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.

Solid as K-Mart

 The week in numbers turned out like this.  I suspect if I am going to introduce faster pace runs then rest time will be needed.  Any effort to control food intake did not happen.

Mon: 6.1 at 10:41 pace which was at a good effort.  The weather and footing were suspect.

Tue: AM 5.4 at 12:06 PM 4.6 at 11:25

Wed: 4.2 at 12:04 at -17F temp

Thu: 5.2 at 13:40 w/ Dewey and Tim

Fri: 5.5 at 9:08 which was a good effort.  Went well and the weather was exceedingly better than Monday.

Sat: 12.0 at 10:27 which was eagerly accepted.  I tired last 3 and made a note to not push.

Sun: 9.0 at 12:49 with Dewey

Week: 52 miles

Some men you just can’t reach

 It was a good week.  Running was exceptional and not because of the few good days only, but because I loved being out there.  Few things are better than getting together and just jawing about basically nothing.  Quite frequently we talk about T&F from the 70’s era.  In fact today Dewey and I talked about Brian Oldfield.  He passed in 2017 and both of us guessed he was probably gone.  Tim and I covered Bob Seagram on Thursday, along with Pat Matzdorf in the HJ.  

 If age has done anything it has made me measure my steps.  I don’t want to take anything for granite and I don’t want avoid finding contentment.  That last one should be easy, but so many messages out there can make one second guess everything.  Could one function in our society without a cellphone?  Of course the answer is yes, but could one find a way that doesn’t make us feel like an outcast.  I’m not worried about what folks might think, I’m curious if the convenience is just way to strong for me.  If I don’t have a phone in the future then my wife becomes the conduit for that.  It’s not about anything else than getting a hair off the grid.  I mean come on, we are all on the grid even if we don’t want to believe it.

 Where my mind is at is the scene from Cool Hand Luke where they are out tarring and chipping the road.  Luke makes it a challenge to beat the man and after they all go ass over tin cup to do just that the truck just drives off and there is no more work.  Huffing and puffing they ask Luke what do they do now?  His one word reply, sitting on that turned around shovel is, “Nothin’.”  That’s where I am at.

 I want to have passion and goals.  I want to work hard and challenge myself.  And yes I might even want to believe I’m beating the man in someway, but it means nothing to me if anyone else sees the sense in all of it.  This is what my day is going to consist of.  You want to join along then that is awesome because sometimes I enjoy company.  On the other hand forgive me if I don’t want to do stupid stuff which may include being around people who want to entertain me, or think it’s fun to go to the Farmers Market.  I do those things with my wife and do enjoy them.  Beyond that I am tapped out.

 I’m looking forward to fishing.  Fishing for enough of them to eat.  Come back and cut them up.  Goof around and put together a basic meal with that using the grill.  Maybe even have a cold High Life with some salt in it. Maybe that takes up half the day and maybe it does not.  Either way that’s part of the plan.  You should come down.  Just know I’m a family guy and a big part of the day can be keeping the account clear.  When you go to the biggest dance of the year you dance with the one who brung ya.

That last line was an old quote from Terry Bradshaw.

Off to my right ride a dozen or more

 This week of running in cold weather has been slow and fast.  Thursday had me barely functioning on our slow jaunt and I was happy to get in 5.2.  I just do not have the same juice on most 4pm runs.  The morning is far better for me and I obviously enjoy running then.  The evening runs are social events which are badly needed from a mileage perspective.

 Friday was a flashback run as I covered 5.5 at 9:08 pace.  I really wanted to run myself further, but I pulled back knowing 2 hours was the Saturday run.  That came together well.  Up at 3:30am I had 4 solid cups of Pic ‘n Save instant black coffee and rifled out into the dark around 5:47am.  The fact that I held an average of 10:47 for 12 miles was a good sign.  More than likely my Hematocrit must be in the low 40’s.  I could tell as the bellows clearly were absorbing additional oxygen to burn.  Don’t know how long this will last, but hope to ride this magic carpet made of steel as long as I can.

 No solid plan.  Run every day if possible.  Get in 50 minimum with a couple good efforts and slowly raise the long run duration.  Don’t get too greedy and have days that are laughingly slow.  Hoping to bone chip about 8 miles tomorrow at Uncle Traveling Matt used to opine.  

 I may have already put this out there, but on a recent trip to Florida a t-shirt stated, “I used to be a people person until people ruined it.”  I’m working on not trying to ruin it for people.  On a final note I’m still baffled by people seeing me run on the shoulder of the road in the snow and won’t give any quarter.  There is no one else out here and you can see the road is clear.  I can only conclude they believe they own the right of way and I’m infringing on it.  It is a get with it pal message to me and I have no answer for it.  In the summer it’s the same with car versus bicycle.  Plenty of these knuckleheads.  

Twinkle toes

 I fell down the hole and ate 4000 calories, which when I make ham and bean soup can happen.  I’ll make another attempt today to be on target.  Never expected it to be easy.  It can be difficult to climb inside your head and work on changing behavior.  No need to preach to myself on here.  I’ll weigh in on Saturday.  Crawford not feeling well, but we may get at least a 2 hour effort in that day.

 It was difficult not going out for a second run yesterday.  I’d rather tally up the miles regardless of how I feel.  Trust me I was tired and had a paint project (one of many) that needed finished.  My buddy Pski is coming over this morning to put in baseboards.  Pski is famous for using and introducing me to the Beck Plan.  An all your eggs in one basket approach to running your best marathon.  At least that is how I recall it being titled.  In our first attempt we finished 7th and 11th respectively at the Lakefront Marathon overall and then danced around like we made the Olympic team.  The one thing we both remember afterwards was how quickly we recovered afterwards.  I believe we even did a cooldown.  As a side note, one of the 19 people who have attached themselves to the blog is Kevin Beck.  A true honor.  I didn’t say he reads the blog, but with a solid following of 7 readers it’s not impossible.

 The one thing that hit home training with Pski on the Beck Plan was we reacted different to the training.  I tended to fair better on the fast stuff and he recovered much faster than myself for the following workouts.  On the bread and butter 10-12 mile runs Pski could grind my bones to make his bread.  If you ever get the gumption to try and run a marathon specifically for time then you need to look at this plan.

 

 

Cripple Creek

 It was another cold one yesterday morning and as I often do on Tuesday the day was divided up into two runs.  The Achilles has not been a problem, so much so that I don’t even think about it.  Really looking forward to the daylight arriving sooner.  It can be tranquil moving around in the dark, but it can also be burdensome crossing over some sections of roads to avoid traffic.  

 Feeling like a weigh in was due I jumped on the scale an visualized 187 pounds.  That is robust and action has to be taken.  It is a discipline which avoids me.  Having always chowed down what I want does not work any longer.  For me it will become a math problem.  This means counting calories.  I’ve set the current line at 2400 calories.  Yesterday ended at 2300.

 There appears to be a sage strand of Warlock mice in the basement.  Sensing their presence I went with the true and tried mousetrap loaded with peanut butter.  For about 3 nights now they have found a way to clean off most of the bait without setting the damn trap off.  A couple weeks ago a pair of Northern mice under my sink posed no problem and were as we say, terminated with extreme prejudice.  

 It is a Wednesday today.  Tiredness is afoot.   After 3 cups of instant black coffee, I’ll sniff around and see about making an effort in the -14F temps.  Wind is low and as seasoned vets understand, that is the true nemesis.  It shall not be long before I live permanently again in Florida.  There is much to accomplish here prior to a move.  Somehow it will get done.  The running will not be as good in Florida.  Limited routes and through roads.  It will be an adventure none-the-less.