Michael: The Rattler

The rattler rattled
Then slowly slithered away
To hide in the brush.

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

On Sunday, the day our guests arrive at the wellness resort to begin their seven day retreat, I spotted a long yellow racer snake just outside one of the guest’s rooms. This was the first time I had spotted a snake since being back in the states this year and I was excited about it. I shared my enthusiasm with the guest at orientation and told them that the advice that our naturalist gives them to stomp and they’ll go away, was effective.

As effective as it may be though, my inclusion of this eye witness account wasn’t taken well by my supervisor, who chastised me for bringing it up. She advised me, understandably, that these were city folks and their knowing that creepy crawlies were lurking about would be better left in a more theoretical framework, and that if I were to reference personal experience to use examples that had occurred at a distance from our current location.

Funny then that just two days later I again had an encounter with a snake, though this time with the only dangerous snake around here - the rattlesnake. As I was near the end of marking the trail on a bluff near Nicholas Canyon State Park, I sighted a two and a half foot long rattler stretched out on the trail. I was a bit surprised because at the time it was kind of foggy and cold. And the rattler, by his actions, was just as surprised, and probably a bit more displeased, with encountering me.

 I watched the snake from a safe distance before deciding to reach for my phone and take a picture, but the rattler took the opportunity while I was fumbling through my pack to crawl off and coil up under a nearby bush. He wasn’t far off the trail but was still extraordinarily well camouflaged.

I decided not to share this event with our guests given my recent hand slapping, but it’s a very good reminder to myself and those out there, to be careful where you step when looking for a place to potty off trail. It’s not likely you’ll encounter a rattler, but they’re out there and the damned bastards are pretty damned good at hiding right under our feet.

Michael: Traveling - Doggy Style

Traveling – Doggy Style: Monday, April 23, 2018

The striped racer snake

stretches out on the warm trail

absorbing the sun.

 

A 6 ½ hour flight is tormenting enough for us human types, but most of us have gone through it enough to know what to expect. So I really can’t imagine what it was like for our little Luna ( I only call her that for the alliteration. Actually, she’s a pretty stocky medium sized lab/pit bull mix.).

 

Try to imagine being taken from your home in a tiny prison cell (though this is where at least one aspect of her in flight experience might be better than ours as at least she can stand up and move around whenever she likes.), thrown into the darkness of some … room? Where you’ll spend the next ten hours undergoing exposure to all kinds of weird sensations that we associate with taking off and landing along with in flight turbulence.

 

And I’m a pretty sound sensitive person but I can’t imagine what kind of torture a dog senses being exposed to the constant howl of jet engines for 10 hours.

 

And though we strapped water and food to her cage she wasn’t fed or given water until we uncaged her. Being vegetarians, we weren’t fed either, outside of the usual airline snacks, but that was voluntary on our part. Next time I’ll have to remember to strap some treats to myself.

 

Still, despite all these horror producing experiences she came through with flying colors; not even peeing until we let her out of her cage. Ahh…that’s a sweet relief I’m sure we can all relate to.

Michael: Caught in the Net

Magical mirrors
Only answer honestly
To deranged people.

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Where I work as a hiking guide encourages people to detox by going internet free for a week while they hike, exercise, get massages and eat delicious vegan meals.

Not surprisingly, where people end up cheating the most is the internet. Just about everyone carries there phone with them and when they here the “ping” of service availability they’re on it like I’m on gas station chocolate and coffee on my way home from work.

Right now I’m spending two nights a week there and even that seems like a burden when it comes to refraining from the great and powerful WWW. With wi-fi I’m usually able to call my wife in Panama every night though it was out completely last week for a few days. Outside of that, and checking on the weather, up until last Thursday I did manage to refrain from checking my personal e-mail or doing any other on-line personal business or searches.

But finally I broke down and the lure of the net and fatigue overcame the serenity of my location and purpose of my employee and I tuned into Colbert. I’m going to try and not make a habit out of it and stick to reading. After all, I do believe it doesn’t hurt to disconnect for a bit. The world goes on without us and it’s also kind of fun to be out of loop for at least a couple of days.

Michael: Three Blind Mice

The iron rocks rust
And weather like an old face
That’s been out too long.

Monday, March 26, 2018

I learned many things during my pop quiz half iron man attempt yesterday.

First off, I learned I’m not the only one prone to getting lost while racing as the two leaders and I played three blind mice and we all missed the two loop half marathon turn around. The leaders were a good 75 yards ahead of me when I turned a corner and was conflicted. I had a young volunteer directing me to a tunnel and the turn around and I had the two leaders running straight up the bike trail ahead of me. I asked the volunteer why they were going straight and she shrugged her shoulders and said she didn’t know. I let her age, my adrenaline, and both our lack of adamancy to the conclusion that I should follow the two leaders.

About a quarter mile later I ran into an older gentleman at an aid station who said I was going the wrong way. He said he sent his young son to try and redirect the leaders but he couldn’t catch them. At that point I was pretty exasperated. I could’ve possibly regrouped and won, but it wouldn’t have meant very much to me. As is I got some of what I came for so decided to jog back to the start line and talk to the race director.

The race director was very understanding and asked me to e-mail him and he’d discount/comp me a future race.

I was using this race as a training and equipment check, and for that it will help a bit.

First off, running in the Saucony Fastwitches worked fine and they’ll serve as my road race shoe this year for all the distances I plan on competing in which will be between a mile and half marathons.

Pacing wise, I only got one accurate mark; a two mile time around 13 minutes. Not bad, so even if I slowed a bit and just averaged 6:40 the rest of the way, I think I can train to go well under 1:30 in the half. But given the effort I was feeling I’m really going to have to pick up the tempo work to hit under 5:30 at the State Street Mile in June. I was hoping to go under 1:20 but with only two months to go I’m recalibrating.

Next up will be some trail races on my birthday weekend in May; a 20 miler on Cinco de Mayo and the Verdugo 10k the next day. That’ll be interesting to see how my legs respond to the short recovery. I use to do something like that every year, actually running three races in two days; the Santa Monica 5 and 10k followed the next day by a half marathon in Carpenteria. I did well and enjoyed it. It’ll be interesting to see how age both effects my performances and feelings.

Michael: Hopefully Better Than the Dream

Cinnamon bobcat
Trots into the green gully
And out the mud road.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

For my 50th birthday I got a custom painted Guru tri-bike. I love it. I still have it. I’m going to race with it again soon.

For my upcoming 60th birthday I can’t afford to be quite as selfish. I’m still going to be selfish and I’m still going to indulge my little boy wishes to get a new bicycle, but there’s going to have to be a few compromises due to financial constraints stemming from a diminished earning capacity and increases in family obligations.

But enough of that mamby pamby real life downer stuff; what bike will I be riding for hopefully the next 10 years?

Turns out it’ll be the Cannondale Evo Hi-Mod Dura Ace 2 56cm 2017 in the Vulgar (or whatever the vug. Stands for) paint scheme.

Why? Because at just a tad over $3k, I couldn’t pass up the value. Originally I was looking at the Cannondale CAAD 12 Dura Ace Disc in the close to Vikings purple paint scheme to indulge that little boy of mine, but at nearly $1k more, the adult Michael threatened the little Monster Michael with a good whipping if he didn’t listen to reason.

Listen; even though it doesn’t have disc brakes and isn’t purple, it’s still beautiful, it’s lighter, it’s carbon fiber and you’re still getting a great gift when you really could and probably should be doing other things with your allowance.

You’re right. I shouldn’t be sulking and should be grateful. So when can I get it?

Michael: Finished Before the Finish Line

Panamanian
Mountain sky is a light show
Of stars and planets.

Monday, March 19, 2018

Just days away from my last road race as a 59 year old and I’m already dreading the outcome will dash I’ll my big dream hopes going into my big race year as a 60 year old.

How come? Because I have no idea of what to expect, yet if I feel good and feel that I ran a good race, I know it’ll be wise to use the results to modify the pace of my workouts and my expectations for the upcoming year.

Right now I’m running almost purely by feel. I do speed work on a slight uphill in Griffith Park on Mondays. I run hard for 30 seconds 9 times than do three all out efforts for 22 seconds on near level ground. I roughly know that I’m holding steady week by week because of the landmarks I use to quantify me efforts, but I don’t know the distance.

That’s also how I’ve been running my tempo runs on Wednesday: three minutes hard; one minute off, but again I don’t know the distance I’m covering.

But soon I will. I’ll be running a two loop basically flat course that’ll add up to a half marathon. I’ve run half marathons within the last 10 years under 1:25, so I’ll be very interested to see how the numbers shake out Sunday.

If they don’t look good I’ll probably have to adjust my dream of going under 5:20 in the State Street mile in June, and whether it’s realistic to expect to run a road 10k around 40 and a 5k around 19. I’ll also have to re-think whether the trail Bull Dog 25k  in August under 2:10 is plausible.

On the other hand, if all goes well I can continue with the way I like to train and not worry about jumping on a track or getting a watch that will give me a more objective readout of my workouts.

I really do enjoy working out the way I have been, but I’m also results driven and am willing to modify my training if that’s what it takes to improve. Either way, Sunday will be an eye opener.

Michael: Function and Style

The light blue flowers
Hang delicately over
The cold hard soil.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

One of the most exciting aspects of racing is coordinating my race kits for the year. And I always like to start from the ground up. This year, I’ll be rotating through three pairs of race shoes; all purchased on sale from Runningwarehouse.com.

For road racing, based off the reviews and reasonable price, I was going to go with the red/yellow Saucony Type A8, but decided to switch to the even less expensive Saucony Fastwitches. For $60 and based off the reviews, I’m hoping they’ll work across a spectrum distances from road mile to half marathon. I’ll find out next weekend if that holds true as I’ll be racing in the Cottontail Half Marathon in Van Nuys.

The Fastwitches are black with grey highlights and a hi-viz sole; really nothing overly pizzazz-y and pretty in line with the trend in color schemes and aesthetics. So building up from that block I’ll go with either basic white socks or a heavenly blue. I had a nice pair of lime Smartwool thin socks but they’ve worn a hole through the big toe which is often the case when my big toes match up with Smartwool thins.

Shorts wise, I have a pair of Saucony half tights that are black with green hi-lights that I hope can pull double duty as road/tri shorts. I was lucky to get the last Pearl Izumi tri top in white with black, yellow and green trim that match my Gumby theme painted Guru tri bike perfectly. If we all don’t get some compliments at my first duathlon in over three years, I’m going to be very disappointed.

I hesitate to wear a tri top to a pure road race, as I feel it makes me look and feel like I’m in it as a training run and not as a tried and true road racer. Granted, I’m not, but I’ll feel even less so if I don’t dress the part, so I may go with a different top/bottom set up but at least I have a fall back and I can always con myself into believing I’m using this as a test run for a duathlon race down the road even though I’ll be gunning for a high place age group finish.

For trail races I have my tried and true Nike Kiger 3s for distances over 10k and New Balance Gobi 2s for shorter events. The Kiger’s are a light shade of blue and the Gobi’s are a darker shade of blue with green hi-lights. For any race I can pair those with the Saucony half tights but what I’m really excited about is doing a few longer races where I can make use of TNFs five pocket flight series 5” shorts. I love the thought of using the pockets to carry Skratch Lab chews and electrolytes and possibly going sans pack and getting by with just my Hydrapak 20 oz. collapsible that after a few sips I can stow comfortably in my shorts behind me. I really love the aesthetics of these black and grey shorts with just a touch of hi-viz along the waist. If it’s warm I can pair those shorts with the BOA shark tank. The idea of wearing a ‘shark tank’, one of our favorite shows, is just too irresistible to pass up.

I always like some random element thrown in most of the things I do, so I feel fortunate that I found a Buff cap while browsing at REI that’ll pretty well match up with whatever I’ll wear.

That all this matches with my ladies Timex triathlon watch that I got on sale last year is also a small bit of whimsy that gives me a bit of a smile.

I’m sure at some point in my early life this would’ve all had my friends wondering if I was gay, but these are different times, thank goodness, and I feel comfortable letting my inner diva stroll down the runway.