Garden of the Gods 10-miler

The Garden of the Gods 10-miler started fast. I knew from last year a few Kenyon’s would be there and to let them go. Regardless I started really fast and was in the top-5 quickly. I pushed the first big hill of the race, between miles 1 and 2, for two reasons: to pass into 4th and drop/demoralize that guy or 2) to have him go with me and tire him out. Either way I used the hill to gain 4th place. That guy ended up catching me between miles 7 and 8 and I finished 5th. I have a love/hate relationship with the race. I love it because it’s very demanding, but I also hate it because it’s so tough. There isn’t a flat section on the course and you’re constantly rolling up and down hills, which just beats up your legs.

Week ending June 12, 2010

Sunday June 6th I decided to go bottom to top on Pike’s Peak. My legs felt really heavy the first few miles and I thought about turning around at Barr Camp, the top of the incline, or right then and making it a short day. I decided to push to Barr Camp and make a decision there. I should have known it was a bad idea and was going to be a long day because I ran an uphill workout the day before. That alone should have told me not to run up Pike’s Peak today, but I also had a bad night of sleep, tossing and turning all night, and didn’t eat breakfast. The combination of those three factors was devastating. At Barr Camp I decided to go on to the summit. What a terrible decision. It took me 1hr 26min from A frame to the summit. I was walking (wobbling) most of it, I was out of water, and I was worried about falling and my safety. Some guy caught me during the last mile and talked and walked in together. If he hadn’t stopped to walk up with me, I was going to ask him to stay at the top a few minutes to make sure I made it. I was weak, uncoordinated, and not moving fast. I told Tim Parr the story a week later and he said “Oh man, you were in a bad place.” Correct, Tim.
Nothing special on Monday or Tuesday. I ran intervals on Wed: 5 x 3:00 uphill. Friday and Saturday I put in 7mi and 4mi, respectively, getting ready for Garden of the Gods 10-miler. 69 miles for the week.

Week ending June 5, 2010

Week ending June 5, 2010
I knew I was going to start writing a blog and started taking notes about my runs the second week of June. I don’t remember the first week of June very well. I do remember that I was planning on running Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day but decided not to at the last minute. I’m pretty sure I just ran the trails around Cheyenne Canon instead. This is what I can gather from my log book…On June 1 I ran intervals up Barr Trail. I did 3 sets of 4:30, 6:00, and 3:00 hard uphill with rest in between. Good training for Mount Washington and Pike’s Peak. On June 2, I ran a few hard intervals: 1.5, 1.75, 2, and 2 miles. I like to do back-to-back hard days on occasion. On Saturday June 5, I ran uphill intervals again: 3 x 7:30. 86 miles for the week.

Intro

My name is Tommy Manning and I am a distance/mountain/trail runner. I have been running since high school (minus a few years due to a motorcycle accident and three subsequent knee surgeries) and am still competitive today at age 34. I live in Colorado and train year round. My fall and spring tend to revolve around coaching high school cross country and track, but I still get the miles in.
This blog will be about my running: training and racing. I’m not going to write about my job, my relationships, nor my weekends on the blog. This is a running blog and I’ll do my best to keep my personal life and personal opinions out of it. I don’t want to be the guy who writes pages and pages and pages about his runs or races. I don’t want to give too little info either. I want to be informative so you the reader can get a snapshot of my training life.
I wanted to start this blog on June 1, 2010 and it’s now late July before I started. I’ll blog from 2010 and beyond. For a little background, my best times in 2009 (at the age of 33) were: 5k 15:38, Half 69:57, Marathon 2:26:57.