Signed up for the BB

Yesterday I finally registered for the Bolder Boulder and picked up my race packet. It included a shirt, calendar, race number, snack bag ticket, beer ticket, and (new this year) an IPICO Sports timing tag.

The timing tag is different from the Champion Chips we're all used to seeing at races these days. Ipico Sports claims it is, "more accurate, more reliable, less expensive and easier to use than other systems currently used to collect data during active sports events." It's certainly smaller. Instead of velcroing around your ankle, you use small zip-ties to attach it to your shoe. The Bolder Boulder has never used a timing chip system before, so it will be interesting to see how this works on 47,000 runners. It will be nice to have mile splits, which they will be providing, as well.

Another cool addition this year is the option to buy a so-called "technical" shirt instead of the usual cotton t-shirt. It was only a $10 upgrade, and the shirts are quite nice Pearl Izumi numbers, so I went for it. Props to my friend Bob at Pearl...you guys make great stuff!

The beer ticket is kind of funny, considering I'm usually picking up my beer around 7:45 in the morning. I always drink it, though. It's a BB tradition!

The official BB calendar, chock full of coupons to places like the Boulder Running Company, race dates, and training tips, already hangs on my wall.

Running

Enough about race packets. Here's how the running has been going the last few days...pretty darn well! On Wednesday I ran tempo intervals: 3x1600 at 6:51 mile pace with 200m jog recoveries, followed by 4x100m strides in about 20 seconds each. My legs felt a little fatigued after my race, but still capable.

Today I did another interval workout with my friends Clint and John. Clint has run a 37-minute 10k in a triathlon, and John has already run three marathons this year. I was just hoping they'd go easy on me. Actually, I was planning to do my own workout regardless, but in fact they both amiably ran with me, at my pace, the whole time. Pretty cool!

We did 5x1000 on 3:55 with 3-minute recoveries. I did nearly this same workout two years ago on May 24, only six days before the Bolder Boulder, but I used 1:30 recoveries, which made it tougher, of course. That day I came in at 3:53.5, 3:55.0, 3:56.3, 3:53.6, and 3:56.5. I remember struggling a bit towards the end.

Today, I had these results:

interval	time	mile pace
1	3:56.0	6:19
2	3:54.9	6:18
3	3:54.3	6:17
4	3:52.4	6:14
5	3:52.9	6:14

It was a successful workout, especially since I never felt particularly stressed. On the final 1000, John sprinted to the finish, then promptly emptied the contents of his stomach at the side of the track.

"It's not a proper track workout unless someone pukes," he said wryly.

Thanks, John, for taking one for the team!