Good News and Hopefully Minor Bad News

Starting with the good news, I am feeling stronger than ever on long runs. I used to begin feeling a bit of fatigue about an hour into a run, but now that's more like 1:30 into a run. 14-15 miles isn't too tough. That bodes well for future marathon success, as I've always had pretty extreme positive splits (yeah, yeah, I know other factors are involved...ahem*pacing*ahem). Hopefully by the time I run another marathon I can feel strong through 20 mile training runs. I'm also feeling strong running several days in a row, and the "dead legs" feeling is only there the day after a fast run or really long run. So muscular endurance or whatever it may be called seems improved.

The other good news is I have all but forgotten about my Achilles tendinitis. It's been completely unnoticeable, except this weekend when I banged my heel while an Ikea bed for the guest bedroom. It'll always be in my mind, but the injury seems behind me.

The bad news is that I had to cut short a long run this weekend because my knee really hurt. I was about 14 miles into a 16-18 mile run when the pain became too much to keep running, and I had to walk it on home. Now, I'm pretty sure this pain is just muscular. The pain doesn't come from the joint itself, but from my quad just above the knee. Perhaps its from too much volume/intensity/hills over the past few days. Maybe 4 long runs in 8 days, none of which were particularly easy, was too much. Maybe I didn't allow enough recovery after Friday's 1:30 jot along hilly Magnolia. Even on a snowshoe Sunday I was really happy to be done because my knee was aching on the descent home.

The good news, however, is that today's easy test jog went fine. I made it 40 minutes with only a little odd feeling in the knee. Tomorrow I will try an hour easy in the AM and another hour easy in the PM without ever getting too far from home in case the pain returns.

A takeaway is to keep an eye on my intensity. I did too many runs at a steady pace and not enough easy running.

_________________________________________________

Snowshoe photos:

Tebowing on St. Mary's Glacier

Ozzy loved the glacier. He ran back and forth and back and forth the whole way up.

The lake at the base of the glacier. 

_________________________________________________

2011 in music:
Great albums: (in no particular order)
Yuck by Yuck
Bon Iver by Bon Iver
Wild Flag by Wild Flag
Father, Song, Holy Ghost by Girls

Honorable mention:
James Blake by James Blake

More time needed because I bought it yesterday:
Days by Real Estate

There were also several albums that received loads of critical acclaim that I'm not thrilled with (see, Tune Yards, Fleet Foxes), albums by bands that previously released amazing records but this year only released okay albums (here's looking at you Radiohead, Panda Bear), albums that I want to buy and expect to be really solid but haven't heard in full yet (burning ears for King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, The Black Keys), and finally albums by new bands that have gotten great reviews but have previously slipped under my radar (por ejemplo, Wye Oak, Civil Wars).

65 miles is a lot

This week I've been wearing my Garmin every run to get an accurate count of my typical weekly mileage. It's not that the actual number of miles I run is all that important, but I want to make a push for a big week next week and counting my miles this week will give me some basis for comparison.

Saturday I managed 16.5 miles in about 1:55, averaging 7:10/mile at 155 bpm. (Side note: I'm curious to see how much faster that'll be once the snow/ice on the path melts.) That run thrashed my legs enough that Sunday became a 4.5 mile jog (~8:00/mile). Monday was just an easy/steady aerobic run: 10.5 miles at 7:30/mile (hovering around 145 bpm). Today I planned on some harder running, but my legs still aren't fully recovered from Saturday.  Instead, today becomes an off day where I just go for an evening walk.

Halfway through a decent week, and I'm only at 31.5 miles.  65 miles will be a reasonable weekly mileage, but it sure feels like a lot of running. I think my legs will require a steady build-up to higher mileage, or I need to keep my long runs to 145-150 bpm, max. At any rate, my build up to high mileage weeks will be slow. I might hit 80 next week as a one week high mileage experiment keeping the effort low.

While I haven't trained with much structure over the past few months, I plan on reading Jack Daniel's Running Formula (for the second or third time) over the next two weeks to begin planning my training a little more formally. I've also got Lore of Running, but that book is so intimidating that I've barely peaked through its pages.
________________________________________________

I was reading Running Times the other day and noticed that the 2012 US Snowshoe National Championship takes place in Frisco in February. The qualification standards look pretty lax, so maybe I'll jump in a race and see if I can hit the standard. Hmm...
________________________________________________

Tebow!?!? Two weeks ago I became a fan. This week didn't disappoint, either. I'm afraid Brady, et al. will be too much this coming Sunday.
________________________________________________

The best thing about the end of the year are all the "Best Album" lists. I'm mentally planning my own list, but right now only a few artists come to mind. In the meantime, here's a new-to-me track that I really like:

For some reason, all the records I've bought lately are instrumental. First Explosions in the Sky, then Godspeed! You Black Emporer, and recently Mogwai. Is "good background music" a compliment?

Tempo Run

1.5 mile warm-up, 3.5 miles tempo (165-170 bpm, or somewhere around marathon pace I'd guess), 1 mile easy, 3 miles tempo, 1 mile easy, almost entirely on a slick, 1inch thick hard pressed sheet of snow.

miles 1-5 slightly downhill
mile 1 - 7:12 at 141 bpm
mile 2 - 5:49 at 157 bpm
mile 3 - 6:01 at 165 bpm
mile 4 - 6:12 at 165 bpm
mile 5 - 6:05 at 169 bpm

back uphill
mile 6 - 8:15 (jog)
mile 7 - 6:43 at 164 bpm
mile 8 - 6:35 at 168 bpm
mile 9 - 6:45 at 170 bpm
mile 10 - 8:29 (jog)

those uphill miles were a killer with no traction. i just tried to keep my feet turning over as fast as possible.

Snowshoe

Running update: All is going well. I continue to work on running consistently, doing one or two 1:30+ runs per week, and adding a bit of faster running when I feel the urge. I spend a lot of time running 7:00-7:30/mile, which is pretty easy, and for the moment very little time running anything near race pace. Maybe I'll try a treadmill speed workout tomorrow, though, and do some efforts building from 6:00/mile until it gets hard (an optimistic 5:30/mile).

I'm considering a June marathon as my next "A" race, and then using my fitness from the marathon to try an ultra just for fun (to the extent that 6+ hours of running can be considered fun).

Snowshoes: First, thanks to Ralph and Pat for the early Christmas gift. The Front Range got smothered with snow this weekend, so Stacey and I took our shoes and headed as far into the mountains as we felt our vehicle was capable of safely traveling (read: not all that far).  Snowshoeing was pretty fun, and I hope to add it to my winter cross training routine.

(Stacey: You look high in this picture, like you're a snowboarder or something.)

Too much snow is coming down to see very far.

Ozzy: Hey guys, hurry up.


Football: Michigan is into a BCS game! That's a long climb from the Rich-Rod era.
___________________________________________________________________

Muzak: After listening to this Girl talk song, here's my new getting ready to run song:

That's the gratuitous length live version, and I'm shocked that so many Germans were going crazy for this song in 1995.

Another track run

Running is going well. I'm up to a cycle of 4 to 5 days running followed by 1 day off (on which I usually walk around the neighborhood with Stacey and Ozzy for an hour or so). My long run is 1:45 to 1:50 most weeks, though sometimes I'll do 2 hours as 1 hour in the AM and 1 hour in the PM. Total mileage per week is likely in the 65-70 mile range, although there's some uncertainty because I do a lot of "by feel" runs where I don't know my exact mileage. Today was an off day and I rode my bike for the first time in almost 2 months. Keeping up with Stacey required working, and my legs feel it!

I've got some cool pictures of recent trail runs, including great shots of St. Mary's Glacier during an aborted attempt at running up James Peak. But, my desktop memory card slot isn't working and I don't feel like pulling out the laptop.  As a result, this will be a boring text only post. I am hitting the mountain trails as much as possible, usually once a weekend. My favorite route at the moment is Rawhide Trail at White Ranch.

Yesterday's run was another track workout of mile repeats. My mile repeat strategy is to run the first mile fast but not hard, and then to hold that pace the next 4 miles with 400m easy between miles. This week I ran the first mile in 5:47 with a max HR of 163 bpm, and then I cut 1 second off each mile until I ran 5:42 for the final mile. By mile 5 my HR is into the low 170s, and my PE has increased from 6 during the first mile to 8-9 for the final mile. Still, ~5:45/mile pace at altitude is pretty fast for me, so I'm happy with my progress.

Pretty boring post, but it's been a while.

_____________________________________________________
Here's one of my favorite recent songs:

I like the Bon Iver style auto tune.

Track Workout Killed My Legs

Running is coming along great. I'm able to run 4 or 5 days consecutively without too much fatigue, and I'm beginning to do super easy jogs for recovery instead of days totally off. I don't do much running at a higher intensity that a Half Ironman run pace (about a HR of 170 bpm), but I try to mix things up as much as possible instead of doing the same runs day after day. I'm up to around 60-65 miles a week and continue to climb in volume.

Friday was a great hour or so run on Rawhide Trail in White Ranch. It's one of my favorite local trails because it's got a nice variation of up and down, as opposed to some trails that begin with 5 mile uphills and end with 5 miles downhill.

Saturday I wanted to get in a workout before watching the U of M vs. MSU football game, so I went to the local track for an hour session. The main set was 5 x 1 mile repeats getting progressively faster with a lap easy between each mile. My first mile was 6:00, and I went down to 5:40 by the last one. I never had to strain or work really hard, but I could feel some fatigue in my legs at the end. Morning total: 8.5 miles in 56 minutes, or 6:37/mile at 150 bpm average for the whole set. Despite the tired legs, I got in another 50 minutes in the evening, bringing the daily total to around 16 miles.

Today I planned a nice and easy 13-14 mile run with a detour through Civic Center Park to check out what the scene is like at Occupy in Denver. (Is it called Occupy Wall Street outside of NY?) Unfortunately, my legs had nothing, so I turned around after a few miles to recover for tomorrow. Total: 6 miles in 45 minutes, for 7:30/mile at an average HR of 136 bpm. My HR seems a bit depressed here...

While I still don't have any race plans set in stone, this video makes me want to do an Ultra trail run:


Then there's also this video, referenced in today's NY Times:


I don't think I'm crazy enough to do either an Ultra (at least the 100 mile variety) or that sort of mountaineering.

Fall in Colorado - Photo Dump

Somehow I never made it to the high country last fall, my first in Denver. I'd heard the tree coloring is spectacular for two or three weeks at the end of September and beginning of October and didn't want to miss this year's short-lived golden foliage. 

Last weekend Stacey and I made it to a trail just outside of Central City for a run, and while the scenery was great, I forgot my camera. This weekend we made it back to the mountains, but this time to Rollinsville. After parking in town, we ran west toward Rollinsville Pass. 

Photos: