The Week That Was - 4/15 - 4/21. Decent.

A decent week.

• Six runs; one day off
• 72.58 miles
• 9,982 feet o' elevation gain
• 11:27 spent running
• One yoga session
• Daily foam rolling & hip mobility/strengthening exercise routines

Sunday:  A.M. - 1.5-hour yoga session.  P.M. - Bergen Peak Summit (2:04; 12 miles; 2,199 feet o' elevation gain) - Backyard route with Maya to the 9,800-foot summit of our local peak.  Even after not being on a long run in a while, Maya ran strong, leading up and down. Nice and quiet out with a light snow falling.

Maya. Dog tired. Post-run.

Monday:  Off.  Crazy schedule between work and family obligations.

Tuesday:  Bergen Peak Upper Loop (1:17; 7.96 miles; 1,681 feet o' elevation gain) - Neighborhood access route to Meadow View Trail, then climbed the southeastern flank of the mountain via a social trail. Great views of Mt. Evans.

Looking west toward Mt. Evans from southern side of Bergen Peak.

Wednesday:  Bergen Peak Upper Loop (1:31; 9 miles; 1,844 feet o' elevation gain) - From the lower lot at Elk Meadow Open Space.

Thursday:  Marshall Mesa Loop (2:19; 16.42 miles; 977 feet o' elevation gain) - Big loop starting early morning from Marshall Mesa parking lot across from convenience store on road to Eldorado Canyon. Ran most of this loop during the Southside 50K fun run back in January. I guessed it would be about 12 miles. I was about four miles wrong in that guess. Took the pace way easy, just jogging most of the time. Felt good on the run, but a bit bored now and then with the wide-open terrain.  Failed to bring any water or nutrition. Mistake.

The Flatirons from somewhere on Marshall Mesa

Friday:  Alderfer-Three Sisters (1:03; 6.16 miles; 857 feet o' elevation gain) - Easy run from the lower lot around the Sisters rock formation via the Secret Trail, down into Blair Ranch, then back up through the meadow at the base of Evergreen Mountain and back to the lower lot. Nice jog.

Old homestead barn on the Mountain Muhly Trail in Alderfer-Three Sisters

Saturday:  Troublesome Gulch - Soda Creek - Elk Meadow (3:11; 20.03 miles; 2,406 feet o' elevation gain). Easy paced long run around North Evergreen. Nice mix of trail, paved roads, dirt roads and bike paths. Ran with DW, who is training for his first ultra, the Greenland 50K. Pace was very easy.

I'm still taking it easy due to a twitchy right IT band. That means no speedwork and minimal intensity on my runs.  I toss in a few fartleks now and then on undulating trail, and have run a few sets of trail miles in the low 6s, but that's about it intensity-wise.

The week prior, I spent an hour on a "massage" table at In Motion Rehabilitation in Boulder enduring, literally, the most intense pain I have ever experienced as Shirley dug into my hips, glutes, hamstrings, quads and calves. The goal: to loosen up muscles that have been overly tight for years. I'm planning on similar sessions every two weeks in hopes that it will help break my streak of injuries. Additionally, I am making foam rolling and a variety of hip/glute/core strengthening/mobility exercises part of my daily routine.  Finally, I plan to continue twice-a-week yoga sessions, and add in at least one gym weight-lifting session.

The goal:  start August's Leadville 100 healthy.

A Walk in the Park

There's an old saying that goes, "Injury is the mother of invention," or something like that. In that spirit, a dose of ITBS has forced me to come up with some new ways to get the heart rate up and the body moving.

This week I partook in a couple sessions of bikram yoga, including a great Valentine's Day evening session with JP at the Evergreen Center for Yoga, weightlifting, the elliptical machine and hiking.

It's been a while since I intentionally set out to hike, rather than run. This week, though, I managed to get out and up Boulder's Green Mountain (42 minutes via Ampi-Saddle-Green) and Bear Peak (53 minutes via Cragmoor to Fern), and about halfway of Evergreen's Bergen Peak (the house to the second overlook on Bergen Peak Trail).

Trail conditions on all three mountains were great this week, for the most part. Bergen, Green and Bear up to the saddle were all well-packed snow with just a bit of ice. The climb up Bear from the saddle was a bit tough with lots of unconsolidated snow and drifting in a number of places. Even with Microspikes, the climb up from the saddle was a challenge, but enjoyable. Didn't see a single person beyond the Mesa Trail that day.

Green Mountain summit

The Bergen Peak Trail 

An icy stretch in Fern Canyon on the way up Bear Peak

Bear Peak summit.  Looking north. 

Bear Peak. Looking southeast(ish)

Can you see the inner light? 

Great late afternoon lighting. Had to add another shot.

Didn't feel the IT band problem at all on any of the hikes, even moving at a pretty quick hiking pace up and down. I'm still continuing the nightly foam roller rolling, stretching and hip mobility and glute strengthening exercises. I'll probably give running a go later today with a run up Bergen Peak and a hike down. Fingers crossed.

Killian confirms plans to race the Pikes Peak Marathon.


Good luck to everyone running today's Moab Red Hot 33K and 55K!

The Week That Was...January 15-21, 2012

Decent week, all-in-all. Getting a bit frustrated by the on-again, off-again ache in the outside of my right knee. Weird how it comes and goes on a given run, even on a long 32-mile run. There's nothing consistent about the pain. It just comes and goes.


Sunday - Off - taking it easy after the PP50K the day before. 1.5-hour Bikram (hot) yoga session in the a.m. New sweat volume PR. Felt markedly better after this session than I did pre-yoga. Growing more and more convinced of the recovery value of yoga following a hard run (provided, of course, one doesn't push the body too far stretching-wise). Best of all, JP and I do the classes together. So great to see her in action. She is the star of the classes...strong, steady and so flexible the teacher looks at her with envy. I'm happy to be the "before" example to her "after," when it comes to yoga (and so many other things).


Monday - Soda Creek Loop - 8:01 miles; 1:14; 1,234 feet o' elevation gain. Squeezed this one in before picking up the kids. Pleased to feel very solid after the hard run on Saturday. Right knee - good.


Tuesday - Off - schedule


Wednesday - Treadmill - for the first-time ever, all the treadmills (and even the elliptical machines) were full. I wandered around trying to decide what else I should do. Finally a 'mill opened up and I hopped on. 2 miles@8:00 w/u; 1 mile@5:52; .5 recovery; 1 mile@5:49; 1.5 mile c/d. Was planning on doing 3x1-mile but the first two wrecked me. On the second mile repeat, I was literally counting steps, ticking off the 1/100ths over the last 3/10s of a mile. Couldn't believe how hard these were. One of those sessions, I guess.  Knee - quiet.


Thursday - Mt. Sanitas - 6:38 miles; 1:09; 1,571 feet o' elevation gain. Lunch run from the office to the summit of Mt. Sanitas via the backside. An easy 21:38 from trailhead sign to summit marker. Lots of people out on the mountain today dressed as if it were summer. Knee - quiet until road run back to office, then a few pains.


Friday - Off - decided I would run the Southside 50K Fat A** on Saturday so opted to dodge the stress of squeezing in a run on a crushing workload day and conserve some energy for Saturday.


Saturday - Southside 50K+ - 32.35 miles; 5:19; 3,319 feet o' elevation gain. Got the tip early in the week from SY about this run. A group o' folks was planning to run a 50K route through the open space around Superior and Boulder. With 60+ degree temps forecasted, it wasn't a hard decision to make this another long training run to bookend last Saturday's PP50K. A nudge from fellow Evergreen-er Jason P. was all it took to seal the deal.

The run was a lot of fun. Wind was a bit of an issue through the rolling grasslands of Marshall Mesa, but not too bad. The run had a bit of everything...rolling, flat, hills...dirt, mud, snow, ice, rock...you name it.

Jason and I arrived just before the 7 a.m. start. Met a bunch of new folks from the Boulder/Lafayette/Niwot/Longmont netherworlds. Even managed to lure GZ out for a few miles. Funny moment...when I walked up to the start area, a burly looking guy steps out of a group of runners and marches straight at me with a very angry look on his face. For a few anxious seconds I was working hard to remember who I might have pissed off. In no time, I realized the burly-ness was actually a down jacket and the anger was a charade pulled off with great skill by non-other than GZ. Got the bear-hug rather than a smack in the kisser. Great poker face on that cat. Beware.

Ran pretty steady for the whole 50K. Had more than a few minutes the last five miles or so where I got to wondering what the hell I was doing. Running a long time doesn't always feel all that whippy. I found myself questioning whether it's worth it. A few hours later, I decided it was...for now.

Knee was solid most of the run, but barked a bit on the steady flat stuff that comprised the final 5-6 miles. Annoying.

For the week:  52.75 miles; 8:48; 6,123 feet o' elevation gain.

(Yet Another) Ponderous Posterior Re-cap, Plus the Week That Was...

Definitely the highlight of the week was the Saturday morning trek down to Colorado Springs for the second annual Ponderous Posterior 50K. I can't say enough good things about this little jaunt around Manitou Springs. Great weather. Great course. Great people. Great organization.

Beyond the PP50K, the week was so-so. Had a couple days off and a couple of good runs. A quick run-down:

Monday:  Soda Creek -  6 miles; 49:21; 838 feet o' elevation gain. Easy jog through this hilly 'hood.

Tuesday:  Chautauqua - Mesa - Bear Canyon - Green Mountain Loop - 8:23 miles; 1:46; 2,887 feet o' elevation gain. An auditory celebration.

Wednesday:  Off - work/family schedule ate up the day. About 7 p.m. I pulled into the rec center parking lot after driving up from Denver, got out of the car, took 10 steps in the freezing cold with my quads barking loudly at me and called it a day. Went home. Quads were aching from the hard run down Green Mountain on Tuesday - my first use of Micospikes this year.

Thursday:  Off - not enough time in a busy day to get out. Good thing, too. The cold and wind were ferocious.

Friday:  Elk Meadow Open Space - 6 miles; 1:10; 844 feet o' elevation gain. Thursday's wind had kicked up a lot of snow. This was a slog of a late afternoon run. Knee-deep snow drifts were everywhere. Ugh.

Saturday:  Ponderous Posterior 50K - 29.15 miles; 5:47; (5:24 running time); 6,788 feet o' elevation gain. Ran to the car to lose the tights as people were gathering in JT's yard for the 7 a.m. start as warm weather was expected. By the time I got back to the house, everyone was gone. Nothing like a bit of tempo to start a 50K!

Caught up the the back of the pack as we entered Red Rocks.  Slowly worked my way up to the lead group over the next mile or two. Had a great time running with PG, JY and TG, plus a host of new faces from across the Front Range. The pace was easy and the views/temps/company were perfect.

My right knee pretty early let me know that it wasn't happy. It was aching and occasionally bitching at me. I started thinking about dropping after the Incline. I'd never been up the Incline and really wanted to make the 2K climb up. The climb was tough, but manageable at our laid-back pace. Once up top, I decided to continue on to the aid station at the mouth of Waldo Canyon and see how things went.  I took the descent down snow-covered road through Longs Ranch way easy.  Knee was still grumpy, but holding up fine.

Starting up the Incline. Photo: PG.

A few folks were gathered at the truck taking on water and fuel (and PBR...not sure if that's water or fuel).  Never really contemplated dropping at the truck. Figured it would take longer to wait for a ride than it would to finish the run. I nudged TG and off we went for the climb up Waldo. We pretty much ran all the dirt and hiked the icy sections as we made our way down into and up Williams.

I really enjoyed Waldo/Williams. We just ran/hiked steady and before we knew it, we popped out on Rampart Range Road for the final descent down to the Garden of the Gods and back to JT's place.

I was pretty happy with the run. No rough spots, no wrong turns and we finished strong. Knee was no worse for the wear, although the discomfort was/is frustrating.  Hitting the foam roller, icing and stretching regularly to keep at bay what I suspect is some IT band stuff.

Great time catching up with folks back at JT's house and enjoying some fine post-race food and beers.  Many thanks to JT for hosting and for everyone that took the time to mark the course. The CRUD South gang puts on one hell of an event!

Learned this morning that a large group of the 7 a.m. starters, including me, missed the out-and-back up Red Mountain, which explains why we ended up a bit short of a true 50K. Bummer.

Early Sunday I morning, I joined JP for my third-ever yoga class. This time is was a 1.5-hour Bikram yoga class, which meant even more sweating than the previous two sessions I've done this winter. I am convinced yoga is a great long run recovery activity. I feel so much better after these classes.

The Week that Was - January 1 - 7, 2012

Ah yes...a new year. The time when many make new resolutions, big plans and look back to take stock of the year that just ended. I am definitely a big fan of that stuff. Thus, my resolution is to make some big plans as soon as I finish reviewing 2011.

Until then, I'll try to keep up the daily ultramarathon of work, family, running and volunteering.

So, the week that was:

Monday: Steady - 10.38 miles; 1:38; 1,105 feet o' elevation gain - Hiwan - the Ridge - Kittredge. Met up at DW's house and ran through two local 'hoods and snuck over to the dirt road that leads down into Kittredge. Ran down to Bear Creek, east down Bear Creek Canyon. Climbed back up via Kerr Gulch. Took the upper sneak back into the Ridge and retraced our steps to DW's house.

Tuesday: Tempo - 8:59 miles; 1:16; 384 feet o' elevation gain - Upper Bear Creek Road.  Met up w/ Steve F. for this one. Two mile w/u jog up the road, then two miles of uphill tempo (6:31; 6:20). Actually, I did about 2.25 miles of tempo because I missed the prominent mile marker post. Turned around and did a mile easy, then two more miles of tempo (5:56; 5:55). One mile c/d.


Wednesday:  Climbing - 5:12 miles; 1:06; 1,513 feet o' elevation gain - Flagstaff Mountain. Started late afternoon from Eben G. Fine and climbed up the trail to the sign that marks the loop atop of the mountain in 33:24. Trail conditions were decent, with constantly changing mix of snow, ice and dirt. Most of the descent was in the dark. Naturally, I had no light. Took me 32:50 to get down (a whopping 34 seconds faster than the ascent).


Thursday:  Easy w/ hill fartleks - 9:23 miles; 1:18; 1,279 feet o' elevation gain - Ran a slightly abbreviated version of my 10-mile loop through the Soda Creek subdivision. Got in an extra mile on the bike path around Bergen Park. Toward the end of the loop my right knee started hurting - a very noticeable ache on the outside. Walked the last quarter mile.


Friday:  1 mile; 8 minutes - treadmill, Buchanan Rec Center. 6-7 miles was the plan, but my right knee objected. After some tense negotiations, I relented and headed to the weights. One and a half sets of squats was about all the knee would allow, so I scrapped that too and setting for a series of core exercises on the soft floor around the climbing wall where jP and CP were climbing. Frustrating, but was able to watch a lot more of the kids rock climbing that I would have otherwise.


Saturday: 23.25 miles ; 3:32; 2,137 feet o' elevation gain - Hooked up with CB for some early morning jogging. Started at the dirt parking lot at the Morrison exit of C-470. We headed north to Green Mountain running on the bike path along C-470, noting that the mountain ahead looked tantalizingly free of snow. As we drew even with the mountain, we called an audible and hung a right and did a loop around the southeast side of the mountain. We continued along to the snowier/icier north side before climbing steeply up to the signal towers (after I made a rather unglamorous butt slide down a steep, icy section of trail). We descended the west side of the mountain and ran the C-470 bike path back to the cars. I bid CB adieu (family commitments) and headed out for a nine-mile bike path/road loop through Bear Creek Lake park. My knee felt a little twingy now and then, but held up fine.

Lakewood's Green Mountain in the distance. From near Mt. Carbon. 

Road down from the Bear Creek Lake dam, looking southwest.

Total:  67.49 miles; just shy of 10 hours; 7,253 feet o' elevation gain. Overall a very solid week. The knee issue that cropped up Thursday, and forced the day off on Friday was frustrating, but seems to be manageable (as it held up OK on Saturday's long run). Fingers crossed that it was a fleeting protestation.

On Sunday I sweated my way through my second-ever yoga class with JP. I sweated so much over the hour-long class that my fingers were pruned and I regularly found myself laying in my mat's very own private sweat pond. I feel like these sessions are great for long-run recovery. I felt so much better post yoga work-out than before. Hope to make these a somewhat weekly affair. After the class, I went home and read the NYTimes Magazine article on the injury risks of yoga. Good reminder to take it easy.