I had a terrible running experience in 2016, and really failed pretty spectacularly. A lot went wrong. I had something to prove coming into 2017. I began running a little in November of 2016 and a little in December as well. Official training started in February, which was pretty late looking back. If I ran the race in 2018, I would have started real training in November or December, and definitely not later than January.
My biggest goals were speed and endurance. I was runner 4, with the privilege of running Leg 4, Dog Valley Road. It's a 1,700ft climb over 8.1 miles with a grade of ~6% for 6 miles and 2 miles of slight downhill grade.
I started running 3 to 4 days a week and trying to do a long run every Sunday where I would run partway up a nearby mountain, Peavine. Each Sunday I ran progressively farther up the hill, gaining significant amounts of elevation in a short time. In 3.5 miles, I would gain ~1700ft of elevation, and most of that gained in 1.5miles of actually running up the hill.
In April I ran to the top of Dog Valley Road with our Team Captain, and I felt very good. It was a crisp, clear morning with water running down the road. It was green and fresh and beautiful. I ran hard uphill, going steady, and waiting at the false summit for him to catch up. A family was camping, cooking up bacon with their breakfast, and I was ready to keep going so I could eat too. He caught up and we went up the rest of the way. I felt confident and had a time target of 1:20 to complete around 8 miles and ~1700ft of elevation gain. Everything was set. I just needed to keep running.
Once we got our team # we knew rough times for when we would run each leg. I would be running Leg 4 around lunch time, 11AM or a little later. I started running my Sunday runs in the afternoon instead of the morning, so I could deal with the sun and the heat. I wanted to make the training as realistic as possible. Sunday afternoons I would run 6 - 9 miles with ~2 miles at 3% grade, 0.5 at ~6% and 1-3 miles at ~15%+. Dog Valley Road was 6%.
Thursday was track day. Every Thursday morning I would run to a nearby high school and torture myself on the track. I would run timed miles every couple of weeks. I ran every Sunday/Thursday, almost every Wednesday, and some Monday/Tuesdays. I took most Monday/Friday's off because they were after heavy days, either long run or track day. I ran about 70 miles in April and 80 in May. The last few weeks in May I tapered off, and stopped running my long runs uphill.
I had a couple of bouts with sickness and missed some time. Otherwise I ran, whether in the snow, rain, sleet, ice, wind--whatever, I ran. It was good discipline for me.
When it came down to race day, I was a little underprepared for Dog Valley Road. Everything started well. I had run the road before, so I knew what to expect, which really, really helped me pace myself. I ran at noon, so later than planned. I cleared the first couple of miles and got into the tree line, except there wasn't any shade. The sun was directly overhead and all of those tall trees cast no shadows on the road. It was hot, close to 90F. I was not prepared for the sun, even though I had trained for it. The other problem was the length of the run. It seemed to go forever! When I had run previously, I stopped at the false summit to wait for my friend. This time, I ran through. The last few miles of the run were so slow and grueling.
When I got to the downhill, it was gravelly and slick. I couldn't run as hard as I had planned, so the time I lost on the way up I wasn't able to make up on the way down. It was very frustrating, and I missed my target time by about 5 minutes. I was very frustrated. The team was happy, impressed even, but I failed my goal. We stopped by a river and I soaked my legs in the ice water until they started to go numb and ache, and later I waded out into Lake Tahoe. By that night, I was upset and feeling good. I ran 7:24's on my next leg and 8:23 on my last leg. I ran very well. I was completely fine after the race and resumed running the next week without any real time off. My conditioning was good.
Lessons learned:
I needed to run more like 9 - 10+ miles for my long run, and I needed to gain more elevation. While I could handle steep, I was unprepared for 6 miles of steep. I could only handle around 4 - 5 miles of steep, and I was too fatigued after that because of the distance. I knew I needed to push, but I couldn't. My body simply wasn't conditioned to running that far.
Run walk run method was effective, and I would do again. It's a good way to keep heart rate in check in case you push too hard. I my case, I trained that way. Now I'm a little more disciplined and do a lot more steady running at a slower pace so I don't have to walk but do so by choice sometimes. Sometimes it's nice to walk for a minute to let fatigue bleed out and then hit it fresh on longer climbs.
I would start training earlier, 1 - 2 months earlier. With closer to 6 months of training, I could have had longer long runs and been better prepared to reach my 1:20 goal on Dog Valley Road. It would have been less stressful too, and I might not have gotten sick during my training period.
Since then I've been training much differently (different goals), and I believe I'm a more competent runner now. What was largely missing was strength training. I do regular strength training now to prepare me for my current running plans as well as addressing some muscle imbalances I've had. I'm now a more powerful, balanced, and capable runner. I cover less miles, but I can achieve great speed on flat ground and have very good hill climbing stamina. I achieve full leg extension going uphill and can just keep powering up, up, up. My legs don't look remotely like my 2016 legs.
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Sourdough for Newbies
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| Baked in Dutch Oven...Yum! |
Sourdough is delicious! Home made sourdough is especially delicious. While I love and truly admire the craftsmanship that goes into producing a consistently beautiful sourdough loaf, the home made stuff has more personality in my experience. There are more flavors built into the bread and you can personalize it to meet your expectations...hopefully! I've had many sourdough failures, and that might be why my own beautiful loaves are just so near and dear to me.
I got started with sourdough when someone from work gave me a starter. I researched what to do with it, how to feed it, how to care for it, and how to cook with it. I eventually killed that starter off--oops!--and started a new one from scratch. I still have the new one, and successfully started one for the same friend who gave me my first starter after they moved across country. I've tried many things, made numerous mistakes, and about 2 years in I'm pretty comfortable with working sourdough even though I'm definitely still learning.
For starters, you need a starter. Starter is just uncooked dough with sourdough bacteria (it smells like sourdough). It's basically flour and water. The bacteria in there is naturally occurring in the environment: it's in the air, on the flour, on your hands. It's also a super bacteria. Many bacterial strains are present and when you start a starter for the first time, and those other bacteria take off first. Eventually the sourdough bacteria eats all of the other ones if given the proper opportunity: fresh flour and water and the right growing temperature. The sour bacteria do really well under 80F and are most active in the 70's. I've put them in the oven to get a quick rise, so they can hack it in higher temperatures as well in the very short-term. However, to establish them as the dominant mix, keeping those temperatures in the 60-80 range ensures they're dominant vs other strains that will do better at other temperatures.
Getting a Starter:
Get it from a friend. Ask someone. The process of sourdough creates a lot of waste, and a lot of opportunity to share some starter with someone else.
Buy it online. I know King Arthur Flour sells it, and I'm sure other companies do too. eBay, Amazon, just look around.
Make it at home. This is a little more involved, but it just takes time. You need a jar/container with a lid, rye flour, whole wheat flour, and AP flour. Organic is better because it should have more bugs in it and cultivate better. Just add 1/3 Cup of each type of flour and 2/3 - 3/4 cup water and mix it up. Let sit for 12hrs on the counter. Dump out half to 3/4 of the mixture, and feed again with 1/3 cup each flour and the water. Do this every 12hrs until it smells like sourdough and bubbles up vigorously in a few hours time.
This process takes around a week. 2-3 days in you will start to smell some very funky smells in that jar, and the smells will get stronger. Towards the end of the week you will begin to get a familiar sour smell in the jar, and then it will just have that familiar sour smell after it's sat. It will also bubble up a lot at this point, so look out! Your mild, just sits there like goo in a jar starter will come alive in a big way. Never let your jar be more than 1/2 full after a feed/mix. Ideally, more like 1/4 to 1/3 full is better because it's less likely to go crazy while you're not watching one day and make a big, gross mess for you to clean up.
Keeping Your Starter:
Refrigerate it in a jar with a sealable lid that can be left to "just sit" on top of the jar. If you tighten it down, the jar can explode because of the gas build-up as your starter feeds. I enjoy using the latching lid type jars with a nice wide mouth, and am currently using a mason jar. Your starter is kind of like an athlete. You have to keep it ready to go through regular exercise, and in this case exercise equates to feeding it. To keep it healthy, once a week is the standard. I've let it go for much longer without issue, and I've also lost a starter. The dryer you keep your starter, the longer it can go between feedings, but the harder it is to incorporate it into new flour/water for feedings. Here's the process for maintenance:
Throw out half of what's in the jar, or set it aside. Then add back into the jar 1 cup flour and 2/3 to 3/4 cups tepid water, depending on how wet you want it. It really doesn't matter. Think pancake batter that's a little on the thick side. Incorporate everything until smooth. I mix it up with a fork. Let it sit on the counter 2-4 hours until it starts to get bubbly. Then refrigerate.
To prep for baking, do everything above except don't put the starter in the fridge. If it doubles in size in 4-6hrs it's ready to roll. It can take up to 8hrs. If it's slow going, then let it double in size; throw half away or set aside, and feed it again. Let it sit. Should be able to double in the right time-frame.
Oh No! My Starter...
Bubbled out and made a huge mess everywhere! To clean up the mess, just dump the starter into another container and wash the area with soap and water. You can wash and reuse the original container, or keep it in the new container. To prevent this from happening in the future, keep less starter, or use a bigger container. To keep less, just feed it less. Feed 1/2 Cup flour and 1/4 Cup water. It's easier to keep a consistent starter when there's more of it. I've done both feeding styles just fine.
Got left in the fridge for...a long time and it has liquid on top! No worries at all. This is pretty normal. The liquid on top is called hooch. It's alcohol from the fermentation that occurs in the cooler temperatures in your fridge, and I'm pretty sure it would taste awful and make you sick. Don't drink it! Don't mix it into your starter. Just pour it off the top, and then treat your starter normally. If you accidentally mix it in, don't worry about it. It won't hurt your starter. It's possible that it could slow it down because of the build-up of waste products in the material (alcohol). Eventually it will work itself out and go away. Bake on!
Got left in the fridge for...a long time and there is black or brown film or buildup on top! This is a little bit of a problem, and it's how I lost a starter. That stuff on top needs to be scraped off. Scrape it straight into the trash, and rinse the spoon off before it goes back into the jar, or get a new spoon. You want to get all of the dark colored stuff out. If it's just kind of everywhere, then scrape away enough to give you access to some nice clean starter in the middle and scoop some of that out. Take the spoonful of good starter and feed it in a new container. Clean the old container thoroughly and throw away everything left. Beware: Your starter may not be the same after this little exercise. I'm sure that feeding it and tossing and feeding it and tossing out for a few cycles in a row would clean it up nicely and get you back a lovely starter. I've had it come back just fine on the first try almost every time.
Needs to survive while I can't care for it for an extended period of time! Feed it well and let it bubble up nicely, at least doubling in size. Then take some of it and mix it with flour until you have a nice little ball of dough, somewhere between cookie dough and biscuit dough. Firmer will last longer. Put your happy little doughball in a jar, seal it loosely, and keep it in the fridge. It will keep for a long time this way. This wouldn't be a bad time to share your starter with some friends. If yours dies somehow, you can lean on them for more!
Bake Time:
The biggest thing I've found is that most "sourdough" recipes out there are designed for the person who's in a hurry and wants something kind of sour. Sourdough is like a slow moving art project: It takes time. You can buy sour salt, which is acetic acid--the same thing they use in sour candies to get that mouth-puckering thing going on, and it's also a great preservative. That's common. You can just do yeasted bread and add that stuff in there and get something "sour". I'm a proponent of the naturally cultured bacteria imparting the flavor and causing the rise in the bread. It's healthy, tasty, and all natural. I'm a purist in some ways.
So when you're out scouring the internet for recipes, and it says it takes 2hours, be wary. It if says it takes 36hrs, don't worry. That's sourdough!
Pizza Dough:
I make pizza dough the most frequent because it's really easy, fast, and we like to eat pizza for less than $10 vs over $20.
I use a recipe from King Arthur Flour:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-pizza-crust-recipe
It calls for 1/2tsp yeast, which I do because it makes a softer crust and speeds up the rise time. For a cracker crust, leave out the yeast and roll the dough really thin. Sourdough makes a very sturdy crust, so it has to be pretty thin or you'll have some people who don't appreciate the effort required to chew it. I also let the starter sit out before using it, which goes against the recipe. Again, it gives a faster rise, which is especially important if you're not using the yeast. The end result, either way, is a nice dough with some good chew and a touch of sourdough flavor and some nice crunch.
I bake at 550F (hot as my oven gets) on a pizza stone that sits in there while I roll out my dough, let it relax for ~10mins, and build my pizza. Bake time is 6-7 minutes for a thicker crusted pizza (what we like).
Bread:
Again, our friends at King Arthur can help us with an easy, reliable recipe:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/extra-tangy-sourdough-bread-recipe
I follow the recipe to start. The first thing that you make and put in the fridge, I keep in the fridge for 2-3 nights. That gives a good sourdough punch to your bread when you make it. I've never used sour salt, and haven't found a need. This bread has a nice, full flavor that is definitely sourdough in flavor. I often add a little bit of rye flour to it for some additional flavor. I do that with my pizza dough sometimes too, depending on the toppings.
The big exception on this one for me is how to bake it. I don't bake it as prescribed. I use a dutch oven. Basically, after your second rise you place the first loaf in the dutch oven on top of some sprinkled corn meal, slash it, and bake as shown below:
"Preheat your oven to 450 F. Place your bread into the oven (lid on) and reduce the temperature to 400 F. Bake for 20 minutes. When you remove the lid, your bread will be pale and shiny. Continue to bake (uncovered) for an additional 40 minutes or until deep, golden brown. Keep in mind that all ovens are different; you might have to make minimal adjustments to these temperatures."
http://www.theclevercarrot.com/2014/01/sourdough-bread-a-beginners-guide/
The link above is where I pulled my baking instructions and that recipe makes good bread, but it's not as sour or consistent for me as the King Arthur recipe. The article does have tons of good info though, so I would give it a look and try the recipe too. It makes a good loaf of bread that approaches sourdough differently. It's a "low hydration" recipe vs the "high hydration" recipe from King Arthur. Hydration is how wet or dry the dough is. The clever carrot one is a firm, dry dough (doesn't mean dry bread!), while the KA is wet, gooey dough.
I don't have a recipe handy, but sourdough cinnamon rolls are awesome! I highly recommend giving those a try sometime.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Ideal Team Player
I have an opening on my team. How do I find the right person? Well, start out by finding a good quality candidate who has the basic foundation to be successful on any team. That's what this is about: a good foundation.
Patrick Lencioni wrote a book by this title and he admitted that he doesn't really care for the book. He thinks it's pretty ordinary, pretty obvious, but people like it. Why? Because it's simple. It's easy. It works. You look for three things, make sure a candidate has all three, and there you have it: humble, hungry, EQ (emotional intelligence). As I was typing this up, two of these are items I already look for and ask specific questions on, but I've never really thought about it in these terms. I never went into an interview thinking "I'm looking for hungry and humble," but I've always looked for people with drive who are willing to listen. That sounds a lot like hungry and humble. I also care that they can work well with others. That sounds a little like EQ. What I wasn't doing was placing the level of emphasis on these that I should have in some cases, and the stories have played out with sad endings / present state.
The ideal team player has three traits: humility, hunger, and emotional intelligence (EQ). They need all three. If you're missing just one piece, issues will surface sooner or later. How far off the mark they are will determine how soon, and how bad the symptoms will be. Missing the mark is never fun, so let's talk about what we're looking for.
Humility is pretty simple, and probably misunderstood the most frequently. It's not an absence of self-worth. Lack of self-esteem sounds like a person who can't believe they're actually good at something, who doesn't see the value of who they are or what they bring to the table. They have blinders on concerning value associated with themselves. Humility is much more a comfort level with themselves. They know who they are, and who they're not. They know what they're good at, and what they're not good at. It's often matter of fact rather than emotional, and in the context of themselves and the work rather than in comparison to others. When they do compare themselves to others, there is a noticeable level of candor, and it's not done for posturing, but because it's appropriate. They're not afraid to cite luck, or being fortunate. Someone who uses a lot of comparisons where they look favorable compared to others or is fixated on their wonderful accomplishments may prove arrogant and difficult to work with. A barometer check on this is how would this person take feedback? Then, what do you think they would do with it?
You need someone who is humble because they can be honest with you. They're already honest with themselves, and they probably have pretty good integrity. You can work with this, and they can work with others. Humility goes a long ways.
Hunger is the next one, and it's usually easy to spot. Hungry sounds like growth, opportunities, wanting to do more, promote, develop, etc. This person has goals and the drive to get there, and they're not boring goals. They have exciting, challenging goals. Keep in mind that everyone is different, so the goal should be exciting and challenging for that individual based on where they are and what their passions are. So what is there to look out for with this one? Make sure they're real goals. Drive, determination, fortitude, resilience, grit. These words should be able to describe how this person comes across. There should be a level of intensity there that is appropriate to the role they're applying for. It's easy to say that you want to do XYZ, but is that something you say because it sounds good, or is it something that you hunger for at a visceral level? Think commitment. How they're wired. It should be ingrained.
The next thing to look out for with hunger is why. You've set some pretty high goals out there. Why did you do it? Why do you want to get there? What's in it for you? I always have to know where someone's going, and why.
I've always looked for the hungry / humble combo. This means they want to grow, and they will let you help them do it. They want feedback, and they will act on it. They have the courage to step out and fail, then pick themselves up again. It's a joy and a privilege to lead people with these qualities.
The last ingredient is emotional intelligence. The unique part of this one is that we can actually work on it. If someone isn't hungry or humble, they're not hungry or humble. That may change some time in the future, but most likely it won't. This one can be a little off. They can't be socially inept, but they can have some opportunities. Depending on what those are, we can work through it. So on to emotional intelligence, or EQ.
This is basically their emotional awareness and how that affects their behavior. This isn't a measure of introversion or extroversion since either group can be equally good or bad. This is about being aware of themselves and others, and responding appropriately to what they pick up on. So they need to pick up on the right things, then make good decisions based on their findings. Interaction is at the core of this one. How do they interact with others, situations, etc? If they're nervous in an interview, how do they handle it? When trouble comes, what do they do? How do they handle conflict? How do they give / receive feedback? Do they speak up, or stay quiet? When they speak up, how do they do it? How are they received? Where do they struggle? Why? What are they doing to address it? This is flushed out by a lot of your situational questions, i.e. "Tell me about a time when..."
Another tip for interviewing is to get people into an ordinary environment. Go shopping. Get a coffee. How do they interact? Treat others? You can learn a lot about them by watching how they react and interact. It's easy to play the game and do your song and dance in a predictable interview setting, but much more difficult when you're placed in a public setting, so go visit a public setting. Interviewees may relax a little and show more of themselves because of being more comfortable in the casual setting.
Above are the items from Patrick's book, and they won't steer you wrong. The other side of the coin is who should I keep on my team? If they don't have all three, you need to be aware that there are some potential gaps on your team. How you address those gaps will determine the future success level of the team. I use success level because the team can be successful with some sizable flaws, but not nearly as successful as it would be without them.
Below is a link to an article on EQ. Travis Bradberry wrote a book on it, and the article gives a concise summary of what's in the book. Success is more often predicated on EQ than on IQ. Want to be more successful? Work on your EQ.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2014/01/09/emotional-intelligence/#16d691f93ecb
There's also a fun survey on recognizing emotions based on facial expressions if you want to nerd out a little:
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/ei_qu/iz
Patrick Lencioni wrote a book by this title and he admitted that he doesn't really care for the book. He thinks it's pretty ordinary, pretty obvious, but people like it. Why? Because it's simple. It's easy. It works. You look for three things, make sure a candidate has all three, and there you have it: humble, hungry, EQ (emotional intelligence). As I was typing this up, two of these are items I already look for and ask specific questions on, but I've never really thought about it in these terms. I never went into an interview thinking "I'm looking for hungry and humble," but I've always looked for people with drive who are willing to listen. That sounds a lot like hungry and humble. I also care that they can work well with others. That sounds a little like EQ. What I wasn't doing was placing the level of emphasis on these that I should have in some cases, and the stories have played out with sad endings / present state.
The ideal team player has three traits: humility, hunger, and emotional intelligence (EQ). They need all three. If you're missing just one piece, issues will surface sooner or later. How far off the mark they are will determine how soon, and how bad the symptoms will be. Missing the mark is never fun, so let's talk about what we're looking for.
Humility is pretty simple, and probably misunderstood the most frequently. It's not an absence of self-worth. Lack of self-esteem sounds like a person who can't believe they're actually good at something, who doesn't see the value of who they are or what they bring to the table. They have blinders on concerning value associated with themselves. Humility is much more a comfort level with themselves. They know who they are, and who they're not. They know what they're good at, and what they're not good at. It's often matter of fact rather than emotional, and in the context of themselves and the work rather than in comparison to others. When they do compare themselves to others, there is a noticeable level of candor, and it's not done for posturing, but because it's appropriate. They're not afraid to cite luck, or being fortunate. Someone who uses a lot of comparisons where they look favorable compared to others or is fixated on their wonderful accomplishments may prove arrogant and difficult to work with. A barometer check on this is how would this person take feedback? Then, what do you think they would do with it?
You need someone who is humble because they can be honest with you. They're already honest with themselves, and they probably have pretty good integrity. You can work with this, and they can work with others. Humility goes a long ways.
Hunger is the next one, and it's usually easy to spot. Hungry sounds like growth, opportunities, wanting to do more, promote, develop, etc. This person has goals and the drive to get there, and they're not boring goals. They have exciting, challenging goals. Keep in mind that everyone is different, so the goal should be exciting and challenging for that individual based on where they are and what their passions are. So what is there to look out for with this one? Make sure they're real goals. Drive, determination, fortitude, resilience, grit. These words should be able to describe how this person comes across. There should be a level of intensity there that is appropriate to the role they're applying for. It's easy to say that you want to do XYZ, but is that something you say because it sounds good, or is it something that you hunger for at a visceral level? Think commitment. How they're wired. It should be ingrained.
The next thing to look out for with hunger is why. You've set some pretty high goals out there. Why did you do it? Why do you want to get there? What's in it for you? I always have to know where someone's going, and why.
I've always looked for the hungry / humble combo. This means they want to grow, and they will let you help them do it. They want feedback, and they will act on it. They have the courage to step out and fail, then pick themselves up again. It's a joy and a privilege to lead people with these qualities.
The last ingredient is emotional intelligence. The unique part of this one is that we can actually work on it. If someone isn't hungry or humble, they're not hungry or humble. That may change some time in the future, but most likely it won't. This one can be a little off. They can't be socially inept, but they can have some opportunities. Depending on what those are, we can work through it. So on to emotional intelligence, or EQ.
This is basically their emotional awareness and how that affects their behavior. This isn't a measure of introversion or extroversion since either group can be equally good or bad. This is about being aware of themselves and others, and responding appropriately to what they pick up on. So they need to pick up on the right things, then make good decisions based on their findings. Interaction is at the core of this one. How do they interact with others, situations, etc? If they're nervous in an interview, how do they handle it? When trouble comes, what do they do? How do they handle conflict? How do they give / receive feedback? Do they speak up, or stay quiet? When they speak up, how do they do it? How are they received? Where do they struggle? Why? What are they doing to address it? This is flushed out by a lot of your situational questions, i.e. "Tell me about a time when..."
Another tip for interviewing is to get people into an ordinary environment. Go shopping. Get a coffee. How do they interact? Treat others? You can learn a lot about them by watching how they react and interact. It's easy to play the game and do your song and dance in a predictable interview setting, but much more difficult when you're placed in a public setting, so go visit a public setting. Interviewees may relax a little and show more of themselves because of being more comfortable in the casual setting.
Above are the items from Patrick's book, and they won't steer you wrong. The other side of the coin is who should I keep on my team? If they don't have all three, you need to be aware that there are some potential gaps on your team. How you address those gaps will determine the future success level of the team. I use success level because the team can be successful with some sizable flaws, but not nearly as successful as it would be without them.
Below is a link to an article on EQ. Travis Bradberry wrote a book on it, and the article gives a concise summary of what's in the book. Success is more often predicated on EQ than on IQ. Want to be more successful? Work on your EQ.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2014/01/09/emotional-intelligence/#16d691f93ecb
There's also a fun survey on recognizing emotions based on facial expressions if you want to nerd out a little:
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/ei_qu/iz
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
RTO 2016
Every year I attend a leadership conference, and every year I assign myself some things to work on after attending. One of the items from last year was grit. You develop grit by doing hard things. So when someone asked me to run a relay race, it sounded like it would be hard, and I said yes. I didn't particularly want to run a race, and I have had a bad history with knee pain in my right leg when running, but it sounded reasonably difficult. What the heck.
I went old school and drove around in my car to map out some routes and distances, didn't write anything down, and figured I had a good idea of what to run. So I ran, and it got easier, and I got faster. I stretched and rolled my right leg religiously, did yoga, and really worked to keep my legs loose. It allowed me to run. I was triumphant!
There were some bouts of sickness, etc. that severely slowed down training close to race time, but I went in pretty confident. I was going to run 3 legs, all pretty flat, for a total of about 15.6 miles. They were 5.0, 5.8, and 4.8 miles in that order.
My first leg started early up in Truckee, CA. it's about 6,000ft and it was in the 90's and it was full sun. We had a runner struggling on the leg before my first, so I just started running a little early. I trained enough, felt good running these days, and figured I was well prepared and could take on a couple extra miles. I ran 7.8 miles from a little before 3pm until a little after 4pm.
A few miles in I started to feel nauseous. It was hot. The hat came off because I couldn't cool down with it on. When I came across some shade I walked for short periods. When I finished the van was locked. No water. No snacks. For close to an hour. I stretched, and I thirsted. The other van eventually brought us water while we waited and checked on our next runner. AAA came to rescue us. It was pretty comical: We were the dummies who got locked out of their own van. Well played.
That night I ran the 5.8mi leg in the dark. It was cool, but I was sore. Partway through the run my van support went on to the exchange point for someone to take care of business. About that time I was genuinely hurting. Each step hurt from the foot to the hip, both sides. My left arch fell, then the right. It was misery. Both IT bands were rubbing pretty good. Just a lot of pain. I ran about the same pace as the earlier run, just over 10's. (10:12 and 10:17 on the two legs). I suppose there's something to be said for a steady cadence. Counting out my steps kept me focused on moving forward and not slowing, rather than thinking about the pain radiating out of the lower half of my body.
We slept in the van in Virginia City. When I woke up, I couldn't really walk. My legs wouldn't move, and everything from the waist to my feet hurt. Even my shoulders were sore, probably from tensing up with the pain of each footfall. That night run really hurt. I spent about 30 mins rolling out and stretching, and that allowed me to walk stiffly and with a small limp. I didn't finish my next leg, but cleared maybe 2 miles. We had a time goal and my pride was going to mess that up and injure me long term if I didn't call it quits. I had a pretty sore foot for a few weeks after and landed a routine of ice, stretches, and rest. It took 5 - 6 weeks before I could run again.
What the heck happened? I came into the race confident, even cocky. On the back end, I hurt like hell and didn't even finish my last leg. How did I undertrain so severely?
Being on the DL gave me time to think and process. I really let the team down this year and wanted to make up for that shortcoming in the next race, so I set some goals to get there. 15 - 20 miles a week. I also wanted to run Leg 4 in the RTO for 2017, an 8 mile run with about 1700ft of elevation gain. So I need some longer runs, and some serious hills. How do I figure that out? I found some online mapping sites, like "how far did I run?" and started mapping. Through this process I discovered that my 3.1 mile run training for the 2016 RTO was actually 2.4. I also learned that my 5 mile run was only 4 miles. My longest run training wasn't even as long as my shortest leg for the RTO! I undertrained so badly, and ignorantly, and ended up with shockingly painful and poor results. Ouch. What will happen if I train appropriately? I intend to find out.
I plan to run the RTO in 2017 and be well prepared. I would also like to take on a half-marathon in 2017. In 2018 I want to run my first full marathon. Thus began running as a serious hobby for me.
I went old school and drove around in my car to map out some routes and distances, didn't write anything down, and figured I had a good idea of what to run. So I ran, and it got easier, and I got faster. I stretched and rolled my right leg religiously, did yoga, and really worked to keep my legs loose. It allowed me to run. I was triumphant!
There were some bouts of sickness, etc. that severely slowed down training close to race time, but I went in pretty confident. I was going to run 3 legs, all pretty flat, for a total of about 15.6 miles. They were 5.0, 5.8, and 4.8 miles in that order.
My first leg started early up in Truckee, CA. it's about 6,000ft and it was in the 90's and it was full sun. We had a runner struggling on the leg before my first, so I just started running a little early. I trained enough, felt good running these days, and figured I was well prepared and could take on a couple extra miles. I ran 7.8 miles from a little before 3pm until a little after 4pm.
A few miles in I started to feel nauseous. It was hot. The hat came off because I couldn't cool down with it on. When I came across some shade I walked for short periods. When I finished the van was locked. No water. No snacks. For close to an hour. I stretched, and I thirsted. The other van eventually brought us water while we waited and checked on our next runner. AAA came to rescue us. It was pretty comical: We were the dummies who got locked out of their own van. Well played.
That night I ran the 5.8mi leg in the dark. It was cool, but I was sore. Partway through the run my van support went on to the exchange point for someone to take care of business. About that time I was genuinely hurting. Each step hurt from the foot to the hip, both sides. My left arch fell, then the right. It was misery. Both IT bands were rubbing pretty good. Just a lot of pain. I ran about the same pace as the earlier run, just over 10's. (10:12 and 10:17 on the two legs). I suppose there's something to be said for a steady cadence. Counting out my steps kept me focused on moving forward and not slowing, rather than thinking about the pain radiating out of the lower half of my body.
We slept in the van in Virginia City. When I woke up, I couldn't really walk. My legs wouldn't move, and everything from the waist to my feet hurt. Even my shoulders were sore, probably from tensing up with the pain of each footfall. That night run really hurt. I spent about 30 mins rolling out and stretching, and that allowed me to walk stiffly and with a small limp. I didn't finish my next leg, but cleared maybe 2 miles. We had a time goal and my pride was going to mess that up and injure me long term if I didn't call it quits. I had a pretty sore foot for a few weeks after and landed a routine of ice, stretches, and rest. It took 5 - 6 weeks before I could run again.
What the heck happened? I came into the race confident, even cocky. On the back end, I hurt like hell and didn't even finish my last leg. How did I undertrain so severely?
Being on the DL gave me time to think and process. I really let the team down this year and wanted to make up for that shortcoming in the next race, so I set some goals to get there. 15 - 20 miles a week. I also wanted to run Leg 4 in the RTO for 2017, an 8 mile run with about 1700ft of elevation gain. So I need some longer runs, and some serious hills. How do I figure that out? I found some online mapping sites, like "how far did I run?" and started mapping. Through this process I discovered that my 3.1 mile run training for the 2016 RTO was actually 2.4. I also learned that my 5 mile run was only 4 miles. My longest run training wasn't even as long as my shortest leg for the RTO! I undertrained so badly, and ignorantly, and ended up with shockingly painful and poor results. Ouch. What will happen if I train appropriately? I intend to find out.
I plan to run the RTO in 2017 and be well prepared. I would also like to take on a half-marathon in 2017. In 2018 I want to run my first full marathon. Thus began running as a serious hobby for me.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Looking Back to Go Forward
Writing. I used to write poetry while I went through my melancholic, lonely despair of being a teen. Where do I fit in? That was the question. Love and acceptance were what I needed, and it would have been so much easier if I started by loving and accepting myself.Without that, I don't think I allowed anyone else to really do that--and if they did, I'm not so sure I could have accepted it. But it wasn't self-inflicted, if you asked me. It was a symptom of the gap between who I was and who I would become. I felt like a cocoon: Not munching and inching around; not fluttering and flying, but trapped in this encasement of no longer and not yet, facing a future I had high hopes for and no prospects of fulfilling those vague dreams. Always, it was "this isn't it." I didn't know what to do. So I wrote poems. Lots of poems.
Writing seemed to be the only release valve that ultimately released anything. Ideas would come and be gone like humpty dumpty, so I had to be ready when they came. I had paper and pens by my bed, in my car, in a backpack, in a pocket. Ideas would build. Emotion would bubble. When it burst forth, I was usually ready. Tears would hide behind my eyes, build around the rims, and occasionally come out an show themselves. All of those challenges, fears, hopes, failures would trickle out. Lines would appear. Words would be arranged, chosen, scratched out, moved. Cadence applied. Each poem was an idea, a concept, a feeling, a picture. Sometimes a place or a moment. How do you take an experience and put it to words? Then, how can someone else relate to it, understand it, have some inkling of what that meant to you? I tried. I tried to understand myself as much as I tried to be understood.
At some point I stopped writing, probably because there wasn't an audience. Coins in a wishing well and unfulfilled wishes stacking up means that at some point I may decide to just keep my coins. So I kind of did. Coins stacked up in random places, and I've gotten used to it. I'm a professional emotion bottler these days.
I recently threw away so many little poems and pieces of prose while going through old things. Some dark with dark horizons, and some dark with light horizons, and not so many just bright. Glimpses of my past. Many had drawings to go along. For as many notes as I took, I doodled and wrote nearly as much. Artifacts from the life of an unknown person. Is there value in storing such things?
I recently wrote a letter with my wife to a family member about our hopes for them as they attend a Christian retreat. That they're going at all is close to miraculous, so we're pretty excited. I really enjoyed writing. A lot of the ideas were commingled, and most of the actual writing is mine. The family member has been in a dark place with addiction derailing their life. To find freedom from that would be a tremendous thing. I've found freedom in Jesus, and writing about it was...good. 2 Cor. 1:4 talks about going through tough times (financial, emotional, spiritual, physical, etc.) so you can 1) be comforted and 2) comfort others when they end up somewhere similar. It's a message of hope.
That process of sharing was really good for me. I used to blog. Then journal. Why not try blogging again?
Writing seemed to be the only release valve that ultimately released anything. Ideas would come and be gone like humpty dumpty, so I had to be ready when they came. I had paper and pens by my bed, in my car, in a backpack, in a pocket. Ideas would build. Emotion would bubble. When it burst forth, I was usually ready. Tears would hide behind my eyes, build around the rims, and occasionally come out an show themselves. All of those challenges, fears, hopes, failures would trickle out. Lines would appear. Words would be arranged, chosen, scratched out, moved. Cadence applied. Each poem was an idea, a concept, a feeling, a picture. Sometimes a place or a moment. How do you take an experience and put it to words? Then, how can someone else relate to it, understand it, have some inkling of what that meant to you? I tried. I tried to understand myself as much as I tried to be understood.
At some point I stopped writing, probably because there wasn't an audience. Coins in a wishing well and unfulfilled wishes stacking up means that at some point I may decide to just keep my coins. So I kind of did. Coins stacked up in random places, and I've gotten used to it. I'm a professional emotion bottler these days.
I recently threw away so many little poems and pieces of prose while going through old things. Some dark with dark horizons, and some dark with light horizons, and not so many just bright. Glimpses of my past. Many had drawings to go along. For as many notes as I took, I doodled and wrote nearly as much. Artifacts from the life of an unknown person. Is there value in storing such things?
I recently wrote a letter with my wife to a family member about our hopes for them as they attend a Christian retreat. That they're going at all is close to miraculous, so we're pretty excited. I really enjoyed writing. A lot of the ideas were commingled, and most of the actual writing is mine. The family member has been in a dark place with addiction derailing their life. To find freedom from that would be a tremendous thing. I've found freedom in Jesus, and writing about it was...good. 2 Cor. 1:4 talks about going through tough times (financial, emotional, spiritual, physical, etc.) so you can 1) be comforted and 2) comfort others when they end up somewhere similar. It's a message of hope.
That process of sharing was really good for me. I used to blog. Then journal. Why not try blogging again?
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