Making up for lost time

Wow, what a slacker I've been in the realm of blogging. Just been soooo busy lately that getting onto the computer one more time seemed so unappealing but things are slowing a bit so I will do a quick post while I'm here.

A lot has transpired since my last entry. First of all was the Pike Peak Ascent and Marathon. I drove to the top of Pikes to cheer on friends who were running the race and as soon as I stepped outside from the bus I was immediately happy with the decision not to run. Having to stand in 30-40 mph wind blowing sleet into our faces horizontally while waiting for runners to finish was not fun. Was able to click a few photos before my camera froze. What the hell? At least I got a few at the finish and then down at the post race festivities.

Most impressive was this year's marathon. Matt Carpenter put his foot down very hard this year with an extremely convincing win over Dave Mackey. Dave still ran well despite the conditions but it's rare for Matt to disappoint. The other big surprise was fellow running bud, Justin Mock who tore the trail up in his debut to not only the race but for the first time setting foot on the mountain. I knew he'd run well since he'd put so many quality hard runs at altitude but I have to be honest when he did as well as he did. 7th overall is truly impressive and any top-10 finish is something to be proud of. He was the only friend that weekend to have a great run.

After that weekend I launched my own marathon training full force. Running with Scott Kukel on the weekend when schedules permitted really helped keep me motivated not only for putting in the distance for the long runs but kept me honest about pacing. Don't want to run too slowly but at the same time don't want them to turn into races either. Worked my way up to two 20-milers and a 22-miler, with one of the 20-milers being a Marathon Training Series (MTS) "race" put on by the Rocky Mountain Road Runners this past weekend. More on that later.

My mileage has climbed from the 50's to the high 70s over the past month and I've been very diligent about putting in the miles even when I don't feel like it. As I mentioned before, I had two 20-milers. The first one was a combo workout by running the Park-to-Park 10 mile race and then and additional 10.4 miles after the race around Wash Park. Little did I know but I had to get back to the starting area on foot so I jog/walked the 4 or so mile back to the starting area where I left my car. Race was decent especially for how hilly it was. Went out way faster than I should have, passing the first mile in 5:35 instead of my desired 5:50. But the race overall was OK and I raced a professional triathlete by the name of Kelly Liljebald for the last mile. We went back and forth but finally I was able to push past and beat her by a few seconds. That final mile was 5:58 which I was happy with. Final race results: 1:01:48.

The second 20-miler was just yesterday at the Mountain Training Series out in Westminster. About 20% concrete and the rest hard packed gravel. Someone forgot to notify Mother Nature that it should have been in the 50s for the who race but instead it was raining when we started. Had to run though some mucky, sticky sections where things got a little slower but overall not too terribly bad. Eventually the rain stopped and the weather wasn't bad at all. On the cool side which is how I prefer to run races.

Dan and Ryan are the guys who've been in the top 1-2 for each of the other MTS but for this race Dan wanted to take it easier that day because he'll be running the Boulder half the following week and wants to run very hard. Even Ryan wanted to take it easy and ask me to pull him back if the pace got too quick. For me, I was actually pretty cold for the first 5 miles and it took me a while to warm up and sure enough, Ryan started to take off. I went ahead and let him go since we'd been planning on running 6:30 pace but he wasn't racing the following week like Dan, and this was his one and last chance to beat Dan at one of these races. At first Dan was content to stay back and run with me and Tristan Mitchell, chatting about training, etc. But after the turnaround at 5, he started to take off with Tristan to go catch Ryan. I didn't want to have anything to do with it since I really wasn't feeling it as well as having had 6:30 pace in my head for the past two weeks as planned. After 10 miles I was pretty much in no man's land about 2:30 back from Ryan. From then on, I kept calculating what my time should be for the next mile if I ran a 6:30 so I'd have something to key off. A few guys behind me were about a minute back so I wanted to hold them off too. Made the turn at 15 and saw that the guys behind were a little closer so I just tried to hold my pace as even as possible since this was more of a training run than a race. With a little more than 2 miles to go, one of the guys (new transplant from DC) passed me. He was running very strongly and I tried to stay with him but still didn't feel it. But finally, the last miles went by and I ended up in 5th place. 5:14 behind Ryan, 5:00 behind Dan, 2:00 behind Tristan, and about 1:00 behind the other guy. Not too bad considering how I felt. No stomach problems though.

Prelim results for the 20-miler:

1. Ryan - 2:04:01
2. Dan - 2:04:15
3. Tristan - 2:07 I believe
4. New guy - 2:08:15?
5 Mike Q - 2:09:15

I think Sean Sidelko was after me a few minutes back and then it was a while before the next finisher. Hopefully the results will be up soon. Pretty competitive for a training series and certainly the most competitive since they've held them. Good solid run for me and put me at a low 2:49 pace for the marathon at altitude. Of course I don't think I could have maintained that for another 10K but nonetheless it shows I'm in fairly good shape leading up to Chicago in a month. What made me happiest was my ability to run consistently throughout the race, mile after mile. My plan was 6:30 pace and I ended up with 6:27 pace. Didn't get crazy and caught up with anyone else's pace and held my own, despite running along for the vast majority of the race. Nice! Next week is another long run of about 22-23 with Ryan and Scott on the highline. We'll be looking for a 7:00/mile pace for that one.

Nice easy 8 miles today to shake out the legs, then Wash Park tomorrow with the group, Justin and Scott.