Category Archives: run

2012 Training Log – Week 43

After a terrible week of training last week, things started coming back around. I still think I’m only at 70-80%, but I was feeling encouraged enough to scrap together a last minute road trip with the family for my birthday weekend. It turned out to be a great call.

Monday
11 miles

Rallied somewhat after a dismal week and ran this hilly route at a medium tempo averaging 7:45. Still not feeling great, but getting better.

Tuesday
6.2 miles

Easy-moderate effort at the Boneyard. Signed up for a 50K this weekend. Did 4 laps at what felt like a comfortable pace for the opening miles of the race.

Wednesday
7 miles

A little better today. The perceived effort was lower than it has been for a while, nice to just get out and have a normal run.

As a long-time cyclist, I’m used to taking some abuse while out on the roads. I haven’t had to deal with that much as a runner (thankfully), but I heard a new one today.

I was cruising through a nice neighborhood, just running out in the street. The place is super quiet and probably sees a car every 10-15 minutes, if that. A larger, older, and apparently grumpier guy was standing in front of his house watering the lawn with a garden hose. It looked sort of like this:

As I passed, he (in his most condescending and gruff tone) said loudly, “Nobody’s ever heard of a sidewalk or a track…”. It took me a second to replay and process what I just heard. At first I thought he was trying to make some sort of joke, then I realized he was bitching at me for running out in the road. ?? Without changing my arm swing or anything else, I let my left middle finger drift ever so slightly higher than the rest. That triggered a “THANKS FOR THE FINGER, ASSHOLE!!” shouted at my back.

Wow. That dude has some issues.

I shook my head and wondered to myself why I couldn’t just let something slide for once. That finger is going to get me in trouble one of these days. I suppose the smart play would be to start looking into elective surgery to get it removed. Then I would have to move on to a zipper implant for my lips.

I wondered if he was ticked off enough to come after me in a car, and considered altering my route since I was headed down a long and straight road now and would be easy to spot. Then I reflected back on the profile he presented standing out in the yard and thought that by the looks of it, taking action on things wasn’t something that happened too often.

Kinda ruined my vibe. Made me angry at him, yet sad for him at the same time.

Thursday
0 miles

Took our time driving to Leadville to pick up Malcolm after his last class of the day. Did lots of shopping at the Silverthorne outlet stores, and spotted license plates from 34 states along the way. Flipped a U-turn in Leadville and headed back down the mountain, through Denver, and out across the plains. Stopped for the night in Burlington, CO – near the KS border. Long day.

The dog would rather not go shopping:

LJ in the Leadville sunshine sporting the hat she crocheted herself:

Friday
0 miles

Finished off the drive to Topeka. Hung out while the kids went swimming at the hotel. Took the dog for a walk. Nice, mellow evening.

Saturday
31 miles

Fantastic birthday run at the Lake Perry Rocks! 50K north of Topeka, KS.

4:47, 6th overall, 1st place over 40.

Ended up wearing a good bit of the trail on my shirt (credit: Kevin Gray):

Will have a good report for this one. Might take me a while to get it all together with everything else going on right now.

The icing on the cake was seeing Malcolm finish his first ultra. His longest run of the year was 13 miles one week ago. I certainly wasn’t running any 50K races when I was 18…

Long drive home that night. Kansas, as it turns out, knows how to put on a dandy light show.

Sunday
3 miles

Drove back up to Leadville to drop Malcolm off. Took advantage of the late evening light and got out for a little hiking in the snow. Good thing I packed a headlamp…

Total: 54 miles / 8:06

Posted in run, training

9 Comments

2012 Training Log – Week 42

Oct 15

Posted by chrisboyack

Awful start to the week, got a bit better towards the end. My training has been very hit-and-miss lately, but I’m still at it. I am in this for the long haul, so while I don’t enjoy weeks like this one and sometimes get very frustrated, I still remember the big picture. It’s all about making the deposits in the training bank. No matter how small.

I posted this before, but I still reflect on it during weeks like this:

Everyone loves the idea of success but few love the work it takes to get there. Passionately pursue the process and fall in love with the grind, success will follow. Josh Cox

I’m not hung up on the success part, but I do like the idea of falling in love with the grind. Taking the bad with the good. Every damn day.

Monday
6.7 miles

Had the day off work today. The weather was outstanding. Big plans were hatching in my brain…

I dropped the kids off at school and went in search of a sunrise shot. The location I had in mind didn’t work out, so I went for plan B. Shoot away from the sunrise. I hit the overlook in Daniels Park just in time to catch about 2 minutes of alpenglow on Pikes Peak. It was a very cool pink/purple color with a faint orange sky as the sun lit up the hazy air. This is from 44 miles away. It’s a big mountain…

After spending the morning taking care of things to do with real life, I got the green light to head out just after noon. What to do on such a beautiful day? I didn’t want to spend a lot of it driving, so opted to head to Red Rocks. I really like the loop there and wanted to get in a long steady run on that terrain. 4 laps would give me a perfect marathon distance.

I didn’t necessarily want to work too hard, but I did want to go at a consistent pace from start to finish. I also planned on not making any stops, and even went so far as to fill up four bottles in advance so I would have one for each lap and be able to grab one off the car as I ran by.

Guess how long it was before I stopped?

.7 miles

What a disaster.

My calves were so angry it just became impossible to run anymore. They get so pumped and tight I couldn’t even let my heels touch the ground. How long have I been doing this?? Sometimes it seems like I just started running last week.

I sat on a rock and contemplated how badly I suck at this stupid sport.

Then I reminded myself to take the good with the bad, remember that it is a process, a lifestyle, and that I loved simply being outside and moving.

I gave it one more serious attempt that lasted all of 1/2 mile before the calves shut me down for good. I jogged and walked the remainder of the loop, ending up with a grand total of 6.6 miles in 1:20. Not quite what I had in mind.

I happened to still have all of my camera gear in the car from the weekend, so I thought maybe I could salvage the day by heading up to Golden Gate State Park and shooting some of the fall color. That was a bust, too. Leaves were gone, everything was brown and barren. Ugh.

Coming back through Golden, I decided to hike up to the band of cliffs on North Table Mountain and check out the climbing possibilities. It’s a fun looking little crag with a lot of short 3-5 bolt routes. I still have a brand new pair of climbing shoes that are two years old and have never been worn…

I got off a few nice shots with the camera as well, and that helped my mood improve a great deal. Something about finding a subject and firing that shutter just feels good.

I thought this was a cool composition with the city in the background. The climbers look like they are miniature people because I was actually quite a distance away and the closeness of the rock on the left exagerrates the perspective.

Tuesday
6.8 miles

Good rebound after yesterday. Worked the calves over on the foam roller last night and that helped a little. Still extremely blown out, but I was able to manage better today.

Wednesday
6 miles

Just a jog. Bleh.

Thursday
5.1 miles

Wanted double that, cut short. Still feeling like garbage.

Friday
10.3 miles

A little better. Seem to be finally crawling out from under whatever has been holding me down.

Saturday
10 miles

I would love to go out for a 20+ mile run today, but 10 is probably all I have in me. If even that much. Just don’t know what to expect after this up and down week. My calves continue to be a huge problem.

Did some yard work in the morning and then headed for Green Mountain (Lakewood). I was itching for some dirt, rocks, and hills – without anything too extreme.

When I pulled up it was cold, windy, grey, and just starting to spit rain. Perfect. Sometimes I enjoy things more when there is a little adverse weather element.

Surprisingly, I felt decent as I rolled up and down the hills and even made it all the way up the biggest climb at a steady jog. My calves were definitely limiting me, but at least they weren’t shutting me down.

The skies let loose when I topped out and I was soaked and loving it. I had the whole place all to myself and imagined I was running through the Scottish Highlands (land of my ancestors).

Ended up with satisfied with a very nice 10 miles on the trails. Just what I needed.

Sunday
0 miles

Day off. Spent the afternoon driving around doing a bit of hiking with the camera. Beautiful day!

Found a good spot for the tripod… Tune in Friday to see the results.

Total: 45 miles / 7:04

Posted in run, training

3 Comments

2012 Training Log – Week 41

Oct 10

Posted by chrisboyack

Mixed week. Off to a good start with two solid workouts. Lots of things going on over the weekend, and I consciously let them derail the running. I could have forced it, but chose not to. I did get to spend a little time in the mountains, and about froze to death on the Continental Divide taking some pictures after dark.

I’m still leaning towards jumping in the 6 hour ‘fun run’ in Boulder this weekend. I have a couple days left to register, so might as well leave it until the last minute. Just taking things one day at a time for now.

Monday
9 miles

Intervals on the HC. .5, .5, 1 mile, .5

Nothing too extreme, mostly just blowing the rust out.

Tuesday
6 miles

Calves shot from yesterday. They just don’t seem to handle the faster efforts very well (probably due to my running form).

Wednesday
9 miles

Good day. Rather, I made it into a good day. My calves were pissing and moaning big time again, but I called their bluff. Did 8 miles worth of tempo at the Boneyard. After 4 laps I was sitting at an average of 8:10, started feeling a little better and whittled that down to 7:50 after 3 more.

I owe this run to scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, peanut butter cups, a little cherry coke zero, and the Foo Fighters.

Thursday
8 miles

Easy jog.

Friday
0 miles

No running today. Tied up in meetings, then drove to Leadville and back to bring Malcolm home for the weekend. First snowfall of the year, had to brush the car off in the morning. Took this shot of 14,267′ Torreys Peak in the afternoon.

Then I stopped near Frisco and spent 30 minutes walking in the hills to take a break from the drive and snap some more pictures.

Saturday
0 miles

Could have run, but chose to go up to Boulder instead. Met up with RT at a photography seminar, and listened to 4 adventure photographers give presentations. Good stuff.

Fairly tight on time afterwards, but did have a 30 minute cushion to work with. Used that time to hit Eldorado Canyon on the way home. The place was empty due to the weather, so it was nice to have it pretty much to myself.

Tried another panorama with the camera held vertically. This shot is 9 frames stitched together. The file Photoshop spit out was a 2.5GB TIF! If I did the pixel math correctly, it would be 12 feet wide and 4 feet tall if printed at the native size.