And Now the Results…

Thank you to everyone who supported me through my marathon training and the race itself.  Francis and I had a wonderful time in San Francisco, escaping the hottest temperatures of the year in Denver in exchange for upper 50s in the Bay area (Mark Twain was right about that).  We met a couple of our friends from Denver on Friday and spent the rest of the weekend with long-time friends of mine from Nebraska who now live in San Francisco.  We all ran the marathon on Sunday, so our Saturday was predictably mellow.  We breakfasted at Ella’s and played disc golf in Golden Gate Park before a pasta dinner and early night.

Francis and I both finished the race in under three hours (2:59:55 and 2:57:22, respectively) and felt great about our efforts.  While we were sore immediately, we rallied for margaritas and mexican on Sunday night before exploring the city a bit in Julia’s mini on Monday.  Our flight cancelled and our re-booked flight delayed, we didn’t get off the plane ’till almost 2:30 in the morning on Tuesday.

I’m already thinking about the next race…

Back in Action

Tonight, Francis and I ran 10 miles in Washington Park.  It was the first time I’d run in a week and it felt great; our time put us under 7-minute miles.  We’ve got our last long run this Sunday before we begin to taper.  I’m really looking forward to that – almost as much as I’m looking forward to being in San Francisco this time next month…

A Short Vacation

I haven’t written lately because I haven’t run lately.  I just returned from a backpacking trip with some friends in the Weminuche Wilderness in southwest Colorado.  We were gone for the better part of a week, and I’ll be back on the pavement tomorrow with a ten-mile run.  I’ll update soon.

D’oh

I ran with Francis last night for the first time in a while.  It was great to run with him again, but I learned that my inattention to detail cost me this last week.  Turns out that on Wednesday we were supposed to run only 6 miles, and I instead ran 10.  With the way my right knee has been feeling lately, that wasn’t the best move on my part.

Anyway, we had a speed workout last night, and we ran 7 800-meter repeats on the track up the street from my apartment.  It was windy, but we kept our times under 3 minutes, which was our target.

Today, I ran 6 miles instead of 10.  I woke up late this morning and headed out early in the afternoon for a run around Cheeseman Park.  I actually looped the park 4 times, which is a big change from my normal 6-mile routes.  But the change was nice, and running around a busy park can sometimes be fun.  Tomorrow, we’ve got a 20-miler.

Perfect Ten

Ran along the Cherry Creek Trail tonight for an easy 10 miler.  Francis is still MIA somewhere in the OC.  The 91-degree day cooled off as the evening approached and it was into the upper 70s when I left my place to run down historic Humbolt street.  I figure if I ever make millions of dollars, I’ll buy a house here.  It’s that nice.

My pace was strong.  It’s becoming really easy to average 7:30 mile pace for just about any length run, so I’m feeling better and better about a 3-hour marathon.  I just gotta stay healthy.

Oh, and…

…yesterday I forgot to mention that Francis, my running partner, has again left me. This time he’s gone to the OC for work, and won’t return ’till Saturday morning. In his place, Andrew Rotta – a friend of mine from church – ran with me on yesterday’s 10 mile run. Afterwards, we met with a few other friends for ice cream at Lik’s, and I had the largest “single scoop” of ice cream I’d ever experienced (the flavor? Bananas Foster, and it was damn good.). In fact, it would have been a big double in most cases.

But today I was running alone again. I went for 12 miles this afternoon on a double loop through City Park. I stopped back by the apartment mid-way through for a Powebar brand gel and some Gatorade, and I felt really good as I finished. I have no idea what my time was yesterday or today – no watch, no iPod – but I’m guessing both runs were in the 7:45 mile pace neighborhood.

Run and Gun

I’m sitting on my couch watching the Lakers-Celtics game (go Celtics) and thought, “it’s been a long time since I’ve updated this thing.” Sorry. Not much of note has happened though. I’ve done well staying on the program, but this weekend I switched it up a bit because I went camping with some friends in the Great Sand Dunes National Park. I thought about running out there, but we were having too much fun at the park. I ran my Saturday 10-miler today and I’ll run today’s 12-miler tomorrow.

Otherwise, the training has been great. I ran hill repeats about 10 days ago. I did 6 repeats up the road grade at Matthews-Winters Open Space Park and they varied from 1:14 to 1:28, and the last run was 1:21. When I did the same repeats at the beginning of my training in week 2, I did three of them and the times were 1:31, 1:40 and 1:46. So I felt pretty good about that progress.

Last Sunday I did 19 miles alone at an eight minute mile pace. Francis was still on vacation in South Carolina with his wife’s family, so I threw in the iPod and made a few loops from the apartment. The run was long and tiring, but it felt great to get the distance in on my own.

This week Francis was back in town and we went 10 miles on a couple of laps at Washington Park. The weather was perfect and we thought about all the nights in April when we ran in snow. It was funny, there never were so many people out back then. But the trade off is in the scenery… I love summer.

Half Way Home (pt 2)

Yesterday I ran 12 miles to conclude week 9 of our marathon training program.  That means I’m half way to the race, which is 9 weeks from yesterday (August 3).

The run felt good and I took it east around City Park in the early morning before church.  There was some kind of bike race in the morning and I felt slow as the riders whisked past me in the quiet of the park.  That’s probably because I was a bit slow compared to race pace, finishing the 12 miles in 1:30:45.  Francis is still in South Carolina, so I hope he’s able to work in a run or two between mojitos on the beach.

Playing Catch-Up

I last wrote on Tuesday night, which was quite a while ago.  Sorry about that.  I went 9 on Wednesday after work and finished in 1:01:45.  Everything felt good during the run, but afterwards, the outside of my right knee started to hurt.  It was most noticeable when the pressure released as I came off the ground, and it’s the same problem I had earlier in my training.  Since then, I’ve still run, but I’ve taken it easy.

On Thursday, I went with the Snug Club again.  The weather was perfect for running and a ton of people showed up.  Three miles is about perfect after work.

Francis and I had a speed workout last night; six 800-meter runs.  We ran over to East High School to use their track, but when we arrived, we were disappointed to see some kind of children’s track event.  Unable to use the track, we ran instead around the road at City Park.  We didn’t have any marked distances, so we just ran for 3:00 at a time.  Who knows how far we actually ran.

This morning, Francis and his wife took off for a 9-day vacation in South Carolina.  That means we’ll each be running on our own for a while.  Today, I did 9 miles again, but not as quickly as Wednesday.  My knee feels better each day, but I’m still hesitant to push it hard.  Tomorrow we’re stepping back a bit in terms of our long runs, so I’ll go 12.

Off Schedule

Or maybe on?  I ran 4 miles today around Cheeseman Park and down to Colorado Boulevard.  It’s the first Tuesday I’ve run in, well, as long as I can remember.  I’m working on the transition from Tuesday days off to Thursday days off for softball.  This will be a more-or-less permanent change, and I hope to run some Thursdays when we have later games.  I’ve really enjoyed running with the Irish Snug Running Club, and as an aside, if anyone’s interested, you should really come down and join us.

I’ll probably continue to take Mondays off from running to help recover from Sunday long runs.  That’s my own tweak of Hal Higdon’s program, but I feel pretty good about the idea, and so far it’s worked well.  I’d taken a number of Mondays and Tuesdays off from running, and on Wednesdays, the first few miles are always tough.  I think having non-consecutive days off will be a big help.