Michael: Kept in the Dark

The meandering path
Provides hours of blissful peace
In the verdant hills.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Time and money can be a tricky trade-off. To save myself from a long bus ride I purchased a flight from Panama City to David, Panama. It’s only a 45 minute flight whereas the bus trip between the two is about 8 hours. The bus ride cost about $20 and the flight cost about $100. Whether it’s worth it or not depends on a few variables I suppose, but it seems like a worthwhile trade off to me.

That is unless some unknown rears its ugly head and throws the straight up time for money equation into some foreign Twi-Light Zone mash up. That’s what happened to many of us yesterday at the Tocumen International Airport in Panama City.

First off after landing from L.A. and proceeding to the Baggage Claim area I noticed that none of the shops were open and all the lights were off. Unusual, but since it was only a little after 6 I just figured not a terrible energy/money saving idea when so few people are at the airport. But once I walked down into the claim area and saw that quite a few people were searching for their luggage using their phone flashlights, I knew things were off. In fact I’d never been in an airport suffering from a power outage before.

Nevertheless, I was hustling it along because I only had an hour to catch my connecting flight. After a nice lady showed me how to turn on my phone flashlight, I got lucky and found my luggage almost instantly.

Things slowed a little after that because customs had to do a cursory hand check of most people’s luggage instead of using x-ray machines. For some reason again I lucked out because the agent waived me through without a peak inside my bag. Whew, I thought, I might just make it after all.

Outside the airport I hustled toward Copa’s small domestic terminal and was happy when I ran into a long line of people waiting there. . All right, they hadn’t started boarding yet. Turns out they wouldn’t start boarding for over 4 hours. Nobody knew when the power was going to come back on and it became apparent we weren’t leaving until it did. I did see other planes either landing or taking off in that time, but I didn’t know what was going on and no one was coming out and telling us, so most of us just sat there and waited.

I also wasn’t able to contact my wife, Kimme, because there was no wi-fi and I had AT&T sim card in my phone with a U.S. number. I did have my Claro sim card and was thinking of trying to swap them out and call, but it turns out that wouldn’t have worked either as she doesn’t have her phone set up for Panama yet after exchanging phones in the states with her mom.

Either way, I figured she would know more about what was going on then I did because she was at the nice small airport in David that more than likely had power and could inform her what our status was. That turned out to be false. They did have power, but they were just as in the dark about what was happening in Panama City as we were. In fact, one employee there told her that all the flights were cancelled. Turns out that wasn’t quite true as our flight was the only flight from Panama City into David not to be cancelled that day. So I’m glad she stuck around until that could be officially  confirmed, otherwise I would’ve landed there 5 hours late wondering where she was. Had she gone back home? Was she going to comeback? …

But she was there and even in pretty good spirits for someone who had to wander around a very small airport with only two small coffee shops and a very small gift shop for 4 hours.

So will I make that same time for money trade off again after such a long delay leaned a bit heavily on the time end of the see-saw? Probably. What are the odds of being held up more than once by a power outage at a major international airport?

Michael: Fashion Faux Pas

She has the spirit

Of an angelic child

And demonic beast.

Friday, September 15, 2017

A few weeks ago Active.com sent out a blurb on fashion mistakes runners make. Being a fashion sensitive dude I’d prefer not to make any but for tomorrow’s race that presented a conundrum.

 I’ve been testing a new waist belt system, the Naked band, and if I don’t tuck my shirt in (one of those fashion crimes.) reaching behind me and putting a bottle in the band becomes a bit tricky. First off, I’ve got to pull my shirt up to find the small tab on the Naked band, then I’ve got to fumble with whether I’m putting the bottle in my shirt or tucking my shirt in the band as well as the bottle. It would be far easier just to tuck my shirt in my shorts, keep the band completely exposed and be on my merry way.

But I’ve figured out an alternative and am going with it and,  although it isn’t listed as an Active fashion disaster, it sure feels like one.

I’ve decided to cut my tank top at the belly button and go with short top (crop top?) that would expose my middle age midriff if it weren’t for the Naked band. It’s never been a feel or look I’ve been comfortable with, even in my late 20s when I didn’t have the slight muffin tops I have now and could get away with it. But without tucking my shirt in it’s by far the most functional option. And on my test run it even felt very comfortable. I doubt other runners will find the 3 layered look very appealing; band on top of shorts on top of cut off hill billy wife beater, but it works for me.

Michael: 4 Security Checkpoints

The flutter of the quails

In the wild oak chaparral

Is country music.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

I thought 9/11 would be a safe bet for a day of travel back to the states for a job interview. I thought I’d go through the usual 2 security checkpoints; one at the small airport in David and another on the flight from Panama City to LAX.

But I was way off. I ended up going through 4 screenings and wound up having 3 items taken from my possession.

The first screening in David wasn’t a problem. But in Panama City I threw in an extra screening and Copa airlines also tossed another one at me for no additional charge.

My mistake was turning into Copa’s domestic terminal after landing in Panama City. At that screening my heating oil I use before races was taken. It had made it through two previous trips, but it was larger than the limit so that wasn’t too much of a surprise.

Once I got where I was suppose to be headed straightened out, I went through a screening at the international terminal. There they took away tweezers and a nail file from my toiletry kit. They had made many previous trips without so much as a questionable pause from any screener. But this security dude made the sharp pointy thing gesture to let me know why they were no longer acceptable transport items.

The final checkpoint was at the boarding gate. That was unexpected and if they had found anything there I would’ve been dumbfounded.

I’ll replace the tweezers in L.A. and buy a cheap emery board to replace the metal nail file. I’m guessing the tweezers will make a bunch more trips without any problem, but in the future I may avoid traveling on 9/11.

Michael: The Merits of Junk

Blossoms like gold flames
Sporadically decorate
The green leaved branches.

Friday, September 8, 2017

There seems to be a growing consensus that runners should clean up their act and use electrolyte mixes and foods that are made from simple wholesome ingredients. Sounds good. Yet I’d throw a caveat into the mix and still advocate for swallowing a decent dose of semi-unknown crud during every long outing.

Why?

I’ll use my plan for my upcoming 50k to explain. It’s going to take me around 6 hours. I suppose I could carry all my hydration and nutritional needs with me, but what’s the fun of that? That’s reserved for either a long hike or a fastpack trip. This is a race and the point of that is to finish as quickly as I can. That means taking advantage of drop bag points and aid stations.

This race has two drop bag points over the course of a 50k; one at the 12 mile mark and another at the 20 mile point. There are also aid stations at the 16, 26, and 29 mile points.

So it should be easy to throw in my preferred hydration mix and food into drop bags and always be able to consume what I’d like and have trained with. Yes, problem solved; case closed.

In fact I am partially going to mix the two approaches; I’m going to carry a few hydration single mixes and chews at the start and run through the first drop station and have a bag with a few more mixes and bars at the second drop point.

But what if my bag doesn’t make it? Or I take longer than planned? Or my stomach has decided that today, of all days, it’s sick of those formally always delicious Picky bars and it’s daring me to take another bite and see what happens?

That’s why before every run that’s going to last more than a couple of hours I feel it’s somewhat wise to walk into the nearest store and pick out something that looks familiar to any child; a pack of Oreos or Chips Ahoy or whatever the local knock offs are.

Use those bio-hazard products during the last hour or two of your long training runs and you’ll discover that you can get by or maybe even enjoy the variety from your usual scientifically precision formulated super fuels. If so, you can be confident in one of the crises above, that you’ll be alright scooping something similar off an aid station table.

And, as a bonus, you may discover that you don’t have to rely on the expensive concoctions at all out there and can skip using a drop bag or carrying any excess hydration or food.

However, you may also painfully discover, as I have, that this strategy can sometimes not turn out so well. And by that I mean getting punched in the gut by something that seemed edible at the time but quickly turned into an alien wanting out of your stomach in some hideous purge through any or all available orifices. That happened to me when I tried to run on these locally hand made sugar corn cookies. With only a few miles to go during an otherwise enjoyable long run, I gave them a shot and within minutes I came to a crawl with a wrenching fist of gut pain.

Live and learn. I can manage on chocolate chip like cookies, but I’ll avoid yellow cellophane products like the plague.

It’s all a part of experimenting while enjoying life on the run. It’s fun and what makes getting outside a wonder and a treat (usually) in more ways than one.

Michael:Toys from the States

The meandering path
Provides hours of blissful peace
In the verdant hills.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Kimme will be returning from the states on Thursday after a three week visit and naturally I’ll be overjoyed to see her. So much so that I won’t even ask her about showing me my two new training/racing toys that I ordered until maybe even Friday.

One of the toys is a new watch and the other is a new type of waist pack. One is just a small functional upgrade and the other is … well, I’ll find out soon enough.

The watch was the least expensive watch I could find that had a dual interval function. It’s a woman’s Timex slim 50 lap Ironman watch. Kimme says it looks hideous, but in this case, that doesn’t sway me one way or another. So long as I’ll soon be able to do intervals with a different recovery period from my work period, I’ll be happy.

The Naked Band is what I’m really excited about. If it stays put and doesn’t ride up as I run and can hold all that it’s website promises with minimal bounce (don‘t they all say that?), I’ll be ecstatic.

Problem is I won’t get to try it out for long before next Saturday’s Los Pinos 50k. Maybe one long run here on Sunday then a short hill run on Wednesday in the states. So it’ll have to be a quick decision. If it works out, my prayers will have been answered Turkel ( I just finished watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for getting close to Howard Hughes obsessive Ice Station Zebra status.).

Michael: 4 Hour Shoes

Cinnamon brown eyes
Silently surveys the world
And discovers joy.

Saturday,September 2, 2017

With a quickly planned visit to the states coming up in about a week, I checked out the race calendar and noticed that I’d be there for one of my redemption races - The Los Pinos 50k.

Two years ago I DNFed with an injured foot. I was going to wait until next year and end a visit to the states with Los Pinos, but hell, why not strike while the iron’s hot, so they say. And in Southern California at this time of year, the iron could be very hot.

But for the most part I feel pretty prepared with one exception. And that again has to do with my feet. No, I’m not injured, thank God. I just don’t have a pair of trail shoes I have confidence in to move me over the course of a near 6 hour race (the website’s calculator has me finishing in slightly under 6 hours. I figured 6, so I appreciate the slight nudge to shoot for a marginally better time.).

My last two long races I used the Nike Terra Kiger 3s  and up until 4 hours I was pretty pleased. After that, I started to develop a pain that felt like a growing bruise under my heels.

So what to do? I don’t really have time to break in or test out a new pair. And beside that, despite raving reviews, shoes rarely turn out to be the magical red slippers they’re pumped up to be. It’s no wonder that Dorothy tripped over those cobblestones and knocked herself out. Lesson learned; don’t let that charming Ginger Runner of the North talk you out of the comfortable flats you’ve been satisfied with all your life.

But that’s probably just sour grapes. Three times I’ve used a drop bag to change shoes in a race and only once did it actually work. The other two times I was hoping the changes would allow me to run through an injury. They didn’t.

But now I’m not injured and the one similar occasion where I wasn’t injured and changed shoes and completed the race, the change worked wonderfully and I ran my best 50 miler.

So I’m going to give it a go again with just a bit of a twist. Instead of swapping out the Nikes for a different pair of trail shoes, I’m going to switch into my road trainers; Saucony Breakthru 2s. They’re lighter and have a substantially larger drop, which should prove helpful over the last 10 miles. They don’t have the tread the Nikes have, but the course is substantially less hilly from that point on.

We’ll see if it works. If not, I at least hope I can objectively evaluate what all the factors are that will have contributed to any mistakes I might make, and not just automatically assume some new and shiny slippers would’ve seen me clicking my heels after a magical performance.

Michael: Not Quite

The Lagunas road
Is a slithering siren
That leaves one exhausted.

Thursday, August 31, 2017

About 8 months ago my little Nextbook tablet decided not to connect to the internet any more. It was just over a year old so I didn’t want to give up on it, pitch it, and spend money on a new tablet if it could be repaired for a reasonable cost.

Here, in Volcan, it was suggested that I take to Aidy’s in David to have it checked out. The charge was only $5 to give it a look over, so what the heck.

 But after Manuel, the repairman, and I exchanged numerous phone calls for a good three weeks, I decided to pull the plug on his attempts to find the appropriate part.

Instead, I took it to the states with me and gave a good old U.S. of A. repair shop a crack at it. The repair shop in San Clemente charged me  $50 bucks to look it over and after they did, they suggested I purchase a USB drive internet connector for $50, and voila, the problem was solved.

Seemingly.

Shortly after I picked it up the touch screen no longer worked and the screen wouldn’t rotate. I could use it one position with a mouse, but that kind of kills the whole convenience aspect of having a tablet. It was too late to return to the shop in San Clemente, so I decided once back in Panama I’d give Manuel another go at it.

I left it with him a few weeks ago and didn’t call until a couple of days ago.  To my surprise Manuel said it was as good as new. Yesterday I picked it up. The charge was $25. Today I tapped in the wi-fi code off our router at home and my little chubby Nextbook was once again fully operational.

Or so I thought. As they say in football, “Upon further review…”. At the store when Manuel demonstrated that it was working again and when I first got it home everything seemed hunky-dory. But then last night I decided to detach the touch screen from the keypad and that’s when I discovered it won’t work that way.

Why? I wondered. But that didn’t take long to figure out. The USB port with the gizmo that’s now providing the internet connection is on the keypad. Once that’s disconnected the screen loses its internet connectivity.
In essence, what I now have is a mini-laptop.

In total it’s cost me $130 to get to this point. That’s it. I’m done for now. The Notebook new cost a little over $200. It’s still useful and after all this fuss I’m in no hurry to shop around for a replacement. I’ll try to work around it’s new shortcomings, after all I went most of my life and was quite content without a tablet. But damned, it sure was a pretty amazing little device to have when it was fully operational.