The year to not remember...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."  Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.


Two days removed from what I can without reservation say was the hardest year of my life, I cannot help but think of this classic quote from one the greatest writers in the history of the English language.  Just as the classic story from Dickens, there were two distinct worlds with unique characters and events at play, that seemed at odds with one another but in fact were so much the same.  


I found myself this year going between two worlds, each seemingly more challenging than the other.  In the world of education, a third straight year of funding cuts and increased workload for no more pay stretched my mental and physical capacity to the max, while at home, the world of toddlers and honey-do's demanded just as much of my limited resources.  There seemed to be no easy moments, no place existed that was an escape from the demands at hand.  Months went by with no more than 6 hours of sleep a night and a likely average of around 5 hours or less.  Papers piled up on my desk at work, waiting to be graded.  Lesson plans went from "pretty good and challenging" to "eh, okay I guess this will do" to "well, this will keep them busy for a while so I can get my grading done."  At home a fence is still waiting to be stained, after an epic spring day of power-washing it.  Michelle is still waiting for a mother's day raised garden bed to be put in, I promise, it's coming :).  


Of course, something had to give... 50 miles per week of running dropped to 20, then to zero.  My workouts consisted of the occasional longish bike ride and a 3-4 day per week ride to work and back.  My elite state of ultra marathon fitness has diminished significantly, and my goals athletically for the year have been basically wiped out.  That's not to say I've let myself completely go, as I have managed to maintain some basic fitness despite it all.  


Spiritually I have struggled as well, but there has been some good things going in terms of a new men's Bible study group meeting at my new favorite shop, Rolling H Cycles in downtown Nampa.  Michelle and I have been able to meet up with a new couples small group out of our church, and although my daily devotions haven't been great, there is hope.  Its is reassuring to know that Jesus is not a "coat" that I can take off when life gets busy, but rather a complete indwelling within me that I cannot live without.  


There have been some cool moments this spring that would likely make an interesting blog report, but for now I just want to keep it simple.  It was a hard year, that is for sure, but the worst of the storm is now over and it is time to enjoy the summer.  Yeah for teaching!

Myles and Kara at the Exergy Tour, Women's Professional Bike Race;  Boise,  May 2012.  We took the Burley bike trailer up to the top of the queen of the mountain location to watch the women come by.  I got some serious looks from people I passed pulling a 60+ pound trailer up the mountain on a bicycle.  Oh the fun it making some poor fellas feel like the slowest dudes ever.  This picture was taken downtown before we rode up the mountain.  Notice the cowbell in the hand of Myles.  It was one time where both kids were allowed to be as loud as they wanted.  I kept yelling back in to the trailer "More Cowbell!" as I rode around with them in tow.

Patience

Graded and Recorded!

This post is more than just about running; although, as I'm comming to find out, it could be very applicable to my new favorite past-time, running rediculously far.  You see, lately I've been struggling with the application of patience to my everyday life, as well as my athletic goals.  It hit me tonight as I was pounding through a stack of papers to grade (typical night when my wife is working her night shift).  Patience is something we all have to learn at some point and I for one place it high on the list of things that are not fun, right up there behind grading papers.  Furthermore, there is nothing rewarding about the process of learning patience; quite frankly, it sucks.  However, it appears that at the end of the process, there seems to be some kind of satisfaction.  It actually reminds me a lot of training at times, although I usually find training to be something enjoyable, there are of course moments where you ask yourself, "why am I doing this again?" 

Ultra runners know the importance of patience.  Push too hard early in your race and a big fat DNF is all you'll get at the finish line, if you even make it to the race.  I'm convinced that 99% of all running related injuries happen as a result in one form or another from lack of patience. 

Cyclists know that patience is also critical when competing at the highest levels of the sport.  "Go ahead, attack 2 miles into the race.  You can sit out front and burn yourself up while we sit back here in the peloton and sip Coke.  We'll even stop for a pee break, and still reel you in with miles to go before the finish and you'll be so tired we'll spit you off the back and leave you sucking wind all the way to the finish." (I'm pretty sure this happened to me early in my bike racing days.)

Aside from the above analogies, I have really been struggling to be in the moment.  It is all too easy to look around at the "Jones'" and wonder, "why can't I find the money to (fill in the blank)?"  There are numerous things that I find myself fancying, idolizing, and just plain lusting over (darn you bike shop!).  I can't even limit myself to things of monetary significance.  Of those things, there's that doctorate degree I'd maybe like to get someday, or maybe a business to own.  Heck, there's even a big part of me that wants to sign up for a 100 mile ultra run this year just because I know I could do it.  But then there's a burning question of "is this really the time to be worrying about that?"  After all, it is true that you are only young once, but this applies more to my kids than to myself.  I have found myself trying to remember daily that the moments I have with my two little ones are precious and limited, yet in spite of this, patience eludes me.  I remember once someone saying: "don't ever pray for patience, because God is good and he will deliver the circumstances under which we need to develop it."  I must have missed that point, and at some point prayed for this development of patience that I'm definitely needing at this point.  Funny though, my children have a head start on me... tonight's bedtime story, "Patience."  My 21 month old chose it.  Amazing how kids can bring out the best in us all.

Bedtime story and an award that will always top any race honor...

Nampa's NEW bike shop!

As much as I loved Cafferty's Cyclery in Nampa, I am so excited to help announce the addition of another local bikery called Rolling H Cycles, also in downtown Nampa.  Rolling H will be a different experience than Cafferty's and I hope both shops can do well.  I will report more on situation in 14 days when Rolling H opens its doors, but for now you'll just have to check out their webpage and as most things these days, follow the progress on facebook...  Enjoy!

Crazy training run story...

Its been about 2 1/2 weeks since the carnage of the WCF50K and I feel that my legs and body are starting to come around.  I have been able to log some good runs, and feel ready to take on training for my next planned race, The Silver City Endurance Run on June 23rd.  I have basically decided to loosely follow Bryon Powell's plan outlined in Relentless Forward Progress with some minor modifications to account for a fluctuating schedule of opportunities to run.  I'll definitely be posting some updates as I get them, but for now, there's not much to report.

The only real interesting thing that happened training wise occurred this morning on my pre-work 6-miler.  I set out from home around 5:45am and less than a mile into the workout encountered an older man walking his giant German Shepperd dog.  The dog was startled by my presence and jumped out towards me where I was running on the road.  The jerk caused the man to stumble and fall down a small, shallow, grass covered ditch between the sidewalk and the road where he apparently hit his head and was knocked unconscious.  I carefully approached and tried to communicate with the man and he did not respond to my shouting.  Immediately, I looked around for a passing car and flagged down a woman and her daughter who happened to have a cell phone.  I explained the situation and asked them to call 911.

By then the man was stirring, but still facing the ground and unable to get up.  Another passing car stopped and the gentleman jumped out and came to help.  We made contact with the man who was obviously very out of it, he didn't recall falling down or know what happened, and he eventually asked to get up.  I was very concerned to try this but thought that as long as we held onto him, he couldn't fall and hurt himself again.  After a few shaky steps up to the sidewalk, the older man appeared to have regain composure and was able to walk off towards his home which he insisted was "right around the corner." 

Obviously, I was a bit freaked out by the whole incidence, but felt I maintained calmness and thought clearly enough to take care of the situation.  For the next 5 miles, I thought continuously about the man and wondered if I should have made him wait for the ambulance.  I guess maybe next time I will have to make the same decision, but will have a bit more experience.  I want to point out that I did not move the man until he was already trying to move himself and I asked him more than once to stay on the ground until some help arrived.  When it was clear that he was not going to do that, I helped him up so that he didn't take another fall.  Talk about a memorable morning on a mundane training run...  If you have any comments about these kind of things, I'd love to hear them.

Barefoot Experiment: Week 1

I've long struggled with foot related issues due to overpronation which has led to a host of injuries over the years.  Since it appears that I will need to be running gently due to an IT-band related injury from my 1st ultra marathon, I've decided that now is the time I will start trying out this whole barefoot thing; let's just call it an experiment.  I know that it will take many weeks of steady and slow progress so I'm officially committed for the long haul.  The goal of this program is not to be able to run barefoot, but to be able to choose the shoes that I want to run in, not be limited by shoes that are for overpronators specifically.  There just are not a lot of good choices of footwear for competitive trail runners who overpronate, so if I can change my shoe needs through this experiment it will be awesome!

Immediately after my 5 minutes of running on the sidewalk.

Week 1 (1/23/12-1/29/12):
Ran on Wednesday and Thursday in Asics 2150's and green superfeet insoles, Trail run on Saturday in Brooks Cascadia 2 with green superfeet.  One barefoot run on Sunday for a total of 5 minutes.  I've read its better to start off on pavement so you can get some good feedback from your feet.  I used the sidewalk in my subdivision which is relatively free of rocks and debris so I could avoid any punctures from goatheads or small rocks.  As a bonus, it allows me to get a "run" in while my kids are napping.  The high school kid I ran by looked at me kind of weird, but hey, I probably looked pretty silly out there in running pants and no shoes...

Rest Week?

One week after accomplishing my goal of surviving the Wilson Creek Frozen 50K, I had to opportunity to head out to the trails for a couple hours.  Not ever passing up on an opportunity to be out there, I decided to head out to Wilson Creek again for a little recovery jog/hike on the 10 mile loop of the 50K course.  Since the race is over, I felt free to explore the trails in whatever way I wanted, not sticking to the "course" and just going where I felt.  I decided that I would head over to the Reynolds canyon again but instead of taking the course, I went up the big rocky hill right off the parking area and then took trail 300 over to the canyon, going basically on the 10 mile "course" but in the reverse direction.  It was a really awesome day.  On the way out there I had to stop for a photo of the hulking Wilson Peak as seen off of Highway 45 as you drop down to the Snake River.

Following my little trip through the Reynolds canyon I went over to trail 500/501 and took 501 up to the top of the ridge where the trail intersects with Wilson Creek road.  From there, I wasn't sure exactly which direction I was going to head, but upon arriving I decided to drop down to Wilson Creek on trail 160 and then onto the twisty trail 100.  One week after the race, the trail was still a little bit roughed up, but there will likely be a quick turnaround for the trails as they are primarly sand and often get washed out by runoff coming down from the Wilson Creek watershed. 

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty nice day out.  My legs feel great except for a nagging pain in my left hip flexor (thanks to 10 lb mud brick shoes last weekend) and my left knee is sore from a tight IT-band issue.  I'll have to take a nap instead of a run tomorrow and ease into next week with some self-therapy on the foam roller and the "stick."  Maybe a few days on the bike would be a good thing.  The primary goal for the next month is to get back to 100% as quickly as possible so that I can slowly build up to a solid block of training going into June.   

Here are a few shots of today's outing... I hope that you find them enjoyable and inspiring in some way.  As always, feel free to leave comments below.  That makes the blog thing a little more fun for me.



The round figure of Wilson Peak lurking near the center, oh the carnage last weekend.  Temps were hovering just below freezing with lots of sun and light winds.  Its amazing what 1 week does for you... Notice the small coyote, or is that a stray dog?



I've wanted to tackle that little rock mound for a while, I just never got around to it.  Today I went straight up that bad boy to begin the run.  Its a nice little rock scramble to get on the tip-top; amazing view though.

Lots of wide open high desert out here.

This is the wonderful little Reynolds Creek that carved out the magnificent little canyon everyone seems to be enjoying.  It is truly a little gem out here in the Owyhees.

Another beautiful shot of the creek.  I just wanted to sit here for a while but unfortunately I was on borrowed time and had to keep moving.  I did hang out long enough to retie my shoes and absorb a little bit of the moment.

I had to do at least 1 self timer shot.  This is the little climb out from the Canyon on Trail 510.

One of the purposes of this little trip was to test out these retro Brooks Cascadia 2's that I got from a friend.  He never really wore them so they are basically new.  Not my favorite shoes, but not horrible either.  They are good shoes for a casual day on the trails such as today.  Can't miss them with that color combo either.

Ten reason's to run an ultra

This week I've been reflecting a bit on my first 50K race, the Wilson Creek Frozen 50K, and with the extra time I have due to not running (too sore) I have come to realize a few things... first I'll go into that, and later you can read my top ten reasons to run an ultra marathon.

First off, if the weather calls for rain, wind, sleet, and you are running to the summit of a mountain, take a jacket for Peat's sake.

Next, running in the mud is not fun.  Changing shoes will give you a chance to run in dry shoes for about 5 minutes, and then you'll encounter more mud than before so just leave your dirty shoes on.  Save yourself the hassel of cleaning two pairs of shoes.

Third, you can keep moving forward even when you're sliding backwards down a hill as long as you can reach the sagebrush at the top of the incline.

Fourth, don't bother worrying about the time... thinking about how long you've run and how much longer you have yet to go is a bit overwhelming at mile 12, especially when its taken you 3 or more hours to go 12 miles.  Ouch.

Fifth, when your Garmin flashes low battery just minutes from the finish, you will find another gear and speed up just to prevent your precious data from being incomplete.  Next time I'll just have to run faster so I don't run out of battery juice.

Last, if you think staying up to watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will be easier if you make up a silly list of reasons to run an ultra you're wrong.  By now my body is so trained to get up early that staying up late is next to impossible.  I'm writing this after falling asleep at the computer for 3 hours only to wake up at 2:30 a.m. and realize I've missed the show, bummer.

Alright, now as long as I'm reflecting on this past weekend, I thought I'd explore why one may want to run an ultra marathon.  This in no way is a complete list, as there are many other reasons one may want to try and tackle an ultra.  Anyway, enjoy these very serious reasons to run "stupid far" (a quote from one of my high school students I teach).

1. Running is good for you, running a lot must be very good for you.
2. Running is fun, except for when its not, then it becomes fun when you're done.
3. You can smile at the office when your coworkers talk about being sore from their pickup game at the local rec or gym.
4. Running a 10 miler becomes an short little recovery run.
5. Its the only time in your life you can eat a whole quart of ice cream, a giant cheeseburger, 6 bananas, and an entire bag of chips and still be in a calorie deficit. (Ok, I exaggerated here, it was only 5 bananas...)
6. You can look at the odometer on your car and realize that you ran farther this week than you drove.
7. You will become an expert at removing calluses, blister prevention, and removing band-aids from your nipples without leaving a distinctive band-aid shaped red mark.
8. You may see strange things, such as a 4 wheeler stuck in the mud as you run by in up to your ankles, mysterious bare-footprints charging up and down a mountain, grown men wearing tight leggings and discussing shoes like the designers on some corny reality T.V. show, surprised strangers who think they are in the middle of nowhere and then find themselves surrounded by hoards of runners showing up in the desert for a "training run," and women in pigtails and/or running skirts who literally can eat dirt and make tough guys look silly all while smiling and then darting off into the sagebrush to "water" the flora without a second thought (this is a combination of several remarkable women I have seen at the trails, not one in particular).
9. Race directors Emily and Davina at Pickled Feet Ultras, nuff said...
10. Camaraderie... you will not find any other events out there where everyone is rallied around such a common purpose and will celebrate your success with you in the most genuine way even though you just beat them or vice versa.  Ultra runners are the amazing athletes but even better people.

There you have it.  My list of reasons to run an ultra.  I guess that means I enjoyed the experience immensly and will be trying another one at the next logical opportunity.  That would be on June 23rd at the Silver City Endurance Run to be exact.  Pickled Feet Ultras are sure to put on a fantastic event and the course is designed to take you up to the highest point in the Owyhees, Hayden Peak.  Summiting Hayden has been on my list ever since moving to Idaho 6 years ago, so I cannot possible resist taking on this challenge.  However, you'll not likely find me in the 100k yet.  There is some unfinished business to take care of in the 50K distance first.