Marlin Perkins

Been thinking about my last post and there is no chance I will ever get near 8 hours ever again at Ice Age. This is what happens when you slip into the protoplasma of your own mind. It's like the kid in high school, not elementary school who claims they are going to be an astronaut. Or the hundreds of kids who told me they would have made the pros if they'd have went on to play in college. The people who claim they scored 1360 on the SAT, but don't know who Boog Powell was. Though I made a mental lapse, I still want to run well. The base knowledge of believing you can train to any peak performance is entertaining, but the numbers don't lie. I enjoy numbers and no person who is pumping out 5mph routinely for 16 hours a week has any shot. Don't read that wrong. In some daft way it makes me feel like I'm doing something. But that something has changed in that I have zero desire now to try a last man standing. It is time to figure out a new plan. I have learned to pile up slow miles. So now I am older and slower than ever. Faced with the choice of going out a second time today, or perhaps resting up a bit, I will head back out and probably grind my bones down to the nub. One knows this because there is a cup of coffee 17" away. Plus I am giddily off work which I hope to make permanent as soon as we print another few trillion dollars. Now I funny too. I think I could hang around busy parking lots all day and watch the magic unfold. So many dynamics and hypothesis to conjure up. This is where you see America in real life. On par with the old Mutual of Omaha show Wild Kingdom. The one place left where everyone entering believes they are on equal ground. You even get to apply your own rules. Later...sorry for the lame post.

Have you seen the size of me

Some time ago I watched a piece on Jimmy Connors. His mother was his tennis coach. I recall as a youngster coming up, she only allowed him to practice/train like 10-20 minutes a day. The idea was to keep him hungry to come back and do as much as he could in that short period of time. There is something to learn in there. A year ago I advised myself that I would go out and pile up miles. My deal was that I would go as slow as I needed. This would include walking a fair bit at times. This year will yield close to 3,500 miles for me. Even with a knee rehab. I have also went to a new drug therapy as the former chemo type meds I was taking I became resistant to. The good news is my plattlets are in a much better range, but my hematocrit has been lower than its probably been my whole life. Again in the past month that has started to get up to about 38% so I feel a bit better running wise. All the slow moving has been enjoyable. It is a huge time commitment as 10 miles can be a 2 hour investment. This means going out twice a day. Just recently I began thinking about Ice Age. Typically in May, it was cancelled twice last year. It is difficult for me to use the just get a finsh language. When one is blazing 11:20 miles it is difficult not to drift off into the bizzaro world of dreaming how to break 8:00 out there one more time. Now look, I am not looking for false glory here. It is a real question I ask myself. As easy as it is to have virtually no running goals, I have been through similar scenarios 2-3 times in the past. Things can on occasion line up for me. I just don't control when good things happen (or challenging times), but I believe it is time to start busting away at the edges. If you 5 people who read this are up for it, I am going to start chipping away at new training. I'll write about it here. I have responded to virtually any training I have ever done. If one ran 9:30 pace at Ice Age (including all stops) this yields a 7:55. There is a very very slim chance this would ever happen. The thing is unless you try nothing good ever matriculates. I already train about 14 hours a week so I just need to adjust some paces. I will go against conventional wisdom and run tired all the time. I will still be the bum in last position in all jogging sessions, but I do not care. I will be working on increasing my working pace a couple times a week. When the time comes I will start transitioning to appropriate paces on the trails. I will know what is appropriate and what those paces should be for that day. It's in the vault.

11:14:40

I blazed the Northern Kettle trails at the Glacial 50 mile. A really nice cool day for the event. Went a bit top heavy, but managed what I thought I could do. Averaged 13:30 per mile. Well pleased with the result. 26 starters and for a short while I was in last. You turn around in the pitch dark and there are no other lights. You accept the fact, smile, and move on happily. Putting in a fair amount of miles. The knee is okay. Somedays I walk more than others. There is something freeing about not worrying about the pace. Absolutely tranquil this time of year. Far fewer people as it gets cooler and wetter. Dog people appear the most resilient. I am more apt to stop and let them go by. Dogs appreciate it and will jump up and say hello. The standard line of they don't usually do that is uttered. Sure. Don't worry I get it. Maybe slowing down has brought out the kind version of me. Not sure what is next. I am training myself to have little of what is regarded as any communication come to my attention. Of course I get plenty of action on work days. I am off work today. I am here with my mom inlaw. She sits in complete silence as she hears little. Does not like to wear the hearing aid. Her 14 year old dog in her lap. She does not want the TV on. The best part of the day is when we play 2 handed spades. We don't keep score. I am a much smaller version of her. How can I learn to be in my own head. Of course I still am pounded by info. The Steelers are 6-0. Nice. I voted today. When the wife gets home after 2pm I'll get out for about 1:30:00. For now I am going to read a bit. Coming up on the part where Sir Roger and Landy battle at the Empire Games. I will let you know how it turns out.

Stage Left

The Glacial 50 mile is this Sunday. The weather looks extremely nice. It will be a bare bones effort. No crew or spectators. There will be about 25 people at the start. It is an out and back. I can have a drop bag at the 13.3 mile out, which is the 36.7 back. I'm going to employ one of these. There are a total of 7 times you can stop for aid. You can't help yourself, the volunteers will assist. It is basic food and liquids only. My goal is to finish between 11:00 - 11:30. I have plenty of miles in. My knee is not 100%, but it is close to 90%. The course is challenging. Plenty of hills and leaf covered trail. The trail can get rocky and roots abound in some areas. Much of my regular training has been 11:30 to 13:00 pace. Occasionally a bit faster and occasionally a bit slower. This is what I have to work with. I am very pumped to get out there. I am anxious to see how the pacing goes and how I feel. My new medication works an entirely different way than the previous one. Running does not come as easy. I've been through this type of situation before. This time I have embraced the fact that I can still get out and participate. The simple act of moving around still appeals to me. It is common for me to be out a couple hours a day total. Nobody else is trying to get inside my head. I'm not even trying to get inside. There is a point in the movie called Cool Hand Luke when the prisoners are working along the road covering up oil that is being sprayed down. Luke gets them fired up to shovel at ass over tincup speed. The trucks drive off as the oil supply is exhausted. Everyone gathers around Luke and asks, "What do we do now?" He replies. "Nothing." It is kind of like that.

Boomer Kingsley

 I have been rehabilitating the knee for a good month now.  Most of my movement is in the form of a walking and slow jog mix.  I actually do not mind it.  It takes time to rack up miles, but that’s what I am doing in hopes the last man standing event is a go October 23rd.

I did sign up for the Glacial 50 mile on October 11th.  I’m only looking to finish and see how managing the distance/time goes over what can be at times a rugged surface.

On the whole my knee is a bit better.  Perhaps I can air it out decently a few times in the future, but let’s not fool oneself into thinking this just goes away.  My average pace is 12:10 to 13:10 per mile on macadam and 12:45 to 14:00 on earth surfaces.

All this meandering has kept me in shape.  I am beginning to look at 100 milers.  Finishing one more would be a goal of mine.  I’ve been shopping, but nothing practical has jumped out yet.  

Bus be packed up tight

Ode to you golden bike rider

So special, so clean

I admire your physical attributes 

And wonder what your gifts must be like

The prowess as you knife thru the shared path

So stealthy and pure like crystal diamonds 

The crispness of your uniform

Like tapestry in motion

I behold the beauty and statement made

That we are mere mortals

Thankful for the crumbs

Which fall at our lowly feet

Ride free passionate knight

We delight in the knowledge

That you are out there

Shining as a beacon of athleticism 

A million times bowing 

A million times bowing

So special, so clean

Of course it’s a good idea

It has been just over a week on the new meds.  Had my first blood test and my platelets are still very high, but they expected that.  We will go another week and see if they start to come down.  Otherwise we increase the dosage.  So far I have not noticed any real side effects.  I do feel better when I am running.  Part of the permanent cloud I dwelt in seems to have receded a bit.  That is good news, but I had my knee looked at Monday and will be starting physical therapy soon.  In a nutshell there is arthritis and some cartilage loss in my right knee.  Nothing staggering at this point.  I do feel pain and for now the boiled down version is I have negative zero to the tenth power of flexibility and my ITB is tighter than a thumb up a pig’s nose.  Because of this the thought is the pain primarily on the right of my knee may be less through the PT.  The Doc said to only run 3-4 a day.  So I’ve been mixing in walking at a 50/50 ratio.  It is not too bad.  Looking forward to my first PT session later Monday.

It does seem easier on my knee when I conduct a jog a quarter mile and walk a quarter mile.  Time goes faster than you think.  My biggest challenge is the knee has a problem going uphill no matter if I walk or jog.  Obviously my mind set is I’ll get through all this and line up for the Glacial 50k on 10/11.  If I don’t think I can break 6 hours then I might pass.  

The glimmer of hope I did see was I was doing some 7-8 minute miles on a few short sections on the road.  It came rather easy, but my knee was cooperating then.  Like anyone, I’d love to get to the point that I could actually wheel off a few miles at a time at that pace.  Either way it provided a tiny bit of fairy tale dust that my massive brain went ahead and coded as fact.