Loser lost

I made no secret of being a bit concerned about this season's Biggest Loser. Don't get me wrong, their marathon running shenanigans is part of what got me running again and I give credit where due. It's one thing to have a bunch of class 3 obese people who have spent 12 weeks being relentlessly trained run 26.2 miles but it's an entirely different animal to allow the people who have been voted off to play along.

To be honest, to take a casual runner, someone who has run a few 5k races to a marathon in 12 weeks is grossly irresponsible and honestly, legally negligent if they get injured. The body just simply cannot adapt that quickly to the increased load. The odds of getting injured, game endingly injured are HUGE. In prior seasons, I've let it go since this is a fairly unique study. All of these people are trained for six days a week by world class trainers and have 24/7 access to sports medicine specialists. When you start sending people home, out into the real world, where they can't devote 8 hours a day, 6 days a week to training; when a trip to the doctor requires an appointment, a co-pay (if you are insured) and a doctor that has half a clue about sports medicine to even begin to correct any injury, it's just criminal to encourage these people to attempt that distance.

Watching last night's episode, I noticed that more people were wearing knee braces than not. So, we have a lot of people with some manner of tendinopathy doing weight bearing exercises for our entertainment. Considering the injuries they are risking by not resting, this is no longer entertaining to me...but that's not what sealed it.

They did their usual "where are they now" with the voted off contestant and she was bright eyed, looking good and excited about her new life. Then she goes on to brag about her 20 mile long run...wait, didn't she have a stress fracture? Then they cut to video of her running or shall I say limping and hobbling along. So they are condoning having a still overweight woman RUNNING on a damaged limb? I'm sorry but we passed irresponsible two exits ago.

I wish all the contestants well but I don't think watching them risk their health is entertainment.

Peace

I was thinking about this during yesterday's long run. Running gives the best sense of community with people I don't know that I've ever felt. Sure, it's not the first group identity I've ever had, it likely won't be my last but I think it has to do with the shared feelings of some very powerful emotions that gives this whole "Kuria Ba"* vibe.

I was running along, seeing people who were having their last long run before the Harrisburg Marathon and their last long run of the season. There is the pride of accomplishment beaming out of so many faces. They know they are ready, there is also the melancholy feeling that this is the end of the season, the last we will see each other for a few months. Everyone is bright and alert, soaking it all in, knowing that there are just too few days like this. It's odd that people I know as "Mutt & Jeff," "The Little Brunette Girl," "Serious Guy" and "Giggles" mean something to me and I suppose I to them. I know virtually nothing about them but the little things I know are important.

Running is so primal that it brings forth emotions. You will know pain, you will know exuberance, you will know utter exhaustion, you will win, you will lose, you will be afraid and you will be a super-hero. You know about blisters, about chafing, about heat, about sweat and you'll know that crossing the finish line make all of it worth it. They acknowledge you when they see you, seldom trading more than a single word of encouragement...but they are always encouraging, they know you need it. Your friends really don't understand, they love you so they listen, they ask questions and they do their best but it's like explaining petting a kitten to someone who's seen a picture of one.

So we smile and we wave at each other and I'm very aware of a strong sense of community. I will miss these people over the winter. I'll keep running and I'm sure they will too but once it becomes cold, there is no longer a best time to run so the odds of seeing each other dwindles. I flash each of them a peace sign when they pass. They smile brightly because they know it's a sincere wish, that each day would bring them this feeling. We are one.

*Kuria Ba - Is a greeting of the Raramuri people meaning "We are one." The Raramuri came to the attention of runners around the world as a result of the Christopher McDougall book "Born to Run."

Winterizing

Time to break out the cold gear, the gloves, the balaclava but more importantly, time to recompute what an "easy" pace is.

One of the things that's not always obvious is that really your run pace is about effort and training your cardio and energy delivery systems more than it is about how fast you are really traveling...that part of the training is, comparatively easy. That's why I love wearing my heart rate monitor when the seasons change, my new "easy" pace is almost 40 seconds faster than it was.

Some of the other challenges of winter running are hydration and nutrition. I still haven't figured out how to keep the water from getting insanely cold or solid. So far the best I can come up with is bringing very warm water. The bottles are so poorly insulated that this only buys me half an hour or so. I had come up with a solution to nutrition but I didn't like it. The cold tends to thicken up gels and it's hard to get them out of the package or the gel bottle. I went to the Clif Bloks. I'm usually a GU guy and like the flavor of the Chomps better BUT the packaging is stupid. Trying to dig a single Chomp out of the bag with a gloved hand and then reseal the pouch while on the run is trying. I like that I can just peel open the wrapper on the Bloks when I want another. I accidentally found a third way that I'm trying tomorrow. I forgot that I am out of gel for my long run tomorrow but we were on our way to the grocery store, I went over to their aisle where they have nutritional supplement type things and I was just looking for anything. I could make 9 miles un-fueled so, maybe even a Clif Bar. I was looking at their offerings and noticed PowerBar Energy. It's in similar packaging to a gel but it is obviously a lot wetter. I looked on the back. Hmmmm, caffeinated, two sugar sources, sodium and potassium...sounds like gel! If this stuff will flow out of the gel bottle, I'm going to be VERY happy, unless it tastes terrible.

Serendipity

Sometimes, things take pretty interesting turns.
Last night, Doreen and I decided to stop by and visit for a moment with one of our former Weight Watchers leaders, JoAnn. She's one of the two amazing leaders who's meetings I attended. We talked for a few minutes, caught up and I mentioned that I was now an RRCA certified running coach. Apparently there are a lot of her members have taken up running to help with their weight loss and she asked if I'd be interesting in coming in and giving a short "how to do it right" kinda thing.

SERIOUSLY!?!

Help turn some overweight people into runners and overweight runners into better runners? Well YES, I believe that is exactly the kind of thing I'm interested in doing. I'm hoping that RRCA will get me set up on their website so I can get their liability insurance because, it's time to do this thing.

Refocusing

I've not stopped blogging here, I just don't have a lot interesting to say right this moment. The racing season is over and I'm taking a week off of running to let the legs fully recover and I'm getting back to eating right to lose the remainder of the weight. Honestly the video that Doreen caught of me crossing the line in the most recent 5k is a great help. I look like I'm wearing a trash bag filled with jello...no, you can't see it. I'm still waiting for my addition to the RRCA's coach webpage and in a couple of days, it will officially be three weeks and time for me to get uppity about it. I need to do something with the website I am going to set up for coaching but that's just been on the back burner lately. We are now well under the thirty day mark for our trip to Walt Disney World and soon the packing will commence. It's too early to pack clothing and toiletries but not too early to start assembling some of the items that might otherwise be forgotten and that rookies don't think to take to a theme park.

So, life is good. Kuria Ba my friends.

Have a plan

This most recent race demonstrated this for me in a way I'd not yet experienced and I just have to remind those who don't: Always have a race day plan.

I'm not talking about a step-by-step plan but I'm stunned by how many people go out on a race course with no more of a strategy than "I'm going to run fast." Heck, even the seemingly innocuous goals like "I won't take any walk breaks" can kill you.

I'll be honest. I tore past a lot of much better athletes. They were more fit and clearly better trained, they were also very simple-minded in how they ran.

Their very first problem is that they had obviously read none of the race instructions. A person doesn't need to memorize exactly where each and every water station is but it's good to know if there will be one nearby at a nutrition interval. If you just pour gel down the hatch without any water to dilute it, it will be some time before you get any benefit from that gel.

They also obviously didn't have any goals. If you don't know what you want to do in a race...how can you judge how well you are doing? Have tiers of goals and conditions for each. Going into the race I didn't know how well the hamstring was going to hold up or what kind of cardio condition I really had so my minimum goal was to finish. I knew the cut-off time of the race (YA reason to read the instructions) and I knew I could if anything gave out after mile 5, I could still walk to the end and meet the deadline. The second goal was what I expected, a nice sedate 11:20 m/m pace. I had done this in long runs and I was sure I could do it for the entire length of the course if I just felt okay. Then I had the goal for if everything went right, if I reached mile 3 and everything felt good, I wanted to tie my fastest time (It wasn't REALLY a PR since I wasn't racing) of 2:11.

The best part of having a plan with time goals is that you only have to run your own race. Once I decided to run the race, I was focused on what would allow me to run as fast as possible. While slogging up one rather steep hill, I stopped running. My heart rate was climbing and I was burning lots of fuel and not really moving that fast. A trio of men ran past and one was reminding the others of their goal to not stop running. By the time they reached the apex of the hill, they were utterly exhausted and barely moving at a trot. I blasted past them and never saw them again.

To make any of this work, you have to be honest. Where are your strengths and weaknesses? If you don't have an honest notion of your ability, you can't be mindful when you are burning energy for no good reason. One young lady let it get into her head that I was a better hill runner than she was. I would trot past her on the modest climbs and as I neared the top, she would go racing past...occasionally being forced to a walk by the top of the hill. She wasted her energy surging past me on hill climbs 6 to 8 times during the race. Finally, I stopped seeing her...she finished a solid 5 minutes behind me.

There is one other part of my plan that makes a huge difference...plan your music. If the course allows music and you run with music, take a moment to tailor the playlist. If you know the bad parts of the course, the times where you know your energy is going to be low and the only thing on your mind is quitting, have a sound track that sets your soul on fire. It was no accident that as I was coming up on the 3 mile mark, Disturbed's Indestructable filled my ears.

Part 2

If you just downloaded the app and got new pace numbers over various training and race distances...it isn't really very helpful alone.

There are two things that make a good training program work; progressive overload and overload and recovery cycles. In more simple terms, for each training sequence the runs get longer or faster (never both) and you've got to have adequate recovery time so that the body can adapt.

So, how do you get in your mileage while giving enough time to recover? By alternating your longer runs with short, easy recovery runs in your plan. The math they taught us is that 30% of your raw weekly mileage is composed of your long run, 20% (each) of your weekly mileage is your harder mid week runs and 10% (each) are two recovery runs. The other two days are for rest.

Each week, 5% mileage is added to the program. When in doubt, first add the mileageto the long run, then to the longer mid week runs and lastly to the recovery runs.

So let's say we have a fit person running 5 miles a day, 5 days a week. That's 25 miles a week...decent base mileage for anyone. So, 30% of that mileage leaves us with a 7.5 mile long run. 20% of the 25 gives us 2 runs at 5 miles each and the two "recovery runs" are 2.5 miles. Since no one runs half miles really, use some sense in rounding: First week on a new program, long run is 7 miles to build confidence and recovery runs are at 3. So then the week becomes: Sun - 7; Mon - Rest; Tues - 3; Wed - 5; Thur - 3; Fri - 5; Sat - Rest. Next week, add another 5% so mileage becomes 26 miles. The long run becomes 8 and the rest stay the same. The following week, add a mile to one of the longer mid week runs...and on and on for the duration of the plan.

There is a bit more to the progression, lots of what-if and knowing your athlete that still make a good coach a decent thing to have but this is the basics of how you keep getting faster and running further. Running the same mileage daily is a lot like going to the gym, putting the same weight on the bar, doing a single set of eight reps and going home. You will see almost the same progress in the beginning as you would with a good program but progress will slow down and eventually that workout will only serve to maintain your fitness.

It's interesting to note that this was an exercise in the class, create a plan for turning a 5 miler into a half-marthoner within 16 weeks safely. The most conservative group got his base fitness there in just 12 weeks. With 3 more weeks of speed building and a week of taper, a solid plan came together.

Even with the promise of a few weeks of speedwork, it can be tough to see, much less BELIEVE how slower makes you faster...even if you can go further. Three things are what make this happen. The energy system required for everything more than a mile in length is fundamentally the same. It is best trained by use. The longer you are running, the more efficient that energy delivery system becomes. The other factor is your body. Running slower means you'll be running for a longer duration, your muscles, bones, lungs, heart and connective tissue all become stronger. Finally...you believe. Your central governor will know that you are okay with this distance, it will be comfortable with the stresses and it won't see anything out of the ordinary or difficult about what you are doing. It will allow you to use a lot more of your energy without fighting you.

Part 2 coming soon

I had some questions from Zach today and it seems that while I might have made a post to answer Katie's question about pace, I have caused questions about how it goes together. I've got some studying to get done tonight but hopefully tomorrow I can give an idea how to use that shiny new pace number in practice to go further and faster.

One bit of teaser: We did a class exercise on building a 16 training program for someone running five miles a day, five days a week and guess what every one of us reached:
Half-Marathon

Coaching, pace and fuel

My head is still swimming with things I learned. I'm still digging through the books and processing more things but one of the best things I took away was Team Oregon's method for training. Again, this is theirs, one of many, the official method of RRCA and the main teachers have MAD credentials but this doesn't invalidate anyone else's methods...any consistent training program will have you going further and faster. This is just one that they know works and they have the science to back it up.

The central notion to their training strategy in regard to pacing is the biological idea that "fat burns in a carbohydrate flame." The complex series of reactions that allow your body to use fat as fuel can only happen while your body is still able to use glucose and glycogen as well. The trick to to train our bodies to go easy on those glycogen stores so that they last the entire duration of the race so that you can continue to metabolize the fat. The problem is, which systems favor which fuel source. The glucose and glycogen burn anaerobically but to burn fat requires oxygen. This means if you are running outside of a sustainable Vo2Max, you are burning mostly glucose and glycogen...which you only have a solid ten minute supply. You'll hear 40 minutes but that figure assumes you aren't *JUST* burning glycogen, which unless you are Usain Bolt, is true.

So, the whole point of endurance training is threefold: First you train your body to endure the stress, strong muscles, strong bones, strong connective tissue...this is all why walking as a first step rocks. This part takes the longest but is the most easily done. Move more and your body will get stronger. Step two is to train your body's energy systems. The only way to train your body to be good at burning fat while running is to...burn fat while running. This means keeping as much of the run aerobic as you can. Your body is naturally good at burning glucose and glycogen and it doesn't benefit from training this system at all. So, once you edge closer to your Vo2 max, you are no longer training your body to deliver energy, you are just training it to endure...not that this is always a bad thing, this as actually key for middle distance runners (think 800m to mile). The third thing you train is your brain, you have to know you can do this. You teach your brain that by...doing it. Runs more easily completed without pain and injury reinforce success.

So, back to energy. You really only want to work easy and long runs at 80% of Vo2 Max...some elite athletes will actually train lower than that and do it for longer for even better increases in endurance. Incidentally, this is why the Galloway program is so very effective. The athletes are kept below that number at all times, that makes them slower, that makes them go longer and that makes them VERY fit. It's funny in a way. These runners go slower so that the experience is less miserable and they take less time to recover but given the level of overall conditioning, a shift in training focus for a month could easily turn one of them into a very competitive racer.

So, armed with all this, I've done the math and my ideal training pace FAR slower than I thought. I know it seems counter intuitive that running slower will make me faster but as the body gets more efficient at producing energy, that will help as for the neuromuscular changes that need to happen...that's what speedwork is for.

If anyone wants help with pace math, let me know. I can set the app in motion.
If you want a copy of your own and have an Android powered phone it's Team Oregon Pace Wizard.

AROOOOOOOOOOOO!

The Spartan Sprint is over and I did it.
It was unequivocally the hardest physical thing I've ever done...yea, reflect on that a moment. Where the Warrior Dash is designed to be the craziest fricking day of your life, the Spartans are designed to...well as they say on the shirt "You'll Know At The Finish Line."

I got a spiffy race shirt and a surprisingly nice medal. It's heavy, it's attractive and after crossing the line I feel worthy of such a thing.

The first sign that this was going to hurt was when the race changed from 3 miles of hell to 4 and then 4.5 and THEN they added a water station. Water stations don't typically appear in Sprint level Spartan races. Once we watched the elite wave go (Hobie Call leading the way) straight up the slope, I knew why. I'll be honest, unless you are a Very experienced trail runner, this race would kick your ass without obstacles. We found ourselves racing UP ski runs and up the rocky areas under the lift and up and up and up. The vast majority of obstacles were merciless. The easiest thing I did all day was crawl through a 100 yard tunnel on my hands and knees. I climbed walls ranging from 4-10 feet tall, crawled under barbed wired that was 10" above the mud, carried a 5 gallon bucket filled with gravel down and then BACK UP a ski run, dragged a 20 lb cinderblock through a lake, hoisted 2 - 20 lb cinderblocks up a 30 foot a-frame, climbed a cargo net that was at least 30 feet high, rode down a high speed waterslide to start a swam a muddy lake, rope climbed up a sloped and greased wall, jumped over several feet of fire, tested my ability to throw a spear and did battle with three pugil stick wielding people.

I failed a few obstacles. There was a wall with blocks randomly screwed into it that you had to climb sideways across. I lost my grip and it cost me 30 burpees. There was a Karate Kid styled balance obstacle where logs had been placed in the ground, about 4 feet apart and you cross about 30 feet balanced on the top of the logs. I lost my balance and that was 30 burpees. When I got to the spear throw, I hit my mark BUT the spear slid back out. Guess what I had to do then.

I got beat up a little but very little in the way of actual injury. My hamstring was hurting pretty bad after crashing down a hill near the cargo net climb (honestly that caused my failure at the logs) and when I went down the slide the rocket scientist behind me didn't give me a second so he came crashing down into the back of my neck and I saw stars. Happily I had made a few friends on the course and they kept me from going under while I got my wits back about me.

I met some great people out there. There was a 60 year old woman that I was talking to who was slogging along with me. For quite a while I got to run with two extraordinary ladies dressed as an angel and a devil...I'm sorry I missed their finish.

There were some high points in the thing, I loved hoisting the blocks. In body weight exercises, I've still got some weight slowing me down but when I can measure my strength against a fixed weight, I'm apparently quite fearsome, even among other fit people. I was also proud of how I handled the "pugilists." There was a gap in people and they were talking among themselves. I could have dashed past... I roared a challenge, made eye contact and charged each one in turn and deflected their blows quite easily.

Now for the final bits: Will I do this race again? I am not sure. Hopefully, I'll be in better shape next year and I will want a rematch but given the very physical nature of this thing, I'm not running it if I'm not 100%.  If this sounds like something you can't do, you are right. Unless you are very, Very, VERY fit (4 miles of brutal trail running and 120 burpees is an easy day for you), there is no way you can manage this event. You have to find a way to do it anyway. It is a test about what's inside...and that's what you know at the finish line.

Frail old man

I've been reading more of Hal Higdon's Masters Running and while it's not telling me anything I don't know about my chronic hamstring injury, it confirms I'm on the right track in dealing with it...and more to the point I'm not alone in this. By the way, I do love the terminology in running. It designed not to make you more keenly aware of what you aren't but to remind you in what you overcome just by pinning on a bib. I'm not an old runner, I'm a MASTERS runner! I'm not a big runner, I'm a CLYDESDALE! Doreen isn't a big runner, she is an ATHENA!

Anyway... reading the book also reminds me that if I take care of myself, I should be able to at the very least keep my current level of fitness into my early 60s but the one essential bit of reality I need to absorb is that: I heal more slowly than younger runners. This makes me a little sad in that I can't really chase a race schedule as aggressive as I had set out to do this year before I wrecked my knee. I guess I just need to be very selective in choosing very difficult races.

Speaking of difficult races. I have to admit I needed a minute  to process an email I got this morning. It's the final confirmation and instructions from the people giving the RRCA Coaching Certification class. As what will be expected of us and the logistics were outlined, I came to the part that made me so very happy: "Attire: comfortable, we will not be running." This might seem a bit out of step with me until you consider something that's been eating at me for the past month.

I've been utterly terrified of the Spartan Sprint. I think I've mentioned nerves before and people expressed their confidence in me...which helped not at all because here is the thing: I know I'm going to cross that line carrying my shield or on it BUT I was worried that I'd wreck myself too much to do the coach training. A fear like that would likely make me hold back and if you've run an obstacle/challenge/confidence course before you know this: Holding back makes it MORE likely you will fail or get hurt.

So, now knowing that no matter what comes to pass at the Spartan, I'll be able to do what's most important to me has lifted such a worry, that I can't adequately express it.

"Suffering is humbling. It pays to know how to get your butt kicked."- Christopher McDougall

Whole grains, half truths

Since I've returned to eating what Chris Carmichael tells me to eat, I have a food plan and last night night Doreen and I did our grocery shopping. The good news is that a big ole pile of whole and wholesome carb heavy food is satisfyingly big and bulky even if it's a bit spendy. One thing did annoy the hell out of me, especially coming from someone who REALLY should know better.

Whole wheat pasta. It's a small thing but if you don't know the hype from the science, it messes with my confidence. Here's the thing. There was a study a while back that showed that whole grains, have a wide range of positive effects. This was backed up by more studies and soon people began to clamor for them...without bothering to ask anyone who knew anything about nutrition what exactly IS a "whole grain."

The problem with whole grains is that the spoil absurdly fast. The parts of the grain that are stripped away in processing are stripped away to make the product more shelf-stable. This means that REAL whole grains are sadly food for people who can afford and are willing to pay a premium or those with access to farms and the knowledge/ability to deal with their own food...which is to say, not most of the USA. Market demand for a food brings out the food scientists trying to create a low-cost, shelf-stable, high profit version of whatever the public is "hungry" to eat and this is (as with many packaged foods) where the trouble starts.

Using the best technology at our disposal, it's possible to strip those grains apart and MAKE the parts that make them go rancid into something that will last a bit longer at the grocer...and be easier to adapt to machine production and a lot cheaper to make. The problem is, these properties that are undesirable in a food from a business point-of-view are EXACTLY the ones that make them good for you. Studies are now bearing this out. There might be minor nutritional content changes in processed "whole grain" foods but the mojo just isn't there.

This is good news! Most of the "whole grain" foods are not only more expensive than the traditional processed foods but let's be honest, they taste like shit. I got myself to where I like whole wheat pasta but really...REALLY? Just buy the box of Barilla and get REALLY good bread and brown rice and move on. Bottom line: Does this food LOOK like something that you would look more at home cascading out of a grain silo or a machine?

Fear, blood and recess

Welcome to the inside of my head while I'm running. When you have two hours to do nothing but listen to the music, watch the world go by, wave to the friendly people and keep your body moving, there is a whole lot of time in there to think. If you aren't comfortable in your own skull, it's got to suck.

Today's run started with me thinking on the nature of fear and how endurance sports forces you past it. I'm going to let you all in on a not very well kept secret: You are tougher than you think you are, you can do more than you think you can. I'm not diminishing the amount of hard work that is required to progress an athlete from walking a 5k to running their first marathon but the toughest muscle to train is the one between your ears. By the time we are out of our teens risk avoidance creeps into our thinking. It makes sense in a way, we worked hard for our belongings, our station in life, our health and we want to at least keep what we have. As we all know, when you go at life strictly from a risk-avoidance view, progress is difficult. When you run more than a mile or so, your body starts to give off fairly serious alarms. It's trying to look out for your best interests by making your world very uncomfortable. Your nervous system is in constant overdrive trying to warn you away from this activity. Listening to fear is natural, normal, reasonable... and it holds a person back.

That was what I was going to write and what was in my head until the first mile. The river walk in Harrisburg is a bit ill maintained. The pavement is broken and heaved in many spots as you go south down the river and my foot snagged on one of them. I knew it before it happened...I was going down hard. I had at speed so I had several steps to decide the nature of the crash. I could drop off the edge into the river...the low and decidedly foul smelling river. I could try to get my rusty old body to take it on the shoulder and roll but that was a risky gambit at a run...or I could just put my hands out and hope for the best. I came up sore and missing a lot of skin on the palms of my hands. It started to throb and bleed in the messy manner that skin abrasions do bleed. I paused my Garmin (funny how that's my FIRST thing) and used my water to clean the bloody dirt off...which made it bleed MORE. I took a few steps and pain shot through my hip: No, this run is done.

Because you know...I've never bled before or fallen down. Standing there watching the blood drip down my hands I knew full well that this was a lie. When I was kid, play was a full contact sport. We were often forced to play "nice" at recess but even then, bumps, bruises and blood...lots of blood was just part of going out. At that age I was game enough to dust myself off, wash out the wound (often with saliva, yes little boys are beastly) and then...continue playing. Then I got to go home and face my mom asking why my clothes were ripped and bloody. Standing there I got a little angry with myself. I decided that this was really no excuse and if I was pompous enough to consider writing about how running is learning to deal with fear, discomfort and occasional pain, I could damned well practice what I preached. I think once we get to be "adults" we don't see enough of our own blood and just the mere sight of it makes us uncomfortable and alarmed. Go out and play! If you get a boo-boo, get someone to give it a kiss, put a bandaid on it and KEEP PLAYING!

I'd planned on going into comparing the spiritual aspects of my Sunday runs down by the river to the people heading off to church around me...but I've rambled on and that will have to wait for another post.

Movie Review: Hood To Coast

I don't often do movie reviews unless someone specifically asks for my thoughts on a movie. There are so many people who are better than I at distilling the worth of a film that I don't find it worth my time. Having found a very niche movie that I love makes it worth my time.

Hood To Coast is a documentary about the relay race of the same name. It follows four of the 1250 teams, each of them with a very different reason for running and each giving us a very real reason to be moved. Honestly, two of the more moving real moment only come across in deleted scenes, so the filmmakers dropped the ball a bit there...but I'll get to that.

The first team we meet is Dead Jocks, these guys are all struggling with the reality of advancing age sapping their athleticism. Jim, their team captain has a lot of interesting insights on running, aging and this race in particular. He pretty much sums up the draw of these epic relay races: "On your own, you can't do 'epic' but with a team of 12 people...you can do anything." In the DVD features you find out that after taking a year off, Jim failed to qualify for the team and has since pretty much given up running... age won.

The next team we meet is Heart n Sole. Their story centers around Kathy, the ultimate survivor. The previous year, this veteran of 75 marathons collapsed dead on the course. Since CPR was administered very quickly, she was dead and got better. This is her comeback on the course that killed her once. She struggles to balance her new limitations, the concerns of her team, her passion for running and her doctor's advice. The most profound scene regarding them was cut from the movie. It's an interview with her son. He's a grown man and as he discusses his mom, what happened and how he feels about her going back to the race. When he starts talking about the possibility of her having to give up running he breaks a bit. I've never seen pure love exhibited so plainly before. This young man has made peace with the idea of his mom dying but he grieves at the notion of her no longer being able to do the thing she loves.

Team R-Bowe is the most emotionally charged of the teams. This team formed out of the friends and family of a life long runner who died from a heart defect at the age of 30. Watching his widow and his mother in particular dealing with the still raw wounds is a bit painful. They are running for some peace. They want to know more of his spirit and be involved with another aspect of his life and celebrate it with his friends. Theirs is a moving story as you watch them search for and ultimately find what they need as exhaustion and pride replace grief.

The last team we meet is Thunder N' Laikaning..and make no mistake they are the stars. This team is a bunch of co-workers at an animation shop who are running the race. Two of them are decidedly not runners but are doing it for the experience. Following these two captured an amazing moment...we get to see a runner being born. Rachel not only grossly underestimates the effort involved but managed to volunteer for the second most difficult leg of the entire race. Grossly under trained she finds the courage to conquer a horribly brutal leg of this race and as she passes the chip, her face is aglow and she tells the camera: "Dude...it was awesome. It was completely the weirdest, coolest experience... It was FUCKING awesome. It was BRUTAL, it was so hard but...it's totally indescribable." She's still grinning, ear to ear as she gets back in the van and you know that a runner was just born. It's no shock at all in the "where are they now" feature that you find she's currently training for her first marathon.

All in all, this is a very well done documentary and I think anyone would find the very human stories to be interesting. If you are a runner... you will be utterly sucked in and find yourself looking for an adventure relay race near you or a ticket to Mount Hood.

Mousepedals

I've not updated in a while so, let's see...

First is the happy news about my happy place. In trying to wrangle a way to get the free dining plan that Walt Disney World is currently offering, I was digging around in their reservation system and something extraordinary happened. For once since I've started going to the Happiest Place on Earth, staying on site is cheaper...and I mean SUBSTANTIALLY cheaper than staying off site. In the past, when you factored in the price of the rental car, the difference in cost was, admittedly slight but with a car comes the freedom to hunt down cheap eats and to buy forgotten items (like sunglasses) at reasonable prices. When the difference comes to just short of $300 in favor of the mouse, things change. Now we are more excited than ever. Neither one of us has ever stayed at the resort and I very much enjoy the idea of not seeing the wrong side of the welcome sign until we head back home.

The other big thing was finishing up Doreen's Craigslist bike. This all started with the Catfish Triathlon. Doreen decided that a sprint tri was something she was interested in doing. It wasn't particularly obnoxious at any stage of the contest but combined was a thing worth doing. So, a proper road bike was in order. She drove up to her mom's to reclaim the bike she bought as a girl. An old school road 10-speed. The intervening 30 years wasn't kind to the bike. Compounding the rust issue was finding parts from a time when many parts were bespoke and tire sizes were dodgy at best. So we gave up and started keeping an eye on Craigslist. A few weeks ago, someone announced that they had given up on a project bike and left it on the curb. It was a 1972 Schwinn Varsity ladies bike...the bike that hers (and most bikes of that era) was based on. It needed tubes/tires, brake cables and a LOT of TLC. This weekend I had the time and all the parts. There were some missteps...like when I cut off the wrong end of a universal cable and had to go get another one. In the end it came together. The rear derailleur might need some tweaking still, the handlebars need covered, a more up-to-date saddle needs to happen and there are still some cosmetic issues but the bike works...and my goodness is it fast. I have a hybrid bike, a bike not good at any one particular thing but works well enough at everything and I had forgotten what a pure road bike feels like. It's even more astounding to me since, compared to a modern road bike, this thing weighs a ton but if it was fitted with some clips, this bike would be capable of downright frightening speeds. Beyond all that, there is something incredibly graceful about old-school ladies bikes and this one is no exception.

Character is what you are in the dark

The title is a throw away non-sequitor from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension but it has stuck with me as a fundamental truth.

How do you act when you have an excuse? What do you do when you know people will forgive you anyway? I was thinking about that a lot over lunch. The start of my week wasn't so good. I usually refuel on Sunday after my run but I went a bit further than usual. Last night I caved to a burning need for Mexican and I ate the hell out of it. It's very probable that I'm not going to lose any weight this week. I know full well that everyone would remind me that I've done so well so far and that I shouldn't be worried about a small gain.

That's one of the biggest things I've learned through this whole process. There is such a fine line between holding you accountable and beating you up more than darn few people are willing to go there...I don't blame them, when in doubt I default to cheerleading mode too. Bottom line: The only person who is going to hold you accountable all the time, is the one that can see you in the dark.

I put down the menu and ate what I brought with me...no one will see it on the scale this week but I know what I did.

Well that didn't suck

I posted another weight loss this weekend (two for two now) and I refused to let the Florida levels of humidity win so I ran on a treadmill. Since I mentioned it before, I'm all happy that my new Road ID arrived (we cancelled our land line service) and life really couldn't be better.

One more darn Disney thing to do...

Doreen and I started with an innocent check of the Fantasmic! schedule and ended up having a few Disney geek moments. We were talking that maybe at some point, we should think about sucking it up with the crowds and doing a Christmas there. She says "I would have really liked to have done the Candlelight Processional with Edward James Olmos reading the Christmas story." As with most things, YouTube delivers.

"Stirring" is such a small word but now I feel a need to bake, decorate and wrap.
Joy To The World.

The OTHER reason my gear is important

I didn't want to admit this when I spoke about what I carry on a run or in reporting my most recent run on fb but there is a second reason why I like a consistency in most of my gear: It puts my mind in the right place for what I'm about to do.

As I was packing my gear for Tuesday's run, I couldn't recall where I had taken off my Road ID. So not wanting to be late for work, I dashed out and ran without it. I got the run done but it messed with my mojo. Mark's guest bloggers on writers' creative spaces, combined with this silly unease caused something I read a while back to gel in my head.

It's not just creative things that need some manner of sacred space to be at your best, physical pursuits are that way as well. In "To Be A Runner" the author mentions that he views pre-training stretching as very important not because it has any physical benefit but it gives the athletes time to transition their minds from their day-to-day lives to being athletes. So it is with me and changing into my gear.

Oddly the least of my gear is the most important to me mentally. Even if I'm wearing nothing more than shoes and enough clothing to keep me from getting arrested, I wear my Road ID. If something were to happen (and it has happened to people younger and fitter than I), it ensures that the emergency responders will have a bit more knowledge about me and my family will be contacted. So the first thing I do after I exit the shower on the morning of a run day is to put on my Road ID. The pretense on my wrist keeps me mindful of what will be expected of me today.

I did find it when I came home that day, hanging on the handle of my bike to dry out, in plain view and today, it's on my wrist. It reminds me that I have some tempo running to do tonight and it will be hard and it will hurt but I'll get it done. Because I'm a runner.

and the huge reason I love my Amphipod...

I realized that I really should have gone on about why I'm buying the next version of what I admitted to being a flawed product. Being able to add stuff to the belt at will is just the best thing since sliced bread.

Not only do I have the 20 oz. main bottle (almost always filled with water), the 10 oz snap bottle...which is very literal, it snaps on to and off of the belt (and is usually filled with Gu Brew) and the smaller 6 oz. snap flask is typically filled with GU Rocktane gel on runs that go substantially over an hour.

Gear!

A recent conversation with Katy regarding my running GPS made me realize that since I've moved...and in the hopes that one of them offers me a lucrative endorsement deal, here is what comes with me on my runs. Obvious stuff like a cell phone and shorts is left off the list. Funny that almost none of it is REQUIRED. A cheap pair of shoes from Target and a runner could be out the door. It's just that the longer I spend running, the more I treasure the few bits of gear that make the experience more enjoyable, both during and after.

Brooks Ravenna 2 - My latest tweak on running shoes. They are a compromise shoe offering some motion control while staying light and responsive on my feet.

Superfeet Green - The firmer foam in these things just eats up the impact.

Balega Enduro Socks -  These things are magic. They can evaporate an 8 oz. glass of water in five seconds flat.

Amphiphod Full-Tilt - There is a lot I like about this bottle but one thing I don't. It moves around too much. It's getting replaced by the Full-Tilt AirStretch Velocity at the end of the season.

Garmin Forerunner 305 - I can't gush enough about a single piece of gear. Not only does it remove the tedium of a training log but it can be programmed to coach you through technical workouts and in a pinch has helped me navigate out of a trail run gone bad (sudden darkness and driving rain). I would replace it with one of the newer/cooler models but it simply refuses to die.

Apple iPod Shuffle (2nd Generation) - It's an old cheap iPod.

Road ID - Emergency contact and medical info on your wrist. It's so obvious that they should almost be compulsory.

Buff - I sweat buckets and this is about the only headgear that is able to keep the sweat out of my eyes.

Body Glide - I ALMOST didn't mention this but really, it's the one thing that's coming with me even when I run without the Garmin and the music. If you sweat for an extended period, sweat is going to evaporate, leaving salt. Salt that will abrade your skin to the point of drawing blood...and that's about as fun as it sounds.

First, let me get this out of the way: I've re-re-re-rejoined Weight Watchers. I've finally gotten okay with the notion that discarding "good" because it's not "perfect" is kinda silly. Yes, not everything they tell you is correct, yes some meetings are still soul destroying, yes the program isn't a perfect fit for my life. And yet... it fucking works. Week one, -13 lbs. It's really tough to argue with that. Of course there was the usually dismissive "because he's a man..." bullshit in the meeting...and as usual I was having NONE of that. "No, it's because I earned it. I work HARD for my loss. How many activity points do you have this week? I already have THIRTY." That kinda ended that line of discussion.

It was a decent week for running. The hamstring still isn't right but it keeps feeling better and I got 20 miles in this week. I'm going to have to take a look at my training schedule and make some changes. With the hamstring injury the 2:00:00 half just isn't going to happen. Not really a big deal, I just need to tweak the training and dump some of the speedwork for the next few weeks since that seems to aggravate the injury.

We picked up another bike for Doreen. She wanted to use her road bike from when she was a girl to start thinking about a triathlon but the problems are huge: It doesn't fit her, it's old enough and obscure enough that parts are a serious problem and it's in ROUGH shape. This weekend someone on Craigslist curb dumped a bike similar to hers but newer/better/in better condition so we drove by and picked it up. It needs cleaned, new brake cables and new tires/tubes but other than that, it's a fine example of an old school ladies 10 speed road bike. We should be able to put that back on the road for well under $100.

It's gonna be a rough week at work but so it goes. Speaking of, time to get back to it.

Testing the waters

I'm not sure about jumping ship from LJ yet and when I go, WHERE I go. This is at least a nice template, the background image is where the majority of my runs start and the more I tinker about with this, the more I am really pleased with the look.