Back in Boulder

Costa Rica

I was asked if I was sad to be back from Costa Rica. Honestly, no. That's the beauty of living in Boulder. No matter how great your vacation was (and my trip to Costa Rica was fantastic), it's just impossible to be sad about coming back to Boulder. That's why I live here.

I only ran four out of the eight days I was gone, but I don't feel bad about it. I hiked, swam, biked, paddled, and even surfed a bit. And I took a few well-deserved siestas as well. I found the running to be quite difficult in the heat and humidity. Early morning would have been the best time to run, but I just couldn't get myself out of bed before six everyday. By seven o'clock it was already hot in the sun. I did most of my running in the evening after sunset, but it was still quite humid then.

I spent five days in Samara, on the Pacific coast. It's a lovely little beach town with all the amenities, but it still seems relatively unknown to American tourists. The locals certainly know about it, and it's a popular vacation spot for Costa Ricans, aka Ticos. The beach was perfect for running -- fine, compact sand that's neither too soft nor too hard. And it was long...I'm guessing over two miles from end to end. I was happy just running to both ends of the beach and back each day, which took a little over 40 minutes.

A couple obligatory beach photos...

Friday's track workout

Back in Boulder, I jumped right back into training. On Friday I hit the track for my first VO2 max interval workout, 5 x 1000 meters on 4:00 with 1:30 rest. I keep measuring myself against my performances from two years ago. On May 3, 2005, I did the exact same workout. On that day, I completed the first three intervals in 3:59.4, 4:00.4, and 3:58.1. But I started to die on the 4th interval, which took me 4:04.8, and I had to rest over three minutes before the last one, which I ran in 3:57.8. So, basically, I couldn't complete the workout.

On Friday, I ran the 1000-meter intervals in 3:57.2, 3:58.7, 3:58.5, 3:58.2, and 3:57.7. Only the last one felt hard. It's encouraging because I now have a good indicator that I'm in better shape than I was in 2005, the year I ran a 40:39 Bolder Boulder.

Sunday's long run

I took Saturday off from running (although I did do a mountain bike ride), and Sunday I repeated my 10-mile trail run from four weeks ago. This time I did it in reverse -- up the Beech trail, down Left Hand, around Sage, and back on Eagle. It's a great run with a few decent hills, and it's almost entirely on trails. Last time I ran it in 1:43 in muddy and windy conditions. This time it only took 1:29, although I did have to push a bit at the end to break an hour and a half. I felt good the whole time, like the miles were just ticking by under my feet with very little effort on my part (until the end, of course). It was another good confidence builder.

5k, take 2

Tomorrow I will run the Dash & Dine 5k again. I'm hoping for better conditions this time! I missed last week's race, but I heard conditions were better than two weeks ago, when I ran 21:08. I checked results from last week, and noticed that most runners who competed in the first two races of the series dropped over a minute in the second race. That means I might be close to a 20-minute 5k right now, which would be great. Even if this is true, I still realize it's a long way from a 20-minute 5k to a 40-minute 10k, but I'm working on it!

Hold on...I just checked the weather forecast for tomorrow.

RAIN, SNOW, WIND. HIGH 41 DEGREES. WINDS FROM THE NORTH AT 25-35 MPH, WITH GUSTS OVER 40 MPH.

Are you kidding me? This looks worse than last time! I should have checked the forecast before signing up. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to suck it up. It is kind of disheartening when you're running a race to judge your fitness, not your ability to endure horrible weather.

We'll see how it goes...