Rebuilding and Rebranding

Hoping to have a new site up before we head off to Iceland. Wanting a place to jot my thoughts, and I didn’t love the Tumblr thing.

Big Things

Things have been busy, as always. Running has taken the very back seat in the Econoline of life, unfortunately. Working two jobs has taken its toll on several things, not least of which is my fitness. Still managing to get out for a run, and now bike and swim, at least a few times a week – just no open Saturdays or Sundays to devote an afternoon to a solid long run. And not again for the foreseeable future.

Getting there. Life is crazy. Life is strange.

Wordpress Bonk / I’m Still Alive

I tried moving around a bunch of stuff from one database to another, cleaning up my server, etc. Somehow I managed to bonk the permissions on WP and lock myself out. I am still here, still trying to keep the site alive. Running has been slow since the half marathon – running two halfies in two weeks was a little tough on the body. Mostly, 13.1 miles on pavement was tough on me – despite doing it in the FiveFinger KSOs.

Immediately after the Detroit Half, I spent a week battling H1N1, missing a few days of work and being generally miserable. The wife had it, too.

We’re both better now. I’m wrapping up a bunch of freelance work, getting back into the swing of things. This was the first weekend I didn’t work straight through, and it feels refreshing to have days off here and there, like normal folks sometimes do. It also felt great to get out for some lovely Michigan Fall running. The leaves are all on the ground and the trails sound different with the sound of my feet sloshing around dead leaves. But it is beautiful, as always. Winter running is ahead of us, and it is my favorite season for the trails – bar none.

Methods, Goals and Plans

So I’ve been a little reckless with training lately, kind of feeling like I’m teetering on the brink of injury. My weekly mileage (bike and run) was 75 miles, with 30 miles running and the rest on two wheels. Nothing huge for many folks, but I still consider myself recovering from the knee injury. Also, to put it into perspective, the last week literally doubled my overall mileage for the last 30 days, which seems too aggressive a ramp-up in retrospect.

I will say I feel entirely (maybe too) motivated after watching crewing and pacing for Dirt Dawg at the Burning River 100 earlier this month. I feel ambitious, to say the least.

Things that have helped:
1) Biking / cross training: Immediate and obvious benefits come on uphill work. Heritage Park offers some bite-sized yet steep inclines, and they’ve been easier and easier the more miles I log on the bike. Also, cycling has helped me maintain and increase fitness, let me get outside more often, without worrying too much about my knee. I also never realized before – I really enjoy it.

2) Cutting out dairy and fish: I’m in my 15th year as a vegetarian, but never considered Veganism until last week when reading up on athletes like Scott Jurek and Dave Scott (a champion ultra-runner and a champion iron man, respectively). The more I read, the more I believe a strict vegan diet is more appropriate for athletes. Ethical considerations aside (which are also important to me, but maybe not to Joe Reader), a plant-based diet has more nutrients per-pound than meat. Also, less fat, less heart-attack causing stuff, fewer chemicals like antibiotics and growth hormones, etc. Anyway, there’s science behind it. My point here is that I’ve seen a noticeable increase in energy and endurance within the first week of this experiment. If it continues to go this well, I’ll continue to keep at it.

I’m currently scouting out events for my first 50k, which I’m aiming to do next year. I was planning on the Dances With Dirt in Gnaw Bone, but alas my younger sister chose that specific day to get married. I’m currently looking around, but maybe thinking something like the Vermont 50m later next year would be just as good – just stick to self-supported marathons in the interim.

Been loving summer, but I’m looking forward to winter/snow runs.

Anyway, this post has quickly lost its form. Just wanted to update and keep this thing alive.

“Pardon our Dust”

I got incredibly tired of working and decided to lavish some TLC on this old blog. Expanding functionality – I’ve upgraded to the newest version of WordPress, which is stellar. I’ve got some SEO plugins working, as well as a Flickr gallery plugin, a new contact form. What else? I can’t remember. Anyway – all the templates available on the WordPress freebie section are embarrassing, so I’m leaving it as plain as can be until I’ve got time to do a proper template for myself.

More soon. I’ll keep writing running stuff.

Lifestyle Choices

You could say I’ve spent the last week thinking more about running than actually running. A 5 day work trip to Southern California and not once did I make it out for a run along the ocean. This, despite, sleeping a mere 4 blocks away from it and taking my morning coffees sitting on a bench by the strand, watching other folks run. In a way, I felt intimidated by the amount of people out.

It seems like everyone in LA runs – and fast. There are roughly 2000% more runners out there than in Detroit, and at almost any time of any day, you’ll find at least a few people out no matter where you go.

Why are we Detroiters (as a whole) so out of shape? We can’t blame the weather, can we? Denver has the most physically fit population in the country, and they duke it out with the cold for half the year. Can we blame the economy for dampening our spirits, or do we just have a toxic lifestyle? Smoking’s still allowed in public places. Rampant obesity – even in children, high diabetes and high heart disease. Most people seem to care only superficially and in passing – not quite enough to change their habits.

One of my favorite quotes, by author Jim Harrison, reads:
Only in the midwest is overeating still considered an act of heroism.

This was proven true my last night in LA, as I out-ate each of my friends at an Italian restaurant notorious for its daunting portions. The only one who could keep pace was my friend from Jersey City (which is socioeconomically too similar to Detroit). When I’m running regularly, this appetite is somewhat justifiable. When only sporadically, it’s only justifiable insofar as I’m a Midwesterner. Which is to say, not really.

Running with Dogs, Both Dirty and Filthy

I post a ton of entries saying that I’m going to start posting again. It’s true maybe one-third of the time. Here’s to trying:

Physical therapy is concluded and has yielded very positive results. Twice a week, for two months, I worked on strengthening, stretching and balancing exercises. Slowly but surely, strength and flexibility returned and replaced the shooting pains in my right lateral meniscus. The true nature of the injury remains ambiguous on account of the impossibly high cost of MRIs with crap insurance, but the good Doctor McDade and Physical Therapist Weber were able to make educated guesses and point me in the right direction. All-in, I’m thankful I didn’t have to go under the knife, or tube, or whatever they use for arthroscopic surgery these days.

Always go the holistic route if possible.

Last weekend marked the first trail of the year. Dirt Dawg was kind enough to meet me at my local/home trail, Heritage Park, for a painfully slow and short 3.5 miler. Conditions were slushy, hilly, and pretty unforgiving – laughable for someone training for his first 100 miler, but frustrating for someone in my weak condition. All that said, it was great to get off pavement and back in the woods, and nice to catch up with running’s ol’ Dirty.

A few days later, a tropical heatwave swept through southeast MI, launching the temperature to a stratospheric 55. I decided to take Max out for his first legitimate street run, knocking out an easy 1.5 miler just to get him in the groove and show him how things are supposed to work. A few distractions aside, he got the hang of it pretty quickly, and managed to soak up a few pounds of muddy dirt road in the process.

Having knocked out 1.5 so easily, I thought I’d have him try out a 2 miler today. A luxurious coat of fresh snow covered the trails at Lakeshore Park, freezing the mud below it and keeping the top layer soft enough for his adolescent paws and my weak knee. We tried the leash-around-the-waist method, keeping my hands free for balance, and things worked out wonderfully.

That’s about it. Pretty uninspiring, but good news all around. It’s a great feeling to be running again, and I’m thankful that it’s happening with just enough time left to enjoy the snow. Winter trails have always been my favorite. Maybe because it means you have the woods pretty much to yourself. Maybe because everything’s so much more tranquil when it’s below-freezing and covered in white. Maybe because it’s an excuse to run slow and just enjoy it, without feeling like I should be holding a certain pace or hitting a certain time.

Like Clockwork

I took the dog out for his 7am walk and a gust of wind blew beyond us and through the tree branches above. As if on cue, a rush of small, auburn leaves broke free and fluttered to the ground around us.

Michigan’s fall is finally here.

The knee is getting progressively worse and I’ve promised it I’ll only bike or swim until it’s better. The cooler weather is taunting me.

No Place Like Home Trails

I could run these trails every day and never get tired of them. Actually, I have done just that some weeks.

Life has as many twists and turns and ups and downs as these paths, and the way we get through one is likely the way we get through the other.

New developments mandate a change in course. All professional matters beyond my control, of course. I can only control my approach and my perceptions of it all, and generally that will dictate what kind of shape I’ll be in at the other end.

There are times when you feel like you’re moving on momentum alone, almost like the wind is carrying you. Other times you feel like crawling or just laying down.

Most important is to take it all as parts of a complex process, and understand that we need lows to give the highs meaning.

And if, in the end, we can look back and say “God damn, what a ride” – we’ve probably done alright.

Ebbing, at Long Last

Working for a magazine means that for at least few days each month, your job inevitably owns your soul and dictates every aspect of your life. The past week’s workload has necessitated sleeping 3.5 hours each night, with a quick 1 hour nap when I get home to beef up for another late night of photo editing, typography and layout. It culminated in a Sunday morning meeting that stretched from 10am to 4pm, devouring most of what should be ‘long run’ day. A cathartic 10.5 miler almost immediately afterward was a nice way to cap off a week of minimal running, and a good way to get back on my feet.

It’s difficult juggling two things I love so much (work vs. running), particularly when doing as well as I’d like at either seems to mandate undivided devotion. Understand that one also needs time for family, friends and life in general, leaving scant time for working outside of work (freelance/labor-of-love projects) or running as much as I’d like after work. In the future I may figure out a way to work simple 40 hour weeks and take nothing home, but for now the balancing act keeps life very interesting.

The hip and knee feel fine. I’ve decided to stick to flat pavement rather than working on 99% trails as I had been. The hip strain seemed to result from too much hill work and too fast, so I’m going to strengthen and build endurance on the boring stuff for the next week or two, limiting the dirt to once a week and stepping it up incrementally. I’m pathetically behind schedule training for the big 50 miler, so I need to be careful with how I proceed.

Log of the last few days, nice and easy:

Saturday
4.2 miles, 39:44 – Run to Mom’s, helped move furniture.
4.2 miles, 42:12 – Back from Mom’s, a bit fatigued from moving desks, bookshelves and couches. High sun, afternoon heat. Great day out.

Sunday
10.69 miles, 1:51:16
(Review on the new Forerunner 405, which made this map, coming soon).

Trying to work on only fluids for anything under 25k, training the body to burn fat (which I need to lose) and not depend on a constant influx of goods. Felt great up until mile 8.5, and kept it sub 9:30 pace for the first 4 miles which were into a pretty mean headwind. Crashed hard at mile 8.5 and felt light headed, really hungry. Thought I could make it home, but got lost in a confusing neighborhood (see southeast portion of map) and ran out of Accelerade. Stopped at CVS on the way home and grabbed some Snickers and juice. Felt great within 5 minutes. Could have gone for a recovery run later that night if time permitted.

Monday
2.44 miles, 23:17 – Run to the Y. Mae on a bike next to me. Swam just under 1k at the Y.
2.44 miles, 24.34 – Back from the Y. Odd to shift from running muscles to swimming muscles and back to running muscles, but it felt fine within a mile. Got antsy and kicked it up to a 5 minute mile pace for 1/5 of a mile – didn’t even know I had that in me. Knocked it down to 10, 11, then 12 minute pace for the last mile and a half though. I need to do a genuine recovery run tonight (Tuesday).

A seemingly productive few days. Feels great to be running again, even if it’s next to traffic. I think I can bump it up to a 40 mile week by Saturday without stressing the body too much. I’ll take what I can get at this point.

Special thanks to Mae for riding alongside me and keeping me company. And especially for carrying my water bottles.