A Good Week

"70 Miles this week, no wonder why my legs feel so dead"  This thought had occurred to me as I was 6 miles into a 15 mile run on Mags.  Mags is reason enough to feel dead legged, but today was slightly worse than normal.   But as I was thinking back on my week and doing the math I realized I was going to hit 70 for this week.  (Actually 68 miles, but what's a couple of miles between friends).

The last time I did nearly 70 miles for a week had to be years ago.  And the funny thing is, I wasn't trying, which is why it happened.  Two solid workouts with the BTC MUTS group on Tuesday and Friday morning (with a lot of hill climbing), a sorta long run on Saturday (with a lot of hill climbing), Mags on Sunday (a lot of rolling hills), along with normal 10 mile Wednesday morning res run and couple of easy runs on Monday (Fleet Feet Fun Run) and Thursday, plus an easy 6 Friday evening for the Happy Hour Run, and it all adds up nearly to a 70 mile week and some pretty toasted legs.  Not so much the mileage (which is part of it), but there was a lot of hill climbing.

But that is good, for my race schedule this year looks like a lot of hill climbing.  Oddly this isn't my strength and most of the races I am planning don't have any downhill (my strength) or flat spots (which I can usually run better than others coming off a climb).   My groin injury changed my summer plans along with my decision to enter the Jungfrau Marathon.

So here is the fairly set in stone race schedule for the year.

May 27  Bolder Boulder 10K : Goal - Break my age for the first time ever in this race (or any 10K)
June 8-9  Go Pro Vail Summer Mountain Games : Goal - Complete triple, 1/2 marathon climb up Vail Pass on Saturday, 10K trail race Sunday morning, followed up with 5K Rocky Dog Trail Race with Brisco, Sunday afternoon.  This might be difficult but I must help defend Brisco's crown
July 21  Vail Half Marathon : Goal - New course for me.  Just want good effort.
August 17  Pike's Peak Ascent : Goal - Like to go under 2:50.  Went 2:59 last year without much high altitude exposure prior to the race
September 14 Jungfrau Marathon : Goal - Key race of year.  Looking forward to it.  Long way out but think I could run 3:45 there.
October 19-20 Bourbon Chase Relay : Goal - Run fast, drink bourbon, have a good time.  2 of the 3 are guaranteed with the Stonemill Streakers.  Actually all 3 are guaranteed when running with the Streakers.

It should be good year.  I am looking forward to the summer.  Right now I am enjoying a Brisco Genesis Dark Mild Ale.  Bottled on April 24.  Here's a look back at the bottling process.

Soaking old bottles (special thanks to Hungry Toad for access to their recycling bin)

Clean bottles ready to be sanitized.  Baked in oven for a couple of hours at 350 F.

Racking beer from secondary fermentor to bottling bucket.

Filling bottle from bottling bucket.

Filled bottles. Just a need a few weeks to condition and carbonate.

Capping bottles.

And in the end after letting set for nearly 3 weeks, the batch is ready to drink.  Chilled in fridge for a few hours and then poured and ready to drink on a great summery Boulder night.

Final Verdict :  Overall I am pleased with my first batch of homebrew.  It has a nice dark color to it and is quite clear.  Good taste, no bad after taste or yeasty taste.  Of course with brand new equipment this likely wasn't going to occur.  Next batches will show how well I cleaned up after this one.  A little too malty, caramelly (sweet) than I would have preferred, but now I know what these grains will give me in terms of taste.  I'll give it 3 tail wags (out of 5).

Brew Day!

So today was Brew Day.  But before that it was time for a run.  I had biked the past 2 Saturdays and was considering doing so as well this morning, but last night at Asher, Handzo said he and Greg were going planning on running at Hall Ranch Saturday morning.  When I got up this am and found the temperature about 5-10 degrees cooler than I prefer to bike in, I couldn't pass up a run at Hall Ranch.  This is one of my favorite runs in Boulder County.  It's tough but beautiful and early in the morning, you usually have the place to yourself.  I didn't know how I would feel, but even if I was slow and beat up by the end, it still would be great morning.

Check out the route.



I was a big sluggish on the climb falling behind Greg, but he was kind enough to circle back for me part way up.

Greg pulls away 3/4 of the way up the climb.

 I however didn't return the favor for Handzo.  Sorry, dude.

Looking back at Ryan.

View looking back across the St Vrain valley

We had some company at the top of the climb, but outside of that and a few mountain bikers, Hall Ranch was all ours.

A herd of deer met us at the top of the climb.

Fantastic views.

Did the nearly 10 mile route in 1:24.

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRun

It was a relatively relaxed run throughout and I felt good when we got done.  Obviously lost some fitness and can tell when we were climbing, but I think in a couple of weeks I will be back into a decent training shape.   Post run called for waffles at Barking Dog Cafe.   Fantastic morning and a great way to get into proper brewing mood.

For my first batch I picked something simple, a dark mild ale.   Brisco's Homebrews was set up and ready to go.

Everything is ready for some brewing.

The manager of this operation seemed unimpressed by my efforts.

First step, crack the grains.  Best piece of equipment for this task is an empty beer bottle (not to be empty for much longer.)
Cracked grains on right.  To be cracked on the right.

Grains seeping in hot water.

Bowling wort.

Measuring out the hops.  (Kent Goldings)

Cooling the wort.

Siphoning wort into primary fermentor.

Yeast is pitched.  Airlock is placed on top.  Now waiting for fermentation to start.

Brisco's Genesis Dark Mild Ale is now fermenting away.  Those little yeast guys are doing their job, eating some sugar and excreting alcohol and carbon dioxide.  

After a few hours, signs of fermentation are evident.

I'm Back, Somewhat Healthy, But Definitely Back

Back at the old cross country house in Dayton, the walls were full of all sorts of random stuff including many random newspaper clippings.  Some of them were humorous stories,  most of them were unintentionally funny.  And in the kitchen, near the back door, beneath the Foster Cans, was a clipping showing a sled dog, sitting morosely in the snow, with the saddest face.  I have tried to remember the caption, but can't recall it word for word, but it was something along the lines of "Sled dogs get very jealous when they see their friends go for a run without them."  I don't know how many people ever noticed it, but it was one of my favorite little oddities on the walls at 434 Stonemill.

It doesn't matter who you are, dog or human, if you are a runner at your core and can't run, you fundementally are not happy.  Oh you might think things are okay.  You go about your daily life, but there is a bit of a funk to your existence.  You think back on those days when you were healthy and could run, but dreaded heading out the door to do so.  How stupid you were.  Didn't you realize how blessed you were.  When you are healthy and just need to take time off, you can exist fairly well.  But when time off is forced on you, you can put on a good face, but deep down it slowly eats away at your core.

I had overdone it back in February.   I wasn't doing the little things to keep my body going and ended up straining my groin.  But initially it wasn't a big deal.  I had a great January and a few weeks off weren't going to kill me.  I could still ski and ended up having 4 wonderful days of beautiful powder in Jackson Hole.  A close encounter with a tree nearly sent home on crutches, but I got lucky and just ended up with a slightly swollen knee.  I could run if my groin got better.

Blue Sky Day in Jackson along with fresh powder.

But as a few days became a couple of weeks, I started to get anxious.  My initial rehab was to do nothing.  After a few weeks, I tried to do an easy 4 miles.  Couldn't finish it.  Another painful session with Heather at In Motion Rehab and things seemed to get better.  I ran 2 miles.  The next day I ran 3 miles.  By the end of the week I ran 6 miles.  Things were back on track.  And then I did something stupid.  I played for my work's co-ed rec league softball team.  First play of the game I re-aggravated the groin.  No more running for another week or so.  

By now, I had put on some lbs.  And began to realize my goals for the summer were not going to happen.  I was in a funk.  I had just started running with the BTC MUTs and really enjoyed having a group to do workout's with.  This was the first time I had a group to regularly work out with since I left Dayton in 2005.  I was really bummed I couldn't run with them.  I needed to break out of the funk.   I hadn't updated this blog.  I hadn't done anything really to get the groin better besides rest and a few dry needling sessions with Heather.  

I started going to the gym.  Started doing strength work for the groin and in general.  In a few days, I noticed I was mentally much happier.  And the groin felt better.  With nicer spring weather upon us here in Colorado, I got re-aquainted with my boy Blue.

I hadn't ridden my bike since probably last September.  Did a couple of rides with Bobby Stuckey and his Saturday group.  Last Saturday, rode up towards Ward.  Bonked about 2 miles from Ward, before turning around and heading back down.  Still for 3rd time on bike after 6-7 months off it, I was happy with the ride.  Those 3 rides within 8 days of each other, totaled nearly 90 miles.  

Another slight re-aggravation set me back a day or two, but now I knew I could get on the bike, stair master or elliptical and still get a workout in without any problem.  This slight setback didn't nearly upset me like the two before.  I was able to work thru it and get back to running.  Last Friday did 5 miles at North Table Mountain in Golden (a favorite of mine in the Golden area). Sun did 6.5 miles on S. Boulder Tr/Mesa Tr/Big Bluestem Tr.  Monday did 4 miles on treadmill, with 2-3 of that with a 10%+ on the incline.  And on Tuesday did an easy 5-6 miles in the snow.  It's slowly coming back.

I had two goals for this year. 

Goal #1: Run an ultra marathon.  Ideally finish a 50 miler.  That goal is probably out the window for now.  I'm not sure how the summer is going to go.  But I got a new running goal as I signed up for the Jungfrau Marathon in Switzerland.   13.1 miles of relatively flat road running (only 500 ft gain over 1st half), followed by 13.1 miles of uphill trail running with a net 4300 vert ft gain, topping out at 7000 ft above sea level.  I'm excited about this race and the chance to go back to the Grindewald region of Switzerland.  I was there during an European tour right after high school and always wanted to get back.  Plus another chance to see Fio in Switzerland.

Goal #2:  To start homebrewing.  As a chemist this is right up my alley and I should have started doing this years ago.  Today my equipment arrived.

It's like Christmas without the wrapping paper.

When I got home from work, the lovely folks at FedEx had delivered my homebrew kit.  I quickly got to unpacking.

Your slightly more than basic homebrew setup

Everything I need is here.  Primary fermenter, Secondary fermentor, bottling bucket, malt extract, grains, hops, etc.  I already had picked up a 19L stock pot for boiling the wort, along with a few other odds and ends.  So I am ready to go.  Brisco's Homebrews is open for business.

Keeping a journal of your brewing process is very important.

So while I have neglected this blog in the past 6 weeks, I will be back to post regularly again.  I'm excited to be able to run again and excited to make my first batch of brew : Brisco's Genesis Dark Mild Ale.   Along with catching up on a number of fine local microbrews that I have visited the past few Fridays, the blog will have updates on my brewing process and my training.