June 23, 2008 |

Stuck on the dime

Stay in the Loop

Get practical marketing insights, branding tips, and growth strategies delivered straight to your inbox.

Subscribe

Wandering around and making mistakes, I climb the plateau; having climbed the plateau, I go up the mountain. But now I have lost my way, and I am wandering around in the forest; without the Guru, I do not understand. ~ Sri Guru Granth Sahib


I feel a bit stuck. Seems like I am pounding it in the 10-12 mile range but then really lag on anything greater. I am still trying to figure out Leadville (which may be moot at this point) but I need to be able to feel relatively confident at 25-30 miles in order to think I have a shot at finishing the full 50. I would really like to give it a go as many of my other goals and aspirations for the year have not come to fruition but I am still just not sure at this point.


I headed back out yesterday and logged another solid 10 in about 1:50. Just about right on an 11-minute pace. Not too bad though I felt kinda crappy for about a third of the run. My stomach was giving me troubles. I think I need to eliminate the energy chunks from Whole Foods I have been testing. They just aren’t doing it for me. I just ran the standard 10-mile neighborhood loop with a couple of mods thrown in for interest. After trucking up Tin Can Alley and Funky Boss, I headed all the way up to the top and then burned a lap on Double-Down (a trail I put in a few years back) and then finished up on Tupperware. That trail has gotten pretty cool with someone constructing a tee-pee towards the finish you roll through. Fun to see other people out there getting creative.


Post-run I bailed on the soak and went for a dirt bike ride. Found a hook up from Magnolia to Flagstaff, which was pretty sweet and mapped a 30-miler from my house to Luke’s. May get brave and do that sometime later in the summer. Not soaking made me feel the run a little more than normal so I have just been kicking it thus far today though I am jonezing for a quick spin in the woods. Might go tick off 5 miles here before dinner.

I have been reading a bunch of Anton Krupicka’s old posts and man, that guy is really something. Apparently, he eats gels during his runs and fills his bottles (untreated) in streams along the way. I was wondering how the hell he covered so much ground with only a bottle or two and there’s the answer. I am sure he has built up a tolerance to all the creepy crawlies but damn… not sure I can commit to that strategy. Plus, I think I would get super sick of gels only. But who am I to judge… he’s the badass with all the wins and course records under his belt. He’s competing in the Western States this coming weekend. Hope he kills it.


So that is my story. Hope you had a great weekend.


~stubert.



[update] Couldn’t stand it any longer and went out for a short, fast 5-miler. 4.7 or so, just over 42 minutes.


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