My final training week for the Colorado Marathon began with my birthday last weekend. It ended with 522 miles and having lost 20 pounds since the Austin Marathon and 10 training weeks. I ran a 4:12 in Austin. I’m hoping to break 3:50 tomorrow. We will soon see what training plans can accomplish.

I’ll carry 3 gels with me tomorrow. A Carbs Fuel gel with 50 grams of carbs and 200 calories that I’ll consume at 6 miles. Then 2 SIS Beta Fuel gels, each with 40 grams of carbs and 158 calories, that I’ll consume at 13 and 20 miles. Last year I experimented and ate too many carbs too soon and it made me too full to drink properly, leading to dehydration late in the run. It’s easy to fail on your hydration plan in this marathon because it starts out so cold up in the canyon and you don’t think you need it. Knowing what you need and executing are two different things. Failed execution is why marathons and ultras can go off the rails. Weather is one of the conditions that impacts execution.

I also think I might follow a pace group, at least initially. I don’t typically do that because they tend to be crowded and chatty, sometimes singing, and I don’t care for the noise. If I do, I think the smart choice is to follow the 3:45 pace. That’s a little too fast for me but slower than the 3:30 pace group which would be an 8 minute pace and way too fast. I can easily run that fast early because of the steep downward slope the first 13 miles. But that free speed has a cost later in the run when the fatigue catches up with you. The 4:00 hour pace group, at a 9 minute pace, would be even smarter, but I’m typically a bit aggressive and will risk a little fatigue, hoping my strength training will rescue me. And finishing in 3:45 is also my stretch goal.

I do like to always experiment on something and this time it will be with my Apple Watch. Apple Watches aren’t the best sports watches for serious runners, but it meets my needs. I’ve configured a “pacer” feature in my fitness workout app that will read not only my pace each mile, but tell me if I’m over or under my target pace, which I set at 3:45. It will read this into my Shokz OpenDots One ear buds which I synched directly to my watch over bluetooth instead of to my iPhone. These ear buds are so comfy, they don’t plug into my ear canal and I can’t even feel I’m wearing them. Highly recommended gear.

I’m ready to run.

Karen took me out to dinner last night to celebrate me turning 64 before her. I’ve got her by 4 months. The dinner date only gave me enough time to get in a 5 mile run, my shortest run in what seems like forever. Marathon training is all about long runs.

Speaking of aging, it does lend a certain wrinkle to training and racing. I’ve been running under a 9 minute pace these last two weeks, since I’ve tapered my miles. Ten years ago, I’d be running under an 8 minute pace. I broke 4 hours in some of my faster marathons the last few years, including this Colorado Marathon last year. Absolutely everything has to go right – fueling, hydration, pace. But I’ve yet to break 3:50 and that’s what I need to run to qualify for Boston. If I’m honest, I’ll need to run 5 to 10 minutes faster than that to be accepted to run Boston. It’s a popular race.

This will be my last year to compete with the 60 to 64 year olds. I think that would be true if I make Boston next year too. Once I’m 65, the threshold becomes 4:05 – 15 minutes slower. That actually depresses me. But it sounds about right. Ten years ago I was finishing 30 minutes faster. If I keep running long enough, I’ll be talking about breaking 5 hours.

With one week to go, I feel I can predict my finishing time for next weekend’s Colorado Marathon. I know I can break a 9 minute pace and finish under 4 hours. I’m excited because I know I’m going to push myself to break 3:50, and I honestly believe I can. I’ve got my weight down to 165 and that alone makes it doable. But everything has to go right – fueling, hydration, pace.

I’ll run the first half between an 8 and 9 minute pace. 8 minute miles would be too fast and I’d be challenged to not drop to 10 minute miles for the second half. Running closer to 9 minute miles would be smarter, but the first half drops 1,000 feet of elevation and I feel like I just have to leverage that. The winner of my age group will run an 8 minute pace and I’d like to be in contention for a podium finish. I’ll probably run closer to 8 minutes than 9.

Then the course flattens out and warms up by 40 degrees. If I hydrate well, the heat won’t be too bad. I won’t over dress. Runners tend to over dress because the start is usually close to freezing up in the canyon at 6:30am. I’ll wear a thin, long-sleeve hoodie with thumbhole cuffs so I won’t need to wear gloves. My son-in-law gifted it to me for Christmas. It’s brilliant.

Then my training will kick in and I’ll try hard to maintain my pace to 20 miles. After that, I’ll take one mile at a time. This course has a history of getting hard for me at 23 miles. We’ll see this year. I expect to run 3:50 and am hoping to run as much as 10 minutes faster.

It snowed Friday. And it was cold, so I didn’t run. Honestly, I was just beat. After 8 weeks of punishing miles, I needed a day off. Glad I did because my legs were fresh for my Saturday 20 miler. This was my final training 20 miler. Seven weeks in a row running 20 miles on Saturdays. It feels good to have them behind me.

You generally include a few long runs in a marathon training plan for two reasons. To train your body to burn fuel efficiently and to gain confidence with the distance. Man am I ever confident after today. I ran an 8:49 pace. That’s my fastest pace for any run at any distance over my entire 8 weeks of training, and it was for 20 miles. I know I could have held it for another 10K. That makes me confident I can break 4 hours in the Colorado Marathon in two weeks.

That pace would be a 3:51 finish. 3:50 qualifies me for Boston. I feel like I can do it. Of course, being accepted to run Boston will likely take something under 3:45, and that would really be a stretch, but confidence has a way of making things happen.

I’m spending the rest of day ensconced on the couch with my legs stretched out on the ottoman and my MacBook in my lap. I know when to push myself and when to recover. Enjoy your Saturday.

Karen and I hiked the Sourdough Trail today. We’ve been up there almost every weekend this year. Not much snow but great weather.

I ran 80 miles in 6 days this week. 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, and 20. Time to begin my taper tomorrow. And to focus on intensity. That means I’ll attempt to maintain my runs in heart rate zones 3 and 4 – including zone 5 for maybe a mile or two. For me, zone 3 is mostly in the 130 beats per minute range, zone 4 in the 140s and zone 5 the 150s.

I skipped my strength training this week to make room for those two-hour, 12-mile runs during the work week. I’ll add strength back in on Tue/Thur to allow my legs to recover for speed on Wed/Fri. And I have one more 20 mile session next Saturday before tapering even further to allow yet more intensity. I’ve never run seven 20 milers in seven straight Saturdays before.

Hard to say if this training plan will position me to run much faster than a 9 minute pace in May. I’m running just a little under a 10 minute pace now. That’s what the next two weeks are for though – speed.

The last point to touch on is my weight management plan. I reached the normal weight range today at 168 pounds. That’s a milestone. I’m just 3 pounds away from my goal with 3 weeks to get there. On paper, I’m on target to reach 160 but tapering my miles will taper the weight loss along with it. The taper window is so exciting in any training plan because it means I’m reaching my goals and the race is near.

I told you to stay tuned in my last post, so I should probably give an update on my 10-week marathon training plan. It’s not overly aggressive on the miles but the weight loss plan is unusual for me. Running that Austin marathon in the winter wasn’t great at 185 pounds. I’m currently at 170.

That’s a 15 pound weight loss by week 5 with a fairly even 3 pounds per week. On paper, I’ll be under 160 by race day, but I expect the weight loss to plateau. Dieting has taken as much if not more focus than the running. I couldn’t do it if Karen wasn’t monitoring me on the Weight Watchers app.

Running at 170 feels so good. I ran under a 10 minute pace for my 20 miler on Saturday and felt strong the entire time. That’s fast for me. I’m confident right now I’ll be able to break 4 hours with a 9 minute pace in May. I ran a 9.5 minute pace for Austin. My goal is even faster. An 8.5 minute pace would be competitive for the podium.

Stay tuned.

I’m pretty good at setting goals for myself. Less so about setting actual plans to attain those goals. I don’t like too much formality infringing on my hobbies. I reach my goals based on vibes. I find though that when I do go to the trouble of establishing a plan, I have a better success rate at meeting my goals.

The first step in the plan was to run a marathon for each season of the year. I’ve already registered for them, and ran the Austin Marathon in February for the winter, so I consider this step on target for the plan.

Step 2 is dieting. I want to qualify for Boston. That involves losing weight. I’m over-weight according to any standard medical chart. I’ve successfully dieted once before and it involved Karen monitoring me on a Weight Watchers plan, so I’ve reengaged her as my nutritionist once again. She’s good at it. I started 3 weeks ago and have been losing 3 pounds per week. On paper, I’ll achieve my goal of running my next marathon at 165 pounds or less. That’s a racing weight for me. I’ll be competitive.

I’ll need to be competitive because my next marathon is the Colorado state marathon championships. It wasn’t always. I took a couple of 2nd places before it began to host the championships. It’s bigger now, not too big still, and way more competitive. I don’t normally care about my place but because I used to take top 3 here, I want to again.

So, in addition to the diet, monitored by my wife/nutritionist with a 3-month subscription to the Weight Watchers app, I put together a weekly mileage plan. This is my own plan and not some coach-sponsored thing. I did consult my ChatGPT as I do with all my running goals. I modified it a bit based on the generative AI feedback, but I know the basics of training plans. Build up distance and include recovery. For my age, recovery is more important than for youth. I don’t run at all on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those are my strength days, so I’m still doing something, but I’m not running.

Runners feel differently on strength training. Most don’t give it enough attention. They’re right on the math, a distance runner gets more from running than strength training. But that math changes as runners age. And at any age, strength training helps stave off repetitive use injury. I focus on my legs and core. I perform two upper-body routines, but there’s not much ROI there. I started out with twice a week and have now added a 3rd session on the weekends. The strength gives me confidence and it keeps me from over running.

Ten years ago, I would have worked my way up to 100-mile weeks. I won’t exceed 70 miles with this plan. Maybe it’s my 63 years, or maybe work just has me too busy, but I think 50 to 70 miles per week will suffice. What I’m doing different is running a 20 miler every weekend. I generally run one, two or three 20 milers as part of prepping for a marathon; this time I’ll run seven 20 milers in seven weeks. 20 miles will feel routine after seven weeks. My goal is to feel comfortable for the first twenty miles of my pending race. I’ll also run three 10 milers each week. That’s a good distance. It’s more than a 6 or 8 miler. It’s a pretty serious distance and that will also feel routine after my ten weeks of training.

That’s it. A 10-week training plan with 3 weeks behind me. It includes dieting because I don’t just want to run a marathon, I want to qualify for Boston and I can’t do that being over-weight. Normal weight for my height begins at 168 pounds. My plan has me there in two more weeks. Stay tuned.

I’m back in ATX to run my 5th Austin Marathon. I ran my first in 2011 in 4:23, about the same time I expect to finish tomorrow. In between, I ran 3 under 4 hours; 3:45, 3:39 and 3:54. I’m running a bit heavy so this might be my slowest. If you want to track me, download the app. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/austin-marathon/id1141037258

Because I know my way around Austin, I parked in the Bouldin neighborhood to easily get to the Expo at the Palmer Event Center. I was in and out before the average person could park their car in the garage. I got back to my car just as the rain began to pour.

We spent Friday night at my in-laws. So much family showed up to wish me luck, it felt like Christmas. We ate dinner with my family tonight at Iron Works.

Forty years ago, I took Karen dancing at Maggie Mae’s on our first date. She wore a short skirt and a long jacket. I fell in love with the sway of her hips, not knowing she was a ringer on the Texas Dance Team.

We stumbled out tonight just like the first time. Tomorrow might not be as warm as I feared, but the humidity will be 80%. I’m going to leverage the BNP electrolytes at the aid stations to eschew a vest, hoping that will help my sweat to evaporate. I’m too out-of-shape to maintain a hard pace, but I might be able to maintain 10 minute miles for a 4:22.

Karen and I have hiked, I think, every weekend this year, and many weekends late last year, on the mountain trails nearest to our home. Mostly various trailheads to the Sourdough Trail but other trails in the area like Mud Lake. We call them Hallmark Hikes, because of the snow-covered trees and trail.

Sadly, we aren’t snowshoeing. Not enough snow. The snowfall is dramatically behind schedule. This weekend though finally brought the cold of winter. Odds are, it did for you too. It was about 10° during this hike.

Karen wore the balaclava she got from her sister for Christmas. So stylish.

My mind won’t let go of what it felt like to be racing in yesterday’s Colder Bolder. It’s been so long since I’ve put myself out there, struggling to keep up while in oxygen debt. This runner behind me was from the wave that started 5 minutes ahead of mine. He wasn’t someone I was caught up in a race with. There were two women I found myself passing back and forth with.

One of them was 55 year old Michele Delman, pictured here in the orange tank top behind me. I was 2 seconds ahead of her at the one mile point, even at two miles as she ran 2 seconds faster than me, and we ran even splits for the final mile but I somehow finished 2 seconds ahead of her – apparently from my kick over the last 100 meters. We probably passed each other 4 or 5 times throughout the race.

Racing was fun and I might train for it more the next time I run a 5K. My legs are as sore this morning as they are after a marathon. No doubt, from wearing zero-drop racing flats that I wasn’t prepared for. The fastest runner my age finished at a 6:30 per mile pace. I could only dream of running that fast. But I am dreaming of running that fast. Maybe next year.

I ran the Colder Bolder 5K this morning. Start time – 7:35 am. An early run for me. The temps weren’t bad though, around 40°, but with a bit of a breeze at 8 mph. I’ve run these events well below zero in the past, where it’s earned its name.

The rooftops of the buildings on the CU campus are still full of snow. I ran without gloves or a hat but still might have been over-dressed wearing two shirts. I saw runners comfortable in tank tops, others were shivering.

I might have run a few seconds faster than last weekend’s turkey trot in my neighborhood, finishing in 25:37, an 8:15 pace. I felt stronger today, but I warmed up for this run. This course is harder though, not with true hills, but constant slopes, which when racing at altitude, feel like real hills.

I haven’t run this event in 9 years. It’s a super fun atmosphere with breakfast burritos and beer afterward. Assuming you drink beer for breakfast. I was running 5Ks under a 7 minute pace back then. I have to say, last weekend and today is the first time in years I’ve pushed myself to run at my lactate threshold. That’s hard but it feels like true racing. I couldn’t last running a marathon in oxygen debt, but that’s what 5Ks are good for.

I took the entire week off from work for Thanksgiving for some much needed recovery time. Karen and I hiked the Sourdough trail early in the week and had to stop the car on the road to allow some wild turkeys to pass. Imagine that.

It was a bit colder than we expected at 8,000 feet. We could have used mittens.

Not too much snow on the trail though. We expect to get our first real snowfall this coming weekend.

I’ve put most of my focus this week into rebuilding my running routine, getting a 13 miler on Saturday, followed by 15 miles on Sunday, the hike with Karen on Monday and a 20 miler on Tuesday. I haven’t run 20 miles since the Boulder Rez Marathon in August. I ran the same 10 minute pace. I saw this buck in Niwot on my 20 miler.

I ended the week with another turkey, and family. And more running and hiking. Happy Thanksgiving.

Karen said let’s spend the weekend in a cabin on Fall River Road. By weekend, she meant Thursday night through Saturday. I worked on the deck Friday, over the noise of a strong running stream, Fall River which runs through Fall River Valley and empties into the Big Thompson River in Estes Park, like any other Friday.

I found time after work to run the Dear Mountain Trail before dinner. My annual pass to the park expired so I had to buy a new one. Because I’m 62 or older, I qualified for the Senior Pass – a lifetime membership for $80. A lifetime of running these trails. It was a good deal.

My first run after last Saturday’s marathon was today, a full week later. That’s been how the last month of running has been for me, lucky to squeeze in some weekenders. Still, I can wake up any given Saturday and churn out a full marathon. I’m happy with that. These pics are from last week’s marathon and a few from today.

Nice view of the Flatirons as I ran across the dam. The first aid station was near this point. Two miles in or so.

The water is on the right side of this photo, to my left as I was running. The Rez was full of small sailboats. With the Front Range as a backdrop, it was pretty scenery.

There was still a decent core of runners to follow along my second time crossing the earthen dam, but not enough for a solid line. There were smalls groups of runners separated by the occasional solitary runner, like me.

The dirt was patted down by the previous night’s rains. Ideal. The mile or so of pavement per loop never got hot.

The photo above is the same view of the Boulder Flatirons from the earlier race photos, but from a few miles further east, along the East Boulder Trail.

Also on today’s 8 miler, the sliver of water you can see over the top of this cairn is the Boulder Reservoir – the site of last Saturday’s marathon. Each of the four loops around the Rez was a little over a 10K.

I felt strong though to the finish last week. I felt my hamstring tighten a little before 20 miles and slowed down for it but I’d taken a couple of SCAPs about two miles earlier and those salts kicked in. I was having to drink the aid station Gatorade the final 10K because I drank up my 500ml bottle of LMNT a lot quicker on this loop.

I ran the slowest miles of the day for the first 3 miles of the final 10K, but got a second wind and finished the final 3 miles strong. Overall, it was a very comfortable run. The right pace and good weather.