Monday, 05/28/12 Bolder Boulder/Green Mountain

Bolder Boulder 10k
37:55
avg. HR 176/189 max
174 vert.
276/46,527 Overall
4/443 Age 40 Males
Bolder Boulder Splits
Garmin Data


Ran the Bolder Boulder this morning and set a 10k PR (4th BB10k, 5th 10k ever) in 37:55.

Parked at Rob's house again this year, just blocks from the start and immediately went on a desperate quest for a bathroom.  I high stepped it into King Soopers, but was mortified to see the janitor cleaning it with several people in front of me waiting.  After a few minutes, I had to keep moving and found an empty bathroom at nearby Moe's bagels and took full advantage (very sorry Moe's, I owe you some patronage soon).  Feeling much lighter and quite peppy, I headed back to the car where I met Rob for a warmup.

Started in the AA wave and was positioned near the front and was able to hold my position well.  I soon started picking people off in my wave and then was passing people left and right from the A wave that started a minute or so earlier.  I felt about as great as I could have expected and even though I was pushing hard, felt as though I was running sensible splits.  I was happy to have only got passed by maybe 2 or 3 people the entire time which was quite a difference from the previous years (well, except for the time I started back in the K wave under somebody else's bib, but that was ridiculous).  Not once did I feel like backing off the effort, but I consistently felt driven forward and inspired to keep pushing as hard as I could.

I made it a point the entire way to run the tangents as efficiently as possible and was quite shocked that I was one of the very few who did this.  I could not understand why anybody would take one 90 degree right corner tight, then drift far left, only to take another 90 degree right just up the road a ways.  Oh well, I guess that is the bike racer in me and not so much the focus in road running.

As I neared the stadium, I knew that I would beat my 38:59 BB PR (on the older/faster course in 2010), but was unsure if I would sneak in under 38.  Motivated by qualifying for the A wave next year, I was gassing it for all I was worth to the stadium and around the metal track where my heart rate topped out at 189 (which is pretty high for me now).  Cruised across the line and started to dry heave from the effort.  Fortunately, nothing came up and was able to walk it off quickly.

Made my way out of the stadium and chatted with many familiar faces as I waited for Rob to finish.  We then collected as much schwag as we could and then headed back to the creek path for the walk back.

Though my time certainly did not stand out, I was quite happy with my performance all things considered.  I had a few quality runs with the baby jogger leading up to the race, though not very often or specific.  I never did anything intentionally to prepare, nor did I really think about it all that much.

I also wore my Newton Distance shoes today and feel like they really performed well.  I just simply had a great day, but I also thinking that they helped a bit.

Green Mountain via Bear Canyon (from Bear Mountain Dr.)

8.54 miles/2,532 vert./1:38 (57 up)/161 avg. HR Garmin Data

After the race, I headed over to Dave's house to pick him up for a run up Green.  I was admittedly a little worked over, nothing too sore, but just feeling it a bit and was hoping to not slow Dave up too much.  Fortunately, he was just getting over a stomach bug and claimed to be low on energy (I think he was just being nice to me), but we maintained a decent conversational pace all the way up.  On the descent, Dave opted to go hit Bear/SoBo, but I had to call it a day as I had to get home and I was just not feeling like doing anymore.  Was probably around a 18 mile day with the warming up and trip back to the car.  I'm a bit spent now and have to go chase 20 month old twins who are just waking from their nap.  Hopefully they take it easy on their old dad.