Chris Lapp

I'll post in the near future about the Glacial 50k.  Coming back from Butler about 13 miles to go at Glacial I turned my right ankle.  I kept going and about 2 miles later away it went again.  I was defenseless.  Simply put the ankle had to plant firmly the rest of the way in.  No easy task with some of those rock fields you go through.  I was forced to slowly bumble downhill, but was able to run well on the uphill segments as there is less unknown surface tension to be had.  When the trail was good I was able to pick it up a bit.

Anyway this Friday I wanted to go out for a mile or two.  I was just jonesing to get some movement in.  About a quarter mile into it a car was coming.  It is not quite daylight so I shifted over to the other side of the road.  Problem is I still have no ability to prevent my ankle from going over again past a certain angle.  Well the other side of this rural backroad is cambered pretty well around this hilly turn and over she goes again.  That bugged the heck out of me most of the day.  That I was that stupid.

So this morning I wrapped the bad boy with duct tape and made it about 150 yards before determining I'm an idiot.  Back to the house, off came that bad idea, on came the Fleet Farm cotton sock, then completely wrapped over with the same duct tape.  Ten miles in the bank.  Splits of 58:10 and 55:04 back.  No matter.  Twern't no grizz left anyway. 

Didn't put enough dirt down.  Saw it right off.

2018 Al's Run

So Al's run was about a month ago.  I love this race because for me it is a team race.  We barely field the 5 runners needed to score, but manage to every year.  This year was no exception as we had 5 finishers on the dot.  It is the only time most of us see each other.  We ask about the families, how's work going, etc.  Eventually we get down to business and see how each other is running.  I did zero "effort" running this year.  My goal was to break 35 minutes for the 8k distance.  The first mile has a lot of net downhill, but I held back and just Barney Rubble'd it.  Put the first mile in at 7:05 knowing the next mile is a net uphill.  I kept aerobic and blazed the second mile in 7:26, but knew I could heat up the peanut oil for the final three.  Sure enough I was passing rocks and trees as if they were standing still (Walt Stack quote maybe?) and after opening up down Lafayette hill I clicked of the third mile in 6:50.  The last couple miles are flat there by the big lake and sure enough I was catching people.  I was still good aerobically...probably a bit too good as the 4th mile yielded a 7:00.  At this point I just went after it (comical isn't it) and basically went to sprint mode.

Now sprint mode isn't near what you think.  I was trying to run as fast as I could, but it was not sprinting.  The brain is signaling man over board, but the crew ain't getting the message.  The best example I can think of is when you buy a bean burrito and they tell you it's a $1.46 at the second window.  You hand them a penny and then $2.00 dollars.  They accept the money and then look at each hand individually.  Finally they look at you as if to say, "that's my skull."  Real similar.

Any way I may not be sprinting, but I am rolling good and clip the guy at the finish line by 0.20 seconds to get 6th in the 55-59 age group.  I rolled the last 0.97 of a mile in 6:05 to finish in 34:26.  The age group winner who is 57 like I am won in 28:07.  I averaged 6:56 a mile which tells me many things I won't share here.

We finish up later at Ryan's crib and have a cookout.  Lot's of good food and plenty of lies.  Along with Ice Age and now Glacial, I don't have many traditional events left.  I was fairly beat up for a couple of days after Al's.  It did inspire me to consider adding some moderate tempo efforts and short hill workouts before Ice Age next year.