June 10, 2012 |

Efficiency gained, efficiency lost

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I want what I want. ~ Roger Sterling


Marathon recovery always seems to take longer than I want. This cycle has been particularly difficult because I have been REALLY excited to run trails and followed the prescribed recovery regimen only to find myself a battling some knee pain over the past couple of weeks that definitely set me back a bit. It’s all good, just didn’t get to log as many trail miles as I had hoped in May. June is shaping up well, however.


I ventured up high with my buddy, Caleb, yesterday to South Arapaho Glacier via the Rainbow Lakes Trailhead. Overall, it was a decent – albeit slow – run. We battled fierce headwinds all the way up the pass and decided to abandon our goal of summiting South Arapaho Peak after hunkering down for a bit at the base of the last pitch. Just a little too windy for our taste. We ended up with a little over 12 miles for the day. Most of which were pretty hard-fought. Much slower than we anticipated but all in all a great outing.


I did discover that though my fitness is good and I am moving quite efficiently on smooth trails, my technical running has taken a hit after all this road training and racing I have done over the past couple of years. If the trail is obstacle-light, I can fly. When things get dicey, not so much. I also have lost my ability to fall into the “ultra shuffle” and tend to stride out a lot more than in the past. It has yet to be determined whether or not this is a bad thing. I just noticed it makes matching pace with Caleb a bit of a challenge and I found myself switching between a fast hike and slow run cadence while he kept a pretty consistent trot most of the way up. We topped out at over 12,600 feet for the day which makes this the third week in a row for me to get up over treeline. Really looking forward to our 4-Pass Loop run in July.


I upped the mileage considerably this last week since my knee has been feeling better and am hoping that spell of grumpiness is behind me. Seems like it was just a matter of needing a bit more time off and having quads that, though they didn’t really feel it, were a bit wrecked. Worked on mobility, took some time off, watched a lot of movies, brought yoga back into my regular regimen, and did a lot of foam rolling and massage and things seem to be on the mend. Hoping I can get back up in the 50+ mpw range in the next couple of weeks.


As always, I’ll keep you posted.


~stubert.

Thoughtful strategy. Practical execution.

Clear thinking, honest perspectives, and experience shaped by years of doing the work. No shortcuts, no borrowed opinions, just lessons learned by showing up, solving problems, and following ideas all the way through.

Four hikers with backpacks walking along a rocky mountain ridge under a blue sky
May 8, 2026
We are each our own greatest inhibitor. People don’t want to do new things if they think they’re going to be bad at them or people are going to laugh at them. You have to be willing to subject yourself to failure, to be bad, to fall on your head and do it again, and try stuff that you’ve never done in order to be the best you can be. ~ Laird Hamilton Yesterday: Hit Range Balls/Hike – Casa del Critters, 1:15 Today: Run – GGCSP, ~2 hours Tomorrow: Ride – Somewhere singlespeedy, ~2 hours Yesterday, Rach and I took a nice stroll in the woods around our house. The songbirds were going crazy-nuts and surprisingly, we only saw one other person walking his dog. I love where we live – close proximity to fun trails and the ability to get away from it all in just a short walk from our house. During lunch yesterday, I went to the driving range to get a few cuts in before playing a round of golf with my dad next week. I don’t get to play very often so need to brush up on my skills (or lack thereof) whenever I can. I am looking forward to playing with my pops and hope to break 100. I shot a 102 the last time I played so I am within striking distance of the sub-triple-digit score. We’ll see how things go. I usually do okay for most of the round and then fall apart on a couple of holes pushing my score way up. Dad shoots in the low 80s usually (I think). I am not sure I will ever play enough to be that good but it is fun to get out on the course now and again. I also went to see Dr. Paul yesterday for my ankle problem (which seems to have been resolved) and my knee (which is still a bit swollen but has decreased in size markedly over the past several days). The knee stems from my unscheduled nose-dive back in May (see this post for details). The shot some pictures and believe that everything is a-ok so that was good news. I just need to select better places for splashdowns in the future. And today is Luke’s birthday. Age is one place where I will always beat him but visit his blog to congratulate him on trying to catch up. Until next time…
Runner silhouetted at sunset on a rocky trail, mid-stride between hills.
May 8, 2026
Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience. ~ Elbert Hubbard Yesterday: Run – Casa del Critters/Flume, 1 hour 15 minutes Today: Ride/Hike/Relax Tomorrow: Run/Hike – Pawnee/Buchanan Passes, 6 hours? Yesterday I ran around the house. Not literally, mind you, but in the neighborhood. It was a gorgeous evening – calm, cool. Perfect. The wildflowers are really starting to take off up here and I was treated with a bold display of color throughout my run. Tons of Columbine lined the trailside as I ran on old mining roads and singletrack trails. It is really fun to see how much differently I am able to handle familiar terrain. I used to have difficulties running this loop and would have to walk major sections. Last night, I ran the entire loop without trouble and was able to moderate my speed to maintain a steady cadence through the run. Good times. Contracting is staying steady. A bit of a drop-off this week given the holiday but I am still managing to put in a decent number of hours. I picked up another new project today and will need to get started immediately to ensure that it gets completed on time.  Tomorrow, we are going to head up Pawnee Pass and loop back around to Buchanan Pass in the northern Indian Peaks Wilderness. This should be a fun challenge as we’ll get up pretty high, have to navigate some snow (most likely) and will be out for quite awhile. I am looking forward to it for sure . Movie time: I forgot to mention Shopgirl, a Steve Martin vehicle, we watched the other night. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but found this to be a charming film about loneliness. It was well acted and would recommend it for sure. The pacing is steady throughout and some might find it a little on the slow side but it was an engaging film that had a lot to say without being overly sappy.
Hands holding a tablet displaying a video player interface. The video is paused.
February 20, 2026
In case you hadn’t seen these (and also for my friends at Adventure Film ), here are a couple of must-see running movies from Joel Wolpert:  Geoff Roes: Slogging to the Top