The ramp-up to the San Francisco Marathon has been less than stellar and the past couple of weeks have produced efforts that put me in serious question-mark-mode for the race. I'm still going out and will still run some portion of the event, just not sure how much actual racing is going to get done.

Though I haven't felt particularly snappy since Boston, the first big warning sign came a few weeks ago when I "raced" the Slacker Half Marathon. This race wasn't on my radar but my teammate, Susan Nuzum, was racing it so I thought I'd join her in the fun and/or games. She went on to win the women's event (at least her second OA win this year), and I hung with her for about 3 miles before starting to really wonder what the hell I was doing at the event. I raced hard for another two, stopped briefly to see if that would help me feel better, then raced for another mile or so before packing it in and just jogging down to the finish. Not a good day, to say the least. Susan was quite nice to throw out a lot of excuses for me (altitude, downhill course, wasn't my day, etc.) but clearly something wasn't right. I felt great on shorter, intense efforts (repeats, tempo runs, and the like) but anything with a sustained, maximal effort was not working well for me.

So I got some blood work done and scheduled one final "test" run before setting any goals for SFO. This was to be a paced, half-marathon-distance run in Boulder with Susan and Mark Plaatjes teed up to pace me to what would hopefully be a 1:26ish half. Susan and I started on the Boulder Creek path and ran into difficulties early on due to path closures caused by flood conditions along the route. No sweat, slightly slower pacing and route adjustments could accommodate these set-backs but fairly quickly it became evident that I was just not able to sustain the kind of pacing needed to log a fast time. By about 6 miles in I was struggling to maintain marathon pacing and soon thereafter called it a day. The way I was feeling was corroborated by my blood work which indicated low ferritin levels. So we assessed the likelihood of my being able to have a satisfactory go at a good time in San Fran and decided a goal adjustment/race switch was in order.

Of course, a week later (and a ton of supportive food from Rach ingested) and I am starting to feel a LOT better so things are still a little up in the air. I may switch races and run the first half as a race, stay in the marathon and just run it, or do a full experiment and run by feel with zero expectations. I do know that I can wait until the last minute to make any decisions and so, at this point, am going with that option so as to not rule anything out. I do know that whatever decision I make will be done with the goal of not putting myself further in a hole from which I won't be able to dig out.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

~stubert.

Been a bit swamped of late but that hasn't stopped the shenanigans. Raced in a 2K event last Thursday (Uni-Hill 2K in Boulder). Placed 8th with a time of 7:19 which is a little slow for 2K but not too bad on this hilly course. Training is going well and I have been logging solid 50+ mile weeks with some cross training thrown in the mix (yoga mostly, but I actually swam at the gym on Sunday for a bit). Did a really hard workout with the Gijima crew yesterday. Give this a whirl if you are in the mood for a killer run:

1. Warm up for a couple of miles
2. Find a long, steady hill
3. Run up at a sustainable, but soul-crushing pace for 3 minutes
4. Jog down for 3 minutes
5. Run up for 4 minutes. Try not to cry.
6. Jog down for 3 minutes
7. Up 5 minutes. Don't worry about what others think of you openly sobbing.
8. Down 3.
9. Up 5 again. Start to question your own sanity.
10. Down 3.
11. Up 4. Same pain, less duration.
12. Down 3.
13. Up 3 but then really stretch it to about 4:30 to finish on top of some heinously steep hill. Puke on your teammate's new Hokas.
14. Cool down for a couple miles.

Yeah. Marathon training is fun.

~stubert.

[edit]: No Hokas were harmed in the production of this post.

Been really just recuperating over the past few weeks and started running some longer, more focused efforts in the last week or so. One mistake I made after the Denver Marathon last fall was to jump back into hard training too early which resulted in having to take some extra down-time to get my legs back. Post-Boston, though itchy to get going again, I resolved to not make that same mistake.

I have been following Mark Plaatjes' orders and took two weeks REALLY slowly then added a regular regimen of somewhat reduced duration workouts over the last couple of weeks. This past week featured an increase in intensity with mile repeats on Saturday followed by what turned out to be a good 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3 pyramid workout on Tuesday. I felt a bit slow but my spits proved otherwise. I backed off going purely by pace on this one and just tried to hang with some of the faster runners in the group. They typically would gap me after about 15-30-seconds of each interval then I would maintain that distance through the remainder. My last set was still strong where others were fading so I am marking it up in the "plus" column for the overall effort.

Wednesday's run was a good one as well. Tried to rally the #DenverLunchRun crew but people were either tapering for this weekend's Colfax Marathon, stuck in meetings or too ill to get out in cold, rainy conditions. Twenty minutes before I was scheduled to head out, it was pouring rain and high 30° temps. Not fun weather in which to start a run but by go-time, the rain had tapered off a bit. I definitely came back wet but at least I was able to get my core temp up before getting too soaked. Stayed warm throughout the run, Cherry Creek Path was a ghost town and it felt good to be out braving the conditions. Some training is more mental than physical and this run definitely counted in that arena.

I signed up for the Bolder Boulder race on Memorial Day. It will be good to get in a short effort with a lot of people. Hoping to use the race to hone some skills which I currently am lacking and get some more experience with race day focus and big crowd racing. The course is difficult and I am not sure if I will be rested fully to run a PR or not but my big plan is to not get too frustrated in the early going, work the course and see what kind of finish I can put together. Still targeting my schedule for June and July in prep for the SFO Marathon and am excited to get rolling on some longer runs with faster finishes in the weeks to come.

Stay tuned for more...

~stubert.

As I close in on the first big race of the season, I am starting to feel my fitness coming along well. Boston is 4 weeks from today and I had a decent week of running in preparation for the event. Saturday wasn't good but the rest of my workouts for the week went pretty close to plan.

I drove to Gunnison on Monday to get in a couple more days at Crested Butte and to see my dad, Donna and cousins who were in town for a few days of skiing at the Butte. I skied very easy, not wanting to risk injury at this stage of the game then did a quick, easy run around Crested Butte after skiing. Honestly, I felt great for some reason. The side roads at the Butte were a mess and one over-zealous police officer gave me some grief for running on the road (vs. the snowpacked/icy sidewalks), I had a good run. Did 6 or 7 surges and managed to get in 5.5 miles in 45 minutes. Super easy. At altitude. Go figure. Then I gorged on Donita's food and headed back to Gunny for a quick yoga session and bed.

I have been doing yoga with Rach on a regular basis for the past several weeks and am pleased with the results. It seems to be helping me get more limber and is a good way to get in some easy stretching and even some strength poses (depending upon what program I am following). I definitely feel like it is improving my general fitness and works to augment my running. Glad Rach asked me to join her!

Tuesday, I got up early and braved chilly conditions to get in a decent hill workout. I didn't really select my venue well so the run didn't go exactly to plan (ran out of hill) but all in all it was a good run and I managed to feel like I was putting in a solid effort throughout. I jammed back up to the Butte for another easy ski then headed back to the Front Range. Travel and running hard are not a good combo (in case you were wondering) but I did some yoga with Rach when I got home and that made everything feel better for sure.

Wednesday called for an easy 1.5 hours so I hit the trails on South Table Mountain for what turned into a bit of a mixed-effort run. Definitely didn't feel super but just stuck with the plan and enjoyed my evening run on the dirt. Friday I did a quick road run at lunch that felt really good but Saturday's workout was truncated. Just wasn't feeling that great so decided to not push it and focus on Sunday's run. Did a long-ish yoga session to make up for it.

Sunday I jammed down to Boulder to run with Mark Plaatjes and the group and was greeted with mild temps but pretty decent, steady winds. We started at Pott's Field and made our way North to Jay, east to Cottonwood, then South to the Bobolink trail at a fairly mellow pace. From Marshall Road, we headed up the mesa, over to the Community Ditch Trail then over to Big Blue Stem where we dropped back down to Marshall Road. From here, we put the hammer down for 30 minutes at marathon pace. I did very well for about 4 miles then my last mile was a little off. Finished in 3:34 with 25.85 miles under my belt in challenging conditions. All in all a good run and a solid week of training.

Four to go...

~stubert.

Forgot to post, apparently. Time does fly when one is having fun.

The last couple of weeks have been interesting. I seem to be in a bit of a plateau and was fending off a cold which I managed to avoid. Whacked down some extra Zinc for a few days and paid special attention to rest and diet. So far, this week has been a lot better with strong, easy runs on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and a killer hill repeat workout on Tuesday. I am all teed up for a half marathon on Sunday and am hoping to do well. Given the timing of this race in my training cycle and my lack of taper, I am certainly not expecting earth-shattering results but if I can put in a good, steady effort, I'll be super happy.

Two weeks ago I raced in the final event of the Winter Distance Series, the Snowman Stampede 10-miler, and it was an interesting event. I felt really rushed getting down to the race so my pre-race preparation was abbreviated then I just never really felt super well during the event. There was a fairly steady headwind on the outbound portion of the race so I battled that solo for the first half then just couldn't get into the zone on the way back. Ended up a minute off my previous race time but still managed 3rd in my age group. All in all, a decent effort and a fun day racing.

I followed that up the next day with a big, 22-miler that was equally interesting. I started feeling pretty bonky about 2 hours into the run (depleted from the race) then battled fierce winds the second half of the run. Ended up finishing the last two miles at a decent clip (downhill... good sign) and ended up with 3:15 for the day. So again, not a bad effort. Good to see what I can do when fatigued and fun to do a course that approximates Boston in some ways.

I think that teed up my flat performance the following week so overall, not too concerned. We are about 6 weeks out now from Boston so I should be feeling a bit on the tired/crappy side on occasion. I know this hard work will pay off come race day.

~stubert.

This past week featured some good, fast running. I have managed to keep the running streak alive and as of yesterday, had logged 23 days in a row. Funnily enough, that wasn't really planned but once I got teed up, I decided to see where running every day took me. I can say that my desire to run outside hasn't waned but getting on the treadmill has become a bit of a chore. Lucky for me, the weather has stayed nice this past week. We did have some snow but it didn't affect me too much and I was able to run in Denver a couple of days.

Here is the week in review:

Monday, 11/15: 00:45, 5.30 miles, Treadmill with 6, 20-second strides
Tuesday, 11/16: 00:45, 5.35 miles, Treadmill with some pick ups
Wednesday, 11/17: 1:12, 9.90 miles, Denver loop tempo
Thursday, 11/18: 00:26, 3.48 miles, Holbrook Park loop
Friday, 11/19: 00:52, 4.19 miles, Mt. Galbraith trail
Saturday, 11/20: 1:35, 12 miles, Teller to Water tower tempo
Sunday, 11/21: 1:25, 9.39 miles, Treadmill and A-Basin ski
Total: 7 hours, 49.61 miles

There were several highlights this week including Wednesday's Denver loop where I ran from the office in Lakewood, around Mile High Stadium and back around Sloan Lake. A nice little run with some fun hills and decent, urban scenery. Friday, I ran with my buddy, Brad, who paced me to the finish at Leadville this summer. Great to get out with him. And Saturday, I joined Mark Plaatjes and his crew for a fun tempo run in Boulder.

People tend to get all uppity about Boulder but there are few better places to live if one likes to have access to terrific trails, peaceful roads and a veritable cornucopia of talent with whom to run. In the past two weeks alone I have seen big-name race winners out on the trails (Roes, Krupicka, Africa, etc. ) and got to run with a former world marathon champion (Plaatjes). The same holds true for cycling or skiing and there is a lot to be said for the benefits of living near such a desirable town. Sure, it may cost a bit more, but in my mind, it's worth it.

~stubert.

Boulder is WAY down there.

Strikes and gutters. ~ The Dude

Interesting week of running. Felt a little wonky all week but kept with it and capped things off with a 14+ miler today that took me a LONG time to complete. Logged quite a bit of climbing though and given the crankiness of the bod, am going to chalk it up in the "win" column. Thinking some of the grumpiness may be due to logging too many miles in shoes that are a bit too supportive. Going to remedy that ASAP. It was a gorgeous day out there with summertime-esque weather, a fast-moving rain/sleet/wind storm and everyone and their dog (quite literally) out there working the trails. Even ran past Tony Krupicka and Geoff Roes between Bear and SoBo. Going the other way, of course.

Here is the week in review:

Monday: 00:30, 3.66 miles, treadmill shake out
Tuesday: 00:45, 6.0 miles, treadmill surges
Wednesday: 00:57, 7.9 miles, Sloan Lake repeats (800s and 1-mile)
Thursday: 00:35, 4.0 miles, treadmill shake out
Friday: 00:20, 2 .0 miles, treadmill shake out
Saturday: 00:56, 5.9 miles, Casa Trails w/exploration and surges
Sunday: 3:23, 14.25 miles, Front Range Four: Flag, Green, Bear, SoBo
TOTAL: 7:26, 43.73 miles

All in all a decent week. As you can see, I am logging quite a bit of time on the 'mill. Really enjoying having the flexibility it provides but certainly would prefer to be able to run outdoors more frequently. Work this week was a bear.

Trying to figure out plans for 2011. I am definitely running the San Francisco Marathon in late July and my primary goal for the year will be to crank out a sub-3 marathon so I am trying to target a good race during which to do that. In the meantime, I am hoping to run some 5K, 10K and halfs and would like to toss in a 50-miler somewhere for good measure. I also may give the Red Hot 50K another go since it kinda kicked my ass last year. If you have any recommendations for fast marathon events, let me know.

~stubert.

Well, with a week to go before the Denver Marathon, I have one more medium-long run planned (today, 12M) then I'll just get my taper on for the remainder of the week. I am guessing I could really use a couple more weeks to prep for this puppy but I suspect the RD won't be willing to push the start date back for me so I'll just make due with what I have.

Bought a pair of Brooks Green Silence flats to try out. I ran in them last week and am taking them out again today. Initial tests were quite positive so I am excited to see how I like them during the longer efforts. Scott Jurek used these during his record-breaking 24-hour event this past summer, in case you were wondering.

Work has been steady (read: hectic) this week but I managed to get in all my runs. Rach and I even got to go to the Met in HD performance of Das Rheingold yesterday, which was gorgeous on a whole host of levels.

I am off to Boulder to get my run in. Have a great Sunday.

~stubert.

Tues Aug 3: 00:27, 2.86 miles, Casa Trails
Wed Aug 4: 1:38, 11.71 miles, Boulder Road Circuit
Thurs Aug 5: 00:41, 3.24 miles, Janet's House
Sat Aug 6: 3:15, 16.00 miles, High Lonesome via Devil's Thumb
Sun Aug 7: 2:26, 13.11 miles, Mesa Trail
Total: 8:30, 46.91, 7931' vert

Light first week of taper with a few strong efforts. Took Monday off then just relaxed on Tuesday. I felt the need to run fast on Wednesday so tossed out a pretty solid tempo run in the rain. Saturday featured a great run up high on High Lonesome and I finished off the week with a solo night run on Mesa Trail.

High Lonesome is still one of my favorite places to be and it was great to get up there again. There were a ton of people up there, enjoying the scenery and beautiful weather. The double Mesa run was a lot of fun as well. I felt really strong on the way out and then managed to spin negative splits for the return trip. No kitty or bear sightings but I did see a rattlesnake who was a little displeased with my presence.

In taper mode at this point. One more medium weekend, then full rest, lots of eating of Rach's awesome food and final prep for the race. Good stuff.

~stubert.

Dawn on Hope Pass

Figure on your time at the summit of Hope in-bound to be about your half-way time. ~ John

Mon 26 July: 00:47, 4.88 miles, Casa Trails
Tues 27 July: 00:54, 6.50 miles, Boulder Creek Path
Wed 28 July: 2:58, 12.53 miles, Gregory>Green>Bear>Mesa
Thurs 29 July: 00:39, 4.13 miles, Casa Trails
Sat 30 July: 4:45, 30 miles (est), LT100 Start to Treeline +
Sun 1 Aug: 8:11, 38 miles (est), LT100 Winfield to Mayqueen +
Total: 18:15, 96.04 miles (est), 14,000' vert (est)
Total - July: 63:22, 318 miles (est), 46,700' vert (est)

Capped off the LT100 training with an interesting week. Highs and lows, as one might expect but overall I feel that I have put in a solid effort to give Leadville a go in three weeks. I spent a ton of time on the course, took good care of myself (thanks in HUGE part to Rach's efforts and support) and a lot of quality miles leading up to this race. Not sure where this will all take me but I have definitely enjoyed the journey.

Things have just gotten crazy busy. This is a combination of running out of time to prepare for the race, logging longer and longer runs and some business developments that have kept me in negotiations and planning much of the time over the past several weeks. I had a couple of fairly blah runs this week that, while certainly not encouraging, really did allow me to focus on shrugging things off when they aren't going exactly to plan and working through adversity. By the weekend and Camp 2: Hello Faddah, however; I was ready to rock.

The highlight of the week prior to heading up to Pbville was definitely either Tuesday's effort (simple surges but just a great overall run) or Wednesday's jaunt up Gregory, Green and Bear. The latter was significantly more unpleasant as I experienced stomach problems throughout the run but still managed to get the circuit completed on time. I considered abandoning the effort at several points along the route but stuck with it through the prescribed time and, though my distance was a bit off, left the day behind me with something to chalk up in the "win" column. A decent way to enter the weekend and my final Leadville Camp: Hello Faddah.

Jammed up to Leadville Saturday morning to run the first few sections of the course. The weather was perfect for a run and I started in town and quickly made my way down the Boulevard and on to Turquoise Lake where the course switches from dirt and paved roads to fat singletrack that meanders around the lake. Lots of people were out this weekend, checking out the course in preparation for both the run and the mountain bike race which share some common ground. I was a bit quick down to the bottom of the Boulevard (00:30 – probably 2 minutes fast) for my prescribed time to Mayqueen, but was feeling strong so just kept things mellow as I spun easy miles along the edge of the reservoir. No press, just super relaxed running.

I made it into Mayqueen a full 10 minutes earlier than I had planned (2:05) but still just felt great. Filled up the hydration pack and headed back along the course. I have run the first 23 miles of the LT100 course 3 or 4 times this year in prep for the race so I know it pretty well at this point. Just ran really comfortably up the paved road out of the Mayqueen campground and made quick time to the Colorado Trail section. This portion of the course is a little more technical and rolls at first then settles in for a short climb up to Hagerman road. I made quick work of this section and spun an easy 9-minute pace up Hagerman to the first major climb of the course – Sugarloaf.

The north side of Sugarloaf is honestly not too bad. It is all easily runnable but I settled into a familiar run/walk cycle for the trip up and quickly summited without any real effort whatsoever. Probably averaged 11-minute miles on this section to the summit (3:10) and felt great. I dropped down the south side, which is significantly steeper and made my way to the Fish Hatchery in a blazing time (3:55). I still felt super strong and so I just motored the next segment to Treeline in 37 minutes or so to finish the day's run in 4:32.

Since I was about 1/2 hour early, I had some time to kill before Sean came to pick me up. So I put my feet up, took a little nap and then jumped in with a nice guy named John who was running an out-and-back on the course to cover about 67 miles. He was moving slowly, heading in-bound on the course so we just jogged along and swapped stories about past races, amazing performances by elite athletes and the usual banter. I put in about another mile or so before Sean arrived. I bid John farewell and was off to grab a shower and some food then to hit the sack.

Sean was kind enough to agree to drive me to Winfield in the morning where I started my run. He had a shorter day in store and timed his start so that we would hopefully arrive back in Leadville in close proximity to one another. The first mile out of Winfield was pretty clunky then I found my running legs and, once again, was off on another adventure. I settled into an easy pace down the road then just hoofed it up the back side of Hope Pass. This section is steep. And relentless. It demands that you just pick a gear and grind. So that is what I did. I made it to about treeline before having to stop for some first aid treatment on badly chafed thighs then continued my assault of Hope Pass. I summited in about 1:23 and just let it flow down the north side. I got a little lost after crossing the creek but quickly found the right path and made quick time to Twin Lakes (2:28).

After getting fresh water and treating my legs, I jammed out of Twin Lakes and up to the Colorado Trail. I am least familiar with this section of the course but have run it now both ways a couple of times. Once you crest the initial climb out of Twin Lakes, it rolls along for a bit then drops onto a new section of the course that is flat and fast. I made one wrong turn in here which cost me a little time but figured out my mistake fairly quickly and continued on to the new Treeline crewing station in good time (4:39).

After mucking about getting gravel out of my wet-again shoes (there used to be a bridge or culvert crossing of some sort over the creek at Treeline that has recently been removed), refueling, and doing some more first aid on my thighs, I headed out to Fish. This used to be one of my most dreaded sections of the course but, having participated in a few road races and training on roads all winter, I no longer fear the slab. I made good time to Fish (5:32 with that long transition at Treeline) and, though completing a couple of run/walk cycles in this section, was still feeling strong for the climb up Powerline.

The thighs were getting progressively worse but I settled into a strong hike on this section, only stopping a few times for short breaks. The first section is a bear so mentally, once you get over that, all the rest of the climbing is way less arduous. Don't get me wrong, this whole section is a bitch but for those of you seeking a mental pick-me-up, thinking of each of the false-summit sections individually will really help and knowing the first one is the worst of them will make this climb much more tolerable. I hit the summit in 6:49 and made my way down toward Mayqueen.

I was definitely slowing down a bit at this point due to the chafing and started to really pay for it. I ran out of water on the descent and was reduced to a painful walk down the Colorado Trail. I did manage to run a lot of the downhill to Hagerman as well as the mile or so on Hagerman itself but really lost a lot of time on this section. Draining the water reserves didn't do me any favors and I finally reached a creek on the CT and refilled, took a break and assessed my condition. I then continued down the trail to Mayqueen (8:11) and assessed.

At this point, I was actually still feeling pretty strong and knew I could make it in the rest of the way. I just wondered about the value/quality of that effort and decided to call it a day at this point. Just didn't seem prudent or beneficial to walk in the remaining miles and increase the damage to my poor thighs. So I conferred with Sean who agreed to come pick me up and called it a day.

All in all, it wasn't exactly what I had planned but I feel good about the weekend. I decided to pull the plug on the final day's run due to the dreaded chafe and really feel comfortable where I am at this point. I am working on some preventative measures to keep the problems at bay during the race and am really looking forward to the 21st where it will all be put on the line. Now I will start my taper and enjoy the next few weeks in the run-up to the race.

~stubert.