CIM, 2:39:19; 6th in 45-49

Well, I worked hard for that one. Both in training and on the day. 

Between GTIS and CIM, I had the best training block of my life, by far. I averaged well over 80 miles a week for 15 weeks, usually with one quality long run (18-24 miles at around 7’ pace) and one quality workout, usually getting between 24-30k of quality on the track. I did three key workouts, 6k, 5k, 4k, 3k, 2k, 1k, w/ a 1k float, averaging 6:21, the same, but with a 7k to start, averaging 6:25. And then I did a full marathon on the track in 2:54 & change. All my training is on Strava these days, if you're curious.

Given the fact that I had already run a marathon PR in training, I knew that I was in shape. But had been dealing with some crazy work stress and travel the last few weeks. In spite of the great training block, I came into race day running on fumes a bit.

Thanks to some sage advice from a HS friend, I started conservatively, and I think that paid off. Got too excited mid race, though. Miles 10, 11, 12, and 13 (rolling hills) were 5:55, 5:52, 5:59, and 5:57. That was needlessly aggressive. Still felt strong through 21 or so, but around there, I started to feel some cramping. All the track workouts did not prepare me for the rollers. Managed to hold it together for solid running through 40k, but the last 2k I was in severe pain and holding on for dear life. But hang on for dear life I did. 2:39:19. All but mile 9 (mostly uphill with a water station incident) and mile 26 were under 6:10.

Considering my “A” goal going into this block was sub-2:45, I’ll say this was a win. To get a PR at my age, you need to work hard and get lucky, and I feel like both happened here. Very fortunate to avoid injuries and major illness in this block. Sometimes, things just work out. You have to appreciate the moments when they do. 

Never occurred to me that I might have a chance to age group podium at a major race like that, but I was less than 70 seconds off 3rd in 45-49.

Kind of crazy the extent to which I’ve leveled up over the last few years. A decade ago, 6:03 was my 5k pace. Now it’s my marathon pace. That’s not supposed to happen at my age. But I think I’ve gotten smarter (and more committed) about training as I’ve aged, and that’s offset the natural decline associated with aging. 

I think my time qualifies me to compete at the Age Group World Marathon Majors Championships in NYC next year. Assuming I’m correct about that, that will be my next marathon. 

Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon - 1:17:44; 1st Masters, 2nd Overall

The first time I ran a half marathon was in middle school at the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon. I think I ran 2:03 or so. 

When I was making a calendar for the year, and I wanted to put some faster but longer races on the calendar, this one came to mind. 

Results here.

I've had a great build up this summer. I've been knocking out 60-75 mile weeks with 2 threshold workouts a week plus a long run, which I've built up to as high as 21 miles. Most weeks I do 2 to 2.5 hour long runs on the dirt roads around here. Based on the metrics I'm seeing on my easy days and thresholds, I've felt confident for a while that I'm in the best shape of my life aerobically, and so it was just a matter of getting out there and showing it. 

With my training lately, I've developed a pretty good sense of what heart rate ranges I can maintain for different periods of time. And so I ran the first mile w/ my HR peaking out at 160, then let it drift into the high 160s the next five miles, and then watched it drift into the low 170s. 

I probably slightly overcooked the pacing, as I was struggling the last few miles. My relative pacing faded slightly. But not drastically so. 

It was a big field, with over 1100 runners, but not a ton of people around me. There was one woman who leapfrogged me a few times over the first few miles, but I passed her for good around mile six. The guy who won was over five minutes ahead of me. Other than that, I didn't see anyone after the first 200 meters. 

The course was net downhill, but with some serious rollers, particularly in the last mile. Checking with the people around me at the finish, it seems like the course runs slightly slower than a flat low-altitude half marathon, with the altitude and the rollers more or less canceling out the net downhill. Course was also about .1 short, so right around 13 miles. Honestly, it feels like correctly measured courses are the exception these days. 

Either way, I'm happy with the result. Very pleased that I'm still able to tick off a few personal bests in my advancing years.

454

That’s how many days in a row I’ve run, which is the longest streak I’ve ever had. My prior longest streak was 453, which I had going when I was in 8th and 9th grade. Yeah, I've been running for a while.

This wasn’t something I set out to do. But I got on a roll last year, and I’ve just kept it going. I had a couple of 12-minute mile treadmill jogs when sick last winter, and a couple of 4:30 am 20-minute runs before travel, but other than that, it’s been no big deal keeping it going. 

Not sure how long it’ll stay intact, but I’ll keep it going as long as I don’t have to make any unreasonable sacrifices. 

I find that keeping my easy days super easy allows me to run every day, with decent volume, and without getting injured (knock on wood). And I was not always so injury free. Unless I go down in altitude, I never run faster than 8-minute pace on my easy days. I just get out and shuffle for an hour on my easy days, and that keeps me reasonably fit and healthy. 

And of course there’s a luck component to this as well. I’d be naïve to think otherwise. Either way, fingers crossed this streak of luck continues for a while longer.  

Spiral Drive Race; 1st place, 25:17

Ran a race on Saturday. It was the Spiral Drive 4 mile in Salida (actually 4.08 by my watch). Race goes 540 ft. up to the top of the iconic Tenderfoot Mountain and then back down on a dirt road.

No track meet this weekend with high school prom in Salida, so I figured I’d give it a go. 

In terms of competition, the race was led out by Jaeson Murphy, who is a two-time top-ten Hardrock guy, Leadville top-20, and otherwise rock-solid mountain trail guy. He’s got some decent wheels and he went out super quick. I knew my fitness well, and so just let him go, but he came back to me pretty quickly. Passed him at about a mile and then led the rest of the way. 

The last time I ran this race, I led to the top and then got beaten on the way down, so I ran scared the whole way down. 

I got to the final turn in 23:3x, which is about a quarter mile from the finish. I figured it wasn’t crazy that I could close in under 5:20 pace and get the course record, which is Tom Sobal’s 24:57 from 2003. But there was a gusty east-west wind that put an end to that fantasy, and I let go of the rope the last 200. 

I finished in 25:17, which is nearly 40 seconds faster than I ran six years ago, in worse conditions. Won by about a minute over Jaeson. 6:40, 7:18 up then 5:26, 5:19 down, with a 30-second last .8 where I was toasted. 6:10 pace average for the distance.

I thought it was a fun, well-organized, low-key race. I’ve run with Jaeson before, but I had never raced him, so that was fun, too.

I probably won’t race again for a couple of months with the end of track season, and I will probably transition to some longer mountain stuff over the summer. We’ll see if the fitness I have developed over shorter distances will translate. 

End of Year Musings

• Last week, on December 30th, I snuck in one more time trial on the track. I had never run 10 miles in less than an hour before. And so I decided to give that a go as well. The plan was to do 5:59s through 8k, and then lower it down to 5:55s the last 8k plus a curve. All was going swimmingly through 9k, until two soccer teams showed up at the field for a scrimmage and commandeered lanes 1 and 2, literally putting their gear all throughout the first two lanes of the backstraight. Long story short, I think I had a 59:30 in my legs, but I finished 40 laps and a curve (16100 m, if I had been in lane one), in 59:58.8. Probably got an extra 150m or so with the interruptions. My watch tracks 1600s as miles when it's in track run mode, regardless of whether you're running in lane 1, lane 9, or on the infield. Regardless, I ran 10-plus miles in under an hour. 
• My legs were absolutely thrashed after the effort, which I did 4 days after the 10k. 4 days on, they are still thrashed.
• On December 29th, I hit 3,000 miles in the year, for the first time ever. I’d say this has a lot to do with the first bullet.
• Without question, 2023 was my best year of running in the last 25 years, and high in the running for my best ever. Ran 3 very good time trials and 3 good races. Should have run more races, but the ones I ran all worked out pretty well.
• Back in 2013, when I set the goal of running a sub-17 5k, my logic was simple. When I was a high school and DIII college runner, I had decent speed but wasn’t that great aerobically. At my peak, my shorter-distance times were much stronger than my long-distance times. Then I barely ran for ten years. Then I ran ultras for four years, which made me aerobically fit, but I had no wheels. I thought, if I could reclaim some semblance of my high school speed while maintaining aerobic fitness, then when I returned to running longer distance races, I would be a much more competitive runner. At the time, I thought I’d be there in a year. Instead, it took me 11 years to get back to sub-17 shape. 
• A lot has happened in the last 11 years. I started a business, got married, moved to Salida, had a nasty leg injury, had a kid, and became a track coach. All that stuff changes you, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. 
• So, what now? I am officially burnt out on time trials. There’s a decreasing marginal return on chasing times in time trials as a master’s runner, and now that I’ve been doing it for a while, the big returns are almost certainly done. I’ve been chasing times every time I’ve gone down from low altitude just about every time I’ve gone down since 2018. The appeal has waned. I could chase 5-minute miles every year, but the only reasonable time to do that here is in the summer, and that’s the best time to get out in the mountains. I enjoy the track more than most, but I still prefer the latter to the former. 
• I think the next step for me is to keep doing the same stuff with the training, and then to run more random races, from 5k to marathon, whenever I’m in the mood. It’s time for me to de-emphasize time goals and emphasize life and running experiences. I still want to run sub-80 for a half and sub-2:50 for a marathon, but the impediment to that isn’t lack of speed anymore. It’s aerobic volume.
• My “bucket list” of races is perhaps atypical. Hardrock doesn’t really appeal to me, but I want to run all the big road races, from Bix 7 to Lilac Bloomsday to the 5th Avenue Mile. I’d like to do all the marathon majors. I’ll throw some mountain races in there, too. At some point I’ll need to get revenge at Pikes for the stinker I ran there in 2021, but it won’t happen next year. 
• I love running, even the mundane and boring workouts. And I finally feel like I’ve figured out a training program that works for me and enables me to race to my potential while staying healthy. I have no illusions about being some national-class athlete. Heck, I might only be the 4th or 5th best master’s runner in Salida right now. But regardless, I do genuinely feel that I am maximizing my limited talent given the time and life constraints I’m under. I think that’s all you can ask for.
• My training is very simple, for those who are curious. I run 6-9 hours a week. 75% of it is very easy mileage, at 70% of Max HR (120s, for me). About 23% of my mileage is at “sub-threshold” intensity, broken up into intervals of 1 to 10 minutes. I do about 2% in high intensity work, between races, time trials, hills, and more specific stuff. I think what is unusual about my training is that: 1) the volume of sub-threshold is much higher than what most people do. I’m usually doing over 100 minutes of it a week. And 2) the easy running is much easier than what most people do. 
• The question I have now is whether I’ll be able to apply what I’ve learned to longer distances and different surfaces. Look forward to figuring that out. The 10-mile PR is a good sign that this training will do well at longer distances, but the proof is in the doing.