5 days to Rocky Raccoon

(Painting by Jason Alexander Cruz - http://www.jasonalexandercruz.com/paintings.html

Well, crap. The big day is almost here. Yes, I am excited to run. I really want to find out how my preparation was. Of course I will doubt that it was enough. I didn't run any more than 41 miles. Oh well. What can you do now?

It is pretty exciting though. My time for the race is like my report card.

My grades will be as follows, each number represents hours:

Under 18 - A++++++++

Under 20 - A

Under 22 - B

Under 24 - C

Over 24 - D

DNF - F. FAILURE!!!!! UNACCEPTABLE!

I think the DNF is what scares me the most. I put a lot of work into this stupid ass run. Waking up at at 4:00 a.m. on weekends so I can get 30 miles in...running late during the week and never getting enough sleep so I can get miles in...running late on Saturday night into Sunday morning so I can get miles in...my family putting up with all the crap about me obsessing about miles. So the bottom line is DNF is not an option. I'll type it right now, if I DNF I will end up in a hospital. That's the truth too. I can't see myself DNF-ing in any other way. I worked my ass off for this one run. I enjoyed most of it too. But it's time to see what I'm made off. Am I a poser or this really what I want to do?

Lots of questions will be answered about myself when I am in the middle of the Texas woods in the middle of the night in the middle of a 100 mile foot race. This is the only place I can really find my spiritual side. I don't go to church. I don't believe in the church anyway. God? Maybe...maybe not. But I believe in myself. I believe in my family and how they nurtured me and brought me up to be what I am today. I know I will have lots of long conversations with my brother. I am really looking forward to that. I will ask him lots of questions and maybe - just maybe - I might get some answers if I dig deep enough and listen to everything around me. This race will also give me lots of time to think about life, what I really want to get out of it, what I have put into it so far, etc. Am I on the right path in life (and the trail too : )? What choices should I make as my life continues? I know I have some really big choices to make. Maybe I will be able to get deep inside myself enough to uncover the answer.

5 more days.

Less than 2 weeks to Rocky Raccoon 100

and I've been sick, hurt, beat up, ran through the ringer, etc. Seriously, I am really beat up and it's only 12 days until race day.

I'm just getting over a sinus infection and pink eye, oh! the joys of having kids. They bring everything home from school to share with their parents. I still feel that I'm pretty lucky as I made it all the way until my last weekend of training before I got sick. I seriously thought I would get sick way before that time. I don't know how many runs I completed that were 30+ miles, only to spend the rest of the day chasing the kids around the house, or taking them somewhere to play (or maybe I just tag along because I want to play too) and then follow it up with 5 hours of sleep and repeat.

I think my body just finally said, "Enough is enough. if you want me to carry your dumb ass 100 miles through the Texas trails then you better give me a break." My hip is getting better though. Motrin stick should come back down since I shouldn't have t eat those things like jelly beans on Easter morning anymore.

I am getting pretty excited to run though. I think it will be a great experience. I think I've learned enough patience to understand how to run such a long distance. I know I can't have a great run in the first 50-60 miles, all I can do is ruin the last part by trying to go too fast too soon. I really want to avoid going into survival mode any sooner than necessary.

We'll see what happens. I can't wait to find out!

Bridle Trails 50K

Yes, my shirt is on inside out on purpose. I'm not into advertising for free. In principle anyway.

The more I run off road the closer I find to coming what I'm looking for - that perfect event or activity - the one that makes you feel like, "This is what I want to do!" I know of many people that have a career which gives them that sensation, but not me, I have a job that pays the bills that allows me to play outside; definitely not a career. Sure, I was in Kirkland, the anti of playing outside to get away from everything, but deep in the woods in the pitch black, with no other runners around, ducking from yet another bat swooping at my head, I almost forgot I was so close to civilization. The tunnel vision of my headlamp trying to locate every thick mud bog played tricks on my mind. With the ground such a dark chocolate it was hard to tell if you were going to step in something stable or soupy. After a while I got sick of trying to figure it out and just ran straight. Each lap was more and more peaceful as the night sounds slowly increased and the traffic on the nearby roads slowly dissipated. I'm really starting to get into the ultra off road crap, it is so nice to run with either a few people you know, or solo and enjoy being outside. The older I get the less I care about my time or place in the "race," and the more I enjoy still being able to get out and enjoy a 31 mile run through the muddy woods. Glen and I were going to run together for the most part, but he became a bit impatient with the early traffic from the shorter races and went into race mode disappearing in the woods ahead of me.. I hung back, ran with Terry Sentinella for a while since he is also running the 100 in TX next month, and enjoyed the ride. I just ticked off each lap and stayed consistent, my last 5 laps were within 1 minute of each other. Somehow I passed Glen, but neither one of us could figure how since the run is all single track. Another 30+ mile training run checked off and now less than 4 weeks before TX. I don't know if I should be getting excited or scared...
I finished - 8th in 4:31
Glen - 19th in 4:50

Mayday Mayday!!!!!

Had a tough training week last week. 80 or so miles. A nice comfortable 32 miles on Saturday and then a horrendous 21 miles Sunday. I kind of had a feeling that Sunday was going to be a bad run. All week long my runs sucked. I wasn't getting any sleep either. But I figured I would just tough it out and eventually I would feel fine.

Plan B

I started off OK. The weather was prefect - mid 40's with clouds. I set the GPS to run 21 miles @ 8:30 pace - usually fairly easy to maintain 8:30's during a training run no matter how bad I feel. Anyway, everything was going great for the first 8 miles. Except for some reason the 8:30's were a bit harder to maintain. Most times I use the GPS "virtual trainer" to make sure I don't run too fast so I don't wear myself out on these runs. This run, however, it took a little bit of effort to maintain the pace. The next thing I kn0w I'm out of power. I didn't bonk. I just couldn't really run anymore. So I had to pretend I was at the end of a 100 mile run and go into survival mode. I walked 1/10th of every mile for a little bit, then I ran 2 mile and walked .15 of a mile. Eventually I started feeling a little bit better, although I ended up finishing my run 20 minutes slower than I wanted to. But I learned a lot on this run. Be patient. Your legs will come back. Keep your nutrition up and you will be fine. It wasn't a disaster, it was actually very beneficial. Now I just need an easy week to get all my systems running strong as the 100 miler isn't all that far away.

Next up...Bridle Trails 50K in Kirkland. And I am going to run easy, nothing faster than 8:00 minute miles!!! I have to keep telling myself that.

Here is my run from the other night. It's kind of hard to read but the stats are as follows:

Date 12/12/09 - run started at 9:15 pm
Distance - 33.51 miles
Average pace - 8:09
Max Pace - 6:37

Not too bad of a night's run. My achilles was starting to hurt at the end, it wasn't really that bad, but I didn't want to push anything. I still have quite a few 30 mile runs left before the hundy. Right now I am in the middle of a lower mileage (38) week which is doing wonders for the body. All my aches and pains are disappearing, and the other night running with Glen B. we actually ran soem mileage at 5:31 per mile, which felt fast but it was good to get down and run that fast, as it's been months since I've run that fast.

The training has been going really well. I've done some 80+ mile weeks and don't even get sore from back to back weekend runs of 30 and 20. I follow that up with a couple of 15 milers during the week (along with some maintenance miles) and recovery from the daily runs has been awesome. I am getting pretty excited to run the Rocky Raccoon 100 in TX in February.

Tax this!! Love it!

This is not my thought, but I read it and loved it. Why the hell is the church tax free? We have to pay taxes on alcohol and cigarettes to poison our bodies...why shouldn't the churches that poison our minds be taxed?

Here is a comment in response to a newspaper article about the state of WA increasing taxes...good stuff.

"Here we go again, how about taxing things that are bad for you? Churches that put forth unproven b.s. and fantasys should be subject to entertainment taxes."

Would You Could You on a Train?

Gas prices are going to go up. It's a simple fact of life. The price of milk has gone up. The price of clothes (not made in a 3rd world country) has gone up. Car prices go up. A loaf of bread, a can of soup, soda, beer, as time passes all the prices increase. So why does everyone think that gas should be exempt from these rules. In the good ole USA we pay less for gas than Canada and Europe. Europeans have evolved and have created alternate means of transportation - say hello to high speed trains! Canada just piggybacks the USA - so do they really count anyway? Our country on the other hand, sits back and complains and thinks we are owed cheap gas by everyone out there. Sure, the oil execs are making a buttload of money. But so are the execs from every other company. Are they overpaid? Of course. Are they a bunch of crooked pieces of crap? Most likely. I am not here trying to defend them. I think only a crooked lawyer with no small degree of ethics could comfortably do so. But why do we think we should have 99 cent per gallon gas forever? If it was up to me I would increase the taxes on gasoline right now. And put the money to alternate uses to create a new and more socially responsible transportation network.

Trains are up to 3 times more energy efficient compared to airplanes

Would you take a train from Seattle to NYC if it took only 14 hours? Yes, you can take an airplane in 6 hours. Wrestle with airport security. Pray your luggage doesn't get lost. Have 6 inches of leg room and be the meat of a fat person sandwich that reeks of stale potato chips and cheap beer. Or you can stretch out on a high speed train, take a nap, watch a movie, have a warm meal, have direct access to your luggage, uninterrupted Internet and enjoy a quiet and peaceful commute while seeing the beautiful country. It's possible in many other countries in the world, why not here? London to Paris is a fairly quick trip. Japan has many high speed trains. There are many places in the world building more infrastructure - Russia and China are two prime examples. Of course the cost of this would be enormous - in the billions- but if we add a tax on the gas the average gluttonous American uses and put all the money into this endeavor it will help us in the future as gas prices inevitably rise. How about Seattle to Portland? NYC to Chicago? LA to San Francisco? Washington DC to Philly and NYC? Oops- that already exists and is hugely popular.

Will it happen before it needs to happen? Probably not. We have turned into such a reactive country as opposed to a proactive one. People do not start saving money until they don't have any. They don't exercise until they have a heart attack. They don't change their diet until their arteries are clogged. They don't change their driving habits until they are forced to pay $4.25 per gallon. What happens when it becomes $ 7 -8.00 per gallon? What will happen when we are forced to drive our Tahoes, Expeditions and the like when it costs $165.00 to fill the tank. Of course the public will cry foul. Scream about how we are being ripped off. Which may or may not be true. But the world is going to run out of oil someday, that is fact. The world is suffering horribly for the pollution of the world's oil consumption. I could forever argue this but don't have the time nor the typing skills to write as quickly as my mind emits facts (there are tons of books out there already).

The bottom line is we, as a country, need responsibility to be thrust at us. We need policy change. We need someone to hold our hand and tell us that we need to do this, or that, and that acting in a certain way just isn't the right way. We need responsible leaders that can tell us why and lay out the groundwork so idiot America can comprehend the whys and
and hows we need to change before we are forced to. There is no crystal ball to tell the exact price of oil in 5, 8 or 10 years. But we do know that we will run out. We do know prices will go up. We do know oil consumption is a huge factor to negative climate change. Let's be ready for it before it cripples us a nation.