This has been a slow season for running for me. The moving and shaking about in my life has been quite consuming. I have only done a triathlon... and that is just about all as far as organized events go. But, I have kept in good shape for the most part. I run three times a week, and try to do the all-important long run. I cross train by season and just have fun for the most part. I am pretty whimsical compared to 2004, when an early season half marathon and late season full marathon really kept me focused.
So, it was with great hesitation that I entered the Mulberry Island Half Marathon on OCT 1st. In fact, it was with such hesitation that I entered on the deadline date of SEPT 23rd! I was sure to be as slow to run the event as I was to enter it, so I thought I had some kind of synergy working.
The 25th Annual version of this local race was held at Fort Eustis VA, on the Chesapeake Bay side of the VA Peninsula. The area is chockablock with trees and water... very pretty. And, being on an active base gives a civilian access to a seldom seen geography.
I will never get race mornings down, and this particular event proves that much is out of our control. Active.com said there was an 8am start. The event brochure said 845am. Which to believe? I chose 8am and was wrong. At least I was early! So in the darn-near-dark drive through the bridge tunnel, the morning overcast had me feeling pretty good about the weather. Even better, the temperatures were hovering in the 60’s. Perfect! But, I was EARLY. By the time the artillery fired [yes… not a horn or a pistol… we are talking pee-your-pants-loud military ordinance], it was in the 70’s and sunny. In just 45 minutes conditions went from perfect to acceptable.
Now, I had a plan. At or just below a 10-minute pace until late in the run, then do what my body told me to do. The first three miles led out to the bay and the first of two course turnarounds. It was early and I was entertained by some of the chatter of the 200 or so runners talking. At the first turnaround, one obviously military guy [to me, anyway] was sandwiched between two “runners” in front. I can tell such things by body type. “Runners” don’t generally carry as much muscle around… it just doesn’t help them to do that. They were at mile four and the spread was already over one minute between first and third place. Meanwhile, I started at a 9:52 pace and had stuck to it with amazing accuracy. My variance against that pace over the first four miles… one second!
Miles 5 through 8 provided some inland hardwood scenery and more entertainment. Through some lovely shaded roads, consumed a couple of gels and watched other runners coming from the second turnaround. They were really spread out now. The two runners had dismissed the young military dude by quite a margin. People in my turtle section of the race were still chatting, with two guys even diving to the side of the road and into the woods for a nature call. Too funny! I don’t talk too much during runs. I run on rhythm, so I get pretty deep in concentration. For my dead reckoning of pace, I use breath counts and cadence. At the eight-mile mark my variance was still under 10 seconds. I felt superb!
I had been using an average cadence with a six-step breath count [3 steps inhale and 3 steps exhale]. I really don’t know what approach other runners take. I guess I am a little curious about that. All I know is the breath/cadence method I use is accurate for pacing and feedback. Since I felt superb, I decided that I could bump things up for the final five plus miles. So, I switched to a 5-breath count [2 inhale and 3 exhale]. I slowly increased my cadence to medium-high turtle level. It takes a few minutes to figure out if the change will groove or not. By mile 9 I was rolling along in a new rhythm that I knew would stick. I saw a mile marker that led me to believe I could break a personal goal time of 125 minutes. So with about 5K to go I bumped the pace a little more by lengthening my stride. I also started to gradually increase my cadence to a four-breath rhythm. This is a “last move” for me. I bump my rev limiter after about 30 minutes when I take this approach.
I had covered the first eight miles in about 78:45. And my legs were starting to go numb with the increased pace in the final miles. I thought a lot to myself in those final miles. I thought of how this would test my threshold. I thought of whether or not I would actually have a kick left at the finish. It is very inspiring to do nothing but pass people in the final stages of a race, even as a turtle! So my energy was very high. With less than I mile to go, I realized that the mile marker I had seen a couple of mile back was one of the many military training markers on the road surface. I have no chance of the goal time, but I knew a PR was inevitable. It felt good to finish strong and really dominate what I had done last year. My three previous Half Marathons were 158 minutes [Quivering Quads], 131 minutes and 130 minutes. I crossed the line at 126.5 minutes this time. Cool! That means my pace was 9:21 for the last 5 miles. I was likely a sub-9 miler for the last two miles. Not bad for a turtle!
It was all very sweet for me. I had not trained as much this year. As a result, I believe I felt fresh for the event and did better than I thought I could. I also recovered unlike any other lengthy run I had ever done. The two days following the event were remarkably without soreness. I ran last night after a couple of days off. There was a little extra confidence in my steps. It felt really solid. Summer has ended for me in a perfect way. I hope all other runners feel this way at some point. Regardless of their relative speeds, it always feels good to be in “the zone.”
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Thursday, June 09, 2005
That’s Right Sir – I’m No Tri-geek!
That’s Right Sir – I’m No Tri-geek!
JUNE 2005
Oooooh. That feels good! Water sloshing around at 82F always feels good. I knew that as I progressed through my training for my first ever triathlon. I had done the bike portion as a team member before, but I had never done the whole thing alone. Swimming was definitely the focal point of training for me. I could bike in the top 10%, I knew that by looking at past year performances in the race. I could crawl to the finish, I thought. I might have to after the swim and bike portions. But, the 65F swim in murky Willoughby Bay [part of the Chesapeake Bay] kept coming back to my mind. How cold is 65F when you are swimming? How many times will I get kicked and elbowed? Will I see a dolphin charging at me out of the darkness to investigate all of the commotion? God forbid!
I am going to be totally transparent here. I have been training pretty consistently for about two years. I am very confident in my ability to reach personal goals in my athletic endeavors. I have no fear of registering last-minute for just about anything half-marathon distance and under and being able to complete the event. I’m not going to dominate anyone, and really don’t care to. I have always raced myself. And this case was no different. I had my own goals of 25s-2.5t-32b-2t-29r for a total of about 1:31. That would be fine for me. I thought that I’d leave it all out on the bike course and have my glory there [if I didn’t drown]. Then, I could just coast to the finish with an easy jog. Yeah… right!
The night before the event I laid out all the gear I would need. I took it out to the car and slept well all night. That was a good plan! I arrived at the race a little later than planned, but gear check went fast. I placed my bike and gear and walked back to the car to suit up for the swim. After about 30 minutes I was back in the start area when I noticed that my bike was on the wrong rack. They penalize you for time if that is the case, so I replaced my bike and gear on the proper rack and went back for the start. No big deal, and worth a few laughs. The race announcer kept calling out race numbers who were in bike-rack-purgatory. I am just glad I caught mine before everyone knew about it!
The cattle herd starting waves progressed until I waded into the water. It was bracing. Thirty seconds later I was swimming and trying to find a rhythm. It never came. About 250 meters into the swim I knew I had a problem. No vision, too many kicks [both to me and by me], too cold, and too nervous. So I would freestyle 50 meters and breast stroke 25 meters. Then I remembered that I sucked so bad at breast stroke that I’d rather drown. So, back to freestyle. About 600 meters in I inhaled some water when I kicked a guy so hard it hurt my foot. People were swimming into each other because they couldn’t see a damn thing! I went to alternating a vigorous sidestroke and freestyle. The shore grew large and I walked out of the water and across the chip pad at 26:04 for the 1000 meter swim. That was good for 586th out of 710 participants. Perhaps I should have drowned! [The Grand Lesson… train for race conditions. Training in a “laboratory” environment will not work in most instances]
T1 was fun! I sat down and peeled off my shorty wet suit. I wipe down my feet and legs and slid into my bike tights. Then I struggled with my socks and jersey, sticking to every moist patch of skin. [Newsflash… Lesson 1… 10 more seconds drying off is better than 45 seconds of struggling with sticky and wet garments and skin. Finally, the helmet was strapped and off I went to the transition exit. Ooooops. I ran to the entry point I had used to bring in my equipment, but it was closed. The exit was now the furthest point away in the transition zone! None of the volunteers said anything to me. I was left to find my own way. [Newsflash… Lesson 2… scope out the T-zone before the race]. T1 was an astonishingly turtle-like 4:25!
I got onto the bike and hit it pretty hard. I warmed up fast. The streets were a bit bumpy on the Norfolk Naval Air Station, so everyone got a little beat up. I saw two guys changing tires… bummer. I was technically very solid. Cutting the apex of the curves, staying down on the airstryke bars I use through corners, passing without drafting, and gear selection were all solid. I slid into T2 with a chip time of 35:08. That put me at 106th out of 710. My age division [35-39] actually had the vast majority of the fastest bike times. Chalk one up for the “experienced” group. It was a breezy day at Breezy Point. Living up to its name, the fastest average bike speed was 24.6 mph.
T2 was not fun. I missed my bike aisle and had to do a circle around the entire length of the aisle back to my bike. Once again I was running circles in cycling shoes. [Newsflash… Lesson 3… use some unique way of marking your bike or your aisle if you need to. A ribbon or something like that would work great] Some jar-head volunteer was yelling at me and I was not taking it well. I thought he was a spectator! I was in real turtle mode now, double knotting my shoes and glaring at the T2 drill instructor as he screamed on and on “… this is a sprint triathlon people, this ain’t no Boston Marathon!” Really? You think? [Moron] [Newsflash… Lesson 4… use speed laces, and if you have to change shirts, do it while you run] I beat my previous transition by a whole second, posting the second-longest T2 time of the day in a molasses-like 4:24!
It had warmed up well into the 80’s and it was humid, so my run strategy of jogging was looking pretty good! I was in good spirits. I might have started a little faster, but a tweak in my calf told me to take it easy. That I did! I saw one dude puke and walk over to a loading dock stairway and sit down. I felt good, but I knew that my goal times were a complete bust. So, finishing happy was the only goal left. Running through a military base is not a scenic adventure. It was with great joy that most of the competitors made the final turn and ran down an old section of tarmac along the bay to the finish line. I finished happy and thirsty, as the effort and the heat left me a little dehydrated. I actually sprinted the last 200+ meters. Crazy to even give the effort considering my T times! 1:41 and some change. 509th out of 710.
Would I do it again? No sir… I am no tri-geek. As many of the participants loaded their bikes and made the short trip to the after-party, I quietly went home to relax. Enough is enough. This was a sprint race, not an epic… no sense in making it an epic. I guess my jar-head DI friend was right. Perhaps a pool start would entice me, but for now I’ll be checking into biathlons, duathlons, and other similarly ill-advised pursuits. I will also continue to lap swim at least once a week. One of these days I might actually be considered proficient! I have always considered myself to be a doer and a survivor. Doers are willing to try anything at least once. Survivors know when to declare victory and move on.
JUNE 2005
Oooooh. That feels good! Water sloshing around at 82F always feels good. I knew that as I progressed through my training for my first ever triathlon. I had done the bike portion as a team member before, but I had never done the whole thing alone. Swimming was definitely the focal point of training for me. I could bike in the top 10%, I knew that by looking at past year performances in the race. I could crawl to the finish, I thought. I might have to after the swim and bike portions. But, the 65F swim in murky Willoughby Bay [part of the Chesapeake Bay] kept coming back to my mind. How cold is 65F when you are swimming? How many times will I get kicked and elbowed? Will I see a dolphin charging at me out of the darkness to investigate all of the commotion? God forbid!
I am going to be totally transparent here. I have been training pretty consistently for about two years. I am very confident in my ability to reach personal goals in my athletic endeavors. I have no fear of registering last-minute for just about anything half-marathon distance and under and being able to complete the event. I’m not going to dominate anyone, and really don’t care to. I have always raced myself. And this case was no different. I had my own goals of 25s-2.5t-32b-2t-29r for a total of about 1:31. That would be fine for me. I thought that I’d leave it all out on the bike course and have my glory there [if I didn’t drown]. Then, I could just coast to the finish with an easy jog. Yeah… right!
The night before the event I laid out all the gear I would need. I took it out to the car and slept well all night. That was a good plan! I arrived at the race a little later than planned, but gear check went fast. I placed my bike and gear and walked back to the car to suit up for the swim. After about 30 minutes I was back in the start area when I noticed that my bike was on the wrong rack. They penalize you for time if that is the case, so I replaced my bike and gear on the proper rack and went back for the start. No big deal, and worth a few laughs. The race announcer kept calling out race numbers who were in bike-rack-purgatory. I am just glad I caught mine before everyone knew about it!
The cattle herd starting waves progressed until I waded into the water. It was bracing. Thirty seconds later I was swimming and trying to find a rhythm. It never came. About 250 meters into the swim I knew I had a problem. No vision, too many kicks [both to me and by me], too cold, and too nervous. So I would freestyle 50 meters and breast stroke 25 meters. Then I remembered that I sucked so bad at breast stroke that I’d rather drown. So, back to freestyle. About 600 meters in I inhaled some water when I kicked a guy so hard it hurt my foot. People were swimming into each other because they couldn’t see a damn thing! I went to alternating a vigorous sidestroke and freestyle. The shore grew large and I walked out of the water and across the chip pad at 26:04 for the 1000 meter swim. That was good for 586th out of 710 participants. Perhaps I should have drowned! [The Grand Lesson… train for race conditions. Training in a “laboratory” environment will not work in most instances]
T1 was fun! I sat down and peeled off my shorty wet suit. I wipe down my feet and legs and slid into my bike tights. Then I struggled with my socks and jersey, sticking to every moist patch of skin. [Newsflash… Lesson 1… 10 more seconds drying off is better than 45 seconds of struggling with sticky and wet garments and skin. Finally, the helmet was strapped and off I went to the transition exit. Ooooops. I ran to the entry point I had used to bring in my equipment, but it was closed. The exit was now the furthest point away in the transition zone! None of the volunteers said anything to me. I was left to find my own way. [Newsflash… Lesson 2… scope out the T-zone before the race]. T1 was an astonishingly turtle-like 4:25!
I got onto the bike and hit it pretty hard. I warmed up fast. The streets were a bit bumpy on the Norfolk Naval Air Station, so everyone got a little beat up. I saw two guys changing tires… bummer. I was technically very solid. Cutting the apex of the curves, staying down on the airstryke bars I use through corners, passing without drafting, and gear selection were all solid. I slid into T2 with a chip time of 35:08. That put me at 106th out of 710. My age division [35-39] actually had the vast majority of the fastest bike times. Chalk one up for the “experienced” group. It was a breezy day at Breezy Point. Living up to its name, the fastest average bike speed was 24.6 mph.
T2 was not fun. I missed my bike aisle and had to do a circle around the entire length of the aisle back to my bike. Once again I was running circles in cycling shoes. [Newsflash… Lesson 3… use some unique way of marking your bike or your aisle if you need to. A ribbon or something like that would work great] Some jar-head volunteer was yelling at me and I was not taking it well. I thought he was a spectator! I was in real turtle mode now, double knotting my shoes and glaring at the T2 drill instructor as he screamed on and on “… this is a sprint triathlon people, this ain’t no Boston Marathon!” Really? You think? [Moron] [Newsflash… Lesson 4… use speed laces, and if you have to change shirts, do it while you run] I beat my previous transition by a whole second, posting the second-longest T2 time of the day in a molasses-like 4:24!
It had warmed up well into the 80’s and it was humid, so my run strategy of jogging was looking pretty good! I was in good spirits. I might have started a little faster, but a tweak in my calf told me to take it easy. That I did! I saw one dude puke and walk over to a loading dock stairway and sit down. I felt good, but I knew that my goal times were a complete bust. So, finishing happy was the only goal left. Running through a military base is not a scenic adventure. It was with great joy that most of the competitors made the final turn and ran down an old section of tarmac along the bay to the finish line. I finished happy and thirsty, as the effort and the heat left me a little dehydrated. I actually sprinted the last 200+ meters. Crazy to even give the effort considering my T times! 1:41 and some change. 509th out of 710.
Would I do it again? No sir… I am no tri-geek. As many of the participants loaded their bikes and made the short trip to the after-party, I quietly went home to relax. Enough is enough. This was a sprint race, not an epic… no sense in making it an epic. I guess my jar-head DI friend was right. Perhaps a pool start would entice me, but for now I’ll be checking into biathlons, duathlons, and other similarly ill-advised pursuits. I will also continue to lap swim at least once a week. One of these days I might actually be considered proficient! I have always considered myself to be a doer and a survivor. Doers are willing to try anything at least once. Survivors know when to declare victory and move on.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Looking down the barrel and seeing darkness
Looking down the barrel and seeing darkness
~Reed Nelson~
JUNE 2005
Just a quick note from me this month. There is a lot going on, but I was not sure what to put here. So, I will give you my personal horizon. I joined about 6,000 people in Chicago in 1992 and did the bike portion of the triathlon with two other gentlemen from my employer at the time. I really smoked the course. It was flat and I am actually pretty accomplished as a power rider when I am in shape for such efforts. I love biking… I really do. I have another triathlon coming up this weekend. This time I have to do it all. It will be my first solo effort. It is sprint distance, so no worries there. The biking is again flat, so I will likely blow past a lot of people and might even be fortunate enough to have an age group best time. The run is easy, too… but I will lose nearly 4 minutes per mile to the best runners in my age group. This is very humbling. And then there is swimming. Murky water with a temperature of 61F is on tap. I have never done any competitive swimming, and have just learned to swim 1,000 meters without cardiac arrest. So, my horizon is murky darkness. God forbid I see any fish, as I might be startled enough to inhale a bunch of salt water. Ever seen someone throw up while riding a bike at 25+mph? Yet another fear will be confronted and conquered as I do this, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. Did I mention how cold the water is going to be???
~Reed Nelson~
JUNE 2005
Just a quick note from me this month. There is a lot going on, but I was not sure what to put here. So, I will give you my personal horizon. I joined about 6,000 people in Chicago in 1992 and did the bike portion of the triathlon with two other gentlemen from my employer at the time. I really smoked the course. It was flat and I am actually pretty accomplished as a power rider when I am in shape for such efforts. I love biking… I really do. I have another triathlon coming up this weekend. This time I have to do it all. It will be my first solo effort. It is sprint distance, so no worries there. The biking is again flat, so I will likely blow past a lot of people and might even be fortunate enough to have an age group best time. The run is easy, too… but I will lose nearly 4 minutes per mile to the best runners in my age group. This is very humbling. And then there is swimming. Murky water with a temperature of 61F is on tap. I have never done any competitive swimming, and have just learned to swim 1,000 meters without cardiac arrest. So, my horizon is murky darkness. God forbid I see any fish, as I might be startled enough to inhale a bunch of salt water. Ever seen someone throw up while riding a bike at 25+mph? Yet another fear will be confronted and conquered as I do this, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. Did I mention how cold the water is going to be???
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Want To Run The Kentucky Derby?
Want To Run The Kentucky Derby?
~Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson~
MAY 2005
It is actually a simple thing to do if you are a horse and can sprint for a mile at about a 1:47 pace. Otherwise, you are a human, and that pace should humble you right out of your Asics. Can you imaging running 10mph faster than any human has ever run? Can you imagine that you’d have to be an elite cyclist to beat a Derby contender using pedal power? Oops, you’d still need pavement.
Well, so much for the pep talks and Rat Tales. Let’s get right down to it, shall we? Humans are weak! I mean, athletically we are pretty pathetic compared to other species. Domestication has cost us dearly. [excuse me while I get another calf’s shank on which to chew]. If you relate strength and speed to size and weight, most wild animals can run rings around us or just fling us aside. It is all quite depressing.
So, if we are not to run [or bike] with horses, swing with monkeys or leap with leopards what are we to do? Well, I just wanted everyone to be humbled into the gym to pump some iron a few times a week. That is my goal here. Unless you are competing on an elite marathoner pedestal, you are going to be much better off as you age if you hit the weights. And I would bet you get faster, too.
I’m certain that most of us have heard the stories. Weight training increases bone density, retards the effects of aging, and brings about a host of other benefits. But, why is it that I see so few runners putting 45-pound plates on a bar? There is a disconnect. I think runners are afraid they will become bulky or will injure themselves. Or they do not think it is an intense workout. Let me tackle those issues with a runner’s speed.
First, let’s look at bulking up. In the past 20 months I have lifted 2 to 3 times per week. I do not skimp on weight. I lift! I started weighing in at 216 pounds and now tip the scales in the low 170’s. I lift more weight now than I did when I started. I can row, bench press, and pull up more than my body weight. I can easily press several of our smaller members above my head several times. Remember, I accomplished all of these strength gains while losing 40+ pounds. Bulking up [or not] is a matter of diet. You have to eat more than you burn to gain weight. That is a fact. Just the opposite is true, too. You have to burn more than you eat to lose weight. And, I will tell you that protein is your friend if you are lifting and losing at the same time. You certainly don’t want to lose muscle! Anyway, the bulking up worry is nonsense.
Second, there is the question of injury. This one I agree with. I would love to be able to lift with a blindfold on, as I watch people every week that just drive me insane. They accelerate weights too fast, lower them too fast, hyperextend their joints, and use varying forms that reduce results and increase chances of injury. If I had my own gym, NOBODY would work out until they completed instruction on each apparatus. If they injure themselves or get poor results, they won’t be customers for very long. The fitness club business is in dire need of a redo. But, that is another story. Fifty bucks on a trainer and you will likely never see an injury from lifting. Let them know your goals… strength, proper form, and aerobic gains.
Segue. Can we lift and get secondary aerobic gains? Aren’t weight-training sessions anaerobic? Well, yes and yes! But [newsflash], hill and sprint repeats are anaerobic too! Silly humans! The key is that you don’t rest between repeats when you run, you just slow down. You vacillate between anaerobic and aerobic condition. And what happens? You get STRONGER! It is the same with weights. Again, just put on blinders and get ready to be assertive. You will need blinders to ignore the resting fools that are standing around socializing between sets. You will need to be assertive to jump on a machine that someone was using for a lounger between sets for a quick set of your own. Don’t be shy! I am a madman in the weight room. Briskly walking from machine to machine. Using three different sets of dumbbells at the same bench at the same time. Sweating, crying, drinking spitting, huffing and puffing. I am a runaway locomotive. What does this get me? Strength increases in about 15 minutes per session. That’s right. I blow through 24 sets of weightlifting in about 15 minutes. Still time for a run or a ride? You bet… maybe both!
So, you can believe the Bowflex hype. Just 20 minutes a day 3 times a week is all you need. Now, if we could just let people know that is not the case with aerobic fitness. You can’t gain much fitness in 1 hour of cumulative aerobics per week. But you CAN gain STRENGTH. But, most of you are already aerobic gods and goddesses. Add some strength training and see what happens by fall of this year. Do it right, and then let me know if I am full of dung. I am placing bets that I will not receive any calls. Any takers???
~Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson~
MAY 2005
It is actually a simple thing to do if you are a horse and can sprint for a mile at about a 1:47 pace. Otherwise, you are a human, and that pace should humble you right out of your Asics. Can you imaging running 10mph faster than any human has ever run? Can you imagine that you’d have to be an elite cyclist to beat a Derby contender using pedal power? Oops, you’d still need pavement.
Well, so much for the pep talks and Rat Tales. Let’s get right down to it, shall we? Humans are weak! I mean, athletically we are pretty pathetic compared to other species. Domestication has cost us dearly. [excuse me while I get another calf’s shank on which to chew]. If you relate strength and speed to size and weight, most wild animals can run rings around us or just fling us aside. It is all quite depressing.
So, if we are not to run [or bike] with horses, swing with monkeys or leap with leopards what are we to do? Well, I just wanted everyone to be humbled into the gym to pump some iron a few times a week. That is my goal here. Unless you are competing on an elite marathoner pedestal, you are going to be much better off as you age if you hit the weights. And I would bet you get faster, too.
I’m certain that most of us have heard the stories. Weight training increases bone density, retards the effects of aging, and brings about a host of other benefits. But, why is it that I see so few runners putting 45-pound plates on a bar? There is a disconnect. I think runners are afraid they will become bulky or will injure themselves. Or they do not think it is an intense workout. Let me tackle those issues with a runner’s speed.
First, let’s look at bulking up. In the past 20 months I have lifted 2 to 3 times per week. I do not skimp on weight. I lift! I started weighing in at 216 pounds and now tip the scales in the low 170’s. I lift more weight now than I did when I started. I can row, bench press, and pull up more than my body weight. I can easily press several of our smaller members above my head several times. Remember, I accomplished all of these strength gains while losing 40+ pounds. Bulking up [or not] is a matter of diet. You have to eat more than you burn to gain weight. That is a fact. Just the opposite is true, too. You have to burn more than you eat to lose weight. And, I will tell you that protein is your friend if you are lifting and losing at the same time. You certainly don’t want to lose muscle! Anyway, the bulking up worry is nonsense.
Second, there is the question of injury. This one I agree with. I would love to be able to lift with a blindfold on, as I watch people every week that just drive me insane. They accelerate weights too fast, lower them too fast, hyperextend their joints, and use varying forms that reduce results and increase chances of injury. If I had my own gym, NOBODY would work out until they completed instruction on each apparatus. If they injure themselves or get poor results, they won’t be customers for very long. The fitness club business is in dire need of a redo. But, that is another story. Fifty bucks on a trainer and you will likely never see an injury from lifting. Let them know your goals… strength, proper form, and aerobic gains.
Segue. Can we lift and get secondary aerobic gains? Aren’t weight-training sessions anaerobic? Well, yes and yes! But [newsflash], hill and sprint repeats are anaerobic too! Silly humans! The key is that you don’t rest between repeats when you run, you just slow down. You vacillate between anaerobic and aerobic condition. And what happens? You get STRONGER! It is the same with weights. Again, just put on blinders and get ready to be assertive. You will need blinders to ignore the resting fools that are standing around socializing between sets. You will need to be assertive to jump on a machine that someone was using for a lounger between sets for a quick set of your own. Don’t be shy! I am a madman in the weight room. Briskly walking from machine to machine. Using three different sets of dumbbells at the same bench at the same time. Sweating, crying, drinking spitting, huffing and puffing. I am a runaway locomotive. What does this get me? Strength increases in about 15 minutes per session. That’s right. I blow through 24 sets of weightlifting in about 15 minutes. Still time for a run or a ride? You bet… maybe both!
So, you can believe the Bowflex hype. Just 20 minutes a day 3 times a week is all you need. Now, if we could just let people know that is not the case with aerobic fitness. You can’t gain much fitness in 1 hour of cumulative aerobics per week. But you CAN gain STRENGTH. But, most of you are already aerobic gods and goddesses. Add some strength training and see what happens by fall of this year. Do it right, and then let me know if I am full of dung. I am placing bets that I will not receive any calls. Any takers???
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Trail Rat on the Endless Seven
Trail Rat on the Endless Seven
~Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson~
APRIL 2005
Most rats have run in some pretty exotic places. This rat dares not name his favorite places he has spent his tread. Well, what the heck, maybe a few highlights!
Most Beautiful – The deck of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship for 10K
Hottest – El Corridor Highway in Los Cabos for 5 miles
Coldest – The last Saturday AM club run in Jan 2004 was pretty chilly!
Hilliest – Running out of the New River Gorge in WV in 1996
Flattest – well…
I suppose it is time for a more recent rat tale. Virginia Beach is flat, aside from a few dunes to sprint over. I mean, you really have to be creative. Sometimes you just have to give up and run the flats! Sooooo… back to my handy little biking book I went. Now, you all know they don’t make a lot of bikes for us four-legged types, so I really bought the book to scope out trail runs.
It seems that a long time ago there were a few slaves that escaped and hid out in a nearby swamp. President Washington visited this 1,000,000 acre wetland and decided he would dig a series of ditches and try to drain it. Well, he might as well have spit into the wind! But ole George created some mighty fine roads through the swamp when the ditches and canals were made. In fact, one of the first monuments named after a president resulted. Washington Ditch spans about 4.2 miles from the edge of the swamp to the mysterious Lake Drummond. A raised road was made with the dirt from the ditch. Voila… a trail run!
Now, many of you may think of flats as a blessing. Or, maybe you think they are just plain easy. Me? Despite my four legs I personally struggle with flats. This was a nightmare waiting to unfold. I quick glance at the historical marker and off I went. My girlfriend was with me, so that was a good thing. We started with a brisk walk and advanced into jogging speed. We’re lucky, because we run pretty fast for rats. I’d guess about 6.5mph to begin with, and about 6.7mph as a pace.
At that pace, the scenery is still very observable. From a rat’s view, it was paradise! Wet swamp lands and fallen timbers were everywhere. Ah ah! I forgot to mention that the original 1,000,000 acres had been harvested of timber over the years, and now about 125,000 acres remain. Hey, don’t be sad mister and miss Tree Hugger. The area is in splendid condition and free of logging since the early 1900’s, and still the largest wetland reserve in the eastern US. Anyway, the remnants of past logging is evident in the amount of deadfall and decay. I was so tempted to take my four little legs off-trail. But, custom waders for us rats are expensive, and I only use mine for fly-fishing.
As I looked down the corridor of trees I swore it was just another Hollywood backdrop. It didn’t seem real. But, the grind in my muscles and joints did not vary. The same view. The same feel. Mental entropy occurred [that means chaos], and I was immediately dreaming of our Lake Drummond arrival alternately with the sound of spring traps being activated. You know how that makes a rat feel? Of course you don’t! Silly humans. But, I still noticed the crickets and katydids and all the other delicacies making noise. It really was rat heaven… I felt better. The corridor was interrupted once by an intersecting ditch/road combo. And on it went. And on. But an end appeared to materialize, and as we jogged on, it became real. There was A TURN. Wow! A change of direction! And so as we made the dogleg right another end appeared. Then another dogleg right revealed a massive lake with a landing dock and a free spotting scope.
Lake Drummond is massive. My partner asked me how far it would be to jog around it [if there was a road]. I estimated 20 to 25 miles. It was an impressive sight. Impression depends on perspective. Witness these writings on Lake Drummond
Canoeing Sketches, John Boyle O'Reilly, From: Athletics and Manly Sport, Boston: Pilot Publishing Company, 1890
The Lake of the Dismal Swamp is the very eye of material anguish. Its circle of silvery beach is flooded and hidden, and still the pent-up water, vainly beseeching an outlet, is raised and driven in unnatural enmity to the roots of the tall juniper, cypress, and gum trees, that completely surround its shore. The waves that should murmur and break on a strand of incomparable brilliancy, are pushed beyond their proper limits, and compelled to soften and sap the productive earth; to wash bare and white the sinews of the friendly trees, and inundate a wide region of extraordinary fertility. The bleached roots of the doomed trees seem to shudder and shrink from the weltering death. There is an evident bending upward of the overtaken roots to escape suffocation. The shores of the lake are like a scene from the "Inferno." Matted, twisted, and broken, the roots, like living things in danger, arch themselves out of the dark flood, pitifully striving to hold aloft their noble stems and branches. The water of the lake, dark almost as blood, from the surface flow of juniper sap and other vegetable matter, is forced from six to ten feet above its natural level, and driven by winds hither to this bank to-day and thither to-morrow, washing every vestige of earth from the helpless life-givers, till its whole circumference is a woful net-work of gnarled trunks and intertwined fibres, bleached and dry as the bones of a skeleton, and sheltering no life, but that of the blue lizard and red-throated moccasin.
Well well... that should get you ready to run back to the car… don’t you think???
And so it was that the return would have no walking. The two ruts in the road became the paths to glory. My partner clocked mile two on the return at an 8:30 pace, which just killer for rats. This rat was inspired by her effort and gave extra effort of his own to stay within sight of her. But upon thinking, she could be a mile away and still be seen! Yet, the effort remained high and great strains were made to spot the gate at the parking lot.
We spotted no snakes, bobcats, black bears, or other creatures of fear known to inhabit the reserve. We did startle a herron into flight. I have not seen a herron since canoeing the Current River over a year ago. Anytime a bird with a 6-feet wing span takes off you have to pause mentally. It is a beautiful sight. But there was no physical pause, and soon the dark brown metal and wooden gates appeared in the distance. My partner asked me on a couple of occasions how far away I thought they were. Knowing what she really was asking, I gave her the answer in finishing kick time. “Uh…that’s about a 4 minute finish sprint, baby.” We jogged it home to the car!
It was a long drive in the ratmobile back to our little nest in the wall of a Virginia Beach apartment complex. It gave us time to contemplate about 7.4 miles of Great Dismal agony and ecstasy [and our one mile warm up walk]. As with most rats, our experiences can be summed up in moments. And our moments of sadness and euphoria are what we recall as time goes by. The long straight road to the center of blackness that is the Washington Ditch will always evoke more smiles than frowns.
~Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson~
APRIL 2005
Most rats have run in some pretty exotic places. This rat dares not name his favorite places he has spent his tread. Well, what the heck, maybe a few highlights!
Most Beautiful – The deck of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship for 10K
Hottest – El Corridor Highway in Los Cabos for 5 miles
Coldest – The last Saturday AM club run in Jan 2004 was pretty chilly!
Hilliest – Running out of the New River Gorge in WV in 1996
Flattest – well…
I suppose it is time for a more recent rat tale. Virginia Beach is flat, aside from a few dunes to sprint over. I mean, you really have to be creative. Sometimes you just have to give up and run the flats! Sooooo… back to my handy little biking book I went. Now, you all know they don’t make a lot of bikes for us four-legged types, so I really bought the book to scope out trail runs.
It seems that a long time ago there were a few slaves that escaped and hid out in a nearby swamp. President Washington visited this 1,000,000 acre wetland and decided he would dig a series of ditches and try to drain it. Well, he might as well have spit into the wind! But ole George created some mighty fine roads through the swamp when the ditches and canals were made. In fact, one of the first monuments named after a president resulted. Washington Ditch spans about 4.2 miles from the edge of the swamp to the mysterious Lake Drummond. A raised road was made with the dirt from the ditch. Voila… a trail run!
Now, many of you may think of flats as a blessing. Or, maybe you think they are just plain easy. Me? Despite my four legs I personally struggle with flats. This was a nightmare waiting to unfold. I quick glance at the historical marker and off I went. My girlfriend was with me, so that was a good thing. We started with a brisk walk and advanced into jogging speed. We’re lucky, because we run pretty fast for rats. I’d guess about 6.5mph to begin with, and about 6.7mph as a pace.
At that pace, the scenery is still very observable. From a rat’s view, it was paradise! Wet swamp lands and fallen timbers were everywhere. Ah ah! I forgot to mention that the original 1,000,000 acres had been harvested of timber over the years, and now about 125,000 acres remain. Hey, don’t be sad mister and miss Tree Hugger. The area is in splendid condition and free of logging since the early 1900’s, and still the largest wetland reserve in the eastern US. Anyway, the remnants of past logging is evident in the amount of deadfall and decay. I was so tempted to take my four little legs off-trail. But, custom waders for us rats are expensive, and I only use mine for fly-fishing.
As I looked down the corridor of trees I swore it was just another Hollywood backdrop. It didn’t seem real. But, the grind in my muscles and joints did not vary. The same view. The same feel. Mental entropy occurred [that means chaos], and I was immediately dreaming of our Lake Drummond arrival alternately with the sound of spring traps being activated. You know how that makes a rat feel? Of course you don’t! Silly humans. But, I still noticed the crickets and katydids and all the other delicacies making noise. It really was rat heaven… I felt better. The corridor was interrupted once by an intersecting ditch/road combo. And on it went. And on. But an end appeared to materialize, and as we jogged on, it became real. There was A TURN. Wow! A change of direction! And so as we made the dogleg right another end appeared. Then another dogleg right revealed a massive lake with a landing dock and a free spotting scope.
Lake Drummond is massive. My partner asked me how far it would be to jog around it [if there was a road]. I estimated 20 to 25 miles. It was an impressive sight. Impression depends on perspective. Witness these writings on Lake Drummond
Canoeing Sketches, John Boyle O'Reilly, From: Athletics and Manly Sport, Boston: Pilot Publishing Company, 1890
The Lake of the Dismal Swamp is the very eye of material anguish. Its circle of silvery beach is flooded and hidden, and still the pent-up water, vainly beseeching an outlet, is raised and driven in unnatural enmity to the roots of the tall juniper, cypress, and gum trees, that completely surround its shore. The waves that should murmur and break on a strand of incomparable brilliancy, are pushed beyond their proper limits, and compelled to soften and sap the productive earth; to wash bare and white the sinews of the friendly trees, and inundate a wide region of extraordinary fertility. The bleached roots of the doomed trees seem to shudder and shrink from the weltering death. There is an evident bending upward of the overtaken roots to escape suffocation. The shores of the lake are like a scene from the "Inferno." Matted, twisted, and broken, the roots, like living things in danger, arch themselves out of the dark flood, pitifully striving to hold aloft their noble stems and branches. The water of the lake, dark almost as blood, from the surface flow of juniper sap and other vegetable matter, is forced from six to ten feet above its natural level, and driven by winds hither to this bank to-day and thither to-morrow, washing every vestige of earth from the helpless life-givers, till its whole circumference is a woful net-work of gnarled trunks and intertwined fibres, bleached and dry as the bones of a skeleton, and sheltering no life, but that of the blue lizard and red-throated moccasin.
Well well... that should get you ready to run back to the car… don’t you think???
And so it was that the return would have no walking. The two ruts in the road became the paths to glory. My partner clocked mile two on the return at an 8:30 pace, which just killer for rats. This rat was inspired by her effort and gave extra effort of his own to stay within sight of her. But upon thinking, she could be a mile away and still be seen! Yet, the effort remained high and great strains were made to spot the gate at the parking lot.
We spotted no snakes, bobcats, black bears, or other creatures of fear known to inhabit the reserve. We did startle a herron into flight. I have not seen a herron since canoeing the Current River over a year ago. Anytime a bird with a 6-feet wing span takes off you have to pause mentally. It is a beautiful sight. But there was no physical pause, and soon the dark brown metal and wooden gates appeared in the distance. My partner asked me on a couple of occasions how far away I thought they were. Knowing what she really was asking, I gave her the answer in finishing kick time. “Uh…that’s about a 4 minute finish sprint, baby.” We jogged it home to the car!
It was a long drive in the ratmobile back to our little nest in the wall of a Virginia Beach apartment complex. It gave us time to contemplate about 7.4 miles of Great Dismal agony and ecstasy [and our one mile warm up walk]. As with most rats, our experiences can be summed up in moments. And our moments of sadness and euphoria are what we recall as time goes by. The long straight road to the center of blackness that is the Washington Ditch will always evoke more smiles than frowns.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Trail Rat Meets The Sandman
Trail Rat Meets The Sandman
~Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson~
MARCH 2005
One of the first questions I asked myself after arriving in Virginia Beach is “where do I run?” The second question, for the record, was “where are the hills?” Trail withdrawal was eminent. It was mid-January and winter was in full “bloom.” Most of this Trail Rat’s training occurs on a “dreadmill” in the winter, staring blankly at a display with basic information. Unfortunately, wrist GPS gadgets won’t work on a dreadmill, so calculations are performed in one’s mind. This is particularly frustrating to rats, as our brains are quite small and thus limited in capacity for such calculations. And rats sometimes digress, so this one will move on.
There were a few other rats at work, but none with the real lustful sort of enthusiasm that this rat has. And nothing like other rats such as Larry K, or George P, or Kathy M, or Ed C, or Heidi GM, or… drat! Rats do digress! Anyway, this rat was on his own to figure out the best place to get a trail fix. Rats at the Tidewater Striders running club sent me to First Landing State Park. But rats get disappointed when you have to pay to enter a park to park. Rats may digress, but parking at a park is just plain redundant! So this rat bought a book at a bike shop [gasp] about mountain biking in Virginia. The book cost 18 rat dollars and the park tips contained therein saved 4 rat dollars per trip to the park. This rat was happy!
So, I put a rat rack on top of my sled and loaded the mountain bike. I had to be true to the purpose of the book for the first trip to the park. I rode the General McGuire trail out and back for 12 miles. Not a lot of distance, but rat riding in mixed dirt and sand can be a challenge that is not well measured by distance alone. It is not the length of the trail, but the firmness of the surface [innuendo intended]. This rat decided that the GMT was going to be a fine running trail! Plus, there were many capillary trails leading outward from the main trail. Rats love to explore!
One more bike ride and a rat run was finally in order. I parked at the bike shop [gasp again] and jogged the paved mile to the park trailhead. Through the mixed forest I ran, with pine trees providing green in the winter I was not used to seeing. Past the parking lot I ran, thinking of the money I saved and the extra two miles I would run by parking outside the park [redundancy intended]. Onto a capillary trail [The Bald Cypress Trail] I swerved. I was soon in heaven. 1.75 miles worth of trail took rats over little mounds [hills around here] and around swampland dotted with amazing bald cypress trees. The trees belched the breath of time itself, standing firm beneath an overcoat of Spanish moss. Oh my… I was not in Missouri! Only 6 miles of running provided me with 6 hours of smiling. Rats look mean when they smile, so I had to contain my joy.
I saw many other rats while at First Landing. There where scout rats, couple rats, and rats with strollers in the woods. There were biker rats and runner rats, and even a military rat or two keeping in tune for deployment. But, there were no familiar rats to me, so my joy was justly tempered to a mild euphoria. Rats are social, and even with small brains, we remember things for a long time. Running with familiar rats is one of those lingering memories. So new trails will be found and reported, just to share with my old rat friends, and bring back some great memories that no rat could ever forget.
~Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson~
MARCH 2005
One of the first questions I asked myself after arriving in Virginia Beach is “where do I run?” The second question, for the record, was “where are the hills?” Trail withdrawal was eminent. It was mid-January and winter was in full “bloom.” Most of this Trail Rat’s training occurs on a “dreadmill” in the winter, staring blankly at a display with basic information. Unfortunately, wrist GPS gadgets won’t work on a dreadmill, so calculations are performed in one’s mind. This is particularly frustrating to rats, as our brains are quite small and thus limited in capacity for such calculations. And rats sometimes digress, so this one will move on.
There were a few other rats at work, but none with the real lustful sort of enthusiasm that this rat has. And nothing like other rats such as Larry K, or George P, or Kathy M, or Ed C, or Heidi GM, or… drat! Rats do digress! Anyway, this rat was on his own to figure out the best place to get a trail fix. Rats at the Tidewater Striders running club sent me to First Landing State Park. But rats get disappointed when you have to pay to enter a park to park. Rats may digress, but parking at a park is just plain redundant! So this rat bought a book at a bike shop [gasp] about mountain biking in Virginia. The book cost 18 rat dollars and the park tips contained therein saved 4 rat dollars per trip to the park. This rat was happy!
So, I put a rat rack on top of my sled and loaded the mountain bike. I had to be true to the purpose of the book for the first trip to the park. I rode the General McGuire trail out and back for 12 miles. Not a lot of distance, but rat riding in mixed dirt and sand can be a challenge that is not well measured by distance alone. It is not the length of the trail, but the firmness of the surface [innuendo intended]. This rat decided that the GMT was going to be a fine running trail! Plus, there were many capillary trails leading outward from the main trail. Rats love to explore!
One more bike ride and a rat run was finally in order. I parked at the bike shop [gasp again] and jogged the paved mile to the park trailhead. Through the mixed forest I ran, with pine trees providing green in the winter I was not used to seeing. Past the parking lot I ran, thinking of the money I saved and the extra two miles I would run by parking outside the park [redundancy intended]. Onto a capillary trail [The Bald Cypress Trail] I swerved. I was soon in heaven. 1.75 miles worth of trail took rats over little mounds [hills around here] and around swampland dotted with amazing bald cypress trees. The trees belched the breath of time itself, standing firm beneath an overcoat of Spanish moss. Oh my… I was not in Missouri! Only 6 miles of running provided me with 6 hours of smiling. Rats look mean when they smile, so I had to contain my joy.
I saw many other rats while at First Landing. There where scout rats, couple rats, and rats with strollers in the woods. There were biker rats and runner rats, and even a military rat or two keeping in tune for deployment. But, there were no familiar rats to me, so my joy was justly tempered to a mild euphoria. Rats are social, and even with small brains, we remember things for a long time. Running with familiar rats is one of those lingering memories. So new trails will be found and reported, just to share with my old rat friends, and bring back some great memories that no rat could ever forget.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
The Truth Of Life
What matters most when the stuff hits the fan
FEBRUARY 2005
By Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson
By now, many of you know I have moved. Currently, I am sitting in an Extended Stay Hotel room typing on my work laptop. I have no phone. I have no ISP. I have no friends in the area. The traffic sucks. I can’t save to my 401k until July. I have to pay for two months of COBRA heath care. After 15 years of company cars I now have a car payment. I now have no home. The apartment I have leased is nowhere near big enough to hold the past 10 years worth of gathered goods. I will need storage. On the positive side I have made considerable settling progress since my arrival 7 days ago. I actually know my way around most of the time. This area has one of the worst reputations for getting people utterly lost. I believe it. I have such good directional sense that my initials should be GPS, and I still get confused here. I will live within running distance of the ocean. First Landing State Park has 7+ miles of un-groomed trails for this rat. The seafood is fresh. There is a Dick’s and a Bass Pro Shop for trail rat supplies. The Tidewater Striders running club here is one of the largest in the USA. Can you believe they do not publish a newsletter? I wonder whom they could get to do that? I wonder if the content could be tailored to TWO clubs… hmmmm….
I had been looking for a new job for about 26 months. Already having a job afforded me time and selectivity. It was only recently that the truth of my search hit me. The truth was that a new job might take me away from St Louis and my friends there. And so the truth came to be. But there is more.
I left behind a lot of truth. Terry hammers a marathon with a PF flare after 10K… that is truth. Kelly runs in a 25mph wind as Wonder Woman… that is truth. Bert invites us to ride 100 miles on a stormy summer day just for fun… that is truth. Jim just plain writes the truth… check out his story. Many of you are THE truth, out there leading lives of honor and courage and loyalty. You have physical injuries, failed relationships, challenged children, challenging jobs, aging parents, and many other things that demand your energy. But out you go. You freaking run. You friggin' pedal. You create a space for the peace of an elevated heartbeat… that is truth. In street slang, the truth is someone who is the epitome of excellence. Many of you fit this definition in my mind. So, it was pretty easy for me to get out and take my first run in Virginia Beach when I think of all of you. It was not on a trail, but through a business park. The majority of the run was on a street named Crossways. Well, if you ever find yourself crossways with this area, I should be able to show you a good trail run by then, and maybe we can hammer a tray of blue crabs together. Between the beer and Old Bay Seasoning I’m sure we will enjoy ourselves. And don’t forget the truth. When everything around you is changing find something that is steady. For me, that is faith, hope and love. And you don’t have to be an apostle to know for sure that the greatest of these is love. Indeed. That is truth.
What matters most when the stuff hits the fan
FEBRUARY 2005
By Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson
By now, many of you know I have moved. Currently, I am sitting in an Extended Stay Hotel room typing on my work laptop. I have no phone. I have no ISP. I have no friends in the area. The traffic sucks. I can’t save to my 401k until July. I have to pay for two months of COBRA heath care. After 15 years of company cars I now have a car payment. I now have no home. The apartment I have leased is nowhere near big enough to hold the past 10 years worth of gathered goods. I will need storage. On the positive side I have made considerable settling progress since my arrival 7 days ago. I actually know my way around most of the time. This area has one of the worst reputations for getting people utterly lost. I believe it. I have such good directional sense that my initials should be GPS, and I still get confused here. I will live within running distance of the ocean. First Landing State Park has 7+ miles of un-groomed trails for this rat. The seafood is fresh. There is a Dick’s and a Bass Pro Shop for trail rat supplies. The Tidewater Striders running club here is one of the largest in the USA. Can you believe they do not publish a newsletter? I wonder whom they could get to do that? I wonder if the content could be tailored to TWO clubs… hmmmm….
I had been looking for a new job for about 26 months. Already having a job afforded me time and selectivity. It was only recently that the truth of my search hit me. The truth was that a new job might take me away from St Louis and my friends there. And so the truth came to be. But there is more.
I left behind a lot of truth. Terry hammers a marathon with a PF flare after 10K… that is truth. Kelly runs in a 25mph wind as Wonder Woman… that is truth. Bert invites us to ride 100 miles on a stormy summer day just for fun… that is truth. Jim just plain writes the truth… check out his story. Many of you are THE truth, out there leading lives of honor and courage and loyalty. You have physical injuries, failed relationships, challenged children, challenging jobs, aging parents, and many other things that demand your energy. But out you go. You freaking run. You friggin' pedal. You create a space for the peace of an elevated heartbeat… that is truth. In street slang, the truth is someone who is the epitome of excellence. Many of you fit this definition in my mind. So, it was pretty easy for me to get out and take my first run in Virginia Beach when I think of all of you. It was not on a trail, but through a business park. The majority of the run was on a street named Crossways. Well, if you ever find yourself crossways with this area, I should be able to show you a good trail run by then, and maybe we can hammer a tray of blue crabs together. Between the beer and Old Bay Seasoning I’m sure we will enjoy ourselves. And don’t forget the truth. When everything around you is changing find something that is steady. For me, that is faith, hope and love. And you don’t have to be an apostle to know for sure that the greatest of these is love. Indeed. That is truth.
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Trail Rat Holiday Tails and Tales
Trail Rat Holiday Tails and Tales JANUARY 2005
Well, this trail rat knows better than most that this is has been one heck of a year. 2004 left this rat in a tail spin [pun FULLY intended]. Momma rat ran off and left this one to fend for himself in September 2003. But by December I was running the trails named for discoverers. And while running the frozen and crunchy trail tundra, I discovered a few things on my own.
This rat started lifting and running and biking again. About 40 pounds later I woke up and looked in the mirror. After the initial shock wore off I realized that when you burn more calories than you eat you start to shrink. Go figure?!
I found out that traffic truly sucks in St Charles. I’d load up for a trail run, and it would take me 35 minutes to drive what used to take 20 minutes. I searched high and low for a way to multi-task and use this time wisely. More on that later.
I did a few long runs… longer than I had ever planned. I met some amazing people along the way. I met rats like Terry and Kay, and found out that kindness, compassion, and irreverence can all happily coexist in the same household. Rat Kelly showed me that rats can look just like Lynda Carter if they try REALLY hard. Rat Glen became an encourager, which I found to be MOST effective coming from someone so incorrigible. I met rats I’d known before like Bert. He’d run some of the same trails and had woven some similar tales. I met gadget rats like Shiela, who take longer to suit up for a run than me with all her toys… but can provide far more interesting data along the way. Rat Bob R worked out at the same YMCA earlier in the year, and I found that it is possible to meet someone lifting weights who is truly a nice person. I met rats like Bev who threatened to whip my butt for my verbal faux pas, and I kind of liked that . Rat Dave gave me some perspective while his significant other, rat Joan, gave me some of the best cookies EVER. I don’t even think Dave would debate about that! Rat Vicki gave me work ethic at Flat Five... “stand in front of those cars!” I’m still in therapy after that. Rat Larry K gave me some great laughs while defending America from the onslaught of my French girlfriend [I hope he knows she was mostly juicing him for a reaction]. I learned from a few trail runs [with Heidi, George, and Kathy] that rats of different abilities can run and train together effectively.
Finally, all of these rat encounters have brought me through to the end of the best year of my life. I learned to use the drive time to think up newsletter articles. I learned to use my free will to run. I became the comeback rat. And a darn thankful rat. Thankful my paws will get me down the trail next to my home. At no time is this more poignant than when I see my neighbors getting their paraplegic son out on the trail for some fresh air. After seeing that, every run should seem easy. Anyway, this rat will carve a trail out of granite for all you club rats… anytime. You are all great people in your own unique ways. Share those gifts with both friends [and a few strangers] this season. Peace, Hope, and Love. ~Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson~
Well, this trail rat knows better than most that this is has been one heck of a year. 2004 left this rat in a tail spin [pun FULLY intended]. Momma rat ran off and left this one to fend for himself in September 2003. But by December I was running the trails named for discoverers. And while running the frozen and crunchy trail tundra, I discovered a few things on my own.
This rat started lifting and running and biking again. About 40 pounds later I woke up and looked in the mirror. After the initial shock wore off I realized that when you burn more calories than you eat you start to shrink. Go figure?!
I found out that traffic truly sucks in St Charles. I’d load up for a trail run, and it would take me 35 minutes to drive what used to take 20 minutes. I searched high and low for a way to multi-task and use this time wisely. More on that later.
I did a few long runs… longer than I had ever planned. I met some amazing people along the way. I met rats like Terry and Kay, and found out that kindness, compassion, and irreverence can all happily coexist in the same household
Finally, all of these rat encounters have brought me through to the end of the best year of my life. I learned to use the drive time to think up newsletter articles. I learned to use my free will to run. I became the comeback rat. And a darn thankful rat. Thankful my paws will get me down the trail next to my home. At no time is this more poignant than when I see my neighbors getting their paraplegic son out on the trail for some fresh air. After seeing that, every run should seem easy. Anyway, this rat will carve a trail out of granite for all you club rats… anytime. You are all great people in your own unique ways. Share those gifts with both friends [and a few strangers] this season. Peace, Hope, and Love. ~Reed “Trail Rat” Nelson~
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Advice From A Trail Rat-Becoming The Water In Bruce's Cup
Advice From A Trail Rat
Off-Roading & Becoming The Water In Bruce’s Cup
November 2004
Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless--like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash! Be water, my friend.-- Bruce Lee When the opponent expands, I contract. When he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, I do not hit--it hits all by itself.-- Bruce Lee
Bruce must have been a trail runner. I know that some of the most yin/yang, zen-like, Jesus-I’m-in-the-zone moments in my entire life have been on the trail. I have also taken some nasty falls out there… indeed, the trail is a worthy adversary! And Bruce was into simplification, so he summarizes any imaginable struggle in the above quotes and gives us some insight into the “way of the wizard,” as Deepak Chopra would say. I would scream “technique!” Now, before you think this piece is going to be a fourth installment in the Lord of the Rings series or a Tony Little infommercial, let me get to the points I have on the subject of trail running. As you read on, keep ole Bruce’s quotes and Tony’s scream in mind. Also, I polled my running club officers and a few of them estimated that 85% of our club has trail running experience. Now, I have offered advice to people before and somehow it has been seen as offensive, regardless of the delivery technique. A little psychology here… for all of us. Whenever we receive advice let’s always take the high road. Let’s assume the intent of the advisor is one of genuine care and concern. All too often, we take the low road and assume the advisor is belittling us, especially if the advice is information we already know. That is a shame. So with those thoughts in mind, if this becomes repetitive for you have my apologies.
Let’s get the terminology out of the way first. Coming from Kentucky, my trail running glossary is likely quite different from yours. Some of you may not even talk when you run. If that is the case, never lead a group on a trail run… the people behind you are expecting advanced warning of all obstacles. Here are some terms to help you out when you lead:
Root! – Any slick root[s] or a root parallel to the course of travel. Perpendicular roots don’t roll ankles, so they are not worthy of warning calls. One exception is listed below.
Rock! – Any solidly anchored sharp rock[s] or loose stone[s] likely to maim those who follow you.
Rock Garden! – Any multiple/multitude of the above.
Steeplechase! – A tree that is passable in stride by stepping on and over or simply hurdling. If you can’t pass it in stride, your stopping says all you need to say!
Toe-catcher! – This is a perpendicular root from which the soil has eroded, leaving it completely exposed to trip runners. This is one of the most dangerous obstacles.
Spider! – When encountering a web, yell this out for extra credit [i.e. post-run gratitude]
Snake! –The most feared animal for most of us and worthy of much respect, Yelling this will not lower the leader’s chance of being bitten, and results in severe punishment from fellow runners if it is a false alarm.
Nettle! – Required vocalization when encountering Stinging Nettle. Caveat… the leader may not feel the sting of the nettle encounter until several steps past the encounter, at which point his/her fellow runners have become fellow victims.
Poison! – Ivy, Oak or Sumac.
Thorn! – When encountering briars.
Polecat! – When the smell of a skunk permeates the nostrils and causes bodily convulsions.
There are additional warning calls, but this gives everyone a nice base! Oh, mud is certainly not worthy of calling out. Why are you running trails if you wish to avoid mud?!
Now, let’s focus on running, shall we? There are generally three types of terrain… flat, uphill, and downhill. On a trail there will be obstacles all of the time. Let’s get the easy one’s out of the way first. Running flats is a cakewalk, er… uhh… run. Rhythm is hard to achieve on the trail, so I take it when I can get it. Flats give me that opportunity. I rarely adjust my stride or breathing pattern from what I use on the road. I think of Bruce and try to “flow” over the obstacles without too much drama. I make it as much like road running as possible.
Now we are going to go uphill. Here is where trails start to shine [and runners often wilt]. Being an avid biker I hear people moaning about hills constantly. But, speaking from loads of humbling experience, I can tell you that I’d rather run up any technical hill as opposed to biking up the thing. Aside from a good power-to-weight ratio, there are a few tricks [i.e. Technique!] to get you up the hills on a trail more comfortably and quickly. Again, remember Bruce… become the hill. Lean forward slightly. Move your eyes. Direct your vision down to your feet and quickly scan up, out, and ahead on the trail for 15 feet or so. Keep doing this as you run. Now that you can see, what about your feet? A little trick I learned mountaineering is to “heel” the high spots. Pick out stable rocks and roots and adjust your stride to plant your heel squarely on them. This will level your foot. The benefits of leveling are numerous. You will put less stress on your Achilles and calves, reducing chance of injury. You will rely more heavily on your stronger quads, hamstrings, and gluteus thereby increasing your endurance. Your feet will move less in your shoes, reducing blisters. And you will be able to push off more effectively, increasing your speed. When going up a hill, we all tend to slow down. There is time to focus on form factors like this one. Doing so will take your mind off your fast-approaching anaerobic threshold. This benefit alone makes it worth practicing the technique!
I cannot tell you how many people that are far superior to me physically I have literally left behind going downhill. I remember that dusting my Herculean climbing partners descending mountains are among my prouder moments. So, what makes me faster?
The first thing I will tell you is clichéd. I have no fear. Fear will freeze you on descents. Remember, you are RUNNING! There is no time for fear or being frozen! And your fear is likely one of falling, not speed. Once you fall a few times you will quickly move past that fear. There is a right way to fall. Don’t stick out your arm and lock your elbow! I’ll see you with a cast if you do that! You will need to use your hand, elbow, and shoulder in sequence to absorb an impact. After the impact you just tuck and roll to dissipate speed. Sound hard? It is! Sound painful? It is usually painful as well. I fell last Wednesday night on slick asphalt going downhill in Laurel Park. I used the technique and now have a dime sized war wound on my right elbow. Not bad. Practice falling on a grass hill. Play with your kids in a game of king-of-the-mountain. It is good practice for everyone. The place to learn how to fall is NOT on a trail of rocks while you are running 8 minute mile pace.
The second thing I will tell you is to do the opposite of the uphill technique. That is, use a progressive scanning of the trail and “toe” the high points. Benefits include less shin splint [tibialis posterior and tibialis anterior] stress and more stability. Also, I have seen runners refuse to use proper biomechanics when running down smoother hills on the trail. Specifically, I have seen the refusal to use the entire foot, starting with a heel strike and rolling it forward. Bounding down a hill on the balls of your feet is unstable and slower in most cases. Unless injuries prevent you from using a heel strike and roll, making sure you are doing it. If you are not, give it a try.
Now, here are some new thoughts. 1) As you scan, imagine where water would flow down the trail [remember Bruce?]. If you follow that path you will be happy with the results most of the time. 2) If a trail is a trough “straddle run” it. Essentially you will be bouncing from left to right down the trail. You will not believe the stability this technique has. I have never fallen while straddle running down a trough or rut. 3) You may also want to try your hand at bounding over uncertain terrain. Deer don’t bound for style points. Truth is, they haven’t a clue where their hooves will land. So they bound, and benefit from a supple landing at the end of each bound. In the fraction of time they are airborne they look to find a landing spot and extend their legs. When they touch down they use that extension to absorb the landing. If they slip, they simply short-step to regain balance or fall and bounce back to their feet. We can learn a lot by watching animals move across terrain. Watch domestic cats move about… they are smooth operators. Don’t get too confident though. You have toes instead of hooves… two legs instead of four… and calve muscles to exhaust! Anyway, elevate yourself going down a technical hill. Throw out your usual scoot or flat surface stride, or you will end up on the ground and left behind.
There are some other terrain encounters worth noting. Off-camber trails and turns [trails cut with a slant to the left or right, turns with negative banking], can wreak havoc on your knees and ankles. Don’t just plow through these sections. Search out every level surface you can for each step. I guess this brings us to the end of the road, err… uhh… trail. Trails are your chance to mentally focus unlike other times. I compare it to chopping vegetables. Pay attention [i.e. focus] and use proper technique, and you will enjoy the results. Don’t and you will likely get hurt! I hope some of these thoughts help get you down the trails you choose to run, and I hope to see you out there!
Off-Roading & Becoming The Water In Bruce’s Cup
November 2004
Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless--like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash! Be water, my friend.-- Bruce Lee When the opponent expands, I contract. When he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, I do not hit--it hits all by itself.-- Bruce Lee
Bruce must have been a trail runner. I know that some of the most yin/yang, zen-like, Jesus-I’m-in-the-zone moments in my entire life have been on the trail. I have also taken some nasty falls out there… indeed, the trail is a worthy adversary! And Bruce was into simplification, so he summarizes any imaginable struggle in the above quotes and gives us some insight into the “way of the wizard,” as Deepak Chopra would say. I would scream “technique!” Now, before you think this piece is going to be a fourth installment in the Lord of the Rings series or a Tony Little infommercial, let me get to the points I have on the subject of trail running. As you read on, keep ole Bruce’s quotes and Tony’s scream in mind. Also, I polled my running club officers and a few of them estimated that 85% of our club has trail running experience. Now, I have offered advice to people before and somehow it has been seen as offensive, regardless of the delivery technique. A little psychology here… for all of us. Whenever we receive advice let’s always take the high road. Let’s assume the intent of the advisor is one of genuine care and concern. All too often, we take the low road and assume the advisor is belittling us, especially if the advice is information we already know. That is a shame. So with those thoughts in mind, if this becomes repetitive for you have my apologies.
Let’s get the terminology out of the way first. Coming from Kentucky, my trail running glossary is likely quite different from yours. Some of you may not even talk when you run. If that is the case, never lead a group on a trail run… the people behind you are expecting advanced warning of all obstacles. Here are some terms to help you out when you lead:
Root! – Any slick root[s] or a root parallel to the course of travel. Perpendicular roots don’t roll ankles, so they are not worthy of warning calls. One exception is listed below.
Rock! – Any solidly anchored sharp rock[s] or loose stone[s] likely to maim those who follow you.
Rock Garden! – Any multiple/multitude of the above.
Steeplechase! – A tree that is passable in stride by stepping on and over or simply hurdling. If you can’t pass it in stride, your stopping says all you need to say!
Toe-catcher! – This is a perpendicular root from which the soil has eroded, leaving it completely exposed to trip runners. This is one of the most dangerous obstacles.
Spider! – When encountering a web, yell this out for extra credit [i.e. post-run gratitude]
Snake! –The most feared animal for most of us and worthy of much respect, Yelling this will not lower the leader’s chance of being bitten, and results in severe punishment from fellow runners if it is a false alarm.
Nettle! – Required vocalization when encountering Stinging Nettle. Caveat… the leader may not feel the sting of the nettle encounter until several steps past the encounter, at which point his/her fellow runners have become fellow victims.
Poison! – Ivy, Oak or Sumac.
Thorn! – When encountering briars.
Polecat! – When the smell of a skunk permeates the nostrils and causes bodily convulsions.
There are additional warning calls, but this gives everyone a nice base! Oh, mud is certainly not worthy of calling out. Why are you running trails if you wish to avoid mud?!
Now, let’s focus on running, shall we? There are generally three types of terrain… flat, uphill, and downhill. On a trail there will be obstacles all of the time. Let’s get the easy one’s out of the way first. Running flats is a cakewalk, er… uhh… run. Rhythm is hard to achieve on the trail, so I take it when I can get it. Flats give me that opportunity. I rarely adjust my stride or breathing pattern from what I use on the road. I think of Bruce and try to “flow” over the obstacles without too much drama. I make it as much like road running as possible.
Now we are going to go uphill. Here is where trails start to shine [and runners often wilt]. Being an avid biker I hear people moaning about hills constantly. But, speaking from loads of humbling experience, I can tell you that I’d rather run up any technical hill as opposed to biking up the thing. Aside from a good power-to-weight ratio, there are a few tricks [i.e. Technique!] to get you up the hills on a trail more comfortably and quickly. Again, remember Bruce… become the hill. Lean forward slightly. Move your eyes. Direct your vision down to your feet and quickly scan up, out, and ahead on the trail for 15 feet or so. Keep doing this as you run. Now that you can see, what about your feet? A little trick I learned mountaineering is to “heel” the high spots. Pick out stable rocks and roots and adjust your stride to plant your heel squarely on them. This will level your foot. The benefits of leveling are numerous. You will put less stress on your Achilles and calves, reducing chance of injury. You will rely more heavily on your stronger quads, hamstrings, and gluteus thereby increasing your endurance. Your feet will move less in your shoes, reducing blisters. And you will be able to push off more effectively, increasing your speed. When going up a hill, we all tend to slow down. There is time to focus on form factors like this one. Doing so will take your mind off your fast-approaching anaerobic threshold. This benefit alone makes it worth practicing the technique!
I cannot tell you how many people that are far superior to me physically I have literally left behind going downhill. I remember that dusting my Herculean climbing partners descending mountains are among my prouder moments. So, what makes me faster?
The first thing I will tell you is clichéd. I have no fear. Fear will freeze you on descents. Remember, you are RUNNING! There is no time for fear or being frozen! And your fear is likely one of falling, not speed. Once you fall a few times you will quickly move past that fear. There is a right way to fall. Don’t stick out your arm and lock your elbow! I’ll see you with a cast if you do that! You will need to use your hand, elbow, and shoulder in sequence to absorb an impact. After the impact you just tuck and roll to dissipate speed. Sound hard? It is! Sound painful? It is usually painful as well. I fell last Wednesday night on slick asphalt going downhill in Laurel Park. I used the technique and now have a dime sized war wound on my right elbow. Not bad. Practice falling on a grass hill. Play with your kids in a game of king-of-the-mountain. It is good practice for everyone. The place to learn how to fall is NOT on a trail of rocks while you are running 8 minute mile pace.
The second thing I will tell you is to do the opposite of the uphill technique. That is, use a progressive scanning of the trail and “toe” the high points. Benefits include less shin splint [tibialis posterior and tibialis anterior] stress and more stability. Also, I have seen runners refuse to use proper biomechanics when running down smoother hills on the trail. Specifically, I have seen the refusal to use the entire foot, starting with a heel strike and rolling it forward. Bounding down a hill on the balls of your feet is unstable and slower in most cases. Unless injuries prevent you from using a heel strike and roll, making sure you are doing it. If you are not, give it a try.
Now, here are some new thoughts. 1) As you scan, imagine where water would flow down the trail [remember Bruce?]. If you follow that path you will be happy with the results most of the time. 2) If a trail is a trough “straddle run” it. Essentially you will be bouncing from left to right down the trail. You will not believe the stability this technique has. I have never fallen while straddle running down a trough or rut. 3) You may also want to try your hand at bounding over uncertain terrain. Deer don’t bound for style points. Truth is, they haven’t a clue where their hooves will land. So they bound, and benefit from a supple landing at the end of each bound. In the fraction of time they are airborne they look to find a landing spot and extend their legs. When they touch down they use that extension to absorb the landing. If they slip, they simply short-step to regain balance or fall and bounce back to their feet. We can learn a lot by watching animals move across terrain. Watch domestic cats move about… they are smooth operators. Don’t get too confident though. You have toes instead of hooves… two legs instead of four… and calve muscles to exhaust! Anyway, elevate yourself going down a technical hill. Throw out your usual scoot or flat surface stride, or you will end up on the ground and left behind.
There are some other terrain encounters worth noting. Off-camber trails and turns [trails cut with a slant to the left or right, turns with negative banking], can wreak havoc on your knees and ankles. Don’t just plow through these sections. Search out every level surface you can for each step. I guess this brings us to the end of the road, err… uhh… trail. Trails are your chance to mentally focus unlike other times. I compare it to chopping vegetables. Pay attention [i.e. focus] and use proper technique, and you will enjoy the results. Don’t and you will likely get hurt! I hope some of these thoughts help get you down the trails you choose to run, and I hope to see you out there!
Monday, October 25, 2004
The Polarization Of America – Election 2004
The Polarization Of America – Election 2004
Commentary by Reed Nelson
25 October 2004
Well, I have HAD it! Today Bush said Kerry would ‘cut and run’ in Iraq. Truth? Bush has no clue what Kerry would do. Kerry slammed Bush for not finding tons of explosives hidden in Iraq. This comes after weeks of cries about no WMD’s. And, furthermore, was Bush the person solely responsible for finding the explosives? Was he crawling and sifting through the sand in Iraq, or did I miss something?
This, my friends, is a daily occurrence… and a huge annoyance for people who are thoughtful and intelligent enough to see past this type of third grade, back-and-forth campaigning. This election, like the last, is all about emotion. This election, like the last, is all about hate. Last time around we had the Republicans going hard after the Clinton-led Democrats, driven by hate and disgust for one Slick Willie. This time we have the Democrats, who kicked out crazy Howard Dean in favor of John Kerry. Not the best choice of the lot, but in my opinion the lot was purposefully made weak to LOSE this election so Hillary can run in 2008. Make no mistake… the Clintons CONTROL the party. Dig deep and you will find this to be pretty accurate. Anyway, without a robust candidate, the election is driven by the party’s hate for Bush, and the belief that he ‘stole’ the 2000 election. Now, if that is not emotional, can someone tell me what is?
So we have it. Both parties are guilty of very bad campaigning. Both candidates have lied and deceived their way down the campaign trail. I have watched this closely… both sides. I feel like I know. I also feel like I have a good basis for rational commentary. I have voted for presidents four times. One Democrat and three Republican. I have voted for Senators and Representatives on both sides of the aisle as well. I despise the two-party set up we have now. It is all too simplified… and polarizes the issues, skewing our thinking and our real positions. So, oftentimes, if we look honestly, we sit firmly on BOTH sides, but we choose one because we must. Often, inertia has everything to do with that choice, and rational thinking has been omitted from the process. Disagree? Well, if you buy into EVERY issue in ‘your’ party’s platform, you can always vote for that party in good conscience. If you do not buy into the whole lot of salad that ‘your’ party is tossing [I suspect most people fall into this group, but refuse to honestly look at it this way], you have a dilemma. How do you decide?
I’ll get to the decision process in a minute, but first I have to touch on the polarization issues. We’ve all been politicized to death in the past few years. It is quite disgusting in this day and age that grown and [supposedly] mature adults must avoid political discussions because arguments inevitably erupt. Why must that be true? And just why IS it true most of the time? And why do we accept that discouraging news so readily? Personally, I refuse to keep the company of friends who cannot argue their points factually and rationally. I’d rather know other people, to be quite honest about it… and not just people who agree with me. The point is we have just plain lost it. We have Michael Moore doing Fahrenheit 9/11 and calling it a ‘documentary.’ Really? And just who checked all of the facts for accuracy? We have bumper stickers from Democrats that say ‘Vote the Son of a Bush Out.’ Now that’s a classy way to represent 'your' party of choice. Republicans are not immune to drama either. They had Slick Willie stickers in 1996 and Sore Losserman [aka Gore Liebermann] stickers in 2000. This year we have Swift Boat Veterans coming out of the woodwork. Listen, just where were these people for the past 18 years that John Kerry has been Senator? Oh, apparently they had no problem with that. Riiiiiiight. This year I have actually seen regular bumper stickers for Bush Cheney defaced on cars by Democratic supporters. Again, the hate just continues to grow into ever uglier actions. This stuff is inexcusable. Both parties need a bath and an enema.
Now, back to the question at hand. How do you vote? Well, let’s do a little civics here. Let’s all remember that this country is NOT a democracy in the purest sense. It is, in fact, a representative democracy. When we elect people to office, we elect them to vote their Conscience for us. It is impossible to poll constituents on every issue and very inefficient as well. Since conscience is a key factor, I would opine that the CHARACTER of a particular candidate is central to any voting decision. Of course, we went through this a few years ago when the phrase ‘character doesn’t matter’ was circulating. Of course, that is lunacy. Character ALWAYS matters. It matters with you, your children, your spouse, your parents, your friends… and your elected officials. We all need to understand that very clearly. Think about it for a while. And, I will be glad to tell you where the question of character really matters… with VOTERS. I will be voting a split ticket this year. I am voting on character and will impose my own’ term limits’ in some cases, since most of our congresspersons are too self-absorbed to limit themselves. I wonder how many people truly consider the candidates? I wonder how many Democrats listen to Rush and how many Republicans listen to Carville? Or is it just the same ole song? Punch the straight ticket, check for hanging chads, and go home.
I hope most people are smarter than that. So, you may wonder where I stand. I will tell you that I am not voting for Nader. I will tell you that in the presidential race, the winner, based on the question of character, is clear if you look hard enough. I will tell you that in the state of Missouri that Kit Bond has been in office long enough. I will tell you that you probably do not know what you need to know about the threats we face as a nation from rogue terrorists… Washington will not tell you because it is too scary and they do not trust you. Both of those facts are sad. And just who am I to say these things? Well, at least you can ask me that question without fear of reaping a whirlwind of venom and emotion. My message to you is simple. Calm down, look deeper, and vote. Where you stand [or who you vote for] is of no consequence to me.
Commentary by Reed Nelson
25 October 2004
Well, I have HAD it! Today Bush said Kerry would ‘cut and run’ in Iraq. Truth? Bush has no clue what Kerry would do. Kerry slammed Bush for not finding tons of explosives hidden in Iraq. This comes after weeks of cries about no WMD’s. And, furthermore, was Bush the person solely responsible for finding the explosives? Was he crawling and sifting through the sand in Iraq, or did I miss something?
This, my friends, is a daily occurrence… and a huge annoyance for people who are thoughtful and intelligent enough to see past this type of third grade, back-and-forth campaigning. This election, like the last, is all about emotion. This election, like the last, is all about hate. Last time around we had the Republicans going hard after the Clinton-led Democrats, driven by hate and disgust for one Slick Willie. This time we have the Democrats, who kicked out crazy Howard Dean in favor of John Kerry. Not the best choice of the lot, but in my opinion the lot was purposefully made weak to LOSE this election so Hillary can run in 2008. Make no mistake… the Clintons CONTROL the party. Dig deep and you will find this to be pretty accurate. Anyway, without a robust candidate, the election is driven by the party’s hate for Bush, and the belief that he ‘stole’ the 2000 election. Now, if that is not emotional, can someone tell me what is?
So we have it. Both parties are guilty of very bad campaigning. Both candidates have lied and deceived their way down the campaign trail. I have watched this closely… both sides. I feel like I know. I also feel like I have a good basis for rational commentary. I have voted for presidents four times. One Democrat and three Republican. I have voted for Senators and Representatives on both sides of the aisle as well. I despise the two-party set up we have now. It is all too simplified… and polarizes the issues, skewing our thinking and our real positions. So, oftentimes, if we look honestly, we sit firmly on BOTH sides, but we choose one because we must. Often, inertia has everything to do with that choice, and rational thinking has been omitted from the process. Disagree? Well, if you buy into EVERY issue in ‘your’ party’s platform, you can always vote for that party in good conscience. If you do not buy into the whole lot of salad that ‘your’ party is tossing [I suspect most people fall into this group, but refuse to honestly look at it this way], you have a dilemma. How do you decide?
I’ll get to the decision process in a minute, but first I have to touch on the polarization issues. We’ve all been politicized to death in the past few years. It is quite disgusting in this day and age that grown and [supposedly] mature adults must avoid political discussions because arguments inevitably erupt. Why must that be true? And just why IS it true most of the time? And why do we accept that discouraging news so readily? Personally, I refuse to keep the company of friends who cannot argue their points factually and rationally. I’d rather know other people, to be quite honest about it… and not just people who agree with me. The point is we have just plain lost it. We have Michael Moore doing Fahrenheit 9/11 and calling it a ‘documentary.’ Really? And just who checked all of the facts for accuracy? We have bumper stickers from Democrats that say ‘Vote the Son of a Bush Out.’ Now that’s a classy way to represent 'your' party of choice. Republicans are not immune to drama either. They had Slick Willie stickers in 1996 and Sore Losserman [aka Gore Liebermann] stickers in 2000. This year we have Swift Boat Veterans coming out of the woodwork. Listen, just where were these people for the past 18 years that John Kerry has been Senator? Oh, apparently they had no problem with that. Riiiiiiight. This year I have actually seen regular bumper stickers for Bush Cheney defaced on cars by Democratic supporters. Again, the hate just continues to grow into ever uglier actions. This stuff is inexcusable. Both parties need a bath and an enema.
Now, back to the question at hand. How do you vote? Well, let’s do a little civics here. Let’s all remember that this country is NOT a democracy in the purest sense. It is, in fact, a representative democracy. When we elect people to office, we elect them to vote their Conscience for us. It is impossible to poll constituents on every issue and very inefficient as well. Since conscience is a key factor, I would opine that the CHARACTER of a particular candidate is central to any voting decision. Of course, we went through this a few years ago when the phrase ‘character doesn’t matter’ was circulating. Of course, that is lunacy. Character ALWAYS matters. It matters with you, your children, your spouse, your parents, your friends… and your elected officials. We all need to understand that very clearly. Think about it for a while. And, I will be glad to tell you where the question of character really matters… with VOTERS. I will be voting a split ticket this year. I am voting on character and will impose my own’ term limits’ in some cases, since most of our congresspersons are too self-absorbed to limit themselves. I wonder how many people truly consider the candidates? I wonder how many Democrats listen to Rush and how many Republicans listen to Carville? Or is it just the same ole song? Punch the straight ticket, check for hanging chads, and go home.
I hope most people are smarter than that. So, you may wonder where I stand. I will tell you that I am not voting for Nader. I will tell you that in the presidential race, the winner, based on the question of character, is clear if you look hard enough. I will tell you that in the state of Missouri that Kit Bond has been in office long enough. I will tell you that you probably do not know what you need to know about the threats we face as a nation from rogue terrorists… Washington will not tell you because it is too scary and they do not trust you. Both of those facts are sad. And just who am I to say these things? Well, at least you can ask me that question without fear of reaping a whirlwind of venom and emotion. My message to you is simple. Calm down, look deeper, and vote. Where you stand [or who you vote for] is of no consequence to me.
Thursday, September 30, 2004
The Spirit Of Amateur Competition
The Spirit Of Amateur Competition
Commentary by Reed Nelson originally written 30 September, 2004
ARTICLE EXCERPT
“Japan's diminutive Mizuki Noguchi put on an extraordinary display of front-running to win the Olympic women's marathon title on Sunday as Paula Radcliffe's challenge ended in bitter tears. Big pre-race favourite Radcliffe, who led for the first half of the race, failed to finish, breaking down in tears at the 36-km mark as she slipped back to fourth after two hours' running.
The Briton, world record holder and never beaten in three previous marathons, tried to re-start but then slumped down by the side of the road, sobbing. Her record was almost 11 minutes quicker than Sunday's winning time.
The marathon had begun at 1800 local time but the heat was still intense. By five km, the lead group had already been whittled down to around a dozen. Radcliffe, desperate for a first title at a major championships, was unable to fight her eagerness and broke to the front after 25 minutes, shadowed by the Kenyans, Ethiopians and Japanese.
Already the event, on a steadily rising course, was taking casualties. Lydia Simon of Romania, the Sydney silver medallist, was dropped and soon 10 were left at the front. Kenya's Margaret Okayo, the fastest performer of the year, also lost touch as the race proper began. After exactly one-and-a-half hours Noguchi made her move, blasting up yet another incline and exploding the leading pack of seven. Only Alemu was able to keep in touch but Noguchi kept attacking up the climbs to forge 15 seconds clear, then 30, with a third of the race to run. Ndereba cut the gap to 12 seconds with two kilometres to go but Noguchi held on.”
The above article snip is available in its entirety at http://in.rediff.com/sports/2004/aug/23oly-ath1.htm
Well, I see it happen all the time. People train and live for an event, the event unfolds, and dreams of victory are crushed. But, is that really the intent and spirit of competition and amateur athletics? Let’s take a closer look from an entirely factual point of view.
First, let’s look at the true meaning of the word amateur. It has changed from a positive meaning to a disparaging meaning over the years. From Merriam Webster and from dictionary.com:
Etymology: French, from Latin amator lover, from amare to love1 : DEVOTEE, ADMIRER2 : one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession3 : one lacking in experience and competence in an art or science.
Second, let’s look at the true meaning of competition. According to Merriam Webster:
Etymology: Late Latin competere to seek together, from Latin, to come together, agree, be suitable, from com- + petere to go to, seek:
1 : to strive consciously or unconsciously for an objective (as position, profit, or a prize) : be in a state of rivalry
Finally, let’s look at the word spirit, from the Merriam Webster definition:
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French or Latin; Old French, from Latin spiritus, literally, breath, from spirare to blow, breathe1 : an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms
Now that we have knowledge of the words, true combined meanings can be derived. So, let me try my hand at defining the “spirit of amateur competition.”
“A gathering of people, with whom a common love of a particular sport is held, to strive for a common goal of victory, in which vitality also results.”
Now combined, it is clear that there are TWO purposes when one engages in the spirit of amateur competition. To win and to live [better]. And underlying all of that is love. I may have an altruistic view, but if one is acting out of love, then both goals of the competitive spirit need not be accomplished. By engaging in the competitive spirit alone, vitality is a result… and isn’t that a victory in-and-of itself? Winning should always be the goal, and without it there is no real competition. But winning is merely a bonus, as it is temporary. Vitality is clearly ”victorious’ over winning, as it is the essence of life, the addition of “spice” to our world and lives. “Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is,” says Zig Ziglar. There are variations to this quote such as “learning does not come from victory, but from struggle.” I believe these statements to be true.
Therefore, I have a hard time with quitters and sore losers. I cannot find sympathy in those situations. With the Radcliffe debacle, initial articles said she feigned some sort of leg injury. That is nonsense. Unless she was carried away, she still should have been on the course. Personally, I would have crawled the last 3 miles if I had to. There was a stadium full of people and over a hundred nations watching, and in the race of her life, Radcliffe quit and cried. She could have continued and cried, and she would never be forgotten. But as it is, this will haunt her. There are reasons that there are not millions of links on the web to post race interviews with her. First, she was too ashamed to talk. Second, the press is loath to spend too much time on quitters at the Olympics. Harsh? Maybe. But, as an amateur athlete, defined by a supposed love of her sport, she did a great injustice to her sport when she quit. It was an act of selfishness instead of selflessness. And the spirit of competition took a blow to the gut as well. When watching this unfold, did anyone feel vital? Conversely, would anyone have felt vital if she had continued toward the finish, crossing the finish and defying the tragedy of defeat?
Now, there is another side. Enough about Radcliffe. As the current world record holder I hope she will go on to win more races. Hopefully she can uphold the spirit of amateur competition when she does. I say this because the flip side of feeling shame is promoting shame. This is done through trash talking and over celebrating. Quitting is not nearly the problem that over celebrating has become. The NFL has tried to subdue it, and a portion of the rabid fan base and the highlight-dependent media have dubbed the NFL acronym as meaning the No Fun League. This is a warped view of competition in my opinion. But the NFL is a professional league, and those guys are playing for money and entertainment’. There is no pretense in that fact… and what passes as entertainment to one person may indeed repulse another person. So, I cannot criticize it too heavily. Still, the wrong message is delivered when a secondary goal of competition becomes humiliating the opponent. So now we have taunting and spiking and goalpost destruction and fighting… the negative list just goes on and on. Let me pose these questions:
1. “Would it be OK for an Olympic marathoner to trash talk their opponents on the course with a microphone for audio television coverage?”
2. “Would it be OK for me, upon finishing my marathon, to back track the course and encourage other potential finishers to quit because they can’t win anyway?”
3. “Would it be OK for a gymnast to shout at their competitors during the routine in an effort to distract them?
I could go on forever here, and most often the answer to the scenarios I would pose would be “no.”
Thankfully, there are still a few professional sports that, most of the time, promote the spirit of amateur competition. Golf comes to mind. Men and women battle and grind against themselves and each other on the course. Good shots and playmaking are usually acknowledged, even by competitors. There are no gifts… if an athlete has an off day they will most certainly be beaten badly. At the end they all remove their hats and shake hands. Competition has brought them closer. After all, they had a common love for the game and a common goal of winning, and all of them struggled mightily for that goal. Tennis comes close to this sometimes, too. There are other sports with higher standards, too, but none reach the pinnacle of amateur sports.
So, what can we take from this look at the spirit of amateur competition? I would say this to everyone. Compete! Go out and compete in something which you are bound to lose [but try to win anyway!]. Enjoy the lessons of competition like humility, and respect. Conversely, go out and compete in something which you are likely to win. Then, you may teach the same lessons to others. In doing this you will find your life more vital than before. You will find new friends. You will find your limits of physical and emotional endurance. After all, you will have competed and acted out of love, and life doesn’t get much purer than that.
I will end with a few quotes.
I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I Love to play.
~ Boris Becker ~
The medals don't mean anything and the glory doesn't last. It's all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.
~ Jackie Joyner Kersee ~
I don't compete with other discus throwers. I compete with my own history.
~ Al Oerter ~
If you make every game a life and death proposition, you're going to have problems. For one thing, you'll be dead a lot.
~ Dean Smith ~
Wise men never sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.
~ William Shakespeare ~
The opponents and I are really one. My strength and skills only half of the equation. The other half is theirs. An opponent is someone whose strength joined to yours creates a certain result.
~ Sadaharu Oh ~
My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories.
~ Bjorn Borg ~
Sports do not build character. They reveal it.
~ John Wooden ~
The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.
~ Peggy Fleming ~
Men talk as if victory were something fortunate. Work is victory.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
Any time you try to win everything, you must be willing to lose everything.
~ Larry Csonka ~
If you set a goal for yourself and are able to achieve it, you have won your race. Your goal can be to come in first, to improve your performance, or just to finish the race -- it's up to you.
~ Dave Scott ~
You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims.
~ Harriet Woods ~
AND FINALLY, ONE OF MY OWN…
Every time I lace up or strap the velcro on my shoes it is a new personal record, because it is one more step or pedal stroke than I have ever done before.
~ Reed Nelson – September, 2004~
Commentary by Reed Nelson originally written 30 September, 2004
ARTICLE EXCERPT
“Japan's diminutive Mizuki Noguchi put on an extraordinary display of front-running to win the Olympic women's marathon title on Sunday as Paula Radcliffe's challenge ended in bitter tears. Big pre-race favourite Radcliffe, who led for the first half of the race, failed to finish, breaking down in tears at the 36-km mark as she slipped back to fourth after two hours' running.
The Briton, world record holder and never beaten in three previous marathons, tried to re-start but then slumped down by the side of the road, sobbing. Her record was almost 11 minutes quicker than Sunday's winning time.
The marathon had begun at 1800 local time but the heat was still intense. By five km, the lead group had already been whittled down to around a dozen. Radcliffe, desperate for a first title at a major championships, was unable to fight her eagerness and broke to the front after 25 minutes, shadowed by the Kenyans, Ethiopians and Japanese.
Already the event, on a steadily rising course, was taking casualties. Lydia Simon of Romania, the Sydney silver medallist, was dropped and soon 10 were left at the front. Kenya's Margaret Okayo, the fastest performer of the year, also lost touch as the race proper began. After exactly one-and-a-half hours Noguchi made her move, blasting up yet another incline and exploding the leading pack of seven. Only Alemu was able to keep in touch but Noguchi kept attacking up the climbs to forge 15 seconds clear, then 30, with a third of the race to run. Ndereba cut the gap to 12 seconds with two kilometres to go but Noguchi held on.”
The above article snip is available in its entirety at http://in.rediff.com/sports/2004/aug/23oly-ath1.htm
Well, I see it happen all the time. People train and live for an event, the event unfolds, and dreams of victory are crushed. But, is that really the intent and spirit of competition and amateur athletics? Let’s take a closer look from an entirely factual point of view.
First, let’s look at the true meaning of the word amateur. It has changed from a positive meaning to a disparaging meaning over the years. From Merriam Webster and from dictionary.com:
Etymology: French, from Latin amator lover, from amare to love1 : DEVOTEE, ADMIRER2 : one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession3 : one lacking in experience and competence in an art or science.
Second, let’s look at the true meaning of competition. According to Merriam Webster:
Etymology: Late Latin competere to seek together, from Latin, to come together, agree, be suitable, from com- + petere to go to, seek:
1 : to strive consciously or unconsciously for an objective (as position, profit, or a prize) : be in a state of rivalry
Finally, let’s look at the word spirit, from the Merriam Webster definition:
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French or Latin; Old French, from Latin spiritus, literally, breath, from spirare to blow, breathe1 : an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms
Now that we have knowledge of the words, true combined meanings can be derived. So, let me try my hand at defining the “spirit of amateur competition.”
“A gathering of people, with whom a common love of a particular sport is held, to strive for a common goal of victory, in which vitality also results.”
Now combined, it is clear that there are TWO purposes when one engages in the spirit of amateur competition. To win and to live [better]. And underlying all of that is love. I may have an altruistic view, but if one is acting out of love, then both goals of the competitive spirit need not be accomplished. By engaging in the competitive spirit alone, vitality is a result… and isn’t that a victory in-and-of itself? Winning should always be the goal, and without it there is no real competition. But winning is merely a bonus, as it is temporary. Vitality is clearly ”victorious’ over winning, as it is the essence of life, the addition of “spice” to our world and lives. “Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is,” says Zig Ziglar. There are variations to this quote such as “learning does not come from victory, but from struggle.” I believe these statements to be true.
Therefore, I have a hard time with quitters and sore losers. I cannot find sympathy in those situations. With the Radcliffe debacle, initial articles said she feigned some sort of leg injury. That is nonsense. Unless she was carried away, she still should have been on the course. Personally, I would have crawled the last 3 miles if I had to. There was a stadium full of people and over a hundred nations watching, and in the race of her life, Radcliffe quit and cried. She could have continued and cried, and she would never be forgotten. But as it is, this will haunt her. There are reasons that there are not millions of links on the web to post race interviews with her. First, she was too ashamed to talk. Second, the press is loath to spend too much time on quitters at the Olympics. Harsh? Maybe. But, as an amateur athlete, defined by a supposed love of her sport, she did a great injustice to her sport when she quit. It was an act of selfishness instead of selflessness. And the spirit of competition took a blow to the gut as well. When watching this unfold, did anyone feel vital? Conversely, would anyone have felt vital if she had continued toward the finish, crossing the finish and defying the tragedy of defeat?
Now, there is another side. Enough about Radcliffe. As the current world record holder I hope she will go on to win more races. Hopefully she can uphold the spirit of amateur competition when she does. I say this because the flip side of feeling shame is promoting shame. This is done through trash talking and over celebrating. Quitting is not nearly the problem that over celebrating has become. The NFL has tried to subdue it, and a portion of the rabid fan base and the highlight-dependent media have dubbed the NFL acronym as meaning the No Fun League. This is a warped view of competition in my opinion. But the NFL is a professional league, and those guys are playing for money and entertainment’. There is no pretense in that fact… and what passes as entertainment to one person may indeed repulse another person. So, I cannot criticize it too heavily. Still, the wrong message is delivered when a secondary goal of competition becomes humiliating the opponent. So now we have taunting and spiking and goalpost destruction and fighting… the negative list just goes on and on. Let me pose these questions:
1. “Would it be OK for an Olympic marathoner to trash talk their opponents on the course with a microphone for audio television coverage?”
2. “Would it be OK for me, upon finishing my marathon, to back track the course and encourage other potential finishers to quit because they can’t win anyway?”
3. “Would it be OK for a gymnast to shout at their competitors during the routine in an effort to distract them?
I could go on forever here, and most often the answer to the scenarios I would pose would be “no.”
Thankfully, there are still a few professional sports that, most of the time, promote the spirit of amateur competition. Golf comes to mind. Men and women battle and grind against themselves and each other on the course. Good shots and playmaking are usually acknowledged, even by competitors. There are no gifts… if an athlete has an off day they will most certainly be beaten badly. At the end they all remove their hats and shake hands. Competition has brought them closer. After all, they had a common love for the game and a common goal of winning, and all of them struggled mightily for that goal. Tennis comes close to this sometimes, too. There are other sports with higher standards, too, but none reach the pinnacle of amateur sports.
So, what can we take from this look at the spirit of amateur competition? I would say this to everyone. Compete! Go out and compete in something which you are bound to lose [but try to win anyway!]. Enjoy the lessons of competition like humility, and respect. Conversely, go out and compete in something which you are likely to win. Then, you may teach the same lessons to others. In doing this you will find your life more vital than before. You will find new friends. You will find your limits of physical and emotional endurance. After all, you will have competed and acted out of love, and life doesn’t get much purer than that.
I will end with a few quotes.
I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I Love to play.
~ Boris Becker ~
The medals don't mean anything and the glory doesn't last. It's all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.
~ Jackie Joyner Kersee ~
I don't compete with other discus throwers. I compete with my own history.
~ Al Oerter ~
If you make every game a life and death proposition, you're going to have problems. For one thing, you'll be dead a lot.
~ Dean Smith ~
Wise men never sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.
~ William Shakespeare ~
The opponents and I are really one. My strength and skills only half of the equation. The other half is theirs. An opponent is someone whose strength joined to yours creates a certain result.
~ Sadaharu Oh ~
My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories.
~ Bjorn Borg ~
Sports do not build character. They reveal it.
~ John Wooden ~
The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.
~ Peggy Fleming ~
Men talk as if victory were something fortunate. Work is victory.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
Any time you try to win everything, you must be willing to lose everything.
~ Larry Csonka ~
If you set a goal for yourself and are able to achieve it, you have won your race. Your goal can be to come in first, to improve your performance, or just to finish the race -- it's up to you.
~ Dave Scott ~
You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims.
~ Harriet Woods ~
AND FINALLY, ONE OF MY OWN…
Every time I lace up or strap the velcro on my shoes it is a new personal record, because it is one more step or pedal stroke than I have ever done before.
~ Reed Nelson – September, 2004~
Sunday, September 19, 2004
2004 Lewis & Clark Marathon Journal
Lewis & Clark Marathon Journal
September 19th, 2004
The Vision
This past year has been a running adventure, and with an early season half marathon, my partner and I had kept our momentum over the spring and summer. We had no goal other than to work out enough to eat whatever we wanted. I think my partner always had her sights set on this half marathon… it is actually a very nice way to bookend the warm seasons. I was non-committal. But, as the month of September drew nearer we ran more and I became available for longer training runs. Following a trip to Las Vegas, two weeks prior to the event and just before a trip to Mexico we ran 12 miles and walked four on a Saturday. It was not a problem. We decided that day to register for the half marathon, as the fine people at Fleet Feet said we could do another lap if we chose to. And there it was, hedged to the maximum, registered to run a half and hoping to complete a full. But, usually one to complain about such evasions to commitment, I thought the whole scheme to be smart. The fact was that we were not prepared for a full 26.2 miles. Why not let our bodies decide on the day of the event?
Training
From a training standpoint, my partner and I do everything. She does more indoor and treadmill work than me. I do more weights and biking than her. Our mileage is probably similar. I like hills, she does not. She likes heat, I do not. There are other fun contrasts. Anyway, she follows the Fleet Feet half marathon schedule pretty well. I am more into the long runs once I have a good base. Since speed and times are not a concern for me, the long run is my key in training.
The Night Before
I made fettuccini Alfredo and we indulged. Crème brulee for dessert and we indulged some more. It was all homemade and wonderful. We planned on meeting at the Arena at 615am.
Race Morning
I set off after eating some lady fingers and Nutella and drinking my usual six shots of expresso. I threw in a protein drink and a glass of water for good measure. Everything seemed fine. I loaded my supplies in the car and drove in the dark onto 364 east. Just as I was grabbing the right lane for the Arena Parkway exit I heard a thump. I thought I must have hit a bird or rabbit and I drove on. There was little traffic at that point. After parking I organized everything and started to put on Body Glide as I watched the cars fill in around me. As I reached for my shoes my heart stopped. The thump I heard was the 70mph force of the wind ripping the shoes off the roof of my car… I had left them there when loading the car earlier!!! I quickly started the car and drove against the incoming flow of cars to the Arena. I was home in less than 10 minutes and grabbed more shoes and socks. Returning to 364 I knew exactly where to look for my Saucony’s. And there they were, safely positioned on in the “V” space between the merging lane from Heritage Landing and the main traffic lanes. I pulled off and grabbed them. I found my trusty Wright socks as well. Everything was good… if I could make the start time. The traffic had become horrendous. In a cell phone call with my partner, I had set up a meeting spot under the 10 minute pace marker. I made it with five minutes to spare. There was no need to warm up… my heart had been racing for 30 minutes! We were off!
The Start – Mile 2
DAG timing is cool. No worries about getting your true time. We just trotted up to the start line, and it took a couple of minutes. There was no real nervous energy, but anticipation of a good day by most. My partner handles things a little different than me. I usually end up the talker and cheerleader in stressful moments. She is usually irritated by my upbeat approach initially, and thankful for the diversion later! I am a militantly positive person, and everyone around me realizes that if they stick around long enough. The runners did not spread out very much for the first few miles. We ran in a crowd on the concrete of Arena Parkway. At the 2-mile mark on Main Street I was commenting on how Flat Five runners struggled mightily up the shallow grade in front of the Ameristar. I commented that I do not consider that particular geographical obstruction a hill at all, and that, according to me, there were NO hills on this course. Hey, I told you I was an optimist!
Miles 3-6
As we made Riverside Drive we traced our normal training route for about 1.5 miles. It was nice to be on your “home field” for your first marathon, I thought. Runners were comfortably spread out as we made the turn onto Second Street. As we made it through DuSable and Bales parks, I had no idea there was so much space up that way. Winding our way through the area would be the only new ground we would tread that day. Getting onto the Katy was gratifying for the joints, but I was careful of the pebbles. Getting one in your shoes is a frustrating experience, and would require a stop to remove it.
Miles 7-11
This is Katy Trail country. Flat, easy, shaded. The first two traits are welcome in a marathon, but torturously boring in training. Shade is always welcome! The only diversion is the section through Frontier Park. The Missouri River is a source of energy for me. It is ancient and mysterious and powerful. It hums to me. I liked being close to it for a moment. I know it sounds weird… but I can’t tell you how many times in the winter I have stood atop a bluff and watched the river flow. It is so persistent in its progress. It is exactly what we need to be to run a marathon, I thought.
Miles 12-13.1
Going up to the new parking lot at Page was another grade, but since riding it the first time I have thought the hill to be remarkably well done. I just zoom right up it on a bike. Running was no different. Two women were just hammering up the top section, which is the steepest part. I had heard them discuss getting up and getting over it quickly. I liked that approach. At the top I heard a man say “go Reed” at the food station. I looked back and was blinded by the southeastern sun, and just gave appreciative thumbs up to the unknown man. At the turn into the Arena parking lot at mile 12 we saw Sue, Jon and Jennifer from the “wine circle.” They had said they might come down and cheer us on at the halfway mark. It was VERY cool to have your own fans! Just after them there was a group offering Dixie cups of beer. I resisted the temptation. I had discussed not kicking the finish with my partner. Yeah… right! She never disagreed or agreed, but with her competitive nature she just could not hold back. After circumnavigating the parking lot we took the left turn into the Arena and finished in a flurry of activity and people. We walked around disoriented and grabbed some water. We finally made our way outside and to the car. Sue, Jon and Jennifer took a few quick pictures and we were off and walking.
The second half… mile 13.1 – 15
This was a discussion period for my partner and I. We committed to our walk run pattern and finishing, and I committed to staying with her. She seemed to deflect this commitment or not fully understand why I would do that. Marathons are a thing better experienced with others, but that is my opinion. I just get more out of doing things as a team… I accomplished enough by myself. I suppose not everyone feels the same, and that is cool, too. My partner had a blister on the knuckle of her big toe; I was going to be there for her if she were to tough it out to the finish. Our pattern was to be 2 walk, 1.5 run, 2 walk 1.5 run, 2 walk, 1 run, 2 walk, finish running. We reached the 15-mile marker and I was happy for the fact I had stopped sweating and regained my breath completely. I felt particularly strong. We started running again.
Miles 16 – 20
Truthfully, these miles just flew by. We made jokes with running club member Sheila at the Boonslick intersection about how we needed foot transplants and where we could go to get them. We ran along Riverside and onto Second, again knowing every inch and crack in the surface. We walked into and through the turnaround and began running again on the Katy Trail. I had to convince my partner to run, as her foot was really hurting. She gutted it out and found a favorable groove. As we progressed I made the comment that every step or stride we took for the remainder of the event was a new PR for both of us. We made the 20-mile mark at the South end of Frontier Park and started walking again.
Miles 21-23
At this point we could really smell the finish. It became easier in a way. But, my pinky toes were hypersensitive and my partner’s blister was raw and painful. Mentally, though… it was easier. At this point we both knew we would be able to finish. The whole race we had drank at every stop and did gels every 30 to 45 minutes. I had brought electrolyte drink for my fuel belt, which I had reloaded at my car, and had consumed 84 ounces of it… my kidneys ached slightly, and I realized why! We saw people finishing at the end of this stretch, which was very emotional for me. I saw two boys join their father to run the last mile and almost lost it.
Miles 24 – Finish
We were on our last interval… we had made it! There was no question at this point for me. The day, the weather, the energy, the plan… everything had fallen into place. Even with the catastrophic beginning, it had all worked out. We walked up to the 364 parking lot and I finally found out who my fan was. Ken, ultra-runner freak extraordinaire, was the man I could not see before. Ironwoman Vicki was there, too. At the Arena Parkway re-entry, running club member Terry was out there in her cast, recovering from a stress fracture. Damn, we were lucky! We had all of these people we knew see us and cheer us on. We had Terry there and she reminded us that we were healthy enough to do the event. We saw others as well. Ironcouple Terry and Kay were on the course as volunteers. It was awesome. We reached the 25-mile mark and started to run again. Another lap of the parking lot… but this time I grabbed a beer when offered and chugged it! As Severine and I hit the 26-mile mark I started thinking out loud.
“320 meters to go,” I said.
“And to think that my [ex] wife moved out a year ago yesterday,” I said. My partner began to cry a little. We have both had tough roads this past year. But we have created a nice legacy so far, becoming better people than we were before. We surged into the chute into the Arena, seesawing with each other in a full sprint. I kept yelling at her to push it. We were marathoners!!!
Post Race – Aftermath
I took off my shoes and walked on the freezing Arena floor. I placed my shoes on the finish line for a few moments. They had carried me through some miles, and would never bear my weight again. I don’t intend to run another marathon either. But I never say never! My more likely future is a graduation to Triathlons and Duathlons. My partner caught the bug, and will likely do another one. I hit the massage table and my smaller toes cramped into a bird’s claw position. A young lady marveled as she massaged the cramps away. I felt so good. They didn’t even hurt. It was great to walk out to the car in bare feet. I saw running club members Glen and Kelly resting on the grass. We had a few words, just like we had done in the starting mass. It had all come full circle. But now, after, burning about 4,000 calories and consuming only 1,000, it was time to EAT!
Equipment Details
Almost 100% of training and racing done in Saucony Grid Omni 3 CRM-M [Moderate Stability] 9.5 regular width. These shoes have a wide toe box and prevent my main foot problem… toe overlap/rub. Alternate shoes were New Balance 870OR [off-road] 9.5D. Also used Wright Running Lite double layer socks and BodyGlide lubricant to eliminate almost all blisters, rubs and chaffing. Used Clif Shot Mocha Gels in Amphipod Micropack LandSport & Airflow Rapid Access pouches. Used Ultima Replenisher sugar free electrolyte replacement drink in a 2005 Terminator 6 bottle Fuel Belt. I use running-specific shorts and wicking poly shirts of several brands... my favorites are InSport and Asics. Finally, I use waterproof athletic tape over my nipples to prevent wearing the ‘red number eleven’ at the end of long runs!!!
September 19th, 2004
The Vision
This past year has been a running adventure, and with an early season half marathon, my partner and I had kept our momentum over the spring and summer. We had no goal other than to work out enough to eat whatever we wanted. I think my partner always had her sights set on this half marathon… it is actually a very nice way to bookend the warm seasons. I was non-committal. But, as the month of September drew nearer we ran more and I became available for longer training runs. Following a trip to Las Vegas, two weeks prior to the event and just before a trip to Mexico we ran 12 miles and walked four on a Saturday. It was not a problem. We decided that day to register for the half marathon, as the fine people at Fleet Feet said we could do another lap if we chose to. And there it was, hedged to the maximum, registered to run a half and hoping to complete a full. But, usually one to complain about such evasions to commitment, I thought the whole scheme to be smart. The fact was that we were not prepared for a full 26.2 miles. Why not let our bodies decide on the day of the event?
Training
From a training standpoint, my partner and I do everything. She does more indoor and treadmill work than me. I do more weights and biking than her. Our mileage is probably similar. I like hills, she does not. She likes heat, I do not. There are other fun contrasts. Anyway, she follows the Fleet Feet half marathon schedule pretty well. I am more into the long runs once I have a good base. Since speed and times are not a concern for me, the long run is my key in training.
The Night Before
I made fettuccini Alfredo and we indulged. Crème brulee for dessert and we indulged some more. It was all homemade and wonderful. We planned on meeting at the Arena at 615am.
Race Morning
I set off after eating some lady fingers and Nutella and drinking my usual six shots of expresso. I threw in a protein drink and a glass of water for good measure. Everything seemed fine. I loaded my supplies in the car and drove in the dark onto 364 east. Just as I was grabbing the right lane for the Arena Parkway exit I heard a thump. I thought I must have hit a bird or rabbit and I drove on. There was little traffic at that point. After parking I organized everything and started to put on Body Glide as I watched the cars fill in around me. As I reached for my shoes my heart stopped. The thump I heard was the 70mph force of the wind ripping the shoes off the roof of my car… I had left them there when loading the car earlier!!! I quickly started the car and drove against the incoming flow of cars to the Arena. I was home in less than 10 minutes and grabbed more shoes and socks. Returning to 364 I knew exactly where to look for my Saucony’s. And there they were, safely positioned on in the “V” space between the merging lane from Heritage Landing and the main traffic lanes. I pulled off and grabbed them. I found my trusty Wright socks as well. Everything was good… if I could make the start time. The traffic had become horrendous. In a cell phone call with my partner, I had set up a meeting spot under the 10 minute pace marker. I made it with five minutes to spare. There was no need to warm up… my heart had been racing for 30 minutes! We were off!
The Start – Mile 2
DAG timing is cool. No worries about getting your true time. We just trotted up to the start line, and it took a couple of minutes. There was no real nervous energy, but anticipation of a good day by most. My partner handles things a little different than me. I usually end up the talker and cheerleader in stressful moments. She is usually irritated by my upbeat approach initially, and thankful for the diversion later! I am a militantly positive person, and everyone around me realizes that if they stick around long enough. The runners did not spread out very much for the first few miles. We ran in a crowd on the concrete of Arena Parkway. At the 2-mile mark on Main Street I was commenting on how Flat Five runners struggled mightily up the shallow grade in front of the Ameristar. I commented that I do not consider that particular geographical obstruction a hill at all, and that, according to me, there were NO hills on this course. Hey, I told you I was an optimist!
Miles 3-6
As we made Riverside Drive we traced our normal training route for about 1.5 miles. It was nice to be on your “home field” for your first marathon, I thought. Runners were comfortably spread out as we made the turn onto Second Street. As we made it through DuSable and Bales parks, I had no idea there was so much space up that way. Winding our way through the area would be the only new ground we would tread that day. Getting onto the Katy was gratifying for the joints, but I was careful of the pebbles. Getting one in your shoes is a frustrating experience, and would require a stop to remove it.
Miles 7-11
This is Katy Trail country. Flat, easy, shaded. The first two traits are welcome in a marathon, but torturously boring in training. Shade is always welcome! The only diversion is the section through Frontier Park. The Missouri River is a source of energy for me. It is ancient and mysterious and powerful. It hums to me. I liked being close to it for a moment. I know it sounds weird… but I can’t tell you how many times in the winter I have stood atop a bluff and watched the river flow. It is so persistent in its progress. It is exactly what we need to be to run a marathon, I thought.
Miles 12-13.1
Going up to the new parking lot at Page was another grade, but since riding it the first time I have thought the hill to be remarkably well done. I just zoom right up it on a bike. Running was no different. Two women were just hammering up the top section, which is the steepest part. I had heard them discuss getting up and getting over it quickly. I liked that approach. At the top I heard a man say “go Reed” at the food station. I looked back and was blinded by the southeastern sun, and just gave appreciative thumbs up to the unknown man. At the turn into the Arena parking lot at mile 12 we saw Sue, Jon and Jennifer from the “wine circle.” They had said they might come down and cheer us on at the halfway mark. It was VERY cool to have your own fans! Just after them there was a group offering Dixie cups of beer. I resisted the temptation. I had discussed not kicking the finish with my partner. Yeah… right! She never disagreed or agreed, but with her competitive nature she just could not hold back. After circumnavigating the parking lot we took the left turn into the Arena and finished in a flurry of activity and people. We walked around disoriented and grabbed some water. We finally made our way outside and to the car. Sue, Jon and Jennifer took a few quick pictures and we were off and walking.
The second half… mile 13.1 – 15
This was a discussion period for my partner and I. We committed to our walk run pattern and finishing, and I committed to staying with her. She seemed to deflect this commitment or not fully understand why I would do that. Marathons are a thing better experienced with others, but that is my opinion. I just get more out of doing things as a team… I accomplished enough by myself. I suppose not everyone feels the same, and that is cool, too. My partner had a blister on the knuckle of her big toe; I was going to be there for her if she were to tough it out to the finish. Our pattern was to be 2 walk, 1.5 run, 2 walk 1.5 run, 2 walk, 1 run, 2 walk, finish running. We reached the 15-mile marker and I was happy for the fact I had stopped sweating and regained my breath completely. I felt particularly strong. We started running again.
Miles 16 – 20
Truthfully, these miles just flew by. We made jokes with running club member Sheila at the Boonslick intersection about how we needed foot transplants and where we could go to get them. We ran along Riverside and onto Second, again knowing every inch and crack in the surface. We walked into and through the turnaround and began running again on the Katy Trail. I had to convince my partner to run, as her foot was really hurting. She gutted it out and found a favorable groove. As we progressed I made the comment that every step or stride we took for the remainder of the event was a new PR for both of us. We made the 20-mile mark at the South end of Frontier Park and started walking again.
Miles 21-23
At this point we could really smell the finish. It became easier in a way. But, my pinky toes were hypersensitive and my partner’s blister was raw and painful. Mentally, though… it was easier. At this point we both knew we would be able to finish. The whole race we had drank at every stop and did gels every 30 to 45 minutes. I had brought electrolyte drink for my fuel belt, which I had reloaded at my car, and had consumed 84 ounces of it… my kidneys ached slightly, and I realized why! We saw people finishing at the end of this stretch, which was very emotional for me. I saw two boys join their father to run the last mile and almost lost it.
Miles 24 – Finish
We were on our last interval… we had made it! There was no question at this point for me. The day, the weather, the energy, the plan… everything had fallen into place. Even with the catastrophic beginning, it had all worked out. We walked up to the 364 parking lot and I finally found out who my fan was. Ken, ultra-runner freak extraordinaire, was the man I could not see before. Ironwoman Vicki was there, too. At the Arena Parkway re-entry, running club member Terry was out there in her cast, recovering from a stress fracture. Damn, we were lucky! We had all of these people we knew see us and cheer us on. We had Terry there and she reminded us that we were healthy enough to do the event. We saw others as well. Ironcouple Terry and Kay were on the course as volunteers. It was awesome. We reached the 25-mile mark and started to run again. Another lap of the parking lot… but this time I grabbed a beer when offered and chugged it! As Severine and I hit the 26-mile mark I started thinking out loud.
“320 meters to go,” I said.
“And to think that my [ex] wife moved out a year ago yesterday,” I said. My partner began to cry a little. We have both had tough roads this past year. But we have created a nice legacy so far, becoming better people than we were before. We surged into the chute into the Arena, seesawing with each other in a full sprint. I kept yelling at her to push it. We were marathoners!!!
Post Race – Aftermath
I took off my shoes and walked on the freezing Arena floor. I placed my shoes on the finish line for a few moments. They had carried me through some miles, and would never bear my weight again. I don’t intend to run another marathon either. But I never say never! My more likely future is a graduation to Triathlons and Duathlons. My partner caught the bug, and will likely do another one. I hit the massage table and my smaller toes cramped into a bird’s claw position. A young lady marveled as she massaged the cramps away. I felt so good. They didn’t even hurt. It was great to walk out to the car in bare feet. I saw running club members Glen and Kelly resting on the grass. We had a few words, just like we had done in the starting mass. It had all come full circle. But now, after, burning about 4,000 calories and consuming only 1,000, it was time to EAT!
Equipment Details
Almost 100% of training and racing done in Saucony Grid Omni 3 CRM-M [Moderate Stability] 9.5 regular width. These shoes have a wide toe box and prevent my main foot problem… toe overlap/rub. Alternate shoes were New Balance 870OR [off-road] 9.5D. Also used Wright Running Lite double layer socks and BodyGlide lubricant to eliminate almost all blisters, rubs and chaffing. Used Clif Shot Mocha Gels in Amphipod Micropack LandSport & Airflow Rapid Access pouches. Used Ultima Replenisher sugar free electrolyte replacement drink in a 2005 Terminator 6 bottle Fuel Belt. I use running-specific shorts and wicking poly shirts of several brands... my favorites are InSport and Asics. Finally, I use waterproof athletic tape over my nipples to prevent wearing the ‘red number eleven’ at the end of long runs!!!
Monday, August 09, 2004
Keeping It Real – True Confessions of a Lying Cheating Running Scoundrel
Keeping It Real – True Confessions of a Lying Cheating Running Scoundrel
written in AUGUST 2004
PART ONE
You all must know by now that I love words and etymology. I even get into slang. With that in mind, here are some current terms to be used in the coming paragraphs.
>’Keeping It Real’ is a slang phrase I use a lot for ‘reality checks’ with others and myself. It means being you and not being a fake. Further, it means not living in a fantasy world. A fantasy world is generally one in which a person mistakenly believes his or her actions only affect themselves. Finally, it just means being TRUE to you and others in every way possible.
>Partner – the archaic definition is ‘one that shares,’ and I happen to like that definition!
>Scoundrel is defined as a disreputable person. A synonym is RASCAL, which is defined as a mean, unprincipled, or dishonest person.
Introduction & Purpose
Most of us have been running and training for years. Some of us are just getting started. This article serves as a tongue-in-cheek reminder of the quirks and bad habits we fall into as we train and exist as athletes in a world of couch potatoes [or worse, mean motorists and farm implement operators]. Be warned! There is no sugar coating to come. I am, as the title says, keeping it real. But the accusations and references to come are things I am guilty of myself. If you get offended just read the self-appraisal at the end of next month’s newsletter. You will find that I am taking long looks in the mirror on a regular basis and trying to change some of these things. Some of these traits are not worthy of a change effort, but of hardy laughter! So take all of this as seriously as a dentist’s visit but as lightly as a children’s musical. Does that make sense?
Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Ways We Lie & Cheat
Now, lying and cheating are powerful words. But we do it to ourselves [and others] all the time! Sometimes we don’t even know we are doing it. Scandalous! How? Read on… my friends!
>The Training Intensity Lie: How many times does our training schedule call for an easy day and we crank the effort up to the moon? Admit it! You look at the schedule in the morning. The afternoon comes and you start your run. You feel GOOOOOD! You reason with yourself and decide to push it. You finish and are proud of your effort. You are a liar and a cheater! You lied to yourself when you read the schedule and promised to stick to it. You may have lied to your partner, who was expecting to run with you based on the schedule you were waving around in the air. But you left them and your schedule far behind. You certainly did not share… right partner?! Personally, I try to do what my intentions and agreements call for. I do less if I am feeling crappy, but I never do more than prescribed. Why not? Listen, if Chris Carmichael makes a workout schedule I am sticking to it. I don’t want to burn out or have injuries creep up on me just because I decided I felt good enough to push it on an ‘easy’ training run. Further, if I am running with partners, I am sticking with them unless we have previously agreed to ‘scatter and gather.’ Sometimes this means taking one for the team. That means we run slower than preferred or we are bumping our redlines from the start. Hopefully we can find some common ground between these two extremes. I suppose the bottom line when running with partners is to clearly state our intentions before starting, and then stick to them. Nobody should get bent about that method.
>The Training Performance Lie: Have we ever been stopped at a stop light or felt bad and had to walk a few steps? Have we, at the end of our run, ‘reshaped’ the performance of the training because of these events? We may have said “I would have averaged an 8:45 mile were it not for the stoplight.” Or, my personal favorite, “If I were feeling better and didn’t have to walk, I could have ran a 7:30 average pace!” Uh, yeah… whatever dude! If I would have let off the gas pedal I would not have gotten that speeding ticket either! Cops don’t accept most excuses, and you shouldn’t either. We should police ourselves and record the real performance of our workouts! Log our honest results. If we don’t want to account for impediments, we should use a track or a treadmill. When I have to walk I log a run-walk, and forget about the pace data [it is irrelevant because I obviously went too fast!]. I get out of a lot of self deception by just logging time instead of miles [hey, I’m slow and can do it this way!]. However, if I run the Clark trail in 1:25 including stops, it gets logged as 8.2 miles at 1:25. I never ‘guess’ at my ‘true’ running time. That is ridiculous. I read an article about an elite marathoner who, because of time constraints, never runs more than 10K at a time. My point? It is crazy to get hung up on ‘what ifs’ and such… just run [or walk] the miles and log the TRUE results, and everything will usually work out fine. Of course, we’d all be accountable and unable of self-deception if Shiela were to buy a wrist GPS for all of us!
>The Training Purpose Lie: This one gets to me more than any other lie. We tend to sandbag here [understating reality a little bit to make ourselves look better]. The result of sandbagging is usually negative. Let’s say we tell a colleague in a conversation at work one Friday that we run for ‘fun and enjoyment.’ The following Monday we meet at the water cooler again to discuss the past weekend’s events. We tell the colleague of the 10+ mile club run Saturday at 7am, and of the 30 mile bike ride on a windy Sunday afternoon. The colleague leaves the conversation with a smile [they are thinking ‘it must be FUN to get up at 530am on Saturdays and ENJOYABLE to fight a vicious headwind for 90 minutes], and we leave with zero credibility! Come on people… if we have any goals at all, state them! The only reason we sandbag is that 1] we risk being judged [or judging ourselves] for not reaching a goal in the future or 2] we risk being labeled as a freak. So what if we fail? You are going to fail from time to time… get used to it. And, to most non-athletes we ARE freaks, so get over it. And I hope you never invite me on a ‘joy ride’ or ‘easy run’ for ‘fun and enjoyment’ while you click off 24mph or 7:30 miles, unless you want a replay of the Exorcist back at the car! This happened to me for the Mueller Monday rides two years ago. The sandbagging, perpetrating biker scoundrel was actually someone we all know, but the person is thankfully not a club member! [hahaha] The same water cooler discussions can also tarnish us if we are excessively humble. Let’s not talk about 10 mile runs as ‘easy’ to a non-runner. It is discouraging for them to hear such things. We want to encourage people to participate in our sport, and understating the effort and difficulty of it is not the best way to do it. Our club run is moderately hilly, and until recently, offered no decent place to take a leak. It’s TOUGH! And if someone is just starting training, they may end up running alone. By all means, let’s be truthful about those things.
>The Catch-Up Lie: I know what you are thinking… but no, this does not refer to a popular condiment! All of us take some days off from time to time for rest, injury, or illness. Instead of picking up where we left off in our training plan, we play catch up and try to squeeze the training we missed into our lives. The lie is thinking that this actually helps us gain fitness. This is no joke, and can lead to injuries. With the fitness base most of us have, it is best to just pick up where we left off or jump ahead to stay on schedule. Try not to skip the long runs, which are so important to most of us. But puuuhhhleeeze, do NOT try to squeeze five days of training into 2 days.
>The Rewards Lie: This one is funny, but serious, too. We often think to ourselves “I train like a freak, so I can have dessert anytime I want to!” And, guess what? We can! But do not complain when the pounds do not go away, or worse yet, reappear. None of us deserve continuous rewards for our healthy lifestyles, lest they become unhealthy because of overindulgence! If we reward ourselves for specific performances instead (that Saturday morning run, for example), we are less likely to cheat ourselves. That chocolate oblivion brownie with Hagen Daas dulce de leche ice cream I just had sure was good, though! [Doooh!]
In part two [The Way of the Scoundrel], sandbaggers will take another vicious blow to the jaw, road hogs will be slaughtered, and cutthroat competitors will be put under the microscope of reason. All of this will be followed by a short therapy session for Reed, and you will be invited to sit on the couch with him! Do you dare?!
In part one, lying and cheating ourselves and others was reviewed. The purpose was to take a look at ourselves and each other. Are we keeping it real? I certainly hope so! Here in part two we get to look more closely at the behavior of others, while keeping an eye on ourselves as we discover…
The Way of the Scoundrel
Keeping It Real – True Confessions of a Lying Cheating Running Scoundrel
Now, these bad traits are much easier to define and spot in other people. But once again, beware and don’t possess these hate-creating personality flaws… remember that we often run amongst the cars!
>Sandbagger Scum!
I’ve already touched on sandbagging. Now, we all know these people. It is annoying! These people show up for a run or a race. They whine and fret and b**ch about myriad ailments. Soon after the run starts all we see is their butt or a slowly disappearing race number. After the race we hear them called out for an age group award. Sandbagger Scum strikes again. Shut up and race. Jeeeez!
>King of the Road! [You could put my picture beside this one]
Well, runner/biker people of the world… actually, the road is NOT ours. While most of us own or admire ‘Share The Road’ shirts, why is it that we must ride/run two and three abreast on the roads and trails? Why is it that we fight with farmers each October who are struggling to get their crops in, and who have no other choice but to use the roads to get heavy equipment from field to field? Why do we blow through stop signs and lights without right-of-way, rarely announcing our intentions with hand signals? Why do we endanger pedestrians by going around them at 20+mph on sidewalks? It is no wonder that motorists, farmers, and pedestrians loathe to see a group of riders or runners coming at them. NEWSFLASH… slow down and get over! We can use the slow down to practice track stands and sprinting back up to pace. We can practice your coordination, teamwork, and off-road skills when we have to get over. The bottom line is this… we have enough enemies on the roads and trails without propagating more.
>Peacemaker Die!
Competition… it is one of the best parts of life, and it can distort the human mind into a selfish, reckless, human manifestation of hate in about 5 seconds. Most of us who run are competitive [or have we been sandbagging?!]. But what is true competition? It certainly is not spitting in our opponents’ lane before the swim start of a triathlon [One of our ‘lovely’ women Olympian swimmers from 2000 was known to do this]. Competition is certainly not wishing for our opponent to make a mistake or get ill. Let me give you my version again. Competition, in its truest sense, is preparing for and hoping for the best possible outcome for ourselves AND our fellow competitors, with winning as the goal. But winning becomes less relevant if a true competitive spirit exists. Personal performance and positive experience are the focus. I have written about this in previous articles. True champions are well prepared. On race day they lace up and wish their fellow competitors good luck. During the race they are quiet, focused, and if they talk they say only positive things to fellow competitors. After the race, they congratulate the best competitors regardless of their own finishing position. There are a few sports where this sense of decorum still exists. Generally, I think running and biking athletes are pretty good about having the right competitive spirit. But we could be better. The last time I was trash talked in a road race was years ago. I said something less than complimentary about the guy’s momma, knowing he wouldn’t stop mid-race to beat me up, and that I could disappear into the crowd at the finish! But those days are long gone for this writer.
The self-appraisal:
Nowadays I struggle to be a better person. When it comes to communicating I still stink at it sometimes. Sometimes I just need to shut up [like when confronted by a complete moron]. But, otherwise, I still try to keep it real all of the time. The hardest thing I have been learning is the transforming power of empathy. I have always been ‘geeked out’ about motorists and farmers trying to kill me on the roads. But then I started talking to a few of these people. I received some very real feedback [before they found out I was one of their ‘human targets.’] What I got was a dose of reality. As runners and bikers we are among the least desirable groups to relate to for non-athletes and motorists. I have been a lying, cheating, scoundrel at times. But now I tell people that I run to eat and to compete. I also say that my main competitor is me [because I am a weak, broken human]. I tell people I will try to crush them in a race, and that I would not even let my own kids win if I had any, let alone their kids! I am absolutely a freak about sandbagging, but even my own hatred of it doesn’t prevent an occasional lapse in self-awareness, with me making a sandbagging fool out of myself. And I know I just have to slow down and get over… but, I’m working on it.
written in AUGUST 2004
PART ONE
You all must know by now that I love words and etymology. I even get into slang. With that in mind, here are some current terms to be used in the coming paragraphs.
>’Keeping It Real’ is a slang phrase I use a lot for ‘reality checks’ with others and myself. It means being you and not being a fake. Further, it means not living in a fantasy world. A fantasy world is generally one in which a person mistakenly believes his or her actions only affect themselves. Finally, it just means being TRUE to you and others in every way possible.
>Partner – the archaic definition is ‘one that shares,’ and I happen to like that definition!
>Scoundrel is defined as a disreputable person. A synonym is RASCAL, which is defined as a mean, unprincipled, or dishonest person.
Introduction & Purpose
Most of us have been running and training for years. Some of us are just getting started. This article serves as a tongue-in-cheek reminder of the quirks and bad habits we fall into as we train and exist as athletes in a world of couch potatoes [or worse, mean motorists and farm implement operators]. Be warned! There is no sugar coating to come. I am, as the title says, keeping it real. But the accusations and references to come are things I am guilty of myself. If you get offended just read the self-appraisal at the end of next month’s newsletter. You will find that I am taking long looks in the mirror on a regular basis and trying to change some of these things. Some of these traits are not worthy of a change effort, but of hardy laughter! So take all of this as seriously as a dentist’s visit but as lightly as a children’s musical. Does that make sense?
Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Ways We Lie & Cheat
Now, lying and cheating are powerful words. But we do it to ourselves [and others] all the time! Sometimes we don’t even know we are doing it. Scandalous! How? Read on… my friends!
>The Training Intensity Lie: How many times does our training schedule call for an easy day and we crank the effort up to the moon? Admit it! You look at the schedule in the morning. The afternoon comes and you start your run. You feel GOOOOOD! You reason with yourself and decide to push it. You finish and are proud of your effort. You are a liar and a cheater! You lied to yourself when you read the schedule and promised to stick to it. You may have lied to your partner, who was expecting to run with you based on the schedule you were waving around in the air. But you left them and your schedule far behind. You certainly did not share… right partner?! Personally, I try to do what my intentions and agreements call for. I do less if I am feeling crappy, but I never do more than prescribed. Why not? Listen, if Chris Carmichael makes a workout schedule I am sticking to it. I don’t want to burn out or have injuries creep up on me just because I decided I felt good enough to push it on an ‘easy’ training run. Further, if I am running with partners, I am sticking with them unless we have previously agreed to ‘scatter and gather.’ Sometimes this means taking one for the team. That means we run slower than preferred or we are bumping our redlines from the start. Hopefully we can find some common ground between these two extremes. I suppose the bottom line when running with partners is to clearly state our intentions before starting, and then stick to them. Nobody should get bent about that method.
>The Training Performance Lie: Have we ever been stopped at a stop light or felt bad and had to walk a few steps? Have we, at the end of our run, ‘reshaped’ the performance of the training because of these events? We may have said “I would have averaged an 8:45 mile were it not for the stoplight.” Or, my personal favorite, “If I were feeling better and didn’t have to walk, I could have ran a 7:30 average pace!” Uh, yeah… whatever dude! If I would have let off the gas pedal I would not have gotten that speeding ticket either! Cops don’t accept most excuses, and you shouldn’t either. We should police ourselves and record the real performance of our workouts! Log our honest results. If we don’t want to account for impediments, we should use a track or a treadmill. When I have to walk I log a run-walk, and forget about the pace data [it is irrelevant because I obviously went too fast!]. I get out of a lot of self deception by just logging time instead of miles [hey, I’m slow and can do it this way!]. However, if I run the Clark trail in 1:25 including stops, it gets logged as 8.2 miles at 1:25. I never ‘guess’ at my ‘true’ running time. That is ridiculous. I read an article about an elite marathoner who, because of time constraints, never runs more than 10K at a time. My point? It is crazy to get hung up on ‘what ifs’ and such… just run [or walk] the miles and log the TRUE results, and everything will usually work out fine. Of course, we’d all be accountable and unable of self-deception if Shiela were to buy a wrist GPS for all of us!
>The Training Purpose Lie: This one gets to me more than any other lie. We tend to sandbag here [understating reality a little bit to make ourselves look better]. The result of sandbagging is usually negative. Let’s say we tell a colleague in a conversation at work one Friday that we run for ‘fun and enjoyment.’ The following Monday we meet at the water cooler again to discuss the past weekend’s events. We tell the colleague of the 10+ mile club run Saturday at 7am, and of the 30 mile bike ride on a windy Sunday afternoon. The colleague leaves the conversation with a smile [they are thinking ‘it must be FUN to get up at 530am on Saturdays and ENJOYABLE to fight a vicious headwind for 90 minutes], and we leave with zero credibility! Come on people… if we have any goals at all, state them! The only reason we sandbag is that 1] we risk being judged [or judging ourselves] for not reaching a goal in the future or 2] we risk being labeled as a freak. So what if we fail? You are going to fail from time to time… get used to it. And, to most non-athletes we ARE freaks, so get over it. And I hope you never invite me on a ‘joy ride’ or ‘easy run’ for ‘fun and enjoyment’ while you click off 24mph or 7:30 miles, unless you want a replay of the Exorcist back at the car! This happened to me for the Mueller Monday rides two years ago. The sandbagging, perpetrating biker scoundrel was actually someone we all know, but the person is thankfully not a club member! [hahaha] The same water cooler discussions can also tarnish us if we are excessively humble. Let’s not talk about 10 mile runs as ‘easy’ to a non-runner. It is discouraging for them to hear such things. We want to encourage people to participate in our sport, and understating the effort and difficulty of it is not the best way to do it. Our club run is moderately hilly, and until recently, offered no decent place to take a leak. It’s TOUGH! And if someone is just starting training, they may end up running alone. By all means, let’s be truthful about those things.
>The Catch-Up Lie: I know what you are thinking… but no, this does not refer to a popular condiment! All of us take some days off from time to time for rest, injury, or illness. Instead of picking up where we left off in our training plan, we play catch up and try to squeeze the training we missed into our lives. The lie is thinking that this actually helps us gain fitness. This is no joke, and can lead to injuries. With the fitness base most of us have, it is best to just pick up where we left off or jump ahead to stay on schedule. Try not to skip the long runs, which are so important to most of us. But puuuhhhleeeze, do NOT try to squeeze five days of training into 2 days.
>The Rewards Lie: This one is funny, but serious, too. We often think to ourselves “I train like a freak, so I can have dessert anytime I want to!” And, guess what? We can! But do not complain when the pounds do not go away, or worse yet, reappear. None of us deserve continuous rewards for our healthy lifestyles, lest they become unhealthy because of overindulgence! If we reward ourselves for specific performances instead (that Saturday morning run, for example), we are less likely to cheat ourselves. That chocolate oblivion brownie with Hagen Daas dulce de leche ice cream I just had sure was good, though! [Doooh!]
In part two [The Way of the Scoundrel], sandbaggers will take another vicious blow to the jaw, road hogs will be slaughtered, and cutthroat competitors will be put under the microscope of reason. All of this will be followed by a short therapy session for Reed, and you will be invited to sit on the couch with him! Do you dare?!
In part one, lying and cheating ourselves and others was reviewed. The purpose was to take a look at ourselves and each other. Are we keeping it real? I certainly hope so! Here in part two we get to look more closely at the behavior of others, while keeping an eye on ourselves as we discover…
The Way of the Scoundrel
Keeping It Real – True Confessions of a Lying Cheating Running Scoundrel
Now, these bad traits are much easier to define and spot in other people. But once again, beware and don’t possess these hate-creating personality flaws… remember that we often run amongst the cars!
>Sandbagger Scum!
I’ve already touched on sandbagging. Now, we all know these people. It is annoying! These people show up for a run or a race. They whine and fret and b**ch about myriad ailments. Soon after the run starts all we see is their butt or a slowly disappearing race number. After the race we hear them called out for an age group award. Sandbagger Scum strikes again. Shut up and race. Jeeeez!
>King of the Road! [You could put my picture beside this one]
Well, runner/biker people of the world… actually, the road is NOT ours. While most of us own or admire ‘Share The Road’ shirts, why is it that we must ride/run two and three abreast on the roads and trails? Why is it that we fight with farmers each October who are struggling to get their crops in, and who have no other choice but to use the roads to get heavy equipment from field to field? Why do we blow through stop signs and lights without right-of-way, rarely announcing our intentions with hand signals? Why do we endanger pedestrians by going around them at 20+mph on sidewalks? It is no wonder that motorists, farmers, and pedestrians loathe to see a group of riders or runners coming at them. NEWSFLASH… slow down and get over! We can use the slow down to practice track stands and sprinting back up to pace. We can practice your coordination, teamwork, and off-road skills when we have to get over. The bottom line is this… we have enough enemies on the roads and trails without propagating more.
>Peacemaker Die!
Competition… it is one of the best parts of life, and it can distort the human mind into a selfish, reckless, human manifestation of hate in about 5 seconds. Most of us who run are competitive [or have we been sandbagging?!]. But what is true competition? It certainly is not spitting in our opponents’ lane before the swim start of a triathlon [One of our ‘lovely’ women Olympian swimmers from 2000 was known to do this]. Competition is certainly not wishing for our opponent to make a mistake or get ill. Let me give you my version again. Competition, in its truest sense, is preparing for and hoping for the best possible outcome for ourselves AND our fellow competitors, with winning as the goal. But winning becomes less relevant if a true competitive spirit exists. Personal performance and positive experience are the focus. I have written about this in previous articles. True champions are well prepared. On race day they lace up and wish their fellow competitors good luck. During the race they are quiet, focused, and if they talk they say only positive things to fellow competitors. After the race, they congratulate the best competitors regardless of their own finishing position. There are a few sports where this sense of decorum still exists. Generally, I think running and biking athletes are pretty good about having the right competitive spirit. But we could be better. The last time I was trash talked in a road race was years ago. I said something less than complimentary about the guy’s momma, knowing he wouldn’t stop mid-race to beat me up, and that I could disappear into the crowd at the finish! But those days are long gone for this writer.
The self-appraisal:
Nowadays I struggle to be a better person. When it comes to communicating I still stink at it sometimes. Sometimes I just need to shut up [like when confronted by a complete moron]. But, otherwise, I still try to keep it real all of the time. The hardest thing I have been learning is the transforming power of empathy. I have always been ‘geeked out’ about motorists and farmers trying to kill me on the roads. But then I started talking to a few of these people. I received some very real feedback [before they found out I was one of their ‘human targets.’] What I got was a dose of reality. As runners and bikers we are among the least desirable groups to relate to for non-athletes and motorists. I have been a lying, cheating, scoundrel at times. But now I tell people that I run to eat and to compete. I also say that my main competitor is me [because I am a weak, broken human]. I tell people I will try to crush them in a race, and that I would not even let my own kids win if I had any, let alone their kids! I am absolutely a freak about sandbagging, but even my own hatred of it doesn’t prevent an occasional lapse in self-awareness, with me making a sandbagging fool out of myself. And I know I just have to slow down and get over… but, I’m working on it.
Thursday, June 20, 1996
1996 Bolivia Travel and Climbing Notes
Flight
Weather causes a route change from DFW to MIA and I would have missed my flight to Bolivia if it had not been delayed out of MIA as well
The flight to LaPaz was hell... I couldn’t sleep and it was an all night flight
All of the luggage made it
Everyone had hypoxia from the altitude upon arrival in LaPaz
Be prepared for a long day when you arrive due to the flight time
American’s flight service and food was excellent -- 2 meals and 2 movies
Airports
La Paz airport -- single gate and immigrations, walk on tarmac to plane
Immigrations was fast and friendly
Miami -- good hot dogs and nice terminal area--very busy
Again immigrations/customs was friendly
Chicago -- Everyone talks about traveling though Ohare like it’s a bad omen... actually it is a nice airport and easy to travel thru
Dallas--My favorite airport with four runways and the nicest restaurants and shops for layovers
LaPaz
City of contrasts in class and geography
Van buses use kids shouting streets visited out the window
Urinating in the streets is common -- what looks like water is NOT
Water was horrible -- use of a purifying filter is a must
Vendors sold everything -- tools, food, llama fetus, clothing, etc
South area of La Paz is nicer -- lower in the valley is better
Cabs are plentiful and cheap
Streets are stone, narrow, and steep
There are few lights or signs--traffic is controlled by horns and beeps
Policia are prominent in their dark olive green uniforms
Currency is Bolivianos -- about 5 “B’s” to 1 dollar
Be in shape for walking at altitude
Prepare to have sleep apenia (gasping for air) that will lower your sleep quality considerably
Calling home with a calling card code (0800 numbers) is virtually impossible from any phone... be prepared to pay a high direct dial cost or go to a nice hotel (Plaza or Radisson) that with let you call for a small fee
Speeds are controlled by monster speed bumps
Streets are generally safe at night, especially in groups
Food & Drink
Vienna restaurant on Frederico Suazzo #1905 was great
Pronto restaurant was also wonderful
Radisson has the only true American breakfast in town
The most I ever paid for an entree was $7US
Drinks are reasonably priced -- mostly latin beers and South American wines
Watch out for the black olive with the pit in Saltinas
Cubano sandwiches are good at Mirabellas
Casa deCoridorella was a great meal with live entertainment
Hotels
El Dorado was ok, the front desk was moderately helpful but SLOW $37US
Twin beds were very small, 60 channels of cable, restaurant
Hosteria Blanquita was quaint and musty, front desk was VERY helpful, near all the street vendors and action $27US, 1 TV in lobby with 10 channels tops
Plaza Hotel and Radisson Hotel are two nicer accomodations
Shopping
Street vendors carry everything--nuts, bolts, clothes, stereos, magazines, food, witchcraft items, you name it.
Generally you find the same things in a given area
Bargaining is OK in most cases
Nefertiti Joyas is the place to buy custom gold, silver, and gems at great prices. Jose Galindo and his wife were beyond helpful.
People
Either lower class or upper class -- not many middle class folks
Hard working
Generally honest
Know how to party, as most latins do!
Some kids tended to be the only anti American folks there
Tihuanaku
Neat to visit, very mysterious
$17 per person thru Calibre for our group
Construction of structures and agriculture methods facinating
Trek In
Dinner and Russ was sick
Shepherds were hardy folks, wore sandals and ragged coats in the cold and on the rocks
The paved & dirt roads were repaired by clumps of grass
Gear was loaded on llamas and mules
The high plains and foothills were all dry grass, wet grounds from meltwater and small lakes.
There were free ranging cows and sheep everywhere
Condoriri’s summit is very much like the Matterhorn
P.Alpamayo’s summit is hidden
The hike in is fairly easy with about 500ft gain in 7+miles
Base Camp
Base camp on the shore of a lake at the base of Condoriri Amphitheater
Nice three person domes -- held two+ gear
Set up with shepherds
Toilets made of holes framed by rock were plentiful
Fresh water and lake water within 100 meters
Trekking opportunities galore
Only one or two other groups, very quiet
Climbing
Day1
2.5 miles to foot of glacier
500 up to ice shelves -- fixed rope and vertical ice practice
Ice not solid but fun to play on
Everyone did well
A few small crevasses were ominous on the snow covered ice
Dave was the only on to peak the shelf
My change to glacier gear was SLOW
Day2 -- Pequeno Alpamayo
Up at 4am leave at 5am
To foot of glacier in dark
Up glacier past shelves easy
Temps warmed and snow softened
I was number 2 on rope w/Carlos 1 and Dave 3
Erick was 1 Dean 2 Russ 3 and Felix 4 on following rope
Snow compression was minimal behind 150lb Carlos
Finally swapped positions w/Dave towards the top of the glacier
The stepping was the hardest two hours I have ever done
Russ had to stop shy of the ridge (300ft) due to persistant coughing
Erick rushed ahead solo to catch our rope and joined in front of me
Dean and Felix stayed on a rope and fell about 45 minutes behind as the climb progressed
Our rope forged on at good pace with me laughing about the good compressed snow thanks to my team
We traversed right across the ridge and up a 30 degree slope to another ridge
There we continued left on the ridge and up a small unstable snow bridge to the peak of Tarija at 17,250
The bridge was solid ice left and VERY loose snow right
Exposure was a factor for the first time -- 1000ft left and 500ft+right
There was a small, steep granular snow slope down to a rock shelf on the back side of Tarija
The views of the summit ridge of P.Alpamayo, Huanya Potosi and the Tropical basin beyond were incredible from here
The ridge of P.Alpamayo started about 250ft below us across a small saddle, so a tricky downclimb in mixed terrain was necessary
I stopped there, having reached my fear limit
Dean and Felix arrived as Carlos was about to lead Erick and Dave down
Dean was not happy about the loose snow bridge and his new found perch on the very exposed Tarija
As the summit team descended Dean set up a picket anchor and Felix belayed him down the snow bridge
We used the same anchor to allow me to ascend the small snow slope back up to the summit of Tarija
Without an anchor in either direction a mistake would likely be fatal
Oddly, Felix would not let Dean or later myself walk forward down the bridge
He instead insisted on an uncomfortable back-first descent
This incident and the language barrier worried Dean and I
We finally got down the bridge to the ridge and watched the summit team reach the top of P.Alpamayo and anchored Felix down w/pickets
On the down climb all was well as we gathered Russ after his five hour wait
As we descended further Dean lost all energy and was struggling to keep on in the loose snow
I set a count pace with him and we forged on
I was hurting too but the slower pace was prolonging my pain
We spent nearly an hour on the rock at the foot of the glacier before struggling back into base camp
The whole day took 12 hours of constant movement
I was mentally and physically exhausted due to the lack of food and water
We rested, ate, filtered and bedded early to rest for tomorrow
Day3—Unknown Peak 5330m+
An option to do Condoriri was thwarted by bad snow and tired climbers
An unknown peak overlooked our camp and lake, Condoriri’s glacier system, and Lake Titikaka in the distance
The climb was easy but my legs were drained -- again no food or appetite
We headed across a rock feld and up an endless slope of grass and llama dung to a snowy drainage
After crossing the snow we started up a long scree slope to a ridge
At the ridge we crossed over to a back bowl and up another long scree slope
At the summit ridge there was a small band of rock and then snow and then rock again on top
We rejoiced and ate lunch higher than any point in the lower 48 (17,250ft)
The views were spectacular and offered yet another perspective
The down climb was fast for me as I got a second wind after swallowing several bags of GU and the lunch
Carlos, Erick, Dave, Holly, Debbie, Felix, and a Frenchman from our camp all made it
Holly was slow on the downclimb trying to get used to the scree
The day took six hours including our lunch
Weather causes a route change from DFW to MIA and I would have missed my flight to Bolivia if it had not been delayed out of MIA as well
The flight to LaPaz was hell... I couldn’t sleep and it was an all night flight
All of the luggage made it
Everyone had hypoxia from the altitude upon arrival in LaPaz
Be prepared for a long day when you arrive due to the flight time
American’s flight service and food was excellent -- 2 meals and 2 movies
Airports
La Paz airport -- single gate and immigrations, walk on tarmac to plane
Immigrations was fast and friendly
Miami -- good hot dogs and nice terminal area--very busy
Again immigrations/customs was friendly
Chicago -- Everyone talks about traveling though Ohare like it’s a bad omen... actually it is a nice airport and easy to travel thru
Dallas--My favorite airport with four runways and the nicest restaurants and shops for layovers
LaPaz
City of contrasts in class and geography
Van buses use kids shouting streets visited out the window
Urinating in the streets is common -- what looks like water is NOT
Water was horrible -- use of a purifying filter is a must
Vendors sold everything -- tools, food, llama fetus, clothing, etc
South area of La Paz is nicer -- lower in the valley is better
Cabs are plentiful and cheap
Streets are stone, narrow, and steep
There are few lights or signs--traffic is controlled by horns and beeps
Policia are prominent in their dark olive green uniforms
Currency is Bolivianos -- about 5 “B’s” to 1 dollar
Be in shape for walking at altitude
Prepare to have sleep apenia (gasping for air) that will lower your sleep quality considerably
Calling home with a calling card code (0800 numbers) is virtually impossible from any phone... be prepared to pay a high direct dial cost or go to a nice hotel (Plaza or Radisson) that with let you call for a small fee
Speeds are controlled by monster speed bumps
Streets are generally safe at night, especially in groups
Food & Drink
Vienna restaurant on Frederico Suazzo #1905 was great
Pronto restaurant was also wonderful
Radisson has the only true American breakfast in town
The most I ever paid for an entree was $7US
Drinks are reasonably priced -- mostly latin beers and South American wines
Watch out for the black olive with the pit in Saltinas
Cubano sandwiches are good at Mirabellas
Casa deCoridorella was a great meal with live entertainment
Hotels
El Dorado was ok, the front desk was moderately helpful but SLOW $37US
Twin beds were very small, 60 channels of cable, restaurant
Hosteria Blanquita was quaint and musty, front desk was VERY helpful, near all the street vendors and action $27US, 1 TV in lobby with 10 channels tops
Plaza Hotel and Radisson Hotel are two nicer accomodations
Shopping
Street vendors carry everything--nuts, bolts, clothes, stereos, magazines, food, witchcraft items, you name it.
Generally you find the same things in a given area
Bargaining is OK in most cases
Nefertiti Joyas is the place to buy custom gold, silver, and gems at great prices. Jose Galindo and his wife were beyond helpful.
People
Either lower class or upper class -- not many middle class folks
Hard working
Generally honest
Know how to party, as most latins do!
Some kids tended to be the only anti American folks there
Tihuanaku
Neat to visit, very mysterious
$17 per person thru Calibre for our group
Construction of structures and agriculture methods facinating
Trek In
Dinner and Russ was sick
Shepherds were hardy folks, wore sandals and ragged coats in the cold and on the rocks
The paved & dirt roads were repaired by clumps of grass
Gear was loaded on llamas and mules
The high plains and foothills were all dry grass, wet grounds from meltwater and small lakes.
There were free ranging cows and sheep everywhere
Condoriri’s summit is very much like the Matterhorn
P.Alpamayo’s summit is hidden
The hike in is fairly easy with about 500ft gain in 7+miles
Base Camp
Base camp on the shore of a lake at the base of Condoriri Amphitheater
Nice three person domes -- held two+ gear
Set up with shepherds
Toilets made of holes framed by rock were plentiful
Fresh water and lake water within 100 meters
Trekking opportunities galore
Only one or two other groups, very quiet
Climbing
Day1
2.5 miles to foot of glacier
500 up to ice shelves -- fixed rope and vertical ice practice
Ice not solid but fun to play on
Everyone did well
A few small crevasses were ominous on the snow covered ice
Dave was the only on to peak the shelf
My change to glacier gear was SLOW
Day2 -- Pequeno Alpamayo
Up at 4am leave at 5am
To foot of glacier in dark
Up glacier past shelves easy
Temps warmed and snow softened
I was number 2 on rope w/Carlos 1 and Dave 3
Erick was 1 Dean 2 Russ 3 and Felix 4 on following rope
Snow compression was minimal behind 150lb Carlos
Finally swapped positions w/Dave towards the top of the glacier
The stepping was the hardest two hours I have ever done
Russ had to stop shy of the ridge (300ft) due to persistant coughing
Erick rushed ahead solo to catch our rope and joined in front of me
Dean and Felix stayed on a rope and fell about 45 minutes behind as the climb progressed
Our rope forged on at good pace with me laughing about the good compressed snow thanks to my team
We traversed right across the ridge and up a 30 degree slope to another ridge
There we continued left on the ridge and up a small unstable snow bridge to the peak of Tarija at 17,250
The bridge was solid ice left and VERY loose snow right
Exposure was a factor for the first time -- 1000ft left and 500ft+right
There was a small, steep granular snow slope down to a rock shelf on the back side of Tarija
The views of the summit ridge of P.Alpamayo, Huanya Potosi and the Tropical basin beyond were incredible from here
The ridge of P.Alpamayo started about 250ft below us across a small saddle, so a tricky downclimb in mixed terrain was necessary
I stopped there, having reached my fear limit
Dean and Felix arrived as Carlos was about to lead Erick and Dave down
Dean was not happy about the loose snow bridge and his new found perch on the very exposed Tarija
As the summit team descended Dean set up a picket anchor and Felix belayed him down the snow bridge
We used the same anchor to allow me to ascend the small snow slope back up to the summit of Tarija
Without an anchor in either direction a mistake would likely be fatal
Oddly, Felix would not let Dean or later myself walk forward down the bridge
He instead insisted on an uncomfortable back-first descent
This incident and the language barrier worried Dean and I
We finally got down the bridge to the ridge and watched the summit team reach the top of P.Alpamayo and anchored Felix down w/pickets
On the down climb all was well as we gathered Russ after his five hour wait
As we descended further Dean lost all energy and was struggling to keep on in the loose snow
I set a count pace with him and we forged on
I was hurting too but the slower pace was prolonging my pain
We spent nearly an hour on the rock at the foot of the glacier before struggling back into base camp
The whole day took 12 hours of constant movement
I was mentally and physically exhausted due to the lack of food and water
We rested, ate, filtered and bedded early to rest for tomorrow
Day3—Unknown Peak 5330m+
An option to do Condoriri was thwarted by bad snow and tired climbers
An unknown peak overlooked our camp and lake, Condoriri’s glacier system, and Lake Titikaka in the distance
The climb was easy but my legs were drained -- again no food or appetite
We headed across a rock feld and up an endless slope of grass and llama dung to a snowy drainage
After crossing the snow we started up a long scree slope to a ridge
At the ridge we crossed over to a back bowl and up another long scree slope
At the summit ridge there was a small band of rock and then snow and then rock again on top
We rejoiced and ate lunch higher than any point in the lower 48 (17,250ft)
The views were spectacular and offered yet another perspective
The down climb was fast for me as I got a second wind after swallowing several bags of GU and the lunch
Carlos, Erick, Dave, Holly, Debbie, Felix, and a Frenchman from our camp all made it
Holly was slow on the downclimb trying to get used to the scree
The day took six hours including our lunch
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