Rivalry Saturday

November 26 2011

Watched the Ohio state vs Michigan game at the Allen house.  Food was great,  good to see and hang out with a lifelong friend.  Surrounding yourself with great people on a day when you miss someone seems to be great therapy.  This is my favorite Saturday of college football.  So many great games.  Almost comparable to march madness, almost. 
Adding to my to do list, attend a south Carolina VS Clemson @ Clemson football game. The gamecock crowing or cackling is annoying and I never liked spurrier as a coach. Alabama VS auburn would be pretty sweet as well.  

NBA don't care that you and the owners have come to a tentative agreement.  Should I be excited that you are going to start playing games on Christmas?  Nope

Running:  hamstring has been very tight since my ten miler at west branch so before I injure it any further, have taken two days off with only stretching.    I'll see how I feel tomorrow morning and then adjust my running schedule accordingly.  

1:35 pm ~~~~I hope your day was great

Go browns.

Sunday vertical monster

Started a little bit after 7 am, 22 degrees out.  Carried a big pack(about 25 pounds) with a gallon of water and some calories, that I dropped at a large rock cropping. This was the aid station for the loop around elephant butte.  The first two loops were uneventful. The third and fourth I wondered why I was doing this, the fifth and sixth loops my legs were tired but I was getting closer to being done.  The seventh was heaven and flew by.  Number eight loop I did in the opposite direction to change it up a bit.  The last climb up evergreen mountain it was starting to get cold and the sun was  going down.  
Pretty hard training run. 10 hours on the trail and 10 k of climb.  Hoping to do this run a few more times 

Monday/Tuesday
Spent the day wrapping up a few loose ends in Colorado before flying back to Ohio.  Waited over two weeks to get my old title from Ohio DMV and it arrived a few hours before I left.  Spent the night at my cousins in Denver and she graciously took me to the airport on Tuesday morning.  So glad I dont have to pay for five weeks of airport parking.  
A lot has been made about holiday travel. I got my ticket, through security and to my gate in about 15 minutes. Smooth as silk.  
Got to Ohio in time to watch my nephew play soccer.

Wednesday
Got a 4 mile run in around the neighborhood, legs were still dead from Sunday's adventure. Turkey trot should be fun.

Thursday
Ran a 35:38 in the five mile turkey trot.  Kept even splits the entire run. Ate turkey, took a nap and took my nephew to see jack and Jill.  It was great to hang out with my family and not have to worry about the madness of black Friday.  On the way home from the movies, Jarod wanted to drive by best buy and throw something soft at the campers haha love that kid.  The line at toys r us five hours before they opened was insane.  I don't get it.  

You looka like a _____________

Thursday
Headed to Keystone for my first day of snowboarding this season.  Snow was good and it was great to finally gets some turns in and before thanksgiving is even better.  Got home early enough to head to cactus jacks for the Broncos game.  Two women approached me and asked if I was a runner, i wasnt even wearing one of hundreds of running shirts or shorts that I own.   I asked them why and they said I looked like a runner.  I'll take that any day especially living in the land of fit people.  Thanks T and Tracey, you made my night.  
Saturday
7 mile run today up Evergreen mountain, felt smooth.  
Running tomorrow morning ( Sunday) with a lot of climb.  
Packed and ready to occupy Ohio.

Dry run

Wide awake at 3am. I guess my body still thinks it needs to stay up all Tuesday and into Wednesday.  This is the day that I use to do inventory for work and like clock work, every Tuesday I am wide awake. I would have thought that after 5 months of not working ( wow it's been that long) my body would have adjusted by now.  
Broke our upcoming Saturday run into four sections and on preliminary data collected today via gps and good old fashion math this is what I got.
First  section is evergreen mountain.
  1.27 miles to the top, 
1,010 feet of gain
 zero loss.  
Second section will be transitioning down evergreen mountain to the loop trail around elephant butte
1.93 miles 
337 feet gain
1,052 feet of loss
Third section is the loop Around elephant butte plus the spur to the top ( plan on doing this 9 times)
2.27 miles
944 feet gain
899 feet of loss
Fourth section is home 
2.77 miles 
431 feet of gain.

If I calculated correctly, our total miles would be 26.48 for a gain of 10,175 feet. Subject to change as abiding by the rules of a fat ass run.  
Saturday appears on paper to be a long day.  

VM FA

Keeping with the family tradition, I signed up for the turkey trot today oh and ran 7 miles up and around evergreen mountain.  Doing a test run of the "vertical monster fat ass" run course tomorrow to check elevation gain and miles.  

Rested legs=happy feets

Spent Friday struggling through a 7 mile run.  My legs were tired and my brain kept coming up with excuses to turn back.  Not a fun day for me on the trails. In the past this was my indicator that I was overtraining.  As Friday progressed, I wanted to redeem myself on Saturday.  Gung ho and ready to go I step out on the deck into an intense windstorm up to 100 mph.  Back into the house I go.  Bad weather does not bother me but this was insane.  Off to hang out in Boulder for the day, no run and a day of rest.  Yes.
Sunday. Lair o bear to Pence park.  13 miles with a small diversion to climb the panoramic trail and the meadow view trail. I  could breathe and my legs finally felt rested.  Nothing beats a fun run with happy feet.  cheers to a new week.  
The weatherman predicted 10-20 inches of snow, they  got 2 inches. How are  they off by that much?  Thanks for getting my hopes up, my snowboard is getting impatient and so am I.  

Wasted day

Spent all of Monday sleeping and trying to get rid of a migraine headache.  
Felt like someone was hitting me in the head with a hammer repeatedly for hours.  

Mt Falcon park. Sunday funday

Attempted to run with the Denver trail runners this morning but picked the wrong parking lot. So we started  at the upper  mt. Falcon parking lot and took the castle trail.  the first mile looks more like a dirt road than a trail but  as we descended it turned more technical and boom, we are on a single track.   The  views of the Denver skyline and red rocks became evident during this mostly four mile downhill.  Standing on a overlook, i could see red rocks to my left, downtown Denver to my right, and snow covered mt. Evans behind me. Broke off of the castle trail and took the turkey trot trail that loops around to back to the base of mt falcon park. The turkey trot trail gives the best views of red rocks that I have seen.  This is when we rejoined the castle trail for about a four mile up hill to the upper parking lot.  Good start to the running week with some technical up tempo, long downhill and long climb back up.  

Here kitty, kitty

Drove to Colorado springs, bought a new car.  Was hoping to get a run in around pikes peak but the car buying process took up most of the day and I needed the rest day since my legs are pretty trashed.  Back at it tomorrow.

Upon returning to Evergreen and pulling into the driveway, a mountain lion was about five yards from the back sliding glass doors.  Wild animals are pretty neat.  
An extra hour of sleep. Yes please.

So beast you don't even know

Spent the day running three sisters trail, elephant park, and buffalo park.  Excited that we found some flowing single track trails that lead up and around elephant butte with some great views and good climbs.  Ran into a local on horse back that explained how to get to the destination we were looking for. On top saw a large red fox with a bushy tail and the tip of the tail was pure white. I got pics but my iPad is is in a class with kids that dont read so good and won't let me upload them unless I write this blog on email and mail it to myself at blogger, which sounds like to much work. This now makes the route a huge circle instead of an out and back. Snow is ankle deep on the non sunny side of the mountains.  The last time I wore my road running shoes was July 29th during a run around Donner lake in California, that is so beast(a phrase the young kids are using these days) Legs feel like wet noodles, tomorrows run should be fun.

That's pretty neat

Had a fun hiking camping trip last weekend, scratched the idea of the Colorado trail due to logistics. Headed towards elephant park and the mt. Evans wilderness. Slept in a bivy on the ground, no tent. 20 ish degrees at night but was toasty warm.  Heard a pack of coyotes making all kind of noise at about 4am. Saw three grey foxes, two were rather large. Pack weight was about 30 lbs and my freeze dried dinner was only 6 years expired. It still tasted great.  Very windy. The whole trip was pretty neat.
No shave November, growing a beard.
Snow is falling again.  Awesome.
Last timed run of the year happened yesterday.  Now it is about building back a base and longer slow runs.
Hardrock 100 application is on it's way. Fingers crossed.
Just got better news about a friend who was diagnosed with cancer.
Lost a friend who was killed by a falling tree limb. Life is short.
Got an email from a friend who i haven't heard from for over a year.  Reconnecting is neat.
Removed my rocket box and bike rack from my car. Engine is clean and so is the inside. Time to trade it in and get a new one. 
Bought my plane tickets home for the holidays. Arrive in Ohio November 22 and will be back in Colorado December 31. Wow over a month. Looking forward to the turkey trot and some miles in mill creek park at URINEO FA( Ultra Runners In North East Ohio fat ass)

Give it a looky see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm3JodBR-vs&feature=youtube_gdata_player