Between work, volunteer, personal and junk I receive on average 200 emails a day.  Few subjects will catch my attention and cause me to skip ahead and read before all of the rest.   My good friend Sonya and trusty early morning “sweat sister” cleverly (likely without knowing) titles her emails so they are always the first things I read.  In training for this Summer Roundup,…

     Running with the recommended cadence of 180 steps a minute equates to a mere 0.33 seconds of stance time per step. In an hour's run, that's 10,800 DIFFERENT points of contact your foot makes with the ground. To keep up, bodies are go through internal changes to paradoxically remain the same and maintain homeostasis. Fine tuning energy production, regulating body temperature, redistributing blood flow, all so we can keep on keepin' on. That simple act of running sure involves a ton of…

Recently I had a client ask me about why she was having side cramps from running when she felt like she was in decent shape and was working on making sure her breathing was rhythmic and not erratic.  She is training to do the Pikes Peak Ascent and so she is mainly trail running and normally has the side aches when she is running downhill.  I explained to her that it could be…

I fell off the wagon.

I think it was a post-race proverbial "hang-over" that was completely alcohol free but laced with plenty of ice cream and diet soda. I know, quite a bender.

After the Garden of the Gods 10-Mile, I rested for a couple of days. That became almost a week. Then my wife went out of town with the kids. I had good intentions, I really did. But I just didn't run much.

Then I went on vacation with the family and you know how that goes... never is there as…

July 1st, 2011

I arrived Bristol Brewing Company around 4:30pm, anxiously awaiting the upcoming event. A beer release party featuring one of their very popular Community Ales, the Cheyenne Piñon Nut Brown. In tow, over 50+ items from various gear companies and stores, ready to giveaway.…

What a great way to start the day…..at the Sailin’ shoes 5K. I hadn’t giving much thought about signing up for the race, my coach/friend/motivator Nancy’s nudge of encouragement of ”you really should add some speed work into your training and besides you’re planning on running Saturday morning anyway”.   Had me pointed to the running store and signing up.

As always it’s heart warming to see several friends and familiar faces in the crowd getting ready for the race to…

Barefoot running, is it a new fad, a good idea, or just a way to get hurt really easily?  I read Born to Run, and thought that not only was it a good book, but many of the ideas and bio-mechanics behind barefoot running made sense.  So like many people I went out and bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers, and after spending last summer training in them, short runs only nothing over six miles, I was hooked.  I could really tell a…

Well folks, we’ve been talking about it for quite some time. And, we’ve decided to pull up our big boy pants, and move on from a “blog” and actually become a full, blown-out, fancy-schmancy website! We should be rolling out this new, streamlined uber-cool site TODAY (fingers crossed). It might take awhile, and things might get messy. BUT, just know, Team UpaDowna is working hard to make sure all of the OLD info from this site makes it to the NEW site in one piece….…

When the alarm goes off around 5:00am the dog stretches, opens one eye quizzically, then rolls over. I want to do the same, but the predicted temperture is close to mid nineties. I have some miles to do and I prefer not to bake myself in the process. It has all been coming back to me, Colorado running in the heat, bring water and gu for the long runs, and more water, oh, and water for the dog.

My runs are increasing in distance, so some days I can be out for a few hours or so. I feel…

In February I had recieved a post card in the mail from Team in Training for Leukemia and Lymphoma asking to come to a meeting to find out what they were about.  I thought, Ok, won't hurt, I had seen these people at races before.  Let's see what they have to say.  They said that we could do a Century bike race, a Sprint or Olympic style triathlon, or 1/2 or full Marathon.  The meeting stated that we would raise funds that would go towards Leukemia and Lymphoma and all blood cancers, we would…

From www.upadowna.com

Bristol Brewing’s Cheyenne Cañon Ale Release Party

What: UpaDowna Hike in the Cañon (meetup…

Due to a very hectic training and racing schedule my blog entry for this week will be to wish everyone the best of luck with their training, tapering, and racing endeavors.  May you hit your goals and compete injury free.

If you have any questions or comments please visit my website: www.elevationathletics.org

Friday June 17, 2011

     I took the day off from work to head down to LAKE CITY, CO for the SAN JUAN SOLSTICE 50 MILE RUN. Joining me would be a friend, Fahren, who serendipitously had connections to a house in Lake City, and two other relative newbies to ultrarunning like myself- Brendan Trimboli and Aaron Marks (both doing the Leadville 100 in August). The four of us, Fahren's cocker spaniel/maltese name Izzi, and my lab Charlie Brown loaded (just barely) into my…

ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE runners woke up to a crisp, clear morning with temps in the low to mid 50’s.  Absolutely perfect by my standards.  I was greeted at my house by Danielle, one of my “sweat sisters” who has spent the last EIGHT weeks cheering us on as she nurses her high ankle sprain back to life and Deb, friend and fellow runner excited and nervous as a…

 I was recently on a field trip with my son in Denver, with about ten other schools from around the state.  While there I could not help but noticing how rampant the obesity epidemic is in this state, and the sad thing is we are the fittest state in the country.  The really unfortunate thing I noticed is the kids are following in the parents footsteps. ( I have to say that I did not notice this being as much of an issue for the kids or parents at my son's school.)  A few weeks ago I was up…

     As I mentioned in a previous post, my objective for the 1st event of the TRIPLE CROWN SERIES at the GARDEN OF THE GODS was to put forth a solid effort , NOT RACE. Preparation for the run was nearly flawless. Pre-race massage two days before, check. Easy bike and swim the day before, check. In bed the night before at 10 pm, check. The morning of the event, I even got a great warm up on the two miles or so from my house to the start. Talk about convenience! Arriving…