yeah, hawaii baby. at least that's the plan. all 'teacher' myths aside, i only get two personal days. it would be unethical to take sick days to go to hawaii, but i think i've got it worked out with the personal days, and the 3 day weekend.
my problem: i haven't played frisbee in february in 5 years. i barely run in february: i ski. coincidentally, i'd planned on running 3 times a week all winter to stay in shape for races: actually to get in better shape. i'm planning on running one tempo run (like 6 miles, with a middle (or whole portion) at 6:30 pace), one interval set (1000's or miles, of some utility for frisbee), and one long run (9-13 miles).
i'm going to add in one early a.m. in the school gym running lines and cones for 30-40 minutes, and try to throw a little at lunch.
but I still imagine conversations like this:
alex: huh. not to take the attention from my own stats, but, what's up with luke.
kid: i don't know. but, let me throw in here, did you see my sick stab? it was a no look. oh, luke. is he trying his 'off speed run' to set up the cut.
jim: no, between adding up my stats in meaningful points, and i want to note that i'm dominating, i noticed that he hasn't changed his pace. and between accounting for 5 of our 6 goals in meaningful ways, i clocked his pace. it's a steady 6:20 per mile. pretty slow for sprinting.
alex: well, i had assists on 3 of those, and you can't keep counting hockey assists as meaningful touches.
will: look. i captained sockeye to 2 national titles in the modern era. and i drew the hodag logo myself. so i'm personally responsible for 4 titles. but man, you're right. he looks slow.
alex and jim: 6 titles
all: pre-flick era.
alex and jim: no way. it was just as good back then.
luke comes off: man, did you see my sweet mark: perfect
all: lots of practice.
luke: but i caught the goal
will: well i wouldn't cover the cripple in the powered cart if he were out there
all: you got posterized by a girl
will: i got that d. and it was leslie calder
all: whatever.
kid: seriously, luke. try imagining your not in jello
luke: what are you talking about. i set up that cut with change of speed. got to have the off speed pitch.
robbye: so you're proud of your 75mph fastball?
luke: i'm a nordic skier. i use kph.
all: ooooohhh. hundy.
luke: fuck y'all i'm going for beer.
all: don't come back empty handed.
this week: didn't go skiing in yellowstone. not enough snow, and i had to move.
sunday: 6.5 miles, 6:50 pace.
monday: rest
tuesday: 9 miles, 8:00 pace, weights
wednesday: 5 miles, 8:00 pace
thurs: rest
friday: 13 miles, 8:00 pace, weights
basically an easy week. looking to go 35 miles, and throw in 2 mt. bike rides sat and sunday. got 10 more miles to do tomorrow and sunday. (my weeks end on sunday).
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
nope still no frisbee content. well, a little.
i'm going to hawaii. first time. i'll have run a lot, but this is going to require going to a gym and running shuttle runs. and find some time to throw disc indoors enough not to make a total choad of myself. since winter here precludes frsibee, i'll have to make a concious effort to at least throw.
monday, rest.
tuesday: ran 5 miles, played calvin ball, then ran another 3.5 miles
wednesday: ran 2.5 miles, lifted, ran home
thursday: ran an adventure race set up by another coach: 70 min, ran as hard as i could for the whole time, call it a 7 mile tempo effort (that's conservative, but, just being safe)
monday, rest.
tuesday: ran 5 miles, played calvin ball, then ran another 3.5 miles
wednesday: ran 2.5 miles, lifted, ran home
thursday: ran an adventure race set up by another coach: 70 min, ran as hard as i could for the whole time, call it a 7 mile tempo effort (that's conservative, but, just being safe)
Monday, November 17, 2008
retro thread of the day. yes, definitely frisbee related
http://tinyurl.com/linkofday
this is the link of the day. a prolonged discussion about legitimizing ultimate. from 2001.
enjoy and comment.
this is the link of the day. a prolonged discussion about legitimizing ultimate. from 2001.
enjoy and comment.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
seriously, nothing to do with frisbee.
11-14 40 min ultimate frisbee, 8 mile run.
11-15 13 mile run
11-16 3.5 hour mountain bike ride. maybe best ever
11-15 13 mile run
11-16 3.5 hour mountain bike ride. maybe best ever
Thursday, November 13, 2008
not potlatch part two.
none of this is for the frisbee readers. it's my defacto log. in frisbee, the kids are playing. we tried to go to a tournament, but the road got wiped out by a landslide. tommorrow, I think I'll just play frisbee with the kids, run 5 after. saturday, i'll run 10. sunday, i'll ride (90 min plus). that's technically rest. monday, we'll run and core, then i'll run longer. but it's kind of complicated, b/c i have to run xc ski practices... and i have to plan my workouts among them...
10-29 run 5
10-30 ran 5 miles and lifted
10-31 rest
11-1 8km tempo/race pace (5mile at about a 6:20 pace)
11-2 6 mile run
11-3 rest
11-4 5x1km repeats at 4:00 (like a 6:20 pace), 1 min recovery, plues 3 miles warmup cooldown
11-5 7 miles
11-6 run to gym. lift. run home. 5 miles
11-7 rest
11-8 10km race. plus 1 mile warmup. 7 miles total.
11-9 50 min run. 6 miles?
11-10 6 mile run. then 20 minutes of frisbee soccer game (i call it calvin ball. sweet. rules to follow). then 3 miles. then weights.
11-11 5.5 mile hike. call it an off day
11-12 1.25 mile warmup, 3x2mile repeats with 3 min rest. 6:20 pace. (it's a short course, let's call it 6:30 to 6:45 pace)
11-13 35min run, stadiums, core, weights, 25 min bike
10-29 run 5
10-30 ran 5 miles and lifted
10-31 rest
11-1 8km tempo/race pace (5mile at about a 6:20 pace)
11-2 6 mile run
11-3 rest
11-4 5x1km repeats at 4:00 (like a 6:20 pace), 1 min recovery, plues 3 miles warmup cooldown
11-5 7 miles
11-6 run to gym. lift. run home. 5 miles
11-7 rest
11-8 10km race. plus 1 mile warmup. 7 miles total.
11-9 50 min run. 6 miles?
11-10 6 mile run. then 20 minutes of frisbee soccer game (i call it calvin ball. sweet. rules to follow). then 3 miles. then weights.
11-11 5.5 mile hike. call it an off day
11-12 1.25 mile warmup, 3x2mile repeats with 3 min rest. 6:20 pace. (it's a short course, let's call it 6:30 to 6:45 pace)
11-13 35min run, stadiums, core, weights, 25 min bike
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Potlatch, Day 1.
Well, technically, it's d-day minus 3. I'd played Solstice with a young Oregon college team from UofO, and had a good time, and I was feeling friskee. Sunday night, mon, tuesday, at somepoint I was shooting the shit with John Hammond and he invited me to play on Dave Bestock's Potlatch team. Under normal circumstances, that might not qualify as an invite from the Kid, but it's pretty much how I landed on Sockeye in the first place, and Dave's a pal, so I figured it was worth a shot. As an aside, it's pretty much how I landed on my Solstice team, so I was game.
Thursday night I played City league, and dominated (whatever that means in city league), and was feeling friskee. I roped ryan, league coordinator, into going. He was iffy about playing, and I guaranteed him no guarantee of our team, but told him he'd have a spot on SOME team. Plus, selfishly, It's a long drive. And gas was costing $4.00 per.
Friday night, we prepared to leave. My car was sitting outside the house, minus the fuel pump, stolen 2 weeks earlier (great story, I'd solved the crime, but not troubled myself to replace the pump, more on that to follow). So I was riding over with housemates Scott and Chris to portland, where Ryan and I would take Scott's car up to the fields. Scott Had been go to play until thursday night until a family emergency took him out. I'd actually promised to squeeze him onto the team with what was known as the Ketner clause (when, 3 years earlier, the last player to be named later I'd brought watched all weekend, played 2 points, and one of them was in the quarters where he played one point and delivered the game winning block. So my scouting rep was better than my own playing rep). Anyway, Scott's out, so he was being pretty cool with the car loan.
Ryan, guest of guests is late, so we don't roll out until about 7. Drop Scott and Chris off at the family hacienda in Portland around 10 or so, fumble around Gresham for a while, and then roll north. I think we arrive in Remond, or Kirkland, or wherever the hell potlatch is held (I don't know, garmin and google take care of those details, I just knew I could guide it in from the exit). I think we get there around 2.
As we approach the fields, the mist shrouds 40 acre soccer complex. A fox crosses the road in front of us. The scene is pastoral, and I'm relaxed to know that I'm going to get a good, peaceful nights sleep prior to 3 days of ultimate.
And then I turned off the ignition, and opened the door, and was greated with a cacaughanous roar from the fields.
No, The fox was fleeing drunks, the noise was terrible, and I simply hung my head. I'd been there on the other side of this debacle before, and now it was my turn to reap the whirlwind. It was loud, and it was time to suffer.
I set up my tent in the quietest (my thoughts) corner of the fields, in an area that would receive latest sunrise due to the location of the hill. I was a saavy vet, even if I'd not achieved countal levels of eye patches and neck pillows.
And then I notice ryan standing around with a sleeping bag and a pillow. "Uh, where's your tent ryan?," I asked. "Kind of don't have one," said Ryan.
Great. And now I'm stuck with a room mate. How could this tournament get worse in the next 6 hours. Games at nine, not technically on a team, some dopey giant taking up air in my tent, and the loud noise of 1200 twenty somethings freed from normal societal rules. I was being confronted with every painful transgression (Well, at least 15% of them) I'd ever made at a frisbee tournament, but now on the other end of the stick. It was Lord of the Flies. I was treading on Piggy territory. How could it get worse.
Turned out, Ryan snored.
To be continued.
(Non frisbee corner. Ran 80 min yesterday, and lifted. Rode 90 minutes recovery today, and did IllioTibial Band rehab)
Thursday night I played City league, and dominated (whatever that means in city league), and was feeling friskee. I roped ryan, league coordinator, into going. He was iffy about playing, and I guaranteed him no guarantee of our team, but told him he'd have a spot on SOME team. Plus, selfishly, It's a long drive. And gas was costing $4.00 per.
Friday night, we prepared to leave. My car was sitting outside the house, minus the fuel pump, stolen 2 weeks earlier (great story, I'd solved the crime, but not troubled myself to replace the pump, more on that to follow). So I was riding over with housemates Scott and Chris to portland, where Ryan and I would take Scott's car up to the fields. Scott Had been go to play until thursday night until a family emergency took him out. I'd actually promised to squeeze him onto the team with what was known as the Ketner clause (when, 3 years earlier, the last player to be named later I'd brought watched all weekend, played 2 points, and one of them was in the quarters where he played one point and delivered the game winning block. So my scouting rep was better than my own playing rep). Anyway, Scott's out, so he was being pretty cool with the car loan.
Ryan, guest of guests is late, so we don't roll out until about 7. Drop Scott and Chris off at the family hacienda in Portland around 10 or so, fumble around Gresham for a while, and then roll north. I think we arrive in Remond, or Kirkland, or wherever the hell potlatch is held (I don't know, garmin and google take care of those details, I just knew I could guide it in from the exit). I think we get there around 2.
As we approach the fields, the mist shrouds 40 acre soccer complex. A fox crosses the road in front of us. The scene is pastoral, and I'm relaxed to know that I'm going to get a good, peaceful nights sleep prior to 3 days of ultimate.
And then I turned off the ignition, and opened the door, and was greated with a cacaughanous roar from the fields.
No, The fox was fleeing drunks, the noise was terrible, and I simply hung my head. I'd been there on the other side of this debacle before, and now it was my turn to reap the whirlwind. It was loud, and it was time to suffer.
I set up my tent in the quietest (my thoughts) corner of the fields, in an area that would receive latest sunrise due to the location of the hill. I was a saavy vet, even if I'd not achieved countal levels of eye patches and neck pillows.
And then I notice ryan standing around with a sleeping bag and a pillow. "Uh, where's your tent ryan?," I asked. "Kind of don't have one," said Ryan.
Great. And now I'm stuck with a room mate. How could this tournament get worse in the next 6 hours. Games at nine, not technically on a team, some dopey giant taking up air in my tent, and the loud noise of 1200 twenty somethings freed from normal societal rules. I was being confronted with every painful transgression (Well, at least 15% of them) I'd ever made at a frisbee tournament, but now on the other end of the stick. It was Lord of the Flies. I was treading on Piggy territory. How could it get worse.
Turned out, Ryan snored.
To be continued.
(Non frisbee corner. Ran 80 min yesterday, and lifted. Rode 90 minutes recovery today, and did IllioTibial Band rehab)
Saturday, October 25, 2008
xc districts, minimal frisbee content.
summit sweeeeeeeeeeps.
boys, girs, jv, varsity.
the hugest upset was in boys, where a great runner of ours who had not run for 3 years turned in a third in the district time and summit defeats a talented, and classy hermiston team 29 to 30.
.
they were great kids, and came over to shake hands after the match. when state comes up next week, its still up for grabs: their best runner is the best runner in the state, and due to the nature of scoring, they could defeat us by running the exact same, but having 2 runners from other teams finish after their first runner, but before ours. at the same time, we could widen our gap if the boys all run the same, and there are more scorers between the runners.
our girls were dominant, pack running, and our favored runner had her worst run of her year. she's suffered 2 fractured femurs in her hs career, and we're always concerned about that, but she was fine. and if she just had a 'bad' day, that's fine, it's just important to know that she just had a 'bad' day but is healthy.
our JV boys won the 'jv crown' for the first time ever. the heartbreaks come with the boys, where the varsity (7) battles with the first 3 jv guys for positions on the state team. All 7 were given sweet tights, but it's tough to see a guy who poured his heart out qualify as an alternate, not a primary runner. (that is, we carry 7 runners on the team, and 2 alternates).
On the girls, it was arguably tougher, where our JV girls team may have been the 2nd or 3rd best team in the district: it's got to be tough for a girl who knows she could go run for another school in the city and make it to the state team, but instead, she 'settles' for being on a more competetive team that drives her to be better. there is probably an ultimate metaphor here.
personally, i went out to forerun the course this morning, with the goal of running it in a sub 20 time, but within 800m, i felt the fatigue that is 'supposedly' associated with post marathon blues, so i just settled into a tempo run. so 2.5 miles at 8 min pace, then a tempo 5k at 21 min with no kicking. Frustrating, in a sense, but fine, and smart in another.
Then saw tropic thunder, which is hysterical.
boys, girs, jv, varsity.
the hugest upset was in boys, where a great runner of ours who had not run for 3 years turned in a third in the district time and summit defeats a talented, and classy hermiston team 29 to 30.
.
they were great kids, and came over to shake hands after the match. when state comes up next week, its still up for grabs: their best runner is the best runner in the state, and due to the nature of scoring, they could defeat us by running the exact same, but having 2 runners from other teams finish after their first runner, but before ours. at the same time, we could widen our gap if the boys all run the same, and there are more scorers between the runners.
our girls were dominant, pack running, and our favored runner had her worst run of her year. she's suffered 2 fractured femurs in her hs career, and we're always concerned about that, but she was fine. and if she just had a 'bad' day, that's fine, it's just important to know that she just had a 'bad' day but is healthy.
our JV boys won the 'jv crown' for the first time ever. the heartbreaks come with the boys, where the varsity (7) battles with the first 3 jv guys for positions on the state team. All 7 were given sweet tights, but it's tough to see a guy who poured his heart out qualify as an alternate, not a primary runner. (that is, we carry 7 runners on the team, and 2 alternates).
On the girls, it was arguably tougher, where our JV girls team may have been the 2nd or 3rd best team in the district: it's got to be tough for a girl who knows she could go run for another school in the city and make it to the state team, but instead, she 'settles' for being on a more competetive team that drives her to be better. there is probably an ultimate metaphor here.
personally, i went out to forerun the course this morning, with the goal of running it in a sub 20 time, but within 800m, i felt the fatigue that is 'supposedly' associated with post marathon blues, so i just settled into a tempo run. so 2.5 miles at 8 min pace, then a tempo 5k at 21 min with no kicking. Frustrating, in a sense, but fine, and smart in another.
Then saw tropic thunder, which is hysterical.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
no frisbee conten
today, i ran a 10 minute warmup, then 3x6min miles with 2 min rest, then a 10 min cooldown. that's ok, since i'm recovering from the marathon. technically, i should have run 6xmiles, with 1min rest.
i MIGHT play frisbee tomorrow, but likely not. that said, when 6pm rolls around, yeah, i'll probably be out there under the lights with tights on, and a big vacant look on my face looking off bad cuts with the mindset of chucking it deep to the only slightly worse long cut.
i MIGHT play frisbee tomorrow, but likely not. that said, when 6pm rolls around, yeah, i'll probably be out there under the lights with tights on, and a big vacant look on my face looking off bad cuts with the mindset of chucking it deep to the only slightly worse long cut.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Fan mail
Hey, I've been receiving a lot of fan mail and comments lately, and I just want all you fans out there to know, I just don't have time to reply to every individual note. But know this: your thoughts matter to me, so, keep those messages coming.
I mean, you could could be choosing to read about how Match carried Furious to the world championship, fulfilling his lifelong dreams.
But instead you choose to come to my little corner of the world. So keep those letters of encouragement coming!
I mean, you could could be choosing to read about how Match carried Furious to the world championship, fulfilling his lifelong dreams.
But instead you choose to come to my little corner of the world. So keep those letters of encouragement coming!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
moving forward
the kids played ultimate today, i rode my bike for 2 hours, then played ultimate for 1.5 hours. pretty fun. first time i'd played since july. i was mainly looking for some extra excercise after the bike ride... I think half of my turnovers were on uncalled fouls (i mean seriously, who calls a touch foul in pickup), and the other half were on long throws out the back (i mean seriously, who set up this field).
pretty fun, ran around a bit, really didn't try to play every point. got a bunch of old guy poach d's a couple run by d's, got beat a couple times deep, stopped some deep looks, hooked up long a couple times, your basic fun pickup game with a bunch of new players.
pretty fun, ran around a bit, really didn't try to play every point. got a bunch of old guy poach d's a couple run by d's, got beat a couple times deep, stopped some deep looks, hooked up long a couple times, your basic fun pickup game with a bunch of new players.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
since the marathon
since the marathon, i rested for 4 days, biked and lifted friday, ran 7 sat, ran 7 sunday, plus 10 points of low key HS ultimate, mon 5.5 mile, tues 7 miles (2 at 8, then a progressively faster run of 7:50, 7:20, 6:40, 7:20), wednesday, ran 4.5 miles in 31 min, with the last 2 fast, thursday rested, friday rested, today, 7 miles.
tomorrow, there will be a mountain bike ride, and maybe play frisbee with the kids, or both. hard to say.
feel pretty good, my shins hurt a little.
more to follow.
tomorrow, there will be a mountain bike ride, and maybe play frisbee with the kids, or both. hard to say.
feel pretty good, my shins hurt a little.
more to follow.
Monday, October 06, 2008
first marathon...
As I look back over my marathon training, It's true, that you really learn a lot about yourself. Yes, as the many month (Sic) went by, I came to value the long runs, the training, even the rest days.
Yes, when I overdid it, in day 20 of the training program, I trusted that the month and month of training would see me through... so I just sat on the couch for 2 weeks.
Anyway, it went fine, 3:29:23, I won't say it was easy, but mainly the legs just got stiff: It wasn't really labored, it was just long. I felt worse after the Hood to Coast, I'm just a little stiff, calves and quads. Just a nice long conversational jog.
In the pouring rain.
I'd hear that you needed to show up 1 hour early, we showed up at 6:50. Got to the crowd at 6:55, fought our way to the right place by 6:58.... and away... we... go...
I'll shoot for 3:15 for next year, and if I train right, it should be just as 'easy.'
XC season is coming to an end, going to look to an early season frisbee tournament with the students...
Taking a few days off to rest up, maybe a litle light spinning... next race in november, 10km with maybe a time trial on Oct 1.
Yes, when I overdid it, in day 20 of the training program, I trusted that the month and month of training would see me through... so I just sat on the couch for 2 weeks.
Anyway, it went fine, 3:29:23, I won't say it was easy, but mainly the legs just got stiff: It wasn't really labored, it was just long. I felt worse after the Hood to Coast, I'm just a little stiff, calves and quads. Just a nice long conversational jog.
In the pouring rain.
I'd hear that you needed to show up 1 hour early, we showed up at 6:50. Got to the crowd at 6:55, fought our way to the right place by 6:58.... and away... we... go...
I'll shoot for 3:15 for next year, and if I train right, it should be just as 'easy.'
XC season is coming to an end, going to look to an early season frisbee tournament with the students...
Taking a few days off to rest up, maybe a litle light spinning... next race in november, 10km with maybe a time trial on Oct 1.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
upcoming.
wednesday, went to play frisbee: no one showed. yeah bend. threw for 1 hour.
thursday, today, 90 minute run.
this weekend, coach, and a 3:00 run sunday. ble-yech.
gonna try to host a late fall frisbee tournament here: we got new fields, and a sweet field turf field.
more to follow.
thursday, today, 90 minute run.
this weekend, coach, and a 3:00 run sunday. ble-yech.
gonna try to host a late fall frisbee tournament here: we got new fields, and a sweet field turf field.
more to follow.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
below me.
at the risk of alienating toad...
lessee, friday, i took off.
saturday, i was at the bus depot (school) at 6:00 am, and spent a full day coaching. the girls killed it: they may or may not win state, but for now, they are untouchable. the boys were solid, but missing 1 stud, and one stud has a broken femur... so, i mean, we're all good. I did a 5 mile run.
sunday: 20 mile run. well, that's an estimate. I did 2:40 running, and i did the first 5km on a set time trial to get an estimate of pace. worst case, a 19 mile run. the first 10 miles was with a roommate who's training up for a later marathon. but i had to do 20. my expected training partner for the last 10 bailed... so i was on my lonesome. ugh.
monday, rest: frustrating cause the kids were doing hill repeats (which i like), so i was relegated to hi-5-ing every kid.
tuesday: today, 3x1 mile, at 6:20, 6:10, 6:00, then 3x800 at 3:05, 3:05, 2:50. all on grass, on a slowish course, with 2:00 rest between.
and ok, a little ultimate. i spent about an hour throwing with players, and my girl players were bombing it. absolutely bombing it. maybe this is the year for the team!!!
lessee, friday, i took off.
saturday, i was at the bus depot (school) at 6:00 am, and spent a full day coaching. the girls killed it: they may or may not win state, but for now, they are untouchable. the boys were solid, but missing 1 stud, and one stud has a broken femur... so, i mean, we're all good. I did a 5 mile run.
sunday: 20 mile run. well, that's an estimate. I did 2:40 running, and i did the first 5km on a set time trial to get an estimate of pace. worst case, a 19 mile run. the first 10 miles was with a roommate who's training up for a later marathon. but i had to do 20. my expected training partner for the last 10 bailed... so i was on my lonesome. ugh.
monday, rest: frustrating cause the kids were doing hill repeats (which i like), so i was relegated to hi-5-ing every kid.
tuesday: today, 3x1 mile, at 6:20, 6:10, 6:00, then 3x800 at 3:05, 3:05, 2:50. all on grass, on a slowish course, with 2:00 rest between.
and ok, a little ultimate. i spent about an hour throwing with players, and my girl players were bombing it. absolutely bombing it. maybe this is the year for the team!!!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
seriously
frisbee first: at every practice, the frisbee players throw.
enough of that.
Sunday, 2:20 run (16-18 miles)
Monday, rest
Tuesday, The kids had a pool party, I ran there, 28 minutes, hills and running. probably 3.75 miles in about 28 min. Then 4 intervals, 6 on, (2 rest), 6 (3), 6 (3), 7, run 1 mile. I was running hard, I thought 6 equaled a mile, but lingering fatigue affected me, and according to mapmyrun, I was running about a 6:25 pace. So a quality workout, but slow.
Wed: ran easy, 3.5 miles, 28 minutes, but flat. Then 6 x 100 yards on the brand new sport turf field. My hip flexor was sore.
Thursday: Skipped the 2mile warm up run, (threw, instead), then played games with the kid on a designed recovery day. Then ran three miles on a track while I timed a kid doing a timed run for a scholarship. then ran 7 more miles. Total data: 10 miles, average 8:14. Knee was mildly achy, but not really. Tommorrow is rest.
Saturday, is a 4mile run, Sunday is a 2:45 run, 20 ish is the goal.
I'm trying to line up running partners for parts of the run. One of my room mates will do the first 10, then I'm hoping to get a fellow teacher to do the next 6... well then, I'm hoping to borrow CJ's dog for the last part. I mean, the dog can handle it.
enough of that.
Sunday, 2:20 run (16-18 miles)
Monday, rest
Tuesday, The kids had a pool party, I ran there, 28 minutes, hills and running. probably 3.75 miles in about 28 min. Then 4 intervals, 6 on, (2 rest), 6 (3), 6 (3), 7, run 1 mile. I was running hard, I thought 6 equaled a mile, but lingering fatigue affected me, and according to mapmyrun, I was running about a 6:25 pace. So a quality workout, but slow.
Wed: ran easy, 3.5 miles, 28 minutes, but flat. Then 6 x 100 yards on the brand new sport turf field. My hip flexor was sore.
Thursday: Skipped the 2mile warm up run, (threw, instead), then played games with the kid on a designed recovery day. Then ran three miles on a track while I timed a kid doing a timed run for a scholarship. then ran 7 more miles. Total data: 10 miles, average 8:14. Knee was mildly achy, but not really. Tommorrow is rest.
Saturday, is a 4mile run, Sunday is a 2:45 run, 20 ish is the goal.
I'm trying to line up running partners for parts of the run. One of my room mates will do the first 10, then I'm hoping to get a fellow teacher to do the next 6... well then, I'm hoping to borrow CJ's dog for the last part. I mean, the dog can handle it.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
on and on and on.
lessee, tuesday was painful miles
wednesday was an easy 25 minute run, weights, a meeting, another meeting, and work until 10
thursday was the kids racing, then i did a night run of 45 minutes.
friday, hour:06 run, say 8.5 miles?
saturday, rest
sunday, 2:20 run, somewhere from 16-18 miles. I figure 17.
So something like 41 miles for the week.
I'm on a rushed plan to run portland marathon in a month. only mildly rushed, but I'm being pretty good with my rest days.
school is good.
wednesday was an easy 25 minute run, weights, a meeting, another meeting, and work until 10
thursday was the kids racing, then i did a night run of 45 minutes.
friday, hour:06 run, say 8.5 miles?
saturday, rest
sunday, 2:20 run, somewhere from 16-18 miles. I figure 17.
So something like 41 miles for the week.
I'm on a rushed plan to run portland marathon in a month. only mildly rushed, but I'm being pretty good with my rest days.
school is good.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
miles.
kind of a crappy workout today (i think), but the long miles this weekend make it kind of OK. 25 or 26 miles this weekend, then a 1.5 mile warmup, 3x1 mile repeats at 6:10, 6:00, 5:50 (over rolling grass with turns and stuff, not a track).
by comparison,
2 years ago was 4, 6, 5:55, 5:50, at 5:57.
3 years ago was 5 at 6:18, :15, :15, :05, :10.
I'll do 4 or 5 next week when we do them again, and I'll try to run them all 5 seconds faster. (goal would be 6:05, 5:50, 5:40, and 5:30). perhaps ambitious, but we'll see.
by comparison,
2 years ago was 4, 6, 5:55, 5:50, at 5:57.
3 years ago was 5 at 6:18, :15, :15, :05, :10.
I'll do 4 or 5 next week when we do them again, and I'll try to run them all 5 seconds faster. (goal would be 6:05, 5:50, 5:40, and 5:30). perhaps ambitious, but we'll see.
Monday, September 01, 2008
labor day.
nothing to do with frisbee, but friday, after a day of work, got some good sleep, then up pretty early to cheer on the kids in the sunrise to summit, then up to cultus. paddled upwind in some ridiculous wind with a full boat, met up with the rest of the crew, did camp stuff, ate hotdogs.
sunday, 13 mile run, stopped halfway to eat a burger at the lodge. ate a lot, drank coffee, etc.
today, 12 mile run, paddled back.
was going to time trial this mountain, but no in my party was in for it, so it was just long distance stuff, at a decent pace.
sunday, 13 mile run, stopped halfway to eat a burger at the lodge. ate a lot, drank coffee, etc.
today, 12 mile run, paddled back.
was going to time trial this mountain, but no in my party was in for it, so it was just long distance stuff, at a decent pace.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
time trial, blog review
What was i thinking. Saturday, I couldn't even make the wheels roll, Sunday, and Monday were walk backwards down stairs, tuesday was 32 minutes at 8:45 pace and it felt like i was dying, wednesday was 20 minutes of limping. Today I did the team time trial.
I couldn't help it. It's what I do. 2006, august, 12:52, 2007 I couldn't run in august b/c of injury, but I repeated the run at the end of the season in 12:25, and today, i ran it in 12:31. I'm not PROUD of the result but I was still pretty toast, and even worse, I ran an absolutely terrible first 400 meters (90 seconds). My next 600 meters were the worst as I necked way down to get my motor back, and frankly, the 12:31 was not a disaster. I am going to run it again next week when i'm 'fresh' (that is fresh after this coming weekend's coaches mini camp of
sat 45 mile ride/2mile paddle
sunday 11 mile hike, 5 mile hill run (max effort)
monday 13 mile run (easy), 2 mile paddle. I think i'll skip the bike back at that point.
But by wednesday, I should be able to crank, and I will, with the goal of 12:00 even. I may cheat: and get some pacing help from a couple kids who are making up the TT and can't run the race the next day.
All things considered, I'm pretty happy with life. I'd like to think it's pretty odd for 38 year olds to make progress in this way, and I think I have 7 years to sort of 'peak' in my second career as a middle distance runner.
As an aside, there is a 15 year theory that holds, that, no matter when you start doing an event, you will continue to improve for 15 years. The idea, then, would be that your frisbee career would PEAK 15 years after you started, barring physical break down. Obviously, in a demanding, cutting sport like ultimate, starting when you are 10-15 would be ideal. But just 'cause you peak in a year, doesn't mean that a 10 year old couldn't have a 25 year career: it just means that at 25 they might be their best, but could conceivably still be good for 10 more years... just not their best.
Personally, I started when I was 20, but I would say my best 2 years were when I was 31 or 32, living in bend, commuting to play with sockeye. And with markedly diminished sport specific regimens, my game play at age 34-35 was pretty good. Now, 17 or 18 years in, my feeling is that, without a team to focus on, I can't continue to IMPROVE: but that i can still 'do it.'
Nuff said. Coaches corner.
On worlds:
You can't imagine my sadness in seeing sockeye lose. This is my team. While they may have passed me by, 12 of those guys were my team mates for 1 or more years, and another 6 of those guys are former team mates of mine on varied other teams. I have the utmost respect for furious, and having never won a national title (somehow sockeye went on to win 3 without me. ahem. outlast, outwit, outsmart, out-out-foul-luke), I still feel a more recent connection w/ fish than chain (still got big love for kid, barrett and a bunch of younguns who i only got to play against when i was a 26 yearold college senior). Just a bummer, and I can't speak to the play of the games, other than to say, i hope payback comes in the form of a national title.
On RSD. Gawd almighty it sucks. I can't even bring myself to do a thread review. Todd continues to mask relatively valid points with hyperbole (but, see, I know the guy, and I've seen him play, and played with him, and frankly, ON THE PITCH, he was great) so I can look past the absurdity, Frank continues his rants (but, while I've not played with Frank, I've had some one-on-one e-chat, and frankly (no pun intended) his desires are not impossible, it's his general unwillingness to deal with people... and then there's the latest kook, who's just brought a desire to extrapolate pickup to the real world. shit.
How bout a Blog review.
KD brings tremendous depth to his writings. Frankly, I make no claim to either his command of the syntax, grammar, or most significantly, language in his writing. Truly beautiful stuff that should honestly be finding a place in a literary magazine, not this pathetic venue. I hope he's working on a novel.
I claim only to have an honest voice. I guess I should draw inspiration from Ken's command of the language, but I go the route, why try to compare myself to his strengths. A caveat: In my few (two) (lame) publishing credits, I have tried to use real grammar.
Match: I appreciate the effort, but there are just some things that make me puke. 'Cogs in a wheel' Varied painful misspellings, bizarre homonyms, odd, weird thoughts that remind me of jackie harvey. But, Match, if you bother to read this, Aplus for effort, and I note the improvement, and applaud the mssui-ish effort.
Mssui: Seriously, is this Cyle? Is half that shit true? And I thought I had a checkered college career.
Frosty: Don't know the guy. Takes his shit seriously. I approve, even if I think a lot of this may be just as faddish as the whole run forever slow thing (which I think he and dusty think I do, but really, I never jog. I RUN. And when I train for frisbee, I run FASTER.
Al: I almost threw Al and Jim in the same line, just for humors sake after years of referring to them as stadler and waldorf. By the way, by far the largest sets of hits to my site are from people searching for stadtler and waldorf, so you guys are getting some hits from me. Guy could always play, even when he was deliriously thinking he got a layout block on me. Truth be told, I never got enough playing time for him to get a block on me. And, I remember every block on me in 18 years. They are few and far between. I'm usually not open enough to be a target. Anywhoo, great blog, selfabsorbed, detailed, pics. Sweet.
Jim: Losing ground on his formerly ridiculously stat heavy set, or gaining ground in talking to people, Jim has entertained me for years.
Billy: Second only to Kenny in language, maybe most captivating in terms of frisbee, he had us all going for a year. Speedy recovery on the Leg.
Flash: Must read for a perhaps small set of us who were around at a certain time, and his link to his poker buddy is fascinating stuff.
DlK: Oh, why, oh why did you run away.
Dar. Oh, let's not forget Dar's blog, lives in denver, wife works with my brother, who lives in dublin.
And yes, I still type deja.com to get to google groups.
I couldn't help it. It's what I do. 2006, august, 12:52, 2007 I couldn't run in august b/c of injury, but I repeated the run at the end of the season in 12:25, and today, i ran it in 12:31. I'm not PROUD of the result but I was still pretty toast, and even worse, I ran an absolutely terrible first 400 meters (90 seconds). My next 600 meters were the worst as I necked way down to get my motor back, and frankly, the 12:31 was not a disaster. I am going to run it again next week when i'm 'fresh' (that is fresh after this coming weekend's coaches mini camp of
sat 45 mile ride/2mile paddle
sunday 11 mile hike, 5 mile hill run (max effort)
monday 13 mile run (easy), 2 mile paddle. I think i'll skip the bike back at that point.
But by wednesday, I should be able to crank, and I will, with the goal of 12:00 even. I may cheat: and get some pacing help from a couple kids who are making up the TT and can't run the race the next day.
All things considered, I'm pretty happy with life. I'd like to think it's pretty odd for 38 year olds to make progress in this way, and I think I have 7 years to sort of 'peak' in my second career as a middle distance runner.
As an aside, there is a 15 year theory that holds, that, no matter when you start doing an event, you will continue to improve for 15 years. The idea, then, would be that your frisbee career would PEAK 15 years after you started, barring physical break down. Obviously, in a demanding, cutting sport like ultimate, starting when you are 10-15 would be ideal. But just 'cause you peak in a year, doesn't mean that a 10 year old couldn't have a 25 year career: it just means that at 25 they might be their best, but could conceivably still be good for 10 more years... just not their best.
Personally, I started when I was 20, but I would say my best 2 years were when I was 31 or 32, living in bend, commuting to play with sockeye. And with markedly diminished sport specific regimens, my game play at age 34-35 was pretty good. Now, 17 or 18 years in, my feeling is that, without a team to focus on, I can't continue to IMPROVE: but that i can still 'do it.'
Nuff said. Coaches corner.
On worlds:
You can't imagine my sadness in seeing sockeye lose. This is my team. While they may have passed me by, 12 of those guys were my team mates for 1 or more years, and another 6 of those guys are former team mates of mine on varied other teams. I have the utmost respect for furious, and having never won a national title (somehow sockeye went on to win 3 without me. ahem. outlast, outwit, outsmart, out-out-foul-luke), I still feel a more recent connection w/ fish than chain (still got big love for kid, barrett and a bunch of younguns who i only got to play against when i was a 26 yearold college senior). Just a bummer, and I can't speak to the play of the games, other than to say, i hope payback comes in the form of a national title.
On RSD. Gawd almighty it sucks. I can't even bring myself to do a thread review. Todd continues to mask relatively valid points with hyperbole (but, see, I know the guy, and I've seen him play, and played with him, and frankly, ON THE PITCH, he was great) so I can look past the absurdity, Frank continues his rants (but, while I've not played with Frank, I've had some one-on-one e-chat, and frankly (no pun intended) his desires are not impossible, it's his general unwillingness to deal with people... and then there's the latest kook, who's just brought a desire to extrapolate pickup to the real world. shit.
How bout a Blog review.
KD brings tremendous depth to his writings. Frankly, I make no claim to either his command of the syntax, grammar, or most significantly, language in his writing. Truly beautiful stuff that should honestly be finding a place in a literary magazine, not this pathetic venue. I hope he's working on a novel.
I claim only to have an honest voice. I guess I should draw inspiration from Ken's command of the language, but I go the route, why try to compare myself to his strengths. A caveat: In my few (two) (lame) publishing credits, I have tried to use real grammar.
Match: I appreciate the effort, but there are just some things that make me puke. 'Cogs in a wheel' Varied painful misspellings, bizarre homonyms, odd, weird thoughts that remind me of jackie harvey. But, Match, if you bother to read this, Aplus for effort, and I note the improvement, and applaud the mssui-ish effort.
Mssui: Seriously, is this Cyle? Is half that shit true? And I thought I had a checkered college career.
Frosty: Don't know the guy. Takes his shit seriously. I approve, even if I think a lot of this may be just as faddish as the whole run forever slow thing (which I think he and dusty think I do, but really, I never jog. I RUN. And when I train for frisbee, I run FASTER.
Al: I almost threw Al and Jim in the same line, just for humors sake after years of referring to them as stadler and waldorf. By the way, by far the largest sets of hits to my site are from people searching for stadtler and waldorf, so you guys are getting some hits from me. Guy could always play, even when he was deliriously thinking he got a layout block on me. Truth be told, I never got enough playing time for him to get a block on me. And, I remember every block on me in 18 years. They are few and far between. I'm usually not open enough to be a target. Anywhoo, great blog, selfabsorbed, detailed, pics. Sweet.
Jim: Losing ground on his formerly ridiculously stat heavy set, or gaining ground in talking to people, Jim has entertained me for years.
Billy: Second only to Kenny in language, maybe most captivating in terms of frisbee, he had us all going for a year. Speedy recovery on the Leg.
Flash: Must read for a perhaps small set of us who were around at a certain time, and his link to his poker buddy is fascinating stuff.
DlK: Oh, why, oh why did you run away.
Dar. Oh, let's not forget Dar's blog, lives in denver, wife works with my brother, who lives in dublin.
And yes, I still type deja.com to get to google groups.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Hood to Coast.
I'm starting a new blog to separate my non ultimate stuff, but, in the meantime, just to piss off the ultimatetalk readers who can't stand to read about anything but h-stack...
Tuesday Night I somehow went from 'saturday 30min bike ride' to thursday-sunday, massive Hood to Coast Relay run. Next thing I know, I'm driving the Van over from the Redmond airport (only place the team could get the van). I also somehow drew the long legs/ hard legs of this challenging race. The team was great, the girls were members of a race team in SF (one or two were at the olympic trials kind of deal) and the guys were pretty good. (But, really, the girls were the difference makers).
The team at the start. The race included 1000 teams (plus shorter walking and HS divisions). We were iTeam (reflecting our apple sponsoship). This allowed for some plays on that in the van painting (Putting the i back in Team, there ain't no US in WIN, etc) and allowed for some funny schtick about the merits of selfishness. Two vans of 6 played leapfrog as we went accross the state. You would run a leg, tag off to a van mate, and eventually, the next van would take over, and our van would drive ahead 30-40 miles, and chill out for a while (and wish we could sleep).
I joined up tuesday night, and thursday I ferried a van 3 hours over the mountains. We went to the Kennedy School for dinner, and I must have gotten 2 solid hours of sleep in the hotel. Then we drove BACK 1.5 hours to the start (conceivably I could have slept in my own bed, and driven over, but the team bonding thing was cool, and it was no biggy. We decorated the vans, cheered the start, and then our van went to safeway for lunch (soup and sandwich) and then to hang out at FredMeyers for the exchange (bought a new travel scrabble (which i never used, but my current set is missing a letter)). Finally, the time neared for van ii to start.
Van ii (our van) waiting near the exchange for the start of our first set (of 3). Laura and Karen went first, before handing the baton to me. My first leg was 7 miles (averaged 6:45 pace), before tagging off near dusk. We finished up after our next leg evan ran, tagging off to janet, and then we were done for 3.5 hours.
We made a mild error here, in our effort we went to a hotel to avoid trying to rest at an overcrowded transition area. In hindsight, we should have gone to the tranny, but, c'est la vie. Here I piled on to my crazy driving mileage, and continued driving late into the night. My late night leg was a 5 miler, I averaged 7:00 pace, but about wet my pants when, in a stretch of deliverance country, in a spot where there were no cars, or runners I heard
crash crash GURNT HONK MROWW. I don't know. Buck deer will apparently make noise before charging. Could have been a cougar or a bear. Fuck. could have been an angry chipmunk on steroids. I was scared. And sprinting. I discussed this with people, one of whom mentioned, "dude, if it's a cougar, you got to face it down."
Uh, I've seen movies. I go up into the woods investigating, and some kind of Predalien leaves my drumsticks behind. But in any event, i'm sprinting in the dark, and I KNOW that if it's a cougar, i need to face it, so I'm running down some crazy country road, looking over my shoulder, holding my water. Finally, another team's sag van comes up on me (oh, it's 3:50 in the morning), and I flag them down:
Me: "Hey, can y'all pace me, I heard some animal growling at me"
Driver (British); "Are all Americans so brave"
Me: "Well, we did invent the disposable diaper"
Driver: "Are you wearing one?"
Me: "Depends"
Driver laughs.
At this point, I'm catching runners, we chat, and eventually another van appears in the back. I say, "thanks, you can race up to the exchange if you need to"
Driver: "Naah. You're entertaining us now."
Eventually, they leave me, and now I'm racing into the exchange. It was fascinating. I thought I was going fast, but the dark, uneven road, demanded a keen awareness of what was going on. My theory is that the proprioception required made things SEEM to be happening faster than I thought they were. I also was running without my race mandated reflective vest (I somehow forgot it at my first exchange: we broke 24 hours only because we never missed an exchange, but this didn't mean that I didn't need every spare moment at the exchanges to go to the blue room, and warm up, and after the driving and what not I just forgot it, and my fatigued team noticed nothing weird when passing me). As I approached the exchange, and worried about getting busted for no vest (a potential 1 hour penalty or DQ), my brilliant plan was to pull my shirt off so it could conceivably look like i was running with the vest in my hand, or that my white-ass chest was reflective enough, and I covered my number on my shorts so I could make the exchange and sprint to oblivion. Either they didn't care, or it didn't matter. But the bibs were no joke. One young lady was hit by a car on the race, but my rural run was better suited to forgetfulness.
We made the exchange, annnnndddd.... I was driving again. We arrived at the next exchange at dawn, now moving up on the pack, enough that we parked right at the exchange, and only had to wait 5 minutes for frenchtoast, bacon, and eggs, and a coffee ($6.50) prepared by some fundraising group. I caught 15 minutes of sleep (literally my only sleep of the race). Off we went. First Laura, then Karen, then Me, an 8 mile (did I mention the previous 12 miles, sleep deprivation, etc). My leg was working me, and I ran it at a 7:15 pace, but oddly, this was the only leg no one passed me on. One guy sat on my wheel for 4 miles, and I somehow shook him. I considered walking, quitting, etc., but only sort of in passing. I mainly just focused on my breathing, and tried to ignore the pain in my leg. I finished in form, and handed off to Evan who, again turned in another 6:45 set. He should have taken my legs: He'd run 5 marathons in a year in preparation for Boston, and where I faded 6:45, 7:00, 7:15, he just held on.
It was very clear: the marathoners (the ladies karen, laura, janet, lisbet, sarah, and evan, greg) all held consistent splits where the rest of us faded a bit. But everyone was strong (enough) and we never screwed up a transition, which I saw happen over and over. For a team that finished 23:59:43, well, no mistakes was significant.
Evan handed off to Scott, a strong runner hamstrung by a groin pull forced to run well below his pace, but he showed great discipline in not hurting himself. I finally got some sleep, nearly 20 minutes, before we arrived at seaside.
We were corporate sponsored (apple/nike) so we hung at the nike tent site for a while, some people got free massages, drank free beer, ate free food. A couple team mates scored some nifty polypro beach blankets. We got our last team picture taken, and headed back to clean up and eat pizza. There was a little bit of ocean-ing, but if you're not from here, you need to understand, you wear a wetsuit to swim in oregon.
After pizza, a small group, organizer Don, Cat, Laura, and Myself went out to shoot some pool and check out the end of the bands... before crashing at 11:30 and waking up 5 to drive back.
Our Co-ed team came in like 76th out of 1000 total teams (all categories), or 4th out of 80 in corporate. Pretty competitive!!! Honestly, the ladies won it for us. We averaged 7:18 as a team for the race, had no major screw ups in transition, no arguments, and through the miracle of wetwipes our van never smelled bad.
Since then, Sunday, I couldn't walk down stairs, or my driveway. to the extent I walked backwards down both. Monday, I was still walking backwards, but I found riding a bike, due to the use of different muscles, was fine as long as i stayed in the saddle (no cranking). So I rode to work, and rode with the team while they ran 40 minutes (I don't count that as training, too slow on the bike, just wanted to do my job. I'm still a few years from coaching from a golf cart, I guess). Today I ran with the team...
AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!
Exquisite pain that defies description. I ran very slow for 3 miles, trying not to throw up, but I DID find that if I ramped it up a bit in the last half mile, that it didn't hurt any more. It's called doms, and i'll recover. But it's no fun. We do have the team time trial this week, a 3200 m (approx) run in a park, that I've done the past 2 years. I guess I'll do it, in the mindset that It's OK to show weakness, but I'll probably repeat it again in a week or two to get a better baseline for personal training.
this weekend, I was planning to repeat an earlier running camp with some friends in an environment where I don't have to watch kids: bike 40 miles, paddle 2, run the mountain, run 13miles, paddle home, bike home, over a 3 day period, with only the mountain run being HARD. At this point, I may have to modify that, but I think I'll start to freshen up in a day or two, so it's still the plan, but I will DEFINITELY modify it, probably, bike 20, walk 4 with gear, sleep, do the mountain (to the best of my ability), sleep, run, sleep, go home. Or something.
thanks for reading. nothing to do with ultimate.
Tuesday Night I somehow went from 'saturday 30min bike ride' to thursday-sunday, massive Hood to Coast Relay run. Next thing I know, I'm driving the Van over from the Redmond airport (only place the team could get the van). I also somehow drew the long legs/ hard legs of this challenging race. The team was great, the girls were members of a race team in SF (one or two were at the olympic trials kind of deal) and the guys were pretty good. (But, really, the girls were the difference makers).
The team at the start. The race included 1000 teams (plus shorter walking and HS divisions). We were iTeam (reflecting our apple sponsoship). This allowed for some plays on that in the van painting (Putting the i back in Team, there ain't no US in WIN, etc) and allowed for some funny schtick about the merits of selfishness. Two vans of 6 played leapfrog as we went accross the state. You would run a leg, tag off to a van mate, and eventually, the next van would take over, and our van would drive ahead 30-40 miles, and chill out for a while (and wish we could sleep).
I joined up tuesday night, and thursday I ferried a van 3 hours over the mountains. We went to the Kennedy School for dinner, and I must have gotten 2 solid hours of sleep in the hotel. Then we drove BACK 1.5 hours to the start (conceivably I could have slept in my own bed, and driven over, but the team bonding thing was cool, and it was no biggy. We decorated the vans, cheered the start, and then our van went to safeway for lunch (soup and sandwich) and then to hang out at FredMeyers for the exchange (bought a new travel scrabble (which i never used, but my current set is missing a letter)). Finally, the time neared for van ii to start.
Van ii (our van) waiting near the exchange for the start of our first set (of 3). Laura and Karen went first, before handing the baton to me. My first leg was 7 miles (averaged 6:45 pace), before tagging off near dusk. We finished up after our next leg evan ran, tagging off to janet, and then we were done for 3.5 hours.
We made a mild error here, in our effort we went to a hotel to avoid trying to rest at an overcrowded transition area. In hindsight, we should have gone to the tranny, but, c'est la vie. Here I piled on to my crazy driving mileage, and continued driving late into the night. My late night leg was a 5 miler, I averaged 7:00 pace, but about wet my pants when, in a stretch of deliverance country, in a spot where there were no cars, or runners I heard
crash crash GURNT HONK MROWW. I don't know. Buck deer will apparently make noise before charging. Could have been a cougar or a bear. Fuck. could have been an angry chipmunk on steroids. I was scared. And sprinting. I discussed this with people, one of whom mentioned, "dude, if it's a cougar, you got to face it down."
Uh, I've seen movies. I go up into the woods investigating, and some kind of Predalien leaves my drumsticks behind. But in any event, i'm sprinting in the dark, and I KNOW that if it's a cougar, i need to face it, so I'm running down some crazy country road, looking over my shoulder, holding my water. Finally, another team's sag van comes up on me (oh, it's 3:50 in the morning), and I flag them down:
Me: "Hey, can y'all pace me, I heard some animal growling at me"
Driver (British); "Are all Americans so brave"
Me: "Well, we did invent the disposable diaper"
Driver: "Are you wearing one?"
Me: "Depends"
Driver laughs.
At this point, I'm catching runners, we chat, and eventually another van appears in the back. I say, "thanks, you can race up to the exchange if you need to"
Driver: "Naah. You're entertaining us now."
Eventually, they leave me, and now I'm racing into the exchange. It was fascinating. I thought I was going fast, but the dark, uneven road, demanded a keen awareness of what was going on. My theory is that the proprioception required made things SEEM to be happening faster than I thought they were. I also was running without my race mandated reflective vest (I somehow forgot it at my first exchange: we broke 24 hours only because we never missed an exchange, but this didn't mean that I didn't need every spare moment at the exchanges to go to the blue room, and warm up, and after the driving and what not I just forgot it, and my fatigued team noticed nothing weird when passing me). As I approached the exchange, and worried about getting busted for no vest (a potential 1 hour penalty or DQ), my brilliant plan was to pull my shirt off so it could conceivably look like i was running with the vest in my hand, or that my white-ass chest was reflective enough, and I covered my number on my shorts so I could make the exchange and sprint to oblivion. Either they didn't care, or it didn't matter. But the bibs were no joke. One young lady was hit by a car on the race, but my rural run was better suited to forgetfulness.
We made the exchange, annnnndddd.... I was driving again. We arrived at the next exchange at dawn, now moving up on the pack, enough that we parked right at the exchange, and only had to wait 5 minutes for frenchtoast, bacon, and eggs, and a coffee ($6.50) prepared by some fundraising group. I caught 15 minutes of sleep (literally my only sleep of the race). Off we went. First Laura, then Karen, then Me, an 8 mile (did I mention the previous 12 miles, sleep deprivation, etc). My leg was working me, and I ran it at a 7:15 pace, but oddly, this was the only leg no one passed me on. One guy sat on my wheel for 4 miles, and I somehow shook him. I considered walking, quitting, etc., but only sort of in passing. I mainly just focused on my breathing, and tried to ignore the pain in my leg. I finished in form, and handed off to Evan who, again turned in another 6:45 set. He should have taken my legs: He'd run 5 marathons in a year in preparation for Boston, and where I faded 6:45, 7:00, 7:15, he just held on.
It was very clear: the marathoners (the ladies karen, laura, janet, lisbet, sarah, and evan, greg) all held consistent splits where the rest of us faded a bit. But everyone was strong (enough) and we never screwed up a transition, which I saw happen over and over. For a team that finished 23:59:43, well, no mistakes was significant.
Evan handed off to Scott, a strong runner hamstrung by a groin pull forced to run well below his pace, but he showed great discipline in not hurting himself. I finally got some sleep, nearly 20 minutes, before we arrived at seaside.
We were corporate sponsored (apple/nike) so we hung at the nike tent site for a while, some people got free massages, drank free beer, ate free food. A couple team mates scored some nifty polypro beach blankets. We got our last team picture taken, and headed back to clean up and eat pizza. There was a little bit of ocean-ing, but if you're not from here, you need to understand, you wear a wetsuit to swim in oregon.
After pizza, a small group, organizer Don, Cat, Laura, and Myself went out to shoot some pool and check out the end of the bands... before crashing at 11:30 and waking up 5 to drive back.
Our Co-ed team came in like 76th out of 1000 total teams (all categories), or 4th out of 80 in corporate. Pretty competitive!!! Honestly, the ladies won it for us. We averaged 7:18 as a team for the race, had no major screw ups in transition, no arguments, and through the miracle of wetwipes our van never smelled bad.
Since then, Sunday, I couldn't walk down stairs, or my driveway. to the extent I walked backwards down both. Monday, I was still walking backwards, but I found riding a bike, due to the use of different muscles, was fine as long as i stayed in the saddle (no cranking). So I rode to work, and rode with the team while they ran 40 minutes (I don't count that as training, too slow on the bike, just wanted to do my job. I'm still a few years from coaching from a golf cart, I guess). Today I ran with the team...
AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!
Exquisite pain that defies description. I ran very slow for 3 miles, trying not to throw up, but I DID find that if I ramped it up a bit in the last half mile, that it didn't hurt any more. It's called doms, and i'll recover. But it's no fun. We do have the team time trial this week, a 3200 m (approx) run in a park, that I've done the past 2 years. I guess I'll do it, in the mindset that It's OK to show weakness, but I'll probably repeat it again in a week or two to get a better baseline for personal training.
this weekend, I was planning to repeat an earlier running camp with some friends in an environment where I don't have to watch kids: bike 40 miles, paddle 2, run the mountain, run 13miles, paddle home, bike home, over a 3 day period, with only the mountain run being HARD. At this point, I may have to modify that, but I think I'll start to freshen up in a day or two, so it's still the plan, but I will DEFINITELY modify it, probably, bike 20, walk 4 with gear, sleep, do the mountain (to the best of my ability), sleep, run, sleep, go home. Or something.
thanks for reading. nothing to do with ultimate.
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