F***

Cancer.  a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis.

Or just a scary-ass word that invokes the words, "Oh, fuck" from even the most pious monk.

Talked to my mom on Monday and found out that each of my parents found out this past week that they both have cancer.  Prostate is my dad's flavor, while my mom has the pleasure of breast cancer.

That's the bad news.

Good news, which has been trickling in throughout the week, suggests that neither of them are about to drop dead or have to undergo nasty, years-long battles with this enigmatic cellular deviant.  Doc told my pops that he'll likely die WITH prostate cancer, but not OF prostate cancer.  Mom has to undergo a mastectomy, but it looks like she gets to avoid the twin horrors of radiation and chemo.  She'd been good about getting annual checkups.  Here's to early detection!


When the headhamster starts spinning, I think adventure.  Newest idea - I'm not sure how well it will fit into my training, but I'd love to run the four pass loop this summer.  Looks more and more like I need to spend a good week up around Aspen...I hafta find a passable route between Snowmass and Capitol as well.

As I've frequently alluded to in the past, I run as much to process the crap that life throws my way as I do to keep from getting fat, feed my ego, and get rid of excess energy.  So it's always a bit strange to sit here and write down how far or fast I went on any particular day, as if the numbers define that event or something.  Nonetheless. 

20 flat miles in the dark this AM.  10 out easy (8:15's) on the Santa Fe, and 10 back averaging 6:30's.  I was curious to see what was under the hood after 18, so I brought home the last trail mile in 5:40.  Iced and stretched afterward.  In no point of my training has a twenty ever felt so inconsequential - I felt I could have easily tacked on a ton more, and would have done so if daddy obligations didn't begin around sunrise.


The Santa Fe is a mixed bag.  I love being able to translate mile splits into fitness and such, but I'm sick of the same damn thing every day.  Today's run only included 600ish feet of elevation gain.  I can find that in 2 miles outside the front door of my school.  Speaking of which, Cheyenne Mtn is a week away, and it's not exactly flat.  This week has seen me return to near-normal mileage (53 miles after 6 days) and intensity.  The only thing left to add back in to my full regimen is hill work.

And maybe this week can bring a little less news.


 

All.Systems.Go.

2 x 5 miles @ Mary + 15 on the Santa Fe today.  Averaged out to 6:25's, HR kept creeping up throughout the workout.  I felt great, though.  I noticed the hip on my last two uphill miles, but it wasn't painful.  I think another week of running full mileage/intensity on the flats and I'll be 100%.  Hopefully, that happens before Cheyenne Mtn, but I'll pull the plug on that one if I have to.

I've been gone for a bit.  I was hoping to stall on this entry until I had all the pictures from my latest little adventure, but most of the pictures will have to wait.

Nokhu Crags in the summer

Nokhu Crags in winter :)

I've had a lot of fun climbing Colorado's mountains over the past years - it has definitely grown from one of many hobbies to a pastime right up there with running.  I've had the opportunity to climb some pretty cool peaks in the summer, and have been itching for more winter opportunities over the last year or so.  While I've climbed a few peaks in spring conditions, I thought it best to take an actual winter mountaineering class.  Combining formal instruction with appropriate experiences is the best preparation one can take.

atop Lake Agnes

My buddy Michael is climbing Denali in June, so he put this whole thing together through his Army post in Ft. Carson.  Four of us and two instructors drove up near Mt. Richthofen, the highest point in the Never Summer Range north of RMNP.  There, we practiced rope skills, self-arrest, rudimentary avalanche awareness and rescue for two full days.  On the third day, we climbed up to about 12,000' on Nokhu Crags via a pretty nifty coulior.  It averaged about 45' on the upper reaches, but what made it so much fun was that it kept twisting and turning.  We couldn't figure out where it would end!  There was one class 3+ mixed move just shy of our turnaround point.  Otherwise, it was simply an opportunity to work as a rope team in a true alpine environment.  Our instructors, Trevor and Carleton, were top-notch instructors and great guys to boot.  If you're looking to learn more about winter mountaineering, this is the way to go!

where I ran Sunday

I was able to sneak in a run on Sunday - beautiful outing on a freshly powdered timber road near Cameron Pass.

Lemmings

Finally got a real-feeling workout in again.  Went 2 x 4 miles @ 6:35's on the Santa Fe yesterday.  Well...anyone that has run on the Santa Fe gets it - the northbound miles were in 6:40-6:50, while the southbound miles clicked off around 6:20-6:25.  Totaled 10 1/2 miles.  This is nothing to write home about - my original workout called for 12 miles with a little more intensity.  Given the battle I've been staging with the hip, though, I was pretty happy to finally put in a day that made me feel I wasn't losing ground.

The next "milestone", if you will, happens when I no longer have to modify workouts to accommodate for it.  Each day for the past week, I've had to gauge about how far and how fast I can go without pushing it over the edge.  For instance, I'd normally put in around 75 easy minutes today, but I'll probably tone it down to something in the 45 minute range instead.  I can still tell there is some inflammation, but it's trending downward.

Damn.  Talking about how I'm a gimp sucks.

Little Bear - Blanca ridge in July

Woke up in a cold sweat yesterday morning.  In my dream, I was attempting the LB-Blanca double traverse in winter conditions.  (I gave it a whirl this past July, but we aborted due to crazy wind)  That in itself isn't exactly brilliant.  When I realized the stupidity of my attempt, I took a look back to see that a couple dozen others had decided to follow me and didn't want to turn around.  Not sure about the moral of that story.

I have been daydreaming about mountains a LOT lately.  Combination of being gimpy and having too much time on my hands while proctoring CSAP tests - I just walk back and forth in silence for a couple hours a day.  I suppose all the daydreaming will eventually spawn some new stupid activity.  Actually, I KNOW it will.  Tentatively looking at a seven-summit run in the Sawatch on June 17th-18th.  23 miles, 18k of gain.  I'm guessing 18ish hours.  (Huron/Missouri/Belford/Oxford/Harvard/Columbia/Yale)  Lemme know if you're interested.

Birthdays are OK.  If for no other reason, people will rally for you.  Had a nice little crowd join me for $.75 tacos last night.  I got to hear a bit about Brooks's "W" in Kansas.

These guys need to put out some new stuff.  Can you figure out what town they speak of?

Walking a tightrope

5 and change on the Santa Fe trail today.  My mileage for the week stands at a whopping 15.  Good news:  hip felt OK this afternoon.  I knew it was there, but no pain.  It seems I can do flat surfaces at low intensity for now.

So what HAVE I been doing this week?

• 800mg of Ibuprofen 5x a day.
• Icing 2x a day.
• Stretching 2x a day.
• Weights.
• Praying to various gods, deities, idols.

This is a scary time.  On one hand, I may be back to a normal workload within days.  In that case...I can't believe I lost any sleep over this.  However, there's always the risk of making things worse.  Tracking it down, I now think the intensity of my pickup 2 weeks ago in Cheyenne Mtn State Park may have been the immediate cause.  Running hills (albeit slowly) for the next three days probably aggravated it - but it wasn't until that stretch that anything felt wrong.

Five weeks till CP.

Forty school days left till playtime.  I'm already conjuring up a few adventures.  My short list:

• Find a class 4 route between Snowmass and Capitol Peak.  I wonder if Cave Dog would tell me his route...
• Trinity Traverse.  (Arrow, Vestal, West Trinity, Trinity, East Trinity)
• Huron/Missouri/Belford/Oxford/Harvard/Columbia/Yale in one shot.
• Blanca's Gash Ridge, possibly linked up with the Blanca/Little Bear traverse.

Any takers?

Declaration

I declared war today.

Yeay med tent

While I've had seven months to grumble and groan over last year's disappointing performance on Pikes Peak, today was the first day I could actually do something about it.  Clicking the 'submit' button not once, but twice, felt like a declaration of war against the pile of rocks that lives just a few miles to my west.

After a surprising 2:44 in 2009, I decided to put all my eggs in the Ascent basket last August.  Three hours, twenty-one minutes later, I found myself sucking down O's and belligerently snapping at medical staff.  My grand blowup began early - likely at the beginning of the W's - but the wheels didn't fall off until A-Frame.  Mile splits of 20, 25, and 43 minutes ensued.  Carnage.

I had it all planned out.  I was going to click off a sub-2:40 Ascent, hop in a car and pace JT in Leadville that night.  I had even tentatively planned on drinking the Leadville Kool-Aid.  A sub-2:40 would have been fast enough for me to walk away from the Ascent and give this 100-mile craziness a shot in 2011.

The taste that bonk left in my mouth, though...it ate at me.  I did make it out to Leadville to pace JT.  I did fall in love with the idea of the race, the atmosphere, the challenge...but in the back of my mind, I knew I still had a score to settle with my 14,110' backdoor neighbor.  At the same time, I felt I wanted to mix it up at least a smidge, so I began thinking about the round-trip.  I was soon talked into the double, and it's been on my mind ever since 2011 came around.

The game plan now is simple.  I'm going to crush the Ascent.  I'm going to come back the next day and see if I can beat my old Ascent PR on the way up.  A strong performance on Pikes in August will allow me the 'closure' I need to tackle Leadville in 2012.  That mountain is in trouble - today I just made it legal.

Incline super easy yesterday.  10 miles easy today (8:35's) on the Santa Fe.  Giving the legs one more day to recover before I hit up 1000's around the rez on St. Patty's Day.

Part of my training routine will include this - at least it will tomorrow!

Sunday

Rough day today, but I figured it would be.  I had a rare night without Cale and took full advantage of it...unfortunately, that also meant getting home at 2:00.  I'm too old to make that work on a regular basis.  Anyway, I had set a date to meet Patrick on the Santa Fe this morning.  It's a lot harder to weasel out of a run when you're being held accountable to someone else.

Today's plan - 10 out on the Santa Fe at an easy pace, likely in the 8:30 range.  Turn it around and come back at mary + 10 effort - supposedly 6:26's.  All the variables, though - how I felt, slight downhill, trail vs. road, southerly wind, and of course, altitude - meant "6:26 effort."  Straight up, 6:26 WAS effort this morning.

Long story short - 20 miles is still 20 miles.  Not a walk in the park.  Patrick's company was much appreciated, as he joined me for miles 2-9 and a couple of the pickup miles on the way back.  I wasn't able to push and hold well today - I'm sure it was a combination of sleep, still getting over the cold earlier this week, and having an emptier tank before I stepped out the door this morning.  I shut down the pickup a mile early as I just wasn't feeling it.  Splits and HR's for the pickup:  6:27/149, 6:29/154, 6:35/152, 6:28/154, 6:36/154, 6:23/156, 6:18/156, 6:26/161.  Looking at when I shut it down, it seems my HR confirmed what I felt.  

Long runs are opportunities to experiment with hydration, nutrition, etc.  Trying things on the short runs don't really give you an idea of what they'll do to you during a race.  Today's bright and shiny supplement - Justin's Peanut Butter.  I'm trying to get away from all those Gu/HammerGel calories.  Thought being I can get plenty of electrolytes and sugars through sport drink, but PB is loaded with protein and fat.  More importantly, it appeals to me and it's a little more natural.  Anyway, I had two concerns about the funky little Gu-like packages.  #1 - would I be able to get the stuff out easily while holding a steady pace, and #2 would I be able to swallow this stuff?  Turns out #1 was more of an issue than #2.  I did feel a little better after downing the package, but my pre-run preparations were severely lacking this morning and I felt it.

Got a quick nap in up at my folks when I went to pick up Cale.  Sneaked in another few minutes in the theater when I took him to Gnomeo and Juliet.  Kinda cute, I guess.  Even kid movies pull at the romantic hidden somewhere in me.  I'll sleep well tonight...it was a good week, all things considered.