Subtle

Mirror of water

Shows what little sun there is

Under these dark skies.

 Wednesday, December 29, 2021

 At a friend’s suggestion I’m re-reading Why We Run. And as an interesting coincidence I hit the chapter on diet right at the end of the year. The author just finished talking about how heavy he is compared to elite marathoners of similar height like Jim Rodgers and Frank Shorter.

 Like the author, for the past several months I’ve been thinking about my diet and how I can reduce my weight while maintaining strength.

 I’m also feeling a bit proud of myself as this will be the first new year I can remember where I haven’t gained at least 5 lbs. through the holidays which causes me to spend the next 6 months fighting to lose it. In fact I’ve managed to lose a few lbs. and am now down to 142 without any loss of endurance or power. 

This was all accomplished with subtle changes that took months to show results and I still feel I can make even a few more minor tweaks and lose a few more pounds before my big races this spring.

 The three changes I made were giving up cheese, only eating one slice of sourdough bread a day, and going down to one cup of coffee on most days. Exactly how those changes have induced weight loss I can’t say

 I’ve also been able to maintain a pretty hard training regimen this year thanks to good weather (up until two weeks ago), and having races to train for.

 This has me very excited about what I can accomplish this year with a big head start on race weight starting from day one in 2022.

I’m Human

 

 Friday, December 24, 2021

 A forthright killer,

She rests her jaws on my throat

And easily sleeps.

 Every Sunday at dinner here at the Ranch we practice gratitudes. But, this being the last Sunday of 2021 I thought I’d break with tradition just a bit and start with a toast leading into gratitudes.

 With all the uncertainty of the past few years, along with the stresses that can accompany the holiday season, my wife and I were having a discussion and at some point one of said “I’m human.” And the way that this was said, as it is often, “I’m human” was meant to say I make mistakes, I’m flawed, and since you’re also human, you should understand that.

 All that is true.

 What I propose, and what I’d like to toast to and am grateful for is that I am human, and perhaps unlike any other species, we have the capacity to see not only how our flaws cause harm to ourselves and to others, but also to other living things, and we can use those insights to change our behaviors and create a better self and hopefully a better world.

 

That’s pretty special and that’s what I’m grateful for. So to us. We’re human and I’m grateful for it.

Small Changes

 The sadness of rain.

The cloudy visions of tears.

Time is a gray wash.

 Tuesday, December 14, 2021

 After having a series of several good races I’m going to change things up a bit.

 Why? For a couple of reasons;

 1.    My upcoming races and goals aren’t quite the same. The recent races were intermediate trail races with a turkey trot thrown in for good measure. My next goal races are a road half marathon at the end of February, a 50k trail race, then some duathlons after that.

2.    Life gets stale doing the same workouts week in and week out. Tweaking things a bit helps to keep the interests up.

I’m not going to make any drastic changes; stretch my one outside ride a bit, throw in a 6 mile trail run at the end of it every other week, run a longer long run every other week, change up my lifting slightly, continue to work on the diet to get under 10% body fat by my birthday…Hopefully, just enough changes to keep me interested and hanging in there.

Roll the Dice

Running through the fog

My adversary appears

To urge me forward.

Roll the Dice: Wednesday, December 8, 2021

 At the NoName 50/25 I ran one of my best races ever. My time of 2:01:36 was the fastest I’ve ever run a 25k. The conditions were perfect and the course was moderate with many fast downhill sections. More so than my performance was how I ran and also how another runner who finished behind me approached the event.

 This was one of the few races, or even runs for that matter, where I felt my mind and body were in the game from beginning to end. I always try to tell myself that if you want to feel you’ve accomplished something special you’ve got to roll the dice and push it a bit possibly risking blowing up and having to DNF or significantly slowing at some point. I’ve done both of those too many times. But Saturday wasn’t one of them. I just felt on this side of the edge for two hours and it felt great.

For another runner it didn’t.

Early in the race a guy passed me I chased him In the fog and as the race rolled slightly uphill and meandered through some beautiful single track, I would catch glimpses of him now and then. Finally, as we approached a long downhill section at the 10k mark, I edged passed him.

At the end I waited for about 10 minutes as I wanted to thank him for setting such a strong pace for the first section of the race. But he didn’t show and I had to get to work. I asked the first woman finisher if she had seen him and she told me he was walking a bit further back when she passed him.

I figured that dude had rolled the dice as well and came up short. I hope he’s not discouraged by his second half struggles because for me that’s what competition is all about; discovering where that edge is and riding it for as long as you can. I don’t have any trail races planned for quite a while, but I do hope I’ll see that dude again so I can properly thank him.

One of Those

 Red crowned white breasted

Black winged woodpecker knock, knocks,

Knock, knock….knock, knock,
knocks.

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

 A few years ago when I was trying to decide if I could make it to work on time if I ran in the Pier to Peak half marathon in Santa Barbara, I looked at the time of the age group winner and figured I’d be all right. But my wife interjected what if he was one of those special athletes that defies aging implying that I shouldn’t be so self-assured and give myself a larger margin for error.

That hurt. What if I was one of those special athletes? Apparently at the time, she didn’t think so. 

Well, at the Ventura Turkey trot I met one of those special athletes, Brian Nelson. It’s like in track and field if you asked who won the 400 meter hurdles when Edwin Moses was in his prime, or more recently, Usain Bolt in the 100. At the race in Ventura I asked a fellow age grouper how he thought we did and he said, well, Brian Nelson was in the race. Pretty much means the rest of us were vying for 2^nd.

So now I know in Southern California in races 5k or less, I am not “one of those”.

Maybe I can still be “one of those” in longer events, or in trail races, but I don’t feel like I’m there yet and I’ve never experienced the feeling that anyone is telling anybody forget about it, Michael’s in the race.