Pancake Mode

Good luck to all the WS runners, especially the homestate folks, and especially-especially the hometown folks. I hope to do this race one of these years, but need to do a solid previous 100 first, as I wouldn't feel legitimate and respectful enough putting my name in the lottery until I did. Very excited to see how Nick does, but also Pete Stevenson, who's doing the Grand Slam this year, but isn't planning on taking WS easy, either.

Speaking of Grand Slam, I am in full pancake mode.



This is when I'm doing something every day, mostly running but some cycling, hiking, and now swimming mixed in, the temperatures and my metabolism are revved up, and I'm so freaking hungry all the time that I have to wake up earlier some days during the week to make a full breakfast.

Not that I'm complaining.

Bike
One thing that helped was "Bike to Work" day earlier this week. It remains one of my favorite days of the year. The first year, I tried to hit as many breakfast stations as I could, while during the winter version last year, I ran instead of rode, figuring it was nice to at least get coffee during the run at a time of year when all the bubblers are off. This time, I went back to the bike, and a leisurely singlespeed roll in the south part of town.

I tried some new spots:
Panera (free coffee and bagel)
The Egg and I (yogurt parfait, coffee, coupon)
Sprouts (some OK fruit, bars, and coupon)
The Poudre Library (free LED nightlight! and good conversation about audiobooks)

as well as some other random spots along the way, finally ending with a guaranteed breakfast burrito at HP. I skipped New Belgium this year out of time constraints, and regret missing Snooze, as well as the custom-burrito place by Rolland Moore park.

All in all, a great morning for a ride!



Swim
The consistently hot but non-stormy afternoons, as well as J's sprint tri in August, have made it fun to go swimming after work when I get a chance. This is in our community pool, which is quite nice. I am in no danger of training for and signing up for a triathlon by any means, nor do I have the desire to spend hour upon hour in the pool, but it does feel like swimming more efficiently might be a good life skill, and being in a pool outside is actually tolerable. Right now, I am so inefficient and horrible at it, that I'm out of breath every couple of laps, so it's great cardiovascular training!

M-W-F mornings, 6AM, is open lap swim. I checked it out for the first time this morning, most lanes filled with older folks that kicked my butt. Which is awesome: I actually like being at the very low end of the learning curve. I'm finally old and experienced(?) enough to know it's kind of a fun place to be, so hopefully I can keep that in the mix.

X-training observations
I've given up some x-country/backcountry skiing, earlier this year, and cycling now, in favor of running, in with the idea of doing more longer trail races, and my first 100. So far this year, my races have seemed ho-hum, I feel neither faster or slower, although I guess my ultra 'speed' (I use that term very loosely) was about the same in April/May as I might have expected in July/August the last couple years. I guess I'm still hoping it pays off in the coming months, that a peak is still to come, and I hope that extra volume leads (or has led) to some resiliency against injury. That's about as much navel-gazing as you need to know right now, but in a general sense, por moi, once the body is built up to handle a given distance (again, over a few years), I can maintain and improve that without everything being running. This winter, I'll likely add more x-country skiing back in the mix, and I'll continue to use the bike when I feel like it. That is, pretty much going with whatever seems fun at the moment.