Sean Gillies

Time 2022-09-01 20:12:06

Web Name: Sean Gillies

WebSite: http://www.sgillies.net

ID:299838

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Superior training week twenty-two recap

Sean Gillies

2022-08-28 21:38

I got some running-is-a-part-time-job kind of numbers this week.

14 hours, 32 minutes

60.4 miles

10,656 ft D+

I ran every day except Monday and hills every day but Thursday, when I did aneasy run by the river.

Two weeks ago I wrote:

I want to get ~110 miles and 15,000 ft of climbing in over the next twoweeks.

I pretty much did it. 103 miles and almost 18,000 ft of climbing. My trainingis finally coming together and none too soon, with my one race of the year lessthan two weeks away.

Today I went back to RMNP to beat the heat and had a great long run on the loopI did in June, but in the other direction and without snow. I weathered someafternoon rain and hail, for the first time on a long run, and at the end ofthe day dealt with a herd of elk at the trailhead where I had parked. I'mcomfortable being close to mule deer, but adult elk are big and can mess youup! The smart thing to do is wait for them to move along, or go around, givingthem a wide berth. In about two weeks, male elk will begin competing for matesand it will become more dangerous to be out in the meadows with them.

Superior training week twenty-one recap

Sean Gillies

2022-08-22 08:54

This was my biggest week since the end of June. A busy family calendar made ithard to get more time on the trail.

9 hours, 40 minutes

42.8 miles

7,303 ft D+

The Superior trail race is less than three weeks away. I'm planning to runquite a bit this week, do some fine tuning for a week, and then have a shortone week taper.

Busy

Sean Gillies

2022-08-14 14:45

I'm solo parenting next week while Ruth is traveling. Between work, running,and the first week of school for the kids, I'm going to be busy. Apologies inadvance for delayed replies to emails and open source project issues.

Superior training week twenty recap

Sean Gillies

2022-08-14 12:33

Week twenty was supposed to be a rest week. I took it pretty easy and did just onelong high-altitude run on Friday. From the Bear Lake Road Park and Ride lot inRocky Mountain National Park, I ran past Bierstadt Lake,up to Flattop Mountain (12,324 ft), Ptarmigan Pass, and back. 16 miles and 4,000 ftof elevation gain in all. I saw moose grazing in Bierstadt Lake, elk atPtarmigan Pass, and pika all over the FLattop Mountain trail. This rundominated my numbers for the week.

7 hours, 3 minutes

26.1 miles

5,020 ft D+

I want to get ~110 miles and 15,000 ft of climbing in over the next twoweeks. I hope weather and my health continue to stay good.

Superior training week nineteen recap

Sean Gillies

2022-08-13 12:41

I spent most of week nineteen on the hot and humid coast of North Carolina.I did three hour-long barefoot runs on the beach, some bodyweight strengthtraining, and three hour-long surfing lessons. Back at home on the weekend,I did one long run at Horsetooth Open Space. Two trips to the summit from theparking lot. That one run accounted for 3,900 ft of my week's elevation gain.There aren't any hills on Hatteras Island. Here are the numbers for the week.

7 hours, 16 minutes

29.5 miles

3,973 ft D+

Vacation

Sean Gillies

2022-08-03 11:44

I'm on vacation until Monday, August 8. I hope that you are, too. Apologies inadvance for slow response to emails, DMs, and GitHub mentions.

Superior training week eighteen recap

Sean Gillies

2022-08-01 19:24

I continue to feel fine and finished a hard hill interval workout and sometempo running in week 18. Saturday was a travel day but I did get in a long runout here on Hatteras Island island yesterday. The training volume for the weekis a little lower than I planned, but that's okay. I'm happy to be at theseaside with with my family.

7 hours, 21 minutes

36.9 miles

3,071 ft D+

Superior training week seventeen recap

Sean Gillies

2022-07-24 14:23

After 3 weeks of little training, I'm back at it in week 17. 5 trail runs withplenty of hills.

8 hours, 35 minutes

38 miles

7,493 ft D+

I spent 2:30 riding 30 miles on my bike on top of that. About half riding to and fromPineridge Open Space, but also did a longer ride on Saturday instead ofrunning. I'm going to try to run 55 miles next week and 65 in week 19. That'sdown quite a bit from my peak volume in the past two years.

Modern broadband

Sean Gillies

2022-07-23 21:07

This week I became a Fort Collins municipal internet utility customer. 1 Gbps up and down for $60 a month.

I called the cable company on Tuesday to cancel and was told that they were going torefund me $25 in the process of squaring up my account. Sweet! Then today I got anemail announcing my next month's bill. The cable company is terrible at theirbusiness. I wonder how many times I will have to cancel my account before itsticks?

This is a great upgrade. The house my family was renting in France got fiber in2017. I'm just saying.

Superior training weeks fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen recap

Sean Gillies

2022-07-23 15:36

I had some health troubles during weeks 14-16 and got very little training donewhile feeling generally crappy and worried. On June 16 (end of week 13) I wentfor a 20 mile run in the hills and struggled on the climbs. I was unusually outof breath and after I finished I was a bit dizzy. The next day I was mildlyfeverish and I continued to have an elevated temperature and noticeablelethargy during my run on Tuesday, the 28th. I took a COVID test and it wasnegative. On the 29th I went out for an interval workout and quit after mywarmup. I felt dizzy, achy, without energy, and was seeing a heart rate on myGarmin watch that conflicted with what I was feeling: anomalously low at times.I took another COVID test, again negative. Friday, July 1, I had a virtualvisit with my doctor, who recommended a PCR test for flu and COVID and someblood work. The PCR test was negative and the lab report said I was normal onall counts. About this time I became aware of twitching in my chest, whichI noticed most when I was laying down before falling asleep, or in the middleof the night. At first I chalked this up to anxiety, but after several days ofno relief and some very confusing heart rate measurements on my run on July5 (after which I joked "Getting confusing HR signals from my watch. Either itor I am about to die.") I got a live, in-person visit with my doctor and a ECG,which revealed premature atrial and ventricular complexes (PACs and PVCs). Myheart really was malfunctioning.

I got fitted with a wearable ECG to collect more data and had a generallycrappy week of heart twitches, poor sleep, anxiety, and no running whilewaiting to get a echo scan of my heart and a consultation with a cardiologist.In week 16 (starting July 11), I began to feel a little better. I found thatI could hike and run at a super easy pace and not feel terrible, so I began totreat it like an ordinary recovery week (every 4th week of my training blocksare recovery weeks). On July 14 I drove to the UC Health hospital in Greeley,which has some extra capacity, and got an echo scan (sonogram) of my heart. Theinitial assessment said that I had an enlarged right ventricle. That didn'tsound good. My heart palpitations continued to subside, but I still had fivestressful days of waiting before my cardiology appointment on Tuesday of thisweek (week 17). The cardiologist disagreed with the initial assessment of myecho scan and didn't recommend any other scans. I don't have an enlargedventricle. Other than the PACs and PVCs, which continue to diminish, my heartis in good shape. I had a treadmill stress test on Friday and passed. Wemeasured only a few PVCs during the test.

This week I started running a little harder and have been feeling fine. Itseems like I only had a temporary episode of premature contractions that werelikely triggered by an unknown virus. My watch's measurement of my heart rateis back to normal, too. Neither it, nor I am going to die soon.

Here are the numbers for weeks 14-16.

Week 14:

3 hours, 11 minutes

15.1 miles

3,428 ft D+

Week 15:

1 hour, 57 minutes

9.6 miles

1,056 ft D+

Week 16:

3 hours, 45 minutes

18.1 miles

1,631 ft D+

I had been aiming for 120 miles of running and 20,000 feet of climbing in weeks14 and 15 and got nowhere near that. I missed two big weeks of training, butI'm trying not to sweat about that. I've had enough worrying in the past threeweeks, I don't need to add worry about training to my problems. I'm still ontrack to run the Superior 50 in7 weeks.

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