Monthly Archives: May 2010

A mentor of mine, Dan Doran, flew my family to Phoenix this week because he wanted me to film a testimonial for his upcoming infomercial.

So that was a fun little free trip, actually we got paid a little bit too since they paid us per diem for food which was way more than necessary.

And it was a great opportunity to visit our step-family in Phoenix who we never see and do some running and playing in really nice weather.

The weather was between 80-85 Degrees which was really nice.  Nan won a little 5K race on Saturday morning in a time of 17:31.

Then we took the kids swimming at the resort which was fun.  Then I went trail running for a little while in the hills near scottsdale.

That was an experience.  Good and bad.

It was a phenomenal morning for a run.  On the hot side, but not too hot.  I really liked it.   I love running with just shorts and some water.  I found a trailhead in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve that looked cool and started running up.  It was a pretty easy/moderate uphill run for the first 2 miles that kept getting gradually harder and harder.   The last mile was a true butt kicker in every sense of the word, but I was ABSOLUTELY determined to run the entire way to the top (of the pass.  I didn’t see trails to the peaks, and I didn’t want to be away from the fam all day, so I settled for the pass as my goal from the onset which was a 3.5 mile run out and then 3.5 back.)

Here’s a pic of the pass I was headed too.

Well, I was within 1/4 mile of the top and I stubbed my SAME STINKING INJURED LEFT TOE as last week!  Such a pain.  I was barely moving going uphill at that point in about a 16 min/mile.  It hurt decently bad and I had to stop and sit down for a minute.  Which bummed me out, because I was feeling awesome.

By this point I was so close to the top I wasn’t turning back yet, even though it was now hurting my foot a little bit to run on.  I figured I had to make it down 3+ miles still anyway, so it wasn’t going to make a difference to go a bit more to the top.

But the next 1/4 mile was pretty much straight up.  I love super steep running, it feels so cool even though I’m going so slow, it just feels cool to keep running even though its so steep, and passing hikers and blowing by them at a sizzling 18 min/mile is kind of funny.  Its just funny that I’m going so slow and yet everyone else is moving at about 30 min/mile or less at that point.

I made it, and I felt really good about making it and not bailing because my stupid foot hurt a little.  But coming down was really slow going.  I was ultra cautious with my foot and I descended the 3.5 miles back to the car probably 10+ minutes SLOWER than I had ascended it.  It was between 35-40 minutes to get up, and a total of about 1:30 of total time out.  I don’t know because my watch died after 2 miles, and my phone battery died, so I had no clue what time it was.

Also, on the way down, the pads of my feet started hurting a lot, it was the weirdest thing.  I think I figured out why, and it was because of all the fine desert sand that got in my FF’s and was grinding against the front of my forefoot.

Super interesting roller coaster of a run.  Never had that unpleasant of a downhill run before, usually I really enjoy the downhill, but because of my hurt left foot and the pads of my feet hurting, it was just kind of surviving the downhill.  LOVED the uphill though.

And I’m really considering getting some different shoes to try out to protect my toes a bit better.  It seems that when I’m tired, I get sloppier and I’m at risk of painful toe stubbs, which seems to be a drawback of the FF’s in mountain running.

So anyone recommend a great shoe with a TOTALLY FLAT sole?!  I really don’t like a raised heal at all and I’d like to find a mountain shoe that will work as a supplement for me.   I love running in my FF treks, but I would like an alternative for certain occasions when I want more protection, specifically like right now when my foot is trying to recover from injury.

Here’s a picture driving up to the trailhead.  A beautiful place to go running.

Today I ran from Eldorado Canyon, up the mesa trail, up Bear Canyon, to the top of Green Mountain.

Ascent was 1:16 for 6.25 miles – 12:09/mile

Total: 12.5 Miles – 2:18 – 11:06/mile – 5240 Ft of climbing!  I love running to the top of mountains.  Its the best feeling and the most scenic way to run!

Despite my low mileage recently, I am pleased with my fitness level increase.  Today I ran the 3 miles from the base of Bear Canyon to the top of Green mtn in 41 minutes.  The other times I have run up Green it has taken me at least 55 min.  Partially due to snow, but I can feel that doing p90X ever day has been improving my fitness level a lot over the past 6 weeks.  Another good indicator of improvement is 2 months ago I ran trails for two hours around flagstaff mtn.  Total elevation gain of 3600 feet, and I averaged 12:43/mile.  Today with 5200 feet of elevation I ran 20 minutes longer and averaged 11:06/mile, including slowing down a bunch going down because of the excruciating pain of stubbing my same toe twice.

The boy scouts on the peak snapped a picture of me in my pasty whiteness – this is my 4th run up Green mt. this year I believe.

I’m a sucker for trails through the mountains.  And I’m totally spoiled to live within a 10-15 minute drive of dozens upon dozens of amazing single track trails through expanses of mountains.  I feel pretty fortunate.

Here are a couple of my views this morning, which don’t even do it justice at all.

Ran 7.5 glorious sunny miles of mountainous trails.  Exactly 1 hour 30 minutes.  pace showed 12:06/mile and 3300 Feet of elevation gain.  The sun was already fully up when I started driving to the trail head.  It was really windy by my house, but perfect in the foothills.

This is one of those mornings where I feel completely blessed to be able to run and not be injured.

And now I’m getting super excited to go to Crested Butte this weekend.  Nan and I are getting away for the weekend for our 8th anniversary.  3 days in the mountains running and biking and hanging out with my best friend and not changing diapers or putting out fights.  Yes, it is going to be very nice indeed.

As I ran down the trail in that 2nd picture today though, my mind was filled with memories of hiking that exact section just 3 days ago with my 2 year old Ali holding on tight to my finger and it brought joy to my heart as I ran, and I couldn’t help just laughing out loud and grinning at how blessed I am.  Each time I jumped a mud puddle I heard Ali say ‘muddies’ in the cutest way ever.  It was a cool way to end the run, and made me very grateful to be able to share trail experiences with my family.

It was a gloriously sunny and beautiful spring day in Colorado today.

I did an hour kenpo p90X workout first thing in the morning while Nan was at a workout with her running team.

Then later in the day we took the kids hiking over in Boulder and I got to sneak in a VERY fun but quick trail run.

I ran about 3.5 miles in 9:18 pace.  Time: 32:50.   My last mile was a 6 minute mile, with the last half being 5:24.  It felt good to go fast, but it required a straight smooth steep down hill for this 186 pounder to get going that fast for that long.  I was pretty pleased that I could hold that pace so comfortably, not maxing my HR out at all even though the run had 1000 Feet of elevation gain in the first 2 miles.  The 2nd 1.5 miles were back down hill.

Gorgeous sunny day:

I realized after and during this run that I really like running with a hat when its hot, because if I don’t I just have sweat pouring into my eyes.  That’s definitely going to be a new habit for me.

When I came back down the trail I met up with the family who was hiking up and we hiked around for a couple miles.  The kids loved it.  We both thought it was about a billion times more peaceful and relaxing, and just as fun as Disneyland, and free, and in our own back yard.  The kids actually seemed to have more fun running around and climbing rocks and jumping through rivers than much of the time spent at Disneyland.

Although in LA we did go to the beach one night last week, made a fire and some s’mores, which was really fun, and the best part was watching my 4 year old Breanne who is a total dare-devil’ette’.  She was just launching herself off this 4.5 foot ledge onto the sand with no regard, check out one of the better pics where she ended up just eating a face full of dirt and laughing it off.  It was pretty awesome watching her go after this ledge drop over and over.

It was an amazing sunset and a really fun evening playing with the fam and hanging out with my friend Ryan Nicholls and his family who we haven’t seen in a few years.