Javelina Prognosis

The Javelina 100 is coming up in less than a week now and I believe I'm ready to go! I wish the race was tomorrow to be honest. But let's wait till Saturday as it looks like the weather is getting cooler towards race weekend. It is snowing here right now, but that is OK as all the training is done.

The race field has improved dramatically over the last few weeks. I'm probably missing a name I should know (I'll leave it to Karl M to go over the odds) but it looks like Jorge Pacheco, David James, and Josh Brimhall will be the main contenders. I believe a 100 miles is too far to get into a racing mindset so will be just worrying about getting myself to the finish line as quick as possible.

As anybody who follows my running knows, I tend to be a low-mileage/quality mileage runner and the build-up for this race has been no different. I've been averaging right around 55 miles a week for the last 6 weeks, except for a bad week while getting over the Giardia I picked up while on the Colorado Trail. What I look for instead of a certain amount of mileage is how I feel at my goal race running pace. In this case, I'd like to be running at 8:00 pace, and with the walking breaks that I'll have to throw in hopefully I can keep the overall average pace around 8:30 - 8:40. I can't believe how good I feel at 8:00 pace right now and my HR is about as low as its ever been at that pace. I think the main reason is I'm finally not anemic which makes a huge difference. Back to the race - I'll shoot to do the first 3 loops around 2:05 - 2:10 each. I've done a few loops there in 1:36 so I'm hoping the 2:10 will feel super easy at least through 50 miles. Then it just becomes a matter of running as hard as you can for the rest of the day. So my time prediction is 14:30. That's the plan anyway!

I also like to be as strong and fit overall as possible. All other things being equal, it is always nice to feel light and strong going into a long race. My weight is about the same as its been for the last 10 years (140) but I'm a bit stronger than I've ever been before a 100 so I'm hoping that is a good sign. I'm bench pressing almost 250 pounds and am doing a ton of pull-ups, ab work, and core stuff. This really does matter when you are carring water bottles for 15 or so hours.

For anyone who wants to keep track of the race, Dave Combs will be providing race updates every 5 minutes on the race website.

Frost

We awoke this morning to the beautiful frost shown below on the road to our house. It is hard to imagine I'll be sweating in the desert in 3 weeks:

Tomorrow I'm going to try to get one last run in on my favorite route; the 21 mile Balanced Rock Road - Rampart Range Road - Winding Staircase Road loop. I also got a pair of much needed new shoes so will use them from now through the Javelina 100.

In an interesting confluence of running and furniture news, I just finished the Media Cabinet shown below. It's new home will be overlooking the Western States starting line from a condo in Squaw Valley. The new owner is an accomplished runner who broke 20 hours at this year's race.



For anyone interested who isn't on the CRUD email list, our year end Awards Party will be at the Palmer Lake Picnic shelter on Oct 24, starting at 11:00 AM.

Mt. Massive

Last weekend we camped near Leadville for the weekend and enjoyed a few great hikes. Mt. Massive is the 2nd highest of Colorado's 14ers, just a few feet shy of its neighbor Mt. Elbert. Having done them both I really like the trail up Mt. Massive a lot more. Not nearly as steep and washed out, the trail up Mt. Massive features a lot more flowers. In fact, the photo below is on the ridge at about 14,300 feet and you can see some foliage behind Judy and Darwin.



Marmots, the other white meat:


Below shows the view looking down at Leadville from about 12,500 feet on Mt. Massive. The range behind Leadville is the Mosquito Range.


It was a super clear day but very cold and windy up high. We woke the morning of the hike to crisp 25 degree temps! We timed it just right so we had the summit to ourselves for a few minutes. Just before hitting the summit, a huge group of teenagers with mountaineer helmets was heading down. Turns out they were an Adventure Camp group of some kind visiting from Alabama and I think the temps and view from the top really astounded them.



My parents had done the climb a few days earlier and ran into Tony K. He did the ascent in 1:28. Judy and I also did it in 1:28, but we started our watch much closer to the summit!

So Long Dewey

I can't believe this is happening in Colorado! Seems more like a Kansas story.

Adams County Libraries Shelving Dewey Decimal System.

Pain in the Butt

I've been out of commission for almost a week now, and it looks like several more days minimum before I will be able to run. I had what was supposed to be minor surgery last Friday...here is a brief report. I had only told a few of my friends and family what was being done just out of embarrassment, but I guess I shouldn't be embarrassed; it is just one of those things and I'm just glad it is almost over. I had hemorrhoids and over the last several years had been putting up with some pretty bad discomfort and blood loss. Running obviously isn't the best thing in the world for it, and I can tell you that wiping with a pine branch in the middle of a long run is no fun. I finally went to my family doctor and he referred me to a specialist and said they had a lot of easy, out-patient non-invasive procedures that are able to be done these days. The specialist took one look and said I was way past those quick/easy procedures and due to my age and activity level, he wanted me to have surgery asap. I put it off till after WTC, and then it was rescheduled once due to the surgeon's schedule but I finally had it done last Friday. It was a general anesthesia procedure which sounded good to me. I woke up in the recovery room and they said I could go home as soon as I could take a leak on my own, but before that ever happened I started bleeding all over the place and was rushed back into the operating room. They stopped the bleeding and still think the procedure will have the expected (good) outcome. I did have to spend the night in the hospital though and am still in a lot of discomfort. So here are my Percocet-induced ramblings about the whole ordeal:
1. How the hell do people function while on/addicted to Percocet? I can't focus on anything for longer than 30 seconds.

2. Any jokes about pulling your pants down and bending over cause it is tax day are crazy. Paying taxes is way better than literally having to bend over like I did.

3. If you lose a ton of blood and live at 7200 feet, I don't care how good of shape you are in you can suddenly barely walk up the stairs.

4. I hope the surgeon had really small hands and really tiny instruments, but based on how I feel, I think he could probably palm a basketball with ease.

5. Post surgery pain of this kind is way different than any self-induced running pain that we are used to dealing with. Apparently running 100 milers doesn't make you tough when it comes to other pain.

6. My surgeon called me dude.

Thanks to all my friends who called or stopped by the hospital, and all you running clients who have been very patient with me as the emails and running log entries piled up.

No more air-cooled fun for now

No room in garage
Snowfall and rain - dreaded rust
Bug gone to new home

You Did What?

With my first real race in over a year coming up in a few days, I thought it might be fun to recount some of the more stupid things done right before or during a race. All of these were either done by me or a friend. I'll leave names out however!

1. After training using orthotics for the previous several years, decided to not use them at the big race to save a few ounces. Result - wicked calf cramps because of the lower heel height. DNF.

2. Needed to lose weight before the season's big 100 miler, so started drinking out of streams in hopes of catching Giardia. Plan went perfectly, except didn't get the inevitable Giardia till the week of the race. Result - DNF.

3. Booked Airline flight for the wrong day. Result - Still got there, but way more money.

4. After being out of town for a week, forgot watch was still on Pacific Time. Missed the start by an hour. Result - Ran very hard trying to make up for it and ended up DNF.

5. A fever of over 100 at the start. Started anyway. Result - DNF.

6. Wore camelbak on outside of jacket during a long winter snow shoe race. Hose froze within 1 mile. Result - no liquid for 4 hours. Most unpleasant race ever.

7. At race start, removed sweat pants to find...no running shorts. Result - embarassment.

8. At first 50 miler, wore old racing flats to save weight. Result - see #1.

9. At race start, too cold to worry about sunscreen. Result - looked like a lobster at awards ceremony the next morning.

10. The night before the race, stayed at friends' house and ate pig that was cooked in a backyard pit and drank homemade beer. Result - Three "number 2" bathroom stops in the marathon. Lost by 1:20. Do the math!

11. ???? What's your best screw-up?

Good luck to everyone running WTC, Salida, Coyote 2 Moon, etc. this weekend.

- pauld

That's Just Cruel

I got a friend request on Facebook yesterday from "Injinji Footwear." Does anyone else see a problem with this?

What's the deal with....

big old American cars on snowy Forest Service Roads early in the morning? I was running (17 days in a row now; my 2nd longest streak ever) up a local forest road (Mt. Herman Rd) this morning and passed a mid 80's Oldsmobile with at least one missing hubcap idling at a pull-off. The guys in the car just watched me as I ran by. I am half expecting to hear about a body dump on the news later this week. On my way back down the road, it was gone.

Then later in my run, closer to home, I was passed by a Hummer with 45 day tags. Who is still buying vehicles like that? A truck is one thing (I have one and it is great for hauling lumber and furniture) but what good is a Hummer for most people? Are they afraid that Kansas is going to invade Colorado or something?

2008 Sports Highlights

Looking back on 2008, it seems to me to be one of the better years ever for a sports fan. While I obviously am more attuned to endurance sports like running, biking, and competitive eating, I can be found on my couch most weekends watching more mainstream sports as well. Below is my top 10 (with obvious US Bias) list...

1. Without a doubt, the Wimbledon Men's Singles final between Federer and Nadal was the greatest sports performance of the year. Even if you aren't a tennis player how could you not get sucked into that marathon match (4:48 match time). John McEnroe was actually at a loss for words near the end, which doesn't happen too often. He ended up hugging both players after the match. Tennis might be the perfect combination of endurance, strength, skill, and mental toughness.













2. Usain Bolt's demolition of the best sprinters in the world at the Olympics (100 and 200). Say what you will about his prancing and preening, but he made the best sprinters in the world look like they didn't belong on the same track. The 100 and 200 are probably the most competitive distances in all of track, and he's got 2 Golds and 2 WRs now. I've never seen anyone look so relaxed and smooth while running that fast.












3. Samuel Wanjiru's Olympic Gold and Oly record marathon of 2:06:32! While not the fastest marathon of the year, it certainly was the greatest marathon ever run considering the course, the weather, and it being a championship race with no rabbits. This was televised during the combined Incline Club/CRUD post Pikes Peak/Leadville party and the TV room was packed!

4. Phelps' 8 Golds. I know many people would rate this as the best story of the year, but 4th is as high as I can put it in 2008 due to the previous performances.

5. Tiger Wood's US Open play-off win. I'm sure many people, like me, were rooting for Rocco Mediate to pull off the upset win, but regardless it was about as exciting as golf gets. Then finding out that Tiger had the knee injury made it even more remarkable.

6. The Giants win at the Super Bowl over heavily favored New England. Eli might be only the 3rd best quarterback in his family, but that is still better than just about everyone else out there.

7. Stephanie Brown Trafton wins Gold in the Discus; first US women's gold in that event since 1932.

8. David Wiens wins his 6th straight LT100 Bike race, lowering his own CR in the process. It was an epic duel between Wiens and Lance Armstrong, with Wiens pedaling across the finish line with a flat tire. This one year after Wiens held off Floyd Landis at the same event. Thanks to Garry Wang for the photo below. For those of you who have run the LT 100, the photo shows both Lance and Dave riding up the powerlines on the way back to town!















9. Ok, I had to have at least one ultrarunning performance! Dave Mackey smashes the Course Record at the MiWok 100K for the UR performance of the year. I've run this course, along with about every other major trail runner of the last 10 years, which makes his CR all the more impressive in that his time is heads and shoulders faster than anyone elses.

10. In the 93rd annual 4th of July Hotdog eating contest, Joey Chestnut upsets six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi in a five-dog eat off after each finished regulation tied with 59 dogs.

Christmas Morning Hike

Judy, Darwin, and I joined some of the Team CRUDers for a great morning hike up Pikes Peak to Barr Camp to celebrate Christmas. It is about 6.5 miles up to Barr Camp, which is at 10,200 feet. The caretakers of Barr Camp, the Taylors, are both ultrarunners themselves and had some hot chocolate and fudge ready for us when we arrived. The lower few miles of the trail are very icy, but from No Name Creek on up to Barr Camp the trail was nice packed powder. It ended up being a nice sunny day, with highs in the 50s in Manitou Springs when we finished.

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Our chocolate lab Jackson turns 10 today. He was my main training partner for my first LT100, but these days he is content to hang around napping most of the time. I'll probably nap a lot more when I'm 70 too.

Palmer Lake's Annual Yule Log Hunt

Yesterday our town of Palmer Lake held the 75th annual Yule Log hunt and ceremony. This celebration combines ancient traditions of the changing seasons and winter solstice with the more modern christian aspects of Christmas. Basically, the way it works is a freshly cut 12 foot pine log is taken out in the woods and hidden in the snow earlier in the week. All the participants meet at town hall and don red or green capes. Then, the Trail Leader and Log Cutter lead the participants across the stage in front of the fire place and outside while a bagpiper plays.

Everyone then tromps off through the snow till the leaders of the hunt stop and point out a more specific area to search. This year it was in the creek bottom area of Glen Park, very close to our house.
It was 2 degrees (yes, 2) and gently snowing but it actually made for a really nice afternoon and there was no wind so it wasn't bad at all.


Our friends Harsha and Scheri, and their children Miles and Ella joined us for the hunt.



After about 45 minutes of no luck, the Hunt Leaders narrowed down the search area further and a father and his 2 young daughters finally found the log. How hard can it be to find a 12 foot log with a red ribbon? Well a lot harder than I thought, especially when it turned out the log was in the creek. After pulling the log up out of the creek, we tied two long ropes to the log and then everyone got ready to pull the log back to town hall. All the kids got to take a turn riding the log as it was pulled in the snow back home.


Back at town hall, a small group of children led the audience in carols and then the the kindling log (the last part of last year's yule log) was brought in to start the fire.



Then, the first part of this year's log was brought in and put on the fire, which was supposed to burn till sundown.

Finally, the finders of the log were served the first cups of Wassail. The rest of us hunters then got to go up on stage to get our Wassail, which was nice and hot. Overall, a really neat event and a great reason to get out and play in the snow.

Big Race Weekend

The North Face Challenge is getting a lot of press (as it should) with an amazing field assembled. However it isn't the only hotly contested race coming up this weekend; the Sunmart 50K in Texas should be a fast one. Good luck to by buddies Kelly Mortenson and Wynn Davis who will be battling it out. Look for a winning time around 3:10.

Isn't it Ironic

Really no commentary needed here - the articles will suffice. Maybe Focus shouldn't have spent that half million dollars in California supporting Prop 8.

Focus on the Family Puts Retailers on a Naughty and Nice List for Christmas

Focus on the Family Eliminates 202 Jobs right before the holiday season. I mean Christmas season.

Our Friendly Neighborhood Bear

This guy was filling up on berries and leaves in our yard the other night....

Adventures in Technical Documentation

Having been a technical writer for many years, I am always on the lookout for anything that is worse than the stuff I used to churn out. Well, I really hit the jackpot this week. I am in the process of moving my shop and needed to get some additional dust collection equipment. I bought a floor attachment that allows you to collect dust from a machine that lacks a dust port. Anyway, it was a some assembly required thing. Luckily, the photo on the cover of the Instructions was all I needed, because here are some of the steps I was supposed to follow (verbatim):

1. With the rest foot upside down and install the four pad foot pedal 1/4" x 1/2" L screws tighten all fasteners securely.

2. The lever dead cross and lever governor and rest foot to the assembly using one 3/8" screw, washer 3/8" tighten all.

3. The lever dead cross and lever governor to assembly using fixing boly 5/16" fasteners make use lever governor context adjust as shown in figure 3.

4.The fixed support all fasteners using to the two 1/4" L concave head screw fixed in figure 4.

5. The tube vacuum attachment and fixed support assembly the one fixing bolt 3/8" fixed.

6. Tube vacuum attachment and collector nozzle to the assembly using one 1/4" L triangle screw all fasteners.

Well, at least the spelling was impeccable.

Good Ole English Spelling

I guess when you consider how popular spelling bees are in this country, it isn't too surprising that English is an extremely difficult language to spell and has tons of contradictory spelling and pronunciation rules. If it was easy, there would be no need for spelling bees. While it makes sense that languages such as Chinese and Japanese, with their huge character sets, take longer to learn, I recently read that English takes the average native speaker twice as long to learn as other European languages with the same alphabet. Part of the reason is the mishmash of origins of English, from Latin to Germanic languages. Of course spelling everything phonetically would make words easer to spell, but harder to discern meaning since the various etymological clues we're used to looking for would be gone.

Now time for a quiz: What common 3 syllable food could, using spelling from other English words, be written as "ghoughpteighbteau." Bonus points for also showing which words each part could come from.

Guest Blogger - Judy

I asked Paul if I could be a guest blogger on his site so I could update and thank the many of you who have provided such support to me and Paul this year. As you may know, the first few months of 2008 presented some challenges that neither Paul nor I have had to face before. I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in Feb. after having some mild symptoms that my doctors to that point thought were pre-menopausal symptoms and nothing to worry about.

I ended up having an abdominal hysterectomy on Feb. 18. A biopsy they did then showed cervical cancer. I was referred to Dr. Kevin Davis, a gynecologic oncologist, in Denver. The somewhat good news was that it was in an early stage. The bad news was that I should have had a radical hysterectomy, and the treatment was to go back for a second surgery 6 weeks later and do what should have been done in that first surgery. As Dr. Davis described what the surgery entailed (and I tried to keep from hyperventilating) he said, it's a hard surgery for patient and doctor. For the patient, he said, it's kind of like asking someone who just finished a marathon to run another marathon. Paul and I looked at each other across the table and I thought, “That, I can do!”

On April 1st I had the second surgery. All went well and all the tissues and nodes they took out came back with no sign of cancer. The doctor was right, it was tougher on me than the first surgery, but my recovery was steady.

I missed two weeks of work following the first surgery. I took 6 weeks to recover following the second. I've been back at work since mid-May. Walking/hiking has been a tremendously restorative and healing activity for me. Following both surgeries I started walking very soon. By week 4 after the second surgery I was walking at least 2 hours a day. I've run some, and even did the Leadville Heavy Half Marathon on July 5. Being out on the trails with others who enjoy high mountains and fresh air was wonderful and emotional.

I'll tell you something you probably all already know. The Ultra Running community is an incredible, supportive, caring group of people. I’ve been humbled by the contact you’ve made with us and all the offers to help however you can. We've received emails, cards, and gifts from so many of you across the country. Many of you we've met, others know of Paul from his blog. Your energy and words of support, prayers, thoughts, witch doctor incantations :) etc. were with me every day. Truly. You've all been a tremendous source of strength for me. I hope I can return the favor someday.

Since getting involved with ultras in the early 2000s, I've thought that each ultra is somewhat of a metaphor for life. Experiencing highs and lows, hoping for a lot of solid, steady moments, gaining strength, and learning something about yourself in each race. That’s also what the first 5 months of this year were like for us. Through it all, Paul’s been my steady companion and immutable optimist.

As Ken Chlouber says before every Leadville 100, "You're tougher than you think you are, you can do more than you think you can." I repeated that to myself many many times during this ordeal. I know the mental and physical strength I've gained from participating in ultras have been important elements in my healing.

You've probably all heard someone say that getting cancer was the best thing that ever happened to them. I'm not certain I'm ready to say that, however, I will say that more good than bad has come from it. My perspective on everything has changed. I know that seems like such a cliche, but it's simply so true.

I wish for all of you good health, daily joy, and strength in adversity.
Judy

40!

I’ve been really tardy in keeping this blog up-to-date lately, but am going to strive to do better. You haven’t missed much running-wise as I’ve been really out of commission with a minor foot surgery (all better now) and the lingering hamstring injury (finally getting physical therapy which seems to be helping). In the past month, I’ve mostly been walking, lifting, and going for a few bike rides. So, here, in no particular order, is a brief run-down on what’s been going on around here the last month or so:

Turned 40 yesterday and we had a nice little party at our house with the CRUD folks and other friends. So my next race will be officially as a masters runner, though I hope to still have a few open wins in me.

Did another ultra-marathon truck drive to California to deliver a bedroom suite. While out there, I was able to tour the Gamble House in Pasadena and also do a walking tour of numerous other Greene-and-Greene houses and a Pre-Columbian Frank Lloyd Wright house (currently on the market for 7.5 million; who knew a house built out of cinderblocks would be so expensive!).

Judy is officially cancer-free and back to work and running. She did the Leadville Heavy Half a few weeks ago as sort of her come-back event and we both really enjoyed seeing many of our running friends up there in one of our favorite places in the world.

Rick discovered a dead guy hanging from a tree on an early morning walk with his dog. Yikes.

I’ll be running JFK on a team with Eric Clifton and Ian Torrence this Nov. BTW, if you want to run this year, better sign up soon. I hear it is almost full.

Fellow Team Smith/Pearl Izumi athlete Scott Jaime nipped at Kyle Skaggs’ heals all the way to the finish line at Hardrock. Congrats also to CRUD dude JT for his first Hardrock finish, and Neal Taylor for his 3rd finish.

I’m getting ready for a Fine Furnishings Show in Milwaukee this Sep. I’m also going to be showing some furniture in a Parade of Homes house at Copper Mountain in Sep.

I’m trying to learn Spanish. I don’t seem to have much of a knack for foreign languages but I’m trying. For my college degree (Literature and Languages) I had to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language (German was my choice) but that was really stretching the definition of “proficiency.”