Hello everyone! First I would like to thank Tim Bergsten, Ron Ilgin and Mike Mazzola for letting be apart of the PikesPeakSports.us Triple Crown Running Team.  Should be a fun year getting ready for all these races.

I hope everybody’s training is going well. I still remember after the Pikes Peak Marathon last year, I could hardly walk but wanted to go for a short run to loosen up the tired legs. On that short run I began to think of how to improve my training plan for next year. I had visions of 70 to 100 mile weeks, speed workouts on the track, strength training at the gym, fitness boot camps, hot yoga and of course a super clean diet to get rid of some of that extra weight. Also I planned on a great collection of running club shirts that I would be rewarded for my many miles of running and numerous pints of exotic beers drank.

Well, here we are in the middle of May and, well, none of the above!! (I don’t even have a Jack Quinns shirt…I am surprised they let me on this team). I always seem to have great plans but as everybody knows ... Life Happens!  Implementing those training plans into our already busy lives is often impossible, but it’s still fun to dream.

Has anybody else studied Matt Carpenter’s Pikes Peak Pace Calculator for hours, plugging in different numbers and saying to yourself, if I run faster here, if I rest more here, drink or eat more here, I can get to the frickin' top faster? Well I hate to admit it, but I have!

In my head I am a great runner. If only my legs knew this. I joined Lifetime Fitness so I could do strength training, boot camp and some hot yoga. So far I have only used the pool to take my son swimming. Oh, and I have used the showers after a few of my runs when I was running late for work and couldn’t get home.

I guess what I am getting at is that it's harder to make time for the training, than to do the actual training.  Being a newly single (going through a divorce) dad,  my great plans are often set aside by things like paying bills, housework, having clean underwear for work, keeping my yard green, sleep and all those other dream killers in our daily lives.

I should consider myself lucky because my job requires that I work only three 12-hour shifts a week. They rotate between day and nights. I guess in this economy I am lucky to even have a job! But I am still waiting for a shoe company that is looking for an aging clydesdale to sponsor!

With all that whining out of the way, I have actually had a pretty good year of running thanks to the Incline Club.  I started with this club last year after my first Pikes Peak Marathon in 2010, and haven’t missed many workouts since.

I was a bit intimidated to join this club at first but it was the best thing I have done for my running.  We start in November with runs on Sunday that progress in length and time as the year goes on. We then start speedwork on the Barr Trail on Thursday’s that begin in April.

This club has many people with years and years of experience running these races. Their motto: Go out hard, when it hurts speed up!  

I feel pretty good about my hill climbing but have realized that have put a lil too much time on the mountain and not enough running on the flat stuff.  I can run up farther and longer on the mountain, but just not very fast and I seem slower now on the flatter parts. Now that I find myself running the Triple Crown, I need to start getting some better leg turnover, especially  for the Garden of the Gods 10 miler.

Well I have to go throw my underwear in the dryer and go mow my yard, then I promise I am going to go to the gym to do something besides use the shower.  If you are looking for somewhere to train, come out with all of us at the Incline Club on Sunday’s and Thursdays.  Wishing everybody a great year of injury free running!  See ya all out there and smile because you never know, Tim could be around the next corner to take your picture!

Don