Litter, Life and luck...

It is so ugly...  There are trash cans everywhere.  There is no real reason to litter.  It just means they may be lazy?  Do they have no sense of beauty?  I am amazed as I ride my bike and see the trash line on the roads.  Running on the Minnesota River path today, I saw everything from a used condom to cliff bar wrappers.  When I ran today, I intentionally went slow as I did hills Tuesday.  I was amazed at what I saw.  I was both angry and confused.  So what was new.  This video above explains what would be an excellent outcome for those who litter...  No one gets hurt?

Well, I did it...  I signed on to the Superior Website and bit the bullet.  I signed up for the 100 Mile.  Although I am heavier, I feel like I am in better shape than last year.  I thought, what the hell.  Last year, I believed I could finish.  This year, I think I can not...  Last year, I felt confident as the energizer bunny.  This year, I feel like the Pillsbury dough boy.  Last year, my life was in total turmoil with my son leaving for school, me moving, and being very busy in a relationship.  This year I am bored, not much occupying my time but work and training and I am lucky if I date (or event get out of my small world) more than once a month.  The tale of two 100s may be a great way to start my report?

But a successful 100 miles takes more than training.  Luck has something to do with it?  Some may disagree, but there are so many things that have to be considered to succeed.  Weather, food, sleep, transportation, shoes, and many other things must all line up to make it the best possible solution.  I am not going to wish for luck alone.  Five weeks left.  To me, that means three hard weeks and a taper.  That will be long runs on weekends and the hills on Wednesdays.  And much more in between!

Carry on... 

Who said it was easy?

Been a while since I posted on the blog. Why? It is summer, and I am busy... Although, life is not always easy. Neither is training for 100 miles and writing about it... The last post was on weight loss. That is always challenging. It was on the recovery from Afton a while back, which was not easy. Then there was the knee. But we all have those times in our personal lives, which are also never easy. It could be the job or the relationships we have in life. Sometimes, a relationship is more complex than running 100 miles. But how would I know? I have yet to run 100 miles. Some would question if I ever had a real
relationship as well.

Relationships can be broken, and one can only wonder if they can ever be fixed. This thought came to me when a fellow blogger recently posted about 1986 and where she was in her life. (Elementary School, and I was a year out of university life - I felt so old!)) I also had just come off my first year of running marathons. I was dating a girl named Lori for three years. It was that interesting
kind of relationship. You know, I was a cocky diminutive 24-year-old who really needed to be slapped. I always told her I was with her for fun (what an ass I was), and she never believed me. The band I was in even wrote a song about that relationship. It was named "I am in love with your body, not your mind." 

Looking back at the pictures, the long hair (perms were used to get those REO Speedwagon curls!)
Then, one day in May 1986, she looked at me and said, "You are not kidding; you are only with me for fun." I said yes, she dumped me, and that was it. I often thought of how terrible I was for
doing that and wondered if I should have worked to salvage a relationship I never thought I had. I did nothing and moved on... My most recent dating experience has that same feeling with roles changed... It makes me wonder if I have come full circle. I once had a friend who said relationships are like a car. You keep them going as long as you can, but they need to end at some point. I'm not sure if I ever believed that, but he is on his second wife and his second car since I met him. I also have a friend with his first wife, who is 23 years old and still drives the 1980s Honda Civic... He loves that car and loves his wife.

Most recently, my real-world job has been difficult. I love my work as a city planner, so do not get me wrong. There are times when several hundred people have opposite desires. It creates a clash
that stresses the old body and makes training hard. I am happy I have been getting close to 40 or more miles in a week and a few hundred on the bike. In my real job, we have
a time-consuming and often stressful redevelopment.

I just finished a lengthy public hearing with hundreds of people over a delicate land use issue tonight. Many legal minds and one of the greatest companies I know were on the opposite side of many
citizens and myself. There are many talented people in this world doing their jobs, but they are fighting people like me and others who make it hard for them to complete the tasks they are hired to complete. But people's homes, neighborhoods, and corporate desires often clash. Many times I am on the side with corporate groups and many times the neighbors. This project is one where I sided with many of the citizens, and I have had some pretty brutal communications calling me incompetent, calling me an idiot, and saying I am not acting in the community's best interest. Either way, I did my job, and I know someone would be upset.

Anyway, after all that, I now have three weekends in a row free and less stress so I can train. Still looking to do a run on the Superior Trail in the first or second week of August. I will send a note on MNDRS next week to see if there are any takers. The more I think about it, I want to leave Minneapolis at about 5 AM and run from Finland to Cty Rd #1. This is where I expect to be in the dark, and I want to see it in the day. Will see what works... Need to get a driver lined up first.

Carry on...

What the hell?

What the hell is all I can say! I have a top-of-the-line digital scale. I compare it to the scale at the physician's office each time I go. It always appears to be consistent. But there are times when it makes no sense. In the past months, the circuits have been haywire.

Here is an example. On Saturday, I went swimming, showered, got ready for bed, and stepped on the scale. I was shocked, 245 pounds… That is a 13-pound loss over the past months. I went to bed. Did not drink anything. After a solid 7 hours in bed, I woke… Nature called, I went… I then walked to the kitchen and the scale. I stepped on the scale… 251.7 pounds. So I did not drink anything, took a dump, and gained 6.7 pounds… What the hell is the correct phrase, isn't it?

This is not the first time I've seen this happen; it is just the most drastic. I have nights where I stay the same, nights where there is a 2-3 pound loss, but then there are those nights I gain 3-5 pounds… I have tested this by weighing myself 3-5 times before I go to bed, same reading… When I wake, it's the same as the first if I check it numerous times… How can this be explained? Does anyone else see this in their life?

My training is better now. Took longer than I thought to recover from Afton. I wonder if I am the only one who thinks Afton is much more complicated than Superior. I just have more of a challenge at Afton than the Superior Trail. But I think I am in the minority. My knee seems OK. There is a little twinge here or there but no pain, which counts. At this time, ST 100 and I may battle once again. Want to wait another week or so to commit…

My son has been back for almost three weeks. After a year of campus life, he had to take care of all those things our parents made them complete. The dentist was the big one... He has three fillings (he only had one his whole life, now three in one year), and he is too smart for his own good as they have to remove his wisdom teeth.  (I know, stupid statement) I recall when I got mine out under local anesthesia, I had little issues. Heck, I ran that afternoon. He went under and had some significant work... he is really out of this. The swelling in his face is sad. He looks in total pain. We are starting the third day, and he is still in pain… This is hard on a very active 19-year-old. But he will heal!

Carry on!

Recovery is slow

It may be that I did grandma's two weeks earlier and started running three days later; it could be that Afton's hills were more challenging on the legs than I thought, or maybe I am just that out of shape. My quads are still burning as of Tuesday night. I will ride my bike tomorrow, but running will be out of the question. The legs do not seem like they want to move, right? The good news is that I have no knee pain. YEEE HAAAAAA...

I did get the bad news that Buck Hill is closed. That is a shame, as I was looking forward to 5 to 6 weeks of hills once a week. Now, I will look at alternatives. RTA has a nice hill, I could drive out to Afton, but that's almost 60 miles round trip... I could consider Hyland, but I am waiting for verification that running that ski hill is OK. It was supposed to be closed in the past, but users went there anyway. I was almost the ski jump north of Hyland. Well, I have a few weeks to decide, but it is so important if I plan to attempt the 100 miles again...

I am planning a day trip to run a few segments of the ST 100 trail. I would love to make Julie Berg's beta but am committed that weekend. I bounced around a few ideas. One thought I had for training was to leave Minneapolis on Friday after work and get to the trail before dark. After working all day, run the trail for about 12-14 hours and then return. A friend and my son said they would love to camp one night and would drive. I invite you to see if anyone is interested in a low-budget all-nighter and commute. Who knows, my dumb idea may be a good one?

Well, I now have four tennis weekends in a row, all weekend. It makes training difficult, but it is also fun.

Carry on...

Hills from Hell - Director and Volunteers from Heaven

I have been excited all week that my son is here. He returned from his Freshman year at the Colorado School of Mines in early May, spent a few days here, and immediately left for Germany for an immersion course as he will study there all next year. He returned last Monday night, and he has matured well. Now he can insult me, and I will never know... Between that, my weight of 9 pounds more than last year at this race, and a killer week at work, I wondered how I would do this year?

I could not sleep Friday night, primarily because of nerves but mainly because of the fireworks. They seemed to never end. I woke at 4:00 AM and had no issues from when I got up to the starting gun. The race was very uneventful for me. I had a goal of keeping my heart rate in the 120s for the first half and trying to stay in the 140s for the second half.

I was happy to see Philip once again at the start. He has been working hard since the Superior 100. Last year, I went out faster and did not see Philip until the end. This year, I caught him up in the downward slope at about mile 23. Once again, he was moving well, but at 250 pounds, I tend to give up trying to slow down on the downhills. Someday, I will really regret that!

To start the race, I hooked up with Les, with whom I ran about 10 miles together. Once again, as two weeks earlier at Grandma’s, it was early in the race when Karen Gall passed me. With that great attitude, she will always succeed. She is so consistent.

After the first river run on the first loop, Les looked strong, and I never saw him again. (Until the end.) I came into the half in 3:38, 23 minutes slower than last year.

The second loop I started with a young woman from Roseville. I am trying to remember her name, but she runs with Lynn Gannon. We ran to the first aid station, and she was gone. She looked strong, and running with her was a pleasure. From that point on, I met several people, and I just kept going. Was not worried about time, I just watched the heart rate monitor. I had been drinking 20-30 ounces of fluids an hour, which is more than I would typically drink, but I was sweating a little more today.

It was strange that even though I felt slow, I did manage to pass five people during the last 10 miles. The knee was good. (I did dive in on the snow show track; those who felt the ground shake assured me it was not an earthquake, just me falling hard and rolling.) The heart rate was down, and I just kept going on. I was really having an indifferent run. In the words of my old college professor, he said there are “days I feel like a wart on a fat man’s butt.” That means I am just hanging in there; no one notices or cares, and we are just being. That was this race. I was just being... I'm not really concerned about the time, just the heart rate.

Well, I was surprised at the finish. I ran 3 minutes faster than last year, which means I did the second loop 25 minutes faster than the year before. I know people thought the heat was more of a factor last year, but I felt it was warm this year as well. I know I did not recall sweating as much last year as this year. I was drenched, but I was really heavy on fluid consumption. I took one S-Cap at mile 10 and two more at mile 20.

After the race, I got to talk with Wayne, who successfully completed the 25 K. I saw Philip come in just under the 8-hour mark... I had a great conversation with many people, including Mike (I think that is his name?), a fellow trail mix aid station worker who also did the 50K. He has some great results in Chippewa and did well here. GREAT JOB! There was Karen’s friend from Norway. He finished, and we were expecting an expletive in Norwegian, but I think he was too tired... I know I missed a few people...

Overall, this is a great race because it has a dedicated Director and the most incredible core of race volunteers. Without the hundreds of hours these folks put in, this would not be the event it is, and I can never thank them enough for allowing so many to compete in such a fantastic event.

Carry on!