Sunday, October 25, 2009

Ditty Mao

What is ditty mao? It means hurry up in Vietnamese.

I went for Vietnamese food on Saturday night. I was kinda forced into after packing race packets for Cactus Rose. It was really good. Not like those Chinese food places that make you wanta puke.

Earlier in the day on Saturday, I ran the Frankenthon Marathon. I think it was my slowest marathon to date. 5hr15min. But who gives a shit. I had fun. Ran the first 18 miles in the Vibram Treks. Then had to bum a pair of shoes from Jeff, because my freakin feet were killing me. Thanks, Jethro. Got to hang out with my buddy Mark and his family for a bit. His son Gavin is a pretty cool dude!

I was trying to keep my heart rate in a certain zone, under 150bpm. Did well, had great energy. I didn't take any food or gels or anything besides salt and water. I walked from mile 18 to 21 because my feet hurt and I need to get used to the shoes I borrowed. Most of the race was on concrete. Oooh, that sucks. The last 5 miles i ran at about 160bpm. Nice. Felt great the whole time, stable solid energy levels.

Afterward, Cheri busted out the pigs-in-da-blanket. Umm, Umm, Good! I even gave some chick a calf massage at mile 23. Yea, I'm a playa! hahah.

Went to NXNW for the Ocktober fest deal they were having. Hung out with Naresh (i.e. Tonto) and Jeff and Cheri. We had a good time. I think Jeff is gonna put the smack down on me for choke slammin his dog. Not a mean choke slam, an instructional choke slam. Oh yea, the girls were dressed up like little Bavarian girlies. Oooh, it just did it for me. Nice little cute out fits. Eye Candy!

Sunday was pretty tame, went riding the Harley with Bill. Went to the old tunnel where the bats live. Had some beers. Saw some fat school teacher biker chicks that pissed me off. Ran about 90mph back down I-10 and lost my do rag. Dammit.

Hooters sucked today. Got there about 2:30. They had the C team workin. Jeeze. Where's my ladies. Ahhh! Dammit.

Peace out.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Palo Duro Weekend

Well my weekend started early, Thursday lunch to be exact. I went to work Thursday feeling like crapola so I says to myself, "John, you outta leave work early and drive out to South Llano River State Park and just go chill out." So, I called up Enterprise and picked up a car, 4 days for $70 bones. That's a steal. Asked the boss man if i could just roll out at lunch and he was cool with it. So bam, just like that I'm out the door at 11:50. Sweet, dawg.



It was nice little 4 door red number, a Chevy Colbolt. What POS. I spent 4 days in that damm thing. We made an agreement. If the car would not piss anyone off, I would promise not to beat the steering wheel when it just pokes along as I nail the gas pedal.



I got to the South Llano river park about 4ish. I got my sleeping pad outta the car, and my new book "Where Keynes Went Wrong" and lay in the shade, under a tree, by the river and started reading. Well from the title you can tell it was probably pretty booring, so about 15 minutes in I fell asleep. I needed to, because I was feeling like shit anyway. I think I had the brown bottle flu from Hooters on Wednesday night.



I woke up about an hour later and went to my campsite, but I forgot my tent. Oops. No problem, I just slept on the picnic table. That went pretty good except for the mosquitoes. Of course I forgot Off, but the park hostess lady has some and fixed me right up. I was asleep by 8PM. Up by 430 in the AM, I showered up, and took off for the rest of the drive up to Amarillo for the Palo Duro Canyon 50 Miler.



My good friend Bill Conway, signed up to run this race. He started training while I was at Hardrock, after reading Ultramarathon Man. I have been excited to run see his development regarding running. Bill and I have been friends since '96. We were stationed together in Germany while in the Army. We used to lift weights together back in the old days. He taught me alot about nutrition. I got down to 5% body fat just before I turned 21 and had 17 inch arms. Whose ya daddy? Anyway, we have traveled around the U.S. on motorcycles and we both work for Verizon Wireless. He was there as a pallbearer at my grandfather's funeral. I was there at his mom's wedding, and his wedding. So yea, we are good friends. We have been friends my whole adult life I guess.

This guy is built like me, about 5'6 or 5'7 180 lbs. Like a brick shit house. hahha

I told him, hey man I am gonna run with you. You run your race and I will provide motivation and coaching, on the fly. Like take more salt, or hows your blood sugar. Eat some food, etc..... Drink more water.....

Loop 1 went well. 2hours 40min. with 5 min at the start/finish aid station. loop 2 went pretty good with about 2 hours 50min. with 10 min at the aid station. So we were still sittin pretty. He wanted to make a shoe change here. Loop 3 we had a slow down b/c of his knee. It was bothering him quite a bit. But we did quite a bit of walking and got to talk about alot of good stuff. Like whats going on in your life, etc... But more than just the casual B.S. that you usually talk about. That really made the whole race for me.

We came into the start/finish about 30 min over the cut off so we had to stop. But this guy ran 38 miles. Wholly shit, on 2.5 months of training. Hell, I'll take that any day. If he wouldnta tweaked his knee, then we would have been out on loop 4. His wife came also to the race. A beautiful lady, who is totally supportive. He is a lucky dude.

Also my friend Mike West and his wife showed up with his son Cody. Totally unexpected. Mike and I have pictures of us sitting on his parents couch in our underwear when we were kids. His dad and mine worked in the oilfield together back in the '70's. I don't guess I have known anyone any longer than Mike. Well, other than family. We got to catch up quite a bit. He is doing well and so is Mindy, his wife. As I was running down the start finish chute, I told Cody to jump on my back and ran in with him. That was cool. We may have us another trail runner one day. I guess we will see. hahah.

After the race, we sat around drinking beer at the Austin runners hangout. John Kuss had an RV and Joe brought the overhead cover. Crash was cooking and about 45 folks showed up for supper. Crash is the man! The food was great, and the camaraderie was also pretty damm good. The freakin Barney Fife park rangers showed up about 10PM givin everybody shit and busted up the party. Freakin douchbags. Prob for the best though, I passed out in the car shortly after. ahahah

On Sunday morning, Brenda and John Brown had their post wedding reception breakfast. That was real nice and I wish them the best. They met the year before at the race. Pretty cool! Again Crash was cooking up the vittles. Wow, ultra runners are some hella good folks. Come out and run an ultra. Preferably one that Joe puts on. You will come back!

The drive home was pretty uneventful. So I will end here, but will say its one hellva long drive from Amarillo to San Antonio.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Run Some, Then Eat Gorgonzola Filet

Did a little 6 miles to the gym after work in the Vibram Treks. http://www.kayakshed.com/prod/vibram-five-fingers-mens-kso-trek.cfm
Then some one legged over head press (50lbs DB). Then some one armed farmers walks (45lbs plate in one hand) around the gym, and finish off with leg extensions ( 2 X 60 R @ 50lbs).

My sister is in town this week so we went to Bravo here in San Antonio. http://www.bravoitalian.com/

The have the best ensalada de la casa and Gorgonzola Filet. I think the waiter was shocked when I said, "Hey Boss, bring me another Peroni (beer # 4)." Top it off with some Tiramisu and you got yourself some good eats.

I always like to have tiramisu when I go for Italian. Reminds me of my friend Heidi and 1999 just before we left to Saudi.

The only problem I got is that I have to run to work in the morning, cause my truck is still there. Uhh, dammit. Well it could be worse, I could be worrying about how I am going to pay child support for three kinds. Humm, kinda puts things into perspective don't it??

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pretty Good Weekend

Wow, I finally downloaded IE7 and now my freakin blogger will load. I kinda quit doing a blog b/c the freakin thing too for ever to load. Not so anymore. Bout time.

Well two of my running buddies finished their 1st 100 miler up in Kansas. Ryan ( http://distortedveracity.blogspot.com/) and Thomas. These dudes kick ass!

Congrats for them and the best part is, they still have time to sign up for the Western States lottery. I am callin them out, sign up dammit. http://ultrasignup.com/events/lottery.aspx?did=5752

As for me. Humm. Chilin like a villian. Went to Bandera (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/hill_country/)for about 10 miles on Saturday with my friend Cheri. She is going for her 1st 100 miler on Oct. 31 @ Cactus Rose. http://www.tejastrails.com/CactusRose.html Whooo, Hoooo! I am going to pace her on loop 3. Looking forward to it. I left about 11 and went over to Enchanted Rock. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/enchanted_rock/

Enchanted Rock was fun. I did some hill repeats in the Vibram Treks. i.e. Rock Eaters. And it was a blast. What a great place to learn how to run up and downhill. Real steep grades, good footing. Ran from the top of the rock to the latrines, 3.5 minutes. I love it. I will be back.

My sister is also in town for the week. Its been fun to catch up. We went to the Symphony on Sat. night. 1st time I have been but it was pretty fun so I will most likely go back again.

I ran 9 miles in the Treks on Thursday. My lower leg, the part below the calf is taking a beating right now, but its a good kinda whippin.

Been reading books from the Ludwig von Mises Institute www.mises.org Currently working on Epistemological Problems of Economics by Ludwig von Mises. Great read so far.

Have decided after 5 years of political limbo that I am, in fact, a Libertarian. Pretty liberating. I get a daily email from the Campaign for Liberty. http://www.campaignforliberty.com/ If you are tired of being manipulated by the douches, give these folks a look.

Ron Paul is the man! This guy is a tireless defender of Freedom and Liberty. Ron Paul 2012.

This website has some kick ass T shirts: http://www.rangerup.com/ and so does this one: http://www.zazzle.com/libertymaniacs

Recently read: End the Fed by Ron Paul. Great book. It should be required reading to get outta douchebagdom. http://www.amazon.com/End-Fed-Ron-Paul/dp/0446549193/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255319726&sr=1-1

Thats all for now!