What's my Worth?

Hello everyone, I know I have been MIA for quite some time now. I still see what everyone was and is doing. Great job to those who have been doing well in their running this past summer and fall! I wish I could say the same for myself! I decided to take time off from the sport a while back. Since I had last posted, I was in the process of getting back in shape. I trained for 2 weeks straight, then one day I just decided to take some more time off. Thats where I am now. I just barely started training again after 7 months of doing completely nothing that involved fitness. Just sat on my ass pretty much the whole time. Just feel like my life has changed as far as priority goes. I am going to finish school in december, then I am getting out of Alamosa for sure. I've been pondering Colorado Springs a bunch. Anywho, that will come later. But during the time, I have gained weight, pulling way too much all nighters, Alcohol has gotten the best of me. Its been quite a transformation for me. I don't really like it, but in the back of my mind, I feel that I missed out on my college days being a crazy person. I also see and think about my wife and how much I have missed out on our relationship. If she was a runner, things would have been simple. I could go on with my life knowing she is on the same page as me.
Feeling like I have lived 2 lives, my running and my marriage. I have had to maintain both. sure some might say, thats easy... but, if you are in my shoes, my partner doesnt care for sports. she supports me, but one can only take so much.
Long Story Short..... I am showing her the ways of an athlete now, so she can see what it takes and I want to go back to kicking some ass!
So of course I won't be going to Nationals this year.... I have let you guys down, and for that I apologize.

More Stuff

It has been an interesting last several months, and while I am not a big believer in counting my chickens before they hatch, sometimes you've got to be an optimist and I think that the roller coaster ride of, "Um, I guess that run was pretty good" to "Um, did I really just drop like 10 minute miles for an hour and feel that bad?! Seriously? WTF." With no in between at all, might just be coming to an end! After a not-so-great chunk of training after the CC meet, the Rocky Mountain Shootout was a total wash (I'll spare everyone another self-deprecating story, it was really rough though). Excited as I had been to compete there, once the gun went off I was never even in that race. Well no, the brain was in it, but the body apparently not so much for whatever reason...maybe someone sent me some bad juju...I dunno. In any case, I finished a pretty dismal 20th. Prior to that day, I'd never thought of myself as a "choker" before, but that race left me wondering. But you can only accomplish so much by beating yourself up, and a race or two does not a season make. So I got back at it and thanks to some helpful advice along the way, I mixed up the training over the following couple of weeks and also quit doing most everything solo on the same routes. Okay, I still did most of the same routes--kind of a creature of habit like that--but sometimes I did them backwards or with no watch or at a different time of day or whatever. I guess that was just what the doctor ordered because the next week plus of training felt terriffic and my long run the following weekend was the best one I'd had in a couple of years, and at the Metro State Invite last weekend I actually competed instead of just survived. Even though I got out-kicked and it wasn't a "victory" on the results sheet, it was a huge confidence booster for a huge number of reasons and I felt more comfortable racing than I have in forever so I was extremely thankful for that. You have to enjoy all of the good races when you have them, not just the big ones. The meet was a smallish 6k collegiate race, but there was some very good competition there as with just about anywhere in the state, I really liked the course, it was a perfect day for an XC race, and the crowd support was awesome. Cross country meets are hard to beat.

Rocky Mountain Shootout


With any luck and a lot of work things will keep getting better from here. I think that they will. I feel like I have a ton of momentum right now and kind of just want to keep rolling out races every weekend, but also think I need a decent block of training to get things to the next level. I may jump into a Turkey Trot up in Denver or Fort Collins in a few weeks, but outside of that Club XC is the primary goal with USA XC couple months after, but one step at a time.

Anyways, great job to everyone who raced Chicago (Tera, Adrian, Robbie, Art, Paul, Greg, Tommy, Jason, and sorry to anyone I missed), Cow Harbor, and Tufts (Ali, Cassie, Amanda, and Wendy), keep up the good work. Happy trails.

marathon!

Every time I run a marathon I think.... why don't I do this more often? I LOVE the distance and last weekend in Chicago proved no different. I had a ridiculous amount of fun during the two and a half hours I was racing and I'm pretty bummed its over.
I was a bit nervous going in. I've been dealing with a foot problem for the last 2 months and didn't know how it would hold up. The morning of the race I was still trying to figure out what shoes, inserts, pads, etc I was going to wear.
I also don't particularly enjoy racing in the heat and was hoping for another 30 degree day like last year. It ended up being between 69 and 75 while I was racing. Not terrible but definitely not ideal.
I knew I couldn't do much about those things so I decided to stop stressing, try my best and have some fun. I felt fantastic pretty much the entire way. Normally in a marathon I'll have a bad patch or two but it just never seemed to come. I was really hot and very thirsty but never hit a wall or anything. My foot started nagging around 5 but thankfully didn't get really bad until after the race was over.
Now I'm looking at a nice long break to recharge the batteries and get my foot healed. Taking time off isn't my favorite thing but I know its good for me.

My new beard

Well...I haven't written anything in far too long. I apologize. I have been too busy running huge miles and growing this absolutely glorious beard.

But training has been going really well the past few summer months. I have traditionally been a low to mid-mileage person, but have made a concerted effort the past 2 years up here in Gunnison to try to get to the point where I could handle much higher mileage. I finally feel comfortable running 100 mile weeks with a few quality workouts. Where 90 mpw used to be a huge struggle, now it feels very under control (knock on wood.)

My hope is that the new strength will really pay off later this Fall, but particularly in the Winter and Spring.

But until then, I am hoping to see some progress in the next several weeks. I am going to attempt my first 1/2 marathon on October 16th (The Murfreesboro Half)! I figured if ever I was going to be in a position to run a half, now is probably the time. I haven't started Max VO2 intervals that would lead to a fast 5 to 8k yet, but I think my longer tempo runs the past several weeks should help over a half. We will see, I guess. :)

I hope everyone's training is going very well and you all are enjoying the cross season.



Paul

One Day at a Time

Back in August I drove over to Grand Junction to have an evaluation done by a biomechancis specialist. This specialist has credentials a mile long and I trust his judgement along with my physical therapist's, both have come to the agreement that I have a pelvic instability on the left side. I have been working hard the past few weeks to address this weakness and as my body adapts to new mechanics new issues are inevitably popping up. Although what I am dealing with right now has me questioning whether it is from changing mechanics or something more acute. Something is wrong with my knee--I have heard everything from tendonitis to a stress fracture and still have no concrete idea of what is going on so I am working around it and treating it with ice, massage, anti-inflammatories and modalities (like iontophoresis and ultrasound). One of the things this summer has taught me is that I have to just go along for the ride, weather the ups and downs without letting either dictate my motivation. This has been a hard lesson to learn, but one I think I have figured out (at least today).

Tomorrow before work I am planning on running an hour or to right before my knee locks up and doesn't allow more running. I am taking things one day at a time but staying hopeful that I can keep training. My goal tomorrow is to make it through the whole hour without the excruciating knee pain that has happened the past few times I have run over an hour. Hopefully I will be successful!

When you have more than one blog post in a row it starts looking like you have no life...but seriously, we are really slacking here you guys. I know some of you have some phenomonal race results that you're just dying to share....am I right? Don't be shy now.

Since I have no problem rambling about anything, no matter how pointless, I will start by saying, "HOORAY for cross country season!" That's where it's at. If cross country could go on year round, that would be fine by me. None of that round oval track nonsense--that stuff is for the birds (or more like those with actual leg-speed. I've always been a little jealous of those folks.). Anyhow, on that note there have been a couple lower key collegiate XC races here in town over the last couple of weeks, both of which were generous enough to let unattached folks in. First was the 3rd annual aptly named UCCS "Rust-Buster" Invite a couple of weekends back. That one was a 6k that wound its way through Monument Valley Park. It went well, I felt good, and it was good to see everyone and get to see all of the current UCCS runners, a lot of new faces, and plenty of alumni as well. A good time for sure.

Last Saturday, Colorado College hosted its Tiger Invitational. That one was another 6k in Monument Valley Park (I really like racing there...) but a slightly different course. That one went alright as well. I finished behind Steph Bylander, who won the show. That one was a bit different in that they combined the college and open races and it was fun to mix it up. I almost felt like I was re-living the glory days, just like the Bruce Springsteen song. So next up is the Boulder Shootout up at CU in a couple weeks, I am a bit nervous for that one. But what else is new.

As an aside, I am in the process of figuring out a good running goal. I realized the other day that I'm almost at the quarter century mark of life, and since a person's athletic ability dwindles quickly with time then I have to figure out what to do with what time is left! There is a lot of urgency here. I don't particularly want to be a marathoner, for some reason that race hasn't ever appealed to me, I don't really like the track that much but will do some of that this spring for PR-ing's sake, cross country is unfortunately far less popular than it would be if I was in charge of everything (which I am not), I really like road racing but don't know what distance to focus on, and I think I need to do a couple trail/mountain races to figure out if I have a niche there because I've never tried it. I guess I will just do some of everything till I figure it out.

A Step in the Right Direction

Things are still slowly and steadily on the up-and-up. I'm okay with that. I finally got up enough nerve last weekend to actually run a race. I went up to Denver on Saturday to do the Erace (that's not a typo, it's a pun) Homelessness 5k in City Park. After my previous and somewhat disasterous attempt at a "race" about a month and half ago, I didn't go in with the highest of expectations--in fact I was trying to not have any expectations--I just wanted to improve upon what I did the time before and get a decent idea of where things stand fitness-wise. Both objectives were accomplished, I got second (Lori Walker soundly trounced all of us--kudos) and got to actually take home prize money for the first time ever. My time was nothing to write home about, although supposedly the course was about 100 meters too long, but that could be one of those self-esteem boosting rumors that runners conjure up when no one runs that fast on a particular day and we all want to comiserate with each other. But according to Andy Rinne's GPS (here we go with this technology business again) the course was 3.2 miles long. It was a fun race on an interesting course, and I would have to say that the highlight was when some random aid station worker guy pitched a cup of water directly into my face at mile 2. I still don't know what that was all about. Maybe I looked like I was falling asleep out there, I'm not really sure. But I'm sure that it was done with the best of intentions.

Adam, Andy, Robby, Ashley, Russ and me at the start line.

Cross country season is in full swing now, and I always get all nostalgic this time of year, not to mention really jealous of all the college and high school runners gearing up for another year of racing. I really miss that stuff. I mean, I kind of get to pretend to be on the Palmer High School team since I'm always with them and everyone asks me if I run for them (I'm almost 25 for crap sakes, do I LOOK like I run for a high school??!!). It's a bit different (nope, it's a LOT different) when you're not stepping up to the line with a team at your back with everyone counting on you and on each other to give it everything and a bit more on that day. It's a totally different mind-set and it's taking some serious getting used to even though I've been working on it for over a year. The whole Every (Wo)Man for Themselves mentality is a bit more mentally taxing I think.

At any rate, there are plenty of XC races to jump into this fall, and next up is the UCCS Rust-Buster down in Monument Valley Park on the 11th of September. Great race to run and great races to watch. After that, I'll probably jump into the Colorado College Invitational then the Boulder Shootout a week after to get ready to race fast (hopefully) at the Tufts 10k in mid-October. Although at the moment I'm having a lot of trouble getting into that race, hopefully it'll work out.

Great job to everyone in all your races this weekend, and keep up the good work!

Hope for the Future

I have been doing everything I can to get back on track and nothing seems to work long term. I have tried many things that have worked in the past and yet my body still seems to be spiraling downward and out of control. At times I am so tempted to throw in the towel...enough is enough. I am 30 years old and I have basically been dealing with one injury since I was 18 and thus all of the complications that come with an injury and still training on it--compensation. So, for the past 12 years I have been trying to fix my hamstring problem and now it is worse as my whole left side is unhappy and has been since May. I have been dealing with this more than half of the years I have been running. Just writing that sentence makes me want to cry, but for some reason I am still feeling the desire to train and to run hard, to try to reach my potential whatever that might be. So instead of burning all of my running shoes I am going to gather them up along with some running clothes and head west to the other side of the mountains to try to get some help figuring out what is wrong with me and hopefully learning the best way to return to top form. There is a biomechanics guru that has helped a lot of different runners with a lot of different types of problems, and despite being warned that we might not find the "smoking gun", the guru himself seemed confident that he will be able to figure out what is going on with my body and how to come back from this injury. So, I am hopeful.

Knowing that I have had some decent results in the past while battling this does give me hope for the future though. I haven't made it through a cycle or season since high school without losing precious time training to address an injury. So, one of the key components to successful distance running hasn't been there for me, ever--and that is consistency. My coach and PT have done a phenomenal job at dodging injuries and keeping me moderately healthy and able to show up at some starting lines feeling ready, but that deep ache in my upper hamstring was always there impacting some part of the performance (even if it just hurt my confidence and not my physical ability). And I am tired of constantly wondering how my body is going to rebel next. So, I am diving in and ready to face down and do whatever I need to in order to be healthy and training at level that is needed for post-collegiate running. And once I am over this hurdle, it is going to make the good races that much sweeter! I can't wait.

Coming Back to Life!

Today I got called "old school" by an old guy*.

Today's workout (which was a really good one, I might add, but I'll get to that) I was joined by Chris Bittinger--or "Bit" as he is sometimes referred to. Upon discussing the day's mission while warming up on the trails around Monument Valley Park (while he calibrated his GPS...or Garmin....or whatever that was...), he asked me how I typically determine my average mile pace in a workout. I just told him that since I start workouts in the exact same place pretty much every time I do them (the exact place in this case being the little bridge up by the parking lot at Monument Valley) and that the distance from there to this random little tree a ways down and around the trail past the Second Bridge (the Bridge-to-Bridge bridge, I know, I know...the terminology is terribly confusing. Don't even get me started on Upper Loop, Big Loop, Small Loop, Middle Loop, and Around the Water Fountain) is a mile, then I usually just check my watch when I pass the Little Tree Down Past The Bridge-to-Bridge Bridge to see where I am at and then just try to maintain that pace. It's all very technical you see. With that explanation he laughed at me and called me old-school. I call it being Technologically Impaired. I don't have a heart-rate monitor, or a GPS, or a Garmin, or any of those fancy bells and whistles. I do have a stopwatch however, and I would really like a measuring wheel. Anyways, the point of this is that I am not very techno-savvy, however I justify this by saying that the Kenyans don't have Garmins, and they're pretty decent at this running buisiness. But even if I did have any of those things it would take me about two years to figure out how to use it, by which time it would be obsolete and it would be necessary to learn how to use something fancier. It practically boggles the mind.

I was really happy though post-workout because it was by far the best workout that I've had since early March, and last Sunday was my longest long-run in an equally long time. Plus, it was incredibly helpful to have someone pushing me the whole way, I forgot how much I like not doing the workouts solo. The occasional solo run or workout isn't bad, but having someone else to pace off of is immeasureably helpful and actually reminded me of how to be competitive. I was starting to think I forgot how.

And thanks to the help of Chris's Garmin or GPS thingydoo or whatever, we could determine how much ground was covered and pace per mile more accurately than we could through the use of my Bridge to Little Tree Down Past The Bridge-to-Bridge Bridge Measurement Method. However I still can't invest in one of those things because he spent the cooldown overanalyzing things worse than I already do without it. Nonetheless, technology is amazing!

As long as the wheels stay on, the future is looking bright and shiney!


*For clarification purposes and in defense of Chris, he is actually not "old." He is, in fact, a pretty kickass middle distance master's guy. I just consider anyone older than me to be "old(er)", and anyone younger than me to be a "whippersnapper". So he is "old" only in that context. And since they say that you're only as old as you act, that makes him about eight.

Chicago

I did my first ever Rock n Roll event last weekend in Chicago! It was a blast. I love coming back here to race. I always see a lot of people I know plus I love the city atmosphere. Having bands along the course was really nice too.
The race went great...I felt really strong the whole way and ended up with 1:13:36. I really only planned on running marathon pace but it just felt too slow. And what can I say.... I got a little competitive about half way through.
I stayed a couple days at sea level to get in another big workout before heading back to altitude today. I'm so sad to be leaving! I really love it here.
But I don't love the heat and humidity. We were in southern illinois a couple days ago for my grandmas bday and the heat index was 110. I ended up in the ER. I was freezing cold and couldn't stop shaking. Turns out it was just dehydration so I kind of feel like a wimp but I'm glad I'm ok!
I also don't love the traffic near the city. It took us about an hour and a half to move 10 miles yesterday.
So I will probably be sticking with Colorado for the time being. But I'll be back in a couple months for the marathon and I can't wait!