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2011 Race schedule/Results
1/8 - Quicker Quaker 5K - 17:53 - 21st
2/19 - Moab Red Hot 50K - 4:59:54 - 13th
4/30 - Kohl Elementary 5K - 17:26 - 9th
6/26 - Logan Peak Trail Run (28)
8/21 - Quest for Kings peak Marathon
11/12 - Solo Free Fall Marathon
My Daily Training Log/Blog-
Category Archives: Running Logs
10K pace is a lot harder
than marathon pace.
This morning I did a threshold run, 2.5 miles easy, 5 miles accelerating from marathon pace to 10K pace, 3 miles easy – 10.5 miles – 1:13 – 6:56 avg – 300′ vert
Splits for the 5 miles: 6:05, 5:55, 5:43, 5:53, 6:19
I felt really good on this run….until the last mile and a half when it starts going back up hill. Ouch. I really fell off the pace the last mile. I was supposed to be running 10K pace at the end. But I got down to 10K pace in the middle and felt like I kind of blew up at the end.
I did this run on my marathon course, and the first few miles I was getting more and more psyched about nailing the loop. Then I just started struggling. And it got me concerned about my ability to hit my goal on that loop come 6.5 weeks from now, of running 6:06 pace for 4 loops. I guess I was trying to go a lot faster than that this morning, which is obviously why it was hard and I got clobbered the last mile. I need to run the loop at marathon pace next time and see how that feels.
Also, I think I need to realize that my pace is going to need to be slower on the backside of the loop where its slightly uphill, and faster on the downhill portions. When I practice hitting 6:06 pace for the loop I think I’ll get a better feel for where I need to be on the different sections. Probably closer to 5:55-6:00 on the downs and 6:10-15.
I ran with a new music playlist that I made for pumping me up while I ran and I really enjoyed that. I haven’t been running with music for a while now just enjoying running in silence and with minimal stuff attached. But it was pretty nice this morning to have some music getting me motivated. The playlist consisted mostly of Less Than Jake, which is definitely my favorite music to run fast to. Its pretty easy to have fun and run fast listening to that stuff. Maybe its just the nostalgia for me taking me back to high school and my punk/ska band days.
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Test-running the new marathon course
Today for my long run I wanted to test-run my new marathon loop to see how I like it and test the mileage out.
The verdict was that I like it a lot. Its a really fast and smooth loop with no stops anywhere. And the loop runs through really nice flat trail sections in boulder and through some really cool neighborhood roads. Some of the course is rolling slightly with ups and downs under bridges and roads, which makes it nice for some variety. But there are no significant hills to climb or descend on the loop. Its slightly downhill a couple of the miles, and slightly up a couple of the others, but it’s so minor that I hardly noticed.
According to my GPS device though the loop is only 6.3-6.33 miles long. Not the 6.55 that MapMyRun suggested. That could be because I’m losing reception on the many tunnels, or because I’m running the tangents. In any case, I need to slightly revise the loop or measure it better so that I know that I’m running a loop that covers the full 6.55 miles necessary to make four loops a marathon.
For the run I did a 4 mile warmup from my house to the course. 1 easy lap around the course. Then one moderate to steady lap around the course. Meaning I wasn’t going to try to hit marathon pace, just run it somewhere between easy and marathon pace. Then a few miles back home. 20 miles total. Time of 2:33 total.
1st lap: 47:23 – easy pace – 7:31 avg
2nd lap: 41:24 – moderate to steady pace – 6:34 avg
Splits for 6 miles of the second lap: 7:19, 6:37,6:22, 6:15, 6:19, 6:15
I was surprised at how comfortable the 6:15-6:20 pace felt as I was running the 2nd loop. But after the run I could tell it was a decent effort as I was dripping and a bit stiff after I stopped for a bit. The real tests are going to be the two different marathon pace runs I do when I test out 2 consecutive loops at pace on one run, and then three, or close to three loops, on a different run. If I can hold 16-18 miles at marathon pace 3-4 weeks out from my goal date, and then I taper, I believe I’ll be able to do it in under 2:40. Time will tell though. I can predict that 3 loops at marathon pace is going to be a challenging run. So I’m really looking forward to it. The first loop will be simple enough, but after that, well, I guess we’ll see.
$569 to run 26.2 miles?
Yesterday I added up what it would cost me to run the Santa Barbara Marathon in November:
- $130 race entry
- $241 Flight
- $123 hotel
- Food/taxi/other ~$60-75
- Total: $569
Then I began seriously reconsidering my options for running a marathon. I was having a hard time seeing the real point in paying all that money and spending a weekend away from my family. My goal in training for a marathon is really the training and the fitness, and the enjoyment I get out of running every day. I set a goal of running under 2:40 because it gives me motivation and structure to my training. Sure the festivities would be nice, and the environment would be cool, etc in going to a big marathon. But for me, the main point of the goal marathon is to have a goal to work toward, which gives added meaning, motivation and fulfillment to my daily running.
As I had an hour and 10 minutes to think about this on my run this morning, I became increasingly excited about running my own marathon. And unenthusiastic about spending money on going to a sea level marathon. By the time I got home, I had nearly planned out the entire route. I mapped it out when I did get home, and now I have officially bailed on traveling to do a marathon.
I’m going to start training on my own personal marathon course now and I will work up my tempo runs on my course until I can peak and run the 4 loop course in under 2:40.
I’m a lot more excited about my sub 2:40 goal now than I was before actually. Because now it will most likely be even harder since I will be running solo (unless someone wants to join me) and doing it at 5200′ altitude.
So here’s a link to my marathon loop in Boulder. If you want to find me over the next couple months I’ll probably be on that loop somewhere!
The route starts at the Arapahoe Ridge Park by Eisenhower Elementary. I designed it from here because it is relatively flat, and there is a loop that is mostly bike path that doesn’t cross any major streets so it should be completely runnable at any time without any interruptions or stops. Also, I started at the park so I could have my family provide bottle support from there and watch and play at the park while they are waiting for me to complete a loop.
It has 448 Feet of ascent total, so that’s about as flat as it gets for a loop course in Boulder, and is slightly less than the Santa Barbara Marathon. It does go up and down a bunch under tunnels, but that’s not a big deal. I kind of like the acceleration that provides by launching down the little hills.
As of right now, I’m shooting for the date of November 12.
Depending on how the training goes, I may push it back if I find that I’m not hitting the pace in key workouts and I need more time to build up to my goal pace. If anyone wants to do a free fall marathon with me rather than plunking down a bunch of hard earned cash, you’re more than welcome to join in!
Is my training approach weak?
Probably. But I’m OK with that. Will I be the fastest person around at the next race? No. But my guess is over the long haul I will be able to run more and get faster than I would if I tried to be more macho in my training than I’m really ready for right now.
I decided not to do the 45 minutes of threshold running that was on the schedule for today.
I felt minor stiffness in my left foot when I woke up that went away after a minute or less. Not a huge deal. But I prefer to hit hard workouts when I feel perfect or pretty darn close to it, and excited to go attack the workout. I don’t like going into workouts questioning at all whether I should be doing them.
My body and mind told me that an easy run would be the best thing for me today, so I complied. Even though that means my running will be easy all week and I probably won’t get any solid workouts in, just a bunch of easy runs. Tomorrow I’m driving to Utah to pace at Wasatch, Friday I’ll be crewing at Wasatch, and Saturday I’ll be hiking/running all night at Wasatch with Steve. (Which i’m stoked about)
I’ll still get in about 70 miles this week. But here are my thoughts:
Training plans are great. As long as I remember something to this effect: It’s better to break your training plan than your body. Of course it would be easy to just sleep in because its raining or snowing, and never follow through on the plan out of laziness. That’s not what I’m referring to though. I tend to believe even the best training plans should be modified as dictated by the body’s response to them. Do I know exactly how to do that?? Not completely, but I’m learning. I hear too often and have seen too many people follow training plans through with exactness, only to end up injured. Congratulations! You followed the plan…here’s your booby prize of 6 months on the sidelines! So I am pretty determined to not do that. I would much rather arrive to a race or event somewhat under trained, than not arrive at all. Or arrive with big question marks in my mind on whether I will damage myself by doing the race. Or be dealing with the super annoying task of minor injury recovery along the way. Much better to take the conservative path and run easy and do proper therapy/recovery until I feel really good, then continue hitting the solid workouts. I believe I will perform better over the long term doing that. So I’m sticking to my motto: Go slow to go fast.
As a result today, after 9 miles/1:23 of flat easy and slow running my body and mind feel invigorated and I don’t feel any stiffness or tightness anywhere. I’m guessing by the time I get time for a workout next week I’ll probably be fired up and ready for a solid performance enhancing effort. And my body should have had plenty of time to make use of the work I did in my last few weeks of solid workouts by then.
My first Bobcat
I was stoked and a little bit hesitant to continue up the lower Bluestem trail this morning when this little guy scampered around the corner in front of me.
(not my photo, looked just like this guy though)
After waiting for about 30 seconds and pondering on whether an overprotective parent had me in its sights already, I bounded up the trail after it. He had run off into the brush and I didn’t hear or see another sign of life. But it was pretty cool to see the little guy. I see foxes and coyotes a lot, but that was a rare sighting for sure.
I probably did run a little faster after that. But that was mostly because I had to be home in 40 minutes and still had 6 miles to go.
Marathon pace??
What is my marathon pace? How is one supposed to determine that number?
I want it to be 4:50. So do I just start training as if marathon pace is 4:50 until I can run a marathon at 4:50? Yeah….right. My mile race PR is only 4:44 and I was coughing up lungs after doing that. It blows my mind to think of running that pace for a marathon.
So how do I really settle in upon a goal pace to start training for?
I don’t know the answer. But somehow I have arrived upon the number of 6:03 pace and convinced myself that it is a possibility for me to do that pace for a marathon in the near future. And so I’ve started training with that goal in mind.
And I’ve tentatively picked the Santa Barbara marathon on November 12th to shoot for. Which is just over 10 weeks from now.
And so I’ve taken Brad Hudson’s training plan from his book ‘Run Faster’ and adapted the workouts to fit my schedule and am in week 9 of his 20 week program. And today that called for the following workout:
3 miles easy, 8 miles @marathon pace, 3.5 miles easy.
My splits for the 8 miles: 6:14,6:01,6:06,5:59,5:57,5:58,6:03,6:04. Ended up averaging right at my goal of 6:03/mile average interestingly enough.
I started at the junction of marshall and cherryvale, ran down sobo creek, bobolink, north to creek path/valmont. The first 6 miles were gradual down hill, the last two were rolling and net flat. I wanted to do a gradual down hill start on this workout since it was my longest marathon pace workout yet and I wasn’t sure how it would go, and I wanted to make sure I could lock into the 6:03 pace for the whole time without having to push it too hard at the beginning. It worked out well.
But 6:03 pace for another 18 miles? I’m pretty sure I would not quite pull that off right now. I’m going to need every training session for the next 10 weeks to get myself closer to that level. And I’m probably going to need every extra ounce of oxygen sea level can offer me.
It was a pretty solid workout this morning. It wasn’t too taxing, but wasn’t easy either. Marathon training is interesting. It’s a lot different than mile and 5K training. The miles don’t feel that hard, but they just keep on coming. But I really like the feeling of just locking into a decently fast pace and cranking away for 48 minutes. It’s a good one.
Marathon training begins
Officially kicking off marathon training today. Todd inspired. I don’t know which one I’m going to do, but I have decided I’m going to turn my focus to the road marathon for the next 4-5 months. Todd is doing New York, and is about 12 weeks out.
I was kind of stoked today to find out we were only doing 6:00 mile pace! Nice and easy!
I felt like I was cheating or slacking off or something only running 6:00 pace, after being so focused on 4:40 pace for the last month or so. And there is a BIG difference between those two paces.
Granted we were doing 1K repeats. But…it was a lot easier effort.
~3 miles warm up, stretch. 8 x 1K repeats with 45-50 seconds rest in between each. ~3.5 miles cooldown.
Splits for the 1K’s: 3:51, 3:30, 3:35, 3:33, 3:46, 3:39, 3:42, 3:40
We were working on hitting them in 3:43-3:53 range. Took us a few to dial it in, we were going a bit hot at first, but then we got it dialed pretty well. Still only 2 out of the 8 were in the range, but I guess we’re both still so used to doing faster intervals its hard to slow down to that pace.
The pace range we were hitting was 5:37 up to 6:11. We averaged about 5:54 pace (3:40′s per K). So a little faster than goal marathon pace, but not much. It was a good run, getting used to doing the pace. But doing a 2:34 marathon (5:54 pace) is a little faster than both of our goals at this point.
My goal right at this moment is to prep for a sub 2:45. But I would really like to be in the sub 2:40 range on my first marathon. I just think that sounds cooler I guess. But considering it will be my first road marathon, I may cut myself some slack/be a little more realistic, and just stick with the 2:45 goal. What I’d really like to do is run a sub 2:30, and eventually faster. But I’m not going to be forcing/rushing anything on that front, since realistically that’s going to take some very consistent training and experience at the distance/pace that I shouldn’t be expecting to be able to get to in one training cycle. I do have a growing desire to get to that point over the next couple years though.
Quest for Kings Marathon v.2
Running Kings peak is significantly more challenging than it appears to be on paper. The data says its ~26 miles with 4200′ vertical. That sounds like it would be a pretty fast mountain course compared to say, speedgoat 50K, or other races that have 9-11K’ vertical over about 30 miles.
The challenge with Kings Peak is that after the first 10 miles it turns into a boulder hopping, tundra traversing, rock scree scrambiling, slick snow traversing, boulder climbing fest all at 12-13,000 feet. And it really takes its toll on the average time. To give you an idea of how slow it makes you go, check out the splits below. I went from averaging 10:30 for 10 miles, to averaging 18 min/mile for the next 5.5 miles. And there is only 1500′ vertical in those miles. Its just challenging terrain. That being said, I feel like I could do that section much faster. But its a tough call because over exerting yourself at that altitude can cause a significant energy drain, and then I may not have had much left for the last 10 miles.
Splits at major points:
Gunsight pass up: 1:45 – 10 miles – 10:30/mile avg
Gunsight to Summit: 0:55 – 2.75 miles – 20:00/mile avg (2:40 total)
Summit to gunsight: 0:44 – 2.75 miles – 16:00/mile avg (3:24 total)
Gunsight to trailhead: 1:24 – 10 miles – 8:24/mile avg
Total time: 4:48
Splits from 2010:
Gunsight pass up: 1:55 – 10 miles – 11:30/mile avg
Gunsight to Summit: 1:19 – 2.75 miles – 28:43/mile avg
Summit to gunsight: 0:55 – 2.75 miles – 20:00/mile avg
Gunsight to trailhead: 1:36 – 10 miles – 9:36/mile avg
Total time: 5:45
Here’s a link to my garmin data – the garmin data is messed up though, because I didn’t have GPS signal when we started. Then I accidentally bumped the stop button 9 minutes above Gunsight pass coming down and didn’t notice it was off until Gunsight. When I stopped the clock at the trailhead it was at 4:39. Then I turned it on again to jog a bit more and forgot to turn it off until 4:51.
But I was able to verify close to my exact total elapsed time because Facelessghost (Eric) and I started the run together, and he didn’t have any glitches with tracking his time. The time of day on my watch was 1:11 pm when I finished. When Eric came in, the time of day on my watch was 2:10.
Eric posted his gps data here and his full elapsed time was 5:47:25 – so taking off 59 minutes, that would make my time 4:48:xx.
The elapsed time on my watch when I reached the trailhead was 4:39. So I accidentally had my watch stopped for 9 minutes apparently.
I’m really glad I was able to head out and run Kings again this year for multiple reasons.
1. It’s just a really fun peak to run to.
2. It was great to run with the elusive Faceless Ghost
3. It was great to see such a marked improvement in fitness from one year to the next, and that’s always encouraging.
So I took 57 minutes off my time from last year and get to take home the Cowbell once again! Obviously the consistent speed work and 50-60 mile weeks for the past year make a pretty big difference. I think I could have gone faster though had Eric been up front pushing with me the whole way. He definitely pushed me to a better first 10 mile split than last year. Truthfully, next year I really hope Eric is uninjured and fit and that I’m trying to chase him down the whole day, because I’m pretty sure we could run that course under 4:30 if we were pushing each other. But don’t be mislead, that course is way tougher than it lets on. On paper it seems like you could for sure do it under 4 hours if you’re fit. But the top 3 miles of boulder scrambling, tundra, and 12-13000 feet on this route really take their toll.
I had a great time running with facelessghost and trevor the first 10 miles and then I was solo from there.
I went through a few minor low energy points on the upper section, where I would just feel tired so I would start to hike, or stop for a second to catch my breath and suck down some EFS liquid shot.
Then I’d keep moving, and within moments each time I would feel pretty good again and start running or moving faster. EFS liquid shot is the best endurance energy product that I’m aware of. That stuff works like clockwork for me every time. I never have any problem sipping down that stuff all day. And ever since I started using it last summer, I have without fail had plenty of energy all day on all the long distances events I have done. Not ever even coming close to bonking. I dig EFS.
I used about 14 ounces total throughout the day. Which is 12-1300 calories probably. But I also carried a Red Bull up the trail for the first 5 miles and stashed it at the bridge at Elkhorn crossing. That was really, really nice to have at 20 miles in, I assure you of that. I was very glad I did that. I only carried 70 ounces of water with me, between 1 handheld and a 50 oz. nathan bladder. And I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to suffice. But I didn’t want to stop and search for water and waste time messing with it up high, so I brought the red bull to tide me over to the finish.
It ended up working out great. Because I was nearing the end of my water supply as I got down to elk horn crossing. And that Red Bull was very refreshing. And it gave me a noticeable boost in energy. It was also a nice thing to look forward to on miles 15-20.
Each mile coming down from Gunsight pass it was my goal to average sub 8:00 pace. That’s what I focused on and it helped when I was feeling tired, just to focus on one mile at a time, and give myself a bunch of mini milestones to try and hit. I did hit 5 of my last 10 miles in the 7:30-7:50 range. Another few just over 8:00 pace. And on one of the miles I hit 10:47 because I was messing with grabbing the red bull and dumping it in my water bottle, and re-fitting my pack etc. But it was nice to have the Red Bull reward stash giving me motivation to get to Elkhorn crossing.
I was completely out of water by the time I had about 3 miles to go, and that wasn’t a huge deal because I was so close to the end. But I did notice myself losing energy. So a couple different times as I was passing by the hordes of hikers coming down, I stopped and bummed some water off some people. That only took 15-20 seconds each time and was well worth it, and I was appreciative of the few gulps of liquid people gave me.
Thanks to Jun for organizing a fun day, it was a huge bummer you weren’t able to make it, you were missed. Thanks to Eric for coming up and running. And congrats to Davy Crockett for pushing through a double Kings peak Ascent starting the day before and going overnight…gnarly stuff! Good seeing Scott W out there too for a moment at least, who started at midnight in a double attempt.
I highly recommend running Kings peak at some point to anyone who likes running peaks. Its a really cool peak to run to. Its so far from the trailhead that the majority of people that ever make it up to that peak take 3-4 days to do it and have huge packs. Just hiking it in one day would be an all day event for most people so its not that common I don’t think.
Pearl Street Mile – Almost a success story
Despite what the official results show, I feel pretty pleased knowing I would have hit my goal had I not pulled another epic end of race blunder by stopping running 25 feet too soon. As Homer would so aptly state in a situation like this (though he would never have found himself in a situation like this) DOH!!
The clock has me at 4:44. And David Wottle at 4:40. I was right on his heel when we arrived at my imaginary finish line and I was closing in.
I thought I had run out of real estate. My mind must have been a bit foggy in those final all-out sprinting moments.
I saw a big ‘Pearl street mile’ banner on our left. Then I saw the clock…4:36. And I thought we were there so I stopped running.
But David Wottle kept running toward the ‘Non-imaginary’ finish line. The one that has big blue mats underneath a HUGE sign that says FINISH right next to the finish line clock.
Then I kept going…but lost 4 seconds in the meantime.
You’ve got to hand it to David Wottle. He is probably going to graduate from college at the rate he’s going. Me on the other hand? If you’ve been paying attention (which I’m sure you two readers have long since forgotten this), this is now the second time in 2011 I have accidentally stopped before the finish line. So it should be obvious by now that I’m a dropout. Because surely they teach people things like running all the way to the finish line, and don’t trespass, and other such useful life life lessons there.
But enough about the failure. The great news is, I didn’t know if I had a 4:40 in me, and now I do. And it makes me curious what I could run on the track in a race environment. Because this course was definitely not flat. If I’m not too beat up after running the Kings peak Marathon this weekend I think I’d like to jump into the mile race at Potts field next Thursday at the all-comers meet.
So here are some pics of the evening, courtesy of my amazing wife while on her crutches:
Breanne was having a great time.
Abe, didn’t seem to be feeling it tonight. But I think he was glad he went.
A Happy runner
A tired runner
And we’re off…Kenyon commanding the lead from the start.
Congrats to Kenyon Neuman on the win tonight! And Jeremy Freed on a close second.
Here’s my final 200 meter pain train face.
Dang you David Wottle! Couldn’t quite pull him back. Running all the way to the actual finish line may have helped in that regard.
I had my gps watch set on .25 mile auto laps, which recorded: 65, 67, 74, 68. Which would equate to a 4:38-4:39. Obviously that’s not 100% accurate, but its pretty close. I wanted to have the data after my run to see how my pace throughout was. I’m pretty pleased to see the evenness of the effort. The first half was downhill and the last half was up. So I’m pretty happy with the final 1/4 mile split. The 74 second split looks slow, but was up hill and I was actually passing people and not getting passed.
What do you think, can I do another 4:44 on Saturday up to Kings peak and back? It will have to be 4 hours and 44 minutes this time though since its a 26 mile round trip at high altitude (9-13.5k’) with 4500′ vertical. Last year I did it in 5:45…So I’m not too sure about 4:44 being in the cards. But we’ll see…
Racing the Mile & a Mountain Marathon this week.
It is another gorgeous morning in Boulder. Sunrise is getting later though, which is a bummer, but we still have a couple good months of awesome light mornings left.
I warmed up for 6 miles with Eric W. this morning, and then hit the track for a few short intervals at mile goal pace – 4:40.
I did 4 x 100 to get the turnover going, and surprisingly felt good starting out right on pace at 16 and 17 for each one.
Then I did an 800, a 400, and a 200. My main goal was to run an 800 at race pace to get a feel for it. And wow…I got a feel for it. And the feeling wasn’t all that amazing. Meaning after the first 400 meters at 69 seconds I started to feel a healthy burning sensation throughout my body and could tell I was taking myself to a place where I have not been before, or in a long long time.
That second lap of the 800 felt steady and controlled, but also, kind of scared me for the mile. Because if it hurts like that in only the 2nd lap, what am I going to feel for laps 3 and 4?
Its kind of unsettling. But oddly kind of exciting also. I’m intrigued to find out what it feels like to try and hold that pace for the full mile. And I’m certain its going to hurt. And for some reason I don’t think I fully understand, I am looking forward to that.
I did the 800 in 2:21. So pretty close to right on pace.
Then I rested for 3 or 4 minutes.
Then I ran a 400 in 65 seconds. Huh…that was faster than planned, but felt easy relative to the 2:21 800.
Then after some rest I did a 28 second 200.
Still not sure why I feel compelled to run 200′s so fast, because I can’t even come close to holding that pace for any longer distances intervals. But for some reason I gravitate toward that speed on the 200′s.
After that short session of pain in the chest, I’m not feeling all that confident in being able to hit a 4:40 mile. But I’m going to give it my best shot, because I do believe its possible with the adrenaline of race day, and I’m curious to find out if it is.
I’m fairly certain I can run a 4:50 right now, and I could definitely run a 5:00. But 4:40, based on the paces of my workouts, seems to be pushing the edge a bit for me. Which I guess is why I’m motivated by it. We’ll find out Thursday night on Pearl street!
I believe I could get my mile time down below 4:20 with another year or so of consistent training for it. Not sure if I’m motivated enough to do that type of training or not. But I do enjoy getting at least one flat speed session in each week, even when training for longer distances. And I plan to continue that.
Speaking of longer distances, I’m also planning on running a marathon this weekend up Kings peak and back in Utah. So I’ll be racing twice this week, and my pace for the 2nd should be close to double my pace for the first. Hopefully an all out mile effort doesn’t zap me too much for the marathon two days later. How bad could it be though right? It’s less than 5 minutes of running after all.