Weekly Running Summary - 6/27 - 7/3

First, a few cool links...
http://www.presmustache.com/ - This blog is always good for a laugh. The latest video is awesome.


Western States 100 has gone and passed, but this video showing the sprint finish between the 2nd (Kami Semick)  and 3rd place (Nikki Kimball) women, is...unbelievable. Encountering a bear at mile 95, running for 99 miles, then being so close at the end, you have to sprint....after 99.75 miles...and your sprint still looks like a sprint...is fantastic. Here is Kami's race report... and below is video of the sprint finish.


Also, Elizabeth Carrion Azze from Mountain Peak Fitness (A few buddies from back home in NJ run for this team) had a SPECTACULAR finish. I'm sure her report will be up soon, but, the holy grail for many runners is sub-24hr finish, to get that sub-24 belt buckle...especially after previously running it and coming up a bit short...well...she did it. in 23:59:42. She was the last runner to hit sub-24. I can't even imagine the emotions/thoughts/etc. going through her head the last few miles. Here is what one blogger/racer/spectator wrote about it.

"Finish line at #WS100 is an awesome display of human achievement and exhaustion. Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
That was my tweet a little after 5am on Sunday, after the last 24-hour finisher pushed around the track to cross the line with about 15 seconds to spare before the clock reached 5am.  She got the 125th silver buckle on this cool 82-degree day.  The physical and emotional effort was apparent as the medical folks tried to control her so they could take her vitals.  She stood, slumped, eyes closed, breathing hard, and not responding to any of them.  If you were not familiar with what she had just done you might think she wasn’t happy, but everybody in the stands was going nuts.  She was exhausted both physically and mentally.  Who knows how long she and her pacer had been calculating exactly how fast they had to go to reach the finish in time.  She did it and everybody watching was energized by her achievement.  Great stuff."

Here is a video of Elizabeth's Finish.


One last inspirational (to me) link....in a shrink couch mentoring session with JV, he turned me on to Brandon Fuller's blog. This week, I must have read every running post since he started blogging about running...and followed a progression of running a 4:07:00 marathon in 2007, to running 2:59:00, at Boston, in 2010. Or, the latest tale of taking an hour off his Leadville Half-Marathon time, since 2007. I heard through the grapevine that 10% improvement per year is 'unrealistic' (you know who you are!) This looks pretty real. Brandon, if you happen to come across this blog entry...apologies in advance for the creepy stalking...(and how come Cisco's firewall service modules in all my 6500's suck asshole?) -- Hope to run into you on the trails sometime.

Ok, back to my week....


Monday
Nada

Tuesday
AM - 2.25mi - To Work
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95564226
2.25mi, 146ft, 27:11 time, 11:58 pace

PM - 3.5mi - Bluebell Hill Repeats
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95564218
3.5mi, 853ft,  52:13 time, 14:54 pace
Warmed up for a mile then did 4x.15mi repeats up Bluebell. It's about 75ft per .15mi. I had planned on .25mi but with the heat and me sucking, I was barely able to squeek these out. Certainly not negative splits.
1 - 1:21
2 - 1:23
3 - 1:32
4 - 1:35
Then cooled down by hiking to the top of bluebell and running the trails down.

Wednesday
AM - 2.25mi - To Work
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95764904
2.25mi, 155ft, 29:35 time, 13:09 pace (11:00 moving)
Hit every. single. traffic. crossing. this morning. wtf. Legs still felt decent despite yesterdays hill repeats.

PM - 5mi - From Work + Boulder Creek Path
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95764896
5mi, 62ft, 50:59 time, 10:12 pace
Despite this mornings legs feeling good, this afternoon they felt a bit heavy. Dang rain and 95 degrees out didn't help much.

PM - 3mi - Boulder Creek Path - Night run with Laurie post her work
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95796907
3mi, 73ft, 31:08 time, 10:22 pace
I always feel much better at night. Wish I would have donned a headlamp though. Boulder Creek was pretty raging and splashing through the flooded underpasses in the dark was kinda fun. Wore the minimus'sisis and forgotten how much fun they are for short runs like this. Felt much better on this 3 miler than on the 5mi home from work.

Thursday
AM- 2.25mi - To Work
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95966101
2.25mi, 152ft, 28:15 time, 12:34 pace

Not bad actually. But legs do feel fatigued. I don't really try to 'run' these runs in the morning. First, I suck at running 20 minutes after I wake up, second, it's uphill, to work....so yeah...I don't mind stopping at the crossings ;) 

PM - 7.1mi - Doudy Draw/Spring Brook loop + Doudy to Flatirons Vista and back

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95966085
7.1mi, 860ft, 1:24:32 time, 11:54 pace

Rough start on the calves but pushed through to a pretty good run for this course for me. I believe this is 30 seconds and off my PR for this trail, and I even added on 1.5mi. Sweet. 

Friday
Nuttin'

Saturday 
AM - 16.5mi - Doudy Draw-SpringBrook-Fowler-Goshawk-PrarieVistax2
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/96344236
16.5mi, 1,767ft, 3:31:27, 12:47 pace
Nice long run with Laurie. Felt better on the flats today, hard warming up the first 2.5mi though. I suck at morning runs. Same ft/mi, and 1.5mi added on to last weeks long run, same pace. Sweet. Was a bit hotter too. 

Sunday
AM - 8.15mi - Boulder Creek Path
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/96595332
8.15mi, 309ft, 1:16:47, 9:24 pace
Hot run. 93. For some reason these 11am Sunday runs on the creek have been great the past two weeks. Didn't bring any water and wore the MT101's. Felt great, not even a HINT of lower calve pain, I just don't get it. Despite the heat and yesterdays 16.6 hard miles, I didn't really feel thirsty and felt controlled the whole time. Had to stop and wait to cross streets due to flooding under bridges. This was probably a borderline regular run borderline tempo run but I even felt great on the uphill in the sun toward the end of the path. Cadence was spot on at 90. I did lose 3lbs during the run though according to the scale so I'm sure stopping at a water fountain would have been a good idea. I did have coffee this morning, a lot of it, despite not having any caffeine for over a week or so. Breakfast was a simple smoothie. Shrug...here's to a 50 mile week. A mile more than last weeks Sunday run, and a minute off my pace. NICE. Also, this is the ONLY 8mi run I've done where I've broken 10min/mi! Actually, I searched ALL my run data for the past few years for runs from 6mi-10mi, and...asside from 3 10k races on my old 'daily route', this is the fastest I've run..10bpm lower average HR...wow.

Summary
Man, another great week! 50mi too. So it's been 40mi, 43mi, and 50mi the last three weeks. for me, those are MORE than solid weeks. I can't remember breaking 45mi's many times with the exception of the 60miler before the ultra. I almost don't wanna have a cutback week next week, but I kinda wanna see how I do in the race if I do cut back to maybe an easy/flat 25-30mi this upcoming week. Any cutback week/taper suggestions? The only concern I have about the race is that I seem to suck at running in the morning. It's when my calves act up no matter how much stretching/rolling/eating/hydrating/voodoo I do. I'm going to try to get up SUPER early, maybe go for a 3 mile warmup jog beforehand. Trick my body into thinking it's around 11am!  I found out that the race is 8mi with ~1200ft climb and it's basically an up/down loop. So, 1200 up in 4mi and 1200 down the last four.  I've done a VERY similar run like this with JV and his twins.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/91652074 - Which was 7.5mi with 1200ft climb, pretty much all up, then down. I managed around 10:30 pace, but unfortunately don't have my HR on this. Be nice to shoot for under that. I'll have to push it harder than I used to on the uphill, kinda like I did on that run, and trust I'll be ok, cruise/recover the first part of when it turns down, then the last three miles hammer the downhill.

Running is the hardest challenge I've ever taken on...and for that...I fucking love running. 

Weekly Totals:
Miles: 50.04 mi (27.12-trail)
Time: 9:52:11
Elevation Gain: 4,378 ft
Ft/Mi: 87.49

Year-to-Date:
Miles: 788.42 mi
Time: 176:13:44
Elevation Gain: 66,320 ft