4/22/11

wed. night: ran on the streets after dark. 41:00 fartlek with eight pick-ups. light on my watch not working, i'd guess between one and two minutes each. so fast, oh so fast. feels fast at least. slowly gaining a little quickness back.

fri: today. 8 1/2 miles or so, stupidly in the rain. started light, downpours later. lady stopped at 4 miles and asked if i needed a ride. no ma'am i'm dumb enough to choose to be out here. no matter, fun effort despite the storms. oh, it's perfect clear out now. something about building character?

Dharma Bum

Re-reading my favorite Jack Kerouac novel, first read 18 years or so ago (yikes), Dharma Bums.

"The secret of this kind of climbing, is like Zen. Don't think. Just dance along. It's the easiest thing in the world, actually easier than walking on flat ground which is monotonous. The cute little problems present themselves at each step and yet you don't hesitate and you find yourself on some other boulder you picked out for no special reason at all, just like zen.~ Japhy"
— Jack Kerouac

race with yer heart

saturday: race with yer heart 4 mile. benefit for heart house womens' shelter. cool, 40's, windy, as in straight-up headwind the first two miles out heading west, wind at back the two miles heading back in (that's logical). 30:57.4, 7:44/mile, 31/108, 1/3 fat guy division.

sunday: nothing. oh wait, celebrate bday with bbq chicken, and pie. that's not a run.

monday: run 41:00 roads around lake. 7:03 a.m. cool. 42 F. easy pace.

April of Eleven

monday trail run. stuff is coming out, just in its infancy. buds and such. 48 minutes out my back door onto grass, down the floodplain, short loops thru the woods. warm, 60 F. sun. sun. foot feels ok. hip feels ok. i feel ok.

tuesday road run. 6:24 a.m. air feels warmish on skin. maybe it isn't. 36 minutes. "speed" pickups. five or six of them just because i felt like it. andrew wheating is my favorite track runner. six foot five, one of the fastest in the world. i am not one of the fastest in the world, still i can do "speed" pick ups. fartleks if you're swedish. hip doesn't complain much.

thursday road run. 6:11 a.m. chill in the air. 43 F, i guess. no objections, bodily or spiritually. pace of leisure through the streets. i enjoy running past my grandparents' graves in the morning. something refreshing and renewing about that. something like 48 minutes total. sunrise over a maple while running east down harrison. worth the early wake up.

Howl at the Moon 2010

After a decent summer of training I figured HATM would be a nice reward. If you haven't done this race before, it's 8 hours on a 3.29 mile loop, some double track trail and some short road sections, run/walk as many miles as you can. Race is at Kennekuk County Park near Danville, IL. Goals for this were just to cover ultra distance. I just don't do that well in the heat. Forecast was 95 degrees with high humidity, not conducive to huge miles.

Race started at 7:00 a.m. under cloudy skies, an advantage. My strategy was to push a bit early and get some miles in before the sun and heat of late morning and early afternoon, leading to some relatively fast early loops. Three and a half hours in the, out came the sun, instantly making things considerably more difficult. I was pushing fluids heavily, essentially drinking two bottles of water/gatorade mix every loop, sometimes pushing straight water, and s-caps about every hour. Was able to maintain a good electrolyte balance, there were some very slight twinges but never cramped. Kept a decent running pace for about 5 hours then slowed down quite a bit in the heat and with some slight blistering on the bottoms of my feet, attributed to sweating into my socks causing my feet to slide around. Still, felt pretty good most of the time. Lots of folks looked to be way worse off than I was.

Ended up getting in 10 loops plus one slowly walked out and back 1/2 mile for a total of 34.40 miles. I'm happy with this. Postrace is great at Howl; we're talking catered chicken and green beans and beer. Surprise beers this year were Killian's and Sam Adams. Felt ok enough for a Killian's.

So, good race for me considering I'm still about 15 pounds over ideal ultra weight. This summer has been good, have built up to decent miles and long runs in the 4-5 hour range. Also feel that incorporating some swimming into the mix helped with overall fitness.

If you're looking for a fun, "easy" ultra in terms of terrain and support, Howl is a great one with a total party atmosphere. Mad fun.