April 6, 2026 |

Dialing it in

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This is out of our range and it’s grown. ~ Kurt Cobain


Mon June 21: 00:29, 2.87 miles, Casa Trails barefoot
Tues June 22: 1:06, 6.68 miles, Janet’s house
Wed June 23: 2:55, 16 miles, Zoo Loop GGCSP
Thurs June 24: 2:17, 7.92 miles, Arapaho Glacier Trail
Sat June 26: 2:34, 13.88 miles, Casa Trails + barefoot
Sun June 27: 7:46, 37.66 miles, LT100 Start > Twin Lakes
Total: 17:08, 85.01 miles, 11,815 vert


Interesting week of running with highs and lows throughout. Overall, I am feeling fit but still have some work to do before the LT100 if I am going to perform well there. It’ll come.


The first runs of the week were really business as usual and I have been feeling really great on all my shorter efforts. I have been tossing in big ascents up to altitude every week and those just feel better and better the more I do them and the higher I get on the mountain so I’ll keep throwing those in the mix as they seem to be working well for me. It is gorgeous up high as well with tons of marmots running about and the wildflowers really starting to pop.


The big event for the week was Sunday’s self-supported effort on the first 38ish miles of the LT100 course: Start to Twin Lakes. The day started early with my alarm waking me at 3:45 for the drive up to the course. I dragged my trailer up with my motorbike to make the self-support system complete and, after stashing provisions in a couple of locations along the course (and a couple of misguided attempts to find a shortcut back to the highway), made it to Twin Lakes, got the bike off the trailer and headed back to the start in Leadville. Gear stashed, shoes on and I was ready to roll around 8:15.


I actually felt great and had a little bit of a tough time going slowly enough to meet my prescribed splits. I was a little fast into Mayqueen and Fish, then didn’t have any real set times for the rest of the day. Nice, easy running throughout. I felt strong on the section between Fish and Treeline, stopped to refuel, then made my way onto the new section between Treeline and the Colorado Trail.


This was the only section of the course with which I was not familiar and it is relatively flat and fast. Not a lot of coverage, which actually probably won’t be a big problem on race day given when I will be hitting this portion of the course, so I am not too worried about it. I continued to run well but as this section progressed and I approached the Colorado Trail, started having some stomach problems when contributed to my eventual downfall on the day’s run.


By the time I reached the CT, I was feeling pretty crappy with a stomach that wouldn’t empty and (subsequently), legs that just didn’t want to go anymore. So I walked. And walked. Really demoralizing, to say the least. The CT continues to climb quite a bit more than I remembered as well with a couple of short, steep downhills but what seems like a fairly upward trend for quite some time as one makes one’s way toward Twin Lakes. I tried alternating run/walking but really walked a solid majority of the last 5 miles or so into TL. I did pick it up for the last mile, which is decidedly downhill but that didn’t leave me feeling particularly strongly about the day overall despite a decent finish time.


I think there are a few elements that contributed to these problems:


  • Solo effort: It’s tough being out there all alone for that period of time. My self-support system worked well (decently spaced drop off points) but running solo for that long takes a toll. So there was a big mental component to it for me. This should be much less of a problem during the race and the training I am putting in now, solo, will pay off during the event.
  • Fuel selection: The self-support contributed here for sure as I only had a few choices in my drop-kits. Need to provide myself with more variety during these solo runs in order to be sure that I have some options. Rice milk/protein drink was not working well for me on Sunday. I think that as the protein sits, it becomes a bit bitter so on race day, if I decide this is something I need/want, I’ll have my crew mix it up when it is requested vs. having it sit around.
  • General mental attitude: This was a challenging week for me mentally. Redford, one of our bunnies died on Friday, which was really tough. I am sure that contributed to some of the lows I experienced in the later stages of the run.


Overall my time into TL was decent and considering how much of the final hour and a half was walking, was really quite strong. Though I felt pretty down about the run in the hours after finishing, upon reflection, I am okay with it. Wanted to finish with significantly higher quality but there is still time to work on my pacing, patience, consumption and mental/physical fitness.


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Two hikers in yellow jackets walk up a rocky mountain trail, with one using a trekking pole in the foreground.

Back on trails

April 6, 2026
Anyone can start strong . ~ me Thurs 13 May: 1:40, 7.03 miles, Boulder Creek/Sanitas run/hike Sat 15 May: 00:50, 5.77 miles, Peak-to-Peak surges Sun 16 May: 3:45, 19.01 miles, Boulder Creek, Flag, Green Mon 17 May: 00:20, 2.16 miles, Mtn Meadows barefoot Tues 18 May: 00:49, 5.02 miles, Casa trails to Beaver Creek surges Wed 19 May: 1:50, 10.86 miles, GGCSP Raccoon to Thorne Lake tempo Thurs 20 May: 2:11, 9.3 miles, Mesa to Saddle Rock to Green to Gregory run/hike One would think, that with my abundance of free time, I’d be posting more. Well you thought wrong, my friend as apparently the last 10 days got away from me. Now it’s catch-up time and you better get ready. Or not, your call. Decent week of training/recovery. Lower mileage than I would have liked but moving to trails definitely slows things up, I am working in more hiking into my routine and I am still not 100% recovered. Getting there, however and starting to feel a lot better, thank you. I guess the highlight of the week was just getting out on trails that weren’t completely packed with snow. Refreshing, to say the least. Yesterday’s run/hike found Green to be completely snow-free – a marked change even from last Sunday. Things are opening up in the high(er) country as well with trails east of the P2P getting more and more thawed out. Springtime in the Rockies… gotta love it. I’m off today for a little rest then back at it Saturday and Sunday. Looking forward to a good weekend of training then another solid week to finish up a fairly weak May then ready to really open it up in June.  Three months until the LT100. Getting pretty psyched.
A group of people in athletic wear practices yoga poses on mats outdoors, stretching their arms overhead.

Mind and body

April 6, 2026
What is that, yoga? ~ The Dude Sat 22 May: 1:32, 8.95 miles, Casa Trails Sun 23 May: 4:40, 26.5 miles, South Boulder/Mesa variation Mon 24 May: 00:30, 2.5 miles, Secret trail barefoot Tues 25 May: 00:55, 5.5 miles, Casa Trails surges Wed 26 May: 2:10, 15.5 miles, Gunbarrel tempo Thurs 27 May: 2:20, 9.6 miles, Green Mtn. run/hike Great week of training thus far. Ended last week with 11.5 hours and 63 miles and am on target for more than that this week. Really pretty happy about how my fitness is shaping up and tacking on additional time each week. Training is an interesting beast. One is certainly trying to get one’s body to perform at a certain level but there is also a lot of mental fitness that is being fine-tuned as well. Working on focus, rolling through checks, even conditioning oneself to drink at regular intervals… it’s all part of that big picture. As fit as I am getting, there is lots of room for improvement and I work on my overall fitness on every run. Currently, I am at a bit of a cross-roads. I’d like to figure out ways to pare down my approach. To break running down to its core elements and be able to do more with less. Tony Krupicka ‘s approach is incredibly appealing to me: Minimalist shoes, shorts and maybe a water bottle and some gels is all he needs on most days to complete incredible feats of athletics. But each person is different and has his or her own needs to which to attend. I am heavier than Tony, so (currently, at least) I rely on beefier shoes. I also sweat like some sort of nuclear-powered sweating machine so I tend to need more water on any given run. Plus, when you cover as much distance as quickly as Tony does, you can get away with carrying less. I’d like to get there and am working toward that goal but know it will take awhile. I am starting to discover that those goals which take the most time to achieve are often the most satisfying. So the remainder of this week will be rest today, 1.5 hours on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. Hoping to finish the week up with ~70 miles and a solid sense of forward progress.
A low-angle view of a group of runners competing in an outdoor race on a paved road under a clear blue sky.

Solid

April 6, 2026
If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, keep moving. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Sat 29 May: 1:36, 9.5 miles, Big Casa loop Sun 30 May: 5:54, 33.25 miles, Heil/Hall Saturday featured another fun trail run near my house. Essentially the same loop I ran the prior week with a section tacked on and reversed direction. Really great to be back on familiar ground and running well. During most of this session, things just “clicked”. Felt really great. Smooth. Efficient. Capped the week off with a solid long run (33+ miles) in north Boulder/Lyons. Felt really strong throughout and finished the week with 76 miles total. Definitely a high mark for me this year. Started in north Boulder and spun a lap on dirt roads then moved on to the Heil/Hall network of trails. I had never dropped down from Heil to Hall before. The new connector section is super cool and makes for a nice way to hook up these two classic trail sections. Once I jumped onto the Nighthawk trail at Hall, I was able to make my way up far enough in my allotted run-time to get a really awesome view of Longs Peak. Made it totally worth the long climb. Totally runnable trail with a big pay off at the top. On a cool day (like yesterday), this one is well worth a peek. This run finished up a week that saw three really strong efforts (and great training all around). Wednesday’s tempo run kicked things off. Saturday’s trail run was a definite breakthrough in the comfort department. Sunday just moved things to a new level for which I have been clamoring for quite some time now. Onward and upward.