A big red beacon

 Earlier in the month was the Croom Zoom which totals out at 32.2 miles.  A 2.2 opener and then 3 x 10 mile trail loops.  Was able to practice the run/walk for most of it.  This resulted in negative splits for each loop and an average final pace of 12:32.  It was a good result for me and yielded 33 from 81 finishers.  Much confidence gained for Ice Age.

 In other news, Cookie (11/5/2006 - 1/11/2023) crossed the rainbow bridge as we say.  She started out as a dog for the kids and ended up living with us in 5 locations.  She would eat anything except Vienna sausages.  Not sure what this means because she'd eat dead rodents you mowed over once or twice.  She vibrated.  Her body constantly shaking.  Like she was missing a potential meal somewhere.  If a choice needed to be made to save me, or step over me for half a corn flake there is no doubt which she would choose.  A warrior dog.  No amount of any number of dogs, or size, they weren't coming up into our yard.  A cattle dog mutt.  She was one tough cookie.  Tell Wimpy I said hello.

 And now it is just the boys.  The two Guinea Pigs.   They can be comical.  The wife does 99% of the care for them.  I suppose if we start doing more traveling they will come with.  For whatever reason when women address them they do so like they are addressing infants.

 No special training plans for Ice Age.  Try and stay around 50-55 a week.  Was out 3:10 Saturday and 2:00 on Sunday.   This yielded 24.5 miles for the weekend.  There is a run here in March about 33+ miles.  Maybe I'll do that.  Also another 50k in early April.  I'd like to hit at least one of those.

Put the hammer down

 It was the late '70s when a competitor was relaying a story about Dunbar from Grove City turning on the afterburners to win the half at a District meet.  Afterburners.  Wow, who doesn't like the story when someone just torches the field at the end?  We all have our favorites.  Who doesn't love Mills in '64, or Wottle in '72?  I've seen the Wottle one so many times I and still don't know if he's going to pull it off.  Interestingly, he supposedly negative split each 200m segment.  Word.

 When attending meets, I found it easier to yell, "Put the hammer down" rather than yelling an afterburner phrase.  So in life, if you are around me I'm constantly uttering this to both colleagues and complete strangers.   Hundreds if not thousands of times and not one person has ever questioned why I yelled this at them.  You know why?  I said it earlier, everyone loves the idea of being in the hammer zone.

 People liked Prefontaine because the hammer seemed to always be in operation.  Now here is a guy with legitimate sub 4:00 speed and he had to start way out.  You know why?  Because there are some really big hammers out there.  So big, I could never pretend to fathom for a second what that universe is like.  I remember in the day when Filbert Bayi was know to set a blistering pace off the bat in the mile.  In one old clip at an indoor meet, about 2-3 short laps in Pre decides to blow by him.  Forget about anything else, for me that's what was great for the sport.  Because in the end, I have no idea who won, but I enjoyed seeing the hammer come out.

Same as it ever was

  The last three days have been just over 2 hours each.   Tomorrow the plan is to do the same as most are off work.  Then on this coming Saturday participate in a 50k.  It is a trail event and it would be a good time to test out the .35 jog and the .15 walk strategy.   This will be a good marker for Ice Age, as 6 weeks ago it felt as though this Spartan was finito.  

 Yes a Spartan.  The Laurel Spartans is the diminutive rural high school attended by your blogging friend.  At least that's how Wikipedia used to describe it.  That a XC program for boys was started in 1976 was a real stretch looking back.  After my 3 years there it disappeared again for a long number of years.  We were the only school who did not have a program.  It did make it challenging for the T&F team to have any distance savvy.  Looking back to those days it was so much fun, though we were definitely a doormat.  The best part of XC was when the little starter pistol cracked we ran like banshee's the first half mile.  Sometimes hooting and hollering and generally having a blast doing it.

Notes from the beginning:

- When the coach wheeled off the course I demonstrated how his math was wrong and the 2 loops equaled 5 miles and not 3 miles.  Of course I was a kid and when we ran the course they randomly stopped us around 4 miles.

- Coach broke out a box of sugar cubes before the race for us to use.  I explained basic blood download characteristics of this exercise, but again I was the rube.

- There was a popular product like Bengay we used called Mint Glo to limber up and feel the burn.  Some guys put it around their nose because it would open up the breathing channel.   I strongly advised against this.  Just read the data on the label. These guys were Seniors.  Again, I was a kid, but the results nevertheless created hilarity.

- We somehow won our first meet ever, but as I have written before, did not find out until almost back home and I pointed out the low score wins.

- Philosophical differences in traning and remember I knew nothing.  Two loops around the pond and back (maybe a mile) and 6 x 100 on grass most days.  Probably better if we jogged 3-4 miles, but coach wanted to keep us sharp because we were in season.  Remember we all showed up for the season having done zero running (though the general condition of kids in the '70s was pretty good).

 It was a lot of fun.  You just figured stuff out.  No fancy race shoes, just the sprinter spikes from the track team.  One thing which sticks out when you suck was how the other teams top guys were beasts.  They had the experience, the cool running threads, and the nice varsity letter jackets.  We had Hickory Speedway, Steeler, and First Presbyterian t-shirts.   

 No matter, twern't no grizz left anyway.