Massive Update - last week, Denver weekend, this week!

Ok I know I have been a crappy blogger of late, but work and travel have been completely out of control! Now that travel has calmed down a bit (work still nuts!!!), I will try to focus on being better on here. I owe everyone a monster post, so here goes it. First, some racing news – Paula is running on Sunday and the NYC Half Marathon:

"Recently, my training has started to go very well. I’m definitely ready to run a half-marathon, and the NYC Half-Marathon will give me important feedback about where I am,” says Radcliffe. “After the race in New York, I will consult with my coaching and medical teams and we will make the final determination as to whether I am ready to run the marathon in Berlin. It is certainly my hope to compete there.”

In the NYC Half, her competitors will include two-time World Champion marathoner Catherine Ndereba of Kenya and 2004 Olympic marathon bronze medalist Deena Kastor. Next, Ryan Hall announced he is participating in the Philadelphia Half Marathon in late September:

"I’m looking forward to racing my first ING Philadelphia Distance Run this September. There have been some great U.S. performances at the race over the years and I’m hoping to bring a performance that will add my name to the ranks," says Hall, who was third in the Boston Marathon in April. "The race fits perfectly into my fall schedule and I’m excited to be part of an event with such a great tradition here on home soil."

Both tidbits are pretty exciting for the running community, and definitely will be searching to see if I can watch streaming video of the race on Sunday. All of this is leading up to a very exciting fall marathon series!!! Finally, a quick synopsis/preview of the upcoming Track and Field World Championships which begins shortly - should be amazing!!!

On to my personal running – has been sporadic, but I think I am back on track. When I last updated, I think I had ran 16 miles on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday, decided to get my long run in since I knew it would be nearly impossible to do in Denver. Pat and Crystal were out of town, so I recruited my buddy Mike to join me on the running trails. We ran the Troy loop, which is basically flat but has some grades towards the middle part of the run, and did an out and back. Weather was humid and warm but bearable, and helped to see a ton of people on the trails. Had some good conversation, and Mike kept me from going nuts and running way too fast. Legs felt ok for the most part – definitely tired, but most likely from the ridiculous mileage I was accruing early in the week. Don’t have the splits on hand, but ranged from 7:50-8:20. Nice to have the long run out of the way on Wednesday :) Total Mileage – 12 miles.

Thursday, tried to make it up early for my pace run but failed (as usual). Flew to Denver at night to see Tim and Trisha, and just hung out with them around Tim’s area in Stapleton which is roughly 5 miles east from downtown Denver. Friday morning, woke up pretty late and went for a run around town. Stapleton is a beautiful community, pretty much typical suburbia life, and most of the infrastructure is relatively new and clean. Roads are pretty wide, and there wasn’t much traffic which made running very convenient. Most of the roads are set up in a grid system, very much like Chicago, so was pretty easy to navigate around the city.

Tim mapped me out a quick 3-4 mile loop that he does from time to time, so I decided to check it out. Weather was 85 and SUNNY, but humidity wasn’t nearly as bad as it is in the Midwest so it seemed a lot more bearable. Was tired from staying up last night, but felt ok so attempted to do a little pace run. Went hard the first mile, but started to tire fast and legs were just giving out. Was breathing like I was running a hard 5K, so had to stop for a quick break. Went a little easier on mile 2, but I just couldn’t keep up the pace. Stopped again for a quick break after I hit the split, then tried to suck it up for 2 more miles. My god, I think the altitude was a beast especially for me trying to do a faster paced run! Cooled down a little, but wanted to get back inside because I was getting pretty dehydrated (Thursday’s night endeavors didn’t help!) and just wanted to get out of the sun. Total mileage: ~4.5 miles – splits were: 7:00, 7:31, 7:14, 7:17

Ended up going to the baseball game on Friday night – Trish’s company hooked up some tickets 13 rows behind the dugout, so got to see my beloved Cubbies in action!!! Unfortunately, they lost but was a beautiful night and got to enjoy being in a different stadium. Went out all over downtown afterwards, just soaking up the atmosphere. Lost my camera, was not too pleased about that, but met some fun people and had an amazing time. Saturday morning, woke up pretty early to get settled in for the day’s events over in Washington Park, which is located in South Central Denver (basically in the middle of a neighborhood), and is a beautiful park containing a boat house, tennis courts, trails galore, and just a gorgeous setting. Sooo many people were outside, and I was extremely jealous to see so much outdoors participation in Denver - STL can be a ghost town at times! No wonder Denver always ranks #1 or 2 in the nation's fittest cities!

Set up camp, and just spent an awesome day having fun outside playing volleyball, football, whiffleball, bags, etc. Wanted to go for a quick loop around the park, but never really made it due to complete fatigue and general laziness – I made up for it by doing some massive running playing all the other sports, so I didn’t feel too bad. Spent most of the day over there with a group of friends, before heading back to Trish’s to clean up. Predrank over there, and headed out to some bars around her area and downtown to celebrate Timmy’s 30^th birthday!!!! And yes did we celebrate :)

Sunday morning, woke up in a complete and utter daze, and was pretty much suffering from extreme exhaustion and dehydration from partying like rockstars for 72 hours. We had gotten a ride back from the bars and Tim’s car was still at Trish’s, so decided to kill two birds with one stone and run over there to get his car. What complicated matters were my running shoes were still over at Trisha’s, so I had to borrow a pair of Tim’s – I wear 11 wide, he wears 8.5, so was a tad uncomfortable. Was a gorgeous morning (we really lucked out on perfect weather last weekend), and terrain was slightly hilly but otherwise fine. Didn’t hit too intense of a pace, but was definitely pretty sluggish starting out. As we ran towards downtown Denver, passed many parks, golf courses, the zoo, and different neighborhoods as Tim did his best impression of a tour guide. Feet were on fire on the downhills, but the monster hangover diverted the pain everywhere else. Let me state that the best way to truly see a city is to run through it – absolutely amazing! You pick up on so many more details that you would miss driving, and truly get a great appreciation for the area. Didn’t hurt that we were running towards this gorgeous skyline in the horizon:

Did 4-5 miles, was pretty content with getting almost 10 miles in Denver which boosted my weekly total to 38 – ugh, but what can you expect during busy travel week? Had brunch downtown with the girls, then headed to the airport where we parted ways. So sad to leave Denver – absolutely beautiful city, but I will be back!!! Had full intentions of getting a couple miles at night, but came back to 100+ degree weather so that plan was completely abandoned and opted to recharge my batteries from the CRAZY weekend.

Monday, endured a pretty terrible day at work, got home to a blazing, hot, humid day so waited a while for it to cool down. Legs were still on fire from Wash. Park day, and just felt rough in general. Did an out and back, and tacked on an extra mile to make up for crappy mileage last week. Felt pretty loosened up by the end of the first mile, and started to coast. Had to make myself slow down a lot, and just felt great at the end of the run. Total mileage: 5 miles – didn’t bring a watch, but ran roughly 34 minutes. Tuesday, ran with Crystal, who was pretty livid at her crappy training partner (me) for my lack of participation for our runs, so was nice to get back out with her and hammer one out. Legs were still dead from weekend activities, and just felt like crap in general since I had another loooooooooooong work day and was completely spent. Did an out and back towards the university (rolling hills route) on the trail, she picked up the pace coming home and we were hitting race pace and better the entire way back. Normally, I would have questioned the speed of the workout but (a) was in the doghouse (b) was pretty dark by the turnaround, so I just sucked it up and got it done. Felt like dog poop at the end of the run. Hadn't really eaten well in 5 days, so probably didn't help. Total mileage: 9 miles – splits ranged from 7:03 to 8:20 (last 5 miles were at race pace or better) - avg. pace was 7:26 I think?

Yesterday, another crappy work day, wasn’t feeling too hot but Crystal and I hit the trails anyways. Kind of blew off some steam talking about why work has been so bad lately, and was 2-3 miles into it before I realized we were almost done! Evening was pretty nice, and felt good to have an easier paced shorter run. Got that out of the way fast, felt better. Total mileage: 4 miles – average split was 8:28 I think???

So back on track this week with 18 miles already, on pace for 50. Tonight will be some variation of speedwork, I think 6Xhills so will report on that later on. A little bittersweet that my fun travel plans are done and the next 8 weeks are completely dedicated to training, but really motivated to work hard and achieve my goals for this race. Might as well start my 3^rd decade of existence in the best shape of my life!!!

Wash Park Volleyball - Jason, Tim, Erin vs. Stefan, Peter, Kaila

Partners in Crime

Cubs/Rockies Game on Friday Night