Iron Nate?

My wife’s first words when I told her I registered: “you’re gonna die!”.

It has been a great feeling cross training, and the benefits have been immediately apparent in my running. I’m getting outside more, stressing the knee less, and feeling my overall fitness increase markedly.

Inspired by a former classmate who just finished a full Iron Man, and trying to make good on a promise I made to myself years ago, I’ve finally set the date for my first Triathlon.

The biking and the running aren’t a concern – and I’m pretty sure I could tough out the combination with just a few months’ training. It’s the swimming I’m most concerned about. Hopefully, with the better part of a year to build up, I should be fine. Guess we’ll see!

I’ll likely try a sprint tri and an olympic distance earlier on next season, just to understand more how it operates. This will remain my training goal for the next year, though. Not sure how doing a specific 50k falls into the training, but I’m sure it’ll all fall into place eventually. The goal has been and will always be to spend as much time outside as possible and to enjoy every minute of it. Having plunked down a hefty $200 registration fee should really force me to get off my ass and make it happen.

Go (North)west, Aging Man

The Juan de Fuca Trail

The bags are packed. The plans are made. Weather is supposed to be perfect for our big wedding this Sunday. Tomorrow we leave our lovely yet decidedly boring Midwest landscape and take off for the wilds of the Pacific Northwest. Land in Seattle, drive to Vancouver, then ferry to Victoria – where we’ll remain for the next week and some odd days. Yes, I’m excited, and yes, I could go on about it – but alas this is a site about running.

In the midst of all the planning, entertaining, stress and family and friend activities – I’m hell bent on getting in a few solid trail runs. Some quick searches for “Victoria+BC+Trail+Running” took me to some amazing photos of the Juan de Fuca trail. And, as luck would have it, it’s only about 1/2 an hour from our hotel.

God willing, photos and stories to follow.

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.

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.

Photos from Grand Island

As promised, they’re mostly uploaded now. I’m testing a program called Plogger as an alternative to Flickr. For one, it’s free and for two you can customize it and ideally expand on it. For now, I’ve just uploaded a few things and began tinkering with the stylesheet. But I digress – back to running.

Here are the photos.

Back from Grand Island

Sunrise over Lake Superior, as seen from Grand Island

We’re back from the U.P. and everything went very well. Mae enjoyed her first 10k trail and actually thought it was ‘easy.’ Her sights are now set on the Detroit ½ Marathon in October. I’ve promised to run it with her, though I promised myself to never do a street race again after running it last year – I’ve got to be supportive.

The Grand Island marathon was, as you could expect, ridiculously beautiful. At too many points, you can peek off the trail and look straight down 200+ feet sandstone cliffs with the waves of Lake Superior crashing into them. Latter portions of the trail were lined with giant ferns that gave the place a sort of pre-historic feel, and other parts were right along the water. Not a single part of the race was visually un-entertaining; particularly the part at mile 19 where I saw a black bear watching me from about 50 feet away. My heart dropped as I realized I was eating a Clif Bar, and I casually ate it faster than I could chew, walked past him and kept eye contact (as I’ve read you’re supposed to). He stayed put, and all was well.

Though the course wasn’t technical or too challenging, I found myself taking way too long. At times, just relaxing and actually sitting on the side of the course, absorbing the scenery. Around mile 24, not caring about my chip-time, I slowed it down to a walk to soak it all in, not wanting it to end. I know I could have pushed harder, as I felt absolutely fine the next day.

All-in-all, it was the best trip we’ve had in some time. That’s due, in no small part, to the hospitality Tim Looney and his friends showed us after the race. Great conversations, dandelion wine and a U.P. cover band doing songs from The Zombies and Santana were a perfect cap on an absolutely gorgeous day.

Pictures to follow. Life’s full-speed at the moment.

Into The Wild(erness)

By the time you read this, we’ll already be gone.

For this if you’re new here.

My hopes are 1) to finish and 2) to not get gnawed upon by any black bears. Give me that, and we’ll consider it a success. I suspect Mae’s aspirations are somewhere along the same lines.

Expect lots of pictures upon our return.

Happy Fourth from Up North

Fireworks in Leeland and my cousin’s kid with a sparkler.

Evidently there is a free WiFi here in the hotel, and evidently I found it.

Have been so busy with wedding stuff (read: sitting in a canoe, floating down the Platt River for 5 hours while drinking an endless flow of Budweiser with the other men in the wedding party) that I haven’t had a chance to do any running. Hopefully Pyramid Point tomorrow. Very hopefully. Happy 4th to all.

Life is Good

The past month wore hard on us both. Running injuries and workplace politics left us needing an escape. And as I’m a firm believer in resting when needed in order to lead more fruitful lives when truly needed, now was the time.

I can’t remember the last honest-to-goodness weekend we had. I mean the kind where you don’t work, and you minimize thoughts about work, and you go somewhere unrelated to work. And to be on the safe side, you turn off your Treo which means no work emails and no phone calls and no text messages.

We’ve gone up north so often, and as much as we love the Traverse City and Charlevoix areas, they’re a considerable hike there and back. So why not enjoy our equally beautiful west coast, a mere two hours away? We heard a lot of great things about Saugatuck, and learned that they were all understatements. Great people, amazing food, and beautiful scenery.

It’s 1:30am and pictures speak more than words, so enjoy.

Lake Michigan’s magical healing powers.

Skipping Stones.

Climbing sand dunes and looking out over the beach.

Eh. . . More pictures exist. But I’m still in relaxation mode. Perhaps more to follow.

Road Race Idea

NYC is done with and it’s great to be home. We stayed at ‘The W’, the decor of which seemed to be directly stolen from a set of Total Recall; that kind of early 90’s vision-of-the-future that never fails to un-impress. Or maybe I’m just getting old.

The 8 mile loop around Central Park was a hidden gem in the midst of an exhausting trip. I was accompanied by our European Editor who is an accomplished but injury-recovering Triathlete (marathon PR of 3:30), and who kept apologizing for our slow pace of 9 minute miles. Everything is relative. Locals kept blowing past us at 6 and 7 minute paces, but we kept reminding ourselves that they’re probably not running the full loop. Based on the sparsity of runners in the northern portion of the park (the seedier part), I would think there’s some truth to that.

The run up to the park was an adventure in and of itself. 12 streets north from the hotel to get to Central Park, and an exciting ’slalom’ through crowds of tourists and rude taxi drivers. I had a great idea that’s probably been done; but how great would it be to organize a point-to-point race from the top to the bottom of Manhattan. It would be ‘organized’ in a very loose sense. No portion of the course would be blocked off from the rest of the world, and the runners could choose their routes – having to pick areas based on density and contend with the urban elements along the way. Could be as-challenging as a trail race of equal distance, if not more. Definitely more dangerous and dirty, I think.

I vowed in the past to do no more street races, but I would probably bend the rules for something like this.