Brandon Fuller

Run: Green Mountain (5.48 mi)

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:02:27 -0700

My neighbor John was fresh off his 1/2 marathon near Vegas last weekend and said he would join me on his 1st Green this week. How is that for recovery?

We met up with JV who was tour guiding Mike from Ohio again today. We ran it casual to the lodge, where Jim snunk up on us and joined the party. Those guys took off and John and I hung back. The casual pace wasn't so casual for him. I remember feeling like that -- just last year. Shortly thereafter, John waved me on so I up'd the effort to meet everyone on the summit.

There was a lot of fresh powder on the trail today. Was not expecting that since I saw no snow at home last night. On descent, JV and Mike took off for Bear and Jim and I ran back the way we came. The working stiffs had to get back to the J-O-B! Jim and I chatted about race schedules as we are running at Lake City together and debating the proper way to prep between now and then.

I went 5.48 miles with an elevation gain of 2,444 feet in 01:20:19, which is an average pace of 14:38. Heart rate average was 138. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

Run: Easy/Shitty 14M (14.01 mi @ 08:04)

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:13:36 -0700

I felt great when I got up this morning. Looked like a great day. But by the time the run came around, I wasn't so hot. Very dry up through my throat as I fight off this disease. On top of that, spring reared its ugly head by being windy as hell on the run. Nothing better like grinding out a high HR just to put down 9+ pace into a headwind and your hat blowing off. Sucked. I just kept it light and motored through it. Must have some fatigue from yesterday's test too. Odd, how it wasn't a long hard day but I feel it. Tomorrow will be a new day.

Today, I reset my HR zones in SportTracks with what Neal and I came up with yesterday based on the data. My previous values that are used in my Training Load graph were the defaults and they were off. So going forward from today, I will use these as my zone baselines for those calculations. The result is that my TSB went up by a few points and some of the peaks in ATL came down. All good.

After doing that, I went to the Training Load settings and linked in this new HR category as the set to use. Then pressed "Reset Category" to allow it to recalcuate the factors based on these ranges. So here are the values. All the cards on the table.

I would really like to get a graph of time spent in each zone over time but can't see a way to do that. Anybody? TrainingPeaks does that. I am at reason #2 to get that software now. Just need one more.

Skipping Green tomorrow because the closer is coming by in the morning to finish up our refinance. That means Thursday AM for any peeps that want to run with the Mayor.

I went 14.01 miles with an elevation gain of 979 feet in 01:53:00, which is an average pace of 08:04. Heart rate average was 140. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

Lactate Profile and VO2 Max Test

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:57:19 -0700

Sometimes you just need validation that you are doing the right things...

Back in February, Neal Henderson gave a talk at the BTR Speaker Series. At the end of it, he threw out an offer for discount pricing on their services. They are located right at the base of Mount Sanitas so I know the location well. I didn't know we had such services in Boulder so I made an appointment for a Lactate Profile and VO2 Max test. Today was the day.

I woke up a bit under the weather. Kim and Kayla are in the starting stages of something. The other kids are fine. But I feel groggy in the head and had stuff in my throat. Could have been any other day for this but it was today. I will deal. Ate a decent breakfast a few hours beforehand since you can't eat the hour prior. Got to the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine and changed into my normal running gear. Had to wait a while to get my test underway. Browsed the halls which were filled with random jerseys of famous athletes that had come through these halls. In good company!

Met Paul K. who would be administering the test to me. Basically, I would warm-up for about 25 minutes on a treadmill just getting comfortable. Paul would read my HR rate from my monitor and track things a bit. Just to get us ready for the workload to come. I hopped off with a few minutes left in the warm-up to hit the bathroom. With that out of the way, I ran a few more minutes and then the protocol began.

Basically, you run for 4 minutes at a constant 1% grade at a constant speed. This is enough time for things to level out. He would ask for my level of perceived exertion. Then I hop off the treadmill and Paul pricks my finger and takes blood. I would then wipe my brow, swig some water and jump back on. Paul would up the speed by 0.4 MPH and we did it again. We did this 8 times. That last time hurt. I was glad to be done. The treadmill is not my friend nor a place where I excel in running. I feel out of my element. Luckily those few days on the mill last month eased a bit of that.

Next was the VO2 Max test. A few things started going wrong. I was fairly gassed from the lactate profile intervals. Just happens. Then we had a fall start on the VO2 measurement system so I had to restart that test once. By then, I think I had cooled down enough that my body wasn't ready or willing to do the peak performance of the day. Furthermore, my mind was done. But we went again. Here is what it looked like.

In this test, they basically bring you back up to speed and then start doing grade increases until you crash and burn or fall off the treadmlll dead. I didn't get too far into the test before I hopped off. As you can see, you are breathing through this tube. I have nose clips on too. Its terribly claustrophobic. The treadmill was zooming. The incline was growing. And my flight response took over and I jumped off. I surely could have went for more -- especially on a fresher body. But I wasn't really there for the VO2 test. It was just an add-on they offered for a little more money if you did the lactate profile so I figured why not.

I was done. I cooled down and then went to meet with Neal to go over the results. So here is the big money graph. I will go through it for you and I and highlight some of what Neal and I covered. There is probably more than I care to write but I will give some of the highlights.

HR (blue) and lactate (red) ideally sort of run parallel to each other. This shows you that you are powered by aerobic effort. Lactate isn't playing a role yet on the left but does more and more as you move right across the page. Lactate is kind of like your turbo booster. You want to use it when you want to go fast but you can't use it that long or you burn out.

As the speed goes up, you start seeing lactate increasing faster. There is a magic point in there and this is what I came to find out. You are trying to find out your lactate threshold here. That's defined as a 1 mmol change followed by a greater than 1.5 mmol change in lactate.

I hit this around 164 bpm on the HR scale and 6:45 pace. This is 1-2 bpm faster than I predicted using my own methods at home. I got very close. Neal also pointed out not to get too fixated on the pace here. Pace on the treadmill versus on the road with conditions just doesn't compare. However, HR and lactate levels will stay together. So the pace is just a round about estimate. I was happy to see this number given what I want to do at Boston.

Neal pointed out that my marathon range can fall in the 158-162 range and I should stay comfortable. Pace-wise this was low 7s here at altitude. So with taper, some lighter gear and sea level conditions -- it will be faster and that is around where I want to be running if sub-3 is going to happen.

We moved on to the VO2 results. I scored a 57.2. In the chart he pulled out for VO2 at age groups, there is low/fair/average/good/high/athletic/olympic. I feel at the breakpoint between high and athletic. He joked that I am "in the club" of a nice VO2 for high altitude athetes. He made the assumption looking at the data alone, that I probably could have hit 60 on a better test day. On the graph above, those 2 right most data points are the VO2 test. Once at peak and once 2 minutes later to see decay. You can see that my lactate levels in the VO2 test only hit 4.32 -- meaning I didn't eclipse the effort of my last interval. The VO2 test was supposed to be at a higher intensity than the final interval on the lactate test. For me it ended up being somewhere between the final 2 lactate intervals. Not my best work.

In the bottom right of this graph, it broke down my HR training zones. We went over those and most of this was a refresher in what I do each week already. Basically showing that my sweet spot is 133-155 in training. If you watch my runs I am usually right in the mid-140s. A perfect landing. However, he gave me some encouragement about putting in some bursts of tempo work during long runs. I tend to shy away from that and this is the 3rd time I have been told that might be my biggest thing to gain on right now. Will take it under advisement -- although I sort of did that on Saturday where I ran hard for 3 miles mid-long run.

We talked a bit about longer term goal like Leadville and that shifted the conversation to fueling and slow slow paces. Spoke about my taper and how to use my ATL/CTL/TSB stuff properly to make that happen. What types of numbers he has seen in peak performances AKA perfect tapers. All good.

All in all, I will say I didn't learn much today -- but that wasn't my goal. I don't pretend to be guessing my way through this. I have been collecting data, analyzing, graphing, listening to peers, etc. I heard Neal speak for over an hour on this same topic a month ago in which I learned a lot. Today was more about getting some hard data on some kind of internal body functions that only a lab could provide in order to validate where I am and what I think I need to do. Frankly, I think I did my homework well and nailed it pretty well. I was also excited to be able to produce a decent looking chart to show my fitness isn't a fluke. After putting hours...no, days...no, weeks...no, months into my running its fun to see some sort of numerical proof that the system is working and is ready to kick some ass this year.

Colorado Government and Amazon Are Pissing Me Off

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:25:28 -0700

Amazon Associates is a program where you earn referral money on stuff you sell on Amazon to others. How do I use this? Well, my Now Playing plugin allows people to publish the music they listen to on their web site. When people click through, they can buy it on Amazon (or iTunes). When they do, I or the plugin purchaser make money. If people don't setup an account, it uses mine so I get the revenue.

Colorado recently passed HB 10-1193 which fucks this all up. Amazon, other online retailers, and consumers are not happy with this. Basically, the Colorado government is trying to make up for lost revenues by collecting online sales tax. They didn't even go about it in a straightforward way. So the result is that Amazon is playing hard ball and canceling all Colorado-based Amazon Associate accounts. I am not really sure what that has to do with this whole issue other than Amazon is saying "they hurt us, we hurt you, then you make the calls". What a pain.

Until this gets resolved, any referrals I make go into the trash can. So I either need an out of state front or find a charity that I can donate these to (by using their account). Ideas?

Here is the letter I received from Amazon today.

Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:

We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to "voluntarily" collect Colorado sales tax -- a course we won't take.

We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.

There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.

You may express your views of Colorado's new law to members of the General Assembly and to Governor Ritter, who signed the bill.

Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.

We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.

Best Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

The Hardest 100

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:38:24 -0700

Marathon & Beyond had an article this month on the hardest 100. Not to spoil it, but the author ends up saying that the hardest 100 is the one that you are running that day. Wise words.

Anyway, I love me some graphs and charts so it was fun to see some data on 30 different 100s and see how they stacked up. Stuff I noticed:

+ Leadville just eeked out over Western
+ Hardrock was #1 which didn't seem to surprising
+ Hawaii has the #2 race

Weekly Training Summary (71.62 miles / 11:24:28)

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:29:12 -0700

So less miles than last week (83), however I only ran 5 days this week versus every day last week. I took a rest day on Wednesday because I needed it and then I have today off for the LT test tomorrow. I knew the Wednesday off would hurt the week but I really felt like rest was the right answer the day before the traverse. This easily would have been a 90+ mile week otherwise.

Mon - Slow 18M
Tues - 14M+ @ Magnolia
Wed - Rest
Thurs - Boulder Skyline Traverse
Fri - Easy 5M
Sat - Steady 20M
Sun - Rest

Didn't do any normal Green Mountain runs this week given Magnolia and the Traverse. Opted for something different just to break up the routine. Feeling like my consistent visits over January and February satisfy the periodization requirement I was looking for. However, I am sure I will get back up there this week.

With 6 weeks till Boston, an interesting date has come up today in my training plan: max training effect. Apparently, from now on till race day, I will not be absorbing all 100% of the training effect. Said another way, until now, there was sufficient time for my body to absorb each workout and positively impact fitness at its fullest. Now, at some sliding scale day by day, you start absorbing less and less of it. Its not lost forever -- its just that full absorption comes post-race. This doesn't mean quit or taper. Once the percentage drops low enough, then taper becomes the solution.

Graph time!

Last: CTL = 88 / ATL = 124 / TSB = -36
This: CTL = 98 / ATL = 136 / TSB = -38

Less days on my feet but they were all big days and that bumped up ATL this week. Gave me some good spikes. I think the 2 rest days contributed to CTL tracking it nicely so I didn't get a huge bump in TSB from the week although I felt like I should have. Although, I am still trying to figure out what various TSB levels feel like. I think some combination of different activities this week stressed other systems and didn't contribute to a pure TSB spike. I still contend that TSB doesn't perfectly translate in areas like muscle soreness, etc.

Excited about Monday's test. Feels like a great point to do this with the intersection of the date above. Will be interesting to see if the results match what I think they are and how (if any) I can modify my remaining training to get every last ounce out of this cycle.

Danger

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:45:27 -0700

I may lose a toe with all these kids running around on ice skates.

@ near 8th Ave & Pratt St
(Longmont, CO, United States)

Run: Steady 20M (20.03 mi @ 07:36)

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:16:27 -0700

Stay consistent but don't get in a routine. For various reasons, my long runs have been not so pure the last 3 weeks. So even though I put in the distance, the runs were broken up or not at pace or in the mountains. As I contemplated my usual Saturday morning on Green Mountain, my heart wanted to go but my mind overruled. I needed to do Monday's long run today. Why? I have to rest tomorrow as prescribed so I can be ready for my LT test on Monday.

I got a late start as I watched Kayla while Kim slept in. Kayla isn't sleeping through the night anymore and its killing Kim. So I watched the kids, worked on taxes, and did other stuff until she was up and around. By then, it was nice and warm outside and I was chomping at the bit to get going. You know its going to be good when you look forward to a long run!

My legs were a little sore this AM from the traverse. Just the usual quad stuff from so much climbing. But that didn't seem to effect my road running. I actually figured I would do about 14 today but then after being out there about a mile or two, I decided for the bigger loop. This was heavily influenced by the fact that I stripped off my shirt 2 miles into the run! First shirtless run of 2010 - March 6th! Surely, it will go back on a few more times but I felt at one with the road again. Something about wearing layers during winter just doesn't allow me to connect with the entire running experience.

HR was running slightly high and I wasn't really managing it. Just letting it do what it wanted. Unfortunately, this ended up putting me into the steady range for the day instead of slow but I figure that is a response from the level of fatigue I am at. No worries. There is a downhill section of this route from about mile 7 to 10. I figure its sort of Boston-ish. Nice descent. And I just ripped it up! I was sub-7 just cruising along. It felt solid and strong.

I broke for a minute at 10 for some business and water. Took my bag of GU Chomps. Those things are like crack. I love them. But that's all I had. Didn't plan on 20. Oops. But I don't mind having a fuel fail in training once in a while. Makes your body adapt because that is going to happen in a 50 or 100 I suppose.

Was a little slower on the way back home for the 2nd half. Its all flat and there was a headwind. I was so happy with that first 10 that this 10 just needed to get done. Luckily, there were a bunch of people on the Greenway today so I was able to chase them down for something to fixate on. Got back home and had to do some distance in the neighborhood just to get over the mark for the day.

Date	Distance	Direction	Pace	Avg HR
10/02/09	20M	CCW	7:46	152
01/19/10	16M	CW	8:04	144
02/02/10	16M	CW	7:42	146
02/09/10	18M	CW	7:42	144
02/15/10	20M	CCW	7:50	141
03/06/10	20M	CCW	7:36	151

I went 20.03 miles with an elevation gain of 542 feet in 02:32:16, which is an average pace of 07:36. Heart rate average was 151. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

Ignite Boulder 9

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:30:44 -0700

At Ignite Boulder 8, they announced there would be a special Ignite to commemorate "Global Ignite Week" but the link for tickets would go out to attendees of Ignite Boulder 1. So I knew I would have to do some work to get my seat. Turns out it wasn't too hard and I was secured for a special 150 person edition of Ignite. The event was at the Boulder Public Library in the Canyon Gallery. Not as cool as Boulder Theater. Felt much more like being in college again.

@ Boulder Public Library
(CO, United States)

We learned that:

Stinky people travel on the AT and mail themselves things
Graphs are hilarious and can prove any point you want to make
Kids are reliable forms of automation
The Internet was invented for porn
The plural for beer is beer, you hoser! Eh?
A 100ms delay in neural activity sucks so don't get hit by a car

It was a quick set and we were out of there. Not the same vibe as last time but I am sure Ignite #10 (coming May 6th) will be back to its usual self!

Boulder Skyline Traverse (14.18 mi)

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:21:47 -0700

JV proposed something longer for today. We are in a bit of a warm weather streak in Colorado this week. So I said let's do it and took the day off work so there were no time constraints. The obvious choice was the full traverse. I attempted a partial version of this last summer under my own round trip powers. Interestingly, that distance and today's were nearly the same. So here is the route -- left to right. Pins on summits of South Boulder Peak, Bear Peak, Green Mountain, Flagstaff Mountain, and Mount Sanitas.

Today, we would be doing car shuttles. We met at the Sanitas TH and dropped a car and then made the ~8 mile drive out to the South Mesa Trailhead. We got going and immediately I started getting warm. Stripped out of my long sleeve. It was a tech shirt and shorts kind of day. The run itself was pretty uneventful. No slips, trips or falls. So here are the numbers:

Start to SoBo: 63:37
SoBo to Bear: 11:09
Bear to Green: 40:48
Green to Flag: 22:31
Flag to Sanitas TH: 33:15
Sanitas TH to Sanitas: 28:27
Sanitas to End: 21:47

Jeff likes to track total time from the start to the Sanitas pole. That was about 3:19 MOVING TIME. We took about 5 minutes on each summit for video, fuel, etc. I stopped my watch during those. But I think it basically tacked on a half hour. So under 4 hours for the whole thing.

I see each of these 3+ hour mountain runs as a Leadville test. Test myself. Test equipment. Test strategy. Test something! I wore my TNF hydration pack. Today was pretty successful. I enjoyed having my hands free with the hydration pack but it was full when we started and it was definitely a lot of weight I am not used to after running sans water since fall. It slowed me on the descents and applied extra weight to my back. It did allow me to drink frequently but I had to put the food into the zipper on the back so I had to take it off to get at it. That small barrier caused me to not go for it as much as I should have. When I have my Nathan vest on, I fill the front pockets with stuff and munch all the time. A better strategy. Probably will try my vest and hand bottle on the next outing.

For fuel, I stayed on a gel and beans and a Red Bull Shot. If nothing else, that shot tasted really good and went down super easy. I felt like it did kick in over on Flag as I was zoned out chasing Jeff downhill with that out of body experience.

I felt like I put in a solid effort. I power hiked up SoBo once we got into the canyon. Its just not runnable for me yet. I couldn't find a good PR on this so this may have been it at 63 minutes. Not sure. From there I kept on the run pretty good. A few walks on steeper stuff ultra-style. I wasn't totally fresh today but I wasn't dead either. Just a good midweek level of fatigue.

It had been a long time since I had been to Sanitas. Jeff was whimpering about it all day. Its like the last thing you do and it is the LAST THING you want to do. He charged ahead of me at Red Rocks and hit his car in the parking lot for some gear change. I kept moving in order to gain some ground on him -- but more giving him something to chase. Plus, I didn't want to stop till it was over. That whole -- don't sit or you won't get up thing. So I cruised up the lower part of Sanitas but then petered out towards the top and lost any chance of a good ascent time there. The traverse was in the bag and there was no magic time coming up on the clock so I just hiked it in and enjoyed the warm conditions. We sat for a few minutes in the shade and hydrated then marched back downhill to the car to call it a day.

With such a fun adventure, I had plans for some epic video montage. But frankly, my head was much more into the run. How I have changed! I did brief spots on all the summits but forgot Sanitas. We were done and it just wasn't on my mind anymore.

Boulder Skyline Traverse from Brandon Fuller on Vimeo.

Afterward, Jeff shuttled me back and I went to Larkburger to refuel with purpose. Then headed over to REI and picked up a ton of stuff. Nothing like shopping for gear right after a run. Got some GU and other fuel products since I am about out. Picked up some La Sportiva Crosslites that I had my eye on. I wanted a not so minimal shoe to trade into the trail rotation with the NB100s when the snow is gone. And yes, I bought some VFFs. They were right there just looking at me wanting me to buy them! I don't plan on putting big miles in these things but I figured I might as well have a pair. At least then I sound like I know what I am talking about vs. just saying "I know people who have those". Plus, after that last BTR talk I am thinking wearing my Crocs around town aren't doing me any good.

Thanks for the invite, Jeff. It was a great day. Hope I didn't hold you up too much. But its only [insert month] and you need to be taking it easy or something...

FYI, SportTracks reconciled the elevation gain at 5,642 feet.

I went 14.18 miles with an elevation gain of 6,354 feet in 03:41:37, which is an average pace of 15:37. Heart rate average was 141. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

Run: Magnolia Road (14.29 mi @ 08:37)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:43:09 -0700

Can a brother get a rest day? Simon AKA Race Timing Colorado pinged me yesterday for another Boulder run minutes after I got back home from that long run. Couldn't pass it up. We went up to Magnolia Road because both of us were virgins at that route. Wanted to see what the fuss was about. Roads were a mix of snow/ice and mud. I fell once. The snow plows just make the road so slick in places and I just lost my footing in my LunarTrainers. Got a good rock dug into my hand for some quality blood action. Otherwise, no biggie. Although my palms still feel like they have pins in them.

The route is rolling hills the whole way with mostly ascent out and descent back. Got way out there. You could see Eldora up close. It was a good workout. Different than I usually do. The route starts out about as high as the summit of Green Mountain. Then ascends from there. Good to spend more time at higher elevations. Put a little fear into me for Leadville though.

I had to stop for a deuce towards the end so I let Simon open it up and take off without me. I scaled some barbed wire and found some trees to leave my mark. Did you know that a snowball makes an excellent butt wipe? Got back on the road and I wasn't that into it. Fatigue had set in. Wasn't seeing it on the HR monitor. Just felt it. Took it easy until Simon came back at me. He had hit the end of the road and turned back up about a 1/4 mile from me. I picked up the pace and ran it back with him while chatting. Started burning a bit on the last few ascents. Probably should have had some fuel with me and I would have perked up. Oh well.

I keep meaning to mention that I finally see how heart rate really works. I used to think it was a primary driver, but its not. Its a response. I used to think of HR as RPM on a car. That is totally backwards. HR is more like your temperature gauge. Its reactive. It shows you the result of your efforts in terms of stress. So today, I would normally be baffled by a lower HR -- but now I know its because my engine just couldn't rev up too high today so things stayed cool.

Probably will rest up on Wednesday. JV has talked me into a full day of hills on Thursday so I am going to take off of work and enjoy the 50+ degree day with some pain and suffering!

I went 14.29 miles with an elevation gain of 1,776 feet in 02:03:11, which is an average pace of 08:37. Heart rate average was 145. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

Take Down The Sign

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:47:49 -0700

Now that Brownie is moving out of Manitou, I think they can take this sign down that I snapped a photo of in front of his house.

Run: Slow 18M (18.11 mi @ 08:04)

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:08:51 -0700

Good morning. Its March. Spring is coming. But we got a dusting of snow last night. Roads were clean in the morning and temps were in the 30s. Thought it was going to be much worse out today so I mentally pushed the 22M long run out till later in the week when the forecast looks like spring.

Since I did not take my rest day over the weekend, I was tempted to take it today. But then I was reading comments last night and Kerrie asked if I wanted some company this morning on my weekly long run. She was going to be on the side of town today. Surely! But I had opted not to do the usual long run and route today so I said I would show her the sites of eastern Longmont.

You have to be wondering...do you mean that Kerrie from the Green Mountain Incident? Why, yes. Turns out we live across town from each other. Both know some of the same folks, etc. Small world.

I ran about 3 miles from home to meet her at Steven Day Park. We set out around Union Reservoir in a clock-wise pattern. Stayed in my slow range. She let me set the pace and I was comfortable there. My legs were not happy on the way to the park but felt a bit better after they loosened up. That quad buster from Saturday was in full effect. Anyway, we chatted the whole time as we cruised the countryside. Came back around by my neighborhood. "Is that a pig?", she asked. There is much livestock to view on this route.

Kerrie admitted to being directionally challenged so I escorted her back to the park where I found her. She gave me some training tips and I was on my way back home. I started looking at my watch and realized that this non-long run was going to turn into a long run today. I was tired when I got back home. Hadn't expected all those miles today -- have figured 11 for the loop but the run there and back added in nicely. Feel nice and tired now.

I went 18.11 miles with an elevation gain of 544 feet in 02:26:13, which is an average pace of 08:04. Heart rate average was 138. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

February Training Summary

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:22:50 -0700

253.52 miles in 28 outings in a time of 41:02:19 with an elevation gain of 31,091 feet at an average heart rate of 138.

Someone remind me that its the middle of winter, please? Because these miles are just racking up for the year and I am only getting started. As promised in January, I wanted a floor of 250 per month. I had to chase that a bit late in the month after a solid rest week and a lot of single trips up Green Mountain negatively impacted the goal. But I got after it during the last week and set a course to intersect the total on the final day by a nose. No problem.

February of 2008 I ran 85 miles. February of 2009 I ran 107 miles. Total 192. So yeah, there was improvement year over year. Even 2 years over year!

10 trips up Green for the month. Starting to think a double on one of the two weekly outings is what's on tap for the future. I have stalled out on the improvement when it comes to a single lap. Its not challenging. Although, I am sure I am building some consistency factor in there. So I either need more or need to tack mileage on around it. Or both.

Lots of random thinking while running this month. One part has to do with that fascination that I think I am in the best shape of my life. Surely, I was there leading up to Denver last fall. But somewhere after that, rest and recovery kicks in and I think you decline. Not in a bad way but you lose that feeling. Over January, I felt like I was building back up. Mostly that aerobic base. Now, I think I have eclipsed that. However, I am not sure that Brandon February 2010 could take Brandon November 2009 in a 10k. But once this current me moves into a sharpening phase, I feel like a new gear will be revealed to me. I would like to here the perspective of someone who isn't in this continual "up and to the right" performance situation. What does it do to your motivation to know you ran your best 5-7 years ago and can only hope to be a shadow of that? I think I would find no drive in that.

Otherwise, I think I continue to stress over weight being the #1 factor holding me back. I am not doing anything about it though. The scale hasn't budged in a month. That's probably OK. I know I am trying to do a better job of fueling before, during and after. Maybe muscle is sneaking in there as fat falls out and the percentage of each is slightly shifting.

These things take time. Others have blogged about it but I will say it again. Running (for me) is all about consistency. Run more. Run often. Run again. Its when you look back over the month and you literally can't find a hole in your schedule that wasn't 100% intentional.

Some days I get lost in other people's totals. They aren't me but I know they can achieve things I want to so modeling yourself after those that have succeeded before you isn't a bad strategy. But then again, you and I are a "N of 1". We all have our own challenges, restrictions, schedules, goals, etc. I feel like I am firing pretty well against my objectives while keeping things in balance and not being hurt. An injury is the key self-imposed consequence of this stuff. That's why this slower build is working well for me. February matched January but the devil is in the details. January had more days of course. And in February I ran more trail days than in January but still eked out an improvement in distance. So I feel like I did much more than 250 "road miles" this month. Anyway, this is my unique formula at this game. We will see how it pans out. April 19th is coming soon.

And that 100 mile thing in August, bring that shit on!

Weekly Training Summary (83.45 miles / 12:48:01)

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:01:56 -0700

Across the board, it was a "most of the season" kind of week. Got the most miles, most time, and most elevation. It was good to be back after the rest week to allow myself to push the numbers up. Frankly, the big motivator was the month...who's the jerk that only put 28 days in February? I should have realized February was short back in January when I set 250 as my monthly minimum. So I had some miles to chase this week but I didn't just do them as junk. Had a pretty decent week.

Mon - 15M treadmill in 2 sessions
Tues - 15M treadmill in 2 sessions
Wed - Green Mountain from 29th Street
Thurs - Steady (Tempo) 10M
Fri - Slow 11M
Sat - Green Mountain x 2
Sun - Easy (Recovery) 9M

Put your brain on. Let's continue with the Performance Management Graph for the weekly summary.

Last: CTL = 75 / ATL = 98 / TSB = -23
This: CTL = 88 / ATL = 124 / TSB = -36

Those 2+ hour efforts really form the peaks in the ATL. Happy about the jump there. Going for a spike and saw it. CTL just follows along slowly. But happy that its once again highest of the season after the small dip during rest week. TSB fell of course. Should push that back into the -40s next week and hopefully -50s during the last week of the period.

This tool allows you to put in your event target date and then see how you can taper so you get TSB back to 0 by the day of your event. In the graph this week, I went out 7 days. You see that if I did nothing that week, I would get back to -10. Not zero. This taper for Boston is going to be rigorously managed but I hope I can do it correctly.

Nothing hurts. Bulletproof.

Run: Green Mountain x 2 (11.21 mi)

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:55:16 -0700

Set my alarm so I was up and gone by 7:30 AM. I am starting to want to be sure I have enough time to get everything I can done on a Saturday morning on the trail. JV had left me a message telling me they were going up the front side and would meet me on the back side to pick-up something I had for him. That gave me some incentive to boogie up the back at a solid pace in order to see how I could meet them. For kicks, I chugged my Red Bull shot my wife got me as a gift/gag to see how it would effect me.

The trail is in perfect condition again. Nice and packed. Just enough snow to cover up all the smaller obstacles on the trail. Felt pretty solid to the lodge but knew it wasn't record pace. Kept on it from there. Got up through The Steeps and into the switchbacks and ran into JV and Allison in that area. They were on a time table so we were brief and moved on. Hit the 4-way, then the summit. Had it all to myself. Rare these days on a Saturday morning. I stood there for a minute and had the great idea that I could catch JV on the way down. Nothing like an objective.

I pushed the pace going down. I got into the zone with my footwork. That's when running is so fun...you kind of come out of your body and just cruise along with the right music. I was concentrating on keep my HR up by holding a solid pace. This was going to be a quad trasher but I was in the mood for that.

I came flying through the Y and was nearly at the trailhead when I saw two guys just starting out. That first guy...the glasses...the beard....I know you. "Nick?", I said as I passed. He stopped and turned. It was Sir Nick Clark! Odd. What are you doing down here? He gave me a story but I knew the real truth -- he was doing recon for that eventual Boulder vs. FoCo showdown that we didn't get done last fall. Sneaky. They said they just finished a lap on Green on the front side and were giving this side a go. Cool. I let them go and ran back down to the truck to get some fluids. Jeff and Allison were just pulling out as I arrived. So I sort of caught them...

JV mentioned, "Doing 2 laps?". Ugh. Why did he have to say that? I needed to get 10 miles on the day to hit my month goal. And a real man would get it done on the hill. I could have just run into town and back but hey, I had the time. Pounded down some liquid and popped some other fuels and motored back up to the trailhead. I must be getting more competitive or something...or maybe goal oriented...because I figured I could probably meet Nick again before he got too far down. Maybe even on the summit if they were just relaxing and enjoying the view.

Kept pace. Let myself walk a few of the steep spots that I normally try to keep the run on for. Just to keep a better balance. I hit the lodge just over what I did it in for the first lap. That felt good. Nothing exciting from there on out. Ended up bumping back into Nick mid-Stairway. They were going south at the 4-way and that wasn't in my plans. So I finished my ascent and then tried for another quad-buster on the way down. There was a guy who pushed off the summit just after me so I wanted to stay ahead of him. Another goal.

By the time, I got back to the Rock Garden my legs were burning. I had accomplished 2 laps stronger than ever before. Felt good. Was it the Red Bull?

Lodge 1 - 20:23
4-way 1 - 21:54
Summit 1 - 4:38
Down 1 - 23:09

Lodge 2 - 21:18
4-way 2 - 23:26
Summit 2 - 5:06
Down 2 - 24:47

I went 11.21 miles with an elevation gain of 5,015 feet in 02:31:42, which is an average pace of 13:32. Heart rate average was 146. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

My Latest Finding

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:36:43 -0700

Glenn mentioned Daniel's Points the other day so I went googling. Found this spreadsheet that calculates many things. Always of key interest is how I can gain an advantage to crush Brownie at Boston. So here is my big secret...it says I am too fat!

I need to drop about 10 pounds and then I will be breaking 3:00 in Colorado. So maybe call it -5 pounds plus a sea level boost...on last fall's race time. Oh, man. I just got a boner. This could happen.

Run: Slow 11M (11.29 mi @ 07:49)

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:34:32 -0700

Boring day but I ran the steady yesterday so I enjoyed t-shirt weather and ran my slow day. Experimented on the route a tad and I got stuck in a barbed wire fence maze that I had to military crawl out of. Oh well. Paces were mostly under marathon PR while holding slow range. That's good stuff.

Dr. Rodgers threw out 85 as an average/optimal cadence last night. I ran 89 average today. So I am either taking a few too many steps OR I get in more steps than the average joe. Not going to think much about it. Just good to know I am right about where I should be. Next number to be analyzed please step up!

I felt the sun's heat today. Summer is coming. It will be glorious.

Hills tomorrow. Feeling like a 2 peak day. No repeats.

I went 11.29 miles with an elevation gain of 494 feet in 01:28:18, which is an average pace of 07:49. Heart rate average was 142. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

BTR Speaker Series: Footcare for the Endurance Athlete

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:52:27 -0700

Last night, it was back to Boulder (I need to move) for the last in this season's speaker series. As usual, I hit Larkburger beforehand to get my calories. However, I noticed the sign has gone up on the new Boulder Smashburger. Its next to Chipotle in the 29th Street Mall. Once both are open, the burger wars will be really decided. #2 and #3 next to each other? The choice will be tested.

JV came out past his bedtime for this meet up. We grabbed some seats and chatted while we waited to the thing to start. Always behind schedule at these talks. The speaker was Dr. Jeremy Rodgers. I had always thought he was a PT but he is not. He is a chiropractor. Gives me more perspective on his background. Many of my friends have been to him in the past for injury treatment. He seems to be well liked and often recommended. Anyway, I thought the discussion was going to help me with footcare for training and running something like Leadville. Jeremy had written articles on that stuff before so I thought it would be an expansion of that. However, it did not. There was one topic that seemed to permeate the discussion: barefoot running.

Buzz, the moderator, had set the tone that it was a major component of what he wanted the conversation to cover tonight. So Jeremy dipped into it a lot. Here is my list of points that Jeremy made and covered that caught my attention. As always, this was my take and I may have gotten some of it wrong.

Heal striking isn't so bad if you aren't heal weighting. The strike and then subsequently where you put your weight down at are in different phases of the step. You want to be mid-foot weighting your step.
Heal striking and then heal weighting shows a poorly efficient step. You see an abrupt shock to the foot prior to the normal weighing that occurs. Most injuries are caused by this abrupt shock to the foot.

That blip on the upswing is the bad stuff. You want to get rid of that.
Gait analysis works. I haven't even had one of these done but I know that my gait has changed over time. He showed a few good slow motion videos of good and bad gaits. Some of the bad gaits were from really fast people. Everyone is different of course but we all have a lot of similarities and there is a textbook way to do things.
Some people reach too far forward, or overstride. The easy way to tell is if you are able to see the knot in your shoe laces while looking down when you extend. You should see the laces but not the knot.
The inefficient gaits showed people standing straight up. Leaning forward was better.
Your fists and elbow position in the swing have a lot to do with your stride. They set the tone or range of motion.
The inefficient gaits showed people with 1/2 their stride in front and 1/2 behind. More efficient was 1/3 in front and 2/3 behind.
How does barefoot running improve gait? It naturally gets you more towards the front of your foot. You don't reach with your toes as much. You don't land on your heal as much. Your foot kind of hangs and falls flat as it was intended.
Barefoot running and minimalist footware have a lot in common for developing the right type of striking patterns.
Various injuries were shown distinguishing between acceleration and deceleration injuries. Most of the deceleration injuries were the ones that you all get and hear about. It was all in how you land the step, not how you push off.
He gave some good tidbits on fighting some injuries like ITBS. You can stretch all you want but it almost creates a vicious cycle and you keep getting it. The best solution was to strengthen your hip flexors and not drop your hip so much when striding. I like this because stretching doesn't work for me but I do get sore hips.

When Jeremy finished his formal presentation, they moved to a discussion. This guy stood up and talked rather well about the benefits of barefoot and how it has changed him. He has a book coming out and he was promoting it. He didn't venture far into the risks of barefoot or talk about the adverse effects but he did stress that you have to start slow (as in hundreds of yards) and build up. They have a group that helps you with your transition.

Another guy stood up and was selling super thin sandals that simulate barefoot all day long while giving you a layer of protection.

A few other people told stories about their VFFs and how amazing they are.

The barefoot love was in the room.

It was hard to read Jeremy. These other "fans" all had ancedotal and personal evidence of how this worked for them. Great. However, it almost seemed like Jeremy had a bubble over his head saying, "That's great but don't overdue it or you will be in my office".

So overall, what's my take? I have no plans at all to run roads, trails, or anything else with my exposed foot on the ground. I don't need that. I could see doing some laps/drills in a soccer field like setting barefoot but I don't have one right here. There is a park a few miles away and I could do some drills out there in the middle of a normal run and see how it goes. The word last night was that you feel total fatigue in your calves to start the day after. I like that kind of "new workout trama". Otherwise, I am going to continue what I have been doing -- putting less weight and less motion control into my shoes.

It started with my road shoes. I bailed on the big fat motion controls shoes that my original PT put me in. I started thinking he messed up but now I think it was more like giving my body an opportunity to heal the injury I had at the time and finish the season. Since then, I have been getting shoes with less motion control to the point now where I don't have any. My shoes are "free" or neutral. This is a good thing. Your foot is designed to roll in order to disperse all the force of your step. If you lock it down, you are creating a new problem.

This can be overdone though. Jeremy talked about how he sees tons of cases of runners putting their entire training workload in wearing only racing flats. That is a bad idea.

Anyway, I have been doing all my road work in my LunarTrainers. While they do have a thicker sole, its uniform and doesn't fatigue me in long runs. Then I strip down to LunarRacers for race day and its a whole new ballgame but my feet seem ready for them. I think it would kill you if you went from motion control trainers to racers on race day. Your foot would not know what to do.

However, for the trails, I am still waffling. In the past, I have run my big longer trail races in my road Nikes. Why? Read the blog stories but mostly for comfort. I haven't found a good set of trail shoes that didn't blister me or rub me. So I went with what I knew worked for that duration and it worked out OK. But I know this isn't the long term answer. Jeremy was confirming that last night saying that trail shoes are built for the trails for a reason. Going into how they have a lower center of gravity. How they flex around rocks instead of levering on top of them. And on. For my winter runs, I have been in my TNF Rucky Chuckys. For one, I bought them so I need to wear them out. They are bigger and heavier. I think Tony called them "boats" when he saw them on me. But they provide a lot of support for the microspikes I have attached. I ran one day in the NB 100s and my toes were bloody from the spike chains digging into my toes. So, I do have 2 pairs of 100s sitting there. I wear them about town from time to time to keep them loose. I like the feel of them and I think I will give them a go once the trails dry out again. But as I have said in the past, I wonder if they can support me for 50 miles? And 100? I wonder if they are too minimal. Surely, I could build up to it but does the timeline work out? When will I be ready for them for those distances? Thinking I can train in them but might need something more solid for the bigger race days. Or I may wear them on the more runnable sections of Leadville and then switch into something more solid for Hope Pass. Things to think about.

But one thing is for sure, stripping down my shoes has been changing the way I run in a good way. I don't have the video evidence to prove my gait has changed but I find myself much more controlled and steady. Jeremy pointed out that inefficient runners spend most of their energy moving their body up and down. The whole goal of running more efficiently is to stop that bouncing up and down motion which causes you to accelerate and decelerate ever so slightly with each step. You want to stay low to the ground and propel forward. So if you big "air shox" in your shoes -- "You are going the wrong way!"

After the show, I headed over to Boulder Baked for my weekly cookie pickup. I am the mayor of that place now.

That's Hot

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:36:06 -0700

Now I can watch chicks with brooms while I work.

Thank you, Slingbox.