bacon in the movie 'Footloose'--minus the awesome 80's dance moves. Seriously, check it out:



Bacon's on the left, Harmer's on the right, in case you can't tell the difference. It really is a toss-up.

Anyways, aside from that I wish that I had some more exciting news to divulge, but I don't. Congrats though to Adrian and Tera for their awesome races in Phoenix and Houston last weekend--they both did pretty boss for sure.

That's all for now--happy trails to all.

Workout Time!!!

What's up!!!

Training has been going well these last couple of weeks, but not great. Mileage wise i have hit 110, 110, and this week 100. I was able to get some ok miles in even after I was sick last weekend, traveling across Kansas 2 weeks ago, and fighting the elements of winter in Missouri the week before that(ice! lots of ice and snow)!

Last week I was able to get in 2 workouts before I got sick. I did a light fartlek on Tuesday as my first real workout back of 45sec on, 2min off x 12. That went well and I like to do those type of workouts in a hilly area like garden of the gods. My second workout was on Friday and I did a ladder fartlek on alternative surfaces(grass). 3on, 2off, 6on, 3off, 9on, 4off, 6on, 3off, 3on, 2off. Pretty good workout, but I really need a couple of weeks of workouts to get a good idea where I’m at.

As for my last week highlights... I did win the farming game this week!!! And... I have started game night in Colorado Springs so if anyone’s in town... GAME NIGHT!!! call me

P.S. Aucencio… We can watch the Office during game night.

Tommy :)

Road workout...because we have no indoor track

So...I had a really good road workout yesterday on the streets of Gunnison. We don't have an indoor track...I mean why would you have an indoor track in Gunnison where it's typically between -10 and 10 degrees everyday? You should have them in places like Albuquerque...or Seattle. Who wants to run outside in 50 degrees everyday?

Anyhow, the workout was great. Did 7x1 min, 5x45 sec, 5x30 seconds. Roughly 400,300,200's with 1 min rest and 2 minutes between sets. I felt really good and my speed feels ahead of schedule even though I haven't been working on it much, besides strides and drills.

This past weekend we had an intrasquad in Montrose and I beat Cody's track record, running a 1:53.3. It felt pretty good, and it should help with running some miles and 3k's later in the season. I like racing below my race distance in the winter when I am basically training more for the 5 or 10k otherwise.

I hope to see a lot of you Friday and Saturday at Mines. Greg, Art and I should have a fun time in the DMR. If we don't win I'll never rabbit another DMR again...

Hope everyone is training well and staying healthy!

Paul

Indoor Mile, here I come

It has been a couple weeks since I've posted and the great news is: we got a dog, Chubbs! He is a 2 year old Australian Cattle Dog Mix and very well behaved/trained. The name makes me laugh because he is skinny, very active, and we were told he needs to gain 5 pounds. He loves to play, run, and say hello to every person and dog we see. Right now he is our "velcro" dog...he can't go anywhere without us. I can't wait to get him trained to run daily.

Anyway, back to my running....I've had some great workouts and runs, lets see what I can remember. Last week I had a tempo/interval, circuits, and hills. The 3x15 minute tempo went really well and I surprised myself with the paces I held, but I didn't plan very well so the last 8.5 minutes of the last rep was uphill. Luckily I pushed through and made it, but I think I was nearly crawling home for the cool down. Circuits were fine, but I got really annoyed with the people at the gym on the indoor track. There seems to be a lack of track etiquette. Friday was hills, 20x300m, which went extremely well. 20 reps seemed like it was going to be lifetime, but I got competitive with people walking their dogs, cars driving by, and my watch. Like Kara, I get competitive with dumb things and for the wrong reason. Do the dog walkers really care that I can beat them up the hill? Do I really think I will beat a car to the next lamp post? I guess whatever it takes to run faster :-) I averaged 58-59 sec, so not too shabby.

Sunday we ran our long run at Greenland Open Space just south of Larkspur with Jay, Ashley, and Brian. It was our first time there and it was quite beautiful. The trail winds through the meadow and over hills. It is very open so on a windy or hot day it may not be the best place to run a long run. It is amazing that on January 17th, shorts and a t-shirt were all that were needed. Where's the snow? I need some snow for snowshoeing.

This week is a lighter week with workouts since I'm racing the indoor mile on Saturday at School of Mines. I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit nervous. Its been 3 years since I've been on the indoor track and I'm not really a miler. It may take me the first 4 laps to re-learn how to run indoors and remembering not to get comfortable (this may feel like a sprint for me). Or maybe it will be like riding a bicycle...you never forget how to do it. Hopefully I will not completely embarrass myself and get a good workout in. It will be fun and I have no expectations, except to give it all I got. If it goes extremely well then I may consider a 3k at one of the last chance meets (I do love the 3k). I'll keep you posted.

Indoors...

Hey everyone, it's been a minute since i've last posted. I've done a few workouts,runs, etc... I'll post what I can remember. Last Friday myself and Nick Lara had 3x500 with 10 min. in between each. We were told to go through the quarter at 55, which for the 500's we ran: 1:11,1:10,1:09. the workout was pretty intense. we figured at that pace, we would run around 1:50-1:51 in that small track. So in all that workout went well. Saturday just had 70 min. Sunday ran for an hour 45 min. Monday did a 65 min run. Today was another workout on the track. It was the first day running with some of the Adams guys. It was hard to run on the track just due to a lot of athletes on it at the same time. I had for the day, 5x3x300, with 1 min in between each and 4 mins. in between the sets. for the 15 I averaged 44 mids. It was quite the task being that the first 2 sets I would start from behind and would end up running around 42's for a few of those. So on 3rd set, I asked if i could start in front and run from there. The guys would start a few seconds behind. I felt more relaxed doing it that way. Anywho, the workout overall was good, a bit hard but not bad. This weekend I will be heading up to UNM to compete in the mile. I don't know what my fitness level is, but I will jump in this weekend at UNM and find out!

A race no one knew they were in but me!

I am a competitive person, very competitive. It doesn't matter whether I am running, cleaning, rock climbing, or playing monopoly--I want to WIN! Monopoly has actually been banned in my house because my husband and I both want to win so badly that the game gets a little too intense for a family game night! So, one of the things I really struggle with in training is not getting passed and/or passing people in front of me. If I am out for an easy run on a bike path and I see someone ahead of me, it is all I can do not to pick up the pace and pass them especially if I am running alone. This is something I have to work on because obviously that isn't all that good for recovery.
Today despite the fact that this was only my 2nd hill run in 5 months, I couldn't help myself... I had just run up the first two hills ( one ~1 mile long at 6.4% grade and the other a little over a half mile at 9.2% grade) when I started seeing some people in the distance running towards me. As we got closer to each other, I discovered it was one of the local high school boys distance runners and they appeared to be having a hard day on the hills as well. As soon as I saw them I started calculating in my head whether I would be able to catch them on my return trip. I decided that it wasn't a good idea for me to do that and I kept the same pace I was running out. As I was running up the last hill to my turn around point though I realized I was running right towards two high schoolers and I knew I was in for it. I turned around and started back towards my car and pushed it. I couldn't help myself, lucky for me today is considered a hard day but not the kind of hard that I did. I pushed it up every hill and on the downs as well and those boys, who never knew they were racing me, lost! I made it back to my car and they were nowhere to be seen. I also negative split 5 and a half minutes on the way back...probably my best negative split on the 8 mile out and back.
When I got done though, I knew that I shouldn't have run it in as hard as I had. My goal is to perform well in June not on on a January training run! I also knew that I was going to have to report my run to my coach and he was not going to be happy. I am 29 years old, have been running for at least 18 years and I know better. Although at the same time, I was really happy that I was able to work those hills on the way back to my car and hopefully that means that my body and mind are ready to put in the work over the next several months to get me ready for some good racing!

I just got back from racing in Houston. The week before leaving I had a crazy work problem. A pipe burst and flooded the basement of a rental on the day a group of tenants was moving out. The next group was supposed to move in the next day. There were already plenty of damages to the place that needed attention and the flooded basement caused a ton of extra problems. Luckily I have a great contractor that can help me with this stuff and he was already coming over to fix the damages from the first tenants. We needed to cut open a kitchen wall to fix the pipe and reinsulate it. The water had to come out of the basement (thank you sump pump and shop vac!) and the old soaked carpets needed to come out and get hauled away. The hot water heater had to be dried out and we needed new flooring in the kitchen and basemet. Finally everything needed to be put back together and cleaned. Then we had to tackle the regular move out stuff. This involved replacing some broken doors and screens, hauling away an entire trailer full of crap they left behind, and a ton of cleaning (college guys have a very different version of clean than I do). There was also a random car that was parked in the tenants spot and had been there for 10 days. I had 29 hours and I used pretty much all of them but I did sneak away for a 5 mile run to keep my sanity.
I *thought* I kept it together pretty well throughout the ordeal. But a couple days later after dealing with the paperwork and insurance claims I think all the stress caught up to me and I completely lost it. (poor david...I dont know how he puts up with me!) I realized that I can't work for 29 hours straight especially before a big race. Next time I just need to hire some more help or ask my friends as a favor. I am definitley going to work on not over extending myself as much.
After all the craziness going to Houston felt like a vacation. It was super relaxing...the day before the race I read in bed for several hours and I slept great while I was there. The race was a lot of fun and I felt really good. It definitley wasn't perfect but I came away with a PR and I'm really happy was able to pull it together and compete. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can run when im back to my normal self.
For now its a few days off to see if I can heal an issue im having with my right hip and plantar. I have a couple races I want to do and I'm trying to finalize my schedule this week depending on what the sports med people say.