2014 - What's on the horizon

I thought I'd take a bit of a break talking about marathon weekend and talk about what races I'm looking at doing over the next year.  I was really expecting that after the Dopey I wouldn't want to run anymore.  It was a hard training season and for the most part I didn't cancel any workouts.  Right about when I hit my taper I was fried.

Anyway, I think for a variety of reasons including my personal success at meeting my goals during marathon weekend and having a good time running with friends, I'm ready to set some new goals for 2014.  In my head I've broke up the year into three training seasons.  Nothing is totally locked down yet, but I think this will be my overall plan.

Feb - May - Spring Training

The good thing is other than this cold going on right now (oh how I hate thee, the Disney crud), I have a strong base of fitness.  I've decided I might as well use that fitness and try and hit a few goals this spring.  I can tune my training with a bit of hill work as well as some trails.  That will let me accomplish some races that I was considering doing without a bunch of extra training.  I may not be at peak fitness, but I should be able to perform at a fairly good level.

April 20th - Desert Rats Trail Running Festival, 1/2 marathon, Fruita, CO

This would be the third time for me to run this race.  How it works is they have a 50k and a marathon on Saturday, and a half and 5 miler on Sunday.  We usually drive up on Saturday, stay the night, run the half and then drive home on Sunday.  I considered running the marathon if I could convince my friend Brad to come out for it, but he's already got plans.  So instead I'll be running the half with Andrea, Mike, Carrie, Rebecca and Kate.  All in all Fruita is a beautiful race and each year the weather has been perfect.

April 27th - Cherry Creek Sneak, Denver, CO

I'm doing this one mostly to hang out with Bryan, Mel and Brad Jones (from TAE) who is coming out to run this race.  I haven't decided which distance I'm going to do, either the 10 miler and run it easy, or the 5 miler and run it sort of hard.

May 3rd - Greenland 50k, Larkspur, CO

So originally I was going to do the 8 miler.  It looked like a flat fun race that I could really work on my speed.  But I have some base fitness right now, I figured it might be the time to do a 50k.  It's longer than a marathon, but should be easier than Dopey for three reasons.  One, I won't have all the travel associated with Dopey.  Second, no early morning wake up calls.  Lastly, I'm going to run it fairly easy.  The course itself is 4 loops of around 7.5 miles on packed dirt.  It isn't that technical of a course and the weather should be good at that time of year.  My training for it will consist of less days of running than the Dopey and I'll probably top out at one 20 miler, and one 22 mile run before the race.  Also since you loop around, you can have a drop bag of supplies.

June 1st - Skirt Sports 5 Miler, Louisville, CO

I did this last year and it was a really fun race.  Short, sweet and hopefully both Helen and Michelle from TAE will be coming out for it.  Men aren't allowed to do the half (females only) so I run the 5 miler.  Not to mention it's about 15 minutes from my house.

June - Aug - Summer Training

Well this summer work is sending me overseas.  It seems to happen pretty much any summer really killing any consistent training.  So I'm going to take the summer off and just do some fun runs around Colorado and New Zealand.  No specific focus on races during this period.

Sept - Nov - Fall Training

Fall is a bit more tentative since some of the races require travel.  Until we have locked down our New Zealand travel plans, I don't want to plan too far into the future.

Oct 1st - Twin Cities Marathon, Minneapolis, MN

My good friend Andrea wanted to run a marathon this year, so we were both looking at possible races.  This one seemed like a good destination race.  It is fairly cheap to fly there, and I have a good friend Julie who lives nearby.  Myself I won't be training to PR at this race, but more just to complete it in a decent enough time.

Nov 8th - Wine and Dine Half Marathon, Disney World, FL

Hands down my favorite RunDisney event they put on.  This would be the five year anniversary of the event.  I am still not sure that I want to do it as most likely it would mean going down without Joelle (which I'm not crazy about).  It's expensive, both the race and the lodging.  I do have an annual pass, and at least part of a free ticket.  Also I promised my wife no more Disney races until my 40th birthday in 2015.  But if I end up doing it, this would be my A race of the year.  I think I hold my PR at this race currently so it would be fun to train to beat it.

Other Possible Races

There are a bunch of things up in the air right now that may change my plans.  I have some friends that are planning on doing the Moab half/full trail marathon.  If things don't shake out for Wine and Dine, that may very well fall on the books.  Also the nerds are planning on getting together for the Las Vegas RnR half.  This would be the week after Wine and Dine, so I'm not 100% sure it would be in the books for us.  I also had a bunch of fun running the FLATS half marathon in Missouri.

Also, as some you may remember, I was supposed to run a Triathlon last year.  Well, I was able to defer until this year because of the flooding.  Currently I'm signed up, and it's at the end of September.  But at the moment I have no interest at all in training for it.  That may change as weather gets better and I can get out on my bike.

2014 Marathon Weekend - 5k and 10k

So I sat down to start writing this post. I quickly realized that I think it's going to be harder than I imagined.  So many thoughts and memories happened over the entire weekend, how do I put them all into a few posts.  Anyway, I think this is going to end up being three posts in total, the first talking about the 5k and 10k, the second the half and full, and the third one just wrapping up the weekend and some general thoughts.

Anyway, we left on a Wednesday morning.  Luckily it wasn't a super early flight.  Joelle used to detest those but has seemed to gotten better with them.  Though with the cold snap we were going through, I was happy that we were leaving a bit later. Most of my friends that were doing Dopey were also flying out that same day.  With the extreme cold weather, some of them really were struggling to just get down to Orlando.  Flights were canceled out of New York, Chicago and other NE cities.  Some people were able to rebook, others ended up just driving down to Florida.

Getting ready to leave on Wednesday morning

Once we got into Orlando, things went pretty smoothly.  We stopped and picked up our car (aka Pony Magik) and headed to the expo.  With all the chaos of the last few expos, this one was relatively calm. We breezed right in and picked up our packets (which included my six shirts) and did some quick shopping.  It was a good expo, but seemed a bit smaller than normal.  It might also be that I'm getting sort of numb to the excitement of a RunDisney expo.  

We didn't really want to hit the parks at this point in the day, so we took off to the vacation home that we rented.  Last year during marathon weekend, I was pretty convinced to not come back this year.  I really needed a break from all the training, not to mention it was getting pretty expensive. Several of my friends on Team AllEars brought up the idea of getting vacation home and splitting the cost in order to make it more affordable.  Thus the Nerdery was born.  We ended up looking all around and settled on an eight bedroom house just south of Animal Kingdom.  Now in hindsight, that was such a wonderful idea.  In fact, I strongly suggest that if you are going down to marathon weekend in the future with a group of friends, look at renting a house.  We had a pool, hot tub, BBQ, huge game room, all for about $160 a person. Much cheaper than staying onsight and while there are some inconveniences, I think in all it enhanced the weekend.

Shopping for the Nerdery. We went a bit crazy.

That first night Julie offered to make Mexican food for us, and while it was a great idea, the problem is I think we underestimated how long it would take us to organize, get out of the house and to the store. We ended up getting to Target around 7:00 PM.  3 full shopping carts of food later and about an hour later, we left the store, fully stocked up with all the food we needed for the weekend.  After a quick meal, some BSing and drinking around the house (had to taste the moonshine that Jamison brought from West Virginia), most of us headed to bed.

My mentor as Buddy the Elf for the 5k.

Most of us were running the next morning, so we started the 4 day ritual of getting up early (5 days for me, but more on that later).  My plan for the weekend consisted of racing the 5k, running the 10k with my wife and friends, running the half fairly easy and then racing the marathon.  I haven't had a chance to really race a 5k at peak performance in a while, and I was really curious how I could do down at sea level. I was also fairly sure that any sort of effort in the 5k wouldn't hurt my performance for the the marathon on Sunday.   

I know there is lots of debate over whether you should PR a Disney race or not.  I say, do what is fun for you.  If you want to PR a Disney race, it can be done.  For me it is the natural race for me to try and race.  It's the big focus of my most intense training, it's at sea level, and the course and atmosphere really pump me up. Also when doing something like the Dopey or Goofy, I think there is some benefit to getting off your feet in a reasonable amount of time. Other people's bodies work differently, and RunDisney races might not be the best place to really work on speed.  Again, I think it really to each their own.  

I think all weekend I was pretty worried about the heat and humidity.  Forecasts were going up and down but it looked like it would be a hot weekend, especially for the 10k and half.  Luckily I think it was perfect race weather on the morning of the 5k.

Cheering on Team AllEars at end of the 5k.  Laura and Bryan Thompson's first 5k!

After I finished I ran back to the end and cheered on the rest of my running team as they came through.  I think one of the coolest moments was when I saw teammate Brian and Laura just about to cross the finish line of their first 5k.

5k PR - Way faster than I would have guessed.

I did end up getting a PR, 22:38, about two minutes off my previous PR.  I think the 5k success helped setup the day as ending up being one of my best Disney days ever.  I think if I went back to marathon weekend, I'd run the 5k again and then take two days off and do the marathon.  I love Epcot in the dark and being able to run around World Showcase was pretty awesome.

Ehmergerd!  Jack and Sara get engaged on Main Street!

After the runners were all done, we headed over to Magic Kingdom.  Erinn had told us that she wanted to get a shot of all of us on Main Street, but what we didn't know is Sara's boyfriend Jack was planning on proposing to her.  It was a huge surprise to all of us.  After many tears and congratulations, I had to tear off and run over to the Beach Club.  

One of my favorite podcasts, the Mickey Miles podcast was having a breakfast over at Ariel's at the Beach Club.  What a fabulous time that was.  It was nice to catch up with some good friends (sat with Eve and Phil Vanderpool).  They had a great buffet and were able to announce their new running team, the Mickey Milers!  I remember a few years ago when Michelle told me that they were thinking about starting a podcast.  It seems like that was so long ago and it really has grown into such a great entity of it's own.  I'm so proud of what both her and Mike were able to accomplish in the last few years.  

After that, headed back to the Magic Kingdom to meet up with the rest of the nerds.  I was getting pretty tired at this point, but we had some unfinished business that we had to attend to.  What began as Sara doing a very sweet thing for a bunch of children ended up turning into one of the most magical experiences that I've seen.  I won't go into detail since I'm pretty sure someone else will end up blogging about it eventually.

We then had to head back to the Nerdery to get ready for our one big night out, aka Nerdprom.  We all got dressed up and headed back to our ressie at Cali Grill.  Erinn and Joelle ended up crowning Jack and Sara our King and Queen of nerdprom. 

Jack and Sara get crowned King and Queen of nerdprom!

After Cali grill it was onto the monorail crawl.  I think the Lapu Lapu's at Tambu Lounge were the big hit of the night.  Even Julie who said she wasn't drinking much until after the marathon ended up partaking in the yummy beverage.  After the Tambu Lounge, Phil texted me and asked if we wanted to join him at the Top of the World Lounge.  Of course!  Normally it wasn't available unless you were a DVC member staying on points on property.  Phil, being the suave guy that he is, ended up getting all 15 of us up there to watch wishes.  What a great way to end the magical night.

Stop 2 of the monorail crawl, Tambu Lounge.

Next morning was the 10k day.  An even earlier wakeup call was needed so that we could all get into costume.  We decided as a group that we'd go as the Avengers.  My wife Joelle really wanted to go as Ironman, so I decided to support her and go as Pepper Potts.  

Julie and I looking like twins on 10k morning.  Ginger Power!

What a fabulous morning!  The temps had ticked up and it was very humid, but I wasn't overly concerned as we were all going to take it pretty easy.  At first I think we were planning on all running together but that's pretty difficult in such a large group.  Joelle, Christina and I ended up running the first four miles or so together.  Christina had signed up for the Dopey but several months before, at Wine and Dine she realized that her knee was having issues and that she doubted she would be able to run the full on Sunday.  So we had a good time during the 10k just taking it easy.  Once we got back into Epcot near the end, the nerds all waited up for each other and we ended up coming into the finish as a group.  

Avengers Assemble!

It was really a hoot to be able to run this as a group and with friends. The cast members were really terrific and we had a good time chatting with them during the entire course.  I think our finish time was around 1:58.

Joelle as Ironman, me as Pepper Potts

After the 10k, most of us headed back to the house for the rest of the day.  That evening we were having a BBQ so I just took a nap before getting up and prepping for the party.

Anyway, I think I've prattled on long enough for one post, more later on the 1/2 and full.

New Years 2014 - Run up Sanitas

So it seems as thought this might be turning into a tradition.  Last year at this time I was raising money for Team AllEars.  As part of that fundraiser I offered to make a lap up Mt Sanitas for every $25 that someone donated to me.  As part of Lap 7, Andrea joined me and she and I took a trip up the mountain on New Years Day.  You can see that blog post here.

This year once again if the weather held, I wanted to once again do this on New Years Day.  There is something invigorating about getting out into the wilderness after celebrating the turnover of the new year the night before.  Both Andrea and myself had gone to a friend house the night before and decided to partake in a few adult beverages.  Let's just say when I woke up on New Years Day I did not know what the day held for me.

On a last minute impulse, Andrea txted Michael and Carrie to see if they wanted to join us the next day.  I was so happy when they said that they weren't busy and were up for it. :)

Fog, which we rarely get in Boulder. 

The weather was actually really out.  As we rolled in from Broomfield (which had nice beautiful blue skies out), the cloud cover intensified.  As we started the hike/run we soon noticed that the top of the mountain was going to be covered in fog.  I have to admit, I sort of geeked out.  Fog is one of those weather types that we get so rarely in CO.  I LOVE fog...absolutely love it.  And rarely do I get to run in it.

Mike, Carrie and Andrea all celebrating the new year with me. 

We took our time on the way up and really enjoyed the scenery.  The fact that we can even hike something like Sanitas with almost no snow cover on January 1st is one of the reasons I really love Colorado (hint hint Julie).

Woohoo!  Love it up here.

Descending, we decided to go on the back trail, instead of the front.  The first part of the trail gets pretty steep and is in a sun shadow most of the day.  There was probably 200 yards or so that were pretty slick with ice making it a bit dangerous.  I think all of us were slipping and sliding a bit.

Fog coming back down. 

Normally we go back down the Sanitas Valley trail back to the parking lot.  Instead we took off on a small side trail called the Dakota Ridge Trail.  It's not long, maybe .7 of a mile, but it's my favorite type of trail running.  It is slightly downhill, a bit technical, but not too much and fast.  Some of the most fun running I've had in a very long time.

Carrie, Michael and Andrea descending.

All in all, it was a great way to spend the first day of the New Year with some of my very best friends.

Just a few notes, this weekend once again I'm running the WDW Marathon Weekend with Team AllEars. Not only am I doing the marathon, I'm also doing a 5k on Thursday, 10k on Friday, half marathon on Saturday before attempting the marathon on Sunday.   I've been running in the WDW Marathon Weekend for four years.  Each year I have been part of Team AllEars and we raise money for Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.  If you'd like to donate, you can find my page here - http://tinyurl.com/dopeyrunner88.

Also, if you haven't heard, my niece Shannon was recently diagnosed with stage 4 stomach and lung cancer.  She's only 30 years old.  The diagnosis was just two days after Christmas.  Anyway, I decided to dedication my marathon this year to her. Honestly, my 26.2 miles is nothing compared to the fight that she is having to endure right now.

Currently she's getting treatment at the CTCA in Tulsa, OK.  Her husband, family and friends are trying to raise money for her treatment.  Right now they are at about $22,500 of their $25,000 goal.  If you have a few extra dollars, I'm sure her family would appreciate it.

My niece Shannon and her husband Ryan

Shannon's Fundraising Page - https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/l5q3/shannon-donnelly-s-cancer-fund
Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/helpshannonfight

1st Annual Christmas Light Run

Christmas is a great time of year. It's a time of family and friends. It's a time to honor our traditions and to give. This year I'm starting a new tradition.

This year I'm starting a new tradition. On Thursday, December 12th, I'm hosting my first annual Christmas Light run. It will begin at my house at 6:30 PM in Broomfield. We will do a nice easy run of around 5 miles around the neighborhoods of Broomfield. I'll bring Christmas music with me and we will try and look at all the houses decorated up for the holidays. We will end at my house and eat snacks and drink a hot beverage of your choice (tea, coffee, hot cocoa, etc). If you don't live in Colorado, I'm encouraging everyone to get out and do it wherever you are in the world.

Along with this, I've also got a contest going on. As many of you know, each year I run in the Disney Marathon Weekend races. I run as part of Team AllEars to raise money for Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I am trying to raise a total of $500 by Jan 10th. How this contest works is that I'm asking you to get out on the night of December 12th and have a nice relaxing run around your neighborhood looking at the Christmas lights that are up. Take a picture of you with some of the holiday decorations around your neighborhood. Also, I'm asking that you make at least a $5 donation to the charity of your choice (but I'd love it if it's Avon Walk for Breast Cancer). E-mail me by December 16th a picture of you in running gear in front of some lights and your name will be entered into a drawing. My e-mail is mpaxton88@gmail.com

If I reach $200 total donations I'll raffle off a insulated Camelbak Water Bottle so you can take a hot beverage with you on those long cold winter runs. Last year I used to take hot tea with me on long cold runs.

If I reach $400 total donations, I'll raffle off my favorite new winter running gear, a Merino Wool Buff. Great for keeping your neck and face warm while you run.

If you'd like to make a donation to Team AllEars and Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, you can find my personal page here - http://tinyurl.com/dopeyrunner88

F.L.A.T.S. Half Marathon Race Report (the best little race that you need to do someday)

I've been intending to write this blog post for a while, but every time I keep sitting down to write it, I ended up doing something else.  It's a little over a month past the race and it's time I get this race report up.  

Earlier this year after Fruita, Andrea, Mike and I, two of my closest friends were sitting around debating on which races we wanted to run this year. We all had our own individual races that we were working towards (myself the Dopey Challenge and my triathlon) but we wanted yet another race that we could all go do together, and we all preferred a trail race.  We threw out a few different options.  Moab (which I couldn't do because I was in Florida) and Durango were both options that we were looking at.  Then Michael reminded us that his friend Ivy puts on a small trail race in Kirksville, MO every year in the fall.  While it was a bit of a drive, the race itself sounded about perfect.  It was in early October, so the chance of poor weather was low.  Not only that, it was a half marathon and while it was a trail race, it wasn't super technical.  Also it was cheap ($35 early registration, $45 after 9/8/2013).  

Leading up to the race, I hadn't really trained for it.  My running mileage was actually quite low since I had been concentrating on my triathlon all summer. My goal for the race was to just get through it and have a good time.  Andrea had been fighting some hip issues and I had a sciatica that had been acting up.  For this reason, we talked about maybe running the race together, at least part of it.

On Thursday, we loaded up in the car early that morning and started the drive out.  I normally hate road trips, but for some reason this trip went by fairly quickly, maybe because of the great company I had.  I had thought originally we'd be staying in a hotel like we did for Fruita, but Mike talked to his friend and race directory, Ivy and he offered to put us up in his house for the weekend.  This was incredibly generous of him as not only did he and his wife have to entertain three guests that weekend, they also had to put on a race.  

We ended up getting into Kirksville late that night.  The next day we didn't have much planned, Ivy had to finish up the prep for the race and take care of the packet pickup site for the athletes.  Being that he was the race director, he took care of grabbing our packets and swag while we hung out like bums at the local coffee shop all day long (drinking way too much coffee mind you).

So...I wanted to point this out.  This is how all races should be.  For our $35 dollar race fee we got a nice bag, beanie, soft cotton shirt (my favorite race shirt atm), and water bottle.  This price also included our bibs and 6(?) food/water stops on course.  And still at the end of the race of only 120 or so runners he raised over $3500 for improving the trail system around the town.  

Awesome Swag - Hat, Bottle, Bag and Shirt.  Also lucky number 88 on the bib for me

The night before race Andrea and I sat down on the floor of his kitchen and helped him get all the aid station boxes prepped and ready to go.  This meant measuring our Gatorade in plastic bags so that it could be quickly dumped into water jugs the next morning.  Not only was there Gatorade, water and GUs, he also had other great snacks like pretzels and M&Ms at some of the water stops.  Trail races always have the best aid stations.

Packing up the aid station drop boxes the night before

The morning of the race we were up bright at early at 6:00 am ready to go.  The race itself was a point to point race so we had to drive to the finish line, park and then board a bus to get to the start.  Scanning the weather on the way to the start I was a bit worried about a passing storm.  Luckily it sprinkled a bit on the bus but by the time we got off it had cleared up.  

Mike, Andrea and myself before the race

The one thing to understand about this race is that it's small.  Only 120 racers or so and many of them knew each other.  It's a very intimate feeling.  Very different than a New York Marathon or a Disney Race.

The other thing is while there were some slower racers, for the most part it felt like a pretty fast field.  I consider myself a middle of the pack runner most of the time.  Both Andrea and I were worried we'd be one of the last runners over the finish line.  In the end that wasn't to be the case, but still it felt that way as we were standing on the start line.

The race start, about 120 people 

A few minutes before the race, the race directory Ivy stands on a rock to give a short little speech about the race.  It's cool out, but Michael suggested that I toss the long sleeve and race in the singlet.  I was doubting him a bit, but in the end it turned out to be the absolute right call.  

Race Directory Ivy giving a pre-race pep talk

The race course itself is pretty well thought out.  The first mile and a half was on asphalt and wide open.  It really allowed the racers to separate into their appropriate paces.  Once you hit the singletrack a bit later, passing was fairly difficult. As someone who normally does a 4:30s run/30s walk ratio, that was fairly difficult during this race because of the singletrack.  You had to wait for walking breaks for areas where people could pass and then once you started to run again, often times you'd be stuck behind groups of runners until it opened up once again.  Andrea and I had decided to run together and that made it even a bit more difficult to pass since there were two of us.  I think the walk/run was still the right call because of the injuries we were dealing with, but I think we lost some overall time because of it.

 First mile and a half on nice wide asphalt

Once you get on the singletrack the best way to describe the course was that it was FUN.  The leaves were starting to turn so we had some of the most beautiful scenery to run through.  The course wove up and down through forest near a large lake.  There was some minor elevation gain/loss but it was mostly rolling hills that were run to run.  The ground was dirt, moist from rain the previous day.  I thought it felt pretty grippy most of the way except for a few places were it was a bit slippery from wet leaves on the ground.

 Andrea cruising down the singletrack around mile 6

Both Andrea and I decided that we'd run pretty conservatively the first half using a walk/run.  At 6.5 miles we'd check in and see how we felt.  We had let a group of runners pass us around mile 4 and by the time we hit mile 6.5 both of us felt good and I wanted to catch back up to that group of runners.  Alas, that was not to be even though we kept seeing them ahead of us once we got back down by the lake, always one bend ahead of us. :)

Myself cruising down a hill

It's an interesting case study on people and their attitude/mental game near the end of a race.  At around mile 11 I was feeling great and told Andrea that I was going to push the pace a bit and take off.  She was having a bit of hip issues and told me to go for it.  Andrea is a rare bird that near the end of a race, she kicks it into a gear that I haven't been able to find yet.  I thought I was cruising along pretty well and then around mile 12 at a walk break, Andrea caught back up to me.  At this point we saw Michael coming back on the trail towards us.  He had already finished and came back to run in the last mile with us.

 Somewhere in the latter half of the race

About the last 400-800 meters you leave the singletrack and hit a dirt road.  It wasn't far until the end but I just wasn't feeling like I had much left in me.  Michael was cheering me on, trying to get me to dig in and find just a bit more strength but for some reason it just wasn't happening.  Andrea on the other hand dug in and just took off.  From what she said she just wanted to be done, as her hip was hurting.  Honestly I think she just is pretty awesome and likes to push it hard at the end of a race.

Finishing Line at the local winery

The finish line happened to be at a beautiful local winery.  Not only was there hot coffee, soda, bananas, chips.  They also had a stack of pizza waiting for the runners once they crossed the finish line.  Just goes to show all races should serve pizza to their finishers.

Andrea and Mike post race 

I finished in 2:15:14 and Andrea finished seven seconds before me 2:15:07.  Michael was speedy that day and finished in 1:49:08.  Age group winners got some awesome beer glasses as well as a bottle of wine donated from the local winery.

Mike and I post race with a finisher shirt 

In conclusion, this was one of the best races I've ever done.  Would I suggest it to someone else?  Hell yes.  The course was fun to run.  In my opinion if you have never done a trail race and are anywhere near Kirksville, look at doing this race next fall.

Thank you once again to Ivy and Kitty Koger as well as all of the volunteers for putting on such a great race.

 For more information about the F.L.A.T.S half marathon, check out their facebook site - https://www.facebook.com/pages/FLATS-Trail-Half-Marathon/251720808185656.

So what happened to that triathlon I was supposed to run?

So for those who have been reading my facebook or blog, you might have seen that I was supposed to run a triathlon this year.  Whatever happened to it?  I had trained most of the summer for the race.  I even borrowed a nice road bike from my good friends Mel and Bryan.  I had donned a swimsuit and even did a few open water swims.

All in all, the training was going really well.  I was still pretty nervous about the swimming portion of it so I had been focusing most of my efforts on that.  The problem is that the week before the race, Boulder got a bit of rain.  And when I say a bit of rain, I mean more rain than I think it has ever gotten on record.  Some were calling it the 100 year flood, or the 1000 year rain.  It was pretty bad.  Several lost lives, millions of dollars in damage (road, property, etc).  I myself was holed up with my wife Joelle out in Broomfield.  To us it just seemed like several days of constant rain.  But 10 miles away in Boulder and even more so in the mountains to the north and west it was much much worse.

Anniversapocolpyse 2013

More Flooding in Boulder

So the company holding the triathlon had to take several issues into account.  At first it looked like they might go ahead with it.  They ordered a water quality test and put up a post saying that they might go forth.  But after talking to the city of Longmont they realized that the EMS and police staff that usually assist on races such as these were so overworked with flood relief that they couldn't staff the event.  So instead, they decided to reschedule it two weeks later.  Unfortunately I already had a race that I was running that weekend in Kirksville, MO so they (Without Limits) gave me a credit to run a race for the following year.  In the end I was pretty mixed up with how I felt about it.  On one hand, I was relieved. This is going to give me a lot more time to really practice my swimming before my first triathlon next year. I'm also hoping that I'll have some more time to get in on my bike.  On the other hand I had really been gearing up all summer long.  I had invested not only my time in prepping for this race, but also several friends that helped me prepare.  I had spent money on gear (swimming and biking gear mostly, along with wetsuit rental and rec center fees).  It's not that it will all go to waste, but still it was a bit disappointing.

So what happens next?  Well in September I completed the Disneyland 10k and 1/2 and had a great race overall even though my running had really suffered throughout the summer.  I also did the FLATS half marathon in Kirksville, MO a few weeks ago.  While my performance was not 100% (I wasn't tapered and been dealing with some injuries) it was one of the best experiences I've had on a race course.  I should have a race report up about it in the next week or so on Nerd Herd Running.

Other than that, my next big challenge is the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World in January.  For those that don't know, it's a new challenge of theirs where you will run a 5k on Thursday, 10k on Friday, 1/2 marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday.  I looked around for a few different training plans and decided to try out Hal Higdon's plan. It has a lot of miles but I'm hoping that it may prepare me better than I have been in years past.  Not only do I was to just complete the races, I want to feel good doing so.

If you haven't heard, I am not running this alone.  For the past 3 years I've been part of a running team called Team AllEars. This will be the fourth year I've decided to run with them and also raise money for a great cause.  Each person running is asked to help fund raise for Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

If you'd like to donate to help me out meet my fundraising goal, I'd really appreciate it.  Even $5 will help.
http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR/DIY/General?px=5837494&pg=personal&fr_id=2350

Anyway, I think that's it for today, hopefully I can get back to posting more regularly as I get closer to the Dopey Challenge.

Thanks!

Mike

The Low Hanging Fruit

What is the low hanging fruit you may ask?  Well in running, something I have been observing lately is that often times as runners we focus a lot of time and energy into a certain aspect of our training with a very small returns. Often times if we step back and take a look at the whole overall picture, there are things that we can change in ourselves that can make a large benefit in our overall time in a race. I guess you could call this also call this article, "Train Smarter, not harder" or "The Lazy Runner's Training Guide".

Anyway, to bring myself forward to why this is relevant today, I was having a discussion with a friend recently over instant messenger.  I was explaining to him that in general, I am a lazy person.  If I can find an easy to way get faster, I'll go down that road first before trying the harder solution. My good friend once told me that an easy way I could get faster was to drop 20 pounds. Free speed he called it. This article is a collection of ideas that myself and some of my other running friends came up with. These are controllable variables that can affect your speed in a given race.

• Train smarter - What I mean by this is to train in a way that includes a variety of different training runs that is geared towards building your muscles in an even balanced manner.  Do some work at race pace.  Do some long slow work.  Do some faster intervals. Use walk breaks in your runs (Galloway). This will be different for each person but find out what it means to you to train and race smarter. 
• Training consistency - This also tags along with the train smarter. Are you consistent in following your training plan, even if that training plan is as simple as running three times a week.  Or do you have the tendency to skip workouts often. How consistent are you in completing your workouts (and just as important, completing your workouts as written)?
• Training volume/Training Stress - This is a place where someone has to be careful.  You have to balance family life along with the threat of injury. But, for some people, they will become faster by just increasing the amount of training stress from week to week. Training stress can be defined as the amount of volume or intensity of training that your body can take and convert into more fitness.  For many of us, we equate training stress with just adding more volume, aka running more miles per week.  While that is often times very beneficial, you can also add training stress by adding things like speedwork or intervals to your training. Often times quality can be better than sheer quantity.  
• Cross training - This dovetails in with both training smarter, training stress and avoiding injury. There are times we can include more cross training into our workout regime because it doesn't add much if any training stress to our bodies.  Not to mention cross training can help build up the other muscles in the body and help avoid injuries.
• Avoiding injury - Often times it can be something as simple as not doing activities that might be high risk or add strain to our bodies. It can be preventative as seeing a doctor when you think you might have the onset of an injury.  Injuries are often a sure way to decrease your time in a race if not keep your from racing or training completely.  
• Weight to Power ratio - For most of us that means losing weight. This is a careful subject that usually pretty taboo to talk with all but maybe the closest for friends.  But it can also sometimes be one of the biggest changes you can make to yourself to increase your speed.  Sure, losing weight isn't easy, but there are some studies out there that show significant performance increases as you lose weight.  Here is an interesting calculator that gives some rough ideas of performance increases as you lose weight.  Also if you are interested more in this subject, I highly suggest checking out Matt Fitzgerald's book, Racing Weight. Also it's always good to consult your doctor before taking on any sort of weight loss program.
• Proper Hydration - Have you figured out your hydration?  Are you drinking enough water?  This becomes a bigger issue as the longer your race becomes.  Also as heat enters into the equation, hydration can make a huge difference on your speed. Without enough hydration you can cramp, overheat and it impacts recovery. Some studies show that a 2% loss in hydration will result into about a 6% decrease in performance over a 10k distance.  Make sure you are drinking enough water (as well as getting enough electrolytes).
• Proper Nutrition - Are you fueling enough before a race to be as topped off on glycogen as you can? Are you ingesting foods that sit well with you and don't give you stomach cramps?  Are you eating enough calories during a long race?  Are you eating too much? Again, this may not be a huge deal when you are talking about a 5k, 10k or even half marathon.  But over a half and you are getting into the territory of running out of glycogen and bonking during longer runs. Also it's important to eat following workouts so that your body has the fuel it needs to build the rebuild your muscles.  
• Proper Rest - Are you obtaining enough rest that you are giving your body the time and energy to absorb the training you are doing?  Are you taking recovery weeks in the middle of your training to allow your muscles to build back up?  
• Pain tolerance - For a lot of us that are new to running, our minds don't like to feel pain. Now I'm not talking about the sharp pain in your knees that you may be feeling.  I'm talking about the dull hard pain of a fast intense workout. This is something that you can train your mind to handle better. Often times it is done by just doing more workouts at that uncomfortable level. Get to the point where it feels hard and understand that you won't die by sitting at that effort level. Do those workouts often. Then in a half marathon when you are running the last mile to the finish and you experience that feeling again, understand that you've felt it before, this is nothing new and you can hang onto that feeling. Coach Scott Gurst talks about it as finding comfort in discomfort (both mentally and physically). When you feel discomfort, that's when you are getting stronger.
• Mental Blocks - Mental blocks I believe are a huge obstacle of many amateur runners. How many of us have looked at our training schedule and said, "Wow, that's a lot of mileage, I'm not sure how I'll be able to do that".  Or we have looked at another "faster" runner and said, "She's so much faster than me, I'll never be able to run that fast".  These are all mental blocks that are self-defeating. Get rid of that negativity. If you think positively, you will have positive results. One of the first things you can do is stop thinking of yourself as fast or slow.
• Visualizations - There have been sports psychologists that have studied Olympic athletes to figure out what makes them all successful.  One of the biggest common factors that they all share is that the majority of them all practice some sort of visualization. It isn't just visualization of them crossing the finish line as a winner, it's more specific than that. They visualize how they should feel at different parts of the race. They are prepared at mile 20 when it gets hard as to how it feels because they have felt that feeling before and have visualized it before the race. They not only practiced positive visualizations, they have also practiced visualizing when something goes wrong and what they are going to do about it.  If they cramp up at mile 13, they might think through exactly what they would do (slow down, stretch out the muscle, drink more water). Next time you are prepping for a race, think about doing some visualizations. 
• Pacing/Race Execution - Did you go out too fast? Did you take your walk breaks at the correct time?  Did you run a flat race (pace-wise) or at least one with negative splits? 
• Running Form - This one is tricky, but there are times that I've gone out and watched other runners. Just by looking at them you can tell maybe they have a strange placement of their hips.  Or they are swinging their arms too much and thus wasting extra energy. The best idea here is to have a running coach look at your form and see where you can be more efficient. Sometimes if that isn't possible, have someone record your running and just look at yourself. Some high end elite runners have cars with mirrors attached to the back of them driving in front of the runner so that they can watch their form while running.
• Cadence - This goes along with form but how is your cadence? Often times the rule of thumb that I have heard is that you should have run at around 180 steps per minute. While there isn't a huge amount of studies to show that to be 100% correct, there are many studies that show that increasing your cadence can reduce the amount of force upon your body and thus reduce the chance of injury and will increase the amount of training stress your body can take.
• Equipment - This is as simple as making sure you get fit with the right shoes at a running store. Sometimes it means trying a different type of shoe such as a minimalist shoe or a pair of Hokas. It could also be something as simple as switching from a water belt to a handhold water bottle (waste belts press on my stomach and make me feel ill).  
• Caffeine - Seriously, I do this.  Three weeks before a race I stop drinking caffeine. The morning of the race I down some caffeine gus and away I go.  Be careful as this can wreck your digestive process (as I've learned sitting on a port-o-potty at mile 20 of a marathon).  
• Training at Altitude/Racing at lower altitude - Not really an option for most of us but one that I take advantage when I run a race at sea level. In an ideal world you want to live high at altitude and train low. That's not really an option for many of us unfortunately. 
• Blood doping/Performance enhancing drugs - I put this on here as a joke, but also a window into why some professional athletes go down this road.  Let's say you have done everything on the list above and still you can't get the times you'd like to see, there is always drugs as well as blood doping to give you that little bit of edge to win.

What are some lessons here to be learned here?  This is in many ways a theoretical discussion. Sure, it doesn't hurt to look at the above list and see if you can fix some of "low hanging fruit" in your own training. Overall it will probably help and you will get faster. But, faster/slower, that doesn't really matter.  There are so many variables from race to race (even on the same course), year to year, person to person that the best thing you can do is to go out and race the best possible race you can on that day.

What's your low hanging running fruit?