Runner's Edge of the Rockies Blog

Setting Goals for the New Year

Posted on 1:55 PM No Comments
Labels: Goals, Tips, Training

Setting Goals for the New Year

Being the end of the year it’s time to start thinking about your goals for 2010... What do you want to achieve? Are you looking to use the base you’ve gained through the last few months to build towards your first half or full marathon? Are you shooting for a new personal best, or trying to qualify for Boston? Taking on a different challenge like an ultra? Trying to shed 10 more pounds to make those jeans fit? Or are you simply looking to enjoy your physically fit lifestyle with your teammates? Whatever your goals may be, it’s best to think short-term (less than 3-months), mid-term (6 months) and long-term (12 months or greater). And anytime you’re building your goals, consider the following:

Put pen to paper to make them “real”. By actually seeing it (vs. just thinking it), you will be that much more likely to keep it as a priority. Take it a step further by taping it up on your bathroom mirror, the door of your fridge, etc. Even if your goals are intrinsic (i.e. having fun and feeling good), vs. extrinsic (i.e., placing in your age group), writing them down will keep you on track to make them happen.

Decide if they are realistic. Setting the bar high is great, but not if it’s completely out of reach. Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it takes YEARS to fully reach your full potential as a runner. And sure, we all could log 70+ miles a week and dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to achieving our goals, but is that really doable? Some people are in a position where they are fortunate enough to go at it 100% and put everything else on the back-burner, but for most of us the stress of a job, family, other activities, and “life” can create barriers. So make sure you’re taking an honest assessment of what you can actually balance before you commit to taking on too much. If that means you have to dial it back and stick with halves, and put that quest for Boston or your first tri on hold until you’re a bit more balanced, that’s a better choice than pushing yourself too hard and risking burnout and frustration, additional fatigue, and injury.

Discuss your goals with your family. If you’re single, then you’re only accountable to yourself, but if you have a spouse and kids then you need to make sure that your family is on board with your goals. Trying to break 4 hours in a marathon is a very admirable goal, but not at the expense of pissing off your wife/husband, especially if there’s too many other family activities and responsibilities you would need to forego! Plus, your training will be so much more productive and rewarding, knowing that your family is on board and supporting you.

Start at your goal date, and think backwards to today. This will keep you focused on the primary “prize” and will also ensure that you have the proper building-blocks in place to adequately train and prepare yourself. For example, if you know you want to run your first half in May, start thinking about which race you would like to do, which weekends might work best within the context of balancing work/family, etc. If you’re trying to do something unique like run your fastest marathon or qualify for Boston, start thinking about which shorter-distance races (5-10km and halves), you should add (or cut!) to enhance your training, if you should add Speedwork, additional cross-training, physiological testing, etc.

Think about what additional activities might be required for you to achieve you goals. The miles you actually log are but one part of the puzzle. Sleep, nutrition, strength/cross-training, injury management and mental training... These are all critical components that help you become a stronger, faster, and more consistent athlete. So make sure you’re tapping into other resources in order to increase your chance for success. (For a list of our recommended wellness providers who have helped many Runner’s Edge members, click HERE.)

Don’t just run... TRAIN. When you have a goal you are shooting for, every run should have a purpose. If that purpose is a scheduled speed workout to improve your cardiovascular capabilities, a Saturday long run to build endurance, or those all-important recovery runs to allow your body the necessary time to repair and rebuild from previous hard workouts, just make sure that you’re not “running just to run”. Sometimes the purpose of the run may not even be “time-focused” at all and may just be to focus on a particular aspect of your running (stride, turnover, breathing, form), or after a tough day, to finish your run with a better attitude than you began it with. No matter what though, always give your run a purpose and you will get more out of your training.

Running Injuries

Posted on 10:31 AM No Comments
Labels: Articles, Injury Prevention, wellness

Here is a great article about running injuries, including tips for prevention and treatment.

The North Face® Athlete Tip - Nikki Kimball

"Every year one of every three serious runners will incur a running-related injury. Two thirds of these injuries result from training errors (J Am Acad Orthop Surg 1995;3:309-318). Dr. Stan James, MD paraphrases a colleague’s "rule of too’s" stating "athletes court disaster when they exercise too often, too hard, and too soon and too much after injury and attempt remediation too little and too late," (JAAOS 1995;3:309). The "rule of too’s" summarizes most controllable factors in avoidance of injury. Of course there are other factors such as trauma, intrinsic biomechanical problems and possibly age. But I’d like to focus on the most common risk factors, as these training errors are also avoidable.

Read entire article at http://www2.thenorthface.com/endurancechallenge/training/injury.html

How to prepare for the next few weeks of training…

Posted on 9:39 AM No Comments
Labels: Tips, Training

Preparing for this Saturday's training run in Golden and the next three weeks of building mileage:

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as we prepare for the next few weeks. FIRST: If you ran at race pace on Saturday, you put approximately 30% more pounding on your legs than during your training pace! (If you took a more conservative approach and ran Saturday at goal pace or training pace, you will not feel as much soreness and should rebound faster.) SECOND: As I mentioned above, because Georgetown is a downhill grade, that means your legs sustained even more pounding than on a flat (or uphill) course, which will lead to more soreness too. On Friday I ran 17 downhill miles (in prep for the St. George Marathon), and I can tell you that I was a bit more sore than after a “normal” 17 mile run. The physics of downhill running mean that if your stride is a certain length (say, length of "x"), then by adding a decline to the road (say, a drop in length of "y"), then your actual stride length is really "x + y" which means that you had more of a "fall" from one foot strike to the next. (I’m not a physics major and it’s not automatically that simple, but you get the picture.) That also means that with that added distance you also added more pounding on your body. Yes, downhill running produces faster times but also can produce more soreness!

So prepare accordingly this week to fight the "DOMS" (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). Get plenty of rest, follow your training schedules as closely as possible, hydrate and eat well, don't forget your stretching routines (twice a day if need be), and also consider getting a massage. (But no massages on Friday as that will make you MORE sore for Saturday.) This weekend, most of you are going long, so that you can continue to build endurance. But that also means there is a premium on nutrition, hydration, rest, sleep, etc... And make sure that you’re putting a premium on recovering from your runs and cross-training workouts as we will have three “On” weeks before another Recovery week. So make sure to treat this Saturday’s group run seriously, leave your egos at home and keep it SLOW. Because for many of you, this Saturday will be the longest training run of the session. I will be preaching it big-time this week that everyone needs to take the next two long runs nice and easy, and really just focus on training slow and building endurance! (And if you didn’t run Georgetown-Idaho Springs, you’ll still want to use the same preparation and pacing strategies to advance your training!)

Have a great week, and we'll see you all Saturday morning in Golden for our long run, which is another “Rocky Mountain Ice Bath” run as we’ll be Starting/Finishing right along the Clear Creek (river), where you can have a nice post-run soak! :-)

Training – What to take away from Georgetown-Idaho Springs:

Posted on 9:37 AM No Comments
Labels: Races, Tips, Training

OK, so the most important question is to ask yourself if you ran Georgetown-Idaho Springs on Saturday is, "what can I take away from this past weekend?" The first thing is to know that this race was a TRAINING RACE, and in particular I built your training schedules specifically to include it that way. If this was your end-all TARGET RACE for the summer/fall, then your training schedules would have been different to allow for a bit longer taper so that you could have peaked perfectly. As it was, coming off of the recovery week last week and then doing a "mini taper", overall the group ran very well. Many of you ran your first half marathon, set a PR (Personal Record), or just ran a very comfortable training run at a slightly faster tempo, which is absolutely fantastic. (Congratulations!!!) But even if you didn't have a great race that's OK, because every race will not be perfect (some will be disasters), and actually those times when you don’t achieve your goals can help you learn MORE for next time. (Be it holding back more at the start, utilizing your gels/energy supplements better, etc.) And, once you make the necessary adjustments, you can look forward to applying what you’ve learned at the next race!

If you didn’t have an ideal race, here are a few things to think about that will help you put it all into perspective…

It was a TRAINING race. (Did I mention that already?) J
We were a half-mile above Denver, and that higher altitude means less oxygen AND a propensity to dehydrate slightly faster.
Although it’s downhill (which usually means faster), that also means “harder on the legs”, and if you’re not accustomed to running races downhill, you’re probably a bit more sore than normal. (i.e., For people who struggle at Boston, many times they say it was the DOWNS and not the mythical ups that beat them up!) So if you found yourself becoming very sore and being forced to slow down 8-10 miles into the race, that’s probably the reason.
The temps were good but things did heat up after about 75 minutes into the race and there were a few periods without any cloud cover. Some of you fare better in the heat than others, which is natural. But if you felt really zapped by the heat and sun, maybe you need to increase your fluid intake, carry a bottle if you needed fluids more often than the aid station locations, or make adjustments/additions to your gear (amazingly, I saw a lot of you without hats/visors/shades).

Looking forward, here's how you should use your results in your training. First-time distance runners, now you know what the excitement of the start line is all about, how to hold back in the first half even if you feel great, and what your body starts to feel like towards the finish. The final 3.1 miles of the half marathon is a good sample of what your body may feel like in the final 6.2 miles of the full marathon. For those of you training for another fall half or full marathon as your target race, you will want to continue your training as normal and build towards your fall race. Saturday's race should have provided you with a good test and feel for how to pace out in the first 3-4 miles, as that is the MOST important part of the race. (Because if you go out too quickly you can blow through 70% of your glycogen/energy stores right away, setting you up for a huge bonk.)

Hopefully your results from Saturday also gave you a good idea of where you are at in your training, and if your goals are attainable. If your target race is in the next 6-8 weeks, your result from Georgetown-Idaho Springs is going to be a great indicator of what kind of time you can probably expect. If your target race is more like 8-16 weeks out, your results may not be as accurate of a predictor since you will have more time to train. For full marathoners, the chart in your training manual will give you an idea of how fast your target marathon will be, based on your half marathon results if you ran a good/solid race. (No, you cannot just double your half marathon time - It just doesn't work that way!) These numbers are based on research conducted by Pete Pfitzinger, an exercise physiologist, and winner of the 1984 US Olympic Trials Marathon. (The complete chart is in your online training manual, found on pg. 106 and also includes colums for 5km & 10km times.) Coach Eladio Valdez (the KC Runner's Edge coach), and I have compared notes on members who have qualified for the Boston Marathon and we came up with very similar conclusions.

Here's the bottom line though… In order to run faster on marathon day, you must run at least 1 minute slower on your long training runs!! That means you can run in a slower pace group on Saturdays and still achieve your time goal, as many alumni runners in our program can attest. I know it may sound counter-intuitive but it absolutely works. And if this is your first marathon I would recommend you take the slightly more conservative approach and run with a slower pace group to ensure you build the required endurance/stamina. Remember: The marathon is an ENDURANCE TEST of 26.2 miles – Not a race of 20 miles!! (And we’re training you to become marathoners – Not just 20-milers!) So be honest in any adjustments you may make in which pace group you chose to run in for the rest of the session.

ALSO... There were a lot of good pictures during Saturday's race that I’ve already posted to Facebook and will try to have them up on the website soon (after taking care of coaching E-mails and Saturday prep first), so keep your eyes peeled... Click HERE if you are on Facebook. There are some great shots of the Wild West Relay and tri as well, and hopefully we can get those up on the site too.

Mid Summer Session Starts on August 22nd. Registration now open!

Posted on 4:07 PM No Comments
Labels: Updates

Did you miss out on the full 19-week Summer/Fall Training Session back in June but still want to train with us? No problem as our pro-rated August 22nd start option will give you over two months of membership benefits! Click HERE to get signed up and become an active member of Runner's Edge of the Rockies!

Members registered for the current training session are able to log in and access even more features including:

Personal member accounts, with customizable features, race results tracking info, photos, etc.
Member forum with multiple message boards to connect with the group
260-page online Runner's Edge training manual
Personal daily training plan customized to the race of YOUR choice
Personal online TrainingPeaks training log
Access to registration discounts for select races
Sortable member roster
...and much, much more!

If you would to take your training to the next level and receive all of the member benefits, sign up for training at http://www.runnersedgeoftherockies.com/!

Speed work!

Posted on 2:11 PM No Comments
Labels: Speed Work, Videos

Here's everyone doing a few 100m strides before the 2-Mile Time Trial.

Connect with Runner's Edge Online!

Posted on 4:52 PM No Comments

We now have lots of great ways for you to stay connected with Runner's Edge of the Rockies. Follow us on Twitter (@coachdavidm), be a fan on Facebook, and of course, engage with the rest of the members on the members only section of the website. Twitter is an easy way to keep updated on this blog, as any blog posts will also become "tweets!" :-)

Runner's Edge Success Stories

Posted on 3:16 PM comments (1)
Labels: Success Stories

Reply to this post with your Runner's Edge Success Stories! You can also find more stories on our website.

Done & Done!

Posted on 9:24 AM comments (10)

"Go and getter' done!"

That was what one aid station volunteer said to encourage me on with about 6.5 miles left to go....... So I did, and became an Ultra Marthoner. Done and done!!

This is a very quick update on the results from Saturday's race at Sunmart, in Huntsville State Park, TX. I've got a ton of work to get to today (including 75 E-mails in my inbox), so unfortunately I'll have to save the good stuff for a future post in the next few days. The bottom-line is that I finished the 50-mile race in 9:38:11! Saturday's weather was just brutal: A record tying high of 82 degrees with 88% humidity at the start. As the race went on I realized that a 9-hour time wasn't in the cards for me and I refocused on finishing sub-10. However, time isn't the primary objective when it comes to ultra trail races (as Ned Breslin reminded me at the start of my 4th lap), and I'm just incredibly pumped with the journey, that I finished it, and am not too worse for wear. (Although I am struggling a bit to get comfortable at my desk this morning.)

The rest of the Runner's Edge of the Rockies members also did exceptionally well; Ned Breslin, Cathy Maslowski-Yerges, and Danielle Malberg ran the 50km, and Dave Longcope did the 50M. Danielle and Dave finished 2nd in their respective age groups for their race which is icing on the cake! And on Sunday just a few hours up the interstate in Dallas at the White Rock Marathon, Marc Middlekauff ran a personal best of 3:07 in just his second marathon to qualify for Boston!

Check back soon for more details, pictures, etc.... It was an amazing race, with lots of great stories. (As only something like running 50 miles can create.)

Cheers!

Game Time

Posted on 1:39 AM comments (1)

It's finally here -In a few short hours I fly out for Houston, TX (and the big-hunkin' Sam Houston statue) with Cathy Maslowski, Danielle Malberg, Ned Breslin, Elise Harrington and Dave Longcope to finally run the Sunmart Ultra Marathon! Cathy, Danielle and Ned will do the 50km while Elise, Dave and I take on the 50-miler. I'll try to make this entry shorter (too late!) as my need for sleep and rest trumps the blog. I've been absolutely cranking all week trying to get everything ready for the group training run, follow up on coaching E-mails, and trying to stay on very long "to do list". But here I am at Midnight blogging when I should be asleep...

(Like Randall Caley after the KC Marathon.)

(Or here's another bald, sexy guy - Me last year at Christmas. Free tip: Never fall asleep with your wife and kid brother on hand to mess with you!)

The Definition of Irony
Dictionary.com provides one definition of "irony" as "an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected." Or, a good example might be if I was out doing my final 3M taper run this evening and did something really idiotic and took a fall. Well, you got it.... While hosting a fun-run in Littleton at Boulder Running Company's holiday party, I went ass-over-tea-kettle. Champ had just pulled over to do the do, and after disposing of the goods and then picking up the pace, I got caught up in her leash and went down. It wasn't terrible and I was able to roll more than skid, but I still ended up bruising up my hip and knee a bit. Let's hope that's some sort of good omen and at the very least isn't a factor Saturday morning.

Sunmart - The Course
Without having seen it personally, I can only go by what I have read and heard. Here it is in a nutshell: Flat, soft, and apparently (hopefully) very well shaded. The majority of the race course is soft-surface on single-track trail and 4X4 road, but not crusher-fines like a lot of trails in the Denver area, and instead more soft/grassy/sandy. Probably most similar to the Barr Lake Trail that I ran last month. It's a loop course, with the 50km runners doing a 10km out-back followed by 2 laps. The 50-milers run four 12.5-mile laps, so mentally that brings several strategies into play on how to break up the mileage. Personally, I'm going to try to treat each lap as an independent 12.5-mile training run and hope that I will won't have to reduce it to something like, "just get to that next damn tree. OK, now get to THAT next damn tree...." If I'm hurtin', then I'm sure that's what will happen!

Aid Stations
Thankfully, there are plenty of aid stations at Sunmart, which is probably a contributing factor to why it is considered the most popular ultra for first-timers at 50km and 50M distances. They'll provide everything a regular marathon would, and then some: Gatorade, water, energy gels, pretzels, fruit, chips, candy, mini-PB&J sandwiches, boiled potato wedges, cookies... Thankfully I've trained my stomach to digest on the fly, so I can sample the fare. No wonder ultra marathoning is becoming more popular. You can eat like crap, and still not gain a pound!

Chicago Revisited
As all of you know, the Chicago Marathon was pretty much a furnace and the race organizers finally had to cancel it halfway through because it was so hot. Well, Sunmart could be similar with a projected temperature of 80 degrees and humidity of 80%. This factor has provided me much more anxiety than I was hoping for, because I traditionally struggle in hot/humid conditions. So to combat this I'll be popping eCaps like candy; targeting 1 cap every 20 minutes for the first two laps so I can be sure to stay ahead of my body's sweat rate. And if the weather gets too hot/muggy, that will definitely impact my pacing strategy and goal time. Which brings me to my next point.......

Pacing Strategy & Goal Time
Boy, I think all of you who voted on my finishing time poll may have a bit too much faith in my ability for my first ultra! Overwhelmingly the majority of voters think I'm going to finish sub-9. I think that MIGHT be doable under ideal conditions, but Saturday's weather may force me to totally rethink and adjust my pace. Obviously with this being my first ultra marathon, the primary "A-Goal" is to finish and hopefully strong at that. Time-wise, I was thinking sub-10 hours and if everything was really clicking to aim for sub-9. If the weather is cool enough (and not too swamp-esque), I'll pace out conservatively at 10:00's for the first 3-5 miles and then gradually pick it up to 9:45's for the rest of the first lap, targeting 2:10 or so for the first 12.5-mile lap. From there, I'll try to settle into my "one speed" of 9:30's, which I know I can generally hold even while really fatigued. I will also be taking walk-breaks through the aid stations too which will help me digest solid food faster and keep my heart-rate lower. In theory that should help me stay stronger.... Again, weather permitting! Oh, and if you want to see what the winner did last year, READ THIS. And oh-by-the-way, this year Sunmart just happens to be the World Trail Championships, so the talent level is that much higher... Which means that many more times I'll get lapped.

The Play List
Many of you know that I'm a big proponent of running headphone-free. I don't have time to get into all of the reasons for why MP3 players and running just don't mix, however I finally broke down a few weeks ago and purchased my first iPod Nano. I haven't listened to music during marathon training since 2002 (when some crack head broke into my studio apartment and stole my Sony CD-Walkman), but I figure that there is a very distinct possibility that I could be in an altered state (similar to the crack head), and will need some tunes to keep me going. So here's what's on tap for Sunmart (in no particular order): Dieselboy, Cirrus, Bad Boy Bill, Fatboy Slim (Julie's fav!), The Chemical Brothers, Paul Oakenfold, The Prodigy, Orange 9mm, Linkin Park, Leftfield, Paul Oakenfold, The Crystal Method, Beastie Boys, The Urge, BT, Republica, New Order, Goldie, Aphrodite, 311 and Jamiroquai. JAM ON!

And last but definitely not least I need to mention all of the support from everyone reading this blog! I've been swamped with E-mails from Runner's Edge of the Rockies members and friends wishing me luck, so I feel like I'll have all of you there with me as I bang out 50 miles. So thank you!! I will try to post an update with the results ASAP, once I get back to Denver....

IT'S GAME TIME!!

One Last Run To The Cow!

Posted on 11:52 PM comments (2)

"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!

5 Days Until Sunmart & The Delinquent Blogger

Posted on 11:30 AM comments (5)

Yeah, OK... I've been a terrible blogger for the past week. Mostly, I've just been a TIRED PUPPY. Evenings are when I normally make time to blog and this past week has just been tough to balance and I've found myself wanting to get ZZZ's earlier and earlier. It's a combination from being busy, a few long days, and obviously the heavy mileage over the past several weeks. And as Mike Kennedy has said to me multiple times, "as if you have so much time to begin with....."

Tired Puppy: Is Apollo stretching, asleep... Or both?

So here is the previous week in review!

Thanksgiving - 27M
Thanksgiving morning was COLD, but I got in my longest training run since the KC Marathon (where I did 28M total). I started my run at Wash Park at 5:50am and banged out 15M before meeting up with Jim Lynch at his house. It was 7 more back to the park and we arrived with some extra time on our hands due to Jim's not-so-spot-on-math-skills; you'd think after 71 marathons he would have his pace down! :-) So with some extra time we decided to work in one more mile prior to the start of the Turkey Trot. Julie brought Apollo & Champ with her to cheer, and since the Turkey Trot really is more of a fun-run with costumes, strollers and plenty of doggers, Champ got to run her first "official" race as we chilled with the mid-pack and cruised the 4M race to round out my 27M workout.

Gettin' ready for the Turkey Trot!

Look Mom, my first PR!

I felt very strong throughout the morning with the only issue being a small bit of IT Band pain; most likely from having to weave so much through the crowded race. Dinner was fantastic as Julie and I went to Whole Foods to pick up some select items from their pre-cooked cases. We figured since she was preggers and with me having just gone long that spending hours on our feet with food prep wasn't the most appealing option. A bit of football, lots of sleeping, and then we went out to see the movie August Rush which I definitely recommend - I incorrectly thought it was a chick-flick (since Julie picked it out and I didn't know anything about it), but turned out really enjoying it as I love good music and a motivating story.

After the Turkey Trot, a Green Bay Packers victory, and Thanksgiving kibble, it's nap time!

Black Friday - 21M
Black Friday was one of those good/bad kind of days... It started off with a bit of nervousness due to the weather, along with the fact that I was aiming for 20M for my own training. Going into any of our Runner's Edge of the Rockies Saturday morning training runs during the winter, my anxiety level goes up along with the likelihood of snow/sleet/rain. After last year's "winter of hell" where we literally got snowed on every single Friday/Saturday, I always find myself doing some sort of Sun Dance in hopes that we'll have good running conditions. There was the slim chance that we would have to move our trail run in Evergreen to the streets, but thankfully the weather held off enough. (GOOD) So that just left my own training. I wasn't sure how well I would do after the 27M yesterday, let alone on a trail with some good incline sections.

So I drove up to Evergreen in the early afternoon to get my run in while also marking the trail. The temperature was in the teens, but the trail conditions were excellent at Elk Meadow Open Space. (GOOD) Unfortunately my IT Band was still pretty tight and right out of the gate it let me know it was there. (BAD) Since I began training for Sunmart, this was the worst it had felt and I started to wonder if I was going to be able to finish the run, (let alone get the course set up for the next morning). Several times in the first 3 miles I had to stop for a minute to thoroughly stretch. But about 30 minutes into the run it started to loosen up and the pain decreased a bit. (GOOD) Since there was an inch of snow up in Evergreen and the trail was mostly clear, I was able to run the route and just carry orange athletic-field spray paint with me to mark the snow. Unfortunately about 3.5 miles into the route, the paint can fell out of my jacket pocket as I was running up an incline. (BAD)

By the time I realized it a half-mile later and turned back, the can had been picked up by a hiking family that I had just passed... (VERY BAD) We'll call them The Idiot Hilljacks. Jr. Hilljack (probably 10-12 years old) had proceeded to paint the trail like he was doing graffiti (and in fact later admitted to me that he had "tagged" the trail), and dad & grandpa Hilljack just jerked me around when I chased them down (multiple times), to ask them where they had left the paint can. I literally was given three different answers as to it's location, didn't believe any of them (correctly), and finally asked them why they couldn't just be nice and help me out since it was the day after Thanksgiving. With the conversation turning less than friendly and the Dad starting to get confrontational (BAD), I ran off before finding out if the Hilljacks were packing a gun. (SMART)

I finally ran my way back to where I had dropped the paint can in hopes that God would somehow grant me divine vision to actually find the thing. It had a bright orange top... How hard could it be, right? (I had already spent 15 minutes trying to locate it previous to chasing them down for the last time.) And before even getting back to the spot where Jr. had tagged everything I noticed an odd mound of snow about 10 feet off the trail. I kicked into it and sure enough... The Hilljacks had buried the thing! Well, victory went to the good guys, I gave them a silent victory salute (HA-HA!) and I was able to finish setting the remainder of the route. What was ironic is that I bumped into several very nice people along the trail during the rest of my run, (one who even ran with us the next morning!), and it just left me scratching my head at the lack of kindness some people show and the degradation of our youth. I would have been beaten to within an inch of my short life had I ever acted that way when I was a kid. Obviously these guys weren't Rhodes Scholars, and in the words of the honorable Judge Smails from Caddyshack... "Well, the world needs ditch diggers too!"

OK, so back to my own run. With the route marked and ready to go for the the next morning, I still had my own miles left to log. But after all of the back/forth due to the Hilljacks, time had flown by and the sun was setting. I hammered it back down the trail, also realizing that I was losing daylight quickly. (BAD) With almost 14M logged when I got back to the car and no daylight, I realized I couldn't run more miles up in Evergreen. The temps were dropping rapidly and no way I wanted to risk bumping into a mountain lion. (BAD)

So I quickly drove home with the intention of getting in 4 more miles. But when I got home my running mojo was on empty (BAD) and I really wanted nothing more than to eat dinner. Julie was awesome though and told me that I would be so disappointed with myself if I didn't at least get 18M in for the day since I had been training hard, and all but pushed me out the door with Champ. I started to feel better (GOOD) and after a 2.5M loop I swapped out Champ for Apollo and knocked out another 1.5M. But after dropping Apollo off, I told Julie I was going to run 2 more miles and went back out again for another loop... At this point, I was feeling so good and in the middle of an amazing runner's high that I decided to up it to 3.5M, and clipped it off at 8-min. per mile. (GOOD) I finished exceptionally strong for having just run 48M in two days (and 80M in six days), and that was such a mental bonus that I will probably rely on it during any tough miles I experience at Sunmart...

Saturday Group Trail Run
And to top it off, the group run in Evergreen was tremendous! Our recommended nutritionist Nancy Pudwill came out to do a quick training tip on how to balance "holiday food", the weather was fantastic (sunny/warm), no more Hilljacks messed with us, and everyone really had a great workout. Following the workout I took the dogs out to an off-leash dog area just to the south of Elk Meadow Open Space and Stage Coach Blvd. Champ and Apollo absolutely loved it, and we hiked around for a couple of miles. (OK, I hiked and they ran everywhere!) That probably wasn't ideal for my training as my calves were pretty beat from the previous two days and the hiking exacerbated the soreness/inflammation a bit. But with two weeks left until Sunmart and my heavy training "in the bank" so to speak... I had time to recover!

The 3:40 Runner's Edge pace group cruises through beautiful Elk Meadow.

Another bonus about Saturday was that I swung by Runner's Roost to pick up a new pair of tights - John Shults, the owner of the Denver & Aurora Roost stores commented on my "holy tights" when he saw me at the Turkey Trot and said I needed to get in to pick up a new pair. He was raving about these new tights called Skins, and said that the training benefit they provide is outstanding. They are SNUG, but not uncomfortable and apparently seven Denver Nuggets wear them under their shorts, and a lot of elite runners/cyclists are going to them as well. (And while I haven't logged enough miles in them yet to notice a huge difference, I may have to break them out at Sunmart if the weather is less than ideal.)

Fried Chicken Wings-Err... LEGS!
After no running on Saturday/Sunday, I banged out a smooth 7M on Monday morning with Michelle Wolcott. That run felt really fast for my first run after the previous week and we ran 8-9 minute pace the entire run. It felt great with no IT Band pain, but the calves were still a bit sore. So it was in to Karen Kalbach for a massage which turned out to be 10% massage and 90% pure hell. Karen is amazing for sports massage, but my calves were so inflammed and sore that she could barely get much done. Again, probably my fault for hiking around with the doggers on Saturday and as my stride breaks down on longer runs I do have the tendency to supinate and run on my toes even more... But hopefully with a lot of stretching, ice, hydration and maybe one more massage this week with Karen, they'll be feeling good by race day!

Prayers For a Friend
On Tuesday evening Julie and I went to go visit Mark Iwan, a good friend of ours who is currently in the hospital. Mark has been very ill for the past 2+ years and the doctors are still not completely sure of the exact cause. He was initially diagnosed with a brain tumor, then it was thought it was spinal meningitis or even encephalitis. I don't know all of the details but effectively his bodily systems have been getting progressively worse, which resulted in pneumonia and he's now on a trach-respirator. The good news is that Mark is at Kindred Hospital in Denver where he is being weaned from the respirator and getting transfusions but long-term a diagnosis is still needed. What's been very sad and humbling for Julie and me is that Mark is one of the brightest people around (Julie used to work with him), and he also was incredibly gifted as an athlete: He played football for Case-Western University in Cleveland, ran on the track team (4:04 miler), and also became a very accomplished marathoner (2:30). The three of us used to run every morning before work, and hopefully there will be more running in Mark's future... Please keep him in your thoughts prayers - Thanks!

Irish Snug Run
On Thursday, Holly Robinson from the group invited me to come out and do the "Snug Run" that night. Quite a few of our Runner's Edge members do the Snug Run in Denver every week including David Gillikin who actually handles some of the logistics/organization. It was a very laid-back, fun 3M run which was perfect for my taper run that evening. I took Champ with me (since dogs are allowed) and met up with members Holly, Courtney Szubielak & Mike Kennedy at the Irish Snug. Following the run we partook in the free pasta dinner provided to all of the runners, and yes, I admit that I did have a pint! It was a good time, Mike's final taper run prior to the Tucson Marathon on Sunday, and then on my way home I stopped over at Kindred hospital to visit with Mark for a bit.

"Find My Phone!"
On Friday evening while doing my 8M training run during set-up the Saturday morning group training run from Runner's Roost-Lakewood, I reinforced the belief that "David is losing his mind" when my cell phone dropped out of my pocket. (About a month ago my wallet fell out of my pocket while at Einstein Bros, the paint can in Evergreen was number two, so the cell-phone completed the trifecta.) I think I was putting a turnaround marker down on the route when the cell phone decided to jump out of my running jacket to spend a cold night alongside the Bear Creek Trail. Of course it was after sunset, dark, cold, and all I had was my headlamp. So at next morning's run, I told everyone to look for it but it was actually another runner who was out earlier than our group who saw the flashing voicemail indicator and picked it up and eventually brought it to me at Runner's Roost. So after my experience with the Idiot Hilljacks the week before, I was very encouraged with how nice this runner was to bring it back to me. Of course, he also told me he is an FBI agent so obviously the yin balanced out last-week's yang. (His name has been witheld or he'll be forced to kill me.)

The big bonus about doing Saturday's group run from Roost-Lakewood, is that I had the chance to pick the brain of the owners Sonya Estes and her husband Chris Alderman. Sonya did the 50km at Sunmart last year and Chris did the 50M and had several choice recommendations, the first being to plan on cold/humid conditions in the morning. Next Saturday's forecast at Sunmart called for rain (which could have meant several muddy sections), but later that afternoon Dave Longcope texted me an updated forecast that it was looking like upper 70's for the high temp. CRAP.... Traditionally I don't do well in hot/humid conditions. Julie then said, "yeah but it won't get that warm until the afternoon". Of course, I then reminded her that I will probably be running all day long!

Doggers Visit Santa
So would you believe me if I said that we were out running errands on Sunday and just happened to bump into a Santa photo-op for the doggers or is it more believable if I said we actually planned our errands around it? Yeah, I thought so... OK, guilty as charged - Julie wanted to take Champ & Apollo to visit Santa Claus at PetSmart. We're pathetic!

Dear Santa, we want lots of pets, walks, bones... Oh, and a few bunnies to chase. Cool?

It's All Mental
At this point, it's all mental. Literally. I know I've put in the mileage necessary required for my first ultra marathon and now it's all about getting good sleep, stretching, staying relaxed, eating well, staying hydrated, and not letting the brain get in the way of what my body can do... So with that, I'm going to get back to the 60+ E-mails in my inbox and get ready for what will hopefully be a fun, light week of training.

Oh... And I promise I'll blog in the next three days leading up to my flight to Houston on Friday morning, as there is lots to cover regarding the course, my strategy, etc.

Have a great week!

Giving Thanks

Posted on 8:32 PM comments (1)

Pete Schmidt and fellow Runner's Edge members show their Thanksgiving spirit at last year's Mile High Turkey Trot in Denver!

I know it's cliche to repeat it, but the Thanksgiving holiday truly is a time for reflection and to give thanks for everything - I'm thankful for my health, thankful for my beautiful wife Julie and our soon to be son, thankful for Champ and Apollo (of course!), thankful for my family and friends, thankful for Runner's Edge of the Rockies and all of the wonderful people who make up the group and allow me to follow my passion for coaching, and thankful that we can live in a country that affords us the opportunity to pursue our goals, dreams and happiness! Tonight as I ran a very short 4M recovery run (Junk Miles!) in prep for the next two days of long mileage, I thought about how fortunate I am. I told myself that no matter how bad life seems to get, that I should always be thankful of God's blessings. (Probably even moreso whenever a car cuts me off during a run, warranting the bird!) :-)

Tomorrow morning kicks off my final two long training runs prior to tapering... The goal is 26 miles tomorrow morning and then 20 more on Friday. Tomorrow I will have some much needed support for the final 11 miles as I will hook up with Jim Lynch at mile 15 prior to the Denver Turkey Trot at Washington Park for my final 4, where most of the group will also be running. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous about doing these big workouts back-to-back; but my body has responded very well to the two previous sets, and I just need to focus on relaxing, staying properly hydrated/fueled, having fun, and putting one foot in front of the other...

Have a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving tomorrow!!

Roxborough, Running With the Stars, and Eating Like a Horse

Posted on 11:58 PM comments (4)

OK - Lots to get caught up on! While I haven't been blogging, I at least have been RUNNING. The weekend was a busy but good one, and as with the previous weekend I opted to skip any running on Saturday and focus efforts on the the group run. We had about 125+ members out on Saturday, which is a pretty big number for our Winter Training Session. One unique thing about Runner's Edge of the Rockies is that we run year-round unlike most of the training groups in Denver, but we still have to compete with skiing and the colder weather. Let's just hope mother nature doesn't have a major say in the rest of this session, like last year's brutal winter! (And as I type this, the temperature is dropping steadily - Time to bust out the running tights!)

Sunday was absolutely beautiful (60+ degrees), and since Karen Kalbach couldn't run with the group on Saturday she asked me if I needed company for my miles on Sunday. Of course I did! So I loaded up the doggers, picked up Karen and we headed down to Roxborough State Park. We were thinking about running Sharptail Ridge, but that trail crosses into prime hunting land and was closed off to runners on Sunday. But it was OK because for all of the various trails I've run close to Denver I had never run Roxborough and was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the grumpy park ranger said that no dogs are allowed inside Roxborough which was complete news to me, so Karen and I parked at the Fire Station back around the corner and decided to run the 2 miles up to the nature center at the center of the park.

It turned out to be a great move, as it added necessary mileage to our workout without having to do too much ascending. And while I like trails and ran the Pikes Peak Marathon in 2004, I'm not exactly seeking out hills at this point since Sunmart is very flat. But, we still did our share of climbing as the road up to the nature center climbed approx. 370 feet, and then we hit the trails. They were absolutely gorgeous and the views of the sandstone rock faces and wildlife (plenty of deer and hawks), kept our mind off of the exertion required for the run. 12 miles later we were back at the car; a perfect workout for such a great day.

Monday's mileage was pretty uneventful as I connected with Mike Kennedy for a run in Lowry. Mike is tapering now for the Tucson Marathon so I had to tack on a few extra to get my 7. The miles went by quickly as they usually do with Mike; one because we always go too fast when we run together and two because we rap about sports pretty much non-stop. He's the Sports Information Director for the University of Denver, and used to work for the Colorado Rockies. (And if you need any tickets to DU sports like hocky or hoops, let Mike know!)

Mike also joined me for my run this evening and we did 4 together and then I went back out again for another 5 (1 with Apollo & 4 with Champ) to finish with 9 total. One interesting piece of the run was when we saw a coyote cruising the streets of Stapleton, just two blocks east of Quebec! There have been a few coyote sightings lately and my next door neighbors have speculated that one killed their house cat who didn't come home last week. But after seeing it, I'm definitely very cognizant of my surroundings... Especially with the doggers. I don't think a coyote would want to take on Champ at 65 lbs. but Apollo is still probably little enough to create an interest.

A couple of quick things:

TRACKING MILEAGE
If you want to see how my training is going in comparison to the training schedule I originally built, I've added a log below of my actual mileage. You'll be able to see the two missed workouts from last week, but the weekly mileage total is a bit misleading though since I've had to move all of my long runs to Sun/Mon. (So technically the totals should be shifted a bit.) It's going to look really off this week if I get in all of my miles and crack 70!

TIGHT FIT
At the recommendation of Vince & Chris DiCroce who run in our group, I'm trying out a few quick-lacing systems. These are great for triathletes who need to get in/out of their running shoes quickly during transition zones, and there's always the chance I may want to change shoes at some point during Sunmart. (Because hey - 50M in one pair of shoes may not be comfortable!) So I'm doing a bit of experimenting... I've got Yankz on my trail runners and Easy Laces on my road shoes. Without question I can get in/out of my running shoes like slippers now however the jury is still out if I will actually use them in the race. At times both options feel too tight or loose and the last thing I want is unnecessary blistering!

DWTS
OK, so Julie is a huge fan of Dancing With the Stars... Who isn't, right? But as Mike and I were getting in our run tonight, Julie's top choice for this season -- Jennie Garth of 90210 -- was eliminated. And I have to agree that her dancing wasn't deserving of an elimination. (Good Lord, I can't believe I'm actually blogging about this!)

EAT, EAT, EAT!
I feel like I'm back in high school and college where I could go to a certain Mexican fast-food chain that rhymes with "Baco Tell" and literally put away 8-10 items in one sitting. As I continue to increase my mileage, my appetite is also making a big comeback to keep up with my increased caloric burn. And the good news is that I've had no "booting" (puking) on any of my training runs, even when eating solid food before or during the workouts. Tonight I put down a bowl of Ramen noodles prior to heading out the door with Mike, (a whopping $0.20 investment!), and on previous runs I've had trail mix, energy bars, cookies and even a pretty sizable Sambazon Acai smoothie. (The Acai is just PACKED with energy and antioxidants - Perfect for ultra marathon training!)

Dog Poop

Posted on 10:34 PM No Comments

That pretty much sums up the last few days of my training... DOG POOP! After rocking out the 23 & 18 mile runs on Sun/Mon and then following up with a 5M recovery run on Tuesday, I pretty much blanked it on Wed and Thurs. Not ideal, especially with Sunmart just three short weeks away... I hadn't missed a scheduled run since I commited to this ultra. (Maybe moved a run or two, but no missed miles.) Big downer.

One of the toughest times I have with balancing my schedule, is during the first part of any of our three primary training sessions for Runner's Edge of the Rockies. Getting everyone logged into the roster and then set up with their training schedules takes a large amount of time, in addition to prepping for the weekly Saturday run. When I'm not training, I can usually stay up into the wee hours of the morning getting everything done. However, running 50-60+ miles a week is certainly draining, and I've been crashing earlier each night. Good for the body to let me know what it needs, but the E-mails, voice-mails and registrations from members don't stop coming in... So I had to put the group first this week, and my training took a back seat. That, and Julie and I are also trying to blast through the to-do ERR... "honey do" list prior to Jr's arrival, so it was juggle city this week with lots of projects, errands, etc.

The upside of this is that it was during a "down" week where I don't have tons of long mileage. One training trick that I've found out is that if you do have a hectic schedule and have to miss runs, you're much better off to do it during a recovery or down week. Up weeks are critically important to get in 95-100% of your miles, especially when training for a first race at a given distance. But during a down week your body is either maintaining or recovering so missing a run or two won't set you back nearly as much. It's not ideal, and there are definitely no shortcuts in distance running... But let's just call it a compromise.

But on a positive note, I had the opportunity to catch up with an old running friend named Chris De John that I haven't spoken with in quite some time. Chris currently lives in Arkansas with his wife Ali and their two children. (Ali designs fantastic greeting cards and you can buy some online!) He's a very accomplished distance runner having run a 3:01 for the Marathon, and completed several ultra marathons including the Leadville 100. Chris did Leadville in 2003, finishing it in just his first attempt! I had the pleasure of pacing him during that race and actually gleaned quite a bit from that experience that I'm now drawing on for my own training. There were LOTS of stories from that race... Of course the best was sometime around 1:00AM on the slopes of Mt. Elbert and Chris and I asked another runner how things are going and the guy replied, "great until my pacer got me lost a while back and added 2 (bleeping) miles to this damn race." (Doh!)

Chris and I spent a while on the phone discussing various strategies for ultra marathons that are all equally important: Pacing, hydration, nutrition, mental games, etc. Chris gave my training a good vote of confidence despite the two missed days this week, and actually said that those days off may be a blessing in disguise after two weekends of back-to-back long runs. He said that the mental challenge is toughest of all and at some point I may really lose the ability to stay positive. But I just read something this week on ESPN.com that I will remember when the miles get tough. This story about Claire Markwardt is simply amazing as she shattered her leg a mere 45 feet from the finish line in a HS cross country meet and had the toughness to finish the race. WOW.

So tonight I pushed back from the PC despite still having lots of work left, and committed myself to 9 miles to get back on track. I did two of my favorite 4M loops around Stapleton, taking Champ with me for the second one. Then of course added a very slow cool-down mile with Apollo... I think it's really going to be fun when they both can run together!

The next week though is absolutely crunch time and I need to nail all of my workouts. If you've been following along with this blog and comparing my workouts to the schedule (at the bottom) that I initially built, you'll see that I'm off track slightly since I can't run long on Saturday's after getting up at 3:00AM to set up & coach the group run. So with everything shifted out a day, that's created some challenges. For my last two long runs, I will most likely wake up early on Thanksgiving morning and target 24-26M, hopefully including the Turkey Trot here in Denver to break things up mentally. It will be fun to cruise that race with some members in the group and not have to worry about racing it hard through all of the walkers/strollers that for some idiotic reason enjoy lining up in the first five rows of 10,000 people. It reminds me of that game Red Rover... "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Davey right over!" And then you blast past some Mom with a stroller and dog, as she's getting yelled at by everyone around her. Ahhh... Fun stuff! Then on Friday I will most likely head up to Barr Lake for another 18+ miler, and my last "long" run of the training period before tapering down to the race on December 8th.

And with that, it's bed time for this guy... Four hours of sleep before getting up at oh-dark-thirty to go set up the route for the group. Happy running!

Flip-Flop

Posted on 6:55 AM No Comments

By now if you've been reading this you've seen that I haven't been able to exactly stay on schedule. Inconsistency is obviously normal with any training program when "life happens", but whenever possible it's best to stay consistent. My challenge has been with the weekends, and in particular fitting in my two back-to-back long runs while also balancing a long Saturday of setting up and coaching our Runner's Edge of the Rockies group workouts. Midweek hasn't been easy either as I'm behind on E-mail responses to members...

True, I have been able to get in all of the miles and for a race of this distance, building a high weekly volume of mileage is key. However some of my miles have come on scheduled off days or I've done 2-a-days, and a training schedule isn't always the time spent running and includes the all-important requisite recovery activities. (Off days, stretching, massage, and SLEEP.) Unfortunately I've had to run on off days in order to keep my mileage on track, but that's left me pretty tired. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're saying: "how would you NOT be tired while training for your first ultra marathon?" And I do think that running 41 miles in just 2 days has taken it's toll, along doing back-to-back weekends of 31+ miles.

So between that and looking out ahead in the final 3.5 weeks of my training, I think I'm going to move a few of my workouts and flip-flop some days to balance things out a bit more. It's not what I would like to do, but is necessary since running on Saturday just isn't an option. In particular, I'm going to try and do my last two back-to-back long runs on Thanksgiving. (Can you say Turkey Trot +21?) Because if I held to my current Sun/Mon long run pattern that would shorten my taper from 11 days to 10 and I'm thinking a 14-15 day taper would be better. Less is more sometimes, and as I always tell our members... It's better to be 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained. I need to heed my own advice!

So on that note, we'll see if I even get in a run today - I was going to shoot for 9-10 miles, but I am pretty tired and also have a ton of work to get done. I did get in a 5-mile recovery run last night (first 4 with Champ and then a VERY slow final mile with Apollo), and felt OK considering it was right after the back-to-back 23M & 18M runs. And true, this is a down week so one missed run probably won't kill me (and may even help). I guess we'll just have to play it by ear and see how I feel this afternoon...