Windora and A January Re-Cap

Last night was the 2nd race in the Eldora Nighthawk Series.  Last week was warm, dry, and calm.  Odd conditions for Eldora.  And only a handful of people did the snowshoe race.  Turnout seemed down.  Last night things were back to normal.  Cold with hurricane like winds.  I don't think it was snowing, but with the winds, snow was blowing so badly, there were whiteout conditions on the drive up from Nederland, and on portions of the race course. 

Blustery Night at the Base of Eldora

Now this is the Eldora I remember.  And apparently, by the larger turnout, what others were waiting for.

The Nighthawk series runs 6 consecutive weeks on Wednesday nights and includes ski races along with the snowshoe race.  I have done the series for 4 out of the last 5 years.  The snowshoe race, run mostly on the nordic trails, range from 2-3 miles each week.  You never know what to expect until you get there.  Tonight was a relatively simple course, about 1.3 miles for the loop, which was done twice.  But there usually is a pretty solid hill somewhere along the way.  And on the Gandy Dancer trail, there was a doozy.  Relatively short, but steep.  And with the added 4-5 inches of snow that had accumulated in the past day, it made for even slower going. 

Typically, I am either way out in the lead or solidly in 2nd with no chance to catch the leader or be caught.  This tends to allow me to sort of bag it later in the race.  I'll run hardish, but not gut busting, racing hard.  Tonight was different.  A newbie showed up and we ran side by side up the bunny slope, onto the Training Ave and made the turn up 17th Ave together.  At this point, I let him pull away.  I'll take the uphills at a consistent but easier effort.  I have found that when running above 8000 feet, a hard effort uphill can quickly become an anaerobic effort which one never recovers from. 

So a 15-20m gap formed.  This would stay fairly consistent thru the rest of the 1st loop.  Toward the beginning of the 2nd loop it looked like he might pull away, but on Gandy Dancer, he hit his wall and walked a few steps.  This allowed me to close the gap back to 10-15m.  Now it was a question of whether I could get him on the downhill.  

Noureddine Morceli had a quote in a Nike ad that I had hung on my bedroom wall while I was in high school.  "When I race, my mind is full of doubts, who will come in second?  who will come in third?"  

Like Morceli, when I race, my mind is full of doubts, but they usually are, "why am I doing this?  do I really want to try to catch that guy?  whatever place I'm in is good enough.  Who will finish in 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th?"

After all these years, the same doubts always emerge.  Which is odd, because I normally don't fall victim to them.  But they continually re-emerge.  On the beginning of the downhill, they re-emerged again.  And I was close to falling victim to them.  I ran hard, but not all out crazy that I know I am capable of doing on a downhill.  I sort of closed in on the leader, but wasn't right up on his ass.

As we came out of the woods onto the top of the bunny slope, I finally got it together mentally and hammered down the bunny slope.  In the woods, the wind wasn't bad, but out on the bunny slope it was gusting hard.  With the blowing snow, my headlamp was doing no good.  I was pretty blind. It was a complete whiteout.  I had no real feel for the degree of the slope or any undulations.  I just ran as hard as I could.  I passed him with about 100m to go and got a few steps on him.  But I couldn't finish the effort.  He caught back up and we ran side by side for about 30m before he gained a couple of steps and took the win.

Thank You .... (already forgot your name even after chatting while we did a cool down. I'm bad with names) for a great race and making me hurt.  And of course, now I have the Eldora hack for the next 24 hrs.  Racing in cold at 9000 feet really hurts the throat and lungs.

Let's look back at January.

Races in January
Jan 19 : Colorado State Snowshoe Championships 10K at Ski Cooper - 6th 1:13:53
Jan 23 : Eldora Nighthawks Race #1 - 2nd 20:49
Jan 27 : Frost Giant 5K - 9th 20:12
Jan 27 : Frost Giant 5K - 4th 41:28
Jan 30 : Eldora Nighthawks Race #2 - 2nd 22:10

Almost 200 miles, a couple of fun races with good effort.  3 days of skiing with total of 70 000 vert feet.  Visits to 7 different breweries.  That's a pretty good month.  Started training with the Boulder Track Club's Mountain/Ultra/Trail group.  That has been very good.  So I am happy with January.  Probably one of the best January's I have ever had.  And now on to February, the greatest month of the year.  Not only because my birthday is in February, but also because it is Stout Month at the Mountain Sun/Southern Sun.  Mmmmmmm ......... stooooouuutieeeeeeee.

Double Dip

This past weekend brought with it some warm spring-like weather.  The mountains continued a dry spell, not seeing a flake of snow for over a week.  Coverage had been a bit lacking already, as seen by the gouge I had repaired on my ski, so with the continual drought, skiing this weekend wasn't very enticing.  By a lark, on Saturday I ran into Matt Nolen and Matt Hill at the south Mesa Trailhead.  My initial plan for Saturday was an easy run on Daudy Draw and thru Eldorado Canyon.  Instead, I ended up doing the full out and back on Mesa Trail.  That left me completely wiped-out.  To recover, I drank whiskey, ate haggis, neeps and tatties with friends at our annual Burn's Night celebration.

The next morning, I slept in a bit, before heading up to Estes Park to run the Frost Giant 5K and 10K.  The Lawrence's, Bill and Emily, had convinced me earlier in the week to do this race.  I thought it sounded fun, and now was sorta happy, because it meant I got to sleep in.  When I started my warmup, I wasn't so happy, and began to wonder about this decision.  My legs were pretty dead from running the Mesa Trail the day before.  I didn't do much running really to warm up.  Instead, did some drills to loosen up and get slightly prepared.

Now this is a 5K "and" a 10K.  One can do both.  The 5K starts at 11, the 10K at noon.    It's a great deal.  38 bucks total on race day for both races.  The course is a mix of roads and running thru MacGregor Ranch.  And thru meaning across the grass.  No trail.  Most of the ranch was hard packed with little grass, so it wasn't bad footing.  Only in a few spots were there holes, uneven footing, or snow.

The 5K (see map) starts uphill at about 2-3% grade and climbs a mile before entering the ranch.  It then gets a bit steeper for a quarter mile before leveling off.  Then its slight downhill thru the field, before getting back on the road for a downhill last mile.  At the start, a group of 5 guys quickly pulled away.  I fell into a decent rhythm, but was passed by another 2 guys.  Went thru the mile in 6:24.  After the course leveled out and began going downhill, I started to close the gap on the 2 ahead.  From about 1.5 miles to 2 miles was into a strong headwind.  But oddly enough I felt good and closed the gap to about 20-30 meters.  Mile 2 was mismarked. My split was 7:42.  I am assuming this was for 1.1 miles, so mile 2 was more like 7:00.  

On the downhill, my legs didn't feel really fresh.  I debated how much effort I wanted to put into catching the guys ahead.  In a normal 5K, I think I could have made it close.  But with the 10K looming, I just kept an honest effort, running the last mile in 6:05 and finishing in 8th with a 20:12.  Not too bad.  Still, I am worried about the 10K.  The 10K course is a bit harder.  So a 20:12 5K might mean a 45min+ 10K.  The thought of that did not excite me.

Now years of running overnight relays, where one runs then sits in van for 4-5 hrs, runs again, sits in van and finally runs again, has gotten me used to running hard on seemingly tight, tired legs.  It really has almost become an afterthought.  The biggest key is to not worry about the fact your legs don't feel well during your warmup.  And to keep the warmup simple.  Once the race/next leg starts your body quickly finds something to get it going.

So 39 minutes after finishing the 5K, I stand on the starting line waiting to go again.  A small problem with an ambulance delays the start.  The problem, it won't start, and needs a jump.  And it is sitting in the way of the 10K course.  Luckily no one needed the ambulance today.  After a few extra minutes, it gets a jump start and moves out of the way.

The 10K course starts up a different hill than the 5k.  This one was steeper.  I found the my legs actually felt good.  I moved up quickly and found myself in a pack with 3 others.  After a mile, this pack began to split apart, with each person running alone, with a separation of 25-50m between each of us.  Upon entering the ranch at 1.5 miles, I had pretty much pulled away from the pack  following me and had thoughts on a top 3 finish.  Ahead of me in third was Rob Mandje.  He had cruised to victory in the 5K, but didn't appear to be doing well coming back in this 10K.  I thought it would be nice to be able to come back and beat him in the 10K.  The gap stayed fairly constant thru 5K.  My splits were holding on as well, in fact I was negative splitting. 

Mile 1 : 6:51 Mile 2 : 6:31  Mile 3 : 6:18

That would be roughly a 20:15 5K split.  The same as I ran the 5K race earlier.  I think I frustrated my dad when he was my high school track coach, because I constantly ran the first 1600m of my 3200m race faster than I ran the 1600m race earlier in the meet.  The 1600m was just too short.  Now, it is apparent that a 5K is too short.   

After 3.5 miles my thoughts of catching Mandje in 3rd were fading.  I wasn't dying but the gap was slowly, inch by inch, growing a bit bigger.  A missed turn at a cone in the 4th mile cinched it.  I wasn't getting 3rd.  But I had enough of a gap, that slight mishap didn't cost me 4th.  Mile 4 with the extra few yards was 7:37,  then 6:30 for mile 5 and the final 1.2 was in 7:39 (or approx 6:20 pace for the last 1.2).  That is a pretty even effort, especially on tired legs.  More proof that maybe I am best suited for ultras.  Anyway, finished 4th overall with 41:27.  

The Lawrence's  were too far behind me.  Emily took home 1st overall for the women.  Bill was a few steps behind.  You can see a short video of them running side by side at about the 3 mile point on the Estes Park Trail Gazette website. 

At the post race raffle, I won a $20 gift certificate for the liquor store in town, so it really was worth the drive up to Estes Park.  Also stopped at Colorado Cherry Company on the way back and picked up a cherry pie.   I would highly recommend stopping by for a slice of pie or taking home a whole pie.  Definitely 5 Tail Wags.  This is full on butt shaking, tail wagging, goodness.

Speaking of tail wags, will add a quick brewery review.  Our race numbers got us a free beer at the Estes Park Brewery.  I had a porter along with a chili burger.  I had been warned before that their beers weren't too exciting, but this one was free so what the hey.  Well, their reputation was correct.  The porter had no taste.  After a hard effort like today was, most any beer will taste good, or at least be refreshing.  This one almost made it over this extremely low bar.  But it didn't.  Food was okay.  I realize this place, like many in Estes, cater to the tourists and don't really have high standards.

Food : 3 Tail Wags (maybe a little high because I was starving so most anything would have been good)
Beer : 1.5 Tail Wags
Service : 3 Tail Wags
Ambience : 2.5 Tail Wags (not a bad location or place, but the tourist gift shop as you walk in really makes it seem trashy)

Overall Rating : 2.5 Tail Wags

Overall Rating for the day : 4 Tail Wags.

And I will leave you with these fine words from Robert Burns

Epigram On The Said Occasion
[On A Henpecked Country Squire]

O Death, had'st thou but spar'd his life, Whom we this day lament, We freely wad exchanged the wife, And a' been weel content. Ev'n as he is, cauld in his graff, The swap we yet will do't; Tak thou the carlin's carcase aff, Thou'se get the saul o'boot.

Friday Night Lites and Darks - Big Choice Brewing / Arvada Beer Company

In Texas, Friday nights are all about High School football under the lights.  Coach Taylor and the Dillon Panthers.  Clear Eyes.  Full Hearts.  Can't Lose.  Here in Colorado, it's all about the brews.  For quite some time now, a group of my friends that I run with, get together ever Friday to do a run from a different brewpub.  The run is usually pretty low key and easy.  Not so with the drinking, discussion, and friendly insults tossed around afterwards.

So I figure I'll compare and contrast my last two Friday Night Runs.

A few weeks ago the run was at Big Choice Brewing in Broomfield.   Big Choice is located in an industrial park off of West 120 Ave.   Not exactly a picturesque setting.  But luckily there is a bike path just a few blocks away that leads to the Big Dry Creek Trail.  So it made for a decent run.

Big Choice itself has two levels.  The first floor has the bar, a few of tables, and the brewing area.  Upstairs is a large window looking down into the brewing area, along with a few more tables, a picnic table, a couch, some nice TV's and a free foosball table (donated by a loyal customer).  The decor is okay, the lighting is a bit bright. I do have to say I am a fan of the free foosball.  Like many taprooms, they don't serve food, but there are a number of nearby places that will deliver.  And they typically will have food trucks on hand.

The beers are okay as well.  On this night I had their Brown Ale and their Disconnected Red Ale.  The red was much drier than I expected.  The Brown didn't really leave an impression.  Both beers were serviceable, but neither was special.  I have been told their Pablano Stout is outstanding.  (My co-worker loved it and I generally trust his beer tasting opinion. )   I had a taster.  Maybe I just wasn't in a stout mood and so didn't really give it a chance, but it didn't do anything for me.  I will try it again.

I always give any place more than one opportunity.  So at some time, I will be back.  But it's not high on my list.  The consensus of the group seems to be the same.  Big Choice likely will do well as their isn't much in the area outside of the chain brewers, Gordon Biersch and C.B. Pott's near Flatirons Mall. And Rock Bottom in Westminster Promenade.  I also have to say, Big Choice's logo confuses me.  What are they getting at with this?  A compass to guide you thru the many choices out there?

As of now Big Choice's rankings :
(Will get around to describing ranking system in full detail in later blog.  But it's based on level of Brisco's tail wags.  1 : Tail tucked between legs. Fearfully.  2 : Tail is sticking straight out.  Nothing to be afraid of but not excited.  3 : Tail is lazily wagging back and forth.  Something is going on.  4 : Tail is sticking up and starting to wag not just back and forth, but also in circles.  I'm getting excited, maybe someone is going to play ball with me.  5 :  Crazy, out of control, tail wagging has taken over.  The whole butt is shaking.  Somebody is home and we definitely are going to play ball.  This is beyond exciting.)

Food : N/A
Ambience : 3 Tail Wags.  A bit overly bright.  Do like the couch and foosball table.  Bar is okay.
Staff : 3 Tail Wags.  The do have a server who serves upstairs but found it quicker to just go to the bar. The bartenders did seem nice and quick to serve.
Beer : 3 Tail Wags.  Beer was okay.  Nothing wowed me.

Overall : 3 Tail Wags.

This past Friday, we completely left the Boulder Bubble and headed down to Arvada.  I don't necessarily have many fond memories of my time commuting and working in Arvada, but one thing I did enjoy and miss, is Olde Town Arvada.   This few block area has a number of great bars, including the Grandview, along with a fantastic bakery, Rheinlander Bakery, and a cool candy store, Scrumptious.  And opening right about the time I got a job in Boulder and no longer would be hanging out in Aravada, the Arvada Beer Company.  Bad timing.

Like Big Choice, there is a bike path nearby, the Ralston Creek Path. The relatively warm temps (in the 40s) and full moon made for a relatively pleasant run.  I was beginning to feel beat up and get the dead leg syndrome after putting together a couple of good week's of training in.  This 7 days had gone like this : Sat - 10K hard snowshoe race.  Sun : Ski hard at Vail.  Mon : Easy run at Fleet Feet.  Tues : Tempo run dodging cows on Bobolink.  Wed : Hard snowshoe race at night at Eldora.  Thurs : Wake up and do hill workout in morning.  Fri : Glad to have easy day and enjoy a few beers.

I started with their Floyd's ESB, which they were offering on Nitro.  Always get the nitro version of a beer.  So much better.  This was a good ESB.  It had very nice bitterness to it.  But the nitro also made it smooth and easy to drink.  Much better than the ESB at Big Choice.  I was impressed already.   I had a taste of the PoolHall Porter my friend had ordered.  It had a good nuttiness to it, how I like a porter to be.  So far Arvada Beer Co was 2 for 2.  My second order was the Renovator Doppelbock.  This beauty was 9.7% ABV and served in a 10oz snifter glass.  Extremely smooth with a hint of caramel aftertaste.  Arvada Beer Co was batting 1.000.  Unfortunately I had driven so was done after these two, but will be back.

The taproom is fairly large area with quite a few tables.  The place has a nice feel, not overly bright like Big Choice.  Very open room.  Tables were close to each other.  They have board games that you can grab and play.  They also don't serve food, but there are many options close by that will deliver.  And Manneken Frites is in the same building, right down the hall, so you can enjoy your pomme frites with a variety of different dipping sauces as well as getting some Vienna Beef hot dogs.  Didn't try any this night, but was very tempted.  Did stop at the candy store, right next to the taproom for some chocolate for the ride home.

Ratings :
Food : N/A - But do have many choices closely available.  And with Manneken Frites connected to them, it probably makes for some good beer grub.
Ambience : 3.5 Tail Wags.  Open area in a cool, old building in Olde Town.  Good place to hang out and have a few beers.
Staff : 3.5 Tail Wags.  Server came by quickly after sitting down.  Didn't have to wait around for a second drink.  Didn't really interact with the staff on this night.
Beer : 4 Tail Wags.  Was impressed with their beer.  Good quality.  Worth the drive to Arvada.

Overall : 3.75  Tail Wags

Welcome. And Let's Go Snowshoeing.

You are privileged to be reading the first ever post on my new blog.  I have tried to do a little blogging before on the Fleet Feet Racing Team blog.  But I find talking about one's training and racing is a bit vain.  Especially if one isn't a top runner.  So I needed to expand upon just the running thing and add in some other topics.  What goes well with running?  Why, beer of course.  And it happens to be one of my other favorite passions.

So this blog will hopefully give you some insights into my running and the Colorado beer scene.  Just within Boulder city limits, there  currently are 11 breweries, with 2 more expected to open this year.  In Boulder County, there are over 20 breweries.  In Colorado, the total is over 120.  So there is plenty to drink and write about. Plus, I'll add in a few other opinions and insights as well (things I couldn't really do on the Fleet Feet blog).  I don't know how many people will read this.  Even if no one does, it is still a good exercise to keep the brain sharp.   I just need to write more.

My next blog update will recap a recent trip up to Fort Collins to stop by a few different taprooms, including Odell, which was tapping Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout.  This would be my recommendation of the month.  A very good brew.

But for this first post, we will stay with the running theme.  As it is winter time, snowshoe racing season is upon us.  After skiing over 30 000 vertical feet at Beaver Creek this past Friday the 18th, I wasn't sure how my legs would respond for a race on Saturday.  But waking up Sat morning, I felt remarkably good.  It was a relatively short drive from Avon thru Minturn up to Tennessee Pass and Ski Cooper's Nordic Center.  It was a beautiful morning.  Blue skies.  Upper 20's.  No wind.  Perfect day to race.

51 brave souls toed the starting line of the Colorado State Championships 5K/10K, put on by Pedal Power.  The start was on the groomed cross-country ski trails.  But the race course quickly left the groomers behind and instead became single track thru the woods.   Obviously the race director had hiked on the trail to set up the course, but other than maybe a few of others with him and the 2 guys ahead of me when we turned onto the single track, there hadn't been many who had trekked down this path.  It made the footing quite unstable.  When I didn't exactly land in the narrow single track, I sunk into the deeper powder.  And even if my foot did land in the middle of the path, since it hadn't seen a lot of traffic, it wasn't packed down hard, so occasionally my foot still sunk deeper than expected.  And then I tripped on my own snowshoes and bit it twice.

This makes it difficult to find a running rhythm and uses a lot of energy to stay upright.  2 guys quickly passed me by as I struggled a bit with the snow.  I'd almost rather break trail than run in a trail that only had a few pass thru.  Along with the uneven footing, the course meander thru the woods, over logs, under downed trees, and included brushing aside many low hanging tree limbs.  At 2 miles, it had long uphill climb.  Skiing the day before began to set in and my quads were burning.  I stopped and began hiking.  Another runner passed me by.  As I closed in on the 5k, my watch said 36:00.  I was tired and really began considering bailing on the 10k and just doing 5.  If the 2nd half of this race was anything like the first, I might end up crawling.  I, of course, never would do the easy thing and continued passed the cutoff leading to the 5k finish line.

Luckily the 2nd half of the race had a lot more hard packed snow to run on.  I found my rhythm and started to pick up the pace.  A long climb around 5 miles was much easier to do on the hard packed snow.  I passed a guy and thru the trees would occasionally see another guy ahead.  I thought I might be able to reel him in.  As the climb continued, I actually was happy.  It meant a lot of downhill to the finish.  And when that downhill came, I flew thru the winds.  But I never gained ground on the guy ahead of me.  In fact, I never saw him.  It was like he was a ghost and vanished.  A strong push to the finish earned me 6th place with a time of 1:13:53 (the time is quite irrelevant.  But for a perspective on the toughness of the course, Kevin Menard, who finished ahead of me in 1:12:11, went 1:05:49 a week earlier at the Swift Skeddadle 10K in Silverthorne a week earlier.)

I was happy with the effort.  Besides a dry, hacking cough that lasted the rest of the day, I came thru without any issues.  Then followed up on Sunday with another 22 000 vertical feet of skiing.  All in all a good weekend.  Now the mountains just need to get some snow.  I took a nasty core shot in one my skis on what wasn't just a rock, but based on what my ski now looks like, a boulder.  

Results of Colorado State Championships at the Tennessee Pass Nordic Center