Arizona

 While I’m based in the Denver area, my boss and several colleagues are in Phoenix which means I go down there at least once a year. In 2014, I’ve actually made two trips to the desert with a third coming up in May.

In year’s past, I usually got a single run in around the posh homes in the neighborhood adjacent to the Arizona Biltmore hotel. Of course, this year, I’m under a formally coached plan so that meant multiple workouts including the challenge of finding a 4% grade hill.

Last Wednesday the first order was the bike which was a fairly easy 45 minute, high spin, low resistance event. Much as I would have liked to get on a bike that actually measured and captured my performance, no such options were available at the resort fitness center. No matter, I was able to watch RPM and track my heart rate (though I forgot to pack my monitor –doh!)

During my ride, I asked the fitness center manager which of the various pools on property would be best for lap swimming and he referred me to one used by Biltmore club members just on the corner. Sure enough, there was a nice, straight 25 yard-ish pool that had the look of a place not likely to be of use early in the morning.

Should you ever find yourself at the Arizona Biltmore and looking for the pool, here’s a shot from Google maps:

I know, it’s a stunning visual.

Pre-dawn I was there swimming my 3100 multi-set workout and despite being down at lower altitude, suffering a little bit. Not sure what it was exactly, but it was one of the more difficult swims I had. Fortunately, swims have the benefit of affording a quick recovery and I felt fine by the time I left the hotel for work.

Of course, my day was not over. That afternoon, I was assigned five 1 kilometer hill repeats on a grade of 4% - 5%. The thing about Phoenix is that most of it is pretty flat. The exception being the mountains located right in the middle of the city. These, of course are much steeper than 5%.

After some online research, I determined the best place to do the run is on the road that leads to the Piestewa Peak trail head. It worked out to around 4.2% and while I knew there would be some traffic, I also knew it would be slow moving.

A fairly easy but warm 20 minute warm-up run had me at the start of the hill and I headed up for the first. No natural hill is perfectly even all the way up so while there were a couple of short sections that were flat over even slightly down, most of it was a steep climb and I was pushed all the way up into my Z5 heart rate.

I took it easy going back down and recovered pretty well but by the time I finished the fifth repeat, I was more than a little happy to be done with the workout. It was also starting to get dark.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great upcoming weekend!

Special Runs

Okay, I probably could come up with a better adjective but then again, I expect most people have a fond memory of a run that was especially memorable.

One of the aspects of these kind of workouts is that they are often unexpected. Such was the case last Thursday night in Phoenix.

People who know me know that I have no particular affinity for the city that was my home for three years in the mid and late nineties. It's ridiculously hot in the summer, air pollution is often so high as to necessitate public warnings, crime is high and traffic is worse than terrible. But the town is not entirely without virtue.

One of those virtues is especially nice weather this time of year. It was a very pleasant and dry 75* or so just before 7:00 after I had checked into my hotel and headed out for a schedule 1:15 run with a mix of speed intervals. My own calculations suggested that the distance was going to be a little over 8.5 miles so with some help from MapMyRun.com, I found a route that combined some familiar territory (the Biltmore Circle) with some a new route--specifically the trail that runs along side the Arizona Canal

For those of you not familiar with Phoenix, one of the reasons such a large city can thrive in the middle of a desert is that some 60 years ago, a massive project brought water into the city from the mountains to the north. The result of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a series of canals that provide water to the entire area. An ancillary benefit is that trails consisting mostly of packed dirt line these canals and create a nice lace for running

It was dark when I left but I had plenty of light to see well enough as I ran through the neighborhood consisting of one of the largest concentrations if high-end real estate in the country. It's really unbelievable how nice some of these homes are.

As I reached the north end if the circle, near the Biltmore Hotel, I stepped onto the path with no real idea what to expect. This is generally a nice area so I did not expect to have to hurdle vagrants or avert my eyes from drug deals going on, but in Phoenix, a nice neighborhood can turn into a lousy one in the space of a block. Fortunately, that did not happen. In fact, I probably came across half a dozen other people doing the same thing as me.

The stretch was really something. There was no moon, but the lights of the city created enough reflection over the clouds to provide just enough ambient light to see. My views were of Camelback Mountain (a rocky hill that looks remarkably like a kneeling camel) on the way out and of Piestewa Peak on the way back.

As for the run itself, I felt pretty good the whole way. My higher heart rate on certain sets was noticeable, but getting through the sets was not a problem and I felt a definite sense of satisfaction once the run was complete.

I'm headed back to Phoenix in a few weeks and I look forward to revisiting that trail. It will probably be in the daylight hours so maybe I can get some pictures for an upcoming blog post. In the meantime, here's the map from Garmin Connect:

 

Biking in Ibiza

No wi-fi for the last few days so sorry for the lack of any posts.

After several days of doing nothing more strenuous than walking in Barcelona, I was ready to get a little bit of exercise on my first full day on the Balearic island of Ibiza.

It was around 10:30 on Friday morning when the rental shop delivered to me an Orbeca road bike. Although it showed up with speed-play pedals, it the guy delivering it changed them out for look-keo's in just a few minutes. Not long after, I was on my way.

The roads on Ibiza are narrow and most contain no shoulder but traffic was very light and the handful of cars that did come up behind me always gave me a nice wide berth.

The initial miles were flat and then sharply down and I soon found myself just outside a beach area called Cala St. Vincente. The left turn had me heading away from that shore and up hill. Quite up hill as it turned out.

An ever-increasing slope turned into a series of winding switch-backs that seemed to go on and on. In actuality, it was only about 9 kilometers but a lot of it was at a 3% grade! Like so many hills back in. Colorado, the up was immediately followed by a down. 

Virtually no pedaling was necessary as I cruised down hill to the village of San Juan. I passed through it quickly and was not bothered by the Guardia Civil who had set a speed trap at the entrance to the town. Guess I'm not that fast!

As I headed back toward the island's east side, I came across a sign pointing me back to San Carlos which is the town closest to the small hotel where my wife and I were staying. Although it meant cutting the ride short, it also meant not dealing with the heavy traffic in the town of Santa Eulalia which is crowded with tourists and Ibiza's ubiquitous partiers.

The entire ride was captured on my GoPro. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an easy way to transfer let alone edit that footage via iPad. I'll add a link to the finished video when I get back home.

For now here is the view from just outside my room in Formentera:

Not too shabby!

Thanks for reading

A Run in Göteborg

This is only my fourth trip to Europe but I am noticing a trend of waking up early on my first morning. Today was no different. Despite having been out late for dinner (like 11 pm late) and having washed said dinner down with a couple of pints of beer.

Nevertheless I was awake  before 6:00 and up and running well before 7:00.

Not unusually for this part of the world, the morning was overcast and cool. In other words, pretty ideal running weather. My course took me away from the waterfront area where we are staying and into more of the town.

This area is not mountainous, but it is very hilly. As a result, I was running upwards after my first mile. Regrettably, this re-aggravated my right IT band injury and my pace was slowed. Despite that, I had an enjoyable time. Here are a few shots from the morning:

Given both the sore leg and the fact that I am on vacation, I'll be taking the next few days off. Th next post should be from Spain.

Until then, thanks for reading!

Travel Fail!

I'm not a road warrior. While I used to travel for work maybe three or four times a year, in recent year that has dwindled to really just annually. Not that I'm complaining, but it's clear that I don't have a good plan for training, eating right and otherwise being prepared when on the road.

I arrived here in Phoenix early on Wednesday morning and despite a little sleep and a 4:00 am wake time, I finished my work day, checked into my hotel and was ready to do an easy run.

I put on my shirt, shorts and socks only to discover that I forgot to pack my running shoes. Even if I were not recovering from an injury, there is just no way I'd run bare foot.

This afternoon, I thought about taking a swim, but the pool here at the Biltmore is more suited for play than exercise. I probably could have treated it like an open water swim, but with kids splashing around it just seemed like it would be more trouble than it's worth.

To top it off, I've enjoyed dinners from the California Pizza Kitchen and the Cheesecake Factory which are convenient but not especially healthy.

There's a pretty good chance I'll be back down here in May. If so, I'll be more careful about my packing. For now, I'm just going to enjoy the rest and nice weather before heading back to the cold tomorrow.

Have a great upcoming weekend and thanks for reading!