End of 2020 Musings

• I’m still running. Every day. 
• I did not run a sub-5 mile this year. I have a few excuses, but the main one is that I’m not fast enough. 
• I’ve been struggling a bit with Achilles tendinopathy issues the last four months. I’m managing it fine, but it has flared up to the degree where it’s affected my training a few times.
• Another matter complicating fast times on the track: the Salida track has often been closed this year. Every time they close the school for COVID, which they’ve done three times, they close the track. 
• On the whole, I feel like I’m about 95% as fit as I was a year ago. Good enough in a year like this one.
• Last fall I was running 55 miles a week, and now I’m doing 30 about miles a week. 
• 1815 miles on the year. 
• I do some intensity every week, although often it’s just a tempo or some light aerobic intervals.
• Being a new dad certainly makes it more challenging to get as much running in as I might like. We’ll probably start putting the little man into childcare starting next year as he gets older and (hopefully) COVID becomes less of a factor. Maybe that’ll free up some time to run more in the coming years.
• Running blogging (and blogging in general) has gotten the shaft this year. Not much to say other than it’s not a priority. 
• I’m not sure I’ll ever get back to posting weekly training. To the extent that anyone cared, you can go back and get the gist of the type of training I do. 
• Maybe I’ll post the occasional running-related diatribe in 2021 when I feel so inspired.
• Baby is doing great. My dog with cancer is still alive and doing pretty well, all things considered. My business did fine this year. It’s been a weird year, for sure. But as a 98th percentile introvert, quarantine doesn’t bother me all that much. A traumatic year for the world to be sure, but on a personal level, I can’t complain.
• What does 2021 have in store for me, running-wise? I think sub-5 is still the main goal. And I have still have a Pikes Ascent entry that was rolled over in 2019 for a broken leg and 2020 for COVID. Little did I know that when I signed up in January 2019 that I was making a 30-plus month training plan. I have a Bolder Boulder entry that’s rolled over twice, too, but I don’t think that one’s going to happen this year, either. 
• I can see myself getting out for some small mountain races in the summer, too, if I’m feel fit and healthy. Creede and Crested Butte always appeal to me. 
• 2021, eh? Man, if I stopped to think about it, that would make me feel really old. Which is why I reckon it’s best not to think about it too much.

Tata for now. Here’s hoping that 2021 goes a little smoother than 2020 did!

July 20 - Aug 2: Hiccup

July 20
3-mile easy dog jog on CR 220

July 21
4 x max hills on CR 220. 1.8-mile warmup at 7:47 pace (uphill). 1.9 cooldown at 6:55 pace (downhill). 4.46 total

July 22
Track day.

Plyos, warmup 200 in 35, followed by 400 in 69; 3 minutes rest; 400 in 70, followed by 4 x 200 in 36, 34.5, 34, 33.5, all on 2:30 rest. 1-mile cooldown in 7:20 for 3.73 miles total.

I was hoping to do 3 x 400 on 3 minutes rest averaging sub-70. Decided to audible to 4 x 200 instead of the last 400, because I knew I wasn’t going to make the pace on the last rep.

July 23
7 miles on Mears Junction to Marshall Pass in 54:25. Solid run.

July 24
Am: 2-mile easy dog jog w/ Tanner
Pm: 6 miles marking the national HS trail championship/beas knees course. This was harder and more time consuming than I expected. Took more than two hours.

July 25
Was hoping to do a downhill 800 in sub-2:20 on CR 140. Did .3 at 2:17 pace, but then felt a twinge in the hammy and decided to call it. Don’t think it’s anything too terrible, but I’ll need to take it easy for a few days. I think the course marking put strain on some muscles I wasn’t accustomed to using. Bending down 500 times to put in flags takes a toll.

July 26
3.9 easy on CR 220 in 30 minutes. Recovery jog.

July 27
1.5-mile easy dog jog w/ Tanner. He was sick all weekend, so we were both taking it easy.

July 28
3.8 miles in 29:20 on CR 220. Felt sluggish.

July 29
5 x max hills on Bald Eagle Lane. Nice light re-introduction to speed. Picked up the pace as I went. 3.2 miles

July 30
6 miles in 46:20 at Mears Junction. Tossed in a few surges @ 5k pace near the end.

July 31, 2020
2 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 250

August 1
3 x (2 x 400), one minute between reps, four between sets. 74.5, 73.3; 74.3, 75.4; 74.3, 75.7.

Didn’t exactly finish strong, but I really was just trying to get through this one without hurting myself, so we’ll call this a victory. I’d like to be able to do 6 x 400 on 1-minute rest at this pace later this fall. That’s my goal “test” workout before I try to for sub-5.

August 2
7.03 on Old Monarch Pass in 58:03. Felt ok. Nothing special.

--

Definitely a little injury scare last week with the hammy, but I think with maintenance, I'll be in the clear. I've been fortunate to be remarkably injury free since the big injury last winter. Looking to keep it that way.

July 6-19: Goin' Streaking

July 6
2.5-mile dog jog on CR 210

July 7
Had to get blood drawn and various other things done for a life insurance screen, which cut into my running window. Just ran up 250 to bald eagle lane to get in 6 max hill sprints. Fastest one was 4:17 pace (13.26), which was a PB for the hill. Across the board faster than last week, so I suppose that’s a good thing.

Weight was 164, which is the highest it’s been in a while for me.

3.3 miles total

July 8
7.05 easy on CR 250 in 61:46, turnaround a mile or shy of Blank’s Cabin.  Got out late. It was warm, so I kept it easy.

July 9
Mears Junction. 1.5-mile warmup. 6 x 3 minutes at CV effort, with 2-minute rest. Followed by a couple of 30-second pickups at mile pace. First two were slow, last four @ 5:53, 5:46, 5:32 (downhill), 5:46 pace. Strong and steady but not too intense.

5.64 miles total.

July 10, 2020
Busy day. 1.1 mile-super quick hop on mill.

July 11
Track day. Plyos, then a 200 and a 100 by feel as warmup, followed by 4 x 300 on 90 seconds rest. 51.3, 53.4, 52.8, 51.8. Dug deep on that last one. Average (52.33) was slightly faster than I ran on June 16th (52.6) for the same intervals, even though I had 2:30 less rest per interval this time. Progress!

Finished w/ 2 miles at 7:20 pace.

July 12
8 miles on CR 220 in 61 minutes, max HR 150.

July 13
3 miles on CR 140 in 22:45, max HR 140

Chicago Marathon canceled. JT owes me a pizza.

July 14
Warmup and cooldown plus 7 max hill sprints on Bald Eagle Ln. 13.3 – 14.2 seconds

3.44 total

Got the results back from the life insurance screen. No COVID yet. No AIDS/HIV. Good news across the board.

July 15
5.6 in 41:20 on CR 220, max HR 150.

July 16
5 x 5 minutes tempo at Mears Junction, 90 seconds rest in between. Uphill and into the wind on the first couple (high 6s), then 5:57, 5:42, and 5:52 pace downhill and with wind at back on the last 3.

5.9 miles total

July 17
3 miles easy w/ Tanner

July 18
Was going to go to the track, but they had a graduation ceremony going on there. Went to CR 101 in Fremont Country to do 15 x 1 minute on/off. Average of 5:48 pace on the ons, but most of them were high 6s on the uphill sections and right around 5-flat for the downhill sections.

July 19
7 miles on Old Monarch Pass in 56:32, avg. HR 142. Strong run. 8:04 pace at 11,000-plus ft. with non-stop up and down felt solid.

--

I’m actually on a bit of a running streak. I haven’t taken a zero since the day we got back from the NICU (March 14). 128 days!

I think this is the second-long streak of running every day I've had in my life.

Longest streak I ever had was 453 days, starting from spring of 7th grade and ending in the middle of my freshman year of cross country high school. Yes, I was that cool in middle school.

I’m not going to take this too seriously, but now that I’ve got some momentum, we’ll see how long it goes.

June 29-July 5: More of the Same

June 29
3-mile dog jog on CR 210

June 30
Track day. Plyos then 3 x (6 x 200) @ slightly faster than goal mile pace. One-minute rest between reps and 3 minutes between sets. Averaged 36.5, 36.7, 36.4 on the three sets.

July 1
5.5 miles in 40:48 on CR 220. Solid run for an easy day. Felt spry.

July 2
1.2 mile warmup and cooldown. 5 x max hill sprints on Bald Eagle Ln. Don’t remember ever going faster than 5-minute pace on this hill before, but all but the first one was that fast this time.

July 3, 2020
2.5-mile easy dog jog

July 4
2 x (4 x 200), 30 seconds between reps, 6 minutes between sets. Averaged 34.3, 34.0, 34.5, 34.4.

July 5
8 miles on Old Monarch Pass, 68:24. Very much not recovered from yesterday’s workout.

June 22-28

June 22
3-mile dog jog on CR 210

June 23
2 x (5 x 100) w/ 45 seconds rest between reps and 4 minutes between sets. Average of 15.5 on first set and 15.7 on second set. Range 14.4-->16.5. 2.5-mile cooldown. 4 miles total.

June 24
5.5 miles on CR 220 in 41:51

June 25
6 miles subtempo near Mears Junction in 41:24. 7:24 average the first three miles uphill, 6:24 miles average downhill on the way back.

June 26
Busy day w/ work and life. 1.1 miles in 10 minutes on the treadmill. Baby duty cut things short.

June 27
2 x (3 x 300) on the track. 2 minutes between reps and 5 minutes between sets. 53.5, 53.4, 52.4; 53.6, 53.6, 53.4.

This was hands-on-knees hard on the last two intervals. 3 miles total.

June 28
7.4 miles in 74 minutes on Old Monarch Pass, the ski mountain, and the Continental Divide Trail. First time getting up to 12k ft. this year. Avg HR 134. 

Little man turned four months old yesterday.

June 15-21

June 15
3.4 miles easy w/ Tanner or CR 210

June 16
Track workout. Plyos, then flying 30s, then 4 x 300 on four minutes rest. Fastest 40 in 3.94.

Was hoping to get all four 300s under 51. Ha! 0 for 4. 51.4, 51.2, 53.5, 54.4.

This is the type of workout where I suck right now. Which is weird to me, because as best as I can recall, this kind of workout, hard repeats on full rest, is where I excelled in high school/college, when I was most competitive. Either that stuff doesn’t age well, or it’s a skill that takes a while to recover after neglecting it for 22 years. 

For now, sub 2:15 is totally unrealistic for me. I'm starting to think I need to shoot for sub 2:20 800 first, then sub-5 mile, then sub 2:15, in that order. Getting to all three of those is going to take a while, if it is to happen at all.

Finished with a two-mile subtempo effort. 4.1 miles total.

June 17
5.2 miles on CR 250 in 44 minutes HR sub 145

June 18
10 miles in 81 minutes, Mears Junction direction of Marshall Pass. Another one of my favorites. 1500 ft. gain, turnaround above O’Haver Lake. Always the perfect temperature in summer, it seems.

June 19
3-mile dog jog on CR 210

June 20
2 x (5 x 200) w/ 55 seconds rest between reps and 5 minutes between sets. Average of 34.6 on the first set and 35.1 on the second set. Finished with two miles 7:15 pace. 4.5 miles.

June 21
8 miles in 66 minutes on Old Monarch Pass.

June 8-14, Taking the High Road

June 8, 2020
3.45 miles w/ Tanner on CR 220

June 9, 2020
Woke up to snow and 50 mph winds, so no track workout today. Ran five miles on the saddle ridge loop in 38:03

June 10
200, 200, 400, 200 / 4 x 200. 2:30 between reps, 8 minutes between sets

33.9, 33.4, 68.4 SB, 34.7 / (didn’t start my watch, but probably sub 34), 33.5, 33.3, 33.2

Not terrible. I was going to try to do a second 400, but the first 400 wiped me out. Decided to stick with the 200s instead. First sub-70 400 this year, I believe. More than a mile of running at goal 800 pace. Busy with work, so no warmup or cooldown. 3.5 miles total.

June 11
8.15 miles in 78 minutes up to Windy Ridge via Pass Creek road. 7700-9400 ft. That’s a serious hill. Some of the best views of the southern Sawatch on that ridge. Wasn't even windy up there today.

June 12, 2020
3.9 miles easy on CR 220 in 31:51 HR sub 140.

June 13
4 x (4 x 300) at near-goal mile pace. 1 minute between reps; four minutes between sets. Range of 55.8 to 58.5, average 57.1. That’s an average of slightly under 5:05 mile pace for 4800 meters worth of work. Good workout. Faded slightly on the last set but hung in there. 5 miles total.

June 14
8.9 miles on Old Monarch Pass in 77:40. I love this road. It’s the most runnable dirt road that I know of that’s entirely above 10,000 ft, peaking at nearly 11,500 ft. Even on weekends in summer, almost no car traffic.

June 1-7: A long way to go

June 1
2.5 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 210. Cut this one short because a storm was blowing through. Got back to the car just before it started lashing down rain.

June 2
Track workout. Plyos, then 3 x flying 30s (no time, 3.97, 3.91) followed by 4 x 200 on 3:30 rest. 30.5, 31.1, 31.2, 32.2. Not my best speed endurance workout of the year, but this one was solid for me and maybe my best since the little man came to town. Wanted to average under 32 and the average was 31.25. If I could run an 800 2.5 seconds slower per 200, I’d be thrilled.

4.85-mile cooldown in 39:10 by the river for 6.64 miles total.

June 3
5 miles HR <145 on Saddle Ridge loop in 38:41. Warm, windy, my legs felt sluggish.

June 4, 2020
8.18 miles on CR 240 up toward Ptarmigan peak. 9100 ft.-10,500 ft. This road is rocky most of the way, which slowed things down.

June 5, 2020
3.45 miles on CR 210 w/ Tanner

June 6
Track workout. Was hoping to do 4 x 800 in sub-2:40 on 3 minutes rest. Did 2:40, 2:40, 2:43 and then called it quits. Probably should have just toughed out one last interval, but my heart wasn’t in it. My HR wasn’t super elevated; I just felt sluggish and unmotivated. There was some wind and rain, but I’m not sure that was the problem. Chalk this up more to mental fatigue than physical fatigue. 2.35 total.

June 7
9.03 in 80:27 on 225/Fooses Creek between 8600 and 10100 feet. Beautiful day on a beautiful trail.

My conclusion from this Saturday’s track workout? I’m nowhere near fit enough to a run a sub-5 at 7000 feet yet. My fitness is probably closer to 5:15 right now.

Fortunately, I have no races on the agenda and nothing but time to get fit. I've had a few workouts in a row where I couldn't make expected splits. I just have to stay patient and keep putting in the work.

May 25-31

May 25

3-mile dog jog w/ Tanner on CR 210

May 26

Track workout. Plyos, then 3 x flying 30s (no time, 3.94, 3.82 SB), followed by 3 x (100, 200) with two minutes rest between reps and four minutes between sets. The idea was to do the 100s all out, then do the 200s at goal 800 pace on short rest.

14.19, 13.94 SB, 14.47; 33.4, 32.9, 32.2. Much more encouraging than Sunday’s workout. I aspire to be able to do 200s @ or below 33 even on tired legs. 3-mile cooldown in 23:15 around town.

5.1 total.

May 27

2.86 easy w/ Tanner on CR 250

May 28

5 x 20-second max hill repeats on CR 210.

I’m looking to add a third day with speed into my routine. Three days at the track feels like too much, so I’m thinking I’ll do short max hills most weeks, assuming my body feels like it can handle the extra intensity.

56-minute aerobic run on CR 210 after the repeats. 7.68 total on the day.

Pikes Ascent was canceled today. No surprise there. This is now the third time I’ve signed up for the race, and I still have never lined up for it. I think I have six lifetime DNS’s and three of them are at the Pikes Ascent (although I’m not sure it’s a DNS if the race was cancelled).

I deferred to 2021. 4^th time’s the charm?

The crazy thing to me is that the Bolder Boulder, currently scheduled for Labor Day, hasn’t been canceled yet.

May 29

3 miles easy w Tanner

May 30

400, 300, 200, 400, 300, 200, 400, 200

76, 56, 34, 71, 55, 34, 70, 36. Two minutes of jogging between reps.

Really wanted to get that last quarter under 70, but I couldn’t quite get there. Did a similar workout 10 days ago with more reps slightly slower. Amazing how knocking 3-4 seconds off a quarter can make a controlled workout go to failure. Legs were filled with lead on the back straightaway. Might have been feeling the Thursday hills in the legs, but that’s probably just an excuse.

Not a great workout, but I’m putting in the work. 2400 meters, most of it under 5-minute pace. 30-minute cooldown for 6.3 total miles.

One year ago, I took my first baby steps of running after a nearly four-month hiatus from a compound leg fracture.

Here’s the log entry: “Six minutes of walking, five minutes of jogging, five minutes of walking, five minutes of jogging. 1.31 miles total, with a max pace of 11:26 per mile.”

Against that backdrop, today’s workout looks feels more positive.

May 31

7 miles on the Colorado Trail starting at Angel of Shavano past Blank’s Cabin toward Raspberry Gulch. 81:34. Beautiful, and I pretty much had the trail to myself. Saw one dude jogging with poles and a button-up sleeveless flannel shirt. Made me snicker a bit. I think I'm progressing farther and farther away from whatever is trendy in the ultrarunning world. 

May 18-24

May 18
3 miles easy on CR 210

May 19
Track workout.

4 x (400, 300, 200) w/ 2 minutes between reps and 4 minutes between sets.
74, 75, 73, 74; 57, 56, 56, 56; 33.9, 35.9, 35.4, 32.47.

Solid workout. Not easy. After the second 400, I thought that I might not be able to finish the workout, but I made it through. 3600 meters worth of running @ or faster than 5-minute pace.

May 20, 2020
2 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 250. Construction, wind cyclones, off-leash roaming dogs, cow shit all over the road. Today was a total dog-run failure.

May 21
9.33 miles in 74:12 from Mears Junction toward Marshall Pass. 42 minutes up, 32:12 down. Solid run on a beautiful day.

May 22
3.2 miles easy w/ Tanner

May 23
Ran aerobic instead of at the track since there was a gathering at the high school in the morning. 7 miles on CR 220 with some surges. 56:10. Way slower than last week with similar intensity. Just felt sluggish.

May 24
Track workout. Plyos, then 3 x flying 30s (no time, 3.94, 3.97), 300 in 49 flat. 3 x 200 in 33.2, 33.4, 34.2, then cut the workout short.

Was encouraged at the start of the workout with my first flying 30s under 4 seconds this year. But then the 300 was slow and the 200s felt super slow. Bad day.

--

Weird week. Good runs on Tuesday and Thursday. Bad days on Saturday and Sunday. No explanation or excuse for the latter. Just hoping it's not the start of a trend. 

5/11-5-17

May 11
3.1 miles easy on CR 210 w/ Tanner

May 12
Speed development workout on the track. Plyos, then 3 x flying 30s (4.34, 4.06, 4.06), followed by 3 x 100 (14.88, 14.34, 14.26), on 4 minutes rest followed by 2 x 200 (30.44, 31.56) on six minutes rest. Four minutes rest. Then finished with 1.5 miles at 6:35 pace. 3.89 miles total.

I’ve definitely lost a step or two since winter track. Or maybe I’m just not pushing as hard because I’m not chasing 18-year-olds.

May 13, 2020
3.1 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 250

May 14, 2020
8.45 miles on CR 250 to Washout Gulch. 72:45 w/ just shy of 2k elevation gain. This route goes up 600 ft., down 1000 ft., back up 1000 ft., and down 600. Not an easy run.

May 15, 2020
3.3 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 210. There were a bunch of people out looking for a person who went missing who lives down the road. Apparently it has become a national news story. They’re not giving out much information other than she went missing after riding her bike on Sunday on County Road 225. Definitely disconcerting.

May 16, 2020
Track workout. Plyos, then 800 in 3:00, 1200 in 4:15 (5:40 pace), 800 in 2:55, 1200 in 4:09 (about 5:30 pace), 800 in 2:59, 400 in 74.7. Two minutes rest between all the reps, except the last one, where I only got one minute.

This was hard. Harder than I expected. Got my HR up to 186 on the last 1200 and 188 on the final 400, which is the highest I’ve recorded it in a couple of years. By contrast, my HR never got above 182 when I ran a 17:13 5k in Japan last fall.

A couple of laps barefoot on the infield after the workout as a cooldown. 4.5 miles total. 

May 17
7 miles on CR 220 in 54:15.

2020 Running Goals

2020 has been a heck of a year, for personal reasons and for the reasons that we’re all sharing.

With the little man at home, I’m finding that 5-6 hours of training is about all I can budget right now. Keeping that in mind and with my suspicion that all major races are going to be canceled this year, I’m looking to non-race goals to keep me motivated.

Since I turned 40, I’ve had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to run a sub-5 mile, which is something I haven’t done since I was a sophomore in college 23 years ago (I was once a 4:31 1600-meter runner). And, after training with the high school kids this winter, I’ve gotten curious about what I can do in the 800 as well.

Earlier in the year, I posted here that I wanted to run sub-4:50. That might be possible at low elevation, but it ain’t happening in Salida, at 7000 ft. And since there probably isn’t much traveling in my short-term future, and with the new addition in the family, I think a sub-5 goal at 7000 ft. is plenty ambitious.

I'm also curious what I can do in the 800 now. Once upon a time, I broke 2. At this very moment, at 7000 ft, I’d struggle to break 2:30.

Since I haven’t run an 800 in 23 years, it’s hard to know what’s a realistic goal. I feel like sub-2:12 would be a great stretch goal this year, but I’d put the odds on my running that fast at less than 10%. Sub-2:16 seems plausible, if all goes well and I have a good day. Regardless, I’ll work in that direction and see where I get. I’ll say sub-2:12 is the A goal, sub-2:16 is the B goal, and sub-2:20 is the C goal. No extra credit for just finishing an 800.

Either way, 800/1600 strikes me as a great challenge for 2020.

I might jump into the odd small race if such things happen later in the year (Spiral Drive/Creede Mountain Run seem like reasonable candidates), but right now, pure middle distance seems like a fun place to focus my energies. It’s a novel challenge, and if I do it right, it’ll be helpful in putting me in a position to train with the high school kids when that time comes again, and for bigger races when bigger races become a thing again.

4/27-5/10

April 27
3.4 easy w/ Tanner on 210

April 28
Igloi intervals on CR 140. 16 x 100 @ 800 pace w/ 1-minute rest in between. Averaged 2:14 pace for the 100s. It hurt!

4.25 miles total.

April 29
3 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 250

April 30
8.32 miles on CR 101 and Columbine Trail in 72 minutes. Just shy of 2k elevation gain.
43 minutes up, 29 minutes down. Finished with the last two miles at 6:20 pace. Felt good on the run, but then felt some acute knee pain after the run. I might have developed some patellar tendinitis.

May 1
3.2 easy w/ Tanner on CR 210

May 2
Decided to skip the Saturday workout with the knee. Five miles in 37:44 on the Saddle Ridge loop, HR sub 150.

May 3
5.6 miles in 42:50 on CR 220 w/ a handful of surges. Knee isn’t 100%, but it didn’t seem to hurt any worse when I moved a little more quickly, so I suppose that’s a positive.

May 4
3.2. w/ Tanner on CR 210

May 5
6 x 300 on the newly re-opened track w/ 2 minutes rest in between. Range of 53.2 to 54.6. This was harder than I wanted it to be. Was in better shape in January. Knee’s ok, but far from perfect.

This novel coronavirus shutdown was the fourth time in the last two years I’ve had to take a long hiatus from running on the track, which makes me feel like I’m always starting from scratch when I go back. Here’s to hoping we get a few months where it’s open and I’m healthy.

May 6
2.8 miles w/ Tanner on CR 250

May 7
8 miles in 67:35 on CR 250. About 1500 ft. gain. 40 up, 27:35 down. Brutally windy. There were dust cyclones all over the road the last few miles.

May 8
3.37 miles in 30:09 on CR 210 w/ Tanner. Decent pace for the dog.

May 9
Track workout. 2 x (800, 600, 400) on two minutes rest between reps, 4 between sets, followed by 3 x 200 with 3 minutes rest.

Ran 2:47, 2:02, 74 on the first set, 2:45, 2:01, 75 on the second. And then 35.1, 33.8, and 33-flat on the 200s. Solid workout. 4.6 miles on the day.

May 10
7 miles on CR 220 in 54:40. 30 out and 24:40 back.

4/20-4/26

April 20, 2020

3.33 miles w/ Tanner on CR 210

April 21

4 x 100, 1 x 200, max sprint on full rest on CR 140; Quick jog, plyos and 4-minute tempo for warmup. Took a few reps to get into the sprints. First two were slow, and then got into the low 14s on the last two. Last 200 was 29 high with a crosswind. Definitely max intensity for me. Changed shoes and finished with a 3-mile light tempo @ 7:15 pace toward Saddle Ridge. 6 miles total.

I think Safer at Home means I can run on the track next week?

April 22

3 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 250

April 23

Slow day at work so I thought I might venture up a little higher today. Went out to CR 224, 219, and even explored the Colorado Trail for the first time in 2020.

This was the wrong choice. 8 ft. snow drifts on the Colorado trail and CR 224 and 219 were muddy and uneven. 8.36 miles in 77:38 w/ 2500 ft. of gain/loss between 8700 and 10500 ft in poor conditions. Felt pretty drained by the end.

April 24

3.32 easy w/ Tanner on CR 210.

April 25

5 x 200 on CR 250 on full rest, slightly downhill and no wind this time. 32, 31, 30, 29, 28. Good workout. Not sure how much the downhill helped, but that’s definitely the quickest 200s workout I’ve done since college. 30-minute cooldown for 5.3 total.

April 26

7.55 miles HR sub 150 on CR 220 with some surges. 59:06. Some dingbat started a ditch fire that got out of control and kind of derailed my run and polluted my lungs. Fire crew came quickly and put it out.

Training 4/6-4/19

April 6
3 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 210

April 7
3 x (5 x 200) on CR 140 @ goal mile pace, one-minute rest in between. Range of 35-39 on the 200s. Average was right at 37. 4.94 miles total.

April 8
Am: Saddle Ridge loop counterclockwise in 39 minutes; 5 miles.

Pm: 2.67 with Tanner on CR 250

April 9
7.58 miles steady in 61 minutes on CR 220 and 221. About 1000 ft. elevation gain.

April 10
3.44 easy w/ Tanner on CR 210

April 11
4 x 15-second max hill sprints; 35 minutes aerobic around Shavano’s horse.
4.3 miles total

April 12
9.77 miles steady in 79:22 from Mears Junction to Marshall Pass. About 1500 elevation gain.

April 13
3.32 miles w/ Tanner on CR 210

April 14
Am: Failed 400s workout; tired and felt a slight strain in the quad. Did the first 5 averaging 80 on 60 seconds rest and then called it quits. 4.1 miles total.
Pm: Saddle Ridge Loop; 5 miles in 38:30. Windy AF.

April 15
3 miles easy on CR 250 w/ Tanner

April 16
5.5 miles on CR 220 in 42:30 w/ 6 30-second surges. Very windy again.

Skipped the afternoon run. Not much sleep. Nagging quad niggle. No races the next 4.5 months. When in doubt, do less.

April 17
3.45 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 250

April 18
No track available in Salida, so I’m improvising with speed workouts on the roads. Today decided to do 5 x 1 minute at goal mile pace (sub 5) w/ two minutes rest. Did this on the downhill road section of CR 250. Intermittently strong headwind, so barely managed to hit the splits, and the last one hurt like hell. Started off w/ plyos, a 3-minute tempo interval, and strides. Finished with a 4-mile cooldown on 250 (21 up, 15:30 down). 6.9 total.

April 19
7.9 miles on CR 220 in 60:06. Felt strong. 33:30 out and 26:36 back.

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I think I’m going to abandon doubles for the time being. My body prefers two 40-minute runs compared to one 80-minute run, but between work, baby, and life, just not enough time in the day to get out twice right now.

50,000 Lifetime Miles

On March 22nd, according to my logs, I hit 50,000 lifetime miles.

That number’s not exact. I didn’t have GPS when I was a kid, and I didn’t even log my miles from 1997-2009. But, based on the back-of-the-napkin good-faith estimates I’ve been using, I've now run 50k lifetime miles.

I started running on a regular basis when I was 12, so that’s about 4.5 miles a day for 30 years. Certainly not a huge number, but that’s a long time to have been a runner on a consistent basis. I’ve never consistently done more than 55-60 miles a week (with the exception of a couple of big blocks before my two 100s), but I’m almost always at least doing 15-20 miles a week.

I’ve known a lot of runners who kicked my butt for a few years and then quit. Here I am, still at it. As the blog title says, "a lifelong runner who makes up for in consistency what he lacks in talent."

I wonder if I’ll someday make it to 100k lifetime miles. Barring injuries or early death, you know, I hope I just might. I mean, if I’ve been running consistently for 30 years, why would I stop now (or in five or ten years)?

Just crazy to think that if I continue at this rate, I’ll be 72 by the time I get there.

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In case anyone’s interested, here’s a data dump of my training over the past couple of months:

Feb 17

Short speed endurance workout on the Cherry Creek trail. 1.2 mile warmup then plyos then 4 x 15 seconds, 1 x 20 seconds, 1 x 30 seconds. All on full rest. All averaged around 4-minute/mile pace, plus or minus a few seconds. 3.92 miles.

Feb 18

5.5 miles easy in 42:40 along Cherry Creek path. Max HR 135. Decent weather today, but it’s supposed to get sloppy again tomorrow.

Feb 19

2 x (5 x 30 seconds @ mile pace w/ 45 seconds jog rest) along Cherry Creek path. Four minutes rest between sets. Averaged 4:56/mile pace for the “on” sections. 

This is a classic Mihaly Igloi workout. Since I have very little time for training right now, this is the kind of workout that I’m emphasizing right now. Short, fast bursts with relatively short recovery. The mix of intensity and rest makes it mostly an aerobic workout. From the first interval to the second-to-last interval, my heart rate was mostly between 140 and 170, which for me is pure aerobic running to tempo range. It’s a blend of intensity, aerobic stimulus, and speed that I find invigorating rather than exhausting. 5 miles total.

Feb 20

7.21-mile prog run along Cherry Creek path in 49:45. Felt great the first half while keeping the heart rate down and then struggled to get the pace and the heart rate up as much as I wanted the last three miles. Route wasn’t conducive to an aggressive finish, with lots of intersections to cross in rush hour traffic.

Feb 21

6.07 miles easy, HR max 140. From the Cherry Creek trail and around Wash Park. Felt sluggish.

Feb 22

6 x 3 minutes at goal 10k pace; 2 minutes rest in between. I’m signed up for the Bolder Boulder in a few months, so it’s probably a good idea to do some 10k-type work. Starting the workout, it was clear I wasn’t fully recovered from Wednesday/Thursday, so I felt less than ideal for the get-go. Averaged 5:54 pace for the group, but they felt harder than they should have. 6.7 miles total. Probably just a little too much intensity this week. 

Feb 23

Had a 5:20 am wake up call for an early-morning run with an old high school friend. He was once a sub-15 5k guy but is coming off a sprained ankle. Jogged 4.3 miles in 38 minutes around Wash Park. Don’t think my heart rate ever got about 120. Felt good, actually.

Feb 24

Was thinking I’d try to run a sub-5 minute mile before the baby was born, sometime in the next 17 days. So today was a test of my fitness to see if I was in good enough shape to give in a shot. I failed the test. Wanted to do 2 x 800 @ sub-5 pace, but barely got halfway through the first one. Just didn’t have it. After 90 seconds at 5-minute pace, I ended up quitting that interval and doing 5 x 1 minute at 5:10 pace. Felt like garbage the whole time.

It was windy, so that might have been a factor, but I think the real problem was a combination of not being on a track and just not quite being there fitness-wise. 4.1 miles total. 

Feb 25

Back to the hospital. No run.

Feb 26

7.62 miles in 54:57 around Wash Park. HR < 150, fairly windy. Good run.

Feb 27 

Zero runs. Zero miles. One new baby.

Eoin Michael McCarthy (Eoin is the Irish spelling of Owen and pronounced the same) was born at 6:17 am. 5 lbs, 11 oz., 19.5 inches. He was a little more than five weeks premature, and so he’s going to spend the first few weeks of his life in the NICU. 

Feb 28

2.45 miles in 19:28 w/ a few pickups in the middle at 5 am. 

Feb 29

2.8 miles around the perimeter of the hospital in 20:20.

March 1

Had to move out of the place we were staying in Cherry Creek. Went and got one last run on the Cherry Creek path. Did the middle 30 minutes at subtempo pace. Ran 4.54 @ 6:37 pace. 6.16 total

March 2

Wife discharged from the hospital. Busy day getting her situated. Zero.

March 3

4.96 miles in 36:13 around “trails” near Stapleton. Got an Airbnb out there near the hospital.

March 4

8 x 2-minute pickups with 1-minute rest in between on trails near Stapleton; averaged about 5:48 for the pickups on a rolling trail. Adequate workout, all things considered. 4.89 total.

March 5

5.4 miles in 42:20, Max HR 135. 

March 6

5.3 in 40:50 on Stapleton trails. Max HR 145. Warm.

March 7

6 miles of alternating 400 @ 10k pace and 1200 @ steady state. Average pace on 10k sections was 5:52. Average pace on steady state 7:07. 7.8 miles total.

March 8

4.8 miles easy, 36:40, Max HR 145, Stapleton Trails

March 9

8 x 30 second rhythm repeats at about mile pace, rest by feel. 3.35 miles total

March 10

5.1 miles in 39:50, max HR sub 140 around Stapleton

March 11

4 x (4 x 400, 200) with a 200 jog in between each interval around Stapleton. This felt way harder than I feel like it should have. Intervals were between 5:46 pace and 5:10 pace.

4.37 miles total

March 12

No running

March 13

7.88 miles in 59:45 w/ HR 150

March 14

Eoin comes home to Salida; no running 

March 15

3.1 miles easy on CR 250 w/ Tanner

5.8 miles on CR 220 w/ 36 minute subtempo. Averaged 7:07 on subtempo. 

March 16

2.84 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 210

March 17

3.13 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 250

March 18

3.45 easy w/ Tanner on CR 210

March 19

5 miles HR sub 150 on Saddle Ridge loop, clockwise. 37:42. The great Tom Sobal was staying at our house and watching our dogs when we were away, and he clued me in to this loop from our house. Can’t believe I hadn’t discovered it before. It’s a perfect little near-exact five-mile loop with rolling hills and million-dollar views (running by some million-dollar homes—and a trailer park!)

March 20

3.13 miles along CR 250 w/ Tanner

March 21

3 x 10 minutes subtempo on CR 220 with 2 1-minute pickups at mile pace. One minute rest in between each. Subtempo reps at 7:31 uphill, 7:19 rolling, and 6:15 down. Pickups in 5:10 and 5:15.

6.05 miles total

March 22

Am: 3.4 miles on CR 210 w/ Tanner in the morning

Pm: 5 miles in 37:47 on Saddle Ridge loop counter-clockwise, HR sub 150. Man, the views on this loop are simply gorgeous. Or maybe I was just away from the mountains for too long. 

March 23

1.43 miles easy with Tanner. Had planned to run farther but I didn’t get out until dusk and a fierce, brief snowstorm blew in at the exact same moment we went out for a run. 

March 24

Am: Short speed day at the track. Some plyos and flying 30s, followed by 5 x 200 @ goal 800 pace. 2:30 rest in between each. All 5 between 32.8 and 33.2. Solid if not spectacular. 2 miles total.

First time at the track since Feb 3rd. Maybe I’m unusual in this way, but I really do enjoy quick, intense, but not super draining track sessions. Doing 33-second 200s, even when I have no races anywhere on the horizon, feels good to me. I just enjoy it, not as a means to some end, but as an end in-and-of-itself. 

Don’t have much time to spare with little man back at the house, so minimal warmup and cooldown. 

Pm:

3.26 easy w/ Tanner

March 25

Am: 5 miles easy by feel on Saddle Ridge Loop. 39:11. Windy AF.

March 26

am: 6.2 miles in 48:05 near Mears Junction

pm: 3.4 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 210 31:21

March 27

4.06 easy w/ Tanner around CR 250 and nearby campgrounds in 37:10; snowstorm blew in half-way through. Cold. 

March 28

5 x 5 minute tempo w/ 1:30 rest in between on CR 220; Paces ranges from 7:50 to 5:57 depending on whether I was running uphill, downhill, or with or against the wind. 

March 29 

6.12 from Mears Junction up Marshall pass and down, 48 minutes, HR < 150

March 30

3.2 easy w/ Tanner on CR 250

March 31

Went to the track to do a workout but it was locked down. I’m generally supportive of lockdown measures, but I’ve probably never been on the Salida track (except for when I was coaching kids) when there were more than 2 people on the entire track. Not sure this lockdown measure was strictly necessary.

Back on CR 140: 2-mile warmup, 10 x 1 minute @ 3k pace, 1 minute off. Averaged 5:13 on the on sections in Hoka Cliftons. This was mostly downhill, so I wouldn’t have been this fast on something flat (although I probably could do that pace on a track in spikes). 

4.72 miles total

April 1, 2020

Am: 4.95 easy on Saddle Ridge loop, counter-clockwise; 39 minutes, max HR 145

Pm: 2.5 easy w/ Tanner

April 2

7.6-mile prog run on CR 220 in 58 minutes; 33 minutes out, 25 minutes back. First half uphill and into a 20-40 mph headwind, opposite on the return. Finished with segments of 6:49, 6:43, 6:20, and 6:11.

April 3 

3.5 miles easy w/ Tanner on CR 210, 29:21. Tanner did a little better on this one. Actually felt like a real run.

April 4

Am: Plyos, 6 x 15-second max hill repeats on full rest, near 250 dirt road entrance. 29 minutes on Shavano’s horse. 4.25 miles total.

Pm: 3.1 miles easy with my very stubborn dog. 

April 5

4 x 10 minutes subtempo near Mears Junction between 8500 ft.-9100 ft. 7:32, 7:28, 6:27, 6:14 on the reps. Rolling up on the first two. Rolling down on the second two. 1 minute rest in between. Good effort.

6.9 total

About that Big-City Marathon You're Planning to Run this Fall...

After things got bad with COVID-19 in early March, lots or big races, from the Boston Marathon to the Bolder Boulder, and even lots of little races, such as my hometown marathon, the Run Through Time in Salida, decided to reschedule for fall. Because it clearly wasn’t safe to move ahead with these races in spring, and, well, surely all this will have blown over by fall. Right?

As we progress further into this pandemic, that last point is starting to look murkier. The reality is that no one really knows what the end game is for COVID-19 in the United States, apart from a vaccine or similarly effective treatment to stop it. And we know that those types of measures invariably take at least 12 to 18 months to implement.

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Which raises the question for runners, what happens to racing after all these shelter in place orders are lifted? What happens this summer and this fall?

This fall, in the United States, we probably (hopefully?) won’t all be on full lock down like we are now, with government orders canceling school and arresting preachers for having services (and rightly so).

But will things be back to normal?

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Most of the smart policy research that’s being done right now is suggesting that it’s probable that we’re in for an extended period with a middle phase of this crisis, where you’re able to get a haircut and grab a hot dog in a restaurant, but where big gatherings and large public events are still not allowed. The paper I linked to above, which was produced by a think-tank with close ties to the current administration, suggests that the limit for public gatherings during this intermediate period should be no more than 50 people.

According to this paper:

Once a robust surveillance sentinel system is in place, coupled with widespread point-of-care testing and a robust ability to implement tracing, isolation, and quarantines—and this is supported by the availability of therapeutics that can help mitigate the risk of spread or reduce serious outcomes in those with infections—or alternatively a vaccine has been developed and tested for safety and efficacy, we can enter Phase III.

According to this paper, Phase I is the lockdown, where most of the country is now. Phase II is the intermediate phase where restaurants and schools open but large gatherings are still prohibited. Phase III is when we can have large public gatherings again.

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As of yesterday, 12 states still didn’t have shelter-in-place orders. For those states, Phase I has not yet even begun. Some well-populated states, such as Arizona and Florida, just started in the last few days. That means that the clock hasn’t even started ticking in much of the country where we can reasonably expect progress toward recovery.

If Phase I hasn’t begun, we can’t begin to move toward Phase II (which is expected to start about 40 days on average after effective implementation of Phase I). And if we can’t begin to move toward Phase II, it’s hard to envision a realistic time frame for a progression to Phase III.

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This paper says that for the US to fully re-open for business, we either need a functional vaccine, or we need an effective system of track and trace, where every person who has the virus can be identified and separated from the rest of the population. But the kind of aggressive track-and-trace measures it proposes, the ones that have proven very effective in Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea, haven’t even begun to happen in the US (or in Europe)—and now that the crisis is so widespread, it’s hard to imagine how they can happen now.

To give one example of what this might look like, in Taiwan, starting in January, all persons traveling from abroad were isolated and quarantined for 14 days. Those persons were tracked by GPS to ensure that those orders were followed. And if you were caught breaking the rules of those quarantines, as was the case with one Taiwanese man who decided to go clubbing while under quarantine, the penalties were severe—the equivalent of a $30,000 fine for a single offense.

That may seem draconian, but it was also very effective. Taiwan got its first case long before the US did. But Taiwan, a densely populated country immediately adjacent to China, where it all started, now has 339 confirmed cases. Taiwan’s bars and restaurants are open. If you haven’t tested positive of COVID-19 or traveled abroad recently, life is normal there.

The United States, on the other side of the world, now has well over 250,000 confirmed cases (which probably understates the real number of cases by 5x). That number is double from what it was five days ago. It’ll probably double again in another six days. And again in another week. We’ll be in the millions of confirmed cases in April, almost certainly. The only question at this point is how many millions of Americans are going to get COVID-19.

Now, with the sheer number of cases nationwide, a national track-and-trace system along the lines of what worked in Singapore, Taiwan, or South Korea—what’s necessary to move to Phase III of the crisis, to allow us to have public gatherings—may not be feasible.

All that’s to say, unless there is the strongest of strong seasonality to this virus, this isn’t going away any time soon. You don’t go from millions of cases of a virus to zero overnight. It’s going to take months, if not years, to take that number back down to the low numbers of thousands.

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And the problem with that is, even if and when we do manage to get this thing down to the low numbers of thousands, rather than the millions, unless we have a bulletproof track-and-trace system, large public gatherings are still going to be a very bad idea.

Here is a chart with a model of how large public gatherings lead to the spread of the disease.

Reading this chart, it is readily apparent why, even in a situation where there are only a few thousand cases of this virus nationwide, large public gatherings won’t be possible. If there are only 20,000 people with the virus nation-wide and you hold a race with a mere 2,000 people, there’s about a 10% chance that someone will catch the virus at your race. In a situation where 200,000 people nationwide have the virus and you hold a race with 25,000 people, spreading the virus at your race is essentially a mathematical certainty—and there’s a chance that a single race could lead to a new nationwide outbreak. That’s also true of any concert, any stadium event, or any other major gathering.

So yeah, all that’s to say that the odds of your big-city marathon happening this year are becoming vanishingly remote.

The only way these races will happen is if: 1) seasonality eradicates the virus over the summer, and the fall season doesn’t lead to a re-occurrence or 2) if our government develops a totally effective track-and-trace system that is capable of completely removing from the general public all instances of the virus—even those cases that are asymptomatic.

Option 1 isn’t likely, because seasonality in viruses—even if it is a thing for COVID-19—is almost never that strong; Option 2 doesn’t seem likely, because, well, nothing about this government (or the British government, or the French government, or the Spanish government) has shown that it has the vision and administrative capacity to handle such a task (which, at this point, given the sheer breadth and scope of the pandemic, would be a challenge for any administration).

Which means I wouldn’t sweat your training too much for the Fall Boston Marathon. Or Chicago. Or London. They’re probably not going to happen. At least not in the traditional sense with tens of thousands of humans lining up next to each other for a real, in-person race.

In fact, there’s a decent chance that even my hometown Salida’s Run Through Time Marathon, with its mere 350 participants, won’t happen on October 11^th. With more than a million people likely to be infected with COVID-19 in this country in a matter of weeks, even that small of a race might prove too ambitious in scope, even five months down the road.

Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

The last two months in a nutshell:

-In early February, my wife, seven months present, was a t-boned in our new car, driver-side. The car was totaled, and she was taken to the emergency room and released about five hours later.
-Two days later, my wife was readmitted to the emergency room in Denver with pregnancy-related complications. She had to stay there for the weekend.
-We were forced to temporarily relocate from Salida to Denver.
-Three more times in February, she was readmitted to the hospital and twice more had to stay overnight for extended stays.
-Eventually, because of those same complications, on 2/27/2020, she had to have an urgent C-section.
-Our first child, Eoin Michael McCarthy was born that day, 36 days premature (Eoin is just the Irish spelling of Owen – or, to be more etymologically precise, Owen is the English spelling of Eoin).
-Little man spent the first 16 days of his life in the NICU (he’s now home and doing well).
-Around the same time, global pandemic engulfed the world.
-About 10 days ago, my father, who lives in Santa Clara county, CA, came down with coronavirus symptoms (he appears to be through the worst and recovering).
-Last week, one of our dogs was given a terminal cancer diagnosis (you wouldn’t know it by looking at her, but her clock’s ticking).

So yeah, that’s a lot of shit.

And yet, through all of it, I still feel somewhat fortunate. Not lucky—as that’s a lot of shit to go through. But I’m left with the feeling that through it all, things could have been way worse. If all this had gone down 50 years ago, I’d almost certainly be a widower with a dead baby. Thank goodness for modern medicine.

Ultimately, Mom and little man are home and doing well, and that’s all that really matters.

Little man's still on oxygen, not because he has any health issues, but because we live at 8,000 ft. and he was a preemie. The process for getting off oxygen would normally be to go to the birthing center at Heart of the Rockies Medical Center and get a pulse-ox check. But right now, that's the same place all the COVID-19 people go, so that's not safe. So we're just going to take our time weaning him off oxygen, since he's not leaving our house until June anyway.

Now, we're just dealing with normal parent problems—and the same problems everyone else on the planet is dealing with from COVID-19. And compared to life in the NICU, none of that seems all that bad.

And I’m still running.

Less than usual, as would be expected. But the training hasn’t totally fallen off a cliff, either. There aren’t going to be any races again in the next few months, so nothing to prove and nowhere to go prove it.

I’m signed up for two races this year, both slated now for fall. I’d bet big money the Bolder Boulder ain’t gonna happen this year—at least not in the traditional way. 50,000 people gathering in the same place isn’t going to happen again in 2020. And I’d probably wager a few bucks on Pikes Peak not happening, either.

I think full lockdown will end sometime at the end of April or in May, but I highly doubt that gatherings of over 500 people are going to be happening any time this year. I've heard smart people say 50 will be the limit until we get a vaccine or similarly effective treatment. And if a vaccine is developed tomorrow, it'd still be a year or more before it'd be ready for the general population.

If you're a race director, now's the time to start getting creative.

I do ok staying motivated even without any races on the calendar. I went five years without racing between 2012 and 2017—and eleven years without racing between 1998 and 2009. I’ll still run whether they’re holding races or not. It's my excuse to get outside. And it's one of the only legal ways to do that now.

For now, I'm adjusting to my new normal and THE new normal and that keeps me busy. That's enough ambition for now.

Stay safe and sanitary!

Feb 3-16

Returning to less consequential matters...

Feb 3
Am: 3 miles easy on CR 250 w/ Tanner
Pm: 2 x 5 x 200 @ goal mile pace in a snowstorm. Average right at 36. Brrr…

Feb 4
3.9 miles easy on CR 220 in the snow and bitter cold.

Feb 5
3.5-mile fartlek on CR 210, 26 minutes, avg HR 153. Just trying to get something workout-like in on a stressful day.

Feb 6
3-mile dog jog w/ Tanner on CR 250

Feb 7
3-mile dog jog w/ Tanner or CR 210

Feb 8
Big rush to get to the hospital today. 1.75 miles easy dog jog with Tanner in the dark before saying goodbye to Salida, the dogs, and home for the next couple of months.

Feb 9
3.66 miles in 26:20 in 3-4 inches of new snow around City Park in Denver. Sloppy and messy, but still pushed the pace a bit to relieve some stress.

Feb 10
3.8 miles in 30 minutes along Cherry Creek Bike Path and towards Wash Park.

.5 miles extra running from parking a car.

Feb 11
6 miles in 43:40 on Cherry Creek bike path, HR < 150. Icy and sloppy much of the way.

Feb 12
6 miles in 43:30 along the Cherry Creek bike path, HR <150. Conditions were cleaner, but I sure do miss me some Chaffee County dirt roads. These concrete paths are brutal on my bad ankle.

My days now are basically hospital, run, meditate, shower, repeat.

Feb 13
6.17 progressive run through the Country Club neighborhood and around Wash Park; 45:52. Conditions were bad enough that it was hard to get speed going mechanically, simply because every step was on ice, slush, and inconsistent packed snow. Good effort, but I never got any turnover going.

Feb 14
3.8 miles easy w/ 6 strides and 2 10-second max sprints on the Cherry Creek path. Warmer day today with clearer paths. Too many slow days in a row, so just trying to prioritize turnover today.

Feb 15
10 x 90 seconds @ 5k pace plus 2 x 20-seconds @ mile pace. Averaged low 5:30s for the 5k reps and a shade under 5-minute pace for the reps at the end. Running sub-5 pace in Hoka Cliftons feels like sprinting with balloons on your feet. But since the only clear space to run here is a concrete path, that’s what I got.

Decent run considering I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. 6.9 total

Feb 16
7.8 miles on Cherry Creek path in 57:40, HR sub 150. Felt solid.

Been doing long, slow barefoot walking meditations instead of seated meditation the last few days. I find that’s helpful to loosen up scar tissue in the ankle when it’s flaring up. Been feeling less acute ankle pain on the concrete paths since I started doing that.

Life > Running

I don’t usually post much about my personal life on this blog. That’s not because running is some all-consuming thing that dominates my entire life. It’s because it’s a running blog. Also, I’m not the kind of person who cares to share every detail of my life with the internet. I just like to think about running and share my running adventures with the 12 people who read this blog. 

But sometimes it’s hard to explain what’s going on with your running life without explaining what’s going on with your actual life. So perhaps I should explain a few things. 

Here’s what’s happening with my life right now:

-My wife is pregnant. She’s 33 weeks, 3 days as of today.

-On February 4^th, she was in a car accident. She was T-boned on Poncha Boulevard by a dude who was driving way too fast in snowy conditions.
-That day, she was taken to the hospital. She was released five hours later.

-February 6^th, she went to Denver for a baby shower.

-That evening, she had to go to UC Health with pregnancy complications. She had to stay there all weekend through Monday. The baby shower happened in the hospital.

-After speaking with the doctors that weekend after all that had happened, it was clear that it wasn’t safe for us to return to Salida. We needed to be close to a hospital with a NICU, because she’s at very high risk for pre-term delivery.
-We’ve temporarily relocated to Denver. We’re currently staying in the Cherry Creek area, and we will remain in Denver until the baby is born.
-Right now, the long-term prognosis for momma and baby (a boy!) appears to be good. But we’ve spent 10 of the last 13 days in the hospital, which is exactly as much fun as it sounds.

-This has been tough for me, but really, really, really hard on my wife.
-We’re hanging in there. My wife is plenty tough. Last year Mike H. described her as a “bad-ass wood-chopping wife” after watching her manage our mountain household on her own when I was useless with my broken life. She is a bad ass. But these last few weeks have tested all of her resolve.
-I’m optimistic, after all is said and done, that momma, baby, and I are gonna come out of this stronger than ever. But it’s going to take some work to get there.

And that’s all I have to say about all of that.