tharan's blog

Now that the XC Nationals are out of the way, I've been trying to increase my mileage in preparation for running the Boston Marathon on April 16 which is now just 6 weeks away. I managed to get in about 48 miles two weeks ago including about 34 during a trip to Austin. Last week I did about 50 including 20 miles on Sunday spread across 3 fartleks, followed by a 6 mile snowshoe hike on the Twin Sisters trail with Sue. I plan on staying at about 50 miles per week through the end of March, but trying to improve my pace from about 7:45 per mile currently down to about 7:00 by the end of the month.

I was pretty happy with my performance at the USA Masters Cross-country Championships race last week. I ran the 8km in 32:14 or about 6:29 pace. My goal was to run under 6:30, so I just made it. My other goal was to help my Boulder Roadrunners 50-59 Men's team win first place. Our team did win first place and I placed 5th on the team, so I just barely accomplished that goal as well.

I was a bit run down last week after the race, but did manage to get in about 20 miles through last Friday. Yesterday I ran 17 miles (7 with the Road Runners), and then skiied another 6 miles or so up at Brainard Lake with Sue and our friend Terry.

I started my noontime workout on my west course last Mon with a very sore right thigh I had injured the previous week and then seriously aggravated during the Best XC Race on Sat. I actually had to walk a bit the first mile, but then was able to get back into a jog, turning around after 2 miles in about 21:42. The good news was that it did feel somewhat better the farther I went, so I did the next mile in 9:49 and the last mile in 8:54.

After keeping up my "vitamin I" intake and continuing my stretches the next morning, the leg felt much better on Tue. I was able to run my entire 8-mile east course, speeding up each successive mile before slowing for a warm-down the last mile: 8:46, 8:37, 8:19, 7:51, 7:30, 7:11, 6:56, and 8:12, 1:03:25 total at 7:56 per mile. I certainly still had some pain, but it was a big improvement from the day before.

On Wed noon I was all set to do my last set of jog-a-mile, run-a-mile intervals on the Boulder Creek path before the 4 mile Best XC Race on Sat. It was relatively warm and I was almost looking forward to it. I jogged the first mile in 9:18, and started into the first mile run, but about 50 yards into it, I felt a sharp "twang!" in my outer left thigh, basically a pulled muscle. I immediately cut my pace back to a jog, and the pain diminished, so it certainly wasn't a bad pull. I managed to to finish an 8 mile run, keeping my pace low enough that that the pain wasn't sharp. I even managed the last 3 miles in 7:49, 7:44, and 7:20.

I was at the University of Maryland last week and only managed a single run during the trip, roughly 8 miles in a little over an hour. It was about 25F, but at least there was no snow to contend with. Back to the snow in Boulder, on Sunday morning I ran 4 miles at 8:53 pace followed by 4 miles at 7:40 pace. I then met up with the Road Runners and ran another 7 miles at 8:00 pace with Ernie and Hal.

In preparation for the Best XC Race on the Planet on Saturday and the Master XC Nationals two weeks later, I decided to get a pair of spikes. So this morning I bought a pair of Saucony Kilkenny XC at Boulder Running Company. I hadn't laced up a pair of spikes since my two years of XC at UC Davis 37 years ago, but as I started my noontime run, I immediately recognized that feeling of speed from such a lightweight shoe (of course it helped that there was no room for my orthotics). As the Saucony ad says, "The Kilkenny XC Spike provides the perfect balnace (sic) of traction and minimialism (sic) necessary in a cross-country shoe." Yes, they did indeed seem balnaced and minimial ... when I could find a surface that wasn't bare concrete or 6 inches of soft snow. Mike Sandrock's article in this morning's Daily Camera mentions that Peter Julian had been working last Friday on plowing the course for this Saturday's race. Hopefully, he made another pass after Sunday's additional 4 inches. Otherwise, snowshoes might have been a better purchase. -- Terry Haran

Yesterday I ran about 5 miles in about 45 minutes starting around 8am along the Boulder Creek path. It had snowed about an inch or so overnight, but the temperature was "up" to about 10F from around 0F the day before. Amazingly, the path had been plowed from about 6th St to past the Foothills Turnpike, which isn't bad for a Sunday morning. You gotta love the Republic of Boulder where the bike paths have a higher plowing priority than the streets. I joined a group of 5 other Road Runners at 9am and did about a 7 mile fartlek with them that took about an hour, with a light snow and a bit of a breeze continuing all morning. The weather didn't really bother me, but I'm sure the comaraderie helped.

The NCAR Foothills thermometer was reading 2.4F when I headed west on the Boulder Creek path around noon yesterday toward the mouth of Boulder Canyon. I hadn't run in weather this cold since my 6 week stint in Antarctica 3 years ago. I had three layers on my hands and chest, and two on my head and legs, so I felt pretty warm, and was even sweating a bit when I turned around after 3 miles. I wasn't timing myself, but it was pretty slow, probably around 9 min/mile, due to all the extra clothing. I pulled off my over-mittens at the turn around, and ran back facing a slight breeze, not much, but enough to make me pull my neck fleece up over my nose a few times when it felt like my face was ready to fall off. Next time it's below 5F, I'll try my face mask. I did manage a 7:32 and a 6:50 over the final two miles once I'd "warmed up."

On Tue I ran a 6+mi run on my west route, and turned around again when faced with the ever-deepening Boulder canyon snow. It was pretty slow, about an 8 min/mi average, although I did run the last one in about 6:50.

Nothing on Wed except for some stretches in the am.

Today (Thu) I ran the same jog-a-mile, run-a-mile workout as on Monday, a bit slower this time, probably due to the cold (about 24 F) and the extra clothes I had on:

9:26 6:24
11:05 6:47
11:07 6:32
11:20 6:40

Looks like today will end up being warm compared to what's in store for Boulder the next few days.

--Terry Haran

No running on Saturday, just an hour of stretches in the morning.

On Sunday I ran about 7.1 miles in 56:30 starting around 8 am. A bit chilly at 25 F, but not much wind. Then I met up with the BRR for their 9 am run. I ended up doing another 7 miles with Vern, Gail, and Tom, but quite a bit slower at about 1:12:00. The wind picked up to about 30mph, and we had one memorable slog for about a quarter mile with a direct headwind through a drifted section of trail, postholing about 6 inches. I'd guess the wind chill was close to 0 F.

Today it was back to jog-a-mile, run-a-mile on my east course, but I did it in reverse order to catch a decent tailwind for the first run. I took Simon's advice and tried doing slower jogs, which seemed to help with somewhat faster times during the runs (thanks Simon!):

No intervals today, just a jog in the snow on my west route (Arapaho and Marine to the Boulder Creek path going west). As usual, the creek path was in a lot better shape than most roads in the Republic. Everything was well plowed until about a quarter mile past Eben G. Fine park which is apparently as far as the plows got by 2pm. I continued on a few hundred yards thinking, "This ain't so bad!" until I hit the mouth of the canyon. From here the street plows had thrown another foot or two onto the path behind the guard rail, and I started postholing a good 6 inches or so, and my refrain changed to "This sucks!" I had intended to continue to the 1 mile marker, but turned around after 50 yards. Ended up with about 6.5 miles in 54:30.