March 21, 2011 |

Four to go

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You see? This is what happens when you drink all day and skip lunch. ~ Malory Archer



As I close in on the first big race of the season, I am starting to feel my fitness coming along well. Boston is 4 weeks from today and I had a decent week of running in preparation for the event. Saturday wasn’t good but the rest of my workouts for the week went pretty close to plan.


I drove to Gunnison on Monday to get in a couple more days at Crested Butte and to see my dad, Donna and cousins who were in town for a few days of skiing at the Butte. I skied very easy, not wanting to risk injury at this stage of the game then did a quick, easy run around Crested Butte after skiing. Honestly, I felt great for some reason. The side roads at the Butte were a mess and one over-zealous police officer gave me some grief for running on the road (vs. the snowpacked/icy sidewalks), I had a good run. Did 6 or 7 surges and managed to get in 5.5 miles in 45 minutes. Super easy. At altitude. Go figure. Then I gorged on Donita’s food and headed back to Gunny for a quick yoga session and bed.


I have been doing yoga with Rach on a regular basis for the past several weeks and am pleased with the results. It seems to be helping me get more limber and is a good way to get in some easy stretching and even some strength poses (depending upon what program I am following). I definitely feel like it is improving my general fitness and works to augment my running. Glad Rach asked me to join her!


Tuesday, I got up early and braved chilly conditions to get in a decent hill workout. I didn’t really select my venue well so the run didn’t go exactly to plan (ran out of hill) but all in all it was a good run and I managed to feel like I was putting in a solid effort throughout. I jammed back up to the Butte for another easy ski then headed back to the Front Range. Travel and running hard are not a good combo (in case you were wondering) but I did some yoga with Rach when I got home and that made everything feel better for sure.


Wednesday called for an easy 1.5 hours so I hit the trails on South Table Mountain for what turned into a bit of a mixed-effort run. Definitely didn’t feel super but just stuck with the plan and enjoyed my evening run on the dirt. Friday I did a quick road run at lunch that felt really good but Saturday’s workout was truncated. Just wasn’t feeling that great so decided to not push it and focus on Sunday’s run. Did a long-ish yoga session to make up for it.


Sunday I jammed down to Boulder to run with Mark Plaatjes and the group and was greeted with mild temps but pretty decent, steady winds. We started at Pott’s Field and made our way North to Jay, east to Cottonwood, then South to the Bobolink trail at a fairly mellow pace. From Marshall Road, we headed up the mesa, over to the Community Ditch Trail then over to Big Blue Stem where we dropped back down to Marshall Road. From here, we put the hammer down for 30 minutes at marathon pace. I did very well for about 4 miles then my last mile was a little off. Finished in 3:34 with 25.85 miles under my belt in challenging conditions. All in all a good run and a solid week of training.


Four to go…

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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