Monthly Archives: October 2010

Double rainbow marking a new phase

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Aaron K

Todays run – 6.5 miles – 54:26 – (8:23) – 287 Feet ascent/descent - Really easy relaxed run this morning around countryside.

On the last 2 miles toward home I was running into the arc of an incredible and huge full double rainbow as the sun was rising behind me.  It was pretty spectacular.  Then it started raining pretty steady the last half mile which was cold but kind of refreshing.

Oh and we decided yesterday to move to South Boulder (near Table Mesa) in the next few weeks…odd turn of events that is kind of exciting (and somewhat daunting) to think about.  I can’t help but feeling a little giddy at the thought of my doorstep being 1/4 mile from a trail start to skunk canyon that connects to all the Boulder mountain parks trails.

Posted in FiveFinger Runs, Running Logs, Thoughts | 2 Comments

Running quotes of the day…from Chariots of Fire

Posted on October 23, 2010 by Aaron K

Regarding Eric Liddell from the Olympic Committee Chairman, 1924:

Committe Chairman: “He’s a true man of principle and a true athlete.  His speed is a mere extension of his life, its force.  We sought to sever his running from himself.”

Other guy: “For his country’s sake, yes.”

Committee Chairman:  “No sake is worth that, least of all a guilty national pride.”

I was motivated and inspired by that scene watching Eric Liddell stand for his principles.  It has been a recent topic of discussion between my wife and I.  I really like this scripture that was quoted in the movie as well:

From Isiaiah 40 “Behold, the nations are as a drop in the bucket and I count it as a small dust in the balance.  All nations before him are as nothing.  He bringeth the princes to nothing.  He maketh the judges of the earth as a vanity, Has though not known that the everlasting God fainteth not, neither is weary. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength.  They shall mount up with wings as eagles.  And they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.”

Experiences in my life have shown me the truth of that last statement, and it is motivating and uplifting for me to be reminded of that truth.

Posted in Thoughts | 1 Comment

Baltimore Marathon in Pictures (with an obvious bias towards Nan)

Posted on October 16, 2010 by Aaron K

The Flying Flag dude to kick it all off and  Max King Warming up


Nan and Max pre-race as well as John Crews warming up


Dude in middle: “This race is mine.  check out my hat!”  Max: “Umm…nope…sorry buddy”


Still having fun around mile 6.

4 Women leaders at mile 9 – only 1 would remain in top 3

Nan was running smart here, not going faster than 5:43′s.  I was needlessly concerned that she went out too fast…she knew what she was doing it turns out.

Looking strong and doing well around mile 10

Drafting off of, and then Dropping the guys to keep her pace as the course record holder is making her move to catch up behind.  This is about mile 12

Shot this one while riding the bike just after the half marathon point…Nan was through the half in around 1:16

Just before mile 21, Nan now in third having passed and dropped 2 women on the long, brutal, headwind of a four mile climb.

4th place was trying to hang on, but with the down hill Nan dropped her as well…she was definitely starting to hurt here at mile 23, but still kicking butt.

This is the course record holder Iulia, took 2nd to her teammate today

Here’s the top 10 women’s results

And here were the top 10 Men’s results.  Congrats to Max and John for PR’s and solid racing on a tough course and field.

Top 3 women, plus a straggler/friend of theirs who dropped (right of Nan), plus Clay, the elite athlete coordinator.

Waiting for the awards

Top women and Men finishers

Congrats to Nan on a huge PR and a 3rd place finish in a tough race!!


What a cool day!  I absolutely loved touring Baltimore on my bike and watching the Marathon unfold.  Such a cool way to see a new city.  It’s great because there were police officers stopping traffic for me at every corner.  So I was able to cruise easily back and forth all over the course watching it all go down, snapping pictures, and checking in on Nan’s water and food at the aid stations etc.

And Nan had such an awesome race.  She raced really smart and super tough.  I was a bit concerned when I saw her in 2nd place at mile because I thought she might be going out too fast.  Especially when the course record holder was 45 seconds behind at that point.

I was further concerned, when between 9-10 miles she was losing ground on a group of 6 runners up front, and then the CR holder had brought the gap to 10 seconds and was gaining fast.

Its funny because Nan could see my nervousness on my face, she told me after the race.  I’m an open book I guess.  But she just thought to herself, “he’ll see soon enough”.

I was really hoping I was wrong, and that she was just pacing herself smarter to save for the 4-6 miles of hills coming up.

Fortunately that was the case indeed. The CR holder passed Nan at the half marathon point.  By Mile 16 (the start of the hill climbing) Nan was only 35 seconds off the leaders.

When I saw her next at mile 21 after all the major climbing, she was running in 3rd with a Kenyan girl drafting on her…Awesome!!!!  I was so stoked for her at this point.  I knew she was going to get at least 3rd, and I still had hope that she could really turn it on on the down hill and catch at least one of the leaders.

She then proceeded to drop the Kenyan girl Salome.  But at mile 23.7 The lead Russian had already put another minute on her in less than 3 miles.  Wow…that girl was flying.  Nan held 6:01/mile the last 4 miles, so Nan wasn’t totally falling off pace.  But in order to even keep the gap at a minute she needed to be doing 5:40s down that hill.  Which is obviously a lot harder to do after you’ve been hammering out 5:50 something average pace for 22 miles up and down hills into seriously STIFF headwinds much of the time.

I’m totally impressed with her 2:35:49 performance today.  It is an incredible performance. As a perspective for you, that time on that course is probably equivalent to well below 2:30 on the  St. George course, and close to 2:30 on the Flat chicago course.  There was just nothing easy about the Baltimore course today.  The stiff head winds in combo with long stretches of up hill take a serious toll on the pace.

I’m so happy for Nan!  And I’m already totally stoked to go to the trials with her in 15 months, and for the fun times and trips on the agenda leading up to that.

It was also cool to watch Max King and John Crews bust out solid PR’s on that course today, both of whom are solidly qualified for the Olympic Trials also.




Posted in Race Reports, Running Logs | 10 Comments

Lookout Mt. Mile repeats

Posted on October 9, 2010 by Aaron K

Had the pleasure of joining Tim W, Scott J, Patrick G, and Mike for some mile repeats up Lookout mountain road this morning.  It was a gorgeous morning to be out running up a mountain.

I felt good, and excited to get after some harder running as I had been taking it easy all week.

Mostly I ended up 30 seconds to a minute behind Tim and Scott on the repeats.  Patrick and I kind of flip flopped…I went out faster the 1st mile, then lagged behind a bit on 2-4.  Then I felt better on mile 5 where it flattened out and I turned it and was slightly ahead of Patrick.  Then the last .75 to the top which we thought was closer to .5, I decided to lead everyone out just to max myself out and see how long I could hold it.   That turned out to be a quarter mile before I couldn’t hold off Tim anymore, and then I cracked and Scott and Patrick quickly passed.  Then I just dragged myself to the top and tried to hang on.  It felt good to do some max effort running.  And it was great company.  Nice to meet Tim who is a wealth of information on training.  Also cool meeting Scott, been following his blog for a bit and nice to make the acquaintance.  And good running with Patrick again.  I think I’ll take Tim’s advice and not do quite such easy stuff on my recovery runs (ie down in the 115 HR range like I did a couple times this week).  But at the same time, I’m going to continue to listen to my body and try to remain in tune with myself rather than getting too hung up on the numbers.

Here are my splits for the day (1-2.5 min rest in between each):

  • Warmup: ~1.9 miles – 17:56 – HR: 136 avg
  • Mile 1 – 7:52 – 145 HR – 306 feet ascent
  • Mile 2 – 8:10 – 169 HR – 287 feet ascent
  • Mile 3- 8:22 – 167 HR – 266 feet ascent – having a hard time mentally pushing the HR knowing I have 3 more still
  • Mile 4- 8:56 – 166 HR – 307 feet ascent – mentally hardest mile, but steeper too
  • Mile 5- 6:54 – 169 HR – 148 feet ascent – Went hard this time, knew it was near the end
  • Final .68- 8:21/mile pace – 165 HR – 157 ascent over .68 miles – cracked after a quarter mile leading, then couldn’t push the HR
  • Down 3.14 on the trail – 23:44 easy cruising and chatting – 7:37/mile avg. Down 1500 feet

Total: 10.77 miles – 1837 Feet ascent – 1:42:45 total time including 16:30 stopped time

Good times.  I would be into doing that more often.  Thanks for the invite/organizing Tim!

Posted in Running Logs, Trail Runs | 1 Comment

My new favorite mountain running shoe

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Aaron K

Who can guess which of these shoes is my new favorite running shoe??

Hoka One One

The Hoka One One above??  Or…

The New Balance MT 101 Below??

MT 101

One of the two above depicted shoes are what I ran in for the first time today up Green Mtn. and they totally rocked!  Loved every step of the run in them.

It was my first time doing green mtn. in a number of months, and the last few weeks I’ve been running really easy and really flat.  So I wasn’t sure how I would feel charging up the steepness of Green again.

But I felt pretty good.  And happily my legs felt better than they have since Steamboat, and I had zero pain or even hints of issue in my left hip.  Very happy about that.

Here were my splits up Green.  I took Gregory to Ranger to Greenman up.  Then I went down Bear canyon and back around to my car via the mesa trail and down chataqua:

  1. Gregory – 1.01 Miles – 15:10 – HR 166 avg – 864 feet ascent
  2. Ranger to Greenman – 1.22 Miles – 14:33 – HR 159 avg – 543 feet ascent
  3. Greenman to summit – 1 Mile – 16:36 – HR 168 avg – 890 feet ascent

Total time trailhead to summit: 46:19

Totals for the day: 9.5 miles – 1:36 – 10:06/mile avg pace – 2800 feet ascent

Felt so good to be back in the mountains after 2 weeks of easier, flatter, recovery running!

I think that’s close to my fastest time up green mtn. on this route (I haven’t tracked it that close every time so I don’t remember).  I think I’ve done it in 46 something before, but I can’t recall any time of doing it faster.  I’m still humbled by this mountain every time I try to run it.  Fast dudes run it between 32-33 minutes on fast days, and like 37 minutes on an easier day.  So for me, to average 165 HR and only be able to get up it in 46 minutes clearly shows how much room for improvement my fitness level has.  But that’s great!  If I couldn’t improve it wouldn’t be as fun.  When I first ran it I did over 55 minutes.  I imagine today was not fully indicative of my capability on that mountain though, since it was my first time running up it in around 2 months.  I’m pretty encouraged that I felt good today on so little hill training recently.  I bet I could get my time up to Green closer to 40 minutes within a couple months if I did it a couple times per week.  I think I am going to start doing that now that my hip seems to be better and I have such a beautiful month or two of fall to take advantage of.

Speaking of fast dudes, I ran into Jeff near the top today, who was casually strolling up it in 39 minutes.  We chatted for a few minutes and I learned that congrats are in order for Jeff this week on the addition of Twins into his Family!  Child birth is really an amazing time of life.

Today I was blasting the down hills hard in my new shoes, and absolutely loving it.  My last mile split down chataqua was 6 min.  My last half mile was closer to 5 min pace with my pace being in the mid 4′s a lot as I looked down at it.  The trail gets really steep and is wide open and really straight and fast.  It was fun to fly down much of bear canyon and the mesa trail in sub 7 min. pace.  I’m seriously pleased with how the shoes handled, and how good the rock protection and just overall comfort was.

Did you figure out which pair I was wearing yet??

Posted in Running Logs, Trail Runs | 10 Comments