Cookies and Applesauce

Went for a run after work. From work to Gold's Gym is 5 miles, unless I stop by the house then it's 6. Left work on a run, tried to run intervals to work on speed, but have been cutting calories. So I got about 3 miles in, and started feeling all shitty. Was averaging 8 min pace, with my intervals. I run past a Starbucks, so I dropped in. I always keep some money in my hand held UD bottle. I had the most exquisite 1 dollar per table spoon apple sauce they sell. Of course they brand it as apple/grape fruit (whatever) organic, bullshit. USDA organic probably means nothing, other than this shit was grown in the dirt, not a lab. I was sweating all over the counter, because I'm a fatty. So I got the magic apple sauce and a cookie. Yea, you know the cookie monster, that weird blue thing from Sesame Street on PBS. Oatmeal raisin is my fave. So after my blood sugar spiked, I was rollin.
Did a few standing one arm dumbbell presses with a 105 dumbbell. Don't hate, pussies. Was gonna do some squats with 315 but my pussy was on fire, so just left. Ended up with 8 miles once I got back home, but my truck was still at work. Got the bike out of the garage, rode it up to work to get my truck. So 3 miles on the bike. Went to Hooters had some chilli. Was pissed b/c the girls ain't what they used to be. Had 3 22oz Modelos. Talked shit to the bartender. She got pissed, I don't give a damm.

Smells

You know, call me a puss or whatever. I don't care, but I was not interested in running after work yesterday. Wind was gusting up, not sure how fast but it was pretty damm windy. I had already ran 4 miles yesterday morning before work so I had some miles in the bank. Hooters was doing a customer appreciation day yesterday and giving away 10 free wings with purchase of a drink.
Yippie, now I can eat for free and spend the money on extra beer. So I decided to blow off my afternoon workout, and go drink beer and eat wings. I got the naked, boneless wings with a side salad. (healthy option) I was enjoying my big daddy, 22oz, Modelo Especial at the bar and having a good time, watching the TV. Then some son of a bitch walks up, sits down a seat or two away. This asshole was wearing enough cologne for 2 draft horses. Fuck man, you just ruined my whole day.
You may not know, but I hate a lot of smells. Like two fat chicks running at the park who smell like laundry detergent or downy sheets. Like the old cougar at the gym who's wearing perfume. It's not gonna help lady, you look like sandpaper and your cooch probably sags more than your titties. The smell of the crap people spray after they take a dump. Light a freakin match. Matches smell good. Your spray smells worse than your shit. I really hate the smell of rotten boiled eggs, but I don't have those at my house so I'm okay.
I do like the smell of leather candles or vanilla ones. Also the smell of pork chops frying in a pan. The smell of scotch and wild turkey 101. The smell of my last girlfriends panties wasn't too bad either. (j/k i knew i'd get you)
Anyway, so I'm sitting there, trying not to kick this freakin dudes ass. I can move, but I gotta payout and plus the tables I like to sit at are taken. So I'd have to sit in the back and you don't get to watch the girls and give them shit while they are carrying a heavy ass tray of food. I order another beer, thinking that it might help. But, the dude musta had some extra in his pocket and keep putting more on. So after only 2 of those biggies, I took off. Man, I wanted to drink it up, like at least 4 or 5.
Went on home, tried to sleep. Couldn't. Got a text from my buddy Bill about how he squatted 315 for 4 reps. I texted back with, drank 44oz of beer in 20 min! he gave me some shit. So What. But, couldn't sleep so I went out and ran 8.5 miles. Not fast but just running. Came back, drank another beer, and read about Iceland's Economic Collapse a book I am working on.

10th Marathon

Ran my 10th marathon on Saturday. This was a trail marathon and cheaper than a road marathon which, in my view, road marathons are way overpriced. This one was special. My friends Jeff and Cheri put on a marathon for their wedding. It was pretty fun. Out at Warda. I have never run there before, but back in 2000 to 2003 I used to drive by the place about 4 times a month, and it was only like 60 miles from where I grew up. Pretty cool. Ran the whole race with my buddy Gordon. Talkin shit the whole time. I really did have a blast. Didn't beat that damm Russian Dmitry, but oh well. I was gonna whack him with a stick when he passed us, but decided against it. Carried this chick on my back over the finish line. She's lucky I didn't take her in the woods and have my way with her. But thought that would be a little much. Wore a breech cloth the first loop with hurraches. Went native till I started chaffing like crazy. Pretty good pics. Woulda been better if I could have worn it the whole time and been 20lbs lighter. hahah.
Drank some beers after the race. Went out there with my buddy Scott, but we only got like 4 hours of sleep the night before because we drank beers and bullshitted till 1 AM.
Went to the wedding on Sunday. It was real nice. Lots of Jeff and Cheri's trail runner friends showed up, plus of course, family and friends they know from their other life pursuits. The ceremony was awesome, a little chapel south of Austin. The dinner was excellent. Got home about 12:30 last night.
Ran to the gym after work today. Did a fast mile about 7:15 pace on road. Did a fast hill, and then eased on into the gym. 3 miles. Did 4 sets of my clean and jerk with a front squat. Did 315 deadlift for 4 reps. Did 2 sets of 1 rep with 100lbs dumbell one arm, standing arnold press. That was cool. Got a ride home with a buddy from work. Didnt feel like running back. Not bad after a marathon on Saturday.

Moonlight

Since it's like the biggest moon tonight in the last 20 years, figured I'd write a poem to commemorate the event.

Through window, moonlight glows
A depression left in your pillow I see
You've never been further from me

It's been our companion and friend
On the beach, in sand it glowed
Our bodies entwined in love throes
It reflected off the lake
Between us, love we did make
We gazed upon it in fields of flowers
Our love, it's awesome power

A depression left in your pillow I see
Come back to me

No Guarantees In Life

Well I found out today that the General Manager at the Chick-fil-a in Selma died this past weekend from a massive heart attack on his way home from work. He was 54. I didn't know Dan personally, but I go to the place at least 5 or 6 times a week. Every time I went into the store, he would be working a register, filling orders, or drinks just like his lowest level employees. He always had a smile and really set a great example for his workers and for the culture of the restaurant chain. He probably didn't have to do that, but he did and it was one of the main reasons I used to go there so often. Also because I liked the food.

There really are no guarantees in life. My own dad was 43 when he passed on. Here one day, and then gone the next. For me, I don't want to sit on my death bed having regrets for all the things I wish I would have done. That doesn't always mean how many races you do or how many places you see. It also means, how did you treat your neighbor. Did you smile and say hi, or did you just walk on in the house. It means, not compromising your integrity and being magnanimous. Things like that.Eevery day you wake up, you've got an opportunity to try again. One of my favorite quotes is:
It's not how many times you fall down, it's how many times you get back up.

So no matter how much you screw up, you have free will, and you can fix it. You can not fix the past, but you can fix your future.

Ran 6 miles, kinda crappy. Think I was dehydrated or something, just didn't come together very well for me. Was at Gold's. Working on heart rate training. I have decided on the clean and jerk with a front squat for time and reps, will probably be the single best exercise to increase the strength and size of the heart and it's ability to move massive quantities of blood. Besides actually running wind sprints, this movement is one I will be focusing on quite a bit. Using 135 barbell right now. Went 3 sets of 5 and 1 set of 4. Try it, and you will see what I am talking about. You can take your HR from 110 to 180 in about 10 seconds.

It looks similar to this, but only one squat and then repeat the movement:

Change of Plans

Well Leadville and Tahoe are out. I found this race called La Ultra - The High.
Actually from one of those targeted ads on the right hand side of my facebook page.
Other than actually climbing Denali or something like that, this is the ultimate high altitude, mountain, running adventure. And, BTW, I freakin hate being cold and camping at night and being cold in a sleeping bag, so no Denali like stuff for me. I submitted an inquiry on-line, and the RD gave me permission to run the race. My credentials are pretty light, judging by the standards of the 3 people who ran it last year, but I am excited and pumped. My only real qualification is finishing Hardrock 100 last year. This is in the foothills of the Himalayas, the most bad ass mountain chain in the world. In northern India.
What is actually pretty coincidental, my Tahoe and Leadville trips, I bought the travel insurance. First time ever. So I should get a refund on the ticket. The Tahoe race entry I can roll to next year. Not sure about Leadville race entry.
I still will have to train hard. I will need a very,very strong heart. Need to figure out how to do heart-ups or or heart-presses/curls or something.
Anyway, went for 7.5 miles today, slow. Ran over to Gold's did a little stretching and some easy lifting to work out the kinks from Saturday.

4:46 50K. Hip, Hip, Hurray!

Yea, you read that right. Fast. Second fasted pace I've ever run. But, overall I had the best race I have ever done. Managed my hydration, salts, and fuel perfectly. No issues. Had 2 gels per loop on 1st 2 loops, and 3 gels on the last loop. Drank 2 to 3 16oz water bottles per loop. (loops were 10 miles). Had coke at almost every aid station, for all 3 loops. Oh and 6 Scaps per loop or so, about 2 per bottle. To run a 9:13 average pace, you gotta dip down in the 8min 7:30 zone, quite a bit. First loop ran alone, got into a spot and it almost seemed like I was the only guy out there. Second loop ran with Brain Ricketts. This due is like 6'4, he's running 8min pace, looks like he ain't even moving. I had trouble keeping up. Had to weave in and out of all the 10 milers here, which is always fun. Parted ways at the 7 mile aid station on loop 2. Kinda eased in behind some other dude that running a good race, but he was running 9ish. Seemed a bit slow, but I needed the recovery. Came in on loop 2, looking good. Left on loop 3, behind the same dude, he was starting to slow down, so I went on around. In the first half of the loop, I passed about 6 or 7 50k'ers. And then didn't see anymore. Up on the damm, I was running 7:50. Popped smoke on some ass! Anyway, was by myself the whole loop. Finally, walked about mile 6.5 of loop 3, but really just stopped for a second. Thinking, shit man. This fuckin blows. Anyway, I pulled up my big boy shorts. Hammies were screaming from all that speed work earlier in the week. Which paid of nicely, by the way. Was about 1'500 yards from the finish line, still in the trees. Freakin did a superman and busted my ass. Ran the whole race and fell down at the very end. Oh well.
Ended up 3rd in my age bracket, again. Beat my 50K PR by 22 minutes, and still got 3rd, just like last year. Arrrrgh. When I got done, I busted out my party hat and glasses. Drank about 7 beers, while still at the park. And they had fajitas, so that was cool. Ate some of them. Meet a new trail runner from Austin, told her to get hooked up the the Hill Country Trail Runners. She kicked ass, 5 hours. She is also a soccer player, so she has one hell of a running base. And, she is pretty cute too.
Anyway, left the park. Stopped off at Hooters to celebrate a bit. Had about 3 more. Sat there BS'in with one of the girls that used to work there, was hanging out with her parents, and her sister (still works there). Anyway, she was lookin hot. That party fizzled out, so I got on to the house. Poured a vodka neat, it wasn't going down well at all. So busted out some Becks. Had about 5 more tall boys.
Surprisingly, I don't feel like total shit today. I'm moving good, feeling good, little bit of a headache. haha

Yea, It Sucked

Was going to bag my run after work, but those NB Minimus were calling my name. Damm fine shoe. Kinda wanted to see what I could do after a week of speed work. Went for 9 miles, averaged a 8:29 pace. Had trails, road, urban terrain, hills. Not bad. Felt great afterwards. Kinda makes me wish I woulda started those 800's about a month ago. Was trying to get a feel for what pace I should try to set on Saturday at the prickly pear 50K. I really would like to go 4:30, but that's probably a stretch at 8:50 pace. Prob, try to keep it at about 9 pace for 20 miles, then hopefully under 9:30 for the last ten. Gotta use all my experience to make sure I fuel right and stay hydrated. Anything under 5 would be bad ass, but under 4:45, I'm going to get wasted and party to celebrate!!! One of the girls from "the office" was in a bad car accident a while back and is doing physical therapy to recover her ability to walk again. So I'm dedicating my 50K run to her. If all goes well I may beat my PR by 30ish minutes. We will see.
No day is promised to you. Make the most of each day. An old acquaintance of mine believes in re-incarnation. So he used to say, the body is just a temporary vessel, so ride the fuck out of it, you'll get a new one.
Well he could be right, I don't know. But, I rather like to go with. God gave you this body, don't waste it. If you can do, then do. I don't run for God per se, but he probably enjoys seeing you pursue the limits of the potential that he has endowed you with.
So, I'm going to give it all I got, and see what I come up with.

Books

I've been wanting to write about my love affair with books.
My grandma taught me how to read when I was two or three. I don't actually remember this but that is what she used to tell me. I used to read encyclopedias in the second grade, and the third grade I read most of the Greek mythology. I didn't understand it all, but Hercules and Jason and the Argonauts, Medusa, Diana, Hermes, were all pretty bad ass stories. In the sixth grade I read all kinds of Louis L'Amour. With the classic line, "the attack broke just as quickly as it had begun" I read Lord of the Flies in the 6th grade, cause it sounded like a cool story, but I didn't get as much out of it as I did in the 11th grade. My senior year in high school, they kicked me out of art. Which wasn't a big loss, I thought making clay pots was stupid as hell. I guess they thought they would punish me by making me a library aide. They were wrong. I loved it. The librarian was a little off, but a pretty nice guy I guess. He let me have like 50 books they were going to discard because they were so old. I read books mostly, and never figured out the Dewey decimal system. So what. In the Army I used to read all the technical manuals, field manuals, SMCT, and regulations for fun. For the last 10 years, I get to read technical manuals at work. They are pretty dry, but I just skip through the bullshit, and get down to the nitty gritty. They are fairly complicated, but not like programming. That shit is hard. Not my style. I started building my library about 10 years ago. I used to spend 100 a week at Barnes and Noble, or half-priced books, or Boders. Now I just buy on Amazon. With the advent of the Kindle, it has been predicted that books will go the way of the dodo bird, and that may be true. I bought one in 2009. I read like 5 books on it the first 2 months. It is a nice product, I won't lie there. I was really excited about it. But, I don't use it much anymore. I've got about 1,000 books. Probably comes out to a ton of books. ha. They range from classical novels, to history, economics, politics, sociology, etc.. Hell I kept almost all my books from college, since I didn't have to pay for them. In history, it ranges from Greek and Roman, all the way up the modern era. I have been buying quite a few books from the Mises Institute. I can't stop. I read most all of Hemingway, and currently working on Erich Remarque. Just wherever my thoughts, lead me, there I go grabbing another book. I'm bad about reading a hundred pages, and starting another book. I wonder sometimes, when I die, "WTF is my sister going to do with all these books?" Who knows, maybe they can be donated to a library, if they even have real books then. If not, maybe the will just end up in a landfill. Anyway, don't ask to borrow any. You'll never return 'em anyway. If I like you, I'll probably just give you the damm book, and buy another copy.
If you are not much of a reader, try it sometime.

Ah Hell

Dammit, Larry was right. Shouldn't be doing speed work everyday. I knew that, but hell push the limits.
Hammies were tight today, opted for 3 mile run at lunch, but at a much faster pace than my typical 10 min pace. Didn't have garmin, but prob was around 8:15, 8:30 pace.
Ran in the NB trail minimus after work, for 5 miles on the most rocky trail in Texas, Cibolo Creek. Check it out on Facebook, Cibolo Creek Running Club. The NB Trail Minimus ran like a champ. Once again, I pushed hard, averaged about 160bpm on the heart rate monitor. Not sure the pace, but pushed myself.

Read that the Army is re-vamping their PT test. Probably b/c all the douches they get coming in cain't pass it. The new test, is pussy. Read about it on the National Guard Facebook page.

Next hipster I see, I'm gonna choke 'em out.

Today's Training

Worked last night till 3. That sucked. Got up about 9, so went to work.
It was just peachy.
Decided to do my lunch sprints against my better judgment.
Ran 6 200 meterish sprints, should be real close to 200 meters. Averaged 33 seconds.

After work, went for some 800. They sucked ass. The high school track/field had some stuff going on, so went over to the middle school.
Ran 5 800, averaged 3:14 pace, with best at 3:05.

Little bit of an improvement over sunday at 3:23 average. This is only my first week, so will see how it goes. Hope to be motivated enough tomorrow to run some sprints at lunch. Feels pretty bad ass. I just want to big buckle at Leadville, Big enough for a Texan.

Prob shouldnt do speed work everyday, but I'm not going to listen to anybody. Tough shit, its my training, I'll do it my way. Till I blow a hammy. hhaha.

Some Updates

About 5 days after I got out of bed with the flu, I ran the Austin Marathon. Ran about 4;26 came out to about a 10:10 pace. Didn't run again till the following Thursday. Tried out the Merrell trail glove w/o socks. It's like the 5 finger, with out the 5 fingers. Rubbed blisters on both little toes, and my heels. I was not super impressed at all. I got persuaded to run the Cowtown 50k by Ganda Man. Talked with Derek Westbrook and we decided to shoot for 5 hours or so. Went to the race expo, picked up a pair of NB Road Miniumus. They ran like a dream. Had to put some tape on my ankles and toes where the blisters were from the trail glove. Derek and I were right at 2:30 at 15 miles, and it was humid as hell, so i figured that we werent going to make 5 hours, but we held on for a 5:15 finish. Derek ran a PR, i was about 11 min over my PR time. But, same as Austin ran right at 10:10 pace. Went out to RockSprings this weekend, for the Nuecues race. Was supposed to run the 50 mile. But, didn't feel it. So I stayed in bed and slept till noon. Could have done the 50K or the 25K but, blew them off also. I think I needed the rest. I typically, don't do that kind of stuff, but I am still feeling a little crap from the flu. oh well. I drove 2.5 hours so I could sleep for 13. Pretty nice.
Started my first speed work training yesterday. Ran 5 800 with a 400 recovery between. Averaged 3:23, with 3:15 being my best. Today ran 5 200 or so meter sprints. Felt okay. Also bought a george foreman grill. Going to get a little more serious about loosing some weight. At 190 now, 10 pounds down from when I had the flu. Going for 20 more, maybe by EOM April. Grill is bad ass. Also picked up a pair of NB trail minimus, havnet run much trail in them, so no reports yet.
Going to run the Prickly Pear 50K this weekend. Ran a 5:06 last year, going to try to run a 9:10 pace and come in around 4:40. That will be bad ass. So we will see.