Kilgore Trout

Another year of running in the bank.  The whole enterprise has been much fun over the past four plus decades.  Anyone who has run with me has heard various renditions of runs ventured.  Some are races from eons ago, events that happened on the run, and more than likely my take on various running related topics.  When I look back it was a lot of fun running dual and even tri-meets in high school and college.  Does much of this go on anymore?  I seemed to be much more effective man to man than in bigger meets.  I was faster than I looked so if you hung around too long there was a good chance it would go down to an all out sprint finish.  In bigger events they were way out there so no chance of jumping anybody.  In college I was the guy at the end of the line at Ponderosa asking coach if I could bump up my meal if there was any extra cash left.  I guess the attitude came from my HS coach who stated, "We're not very good, but we're funny."  That we were.  We had guys so far back we had to send out search parties. 

I ran the numbers again for 2017 and it appears Dewey has won the wingman award for the 4th consecutive year by his recollection.  Here is the top ten list:

Dewey - 35
Tim - 33
Dean - 12
Christine - 11
Clement - 9
Andrea - 8
Sharon - 4
Steve HK - 4
Ron - 4
Andy - 3
Angela - 3

At the end of last week I determined I needed 52.5 miles this week to achieve 2,500 on the year.  Today's run of 8.5 miles sealed the deal.  Part of me wants to aim at 3,000 next year.  That is an additional 1.37 miles per day than this year.  If I average 8.25 miles per day the yield is 3,011.25.  Yes, this is what it has come down to.  I guess I'll aim at 60 miles a week.  The math looks easy if you run it like this 7 - 7 - 7 - 7 - 7 - 15 - 10.  I'll see what happens, but if I get serious about this it means the added aggravation of actually planning ahead and running when other stuff should be getting done.  I'm a running bum.  Getting out the door isn't a big issue most of the time.  Even when I'm waxed (which seems like a lot lately) I just have a couple more cups of coffee and solve the problem.  On another note it has been like -25F around here with the wind chill and there was no lack of getting up a posse to go running.  I was on Lets Run and people were....I'll leave it at that.  How hard is it to throw on an extra pair of sox, shorts, and another hat? 

2017 Race Recap:

4/1 Southshore Half Marathon - 1:30:02
5/6 Hartford Love > Hate 5k - 20:13
5/13 Ice Age 50 Mile - 9:13:01
6/25 Frebeka 5 Mile - 34:22
9/16 Al's Run 8k - 32:39
10/8 Glacial Trail 50k - 5:04:46
11/18 JFK 50 Mile - 8:27:27

It was a good year.  My right knee troubled me for 6-7 months.  I tweaked it out on the Ice Age trail in April.  It was never bad enough to stop running so I did not, though at times I had to hedge.  For the most part the pain vanished in early November.  I've always been lucky like that.  Tacos and pumpkin pie await me so have a good 2018.

The toy cannon

I have been thinking about what ground game I need to put forth for Ice Age this year.  The last two weeks I have been digesting a 2 a day strategy of sorts for volume and recovery purposes.  Sometimes I forget I work and that it is in the dead of winter, but in the day that was something I could work around.  I'm thankful that the idea of running has not soured on me as of yet, but at the same time, trying to beat it out the door multiple times a day is a tall order.  The get up and get going about an hour or so before first light will have to do.  I will do 1-2 evening runs, but only as singles.  If I can get back around 50-60 a week that will have to do. 

Going up the country

Time to start thinking about the events to participate in for 2018.  Just the number 2018 begins to remind me that I may be retiring in 2023.  Not sure what to think of that as it sounds both reassuring and unsettling at the same time.  Anyways 2018 is about here and the thoughts of a grand return to training/running/racing make the usual appearance into the thought pattern.  Kinda sorta like The Natural with Robert Redford.  I'm going to make this one last big return (for myself) and prove what could have been.  I entertain myself with these what if scenarios when I'm out in the dark running by myself.  Regardless that I'm blasting out 11:40 miles on the trail for an hour or so, it does not deter me a bit.  I can rebuild myself, I have the technology...in my mind.

Now to some degree this has served me well in the past.  Certainly no regrets.  But what about the future?  Can I get back to boot camp mentality?  In past years hiccups lasted a couple days here and there.  The "if you ain't blastin' you ain't lastin' " regiment allows you to keep getting back up and punching away again.  Now-a-days these little hiccups last weeks or a month.

My old man said a lot of things, but one of his favorites was, "Life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end the faster she goes."  That's kind of close to home isn't old buddy?  It sure is and it tells me I need to start getting after it.  Here's what I'm pondering.

End of 2017 50k Fat Ass - maybe.  I'm getting lazy on driving to go run anymore.
2/3/2018 John Dick 50k - probably and hopefully all of it this year.  Maybe I'll get tough again and finish this usually primitive middle of winter trail slug fest.
3/24/18 - A trail marathon right here near the house by Holy Hill.  This might be a well timed pace run event to do to gauge fitness for Ice Age.  It is 7 weeks out from that.
4/29/18 Bear Trax 20k - 2 weeks out from Ice Age and run on Lapham trails.  Why not go fire up the death star?  It will help keep my mind on faster pace work.
5/12/18 Ice Age 50 mile - The grand daddy of them all.  Never taken lightly.  Looking for 17th finish and 10th in a row.
6/3/18 - Kettle Moraine 100m - Only 3 weeks after Ice Age.  It will be a late decision because of something else I may want to do.
11/10/18 - Tunnel Hill 100m - This is the other thing I may want to do.  Sure it is 5 months after Kettle, but I'm thinking of going for a PR here.  I've only completed one 100 and that was in 18:34 in 2003.  Eleven minute miles would yield 18:20.  How hard could that be?