 you're going up but it's rolling it's not a steep up meaning you can rock and roll oh man folks oh boy the weather has turned i knew it was going to turn but not this dramatically usually uh the weather it feels like you know what it feels like it feels like i'm in seattle right now just very overcast and humid and like i don't know it just feels like it's about to rain so i've got another mountain test today little fitness test up in the mountains and so we'll just see what we can pull off with this weather change obviously i just got to usually the thunderstorms and lightning don't hit until 1 p.m but i'm also actually a little concerned about getting chilly on top of the mountain because i was going to go you know a very streamlined today basically wear the the same amount of clothing that i'm going to wear on race day to mimic race day uh in about a week actually when you're watching this we're seven days out so we shall see uh either way we're gonna make hay and let's rock and roll okay good news we might be dealing with fog wheels that's what the radio just said hopefully this is just fog and maybe it's gonna burn off and we're not gonna be dealing with thunderstorms at 11 a.m uh would you look at that ladies and gentlemen blue skies up here in the rockies oh i was a little worried down below but it looks like it cleared up here in the high country this is good news all right mountain fitness test let's do this all right here we are oh the mountain fitness test so what is the goal what are the goals for today's run one basically three goals maybe four but three especially uh number one i want to see how my legs are reacting to the taper so are my legs starting to freshen up number two i want to see how my legs perform at higher speeds above 10 000 feet meaning is my like i think i'm pretty confident my breathing is going to be there but i want to see are my legs ready for the turnover because for the pikes peak ascent from mile four to mile let's call it eight to nine so there's a four to five mile section in the race where it's rolling you're going up but it's rolling it's not a steep up meaning you can rock and roll and there's a couple places where if you want to drop like my goal is to drop it down to about six minute pace like there are some spots that are legitimately flat if not even a couple spots that are actually a little downhill so i want to make sure my leg turnover is ready to rock and roll so that's goal number two for today's run at grace peak and number three is the suppleness of my ankles aka i want to see are my ankles ready to spring up the mountain and float me up the mountain remember float it don't fight it uh the mountain so are my yeah are my ankles ready to spring me up the mountain because i've been doing i've been doing a lot of work here in this training block and uh the weighted vest the last time i wore it was right here at this mountain so obviously no weighted vest today and i i did i just excited to see are the lower legs ready to spring me up the mountain so that is the goal um and okay yeah remember goal four goals today the other goal is to streamline the equipment oh it breaks my heart it breaks my heart youtube family i'm not gonna film today oh i'm so sorry i'm so sorry no gopro no no vest no gimbal definitely no drone uh just the gear that i'm planning to wear for the pike's peak ascent mimicking race day so uh i'm actually oh yeah and another update on streamlining the equipment i'm not going to wear my green hat today or at the pike's peak ascent because uh because of temperature control it just i'm realizing my head it it warms up a little too much when i'm wearing the hat especially at higher speeds so no green hat at the pike's peak ascent all right i'm just going to clean my glasses off i'm going to wear my sweat headband in the race i'm actually ordering another one that's a little thinner um just as i just don't need something this thick that's what i'm talking about that's what i'm talking about all right i'm not going to tell you the time from today's ascent of grace peak if you want to go digging you can go figure it out it's all about that mental state all right i don't want to it's i stay humble stay hungry stay humble stay hungry so i'm not even going to go there but um let's just say the breathing above 13 000 was special it was pretty special up there so okay we're going to dive into the freshness scale and that's right freshness is going to be the keyword but before that back in the studio you know where i'm off to see you there what a day holy smokes okay the afternoon got a little crazy at the demore household so i was planning to do quite a bit more filming this afternoon that did not happen just got just a little lot going on a lot going on so therefore just so you know i don't like to have a talking head on the camera for five minutes 10 minutes straight so i'm going to do my best to pull some old graze peak and that's the mountain i ran today graze peak pull some old footage uh from all the times i've run graze peak because just to spice up the vlog a little bit since i was unable to film for you the rest of the afternoon i just like to make these vlogs as interesting and entertaining as possible for all of you and now let's dive into the freshness and yes freshness keyword once again the freshness scale for runners three questions that i ask myself to make sure i'm walking that line just like johnny cash uh said remember i always say i want to arrive at a starting line as fit as possible and as fresh as possible and in this training block oh my goodness eight weeks ago no seven weeks ago i started the block after the injury um i had i knew if i wanted to reach a couple goals that i have for pike speak i knew that i needed to take some calculated risks and as runners i'm not afraid to take risks that's the only reason i was able to walk on to the cu cross country team are the only reason i i'm crazy enough to try and qualify for the olympic trials in the marathon so i'm taking some calculated risks even today's run like we're only eight days let's see when i did the run well nine days out from pike's peak and i did a pretty hard effort today calculated risks walking the line and yes today's run was 13 miles or 21 k 13 miles round trip so six and a half miles up six and a half miles back down uh 4400 feet of vertical gain and loss or i think it's like just over 1300 meters of gain and loss today uh so account you know it's a good chunk of mileage good chunk of vertical uh nine days out from the race all right so calculated calculated but it was in the solemn s lab sent six sgs this is the 2018 iteration i'm saving my 2000 the sense sevens uh for race day i'm not i don't want to beat them up too much before the race day so i took these guys out and they did well i think these shoes they must be close to 100 miles i'll put it on the screen right now but they have served me very very well thank you solemn for making a good shoe in this sense six all right and let's dive into the freshness scale something that i've it's very simple really something that i've created though for myself especially at the end of training blocks it's simply it's very simple everyone this is nothing earth shattering it's simply a one to ten scale but here it is so you know how i like to do a three week taper leading into a peak race so i was at 100 miles a week in this training block i went down to 85 and then 55 and then next week before the race i'll probably run 30 20 to 30 miles approximately um so along that journey on the taper i like to be very conscientious write down how my legs are feeling each day especially the last like okay so if it's three weeks that's 21 days but especially the last let's say 12 days and under and that's where we're at now i monitor how my legs are feeling and at the beginning of today's run i knew that i needed to go fast that was the goal for today work on that turnover at elevation and so the first three to five minutes my legs were not really happy with me and i was thinking to myself oh boy maybe on my one to ten freshness scale i might be at a two or three but then after five minutes and especially by ten minutes my legs started to wake up and they started to wake up and they started feeling better and better and better and so by mile uh let's say mile three i was just mentally thinking to my and this is the key uh as you're running to figure out where your legs are at on the freshness scale and it takes time to develop this uh no knowledge of your own body and especially your own legs where your legs are falling on that scale by mile three i was i was locked in and dialed in okay my legs they feel like they're at a five out of ten what does that mean for the rest of the taper my goal over the next eight days is to add a point every day so tomorrow at the end of tomorrow so sat when you're watching this on saturday on saturday night i want my legs to feel like a six on sunday a seven on monday and eight nine and then wednesday would be a ten and then two days to go before the peak race so i'm actually okay with feeling like a five i wasn't sure how the legs would feel especially after after the vest run a couple days ago um you know where i had 20 pounds on my back and yeah of course i'm going to be a little extra tired from that but that is my freshness scale and that's what happened on today's run and now i want to help all of you figure out and dial in to your training block to your tapering to your peak race and just at least plant seeds okay maybe in your next training block the last 12 days you can ask these three questions to you to yourself uh to make sure you're walking that line well between fitness and freshness so you arrive on that starting line ready to rock and roll okay question number one how do your legs feel on an easy day run in the last 12 days before a peak race ideally you do not want to feel your legs should not be feeling really dead the last 12 days before a peak race on an easy day okay on your recovery days especially at the end like you don't want to end whether your easy day is three miles whether it's six miles whatever your easy day is you don't want to be arriving back to your house or your school or wherever you're ending your run and being like oh boy i don't feel like i'm recovering at all that is not a good that's not a good sign okay so that's question number one to ask yourself uh for freshness where you're falling on that scale question number two how do your legs feel when you are getting out of bed in the morning okay i know personally when i am at the more let's say the 60 percent mark of a training block meaning i have 40 percent to go usually when i'm getting out of bed when my volume is high and the intensity of the of the workouts is starting to increase i feel like an old man i feel like an old man and i know i do not want to feel like that the last 12 days of a training block so that's question number two how do you feel getting out of bed how do your legs in fact frankly the last now that i'm thinking about it my legs are feeling pretty darn good uh getting out of bed like i'm not hobbling around like i need a cane so this is a good sign and question number three how do your legs feel when you do strides uh in the last 12 days so i always recommend at least twice a week doing four strides preferably like 110 120 meters so find a track or find a grass soccer field is even better and you it's not a sprint it's not an all-out sprint it's just a stride to get that turnover going and to make sure your legs are moving well um how do your legs feel in those strides do they have pop or do they feel like you're carrying cement in your shoes okay if you feel like you have cement in your shoes you might want to back off your volume even more the last 12 days of the training block or even you might need to get a massage you might need to stretch more sleep more eat well um that's a good telltale sign i've been in that situation before where even a simple stride feels like it's it's hard and that's for me and based on my experience that's not a good sign leading into a peak rate so those are the three questions i asked myself how do i feel after an easy day how do my legs feel in the morning uh after weight getting out of bed and how do my legs feel doing four strides it should feel relaxed and you should feel confident and smooth you shouldn't feel like you have to dig okay it's like that nice smooth rhythm okay all right i think that's it for today i i hope i hopefully i'm not making it too complicated for all of you but that freshness scale one to ten uh just dialing in and yes question of the day do you feel like you are dialed into how your overall body but especially your legs feel leading into a peak race how do you determine if your legs are fresh or overworked okay um in that fair walk in the line so that's a question of the day i know it's very niche very specific but i'm just trying to instill and help all of you uh have an insight especially okay here's what's since i didn't get to run cleveland i was unable to share some of these insights with all of you leading into that peak race because i had the injury so now that i have pikes peak it's like i can finally share some of my thoughts with all of you uh so that's what we're going to be doing here on the vlog over the next week and just helping you hopefully dial into your racing leading into your big peak races all right and yes if you want to dive more into freshness versus fitness i have a vlog on the left for all of you that i made about six months ago and then i'm going to pull a graze peak run from last summer 2018 on the right thanks for being there thanks for watching i love you all see beauty work hard and love each other see you tomorrow