70 miles running last week. I didn't even realize I ran that much. And then on Wednesday (9/2) I was ran12 miles, it was about80 degrees and sunny, and I just felt like I had no turnover. Usually on an easy day I can run 7:15-7:30's no problem, but on this day I was cruising at 7:45-8:00's and my HR was in the mid 130's. I was starting to try and figure out what the deal was, so I looked at ye olde training log and noticed I did 70 miles in the past 7 days. That will do it as I'm used to running closer to 45 miles per week.
Plus I don't get enough sleep. I read about how Deena Kastor gets about 12 hours of sleep per day. That has to be the biggest benefit of running for a living. I'm lucky to get 6 hours per night. What kind of recovery am I getting? I'm trying to eat better though and my weight has dropped to about 165 pounds, which isn't too bad. But it's really hard to get enough rest with waking up for work everyday at 0430 and getting to bed at 2200.
Last night was an easy 5 miler for recovery - legs felt pretty good. Today I may just inline skate for 30 minutes and then tomorrow morning run 16 or 17 and with the last 1/2 dozen miles at 6:40 pace. The pace will be adjusted depending on HR and how I feel. The last thing I want to do is run myself into the ground.
Next weekend I need to run a 25 miler. I love the long runs. They are nice and peaceful and relaxing. And I try to run them slow enough, around 8:00 pace, so they don't leave me too wasted.
3 day weekend too. Woohoo!

Running some Trails

Trails. About time I ran some. Lord Hill is only 15 minutes from my house and I hardly ever run there. I actually got in a 60 minute run yesterday though, I only took one wrong turn. It ended up taking a couple miles off of my run. The downhills were pretty sketchy, it was like running on marbles. Some of the newer single track was great to run though, lots of traction, up and over fallen trees, hardly every stright. Good stuff for sure.

I didn't see any bears or cougars either. Although at the trail entrance they have the proverbial "what to do if you encounter a cougar while out on the trail" sign. Youmean, besides crap my shorts? I could offer one a gel or something if I have one on me. Would that be more tasty than...my throat? Not sure. Anyhoo, it was a great morning for a run. I need to get out there at least once per week at least until Baker Lake 50K is here.

Watch movie September 21st

http://www.ageofstupid.net/usa

Here's the link so you can find where it is playing wherever you live. Are we as dumb as a lot of so called expertws say we are? Probably. But watch the movie and find out why we don't do anything to save ourselves when we had the chance.

Here's a link to the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZjsJdokC0s

There are lots and lots of arguments that climate change for the negative either is - or is not -happening. Either way it is really interesting. I think global weirding, as coined by Thomas Friedman, seems to be the best description of what is going on. But I am not a scientist. I just read a lot of books. But with all the weird weather going on in the past couple years it certainly makes me stop and think about what is going on. The valley that sits below my house has flooded the past 3 of 5 years. Before that it used to flood once every 20 years or so. Tsunamis? Can we blame earthquakes? What caused the destabilization to produce the quake? New Orleans flooded. Hmmm. 109 degrees F in Seattle. We are the same latitude as Montreal. Something that isn't right is going on. It may or not be normal, but evolution of the earth is progressing whether you want to believe we caused it or not.

Tully's - I don't drink coffee...

but I sure eat donuts. I've been hovering between 165 and 170 pounds for the past 2 years. Last year I pedaled about 10,000 miles on the bicycle. This year I will be pushing 2000 running. I should be rail thin but people at work keep giving me Tullys cards for helping them, which is a nice gesture, but I just eat too many donuts. 500 calories and 20 grams of fat. What a waste of caloric intake! Sure, if I were 120 miles into a 160 mile ride it would probably be one of the best things to eat. Maybe even 30 miles into a run it would hit the spot. But at 600 in the morning it is something I should just not consume, yet for some reason I can almost never say no. I need to start giving these stupid cards away when they are given to me, and then I might just make it down to 160 and after that 2:55 marathons should be a bit easier to attain.

Baker Lake 50K here I come

Well, I think I'm going to do this race. I'm not exactly in ultra shape, but this is barely past a marathon. I ran it before, finished 10th overall after not having run more than 15 miles. Seriously. I was running that far pretty frequently, so I just decided to run 15 miles 2 days in a row 3 weeks before the race. I ran slow. But it worked. I survived. And did OK too.

This year I have time to get in a couple 20+ mile runs. I've been doing 13-14 mile runs at 6:40 - 6:45 pace so I should be able to go out and run these at 8:00 pace OK. It's only been a couple months since I last ran a marathon anyway. Although I still think like a bike rider where I think I can just jack up my mileage and not pay the consequences. We'll see what happens though. I'll run 20+ tonight and mail in the entry afterwards.

Hopefully my next blog heading doesn't say...No Baker Lake...or something like that.

Books I need to read + other comments

1. Cradle to Cradle by Michael Braungart

2. Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken

3. Plan B 3.0 by Lester R. Brown

4. $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better by Christopher Steiner

This is the short list right now. I'm currently in the middle of reading 2 other books, so I'm not about to engage myself in 3. Looking at the seriousness of these titles makes me realize I'm getting old; or maybe I'm finally starting to figure out my place and how I can make a difference. Naaa! I'm not really that philosophical, I must be getting old. It's just getting harder and harder for me to keep interested in books that are carbon copies of previously written books. Sure, the character development is a little different, the plot make twist "unexpectedly" every now and again. But the unpredictable nature of sitcom books as I like to call them is predictable.

I'm recently read a Thomas Friedman book (well, most of it before I lost it somewhere : ) ) and Auden Schendler's Getting Green Done - which was a very engaging and somewhat frustrating read. Only frustrating because I can relate to so many of the obstacles to overcome and I am not in a powerful enough position to change policy. Books like this are opening my eyes up to a new America which is quickly marching itself into the new dark ages. Everyone is so caught up in the now that they forget that in 10 or 20 years some of the choices they make, or do not make or going to be severely impacting the climate, culture, and economy of this country. But this is America, home of the fat and out of shape, and I may start adding apathetic to my favorite descriptive gibberish of this country. But I don't have time to write about apathy right now, I can only control what I do anyway. But it could snowball for a while...maybe next time.

Fat Guy Gripe

If I see one more hot girl holding hands with a fat dude I am going to kill myself. Well, not seriously, but I will roll my eyes and wonder what the firetruck is going on here. I ran on the trail in Snohomish a bunch last week and I don't know how many times I've seen it. Or they are riding bikes together and the girl is just in super shape, awesome smile, and the dude she is with has a big beer belly, or is just plain fat. C'mon guys, if I had a super hot girlfriend I'd at least try to keep myself fit. Who hasn't seen an "Adult" movie with some big fat slob of a guy on some hot chick, it's disgusting. Are these guys that nice? Do they make that much money? Is personality really that much of an attraction? Seriously. We are such a superficial culture -just like my little rant is proving)- how can this make sense? Are the girls just humongo bitches that no one else will put up with? I doubt it. Maybe they just paid for the girlfriend experience. Yea, that must be it.