More races

Doug asked about Bay-to-Breakers, and if I had ever done the bolder boulder.

Bay-to-Breakers is San Francisco's version of the City-2-Surf run. It's 12km long, and goes from the financial district straight west to the ocean. I've done it 4 times - from 2000-2003, but I've never actually done any running (Although one year I had to run down Hayes Street Hill trying to steer our shopping cart that had a keg in it). Basically, Bay-to-Breakers is just a huge party where everyone dresses up in costumes, and a good time is had by all. The course is kind of a poor-stepchild of the City-2-surf course - It starts off up Howard St, which isn't exactly the nicest part of san francisco, and you wouldn't want to walk some of those blocks without being surrounded by thousands of other people. The last half of the course winds through Golden Gate Park, which is pretty, but it really gets to be a slog towards the end. Ocean Beach is always cold, so we never would stay there very long. The weather is always iffy as well - it will usually rain at least once out of every 3 years. It's still a great time - but not in the same category as City-2-Surf.

I did the Bolder-Boulder once, in 1998. I can't recall many details, other than I hadn't really done any running, and it was hard. I do think I finished in less than 50 minutes. Youth does wonders. I think the Bolder-Boulder is a great race, but the logistics are kinda hard if you don't live in Boulder. The race starts early, which usually means a 5:00 or 5:30 start from Denver, and you always have to walk a couple of miles back to your car after the race. That, and it's usually right around my birthday, and it just never seems to be very convenient.

7%

Tuesday, August 29th

Running at 7% grade seems to be some barrier for me. At 6%, I feel great, like I can run however long I need to. At 7%, It's a constant struggle. Today I did 1 mile @7%, 12:00min/mile pace. With warmup and cooldown the total workout time was 20 minutes (which I've set as a limit this week - next week will be 10). The workout was hard, but afterwards I wasn't very tired, and today I feel pretty good.

More Walking

Monday August, 28th

10%, 15min/mile pace, 15 minutes total. This was a tough effort - but only 50% of what I did last week (granted that was at sea level).

Flashback: 1996 City-2-Surf Run

The longest race I've ever been in was the 1996 City-2-Surf run in Sydney. It's 14km (9 miles), starting in downtown Sydney, heading east/northeast to the coast, and then south to the finish at Bondi beach. There is an excellent online course overview. It's one of the best courses imaginable - Sydney has neighborhoods comparable in charm and character to San Francisco, and the coastal landscape is as dramatic as anything I've seen elsewhere. For example, this is a picture of the final couple of miles of the course. It's one of the largest runs anywhere - I think in 1996 there were 45,000 participants, and now it's over 63,000.

Several friends ran it also. None of us had done any training - I think I had done one run of about 2 miles the week before the race. My time was 66:31. That's not a misprint - 9 miles in 66:31. That's about 7:20min/mile pace!! The crazy thing is that I was one of the slower ones - I remember a couple of my friends did it in under an hour. The course is tough - many small hills and around kilometer 8 is the famous "heartbreak hill" - a 2km long hill that is probably around 7-8% grade. I remember passing a large number of people on the way up, only to be passed by most of them on the downhill.

Oh yeah - I was extremely sore for about a week after the race.

Tapering

Monday, August 28th

According to the Imogene Pass website, the race starts in 11 days, 21 hours, and 48 minutes. geez - that's scary. I've pretty much done all the training I can do - I'm not going to get any faster or stronger in the next 11 days. Now it comes down to resting, but not getting stale.

I'm going to go with a 50%/25% two-week tapering strategy. The idea is to maintain the quality of workouts, but reduce the quantity (in this case, quantity == length). In other words, individual workouts should still be as hard as normal, they should just be shorter. The first week they should be 50% of the normal length, and the second week they should be 25% of the normal length.

I'll probably do 3 workouts this week, do Mt. Spaulding from Summit Lake this weekend (about 900 ft. of elevation gain - nearly all above 13,000 ft), and then two workouts next week, with my last one on Wednesday. This should get me to the starting line in good shape.

Mesa Trail

Tuesday, August 22nd

Warmed up, then did 30 mins @10%, at 15:00min/mile pace. Felt pretty good - I think my calves and ankles are finally getting strong enough to sustain this pace at steeper grades.

Sunday, August 27th

Somehow I managed not to do anything the last 4 days. This was my longest rest period (other than our vacation) since March. oops. I blame the airlines. I was going to work out on Thursday, but I was feeling pretty tired, and figured I could just workout Friday afternoon instead. My flight was supposed to get in around 1:00pm, which would give me plenty of time to go to the gym before Molly got home from work. Well, due to some freaky weather in New York (tornadoes), and poor airport management (we sat on the runway for more than an hour), I didn't get home until almost 5:30.

On Sunday morning, Molly and I met Rachel, Nick and Cade in Boulder. Nick and I went for a run, and the other 3 went for a hike. Nick and I walked up the road to the start of the "trail" part of the Mesa trail, and started to jog from there. We made it to the top of the Bear Canyon service road in ~31 minutes, and Nick turned around. I continued on for another 15 minutes to the South Shanahan junction, and then turned around. I was able to run the entire way back, which included some climbs I had never been able to jog before. I made it back to the parking lot in just over 44 minutes, including the last .6 miles in 4:13 (7:00min/mile pace). I felt pretty good when I finished. This was my last long (ok - "longish") run before the race. Now I start the tapering.

Total mileage: 7
Total elevation gain: ~600ft.
Total time: 1:30

New York, New York

Monday, August 21st

I'm in New York this week, and I chose a hotel that has a fitness center. This one has a world class view - it's on the 46th floor, and I could see the hudson river to the west, and most of midtown to the east. Unfortunately the treadmills are positioned so your back to the windows. Oh well.

My legs were feeling better today, and the air here is thick. I did a warmup, then 1 hour @ 15% with speeds varying between 15:00min/mile and 18:10min/mile. Mostly the slower speed - but every 10 minutes I would increase to a 16:00min/mile. I wanted to see how my body would feel after an hour of 15%, and it held up pretty well. My upper back got a little stiff - but not bad at all. My hip flexors felt fine, as did my calves. Overall, no problems, and I didn't fell like the effort was that hard.

White Ranch

Sunday, August 20th

This weekend was going to be my last really big weekend. I wanted to do something at altitude, and something with close to 5000ft elevation gain. I love Longs Peak, and I wanted to tick Mt. Meeker off my list, so those two would be perfect. I thought Molly had to work on Saturday, so I was planning on going then. However, she had the day off and the long week had caught up with my so I just decided to sleep in. It was just as well, as when I woke up around 7 it was raining. Later in the day I called the backcountry office in Rocky Mountain National Park and they said it had been raining all day, with reports of ice on the homestretch (the final section of Longs). So - I guess Longs Peak was out.

Molly and I were out late on Saturday night, and sleep got the better of me again. I woke up around 8am and decided to check out White Ranch, just north of Golden. Jefferson County has great open space parks - maps at the trailheads, and well signed and well maintained trails. Of course, you have to deal with the mountain bikers, but I guess that's a necessary evil. My trail running book describes a run around the perimeter of White Ranch - 17 miles and 3,100 feet of
elevation gain. I figured this would be a good goal (with lots of walking) - I wanted something that would take ~ 4 hours.

I started at about 9:00. I was a little worried about the heat, so I took my camelback with about 60 ounces of water, plus 30 ounces of gatorade in a separate bottle. The first mile is pretty consistent uphill - probably about 9-10% grade and I think I must have just gone out too fast. I started hiking after the first mile, and my legs just didn't have any power in them. They didn't feel bad - just didn't have any sort of spring in my step. Not a good sign. The trail went uphill for another mile, and then I continued on a downhill single track. The trails are excellent - not too rocky, and I didn't have to deal with many mountain bikers. I was able to run the downhill and anything flat, and then hike the uphill. I made it to the 5 mile mark in a little over 1:15, and decided I would shortcut the run back to the car. White Ranch is a great place - there are so many trails that you can really make a run of any length.

I jogged nearly the entire way back to the car, making a nice loop. There wasn't really any tree cover, and it was getting pretty hot near the end. I was pretty happy because there was one really steep climb on the trail back (probably 15%), and several sections of uphills (around 10%), and I was able to run everything except for one short section. I was pretty tired at the end - kinda like on Thursday where I just don't feel like I have any energy.

Total mileage ~ 9
Total elevation ~ 2200 ft.
Total time: 2:15

Matthews-Winters revisited

Thursday, August 17th

Jenn and I went to Matthews-Winters. I hadn't been there for almost 3 months - before that I had been there probably every other week. We started at about 6:30, which was nice because it had cooled off a little bit. I was still feeling some of the effects from my run on Tuesday, so I let her set the pace for the first mile. I forgot how hilly it was!! We started up the switchbacks, and I wasn't feeling that great, but I was able to run them all (albeit at a pretty slow pace). We ran on the plateau, and then started down the south side. It's pretty steep and rocky in some spots - and I was going really slow! My calves felt like cinder blocks, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to run the last 2 miles. It was really hard going downhill. Not a stinging pain, and not even a dull pain - I can't really describe it. We made the cutoff in ~34 (1min 30sec slower than last time I did it) and jogged back to the trailhead, finishing in just over 54 minutes. My legs didn't feel that bad afterwards, but overall my body is just tired.

Rush Hour

Tuesday, August 15th

I went to Washington Park today at around 7:00 p.m. for a longer-ish run. There must have been ~100 people running the outer loop. Molly and I ran here in April, on a Sunday, and it wasn't nearly this crowded. True to my form, I got passed by just about everyone, and only passed walkers. Women pushing baby strollers, middle-aged men about 20 pounds overweight, people that made running look so painful the way their body was contorted. Just about everyone passed me. I tried to convince myself that all of these people were probably only doing 1/2 of a lap, or maybe 1 lap at most. but sure enough, I saw several of the same people numerous times.

I parked at Center & Franklin and did my first lap counterclockwise. I settled in to a nice comfortable pace, and after being passed by everyone I figured I would finish the first lap in 31 or 32 minutes. I looked at my watch as I reached my car - 27:41 - whoa!! Little did I know I had set such a torrid pace. I eased up a little bit, and did the second lap in 29:40. I ran for another ~15 minutes, and at this point it was getting really dark (and I was tired), so I called it good. As I was leaving there were still lots of joggers - none of them with lights!

Total Mileage: ~6.2
Total Time: 1:11

weights

Monday, August 14th

I did some more weight training today. Knee extensors, hip flexors, hamstring curls, hip extensors, hip abductors, and hip adductors. 2 sets of 15 reps each for both legs. This took a while - about 25 minutes without really resting. I then did a flat mile @ 10:54 pace, followed by a mile at 12% with speeds increasing from 20:00min/mile to 15:00min/mile. My heart rate at 17:00min/mile pace was ~140-145. In theory, that's about 65% of my max heart rate and should be easily sustainable for long periods of time. Of course, that's just a theory.

Tour De Flatirons

Saturday, August 12th

I needed to do something with a lot of elevation gain today, but I didn't want to drive too far, so I headed up to the flatirons. I started at the South Mesa Trailhead, and the plan was to do the following: Towhee Trail to South Boulder Peak, over to Bear Peak, down the West Ridge to Green Mountain, down Bear Canyon to the Mesa Trail, then up Fern Canyon, returning to Bear Peak, and down Shadow Canyon. All told, this would be 15+ miles and ~6500 feet of elevation gain.

I knew it was going to be a long day so I started out early. I didn't run any of the Towhee trail, and I arrived at the mouth of Shadow Canyon in 32:30. This was right on the pace I was hoping for, although it was 4 minutes slower than last time I did just South Boulder Peak and Bear Peak. I also wanted to go a little slower up Shadow Canyon. Last time I did the ascent in 36 minutes, this time I wanted to be right at 40 minutes. This would still be ~2400 ft/hr of elevation gain. I paced myself just about perfectly and did the ascent in 39:45. I was feeling great at this point - I had been taking in ~100 calories of food every 30 minutes, and I felt like I had been drinking enough. Last time up Shadow Canyon I had really started to feel weak at the top. Also, I didn't have any tightness in my upper back, which had been a problem on previous steep hikes.

I reached the summit of South Boulder Peak, spent about 2 minutes on top, headed over to Bear Peak, and reached the cutoff for the West Ridge at 1:40 total. This cutoff is about 50 vertical feet below the summit, and as I figured I'd be back here again in a couple of hours, I didn't bother to go to the summit. I headed down the West Ridge, trying to go as fast as I could, although the first 1/2 mile is pretty steep. After that it levels out, and I probably ran 3/4 of the ridge down to the Bear-Green trail. This took 30 minutes - a little longer than I had hoped, but I was still feeling good.

I started the ascent up to Green Mountain, and immediately began having problems. This section is relatively benign - 1 mile and 900 feet of elevation gain (17%), but I just didn't have any power. My pace slowed drastically, and I was feeling really weak. It was all I could just to keep moving and not to stop. I arrived at the junction .2 miles below the summit in about 22 minutes (27.5 min/mile pace), and I stopped to talk with a guy there. I tried to convince myself I really stopped to be friendly, but the reality was I really needed to stop. I started the final ascent a couple of minutes later, and had to stop 3 or 4 times. I finally reached the summit in 2:40, and I was just wiped. At this point, I knew going back over Bear Peak was out of the question. I stayed on the summit for close to 15 minutes, and then started down Bear Canyon. I usually run this section in about 10-12 minutes. This time it took me more than 21 minutes. I jogged a little bit lower down when the trail was smooth, but I didn't have the energy to deal with all of the rocks. Luckily, this might have been a blessing in disguise.

I was about 1/4 mile from the mesa trail when I saw a black bear on the trail about 50 feet in front of me. It really scared the s!$% out of me. Luckily, he just scampered off the trail when he saw me. I still stayed still for about 5 minutes, not really wanting to get any closer. I had seen several people hiking up this trail, and none of them mentioned anything about a bear, so I figured it would be OK to go on. I feel like if I had been running this section like I have in the past, I might have come even closer. That would have been really scary.

I met a couple down the trail a couple hundred yards who had seen two black bears. The guy said he's been hiking in the flatirons for 20 years and never seen one, so I guess this was a pretty rare thing. In retrospect it was pretty cool.

The rest of the hike/run was pretty uneventful. I ran some of the downhills, but for the most part I was pretty wiped out. I'm not sure what it was - I had only done maybe 3500 feet of elevation gain when my legs just didn't have anything left. Maybe my long rest period really did have an effect on me.

Total mileage: 13+
Total elevation gain: 4500 ft.
Total Time: 4:55

Chipotle Blues

Thursday, August 10th

In case anyone is wondering, it's not a great idea to eat a Chipotle burrito (which according to the Chipotle calorie counter mine had 1285 calories) and then try to workout a couple of hours later. My original plan was to do 20 minutes @ 7%, 12:00min/mile pace. I did this workout a few weeks ago, and it was a real challenge to last for 20 minutes. The challenge proved too much for me this time. After 8 minutes, I was getting a pretty bad side cramp. I changed the incline to 0%, and after 2 or 3 minutes I was feeling better. I did another 8 minutes @ 7%, 3 minutes @ 0%, and 4 minutes @ 7%. So I got to 20 minutes - it just wasn't continuous. If there was a bright side to this workout it was that I could feel recover while running @ 0% - I didn't have to slow down.

Back at it

Tuesday, August 8th

Back at it...20 mins of running @ 10:54min/mile. This felt pretty awkward - but I didn't experience any pain or discomfort - just awkward. Followed it up with a mile at 15% (17 min/mile pace). Steep power-hiking is starting to feel better - I'm not getting that tightness in my upper back, and my calves aren't stiffening up. Ended with with 1/2 mile of running, up to 10:00min/mile pace. This stretch of running felt much more comfortable than the first 20 minutes.

Wednesday, August 9th

I wanted to get back on my feet again for a little bit. I did a mile @ 10:00min/mile pace, and then some more power hiking @12% (max grade for the treadmill at work). I alternated between 15:00min/mile pace and 17:00min/mile pace. I also did some strenght training based on some excersises from the Wharton program.

Last workout

Friday, July 21st

I did something the day before we left, but I can't remember exactly what. I think I did some running on grades between 6-8% for ~15 minutes, then did ~ 1.5 miles on 15% at 17:00min/mile pace. I also did some running at the end. I remember feeling pretty good, although it wasn't smart to go sit on a plane for 9 hours after this - my hamstrings really tightened up and they took a few days to loosen up.