Category Archives: Running

Runner’s Blog

Is/Is Not

14 Saturday Oct 2017

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I can count on one hand the number of posts I’ve reblogged from others. George is a hiking buddy from Austin who will make you want to get lost in the mountains.

My Name is SCHOOLS

WheelerHumboltCO 064

It’s a simple sign, and all I had to do on my last hike in Colorado.  “Go right!”

It’s hard to mess up something so simple.  It’s not like there are twenty different trails up there, just the CDT and the CT.   My friend Rob shuttled me to the Cunningham Gulch trailhead after leaving my car at my Little Molas Lake endpoint, then hiked with me as far as the section of the Colorado Trail that follows the Continental Divide Trail.  I’d planned on three days out, he thought it could be done it two, and all I had to do was hike to this sign and turn right.  I didn’t even take a map because . . . well, there aren’t twenty trails up there.  Turn right, hike down the Elk Creek drainage, up over 10,899 ft Molas Pass, and find your car.

Isaiah 41:10
“Do not fear…

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Zion: Day Two

06 Friday Oct 2017

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Keith

The 12 mile Gooseberry Loop at Zion presents trail runners with a tad bit of exposure.  Keith took this photo during his run today.  The rest of his crew took the day off, to rest for tomorrow’s 19 mile epic run through the Grand Canyon.

But Keith is a bad-ass.  He finished yesterday’s half marathon at Bryce Canyon 44th overall out of 650 runners.  He took a spill today at one point, fortunately not at this point.  His QOTD: “The more I run to ward off death, the more I seem to be running right into her arms.”  I’ve never personified death as a woman myself, but why not?  I’m anxiously waiting on tomorrow’s results.

Bryce Canyon: Day One

05 Thursday Oct 2017

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gang of four

I couldn’t attend the 3-day Grand Circle Trailfest, but my running buddies kept me connected to their group chat, sharing photos with me of this awesome spectacle.  David, Rychie, Jen and Bob huddle together here in the sub-freezing shade before the start of the half marathon for day one in Bryce Canyon.

cold start

The smarter runners of our team pose in the warm sun with towering hoodoos as a backdrop.  Joey, as an 8th grader, would go on to win his age division.  Keith and Steve, forty years wiser, no doubt paced themselves, knowing they have another thirty or so miles to run over the next couple of days.

jen n bob

I was surprised to learn Jen and Bob completed today’s run without injury.  The thousand foot climb between miles 5 and 8 perhaps tempered their speed.  That’s a run-able slope for this crew, but I imagine it was a brutal climb at altitude.

steve

Steve looks to be running up to an aid station here.  The course would warm up by 40° before everyone finished, but it must be early still if he’s wearing full gear.

jen

Jen’s smile is enough to warm up these sandstone hoodoos.  I suspect she’s still smiling as her son Joey is a champion.  I can’t imagine racing victoriously on such a dream trail while so young.  It was Joey’s day for sure.

A Slow Burnt Orange

30 Saturday Sep 2017

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bridgeHeil Valley Ranch presents a runner with pine trees.  Not aspen.  Fall still shows herself though in the slow, burnt-orange grasses.  Trail runners feel entitled to watch the change of seasons, to heighten their discernment of the dimming light.  Upside down from spring growth, life is pausing toward winter death.  Trail runners know the color of this pending cessation.  They’re not satisfied until they smell the air, and feel it on their skin.  My running has kept pace with the fall cycle, winding down until my legs are in preservation mode.  Immersion in the season with a mountainside view makes everything okay.

I’ve determined if I’m to be running less for the next year or so, I’m going to take more advantage of the trails, to add quality to my runs.  So I drove out to Heil Valley Ranch, the trailhead off Greer Canyon.  There’s actually another, newer trailhead, just past the turn off Left Hand Canyon.  I didn’t run this new trail but it looks to catch up to the original trailhead.

I always start on the Lichen Loop.  It might add a few meters but mostly it adds a nice warm up hill.  And it’s prettier than the gravel road start.  This joins Wapiti for a 2.5 mile climb.  I saw mule dear half way up.  My legs loosened up at the top where I ran the 2.6 mile Ponderosa Loop.  Got in about 8 miles in all, my longest run in quite some time.

I knew switching jobs would impact my running, so while I’m not happy about it, I expected it.  Today it became obvious that if I’m to run less, I need to make the most of Boulder County’s trails.  Quality runs only.

I’ve could have titled this blog post, Two Weddings and a Deferral.  I’ve been to weddings on the previous two weekends in a row.  And then I had to make the painful decision to cancel a trail race I had planned for next weekend.  Problem was, driving to Utah for the three-day race meant taking off Wednesday through Friday.  Work is like college finals right now and I can’t afford to miss a single day.  The only good news is that I was able to defer my registration to next year.  So I’m running that Grand Circle Trailfest event eventually.  Maybe a year when my personal running is in a growing season.

A Runner’s Weekend

02 Saturday Sep 2017

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Gunbarrel Trailhead

I ran six on the East Boulder Trail this morning.  This is a 2015 photo from my media library.  The sky today had nowhere near that visibility.  Good thing the hills are always epic on that run, because there was no view.  I read later that the smoke is pouring into Boulder County from Montana and elsewhere in the Northwest, and some is from a 600 acre fire near Steamboat Springs in the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness Area.  Right where I went hiking a few weeks ago.

I’m hoping for a big weekend of running.  Can’t recall the last time I strung together more than two runs in a row.  The three day weekend gives me a chance.  Keith talked Thursday night about running sixteen on Magnolia Sunday.  More than double today’s distance and three thousand feet higher in elevation.  That will make today a warmup.

Tomorrow will be hot.  The smoke is expected to linger through the weekend too.  Not ideal running conditions, but I feel like I need a good start on training to run Trailfest in October.  I won’t be racing, I plan to mostly shuffle along, but I need to be fit enough to do that three days in a row for a total of nearly forty miles.  I can tell just from running the hills of East Boulder Trail without walking that I’m in decent shape still.  I’ll be ready.

LoBo Trail Closed at Neva Road

19 Saturday Aug 2017

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neva road

I was set to run ten this morning but hit this closure at Neva Road on the LoBo Trail.  Sure, I could have continued along the detour, instead I took it as a sign to turn around early under a cloudless sun.  I just haven’t been running much lately, other than for the weekends.  I can feel my conditioning beginning to trend slovenly.  I settled for eight today.  Maybe strategic, knowing I have to run Magnolia at altitude with Team Prospect tomorrow.

I blame work for not letting me run more.  Work is eating into my blogging and second novel too.  I don’t know what writer’s block even is but writing does take time, and I don’t have much of that lately.  Still, the new job is awesome so I don’t mind.

Nothing better than being motivated at work.  I met my dev/ops team in Herndon this last week.  They remind me of my SecIntel team over ten years ago with IBM, before the ISS acquisition.  Both teams count their growth based on the number of PhDs they have on their data science teams.  That approach gives me confidence.  Still, I have a massive running event coming up in October, the Trailfest with 44 miles over three days through Bryce Canyon, Zion and the Grand Canyon.  I need to pick up the pace of my training.

Trail Tumbles

24 Saturday Jun 2017

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Biologist BobTrails will kill you if you’re not careful.  In this photo, biologist Bob examines the skeletal remains of a deer that we ran by just short of two miles on the Picture Rock Trail this morning.  Keith, Joey and I didn’t wait around for the lecture to finish before we screamed up the mountain at a strong pace, that is until Joey stumbled over a rock near four miles and landed hard.  We took the final mile up a bit more conservative.  I should mention that Joey is only in Middle School.  Don’t think I ran more than three miles until my sophomore year of high school.

Bob caught us on the way down with about two miles remaining on our ten miler.  But he took his eyes off the trail and took a spill.  Falling on the way down is generally more painful.  We met up with the two Jens at the trail head to discover Bob’s wife, one of the two Jens, also took a tumble.  I’m guessing the night moves will be delicate in their bed tonight.

Banged Up

The Jungle Trail

18 Sunday Jun 2017

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brit & dad

Running hurts.  Not the running itself so much, I enjoy that.  But the recovery.  It’s a pain I don’t mind so much because it’s positive feedback that I’m working out.  But I’ve dropped my mileage this summer, or more importantly I’ve reduced the number of days I run, and that makes my legs more sore in between runs.

ellie & dad

That I’ve been more sore in between runs tells me I’m not doing enough to maintain my fitness.  I could reduce the distance of my runs, but I don’t want to do that.  I enjoy running 8 to 10 miles.  Anything less isn’t worth a shower afterward.  Research suggests there’s no health benefit to running beyond 35 miles per week, but I like the 45 to 60 mile range.  Running is a hobby that I like to put that much time into, essentially 6 to 8 hours per week.  And I think 5 days per week keeps the pain away more than only 3 days per week.

karen & ed

Discovering a new trail will help me run the miles this summer.  Dave explained to me how there’s a trail that branches off LoBo at the softball diamond near the corner of 83rd and Niwot Road.  I’ve never seen it because I turn a few feet before the street crossing to take the unofficial dirt trail along the creek that cuts behind the softball field.  This new spur gives me a 10 miler if I take it up behind NHS.  Ellie tells me the section around NHS is called the Cross Country Loop, and that a heavily-canopied section is called the Jungle Trail.  That’s a pretty cool single track.  Best feature is a strong hill near the turn-around.  Worst part of LoBo is it’s so flat.  This greatly enhances my workout.  I ran it both yesterday and today for a total of twenty miles.

I ran it yesterday, smartly wearing a hydration pack.  Not sure why I thought I could forego water today.  I think I was only planning to run 8 but got lured into running the new trail again.  Dipping my hat in the irrigation ditch helped on my return.  What really saved me from walking though was the Sebestas came up from behind me on their bikes at 7 miles and Dave left me with his water bottle.  That carried me home.

the girls

A couple of ten milers.  A new trail.  And brunch with my girls at the Greenbriar Inn.  The perfect Father’s Day weekend.

The Surge at 4K

03 Saturday Jun 2017

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surge at 4K a

This photo captures my surge at the 4 kilometer mark in the Bolder Boulder.  Twelve year old Jordan Leblow catches me here, after starting in the wave 60 seconds behind me.  We run nearly together the rest of the race, both running 7:26 for our final mile.  Pretty fast for a little kid as he finishes 6th in his age group.  I do beat 29 year old David Shoening, running on the other side of me in this pic, by a solid 15 seconds.  The difference in our times was from this surge through to the fifth mile.

Folsom 5th mile a

38 year old Terra Beaton might be passing me here on Folsom at the 5.5 mile mark as she beat me by over 10 seconds.  She ran nearly identical to me except both her first and final miles were 5 seconds faster.  Like me, she finished 8th for her age.

Folsom Stadium b

I didn’t put on much of a kick but I did pass 19 year old Callie Trautner here inside Folsom Stadium, beating her by over 3 minutes.  Callie finished 13th in a competitive women’s age group.

celebration beer

This is how a 55 year old man celebrates after racing against a multitude of generations over six hard miles, by drinking a Dale’s Pinner Throwback IPA before 8am.  The weather channel said the race started out at 51°.  I would guess closer to 60°, I was sweating hard from the first mile.  My next planned event isn’t until October and I’m not sure how I’ll train until then.  Might turn my focus back to writing my next novel.  It’s a sequel to Cyber War I.  I think that’s the plan for the rest of the weekend – writing.

Bolder Boulder 2017

29 Monday May 2017

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BA Wave Start

I prepped for this morning’s 10K with coffee, leaving my stomach mostly empty of foodstuff for the six mile race.  I would passionately breakfast on the java bean like this every morning if my knowledge of nutrition didn’t suggest otherwise.  Unlike running a marathon, my muscles won’t be at risk of depleting their glycogen stores before crossing the finish line.  Ideally, I’ll avoid debilitating oxygen debt as well.  A conservative start the first half mile should position me for a strong surge after two miles.  That’s my plan.

Karen dropped me off at 30th and Valmont and I looked over at my racing flats sitting in the seat next to me.  If I wore them instead of my training flats, I’d be committing to run hard.  Mental toughness is less than abundant at 6am.  With caffeine for courage, I put ’em on.  I laced them up and jogged down the street to the race start on 30th and Walnut, where  I queued up in my BA wave corral after a little warmup.  Checkout the little green Martian photo-bomb.

I blogged the other day I was confident I could run a 7:20 pace, but was hoping for a 7 minute pace.  I ran exactly a 7:20 pace.  I felt comfortable with my first mile in 7:13, although it felt faster than that.  Mile two was typical for me in 7:17.  I already knew by this point that I would likely average a 7:20 pace, but I surged per plan after 4 kilometers.  Still, mile 3 came out as my slowest, at 7:26, just like always.  That mile is tough after completing the climb up Folsom.

The fourth mile wasn’t much faster in 7:23, but again, just like every year, I ran my fifth mile the fastest, in 7:05, amazingly the same exact time as last year.  I struggled to maintain my pace after that and slowed back down after I reached Folsom again.  I ran the 6th mile in 7:22 for a 45:29 finish.  8th place in my age group.  A little slower than last year.  I’m fine with that since I’ve only been running on weekends for the last five weeks.  And I maintained a pace that challenged my lactate threshold from start to finish.  That Bolder Boulder is always a tough race.

BB Finish

Bolder Boulder Race Plan

27 Saturday May 2017

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BB shoe

Everyone has a race plan for running the Bolder Boulder, until they run up that mile-long hill on Folsom in the second mile.  That’s when they learn that at altitude, even slopes feel like mountains.  I like strategerizing my race plans ahead of time.  My goals for Memorial Day include running faster than the year before, and to do so with a sub 7 minute per mile pace.  The fun in planning is from knowing this course so well.  I know every turn, every uphill, every down slope.  I know the third mile will very likely be my slowest and the fifth mile will be my fastest.

So another goal will be to run the third mile better.  One clever way to do that is to run slower the first two miles.  It’s not easy starting slow in such a massive race stacked with screaming spectators from start to finish.  The excitement is amped up, and my BA wave will start out fast.  I’m going to try to run the first mile a little over 7 minutes, maybe 7:05.  Rinse and repeat for mile two.  That will have me averaging over 7 minute miles, but if I can commit to race mode at the top of Folsom Street, I’ll make it up over the next four miles with a sustained surge.

The best place to start my surge might actually be half way into mile three at 4KM on Glenwood Drive.  This is near the high point of the course.  The streets undulate a bit here and continue a slight climb to mile four, which is where I historically start my surge.  It’s also where everyone else surges.  When they zig, I’ll zag.  One issue with this plan though is that the street gets crowded in the third mile as starting waves begin to converge and it might be difficult to pass other runners before mile four.

I’ll leverage that convergence at 4 kilometers.  Runners who have started 60 seconds behind me in the next wave and maintaining a 6:40 pace will catch me about here.  Surging will be easier if I can follow after a faster runner as they pass me.  The question will be how long I maintain my surge.  I don’t expect to be able to hold it to the end.  That’s fine, but I’d like to maintain it through mile 5.  And I’m not certain I can run a 7 minute pace.  I’ve only been running on weekends for the month of May, and might have lost some conditioning.  I’m certain I can maintain a 7:20 mile pace.  Regardless of pace, the plan for Monday is for a conservative start and an early, sustained surge after two miles.  I’d like to break 44 minutes.

Time to Run

20 Saturday May 2017

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time

It’s the weekend so it’s time to run.  Got in fifteen miles today.  I’ll target fifteen again tomorrow.  Now that I commute to work, the weekend is all I have and I want to get in at least thirty miles per week.  I’ll start working from home a couple of days a week too, after I get my legs under me at the office.  I don’t need to run every day.  I’m already in decent shape.  I just need to maintain.

The Bolder Boulder is next weekend.  I need to show up and meet expectations with a top ten finish for my age.  After that, my next big event won’t be until October, a three day run through spectacular national parks – Bryce Canyon, Zion and the Grand Canyon.  If you’re jealous and thinking about it, it’s already sold out.  I’ll need these big weekend runs to prep.  The third day will be a 19 mile run around the Rainbow Rim Trail with 1550 feet of vertical loss and 1600 feet of vertical gain.  I’m going to need to add some mountain trail runs to my weekend routine.

Marathon Photos

13 Saturday May 2017

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tunnel

I registered for the Bolder Boulder today.  I wanted to wait until after running the Colorado Marathon to be certain I would still be up for running a race at the end of May.  Marathons sometimes require a bit of recovery.  I felt fine this week though, ran 10 miles today.  These photos are gratis from the Colorado Marathon.  The one up top coming out of the tunnel is around two miles, which is about where I put away the ear buds.  I don’t always like music when I run.

SportsPhotos_BKS_7036

This photo above is somewhere in the first half.  The one below is around 16 miles.  I passed that lady behind me in the pink top, 32 year old Nele Lefeldt of Houston, after the first 10k.  Interesting to see she remained right behind me this far.  Ultimately she beat me by twenty minutes.  I passed other runners non-stop from the start to when I got sick in mile 22.  Probably should have stuck with the 3:30 pace sign which I caught around 3 miles, but I got irritated by the kid who commented on my age and surged past.

half

I bet not many of you promote yourself in races like I did with a shirt referencing my novel, Cyber War I.  I know a thing or two about marketing.  Not sure what throwing up through mile 22 will do for sales.

16 miles

Doesn’t look like I’ll be able to train much before the Bolder Boulder, but I’m in a good starting wave, BA – the 5th wave.  I suspect I’ll be able to match last year’s time of 44 minutes.  I like to run the second half of that race hard, from the high point at Casey Hill on 13th St., to the bridge over Boulder Creek on Folsom.  I don’t save anything for the final quarter mile into the stadium.  That hill isn’t worth racing up.  Two more weeks of training.  See you in Boulder on Memorial Day.

26 miles

Poudre Canyon

07 Sunday May 2017

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IMG_0788

A marathon is a long run.  Don’t bother fact checking that, unless you intend to run one.  In my experience, it’s also true that the miles in the second half of the event are longer than the first thirteen miles, if measured by time rather than distance.  That was true today as the 70° heat eventually caught up to me.  Still, I had a good run.  This photo of me and Karen was taken in the Cubby Room at Bisetti’s Ristorante.  We went for Italian and for some reason got sat in their most romantic setting.  It’s a private room with a fireplace.  Yes, I drink wine the night before a marathon.  You never know when it’s going to be your last.

20 miles smile

Marathons can also make for a long day.  I boarded a bus from the Hilton Fort Collins at 4:30am this morning to ride up Poudre Canyon for the 6:30am start of the 2017 Colorado Marathon.  My Weather Channel app said the race would begin at about 54°.  That was from the night before, I didn’t have a signal in the canyon.  Other people were showing 60°.  Not ideal for running a marathon.  Surprisingly, I’m still smiling in this photo at 20 miles.

20 miles barn

My buddy Chris drove out to Fort Collins to take these photos.  Can’t thank him enough.  This one is the same spot, at 20 miles.  You can see the cloud cover helped to mitigate the heat.  I ran the first half at a 7:30 pace.  Pretty fast considering I train between 8 and 9 minutes per mile, depending on the distance.  I knew this was from a combination of the nearly 1% negative grade and running with others.  This had me well ahead of my target time of a 3:50 finish.

21 miles

My pace dropped to 8 minute miles for the 3rd 10K, miles 14 to 20, still really decent.  This accomplished one of my biggest goals, which was to run the third quarter of this marathon strong.  The heat got to me right after this photo though.  You can see the fatigue setting in.  I ended up vomiting three times in mile 22, which began my slow down.  You could say I vomited a 9:30 pace for mile 22.

23 miles

Before I succumbed to the heat, I was on pace to easily qualify for Boston, and was feeling excited.  Running ten pounds over my weight from the last few years, I wasn’t expecting to run this fast.  But I slowed down to a 10:30 pace for miles 23 and 24, then an 11:30 pace for the final two miles.  After getting sick, I began to stop at the aid stations for a half minute to not only drink additional fluids, but to pour several cups of water over my head.  Seemed like the smart thing to do.  Not sure I would have finished if I didn’t stop for water.  I train with my heart rate under 150 beats per minute; the combination of this heat and my early pace gave me an average heart rate of 177 bpm.  Not used to that.

kick

I did finish, fairly exhausted and with a bit of cramping afterward.  It was good to have Chris and Karen there to help me recover.  Not sure if I’ll be able to train for marathons in the near future, now that I commute to Denver for my new job, but I’d like to run this puppy again.  Great course.  Just need to get lucky with the weather.  I thought my bib number, 537, all primes, would work some magic, but weather rules in marathons.  I’m happy with this one though.  Great run overall.  Finished at 3:42 and took second for my age.  As I was passing an Indian kid, about 20 years old, earlier in the race, he said to me in a strong, rhythmic accent, “Wow, do you mind sir, telling me your age?”  Told him I’m 55 and he said something else about being impressed.  Not sure what he saw.  My hat would have been covering my gray hair.  Apparently I look old from the neck up.

finish

In Between Jobs

28 Friday Apr 2017

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wapiti trailWhat did I do on my one day off, the start to my three day weekend, in between jobs?  Seriously?  You have to ask?  I went on a trail run.  Six miles up and down the Wapiti Trail at Heil Valley Ranch.  Gorgeous outside too, with 50° and full-on sunshine.  I wore shorts and a long-sleeve T.  The weather will turn to snow around 6 or 7 and the temperature will drop to below 30° later tonight.  Good thing I could run early.

I would have enjoyed taking a week off between jobs but CenturyLink wanted me to start as soon as possible.  They were going to have me fly to DC the first day but they couldn’t pull that off for a new hire.  Would have been nice to meet all the team face-to-face but sort of glad because it likely would have required traveling on Sunday and I want my three day weekend.  Just sort of hanging out now, setting up my new Mac Mini, merging photo libraries from various other machines.  Fun stuff.