Sunday, July 22, 2018

We have the technology

I have been heat training consistently.  Three layers with the final being a hood jersey.  I also wear a stocking cap.  The best benefit is it keeps most of the deer flies off, but not all.  Some parts of the Ice Age Trail they are on you like a German Shepherd on a rib roast.  I easily killed forty a week ago.  I remember thinking in Church if I killed more deer flies on that single day than the other thousand attenders combined.  My conclusion was yes.  Based on passing zero people on the 10.5 mile Lowe Lake loop from my house, one rationalizes many people don't get after it early Sunday morning.  Which is a shame because we have a fair amount of trail and decent access.  I ran 8 miles on the Funk loop covering the Ice Age today and saw Tom and Kathryn coming the other way.  We chatted for about a minute near the Oconomowoc, but it is best not to stop long this time of the year by water.  They ran 14-15 and said they saw maybe a couple hikers.

One thing I do see a lot of out this way on the road is bicyclists. Any day, any time, and any amount of them.  Most are hauling along at a good clip.  Car up! Runner up!  Most are cordial.  I do notice quite a few banana peels on the road and Bugline.  Someone must have a routine as I see them at the Bugline and E crossing all the time.  Actually it looks fun and like a solid workout.  No matter, not my gig.  I'd never spend that much on a bike, I'm scared of cars, and I probably wouldn't buy the 3-4 super hero outfits needed.  I should get a power ranger one to run in for heat training.

I'm going to admit something.  I watched a lot of the Hardrock 100 live coverage this week and justifiably was asked by my wife why I am so dumb.  Staring at a screen for hours waiting for it to update is a bit daft, but I enjoyed it.  I've always wanted to run this thing, but don't have a boss set of tools.  I'm not a 100 guy.  I have finished one.  It would be a goal of mine to finish one somewhere in the mountains.  Problem is my wife is concerned I'm not bright enough to exercise caution and might harm myself.  This is partially true.  It is also true these things require a lot of sand and I have not proved to have much of this commodity.  To go run 10-12 hours...done.  To go out there for 24-36 hours and death march...not so much.  Fifty miles is a good distance for me.  I can practically run all of that distance.  You get yourself out there past 12-15 hours and there is some definite beat down.  I am the guy who would want to and quite honestly need to be training at 80-90 a week.  There is just too much power that has been drained from the system to do that.  The dream is gone.  Read anyone's blog still running past 50 years old and see what I mean.  Example from this week.  I ran 10.5 miles of which about 4 miles is trail and 6.5 is road.  I averaged 11:04 a mile.  I can site a ton of reasons this happened, but it doesn't matter.  It was a death march and it should not have been.  Even when I'm feeling zippy I average 9:48 per mile.  I'd have to run between 15 - 16.5 hours a week to get around 90 miles a week.  Of course I could run 60-70 miles and pretend that is just as good.  Tried it.  Felt like I was gut shot.

So I was looking for 50 mile races for the fall.  I went on the Ultrarunning Calendar and looked on line.  If you want to see what fat, old, and grey looks like, look at the picture of the guy posted for the Glacial Trail runs and get back to me.  That freakin' guy is pondering running the 50 mile event this year.  I pick chunks out of my stool bigger than that guy.

7/9 =   6.2 (10:40)
7/10 = 7.0 (10:02)
7/11 = 7.5 (9:39)
7/12 = OFF
7/13 = 6.3 (9:31)
7/14 = 10.2 (9:51) Fox loop w/ Crawford
7/15 = 10.6 (9:48)
Week = 47.8

7/16 = 6.0 (9:51)
7/17 = 8.0 (10:28)
7/18 = 8.0 (10:02)
7/19 = 7.5 (10:22) Menomonee Park w/ Robert, Dewey, Tim
7/20 = 6.5 (9:53)
7/21 = 10.5 (11:04)
7/22 = 8.0 (10:33)
Week = 54.5

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