One Last Run To The Cow!
"The Cow" in the Stapleton Town Center has become a staple in my running lingo the last month... "Taking Champ to see the cow", "a quick four up to the cow and back", "need to visit the cow", "double-looped the cow", and various other phrases define many of my routes around Stapleton. I have become a bit neurotic about it, actually. Normally I'm not the type to be knocking on wood, holding my breath while driving past a cemetery (Julie's favorite), believing the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, or various other classic superstitions, but I do tend to find myself doing the same ritual when things start going well in sports. (While playing competitive soccer and golf, primarily.) So after one of my better runs about a month ago where I really felt like everything was clicking, I reminded myself that the next time I ran past the cow, I needed to rub it's brow again. Thus, starting a little superstitious habit that I have since to break!
So tonight I had the opportunity to pay homage to the cow one last time before Sunmart. I had done a very easy and relaxing 4M recovery run with J.D. Praeger and Champ yesterday afternoon and had my last "quality" workout scheduled for tonight. The goal was 5M total with a pattern of 2 warmup, 2 goal-pace, and 1 cooldown. So I joined Jim Mayo a few blocks away at his house and away we headed up to visit the cow. 20 minutes later by the time we had passed the cow and picked it up the pace, we were doing sub-8 minute pace. I'm not sure if that exactly defines "goal pace" since truth-be-told I think my "ideal" goal pace for the majority of Sunmart is going to be somewhere between 9:30's and 9:50's per mile, but it sure felt really good to pick it up and push it a bit. And sometimes it's just picking it up to work out the kinks of tapering that is the primary outcome of this type of run. And, the effort felt really easy and relaxed too... So hopefully this is a good indicator that I'm peaking at just the right time! (Or was it just that I rubbed the cow's nose???)
Tomorrow is an off-day before one final 3M recovery run on Thursday, which is perfect because I can get everything prepared for Saturday's group training run (even though I won't be there), and then lead a fun-run at Boulder Running Company in Littleton on Thursday evening for their holiday party. John, Brock, Carolyn and the rest of the team at BRC are great friends and supporters of Runner's Edge of the Rockies, so it will be a good way to wrap up my taper. Outside of that, I just need to stay rested, stretch, hydrate and eat well, and start preparing myself mentally for Saturday's race......
Bathroom Surgery
So speaking of preparing, there was one nasty little bit in particular that I forgot to mention in the previous post when I was playing catch-up. A few days after my final long run of 21M I made the decision to excise part of a toenail. After playing soccer for the majority of my life, the nail of the big toe on my right foot has become chronically ingrown on one side, requiring me to perform "bathroom surgery" every few months. (A doctor did try to permanently cut/cauterize it once but obviously failed to provide the desired result!) I had debated on the timing of this since I didn't want to run the race with an inflamed and painful toe, but also knew I needed a few extra days of healing. I'll spare everyone the gory details (and no pictures; sorry!) but suffice to say that it's become something I'm used to and after a few quick minutes I successfully cut out the entire right 25% of the nail, cuticle and all. And after a week of healing it feels normal again, so at least that will be one less thing to have to think about on Saturday...
A Different Kind of Marathon
I also took some time today to go visit our friend Mark Iwan in the hospital again. He seems to be doing better, was a bit more responsive today and the nurses said that he spent 4 hours and 20 minutes today breathing on his own with limited help from the respirator. Yesterday he went for over 7 hours on his own! If anyone can handle the pain it's Mark, and I told him to treat this just like marathon training and to keep working hard so that he can get off of the respirator for good. Mark will definitely be in my thoughts on Saturday...
Fast Tucson
I was really pumped to hear that several Runner's Edge members tore it up at the Tucson Marathon on Sunday. The weather was perfect and Tucson has a reputation for being a pretty fast course. Vince DiCroce, his sister-in-law Sarah DiCroce, Mike Kennedy, and Steve Renda all knocked quite a bit of time off of their PR's. (And Sarah qualified for Boston!) And while not a PR, Chris Wozniak ended up running his fastest marathon in 10 years. I'm hoping that this good running mojo and karma carries over to Saturday!
Training Plan
If you've been following along, by now you've realized that I've removed the training plan and my recorded mileage from the bottom of the blog. Unfortunately when I went to update my mileage the formatting got screwed up somehow (I'm blaming blogger.com!), and would only show up too small or big to be legible. I'll try to fix this tomorrow or at least put my mileage in an individual post itself...
Good night!
So tonight I had the opportunity to pay homage to the cow one last time before Sunmart. I had done a very easy and relaxing 4M recovery run with J.D. Praeger and Champ yesterday afternoon and had my last "quality" workout scheduled for tonight. The goal was 5M total with a pattern of 2 warmup, 2 goal-pace, and 1 cooldown. So I joined Jim Mayo a few blocks away at his house and away we headed up to visit the cow. 20 minutes later by the time we had passed the cow and picked it up the pace, we were doing sub-8 minute pace. I'm not sure if that exactly defines "goal pace" since truth-be-told I think my "ideal" goal pace for the majority of Sunmart is going to be somewhere between 9:30's and 9:50's per mile, but it sure felt really good to pick it up and push it a bit. And sometimes it's just picking it up to work out the kinks of tapering that is the primary outcome of this type of run. And, the effort felt really easy and relaxed too... So hopefully this is a good indicator that I'm peaking at just the right time! (Or was it just that I rubbed the cow's nose???)
Tomorrow is an off-day before one final 3M recovery run on Thursday, which is perfect because I can get everything prepared for Saturday's group training run (even though I won't be there), and then lead a fun-run at Boulder Running Company in Littleton on Thursday evening for their holiday party. John, Brock, Carolyn and the rest of the team at BRC are great friends and supporters of Runner's Edge of the Rockies, so it will be a good way to wrap up my taper. Outside of that, I just need to stay rested, stretch, hydrate and eat well, and start preparing myself mentally for Saturday's race......
Bathroom Surgery
So speaking of preparing, there was one nasty little bit in particular that I forgot to mention in the previous post when I was playing catch-up. A few days after my final long run of 21M I made the decision to excise part of a toenail. After playing soccer for the majority of my life, the nail of the big toe on my right foot has become chronically ingrown on one side, requiring me to perform "bathroom surgery" every few months. (A doctor did try to permanently cut/cauterize it once but obviously failed to provide the desired result!) I had debated on the timing of this since I didn't want to run the race with an inflamed and painful toe, but also knew I needed a few extra days of healing. I'll spare everyone the gory details (and no pictures; sorry!) but suffice to say that it's become something I'm used to and after a few quick minutes I successfully cut out the entire right 25% of the nail, cuticle and all. And after a week of healing it feels normal again, so at least that will be one less thing to have to think about on Saturday...
A Different Kind of Marathon
I also took some time today to go visit our friend Mark Iwan in the hospital again. He seems to be doing better, was a bit more responsive today and the nurses said that he spent 4 hours and 20 minutes today breathing on his own with limited help from the respirator. Yesterday he went for over 7 hours on his own! If anyone can handle the pain it's Mark, and I told him to treat this just like marathon training and to keep working hard so that he can get off of the respirator for good. Mark will definitely be in my thoughts on Saturday...
Fast Tucson
I was really pumped to hear that several Runner's Edge members tore it up at the Tucson Marathon on Sunday. The weather was perfect and Tucson has a reputation for being a pretty fast course. Vince DiCroce, his sister-in-law Sarah DiCroce, Mike Kennedy, and Steve Renda all knocked quite a bit of time off of their PR's. (And Sarah qualified for Boston!) And while not a PR, Chris Wozniak ended up running his fastest marathon in 10 years. I'm hoping that this good running mojo and karma carries over to Saturday!
Training Plan
If you've been following along, by now you've realized that I've removed the training plan and my recorded mileage from the bottom of the blog. Unfortunately when I went to update my mileage the formatting got screwed up somehow (I'm blaming blogger.com!), and would only show up too small or big to be legible. I'll try to fix this tomorrow or at least put my mileage in an individual post itself...
Good night!
GOOD LUCK David!!! We'll be thinking about you Saturday!!
Good luck Dave. If there is an Elvis statue on the Sunmart 50M course, make sure you rub it on the pompadour.