Ken's Running Blog

Colorado Climbing

2010-10-12T21:46:00.000-05:00

One activity that helped get me re-motivated to run and get in shape is climbing 14ers and hiking in Colorado. From 1994-2008, I managed to climb 4 Colorado 14ers. In 2010, I managed 6 more on 3 trips, including 4 peaks solo from Oct 2-3. During that solo trip, I had a fairly light pack with bivy sack, only prepackaged food, and only the bare essentials. Over 2 days, I climbed four 14ers in the Collegiate Peaks wilderness, gaining (and losing) 11,568 feet of elevation, and hiking 20.3 miles. Only about 1/2 of the hike was on trails, the rest felt like I was discovering territory for the first time! I was definitely gasping for air since I averaged about 12,000 feet for the whole trip.

Motivation to climb and do the best I can at altitude helps encourage me to stay in shape.

Working!

2010-10-11T14:03:00.000-05:00

So, I haven't posted in almost a year... I managed to get close to my "all-time" heaviest weight. That was a shock. I watched what I ate for about a month and cut 20 pounds off, but still want to knock some more off. In the meantime, I've worked through a couple minor injuries and managed to become more consistent with my exercise again. I realized the big thing is motivation... if you want something enough, you don't make excuses and you get it done. I wasn't doing that with running/exercising, because I think I just didn't want to do anything!

I run about 12-15 miles a week now, I do upper body medium weight workout twice a week, occasionally play a pick up game of basketball, and am trying to "hike a stadium" once a week - 2000-3000 feet of elevation gain is my goal to keep me ready for mountain hiking/climbing. Don't know if I have road racing in my sights anytime soon, but the fact that I can run a decent pace on a 4 mile run is definitely a good thing!

Out of Shape, Out of Motivation, What's Up?

2009-11-27T20:37:00.001-06:00

So, I've been running small amounts for the past 6 months or so, but I'm pretty bad out of shape. I've gained enough weight that my knees aren't happy on runs over 3 miles. What's the deal?

I need to buckle down and slowly get back to "running size", and then start being more consistent about running. I do have a lot going on right now, but I really enjoyed how I felt when I ran consistently. Maybe I won't get back to running 40-50 miles a week, but 20-25 would keep me feeling well.

Update in a few weeks.

8/22/09

2009-08-20T08:13:00.000-05:00

Shortened week - my left calf has been sore for several days. Although I don't feel it while running, I think I need a few days off to make sure it's not injured. I would hate to affect my Colorado hike in a few weeks.

Total - 22

8/15/09

2009-08-15T16:56:00.000-05:00

Struggle to keep consistent this week - still managed a respectable amount of mileage.

Total - 26

8/8/09

2009-08-08T10:29:00.003-05:00

Good base week - no problem running consistently in the morning (even though I would have preferred sleeping in). Will try to maintain 30 miles next week, then throw in some faster running on one of my shorter base days. Don't want to lose too much speed with my base work

Total - 30

8/1/09

2009-07-31T09:44:00.000-05:00

Ran my longest "long run" in many, many months. I had headed out to run 6 miles and ended up running 9 since I felt good. Goal is to continue 8 miles a week as my long run until I can get my base mileage hovering around 35, then step up to 12 miles or so.

Total - 29

7/25/09

2009-07-25T13:33:00.002-05:00

Not a bad week, considering I skipped running the first 3 days of the week. I hurt my back running with a jogging stroller Saturday of last week, and have been trying to fix my back since. It was well enough mid-week on to run.

4 mile run - 6:39 last mile

Total - 20

7/18/09

2009-07-18T11:25:00.002-05:00

Only ran once last week - spent my afternoons off of work putting up a pergola/gazebo up on our back porch. So, mid-way through this week, I threw running in again - hoping to get up to a better weekly base.

Also, this is the first year in the past 5 years that I didn't run the corporate track meet... wish them well, but feeling a little bummed that I wasn't able to join them.

Total - 12

Back to Posting - 7/4/09

2009-07-04T08:40:00.002-05:00

I've fallen off badly! After a couple months of not running at the beginning of the year, I sporadically ran for several months... sometimes managing no more than 6-10 miles a week. So, my conditioning has dropped while my weight has jumped. I won't be running track with my team this year - and now, I'm ready to get back in the habit. I've been running more consistently for the past couple weeks/months, but still have a long way to go. I'm running on 15 more pounds than I was at this time last year, and my knees and achillies feel it.

This week, I managed to run a decent amount - even ran with a jogging stroller with my youngest daughter.

Total - 18

1/3/09

2009-01-03T09:15:00.000-06:00

No new running logs in the past few weeks... I ran sporadically until about 1.5 weeks ago, when I got sick and stayed sick. I sprinted last night playing football, and ended up making myself sick. I'm playing it safe till I think I'm 90% better - which, considering my lungs, I'm not quite at yet.

12/6/08

2008-12-06T13:32:00.002-06:00

Total - 22

11/29/08

2008-11-29T10:11:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving week! Managed to put some more miles in.

Interval - 1 mile @ 5:52, 800 @ 2:45

Total - 24

11/22/08

2008-11-22T22:09:00.000-06:00

Still lazy with postings... not managing to get a lot of miles in.

Total - 18

11/15/08

2008-11-15T22:09:00.000-06:00

Lazy.

Total - 14 miles

10/25/08

2008-10-25T20:22:00.003-05:00

Missed a couple weeks of logs... I managed 10 miles a week for the past couple weeks - severely lacking!

Total - 18

9/27/08

2008-09-27T23:46:00.003-05:00

Had a bad couple weeks... too busy/lazy one week, too sick the next! This week got me back in the swing of things, though I have lingering respiratory issues.

Total - 21

9/6/08

2008-09-06T23:08:00.000-05:00

Ended up having a pretty busy week because of my impending new job. I was able to work in one tempo.

Interval - 2 mile @ 11:19.22 (2:45.94, 2:51,25, 2:53.01, 2:49.02)

Total - 18

8/30/08

2008-08-30T08:00:00.004-05:00

Interval 1 - 2 x 2400 @ 8:36, 8:34
Interval 2 - 8 x 1 minute, 1 minute jog
Interval 3 - 2 x 1 mile @ (5:39, 5:36), 2 x 800 @ (2:37, 2:35)

Total - 24

8/23/08

2008-08-23T21:25:00.003-05:00

More quality workout added this week, but less quantity.

Interval 1 - 2400 @ 8:43, 800 @ 2:35
Interval 2 - 8 x 1 minute, 1 minute jog
Interval 3 - 2 x 1 mile @ 5:42 & 5:37

Total - 19

8/16/08

2008-08-16T12:40:00.002-05:00

Put another little quality workout in this week.

Interval 1 - 3 x 1 mile (5:42, 5:45, 5:42)

Total - 22

8/9/08

2008-08-09T10:26:00.002-05:00

Ended up taking off more time after the USCAA meet this year - 2 full weeks. I only intended on taking a few days off, but being busy and the extreme heat made my opportunities to run slim, and my will was lacking! I'm back into it, to see if I can get my 5K prep work in before the Corporate Challenge, but don't know if I've got the motivation at all.

Interval - 2 x 1 mile (5:45, 5:48)

Total - 24

2008 USCAA Championships

2008-07-20T23:28:00.004-05:00

This was a marginal race year for me. After the baby, new boss, and some other things, my times did not match last years. My base mileage was ok, but my fine tuning that should have happened on the track, didn't. Even so, I did ok with my events.

Here is the breakdown of the July 19-20 USCAA Championships. I ran all my events on Saturday 7/19/07.

Submaster Distance Relay (3rd Leg, 1200 meters)

In this race last year, I ran a great leg and set us up in 1st place, but we still managed to come in 2nd. We got a good start, and I was in first place by a few seconds when I receive the baton. By the time I was around the first curve, I heard someone behind me catching up... the UNUM team was cheering the person on. I kept the same even pace, and by the time I returned to the same spot in the track, the cheers for the person behind me came a little later. I was never passed, and ran 3 even laps. My split was 3.38.74, which was a full 10 seconds slower than my split on this same event last year! However, this year, we won the event!

Distance Relay (2nd Leg, 800 meters)

By the time I received the baton, we were already way behind 1st and 2nd (more than 200 meters). It didn't matter - last year, we put the best team out that we could, and still only managed 3rd. I did not run all out, thinking about saving myself in case I was needed for another event. My split was 2.24.9, which was not great.

Pyramid Relay (prelim) (3rd leg, 1200 meters)

I ran this prelim event, and ran even splits. My split was 3.57.82 - took it easy!

I definitely would have liked to have performed better and contributed more to this years team. We won the event again, and this year it was a larger margin. I'm going to explore alternative training methods, maybe more quality vs. quantity.

So, goals for 2009 (I missed all last years goals):

400 - 58
800 - 2:08
1600 - 5:50

7/18/07

2008-07-18T23:24:00.002-05:00

This is the week leading up to the USCAA championships... so, I have marked 7/17 (Thursday) as the last day.

Didn't do much this week - some easy runs, and 3x500 medium/hard strides on Tuesday 7/15.

Total - 16

7/12/08

2008-07-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

Just 1 more week until the 2008 USCAA Championship... I'm behind where I was last year, but hope to contribute at least a little bit!

Interval 1 - 2x600 @ 1:45, 1:44 - 400 recovery; 2x400 @ 1:09, 1:08 - 400 recovery
Interval 2 - 6x300 @ 49.26, 48.84, 48.13, 48.82, 49.31, 49.08 - 300 recovery

Time Trial - 1000 @ 2:58.6 (1:10.14, 1:12.42, 36.04)

Total - 21