Wednesday, August 17, 2005

If Ya Luv Luv Show Ya Luv

Been training for the Glacial Trail 50k in October for the last couple months. We did a 3 hour in brutal heat at Forest Park, then two weeks later a 3 1/2 hour at McNaughton in much more tolerable weather conditions. I'm still running about 10-15 pounds too fat. Maybe I'm just not putting in the total mileage or intensity to drop weight. Or maybe it's the beer. So far the long runs have gone well, legs are holding up and the strength is coming back. The eight months off for the tibial fracture took alot of the muscle strength I'd built up. It's slow to come back. I'm gonna try this thing anyway, barring injury beforehand, since it's the race I was gunning for before the injury. Mostly I just want to see that trail in fall and the race is a good excuse to do it. We're planning on 4, 41/2, and 5 hour runs over the next 6 weeks. These long runs/power hikes will tell where things are with the training. I have no concern for time or racing anyone, just finishing, so no pressure in terms of distance covered or speed. This will be an interesting experiment to see where things are by early October. Keep em crossed.

I went back and re-read a few chapters of Ralph Wiley's "Serenity: A Boxing Memoir." I just love his writing style and he captures on paper what I love about the sport. Why "Serenity," you ask? Read it and find out. Another recommendation would be Joyce Carol Oates' "On Boxing," of which I had her autograph my personal copy when she spoke at ISU a couple years ago. You had all these arrogant professors and literary types fawning over her in the book signing line trying to impress her with their knowledge of her work. I get up there and we end up holding up the line for 5 minutes talking boxing. How frickin' cool is that, talking about the style matchups of swarmers and pure boxers with one of America's foremost authors. Rock n' roll.

Soundtrack:

Nuisance "Sunny Side Down" and "Confusion Hill." I've had these in heavy rotation lately. One of my all time favorite bands. There is nothing better than cranking "Harvest Time" on crisp October evening by the water, cold Pilsner Urquell in one hand, fishing pole in the other. I'll say it forever: Nuisance was a better band than Nirvana and Andrew Asp was a better songwriter than Cobain could've ever hoped to have been.

Rocker-T "If Ya Luv Luv Show Ya Luv." Fundamentalist Rastafarian Reggae from a white dude. Seriously. It's good, really good.

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