Search This Blog

Monday, April 27, 2015

Training week 20-26 April 2015

Weekly Totals:

Miles Run: 20
Hours Run: 300
Running Elevation Gain: 171'


Miles Biked: 188.6
Hours Biked: 12:57
Biking Elevation Gain: 10,548'


Total Training Time: 15:57
Total Elevation Gain: 10,719'

Summary: Well April is shaping up to be a decent month. My toe healing is getting better and better but moving it in just the wrong way reminds me it is still broken sometimes. Beginning with running, I got no gain for the week but that was more of a product of weather and situations than injury. I was happy to have some solid miles under the belt. I ran 4 miles each Mon, Wed, and Fri, with 8 miles in the rain Sunday all feeling great and each one slightly faster than the previous at the same heart rate. 20 seems so low but it is higher than last week and last week higher than the week before. Its all about a slow build back to where I was. This week I plan to be over 40 and then hopefully after that back to the normal 50+ range with 7-10K gain per week. The problem with gain now is being on day shift. I work at 6:30 and If I wanted to brave going to the incline before, I would have to give up a bike commute. If I do a long run on a weekend day, I would want the other for a long ride. Luckily, I don't have school so perhaps the incline one evening a week isn't out of the question. Now onto the riding. One of the rare occasions where I commuted all 5 days for a total of 140 miles. I got hailed and rained on a bit Mon and Tues due to poor weather man forecasting and 40 mph of headwind to deal with on Friday on the way home before wishing I didn't ride that day. Friday was a debate already being the day before the Ridgeline Rampage 50 Mile Endurance Mountain Bike race and my first ever bike race at that. I was sore from the previous days riding but I wanted the training aspect of the high mileage.for the week so I compromised and said I would ride easier. I plan on writing a whole other post outlining the experience of the race but it was fun. Ended up with 188 bike miles on the week which blows my best ever by over 50 miles. While sore on Sunday, I was reluctant to get out and run in the rain but my 8 mile jaunt turned out to be very therapeutic. It worked out many kinks and I finished feeling much better and confident in my toe getting stronger

In the weeks to come, I plan to continue steadily increasing my running volume and maintaining a relatively high biking volume. I am willing to sacrifice biking to ensure my running catches up as the first Leadman event at the Leadville Trail Marathon is less than 60 days now. I plan to bike commute as many days as possible to work (which is mandatory now with my car in the shop) and do weekend long runs in the 25+ mile range along with weekend long rides in the 3+ hour range (more when time permits). I have no other races paid for between now and Leadville, but I may jump in on a few. Still on the fence for the Battle the Bear 60 mile Endurance Mountain bike race in 2 weeks on May 9, then May 23 I have the Tener tour which will be more gain intensive than mileage intensive. May 30, I am on the fence between the 66 Mile PV Cycle Derby MTB race in my backyard practically or else the Big Mountain Trail Run Marathon in Cheyenne Canon the same day. One way or the other I will be busy getting after it. In the mean time, I have to figure out how to get some elevation gain this weekend around my graduation Saturday and party Sunday.



Until next time..
See you at the top!

Monday, April 20, 2015

Garmin Ant+ dead plus broken toe update

I've been a little quiet on here the past couple of weeks. I accidentally broke my ant+ usb plugin to upload workouts from my watch so I have ordered another. The toe is healing up nicely but still have some pain when I move it too much. That said, the reduced volume in running has come at a good time while I wrap up my Master's thesis and have had tons of extra work stuff. Either way, I am still getting enough biking to maintain fitness. I haven't got the 150 miles per week as planned but I have gotten over 10 hours per week and this past week over 9k feet of climbing on the bike so I am staying solid. Also have not gained too much body weight. I did the incline one day once last week and came back down the incline so I didn't have to run downhill. I also didn't run to or from it but rather parked right there at the bottom. At 155 heartrate effort, I was at 32 minutes which is actually faster than other times at same. This may be due to increased leg muscle from all the biking. I dunno. I did my first run yesterday exactly 3 weeks after breaking the toe. I just did 4 flat miles on the Rock Island trail. It felt great. I was wearing the Altra Olympus 1.5 for extra cushion and felt nothing but a little different feeling. No pain unless I made sudden movements such as turning so that was good to see. Surprisingly, my MAF pace didn't get too much worse and it may not be any worse considering how windy it was during the run. Consistent biking has really kept me level but not necessarily getting any fitter for running. Still have to work to earn back those running specific movements and muscles on a slow build. As the toe feels better and better, the running volume will continue to increase until the Leadville Trail Marathon and biking may even drop slightly to accommodate missed time at some point. After that, it is full game on in both sports again but with heavier focus in running since that makes the bigger time gains overall in Leadman. The near future will include shorter distance runs to ease back into it and a consistent focus on the biking. I may take it a bit easier late week to do better on the Ridgeline Rampage 50 mile mtb race in Castle Rock on Saturday. I will try and post the weekly training summaries for the past couple of weeks in the next day or two.

Until next time...

See you at the top!

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Training week 13-19 Apr 2015

Weekly Totals:

Miles Run: 6.4
Hours Run: 1:43
Running Elevation Gain: 2,195'


Miles Biked: 95.1
Hours Biked: 8:27
Biking Elevation Gain: 10,679'


Total Training Time: 10:10
Total Elevation Gain: 12,874'

Summary: 

LOOK! Running Miles!  Yep. That's Right. A whole 6.4 miles and I am proud of those. I was out at the space symposium this week on the west side of town so lots of actual mountain biking and vertical and some running. Monday and Tues I got started at first light at Stratton Open Space and rode up Cheyenne Canon, and then up High Drive to Buckhorn and down Jacks and the Chutes back to the car. Both 2k gain days but only 12 mi round trip. Solid 90 min workouts. Wed, I needed to start earlier so I got bold and went for the Incline. Because I can't run yet, I just parked right near the bottom rather than Memorial park. I did just the incline and straight back down. No running on Barr trail. Much to my chagrin, at my normal 155 HR, I was slightly faster than a couple weeks ago before I broke the toe. Solid 33.5 Min ascent at the easy/med effort.  What I didn't realize is that descending the incline is much more intense on the quads. They were screaming on the way down. Descending the incline was a good choice because your toes hang over the ties most of the way down so no pressure. I also had the added padding of my new Altra Olympus 1.5s. I am normally a minimalist guy but wanted the extra padding to protect the toe and let it heal. The padding was nice. That afternoon, I took a ride up Old Stage road on my lunch break. 9 Mi up from the Broadmoor and 3,500' of climbing later, I was at St. Peter's overlook. Another quad buster. The descent was scary on the washboard dirt road coming down steep and vibrating all over but it was fun. I was going to do the incline again Thursday but the quads were absolutely thrashed so I took thurs and fri off. Friday was bad weather. Saturday was still rainy but I squeezed in a 50 mi road ride since the trails were muddy. I was hoping to scout the course for next weekend's race in Castle Rock but it was muddy and I had lots of school to do. My 50 miler had a great climbing in black forest and gleneagle in which I was going to loop back and do the long Shoup climb back up Black forest but a storm had rolled in behind me. I didn't want to get caught in that so I decided to ride across the Air Force Academy. That was until the line was like 30+ cars and one lane for some reason. I didn't want to wait so the nice thing about having a cross bike is that I just hopped up onto the Santa Fe Trail. I took that up all of the way to N. Nevada and hopped on Dublin back up to Mark Sheffel and Woodmen Back to the house. Total of 3k of gain. I topped off the week with an actual Run on Sunday. Just 4 flat miles but the results were pleasing. The toe felt funny but it did not hurt. To my surprise, my MAF hasn't worsened too much. I was in the low 8's for mid 150s heart rate which isn't nearly as bad as I thought. The next few weeks will be a gradual increase in mileage until I get higher to where I was before the break. I was in the 50 MPW range and want to be up in the 70 to 80 and reduce the biking accordingly. If I start experiencing any pain, the running will immediately reduce as I do not want to fight this all summer. It just needs to heal right. While my MAF pace is decent, the body needs to get back used to the grind.

Until next time...

See you at the top!

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Summary of Training week: 6-12 April 2015

Weekly Totals:

Miles Run: 0.0
Hours Run: 00:00
Running Elevation Gain: 0.0'


Miles Biked: 95.5
Hours Biked: 6:44
Biking Elevation Gain: 5,666'
Total Power: TBD

Total Training Time: 6:44
Total Elevation Gain: 5,666'

Summary: 

Still no running on the toe. Doc said another 2-3 weeks I can start walking without the boot and introduce running. Had 3 bike commutes early in the week and then thurs-fri were too bad of weather. The "long" ride on Sat was not as long as hoped but I had a great ride at Mt. Herman with my buddy Jon. Actual mountain biking is fun and that was a challenging loop up into Limbaugh Canyon.  I think my watch was stopped for a few miles but who cares right? Just glad to still be training despite the low hours.

Until next time...

See you at the top!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Windy Mashing

Another day of commuting yesterday. The ride in was uneventful as usual. Hard to get moving less than 15 min after waking up. Before bed, I have all of my commuting stuff staged along with my bike right by the front door. I review my checklist so I don't forget essentials like shoes or undies and then out I go.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Healing fast

Just bike commuting today for my first day back to day shifts. Had a nasty headwind on the way in after my son keeping us up puking all night. Dragged through the day and rocked the ride home with a cross sort of tailwind. Wind was too bad and I was lacking the extra 30 mins needed to ride to the foot appt. anyhow commute home was faster than in despite the 800 foot climb vs downhill coming in. 

Best news was hat the podiatrist said the foot is healing extremely fast. I can begin walking and running in 2-3 weeks. This is introduce slowly though. Not normal volume or play catch up. Still great for me. I will continue hot tub, icing, eating turmeric, and taking astaxanthin along with tons o' cycling. Might be setback slightly for the first Leadman race but that small a,out won't matter compared to the Hundy. I also will have a much better shot at the Ridgeline Rampage bike race this month later. First bike race ever and 50 mi w 5k of gain. Getting excited. 

Until next time... 

See you at the top!

Summary of Training Week 30 March to 5 April 2015

Weekly Totals:

Miles Run: 0.0
Hours Run: 00:00
Running Elevation Gain: 0.0'


Miles Biked: 103.1
Hours Biked: 8:07
Biking Elevation Gain: 7,402'
Total Power: TBD

Total Training Time: 8:07
Total Elevation Gain: 7,402'

Summary: 
Took an off day Monday to rest the sore toe and then went into urgent care Tuesday morning after work. The left big toe is definitely broken. Super big bummer.  As I stated in the Monthly Summary, I won't be running for a few weeks so this week was heavily focused on the biking but still a rest week anyhow. I don't have higher bike mileage than normal but my gain and total time is the highest of the year. Kind of nice to have forced training in the specific area of biking. I got a long cold commute home my last night shift this week for 40 mi and 2k of gain followed by a 24 mi day on the MTB where I got some road mi and a couple loops of Black Forest Sect. 16 (flowy course) and then a really fun day on the west side with 25 mi and 4k of gain. Started at Red Rocks behind Rudy's off 31st st and rode up to Gold Camp road where I may or may not have ridden (around the closed gate) to the top and back down to the top parking lot of Cheyenne canyon, where I went up buckhorn, down captain Jacks, and the chutes, down ponderosa back down by CMHS and back up 21st to Bear Creek Park, and then up the long way back to high Dr. and Redrocks, accross Intemann, and then weaving across the park. I felt good throughout and tried to keep the heartrate down in MAF even when climbing. I felt great throughout and like I could have done it again all over. Unfortunately, I had to get home for some Easter egg dying and beer drinking followed by All you can eat sushi for my siter's bday.  Sunday ended up with no ride because of family events. I could have snuck out right around dusk but my quads were tired and it was supposed to be a "rest" week anyhow. Gotta respect rest. Especially when the toe is definitely broken. It feels ok to bike but just standing wrong and leaning forward to weight it makes me want to cry.

The 0's on running hurt a bit but I am just hoping I have enough running to feel good about the Leadville Trail Marathon in June. All I have to do is finish to stay in Leadman so that is a blessing. Luckily, I have a feeling that I will be able to hike before I can run. Probably will wear the stiff sole mountaineering boots and do the incline and some other big hikes, maybe even hit some alpine climbing (if I can manage to kick steps). All in all, I don't want to delay healing or drag it into the summer so I want to be super careful about how I introduce it back. There is no "catching up." It has to be a slow build back. Luckily, Altra was so nice that even though I didn't fit the mold for their return policy, they still threw me 50% off on another set of kicks. While I loved the superior's and am an advocate for more minimal still, I went with the Olympus hoping the extra cushion will save some impact from my toe so I can get back into the swing of things. Hopefully, by June I will be back in the Superior 2.0s and will save the Olympus for the latter miles of the PB Hundy. I see the podiatrist today for a final update on the toe to see if anything else needs to be done or not so praying there that things will be ok. In the mean time, I will be commuting 5 days by bike this week to work along with the ride to the podiatrist today, some detours on the way home the other days for extra miles and a long ride on the weekend. I should definitely be over 150 mi for the bike this week and maybe even over 200 (barring I can ride Thurs with the snow in forecast. Then, next week, I will be at the symposium at the Broadmoor so I am looking forward to some Lunch and after session rides in the Cheyenne Canyon area on the West side. I may even commute all of the way across town (30ish mi each way) some and maybe if I am lucky even get some small load running or hiking up steep stuff but not looking to push it. Biking will be just fine and the volume will even blow this week out of the water by time, volume, and gain back up into the 15 hour range.

Until next time...

See you at the top!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Churning the wheels

Well after almost a 3rd full day of no exercise, I am getting antsy. My body is used to a routine and now I am having to break that to ensure I heal. That said, my toe was quite a bit less swollen so I decided to ride into work tonight. The ride went OK. I had a tailwind most of the way so although the effort was low, I made great time. The toe felt OK but to be honest I did feel it on the climbs when I had to mash it a little more. It wasn't excruciating but I did feel manageable discomfort. What I was not expecting was the pain in the knee on the same side. I am guessing this is either caused from the trip as well or else walking with an abnormal gait the last 2 days. It felt to be in my LCL but I hope that just goes away with time. Well, I will get a ride home tomorrow, bad weather or not and then the next couple days are not supposed to be nice so it might be some indoor riding. I have no goals this week other than ride some and recuperation. Next week, I plan to commute 5 days as I move back into day shift and also get at least one weekend long ride.

March 2015: Monthly Training Summary


Actual Numbers:
Miles Run: 183.1
Miles Biked: 375.4
Total Running Time: 36:37
Total Biking Time: 24:21
Running Elevation Gain: 20,961
Biking Elevation Gain: 13,438

Total miles:  565
Total Time: 62
Total Gain: 34,399'


Loose Training Goals From Feb For Mar:

Miles Run: 200
Miles Biked: 400
Total Running Time: 35 Hours
Total Biking Time: 25 Hours
Running Elevation gain: 25,000'
Biking Elevation Gain: 15,000'




March has been the month of Adversity. I tried to be smart by taking a rest week the first week of the month, but it ended up being a wash because I had a cold that week. The next week was my Salida Run Through Time Marathon where I got lost and also cramped up bad from the day prior's 10 hour puking escapade. The week after that, I managed some decent volume but at all low recovery effort and finally a solid week this past week that ended up with me breaking my toe and not getting to train the final two days of the month. In a quick analysis, I fell slightly short of my running and biking goals for the month as far as mileage. Fortunately, I am more concerned with time and somewhat with elevation gain. For time, I was actually slightly over on running and slightly under on biking. That said, my bike miles have steadily increased each month since December while my run miles have slightly decreased. My elevation gain was over 5k' lower than I wanted as well too but part of that was playing things smart and not overdoing it. I would have sat here and told you that I would have the same goals for April as I did for March if not a little more but with a broken toe, that is just not realistic. I am going to count myself lucky if I can run a single mile by the end of the month. In the mean time, I plan on cranking out the bike miles as soon as I can figure out how to get a bike shoe over my swollen foot. This is where I will focus to maintain fitness although there is no substitute for not running. I suppose I can try the elliptical but I know I will hate it because I hate all indoor workouts. If I can get up high, I could go for some skinning or other light impact stuff. I also kind of hope that within a week or two, I can strap on the mountaineering boots and use the stiffness to my benefits and crank out some steep hikes with good elevation gains up high. I need to be realistic and realize that there is absolutely no way, I can even get back to the fitness where I am today aside from the fact that I would have gotten even better before the first Leadman event in June. For the Marathon, I am lucky if I can start running again in may and just struggle through the race. I am really going to have to take hold of biking the next month and see where it takes me. Here is a picture of my shoe from the trip I took Sunday. There was no damage before that. Good news is that Altra is going to give me 50% off another pair to replace them. In the mean time, I will focus on the 50 Mile Ridgeline Rampage MTB race I will have in Castle Rock on the 25th of this month. Unfortunately, I will not be participating in the Rattler Trail Run 50K on the18th or Quad Rock 50 Mile on May 9. I may be healed for Quad Rock but I wouldn't be able to handle the distance or gain off the couch with no running.  I have to stay positive and keep pressing forward though as I don't want to waste all this training I have done or the money spent for Leadman. Hopefully, the slow down can really help me reflect on things, wrap up my Master's degree and see the beauties that God has placed in my life.



Loose Training Goals For Mar:


Miles Biked: 600

Total Biking Time: 40 Hours
Other Time: 20 hours (Other will be hiking, snowshoeing, skiing, elliptical)

Biking Elevation Gain: 25,000'
Other Elevation gain: 15,000'

Don't know how probable these goals are but they include commuting to work every day 5 days a week and getting a long ride every weekend minus some play knowing weather won't really let me ride every day. If I can get a good amount of time in doing that, I would like to squeeze some other efforts such as hiking and whatnot in that have big gains so we shall see. Maybe there are some spring 14ers in my near future, skin up, ski down, no impact :)

Until next month...

See you at the top!