Fall is ariving with a vengeance...

Play Dream Police, god dammit! ~ Some guy

Rach and I went to a fun party at Cort and Dickie's place last night. Good times. One over-zealous Cheap Trick fan made our night by shouting requests at Cort's band. We had to jet before hearing their rendition, however.

Running went really well this past week. Just stuck with the program and made gains all around. Here's the breakdown:

• Tuesday: 40 minutes (~4 miles) with slow warm-up and 7 surges
• Wednesday: 1:15 (about 8.5 miles) with 25 minutes of tempo
• Thursday: 40 minutes (~4 miles), recovery
• Saturday: 40 minutes (~4 miles) with slow warm up and 5 surges
• Sunday: Shooting for 2 hours, mellow (I'll let you know how that goes)

I also worked with Janet this week and feel like we added some stride elements that are really going to improve things for me. Working really hard on initiating my stride from my hips and that seems to be feeling pretty good. Also got new orthotics made by Russ at Podium and so far, they feel great.

I reacquainted myself with the "crawl space" (in quotes because only someone under the age of about 5 could actually crawl down there) underneath my house and found that the critters are working their magic once again. So I need to redo some insulation and heat tape. Whee. I did get my office phone line working again (critter sabotage), so that is nice. Going to experiment with the Wifi a bit to see if I can improve reception all around and plan on diving back under the abode this week to get things all patched up before winter, which is rapidly approaching.

Enjoy the cool weather and fall colors out there.

~stubert.

Bonking and hand-held do not mix...

These effects aren't very special. ~ Butthead

Yesterday's run was an exercise in physiology management, mostly. It is becoming more and more clear that I should never try the Badwater Ultra as I just do not do well at all when confronted with unrelenting sunshine and warm temps. It wasn't even that hot yesterday but man, I suffered a bit due to lack of any shade, the warm-ish temps and poor nutrition.

We were up early to clean runs at the bunny shelter which is truly a rewarding experience. Rach went in at some ungodly hour of the day to get started and I followed shortly thereafter - sans breakfast. We got the bunnies cleaned up very quickly and had decided we would go see a movie around noon so I had just enough time to get in a "long" run and then get changed and to the movies.

The run started off rather poorly. I whacked down an apple but felt super clunky and not at all fluid. After a couple of miles I started feeling better and just focused on staying relaxed with good form. This is not my day to go out and break any speed records so I settled into a nice 9:00-9:30 pace and was able to keep my heartrate down for the most part. I circled one of Broomfield's open space areas on dirt and then jumped into some neighborhood road running for the second portion of the day's run.

Really, I felt okay for most of the run but never great and the longer I went, the hotter it got and there was little to no protection from the sun's intensity. I wound my way back around on surface streets then picked up the Big Dry Creek trail for the next portion of the outing. It was during this stretch that I started feeling pretty crappy and my watch died so I had no information about how long I had been out but only a vague idea as to my timing. I circled back around to the shelter, checked the time and dropped off my non-functional HRM, then headed back out for another mile and a half or so to finish the day with about 11 miles and 1:45 or thereabouts of time. Overall, not too shabby but I wish I had felt a bit better.

Post run, Rach and I headed to see District 9. I was feeling a bit bonked and dehydrated and grabbed a burrito pre-screening to see if getting some food in my belly would help me feel better. It did, albeit briefly, and by about 2/3 of the way through the film I was feeling quite queasy. I think the combination of bonking, being a little dehydrated and the massive amounts of hand-held footage during the film combined to make things a little rough. I soon recovered and started feeling a bit better and enjoyed the film. Great effects. Good acting. Good story. Interested to see how much they screw up the sequel.

So today I am resting and recovering a bit and will get back out there tomorrow. I felt like I made progress this week. The abs still are bugging me a bit but overall, I feel pretty solid.

~stubert.

Early Fall is good...

If I played guitar, I'd be Jimmy Page. ~ The Beastie Boys

Just got back from watching It Might Get Loud. Good flick. Really cool to learn more about Jimmy Page, Jack White and Edge and see them interact. If you are a fan of music, you won't be disappointed.

Pete and I jammed down to Denver to see the flick then came back up to Boulder and did a nice little run up the Creek path. Felt pretty awesome and did a few surges. Feeling really strong right now, which is just excellent. Hoping to keep ramping up the mileage and staying healthy.

This week has been particularly busy but I have been able to get out consistently. Did a fun run with Sean last Sunday on and around the Habitrail in Ned. Just a mellow, "long" run that ended up being 1:54 and 9.75 miles. Good to get out and explore some of the new trails in that area. I haven't been riding lately so my normal exploration of this trail system has been lacking. So many variations out there now. Good and bad, I suppose but there are some really fun sections for sure.

Tuesday I ran in Boulder on the Creek path. Surges again but all on pavement since I started on the east side of the path. I was hoping to do my workout on the CU track but apparently it is closed to the public and I didn't feel like getting yelled at (or arrested) so I just did some surges on pavement and called it good after about 50 minutes.

Wednesday was a blast with a fun tempo run in the woods. Feeling pretty great about the amount of distance I can cover when I hammer and am even starting to get faster while running slowly. The leaves are starting to change up here so things are getting a different kind of beautiful before winter sets in. It has definitely been cooling off and the nighttime air has a distinct, fall-esque snap to it.

Thursday featured just a short, recovery run during which I got a little lost and my watch batteries died so I don't really know how far I ran. That was actually somewhat refreshing, to be honest... just out running with nothing to distract me.

Rach and I also checked out Inglourious Basterds on Thursday. Great, fun, fantasy film by QT. One of his best efforts, for sure. Terrific performances abound.

Work has been quite active as well of late and we signed several new clients in the past couple of weeks. All in all, early fall has been great thus far.

~stubert.