Bolder Boulder

This is the third time that I've done Bolder Boulder. However, it is the first time that I have run it. I first did Bolder Boulder in 1999 and walked it. I probably could not have run the whole distance if I tried. Last year, I also walked it. I could have run it but walked it with my sister and her kids. This year, it was a training run so no walking.

As usual, a warm-up run was scheduled before the race. This time, the warm-up was four miles, which meant getting to the race early. Other than getting up very early, this worked out well since it was easy to drive to Boulder and find parking. After arriving in Boulder, I ran from the stadium area towards the start line.

I did not feel good during the warm-up. It took about 3 miles to start feeling okay, and even then my running still felt off. I was a bit worried about the sluggishness but tried to be positive. I also recalled Andrea commenting that the warm up before a track workout does not always provide a good indication of how the track workout will go so I hoped the same would apply to this race.

I finished a little early so I walked around the start area and watched other runners warming up. After walking around for about twenty minutes, I found my wave, which was heading towards the start line. Because I wanted to try to start slow, I stayed towards the back of the my wave. I did not want to get caught up in the surge that seems to happen at the start of running races.

For the first mile, I tried to take it easy. The race starts downhill so it is a bit hard to hold back. As I crossed the first mile marker, my time seemed a bit fast. So I tried to ease up a little for the next mile. The course starts to go slightly uphill for the second mile. Easing up seemed to help as I felt good at mile marker 2. The only downside was my split for the second mile was slower than the first mile.

For the third mile, the course continues uphill. This may be the toughest mile on the course, and my split time reflected it as it was the slowest of all of my mile splits. As I passed the 5 km banner, I was still feeling pretty good. Since the race was half over and still feeling good, I decided that I could pick up the effort a little. The increased effort lead to the fastest split of the race at the 4 mile marker. Even better, the course is primarily downhill from mile 4 to 5. This downhill section combined with a little more effort resulted in my fastest split for the entire race at mile 5. Unfortunately, just after mile 5, the course again starts to go uphill.

The unfavorable change in slope lead to a slower last mile. However, the time for this last mile was almost exactly the same as the time for the fourth mile. In fact, it was a little faster. It also meant that I easily negative split the race, which was a goal heading into the race. The icing on the cake was I set a PR for a 10K race with a time of 49:21.

Here are some things that I took away from the race:

1) It was good getting to the race very early. Parking was easy to find, which reduced a lot of stress. I had plenty of time to do a warm-up without feeling rushed.

2) If you are going to run the Bolder Boulder and can do it in less than 62 minutes, then sign up for a qualified wave. Having started in non-qualified waves in the past and seeing how hard it is to get around people, it is much easier running with a group of people who run at about your same speed.

3) I still need to figure out the right level of effort for 10K races. I am not sure whether I can go a little harder at the start and still have enough left at the end to pick up the pace.

Sunday Fun in the Mountains

For the third consecutive week, a ride in the mountains was scheduled for Sunday, specifically the City View ride. Unlike the last two weekends, the weather was beautiful today. So nice, I wore just bike shorts and a short-sleeved bike jersey. The nice weather also brought out the cyclists today. Last week, I could have counted the number of riders that I saw riding in Deer Creek Canyon using two hands. Today, I needed a calculator to keep track of the number of riders. Maybe bad weather has its advantages.

Before the ride, I was a little nervous about how my legs would respond. I ran my track workout rather later yesterday so I wasn't sure my legs would be recovered. However, my legs actually felt pretty good. Surprisingly, they seemed to have some power in them. Maybe it was because I slept great last night. I don't know why, but it was the best sleep that I can remember having in the last month or so. It was such a good, deep sleep that I didn't even know that Brenda's dog was barking at the back door at 4:00 am because the cat wanted in the house.

The ride itself was rather uneventful. I practiced riding in the time trial position for some of the climb and descent. I passed some riders on the way up and got passed by two guys. Ugh, I hate getting passed on climbs but both guys were obviously much stronger than me. However, I feel like the bike might be coming around. As evidence, today's ride was the fastest that I've done City View this year. I'm sensing, although I can't explain it, that some breakthroughs may be coming later this year if I continue to trust and execute (as best as I can) the workouts put together by Steve.

Terrible Track

Today's track workout, not so good. The workout was a 2 mile warm up, followed by 6x1 mile repeats with full recovery and a 1 mile cool down. Although the workout didn't say anything, I know Steve wants the times to decrease for each successive mile. I did just the opposite today.

The workout started out well. The two mile warm went fine. At the end, I was ready to do the track portion. In fact, I probably felt too good. I ran the first mile. I thought that I was going slow. However, for my typical pace, I was not. When I finished the first mile, I stopped my watch and checked the time: 7:15. Uh, oh, I knew this was bad. My fastest mile at track this year is 7:33, This was 18 seconds faster than my fastest mile to date, and there were still five more miles to go.

I tried to go a bit easier on the second one. The time was slower than the first one: 7:25. This was still too fast, though. Already, I had done two mile splits faster than any previous mile split this year, and I was only 1/3 done with the workout.

The third mile was tough. Surprisingly, I did it at 7:27, which was almost the same as the second mile. However, I was really beginning to notice the headwind through a portion of each 400. It seemed to be getting stronger but it probably only felt this way because I was getting tired.

My times starting falling apart on mile 4. I seemed to be going much slower, and it was getting more difficult to maintain the pace earlier in the repeat. The watch confirmed what I was experiencing: 7:47. This was going in the wrong direction. Mile 5 was a little better: 7:43. By this point, I felt mentally done. I was just hoping to survive the final lap.

The last lap, I didn't have much left. I felt like I was plodding. And who turned up the wind? Actually, I don't think the wind was any different, it was probably me being tired. Again, the stopwatch confirmed my feeling: 7:53. In short, a total disaster since this lap should have been the fastest and not the slowest. After the last lap, I did the one mile cool down. It felt good to go slow.

As I was doing the cool down, I wondered if I had fought hard enough on that last mile. When I got home, however, I was somewhat surprised by the data from my heart rate monitor. At the end of the first lap, my heart rate was 185. At the end of the sixth lap, my heart rate was 192. So, maybe I was trying hard but I just don't have the stamina to do six of these repeats yet. Also, I made a huge mistake by going too fast in the beginning that I paid for at the end. I need to work on starting off easier when I am running alone. This seems to be less of this problem when I am running at track with others. Well, hopefully I will learn from this experience and do better next time.

Annoying Email

I occasionally receive annoying email at work. Some of the most annoying are the self-congratulatory email distributed by the litigation attorneys in my firm when they achieve a victory at a trial, such as the following (names redacted to protect the innocent and not so innocent):

"As many of you know, Partner and Associate won an impressive and quick victory in a Title VII discrimination jury trial in federal court yesterday. We represented Company X who according to the 63 year old male plaintiff engaged in gender discrimination by firing him and then replaced him with a 38 year old male employee. Plaintiff attempted to convince the jury that the reasons for firing him were pretextual and despite the fact the company hired a male to replace him, it historically had preferred to hired females for the position and thus engaged in gender discrimination. Partner and Associate (who handled the Associate's first witnesses) sliced up that defense in short order and the twelve person jury was back in 45 minutes with a defense verdict. As always, this was a team effort with Paralegal and Administrative Assistant providing valuable assistance. Please join me in congratulating the whole team. We have a very happy client as well."

This got me to thinking about what kind of self-congratulatory email could a patent attorney send out to stroke the patent attorney's ego. Maybe it would be something like this:

Yesterday, the patent office issued a Notice of Allowance for our client's super duper new product. After a hard fought prosecution, we successfully convinced the Examiner about the errors of his ways resulting in the Examiner reversing ground on all rejections. Upon issuance of the patent, our client can send threatening letters to its arch-nemesis and any other company that attempts to knock-off its fantastic product. As always, this was a team effort with the Partner providing oversight, the associate (who handled the Office action responses with brilliance) doing the grunt work, and the paralegal providing invaluable assistance. Please join me in congratulating myself and my teammates. Go team!!!! Of course, the client is ecstatic about this victory and the future possibility of giving us more money when it seeks to enforce its rights.

Cinco de Mayo 10K

Earlier this week, Steve asked whether I was interested in doing the Bolder Boulder 10K. I'm glad he asked because I had been thinking about asking him whether I could do this race. There was only one problem. I wanted to start in one of the qualifying time waves but did not have a 10K qualifying time since I had no results from Rage in the Sage (more on that in a future post). I could have used one of my 5K times from the previous year. However, I wanted a more accurate 10K time to reflect what I am currently running since I am not running as fast as I was in July 2008 when I ran the Highlands Ranch July 4th 5K but I seem to be running faster than in November and December 2008 when I ran the Turkey Trot 5K and the Jingle Bells 5K. The solution: Steve wrote the Highlands Ranch Cinco de Mayo 10K into my training schedule.

Steve and I did not talk did about goals before this race. However, I am beginning to develop a feel for how Steve wants me to approach races. So, I set the following goals:

1) Finish in less than 62 minutes (okay, probably not a goal Steve would approve but the whole point of doing this race was to get a qualifying time for Bolder Boulder);

2) Start slow and build through the race; and

3) Have enough left at the end to pick up the pace.

As has been the case for the last month, the weather turned bad again this weekend. Last night, it rained. This morning, it was overcast and a cool 40 or so degrees. The poor weather may have kept some people away as something like 65 runners were listed as finishing this race. I am kind of surpised since the weather was nice running weather.

Despite the nasty looking conditions, Brenda and I headed up to the race site early so that I could join Laura for a 2 mile warm-up run. Brenda decided to walk the 5K since she plans to walk Bolder Boulder with her friends. After she has signed up for the 5K earlier this week, she was informed by a friend in Highlands Ranch that no one walks the Highlands Ranch races. I immediately received an email asking me why I didn't give her this information because she did not want to finish last. I didn't tell her because I didn't know this information. When I told her that I didn't know, she informed me that she should've known better because I'm a terrible observer. Later, she told me that I must buy her an expensive dinner if she finished last. Fortunately, she did not finish last as she kicked butt and walked the course in sub-15 minute miles.

After arriving at the race site, I picked up my race number and timing chip. Laura and I then went on a slow two mile run to warm up. Andrea wanted me to run with Laura to keep me from going to hard during warm-up. We ended with some striders and headed back to the race start. After jogging for a few minutes with Brenda and using the restroom in the Southridge recreation, I got to the start line about one minute before the 10K race. There were so few people running the race that I did not have a hard time finding a start position. I try to position myself more towards the back of the small pack so that I would not start too fast.

The gun sounded and we were off. As is typical in Highlands Ranch races, the first portion of the course (maybe first 1/2 mile) was downhill. This seemed to spur people to go out fast, which resulted in me being towards the back 1/3 of the group. It was difficult to hold back but I was pretty sure the course would eventually go uphill so I tried to conserve energy. I settled into was seemed to be a comfortable pace for me. As the road began to go slightly uphill after about the first 1/2 mile, I started catching and passing people ahead of me on the course. The uphill was short and turned back into a downhill. However, I continued to pass people who seemed to be struggling as we approached the first mile.

At mile one, I caught up with a guy running in an orange race shirt. There was also a water station at mile 1. As we passed it, the volunteers asked if we wanted water. The guy said no but he would take a beer if they had one. I commented that a beer sounded good but would probably be better after the race. He agreed, and we exchanged small talk for the next 1/4 mile. At this point, the course was still downhill. I was feeling good and started to pull away from him. However, he picked up the pace and stayed just behind me. As we continued towards mile 2, we passed a few more people.

After mile 2, the course continued to be slightly downhill. I started to open up a gap between me and the orange shirt guy. About half-way to mile 3, however, the course began to go uphill again. The orange shirt guy caught and passed me. It is not for long, however, as the course just as quickly turned back downhill which allowed me to catch and pass him. Of course, this being Highlands Ranch the course once again started to go uphill as we approach mile 3. The orange shirt guy passed me again and opened up a gap on me. Meanwhile, we were both catching up with and passing about two or three other people ahead of us on the course.

As we continued climbing uphill, I thought that it strange I had seen no one running back the other way since the I knew the turn-around was coming up. Finally, there was one guy running back. Then, just behind him a pack of three people. There was a couple of more and then I started to lose count. I need to do better job of counting the number of people ahead of me. In my defense, usually there are so many that I can't keep track. As I crested the top of the hill, I thought I could see the turn-around. I was kind of surprised since not much time had passed since I had seen the first runner heading back (at the end, not really surprising since I think his pace was around 7:12 min/miles - where were all of the fast runners?). Anyway, the turn-around came pretty quick. At that point, I would guess there were about 20 or so people (maybe 25) ahead of me on the course.

As I headed back, the course again went downhill. I quickly caught the guy in the orange shirt. He was clearly a bit stronger than me on uphills but I was faster on the more flat and downhill sections. As I caught him, I told him that he was strong on the hills. He agreed but pointed out that it wasn't doing him any good since I was catching and passing him on the downhills. I laughed and told him not to worry because there were plenty of uphill portions left for him to catch me on. In truth, I was thinking that I had been holding back a little on the downhill and uphill portions and that I had no intent of letting him pass me again on an uphill portion since the race was more than half over.

I slowly started to pull away from him on the downhill. I could tell since I could no longer hear his footsteps or his breathing. After opening up a gap on him. I began focusing on trying to catch people ahead of me on the course. When I passed a person, I would then focus on the next person that I could see.

As I passed mile 4, the course again turned uphill. This actually proved to be helpful as I would slowly but steadily closed the gap between me and the person just ahead of me as the course went uphill. Just before mile 5, the course reached a peak. I could see the 5k and 10K course below. From this vantage point, I observed the course went downhill for a short distance and the headed uphill again. I also thought that I saw Brenda walking on the 5K course. I was excited to see her since I knew that I would pass her as we headed towards the finish.

Once I past mile 5, the course again started uphill again. I saw two woman and a man just ahead of me. One by one, I caught each one of them and passed them. Then I saw Brenda just ahead. As I went past her, I said hi. There were two guys ahead of me but they had a fairly large gap on me. As we neared mile 6, the uphill got fairly steep. While I was making up ground, it wasn't fast enough. Once we got to the top of the hill, the last 0.2 miles was pretty much downhill. Although I picked up the pace, they also picked up the pace. In the end, they finished about fifteen seconds ahead of me. As for the orange shirt guy, he never caught me again once I passed him for good on the downhill section just after the turn-around.

After finishing the race, I got some water and waited for Brenda to finish. She came through at around 45 minutes. She actually walked faster than some of the people who jogged/walked the 5K. I was very proud of her. Plus, since she was not last, I was off the hook for buying her an expensive dinner.

Overall, I was pleased with this race. I felt strong enough at the end of the race to run another mile. Also, other than the early back and forth with the orange shirt guy, I was never passed in the race. I also was continually improving my place as the race progressed. The results showed that I finished 12th out of 66 participants. Best of all, I got my wave qualifying time as I finished in well under 72 minutes with a time of 51:36. In short, it was a very fun and successful training race.