Category Archives: FiveFinger Runs

Got a late start this morning and felt like heading to fairview for some 400′s.  But I didn’t feel particularly motivated, so I figured I would warm up and start going and see what I felt like doing.

After warming up I felt pretty good so I decided I might do 4 sets of 4 x 400 m repeats in the mid 70 range.

But after the first 2 sets I really wasn’t motivated enough to keep doing the other 2 sets, and I got distracted after the 2nd set talking to Tyler McCandless about his 6th place 2:17 at the California international marathon on Sunday.  Congrats to him on a solid debut in the marathon.

I did do a couple more 400′s after chatting with him for a bit, just to round out the day at 10 of them.  I went out too fast on each set, and that might have contributed to me wanting to end it early.  I enjoyed it though, and it felt good to get out and spin the legs a bit faster.  I just wasn’t too in the mood for really pushing myself hard for a long time today.

I did a cool down with Sara Vaughn and Jay Johnson as they were finishing up Sara’s workout at the same time, cool to chat with them for a bit.  Looks like Jay is going to be joining me at the red hot 50K as his first 50K this feb.  Also chatted with the Slattery’s a bit before they started Sara’s workout.  Sara Slattery and Sara Vaughn are racing on the Boulder Running Republic team with Nan this weekend at the club national XC champs.  Should be fun to see how they do.

Here were my splits for the 400′s:

74, 76, 77, 75, 72, 76, 76, 76, 73, 73

9 miles total for the morning.

What an incredibly beautiful morning. I’ve been continually astounded for the past month and a half at how perfect the running weather has been. And today was as good as it gets.

Would have loved to head out for the Boulder basic marathon group run, but it wasn’t in the cards for me today.  I needed to get my running in before 8:30AM.

Got started my run at 6:05 with a clear sky full of stars. 50 or so degrees and I was really comfortable in shorts and a tshirt Wore my nathan pack forthe first time in a while and was reminded how much I like that thing. All except for the sticky hard to open mouth piece. I have been itching for a long run lately and today I finally found the time.

But I needed to be back by 8:30 to take Abe to his last soccer game. So I planned to run out on the dry creek trail for 1:15 minutes easy, and then come back a little harder paced because its uphill on the way back. The first 4 miles were super easy with HR in 120′s at 8:30 pace. Then the next 4 were in the 130′s for HRwith about 7:45 pace.

Then a guy named Brett randomly joined the trail and we were running a low 7 min. pace together and chatting for 3-4 miles and I kind of lost track of the time chatting with him. I looked at my watch and realized it had been 1:20 so I bid Brett farewell and turned around for home, curious if I would make it back in 1:10 what took me 1:20 on the way out and downhill.

For a couple miles I was in the 140 HR range running 7-7:15 pace. Then I picked up the pace a bit in order to try to get home on time. The next 4-5 miles were in the 150 HR range running between 6:30-6:45 pace and just feeling really good. I was kind of holding myself back a bit all run so far and this section the sun was out and I was fully warmed up and ready to roll. Plus I knew I needed to get home faster than I went out.

The last 2 miles go up hill pretty steadily. My hips and core started getting tired at this point, and I started having a tougher time pushing below 7 min. pace. Probably the slight incline plus the legs getting tired. Then once it started going uphill steeper though I was digging that and was able to push the HR up into the 160′s for the last mile and keep the pace around 7:20 which felt great.

I saw a guy about a third of a mile away up the hill, and I ended up just blowing by him at about 7 min. pace a few minutes later. And as I turned onto my street the clock ticked over to 2:30. Perfect! I paced it perfectly, got a nice solid 2 miles of tough pushing to finish a fantastic run on the morning and actually made it home on time with more miles than I anticipated.

19.5 miles – 2:30 – 7:44/mile – 141 avg Heart Rate. – 550′ ascent/descent – good times. It was nice to finally get out for a longer run after a 45 day hiatus from longer than 2 hour stuff.

Looking forward to seeing the live Bear 100 results today.  It will be fun to see how it all plays out for everyone.  I’m predicting Jon Allen, the hometown advantage and newcomer to the 100 scene for the win.  **update – Jon takes 4th!  - looks like Mike Foote beat Geoff Roes time from last year!  Awesome race by Mike, and Jon

And I just signed up for the Moab Red Hot 50K today.  Already stoked to be signed up for another fun race.  Better sign up soon before it gets filled!

Also, Nan took off for New York this AM to have a rematch with Magdalena Lewy-Boulet and Stephanie Rothstein (the two women who beat her at the 20K nationals).  This time at the Cow Harbor 10K – Wish her luck!

I ran 6 miles this am.  Zero hip pain which is good.  I’m still going to get some ART done on it and take it a bit easier the next few weeks to try to eradicate whatever issue was there.  Took is slow and easy today – 53 min – 8:51/mile avg – HR High 130′s –  through the dog park trails – so glad to be free to run in there again.  Such a great run this morning, absolutely grateful to be out running in the fall morning sun.

As inspired by George, I did some simms hill repeats today since its close to home.  And it felt really good.

I started out REALLY slow.  My left hip had some minor soreness, probably from the weekends efforts report.  But it warmed up after about 2 miles and felt fine.  Here are my splits for the hill repeats (the hill section I ran is .48 miles):

5:26 up (11:22 pace) – 3:45 down (7:52 pace)

4:36 up (9:37 pace) – 3:33 down (7:25 pace)

3:30 up (7:18 pace) – 2:37 down (5:24 pace)  - Kind of funny to see my uphill pace drop 2 minutes per mile each lap.  I’m sure that last lap though was approaching the limit of how fast I can run up that hill because my heart rate was in the mid 170′s at the top.  I’m sure I could run it faster, but probably not much at this point.

I took the first lap really easy both ways, just to continue my warm up really.  After each lap I just rested for about 15 seconds grabbing a drink of water then headed back up.

The 2nd lap I decided to put forth moderate effort both ways.  But I didn’t pushed a bit harder on the uphill than the down.

Then the 3rd lap I wanted to push it really hard.  It felt cool to run up the hill faster than I had just run down it.  To look down at my pace and see it in the low 7′s surprised me, but I just kept at it and was able to hold it pretty steady to the top.  Then I went all out on the down hill too.  My mile pace for that total mile up/down the hill was 6:21/mile.  Which I was pretty pleased with considering its a 190 foot ascent over 1/2 mile.  Not sure if I could have repeated that last repeat time again though.  I think sometime I’ll do that again and see if I can 2 or more laps at the pace of my last lap.

Then I just ran easy 9 min pace the couple miles back home.  I really enjoyed the progressive pushing workout.

After seeing all the happy runners yesterday I must have gotten the bug.  Tonight when I went out for a 7 mile jaunt I couldn’t resist the urge to throw in a 5K tempo run in the middle to see what my 5K fitness level is currently.

For dinner I happened to load up on steak and potatoes.  Then at about 7:30 I enjoyed a nice helping of pumpkin pie and ice cream to get myself all fueled up and ready to run.  Then I finished off my kids pie and ice cream.  Then I was ready to roll!

Nan said she would puke if she tried to run on that…I just felt well fueled.

I threw 10 oz. in my water bottle and headed out.

Decided to warm up for 2 miles and then do a  5K attempting to hold 6 min. pace as long as I could.

I was surprised to feel that for two miles it was pretty comfortable and felt great to hold 6 min. pace.  Then with about 3/4 mile to go it started a slight incline and my pace weakened.

I finished 5K in 18:55 at a 6:07/mile pace.  Felt pretty good about that actually.   I would have been last place by far against all the skinny elite dudes last night, but for this 187 pounder, 18:55 is moving the right direction for a 5K pace.  I’ve never done one under 18 min.  I know I could if I trained consistently for that, but I prefer mountain running at easy slash fun pace over killing myself on speed workouts at this point.

But it is fun to go out and push the limits of my speed/pain threshold every now and then.  I got it out of my system tonight.  Now I’m ready to go run Grays and Torreys peaks early this sat. AM.  Anybody want to come do run some 14ers?

(oh yeah…and happily all the pumpkin pie stayed inside my body very nicely!  Maybe I had a lot more pace pushing in me?….no…no I don’t have the desire to push the pace to puke levels…that’s never fun.)