May 2011
1 post
Front Range 60 Race Report
Does waking up at 5 am, to race to a race to ride a mountain bike fast for 60 miles sound fun? It does to me and that is what I did this morning to get myself into the Front Range 60, a local Denver race, the second in the Warrior Series.
I arrived at the race in plenty of time and was able to pre-register early and was ready to go well before the race (unlike my South African friend who rolled...
April 2011
1 post
Voodoo Fire Race Report
Today I raced in my first ever mountain bike race (I have raced cyclocross 3 times so far) at the Voodoo Fire Mountain Bike race at Lake Pueblo State Park just outside of Pueblo, CO. I went down with the Nazman, who is an experienced mountain biker and helped guide me through the weekend a bit. I would also like to thank Sonya Looney and Collin, my boss for some helpful advice.
The night...
November 2010
1 post
Grand Canyon
I am writing this really late but I can’t put this off any longer. The Grand Canyon trip deserves some attention.
My friend Deanne and I went back to the GC this year, something I have been doing the last 3 years. Deanne picked me up in Phoenix and we drove up. We are both very chatty types and we had a blast catching up. Deanne is my second mom, and just like my Mom is a very cool...
October 2010
1 post
Fractured arm bone
10 days ago I was at the Aspen Lodge Cyclocross trying out the course the evening before the race. The course meandered through the Lodge grounds and was pretty gnarly. You can see great pictures of the course here. While riding and learning this fun course on my singlespeed 29er, I was finishing the 5th and final lap as it was getting a bit dark. One especially tough part for me on the...
September 2010
8 posts
Golden Gate Canyon Trail Race Report
Today I ran this small but really awesome race for the 4th time. Adam Feerst of the Denver Trail Runners puts on this race and to me it has a special flavor I haven’t found at many other trail races, although I am probably not looking hard enough (next year I want to run more small trail races). It’s small, it’s has a scenic and challenging course, it has a community feel as...
First Cyclocross race
Today I raced in my first cyclocross race in the Boulder Cross Series at the Xilinx complex in Longmount. I have been watching my friend Naz race for a couple of years and have always thought it looks like a blast. The spectators crowd along the race course and get in your face as a racer, which as anybody who has raced anything knows, is exactly what you need when you are racing. It’s...
Golden Gate Canyon
Today I rode Golden Gate Canyon by myself. Sunday I race the Golden Gate Canyon trail run. There was a light rain today and I hesitated starting wet but it wasn’t that hot and since I am a fat fuck anyway, and hence never a problem in cool weather, I went for it. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon of riding but…I got my ass kicked by the technical nature of most of the...
Super Walker
Today I did a “Super Walker”, ride up Flagstaff from my house, ride Walker Ranch and ride back up Flagstaff a bit and down back home. I did this ride last Thursday minus a complete loop around Walker Ranch because I ran out of time in the late evening. I went to Chicago the next day and dreamt of Walker Ranch the whole time I was there. So when I got back the first thing I did was...
Imogene Race Report
Thursday I headed out with my friend Kim for Telluride to run my third annual Imogene. The tradition started about 3 years ago and I have been hooked ever since. I meet lots of people who have run Imogene several years in a row, e.g. one couple from Flagstaff who we met on the bus had run it 19 times! I can’t think of a good reason to ever stop making this a fall destination race.
...
Imogene Tomorrow!
I am in Gunnison heading to Ouray for my third running of Imogene. A is anything under 3:00 to 3:10. B is 3:10-3:20. Race report next week.
Bear Peak Time Trial #2
Yesterday I ran my second time trial up Beak Peak via Fern Canyon for my coach Connie at ATC. She is testing me every 4 weeks or so to see how I am responding to the ATC training and the running. This is a 4.15 mile, 3065 feet climb, a 14.2 % average grade, the same as Imogene. I got to the summit in 1:12:35 last time and 1:10:42 this time, almost a 2 minute improvement. Just like last...
August 2010
9 posts
Matt Carpenter's 2005 Leadville Race Report →
In response for a request for more Shady references in my running blog posts I present this old classic, the amazing (looking even more amazing with Anton’s 2 failed attempts as of yesterday) account of Matt Carpenter’s record setting performance at Leadville in 2005. Matt Carpenter is the Tiger Woods of U.S. mountain running, and talks here about how he figured out how to win and win...
Guess Who's Back...
Back again, I’m back running, tell a friend. I am so excited because I ran to the top of Bear Peak this afternoon without any right calf pain. Plus I never stopped moving the whole time from my house to the peak, the first time I have ever done that. On the way down I felt really strong, which makes sense with my big taper from running. I am just excited to run, what a privilege! This...
“Run a 14er, run a really fast unexpected mile, run 2000 vert the next morning? ...”
– John Wright
Meet Whitey
Meet Whitey, my first mountain bike, a Gary Fisher Rig. He loves to climb and roll over rocks. I rented a mountain bike in Crested Butte several weeks ago and had a great experience. However I had lots of open questions about what I liked and didn’t like about the experience. I was fortunate to meet a great guy named Eric Svendson in Gunnison on the way home at a restaurant where I...
Pearl Street Mile Race Report
Tonight Renee and I went down to Pearl Street to both run the Pearl Street Mile again. Renee’s classmate Sydney Rios and her mom Mary got us into this last year and Renee and I really liked it so we came back again. I had run Long’s yesterday and had forgot about this race but it doesn’t really matter, it’s just a simple test of fitness and last year I ran it on tired...
Eldora 10K Race Report
So this race is called The Eldora 11K but I refuse to call it that since it seems silly when the course today was 5.8 miles by my Garmin. This morning I rode up with Connie, my coach who also ran the race, on really cool post rain gorgeous morning. I have had a really light week and it showed in my warmup, I felt really good and was ready to run. The race director said the course was really...
Reset the legs for a race
Sunday I went out with friends to Pike’s Peak for the famous 3-2-1 training run. You drive to the top, run 3 miles down, summit up, 2 miles down, summit, 1 mile down and summit again. It’s great training for that special type of willpower and fitness needed to run up and down off the summit of a 14-eener. It’s all very runnable on Pikes given you have the legs and lungs for...
July 2010
7 posts
A week of time trials
Everything I did this week felt intense and fast. It started with the time trial up Bear followed by special 49 minute challenge for Paul’s 49th birthday at ATC, where I worked so hard with him that I cramped a bit from losing so much sweat and almost puked at one point (that is all a good thing). The next day I rushed up Green from Settler’s Park. And the next day I rushed up...
Time trial up Bear Peak via Fern Canyon
My coach at ATC, Connie, asked me to do a time trial from my house up Bear Peak to Fern Canyon. Here are the results from this morning. I made it to the top in 1:12:25, via a route I take from my parking lot up Table Mesa, my best ever time by about 6 minutes. I have never rushed up however so I consider this my first time trial. I have done this run 3 times in the last 15 days. It is a...
South Boulder Peak via Shadow and down West Ridge →
Today I ran up a mountain, alone.
I need some people to run with in the mornings. Anybody interested in running up Bear, Green, or SoBo (actually anywhere around here and it doesn’t have to be up a mountain although it has to be on trails) during the week, starting at say 6:30-7 from somewhere within striking distance of these peaks. I like to make my mornings runs around 2 hours but I am flexible. Write me at...
Back to RMNP
After a 3 days of mostly mountain biking in Crested Butte, I came back to Boulder for a day to regroup and then back out to Estes Park for the final parent’s weekend for Renee at Camp Cheley. This means more car camping, more Belgium beer at Poppy’s, more running in RMNP with following cold dips in the Thompson or Lily Lake. I brought along my new NB 100s that I got from Zombie...
Leadville Trail Marathon Race Report
Saturday I raced the Leadville Trail Marathon. I came into Leadville Wed. evening in order to adjust to the altitude a bit more. In town I ran into a familiar face from the Leadville Trail 100, a man who looked to be in his seventies. I said “Now that’s a familiar face” and told him that I didn’t know who he was but I had seen him around the Leadville 100. It turned out...
June 2010
12 posts
The Marathon
In 4 days I will run my second marathon. My first was last year at the Collegiate Peaks marathon. I have never run one of the classic road marathons, like the Chicago marathon but as I watched “Spirit of The Marathon” on Netflix tonight I still could identify with the experience of the runners profiled: the long training runs, the wall at mile 20, the emotional rush of accomplishment...
Boulder Skyline Traverse →
Hey, I don’t have to write this blog post. The much more capable blogger and a new acquaintance George Zack, details the run we all did Saturday night quite nicely.
17 miles to the Keyhole
Yesterday, I returned to Rocky Mountain National Park for a week of training and good mountain living. I decided that with exactly 2 weeks to go to the Leadville Marathon, it would be as good as time as any to try a more aggressive run up to 13K feet. So I decided to run up to the Keyhole, an opening on the way up to Long’s Peak. I drove into RMNP and decided to jump right in with all the...
18 miles on the RMNP Black Canyon Trail
Yesterday April and I dropped Renee off for a month at Cheley Camp. After saying goodbye to Renee, April and her bf Shaun headed off for a week of climbing the Nose of El Cap in Yosemite (good luck to them!) and I headed to downtown Estes to my favorite coffee shop so far in the world, Kind Coffee shop. I sat my ass down and did some work. Come evening time I headed out to the Lumpy Ridge...
12 miles on Niwot Ridge
I have been trying to run in the mountains every other day. This evening I snuck up for a run to Niwot Ridge Road. I was hoping the trail would be runnable and it was although very wet with meltoff (including my fat). I wasn’t terribly strong and made it to this “horrible” dead end after 2 hours of work.
I sat here on this hill and took in some Sharkies and the...
Leadville Trail Marathon
I am researching the Leadville Trail Marathon today. I am genuinely embarrassed I know as little about as I do with it coming up so quickly. Here are some things I have learned.
3rd place was taken by Duncan Callahan last year, one of my favorite trail runners, in 3:55. Ouch! According to these results, sub 5 hours still puts you in the top 35 or 40! This is going to be a much bigger race...
4th of July Road -21 miles
Today I intended to run the King’s Lake Loop to Devil Thumb up past Eldora, about a 17 mile loop. But as the following video showed I was turned around with snow:
So instead I ran up and down the road to the 4th of July Trailhead about 8 miles. I was going to run it twice but when I got back I was really tired and decided to do a repeat up the first part of the King’s Lake...
Mountain Running ahead
The Bolder Boulder is over and as Jay-Z says: “onto the next one”. The next one for me is the Leadville marathon (not ultra-marathon) on July 3rd. After that is the Imogene Pass Run which I signed up for today (you should too if you plan to run it.).
The big task ahead of me with only a month prep time is the Leadville Marathon. How do you prepare for a marathon in only 4 weeks?...
Bolder Boulder 2010
Today Renee and I ran our second Bolder Boulder together and my third.
I ran in wave AB. I have been training mostly in the mountains. As you can tell from my posts (or lack of them) my running has been very casual. I haven’t worn a watch and have run mainly trails. I have run consistently about 40-45 miles per week, with an average of 2 sessions of ATC per week (my killer gym...
May 2010
4 posts
Stanford Run
Tonight leaving work on a business trip in San Jose, I noticed a guy get on the train without any bag and his workout clothes. He looked really fit, like Ironman fit and sure enough he has just finished 8th in the 40-44 age group at Ironman St. George, Utah. We sat together on the train and chatted up train running, Ironman, training, and more. What is great about this is that I was getting...
Taco run
You are supposed to run and instead you eat 6, 8, 10 authentic Mexican tacos. You are visiting family and it’s hard to say no. You drink 2 margs and you laugh with your family around the table. You tell yourself that you can run after dinner at dusk. After dinner you take off in the crisp unusually cold evening air and run down to the local state park. You decide to run the 1.5 mile lap...
Boise Y-Striders Saturday Morning Long Run
I am in Boise helping out with my Mom who is sick and I had to miss the Collegiate Peaks 25 mile run I did last year that I had signed up for. I didn’t want to miss out on a chance for a run in the mountains especially knowing that my friends are either doing the Ironman at St. George or running Collegiate Peaks so I contacted the Boise Y-Striders to run with them.
I escaped out of the...
April 2010
1 post
Happy Earth Day!
Today at Renee’s school, Bear Creek Elementary, we had 99 kids ride their bikes to school where we greeted them with lots of bike swag. Many of the kids made art out of recycled items like bags and plastic bottles:
After the morning Earth Day activity, I went out for a run in the icy cold rain. As the rain fell hard and I tried to protect my iPhone, I listened to this great...
March 2010
3 posts
Birthday Workout Challenge
I woke up today 33 years old, grabbed some quarters out of the coin jar and ran to Starbucks. I downed an espresso, turned on some JayZ and headed to ATC for my birthday challenge. I think I might of set a record time getting down there, my legs felt great. Here was my birthday challenge.
I didn’t really have that much trouble with the workout once I got started. I felt myself getting...
A week of training
This week for the first time in a while I got in 3 ATC workouts. For 2 of those days I ran to and from ATC and all 3 of the workouts were some of the toughest I have had at the ATC in several months. The coaches, Jeremy and Connie, have really been ramping things up and pushing us hard. I feel rounded lumpy muscle all over my body and a fatigued core and lower back (those clear up after a...
February 2010
4 posts
Race Report - Snowman Stampede
1 year ago I ran the Snowman Stampede in 1:17:31, finishing 79th, a 7:46 pace. After that race I set a goal to come back and run it in under 70 minutes, in a sub 7min pace. Today was the day to see if I could do it.
10 miles became a significant distance for me in 2009. I would think about this goal while I ran around Boulder Rez, twice, over 10 miles or when I would run 10 miles while...
Run to ATC, work hard, run home
Recently this has been my Mon/Wed/Friday morning workout. I walk Renee to school, run to ATC across Boulder about 4 miles, do the workout and then run, well jog, home. On the way home I am always really tired after the workout so I look at it as a chance to learn how to run while tired.
Today ATC was a “work capacity” session. This means you take some moderately heavy weights, ...