.35 cent drafts

 For years I have wanted to incorporate Beck’s marathon plan to a 50 mile.  There are many differences in the training/racing surfaces, but the principles are the same.  I just wrote down what it would look like, adjusting the miles in the plan to time. The hard, moderate, and pace runs would fall on the same days, but adjusted in my mind to the effort given on the day.  Also keep in mind it is winter here, so good luck time trialing with -18F wind chills.

 But I don’t know.  Following this will limit my running time substantially with others.  Lately I have a history of being tired and this plan definitely can wear on you.  Also add all the work, move, and self imposed stress I have managed to heap on myself.  Sometimes as people we find mysterious ways to weave ourselves into conundrums.  I’m just not trustworthy of much sometimes.  That bugs me.  Getting off topic, but I often wonder once I’m moved and in Florida can I not have a phone?  Could I have a simple email I check 1-2 times a day?  Would someone employee me without these?  

 I mean I would write occasional letters.  People could reach my wife.  Again, I’d look at email once a day.  I want to go the other direction.  I mean many of us did it for decades.

 I came across this:

 “The beginning of greatness is to be little;

The increase of greatness is to be less;

And the perfection of greatness is to be nothing.”

Quoted by D. L. Moody

 When I attended Slippery Rock there was a bar about 8 miles out called The Shed.  Scrawled on the wall in what was supposed to be the bathroom was, “We’re just a couple of guys who want to drink a little beer and smoke a little dope.”  I wonder in some way all these years later if we aren’t trying to reach a similar spot.

I’ve got a picture of you

 I was able to get out yesterday and enjoy a solid Wisconsin winter run.  Blending together road and off road sections provided a nice variety of terrain and footing.  A couple today is coming over to look at our house and I am hoping to get out soon after and enjoy nothing more than a simple run.  Yesterday on what is a seldom traveled trail in Monches Park I came up on two labs who were all over me.  They couldn’t wait to see me.  We jumped around for a wee bit until the owners became aware of the situation.  It was a pleasant interlude on the run.

 I weighed myself this morning and was at 180.  It will be work to get to 170, but I’ll try and keep after it.  Just keeping notes daily on the number of calories you are consuming keeps you on top of it.  The process is a bunch of transactions through the day.  Some good and some bad.  I certainly don’t always win the battle, but letting me out on the loose is untenable for me.  I eat many subs through the week.  What happens is I typically choose the lower calorie one.  At times if the bread is easily removed then I’ll cut a bit there.  I will skip the chips, or on some occasions bring a bag that’s about 150 calories with me.  In the past I set a base number of daily calories and the added the calories I burned on top of that from my run or walk.  Now I just set a daily goal that is the same.

 I have 3.5 months left at my current job.  Trying to wrap up all that goes with that is at times mentally exhausting.  Thinking about the future to me is challenging as I have no idea how things will go.  I’m not the only entity involved as we have Cookie and the two Guinea Pigs named Mr. Heasy and the little guy.  Don’t ask, I just go along with the deal.  They are also known as Mr. Butt and Gary.

 Sounding like a broken record, but the idea of just getting out and enjoying a daily effort will probably not happen in my brain until things get grim.  The act of having an event or race in the future and moving all the parts successfully to complete this goal will not go away.  I think you get it.

Light week

 Mon: 6.0 @ 12:07 pace

Tue: AM 4.6 w/ first 3.0 @ 8:24. PM 6.7 @ 11:46

Wed: 5.5 @ 12:22

Thu: 6.6 @ 12:20

Fri: 1.2 @ 19:59

Sat: Off

Sun: 8.2 @ 13:37

Total 38.8

The greatest of these

 No matter how many times you move, items in your possession are discovered and one ponders what to do with them.  Why have I been carting around these beer cans (some with beer still in them) for decades?  Bags of bolts, braces, and screws for something I apparently was going to repair or fix.  Lastly the personal items.  Grandma gave me this, this was Dad’s watch, and various coins and bills from who knows where.  Lastly why are there huge amounts of random pens and even pencils?  I thought I was good at throwing that stuff away?

 Now you know why you tell people not to get you anything.  If I’m being honest I see a fair amount of items on the donate pile that were never opened.  I have dwindled down my sport card collection to about half.  It was not hard getting rid of a lot of the 80’s and 90’s stuff once you realize there are as common as today’s printed money.

 So the projects around the house have kept me busy.  I totally skipped my Saturday run so I could stay fresh.  I’m going to meet the fellas this morning and shoot for an easy 10.  I’ve dropped down to 182.  Now I’d like to get after that next 10 pounds.

 I have a son and a daughter who live about 15 and 25 miles away.  We primarily see each other over holidays and birthdays.  Everyone goes their own way, carrying on life.  Well today we are having a game day.  I’ll be cooking wings and serving pizza and snacks.  It makes me look back as I spent most of my life as an adult living away from my parents and siblings.  If I can change one thing in the future it will be keeping in contact with all the family moving forward, even if this means writing more often.  Coming from a place and time where no one wanted to be beholden to anyone, meaning folks you may even be related to would let you know they probably wouldn’t be calling or writing back.  Not that there are any issues, it just seems to be the culture.  Maybe the word beholden was the wrong use, but people don’t want to owe you anything.  This culture of evenness.  Whatever you do for me then I must return at least this much back.  It seems cold, and maybe it is for some people, but it wasn’t meant this way.  

 Just a note for the younger readers.  When you don’t run for a couple days, you still wake up with the same level of stiffness.  So you might as well still be getting after it most days.

I wanna see some history

 Anxious to have a few more good runs this week, but sensing I need to back off a bit on the Achilles.  Thursday after work we hobble for 6ish miles so that will be the plan.  I really like to get one in early, but can’t risk the miles.  I’ll hike about 5 miles with Jeff on Friday so I can try and air a longer run out on Saturday.

 Saturday is the John Dick 50k and for the sake of not risking too much I’ll have to pass.  Besides we have a lot of work to do on the house.  Hoping to list it in the next 10 days or so.  

 In my mind for Ice Age has been constructed a loose training plan.  It’s a blueprint many follow.  Inside each week, two good efforts are planned.  At 60 these will not be strides or faster interval type runs.  For me they are primarily tempo runs.  Examples range between the two mile lightning to 3-5 miles at a stiff pace.  When moved an occasional fartlek type session is used to blast a few hills and such.  Currently the thought is to alternate Saturday with a standard long run and the following week work up to 15-20 miles at a pace perceived to carry at Ice Age.  Eventually when the trails are clear you do these out on the course or similar terrain.  

 I don’t have any times to plug in yet.  It is tough to calculate as my body gives me various platforms to operate from.  Recently things have steered positive.  This is encouraging because the runs actually feel better and take less time to complete.  

 If a person wants to run 10 hours that is 12 minute miles with everything figured in.  I look at my workout times and how those felt to determine my goal time.  The faster workouts help with my cruise speed and the Saturday runs at perceived pace runs give me a target to project over 50 miles.  The whole exercise is figuring out if what I’m doing equals those 12 minute miles.  In this day and age of everything can be beautiful and fulfilling it is easy to miscalculate.  You have to have a handful of workouts and training weeks that confirm what you are doing.  The challenge for me and many other folks is doing it on less miles (for whatever reason) and the other for me is weight.

 15 pounds have to come off which means 172 range at starting line.  When I ran cross country in high school it was obvious to me, but not to most of my teammates that to improve one needed to run more miles.  Glaringly obvious.  In like manner for me it is weight.  How can I expect to get better or carry the work load with 15 extra pounds?  Glaringly obvious.  I don’t have a good plan to do this, but with perseverance and a goal it is attainable.  

Of course it’s a good idea

 I mapped out some goal pace times for Ice Age.  Essentially it is broken down in three segments.  The first 10.5 miles which is the best running, the next 29.5 miles of single track rollers, and the final 10 miles in.  I have the final 10 as a segment because from there in I struggle every year now.  I still strongly believe the best method of running the course is by just going out at your day to day pace.  Don’t get too excited and be sure to take care of your current and future needs.  If there is any magic left in the final couple hours then by all means, put the hammer down.

 But it is hard just to look at it that way, so it can be fun to plot out pace per mile for those segments against a challenging goal.  Then you train towards that goal and see if it can be put together.  In essence we call it racing.  Yes…racing yourself, but hey if you can take down a few over zealous stalwarts along the way then so be it.

 I am not at the point to start setting these goal paces, or even a finish time goal.  The fact that I have had a few decent runs does give me hope, but I can’t get carried away, because it is easy to train to ruin.  Best to consider losing the extra 15 pounds and run smart, but modest mileage.