OOPS

Please excuse the audio clips that don't work and naturally, I couldn't figure out how to delete them without losing the entire post. Ah well, this will pass.

A View From My Backyard

After a very nice dinner of bbq chicken, mashed potatos and steamed vegies, I settled down on our bench in the backyard. I read from Jason Elliot's "An Unexpected Light." A fantastic book, it chronicles Elliot's travels through Afganistan, the people he meets and the culture he discovers. I think that governments that try to unify that many tribeled land are engaging in a futile and tragic exercise. Why do they do it? I think that politicians feed on such quests, believing that governments and laws are the answer to all problems and in order to justify their pathetic existence, say they will solve the never ending problem. I suppose I could fall into the trap of losing sleep over taxes yet to be paid, the job that I have to work inorder to pays those taxes or, I could come to my senses, sit on my bench, drink a beer and read a book.

Backpacking and Fly Fishing in Yosemite 7/16/10 to 7/18/10

What does fly fishing have to do with running, well nothing, except both are outdoor activities and I live and outdoor life. So, there you go.

Around 5:30, my friend Don and I started our trip to to the Ten Lakes region of Yosemite. This is a photo I took of the lake in the early morning, right before we started fishing.

This is the last part of the trail before arriving at the lake. Phew! hardest hike ever!

While Don was doing this...................I was doing this

Take a look at the dark clouds behind me. Just seconds earlier, there was lightening. And here I am holding a metal fishing rod.  Sometimes I'm a regular Einstein!

So beautiful, I can't wait to go back

JOURNEYS-1973

My parents were either insane or perfect normal and had an insane moment. Either way, they let me live by myself 130 miles away from home for my senior of high school. Looking back, this wasn't the beginning of my travels, just the first of my prolonged journeys. This bout of insanity wasn't the first time my parents went off the deep end. In my sophmore year of high school, they let a friend and I use their car to drive up to their cabin. That ended when I let my friend drive even though he didn't have a license. I looked up from my book to see a wall of redwood trees in front of us as we drove off a cliff. My parent's car was severely damaged, but repairable. When my parents again went insane, letting that same friend and I take the same car on a roadtrip to Northern California and Southern Oregon, I made sure to finish the job on the car by playing pinball at 90 miles an hour on the steel girders bordering a southern Oregon highway. My parents were apparently slow learners.

Growing Old with You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CYI5bKZMes

Yes, it's an awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww moment. That is, if this link works!

Life in the Slow Lane

In a moment of insanity. my wife agreed to go camping on Mt. Diablo this weekend.  What's not to like? 90 degree heat and very long and steep hike to the summit. RV's full of over indulged, overfed and over beered morons at the campsite up the hill?

Well, Here's something to like. Sunset at Juniper Campground. Pretty sweet, hey? 

More signs................

This from MAB

….”that you dated someone who worked for Mountain Hardware wayyyyyyy longer than you should have because the thought of having to give up free outdoor performance wear and spontaneous camping trips was too much to bear”

Signs that you were destined to live your life in the outdoors

1) When you were a toddler and your Mom said it was time to go inside, you wailed so loud dogs and cats hid from your voice.

2) That you weren't running away from home, you were just going for a long hike.

3) When you were a kid on a tour of Alcatrez, visions of your school flashed in your head.

4) When you served in the Navy, you thought it was a great idea to go for a run at 2am on a greasy steel flight deck that was pitching 10-30 degreess from side to side.

5) When your buddies invited you to go on a pub crawl and you tell them that you have to hit the sack early to get a good start on a hiking/biking/fishing trip to the mountains.

6) That all of your work clothes are made by The North Face.

7) That your favorite artist is Ansel Adams, followed closely by Jimmy Chin. and that you even know who these people are.

8) That your apartment and later your house contains the following toys, kayak, hiking/camping gear, mountain bike, road bike, fishing gear, climbing gear,surfboard and trail/road running shoes. Also known as having your own personal sports basement.

9) That when you walk by a building, you think, "hey, that might be fun to climb."

10) That you believe that skateboarders are kindred spirits and highly talented and dedicated athletes and not obnoxious punks destroying perfectly good concrete.

11) That your favorite tv channels are Universal Sports, Versus, Discovery and National Geographic.

12) That you believe that Jacque Cousteau is the world's greatest Frenchman and one of the world's greatest explorers and should be ordained to be the patron saint of the ocean.

13) That if you had a choice, the new national anthem would be written and sung by Jack Johnson.

14) That you think women with skinned knees and hands from climbing or mountain biking are a lot sexier than some bimbette in LA.

15) That you think that men wearing suits, except on formal occasions like weddings and funerals are woosies.

16) That men should never wear purses or use briefcases. Backpacks only please.

17) That you have a 6 foot high stack of old Outside Magazines in your home.

18) That you have only read GQ magazine when visiting the doctor and even that, you were only reading it for laughs.

19) That you hate all Tom Cruise movies except the beginning of Mission Impossible 2 when he is doing some climbing.

20) That you try not to laugh when some overfed frat boy with cheeto and beer stains on his "No Fear" tee shirt tells you about how much he loves sports.  

Okay, that's enough from me feel free to add more!

Born to Run 2

If you've read my post about the book Born to Run, you'll know how much I loved it. Now, thanks to Outside Magazine (my favorite magazine of all time), you can look at photos of the great race. See Jurek, Micah True aka Caballo, the local runners and the beautiful country that is Copper Canyon.

http://outsideonline.com/travel/travel-gd-running-mexicos-copper-canyon-photos-photo-gallery-sidwcmdev_123105.html

A Hot Day On Mt. Diablo

Going into this 25K race, my goals were to find out what kind of shape I was in and to get in some solid training miles. It's a good thing my goals were modest because the course the race directors chose resulted in all but the very best runners walking large portions of the uphill trails to the summit. Oh and throw in a 90 degree day and it could have been a grim tale indeed for yours truly. But, since I was treating it like a training run and not a race, I wore my hydration pack. Talk about your life saver!!! I emptied it about 2/3 of the way, filled it up at the aid station and then refilled it at the summit. Sport Jellies by Jelly belly, loads of salty potato chips and a granola bar were enough food to get me through the race. I am glad I did this race, but have to admit that I much prefer the trails on the north side where I live, more interesting, hardly any walking and MORE SHADE!! haha

Stats  3:32, 47th place overall, 3rd place in my age group.

I was more nervous about how a runner I've been coaching did in her trail half marathon. Finally, she called and gave me her race report and it was a good one! 3:02 and a solid placing. WAY TO GO ROBIN!!!

First Race of the Year

On Saturday, June 5th, I'll be doing the Diablo 25K on Mt. (you guessed it!) Diablo. I haven't been doing much serious training, so, I'm pretty nervous. I try to tell myself this is just for training, but I haven't convinced myself. We'll see!

Get This Book

 
Here is the Barnes & Noble review of "Born to Run."



Filled with unforgettable characters who go fully against the cultural grain (a mysterious Mexican tribe of cliff dwellers who run hundreds of miles with ease, a cerebral former prizefighter who's become a hermit in the Mexican hills, a vegan ultra-serene ultramarathoner, two Beat-loving young guns who drink as hard as they run, a hilarious, Kramer-like renegade barefoot runner with logorrhea), Christopher McDougall's first book, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, ostensibly tells the tale of the seriously socially challenged and self-named Caballo Blanco (White Horse) and his attempts to put together a 50-mile running race between the elite members of the dwindling Taruhumara tribe and some of the best American practitioners of ultrarunning, a sport for those who for some reason want to go farther than the standard 26.2-mile marathon distance. But McDougall, a contributing editor for Men's Health and a writer-at-large for Runner's World, as well as an ultrarunner who competes in the eventual race, uses the occasion to convincingly overturn standard running ideas (you don't need those super-expensive, mega-cushioned shoes!), figure out just why our ancestors picked up their hands from the ground and started running upright, and back up the concept that Nike is to blame for every running injury in existence for the past two decades. Along the way, he shares the stories of his characters and the history of ultrarunning in such an entertaining and engaging fashion that at times you want to put the book down, kick off your shoes, head out the door, and just simply run. --Mark J. Miller


It's all true. Also, Scott Jurek and Ann Trason, two premier trail runners participated in the race with the Tarahumara Indians. http://www.scottjurek.com/ had their hands full with men in their 50's!  One Tarahumara man in his late 50's won the Leadville 100 trail race. http://www.leadvilletrail100.com/ 

El Blanco Cabballo, one of the heroes of Born to Run.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o375sYfPC3w

Keep Dreaming says the White Horse.

Read this book!!!

Going with the flow

I often run along the Embarcadero and look at the Bay and the Bridge. The water on top is like glass. The water, or current under the surface flows, constant, yet unseen.

Ask yourself, have I ever gone out for a run and then find you've forgotton entire setions of the run you've already completed? You were...........IN THE FLOW! You weren't thinking about how far you were running or how fast. In fact, you probably weren't thinking about the run at all. Granted, having this experience while running down Market Street in San Francisco would be pretty scary. Anywhere else would be be pretty special. Some people call this nirvana. Some people even meditate, concentrating on their breathing, slowly and regularly to find this exalted state. Runners, aren't able to breath slow, but, we can breathe regularly, in a rhythm and maybe, this is part of entering the flow.


 Running down some nice winding singletrack, the goal is to run fast and yet, avoid the faceplant. So, how do you manage that? By using or better yet, becoming a part of the terrain. Running in a regular, even pace, quick feet and arms on the balls of my feet, gets me uphill efficiently.Better still, running using the berms (those mounds of dirts that build up on the outside of a hairpin tun) allow the runner to run smoothly and as I like to say, smooth equals fast. Running downhill, feet lifting up to avoid rocks and roots, arms wide and looking ahead and not at ones feet means a smooth run downhill. Even breathing is key to being relaxed and "flowing" down the trail or road or sidewalk.

The photo above was taken at the 2008 Angel Island 25K put on by Envirosports. Two firsts for me at this race. First, I had never run in a trail race before this one and the experience was eye opening. The people and the "vibe" were very different from a road race or track meet. Almost, the Olympics meets Burning Man. Second, for the first time in my life, I entered the flow during a race. By that, I mean that there were sections of the race where I couldn't hear my breathing or feel my legs touch the ground. I also don't remember passing by the photographer who took this picture.


Flowing can take other forms. What would you call a lifestyle where instead of making a reservation based on a review by someone you don't even know, driving and parking the car and then eating at a restaurant, you grilled your fish or meat in the backyard in the afternoon sun. Ate a salad from lettace, peppers and tomatoes from your backyard garden. Ate and chatted and relaxed with family and friends as the sun went down over the horizon. I'd call that flowing with my loved ones. A natural state of being not artificial in any way.

I have seen rock climbers in the flow. Planning and then doing a series of moves on the rock, in a definite rhythm to a song the climber can hear. Ever think that the people at the climbing gym wearing the ear pods are on to something? Maybe finding a state that comes close to what they've experienced on real rock? Maybe you haven't, but I've climbed and wondered why so many rock climbers are also musicians. AND music "flows" doesn't it?

Running is natural. It's a natural state of animals. Before there were stop watches, ipods, GU, goretex, there was only running. Maybe for your next run, leave the gear behind, leave the plan behind and just run wherever your feet take you and go with the flow.

Marathons Chapter 1 Why do I ask why?

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is "how do I run a marathon?"  Normally, my response is to ask "why do you want to run a marathon?" The reason I ask is that there are many reasons why people want to run a marathon which I will get to, but I need to know the real reason in order to suggest a training plan to that runner. So, let's start with some of the reasons people have for wanting to run a marathon.

1) For ego. There are people who want to run a marathon, particularly a famous marathon such as Boston or the New York Marathon because they want to impress other people. They are looking for the "wow, you did that?" reaction. Rarely do people admit to this. Instead, they describe it as something on their "bucket" list or things to do before they die. I have no problem with people running a marathon for this reason. I need to know so I can build a program that will help the person achieve this goal. There are hundreds of books available which provide generic training plans, usually for an 18 week period that if you follow the plan, will result in finishing a marathon. That finishing takes 4 hours or more is irrelevant to the person collecting the finishers medal for bragging rights. Some of these people decide that they love the marathon and their goals change to:

2) To run the marathon in a personal best time. Preparing a training plan for this type of competitive runner is very complex given the differences in a runner's ability, prior training and racing and that most mystical criteria of all, "potential." Finding out the limits of potential can be scary and the greatest experience of one's life at the same time. It is scary because if a runner trains their best and races their best and STILL, it isn't good enough to win or place in a race, can be hugely demoralizing. It can also be the best experience of one's life because so few people are willing to find out what are the limits of their potential. I have to admit that coaching the type of runners who are willing to risk everything is the most rewarding for me. I find these type of runners to be courageous.

3) To run for a charity or a cause. These kinds of runners are similar to the "bucket list" runners in that running a fast time is not high on their priorities. Often these kinds of runners want to run in a group. Training these types of runner presents unique challenges. Among these are: 1) analyzing the abilities/experience/schedules of the individual runners and arranging a workout plan and schedule. 2) Teaching these runners the informal rules of racing so that while running for their charity, they don't spoil the race for the more serious runners. 3) Elevating their training to a level that will decrease the possibility of injury or illness.

4) To qualify for a big name MARATHON such as the Boston or New York marathons. Training plans for this type of runner have only one goal, to run a race at a time that will enable the runner to qualify for their dream race AND to assist that runner to run their best possible time. Training plans for this type of runner are very long term. Unlike the plans for the bucket list runner or the experienced marathoner seeking a best time, a 18 week plan is insufficient. There are actually two plans, the first leading to the qualifying race and the second for the dream race. A poorly thought out plan for either will result in not qualifying or running a poor "dream" race.


This is why I ask "why."

Rules for Running Guys

1) When you are running and a woman passes you, resist the temptation to speed up and pass her, thereby avoiding cardiac arrest.

2) Never wear short shorts.

3) Jiggling love handles are not sexy, wear a shirt.

4) If you want flat feet and bad knees, go ahead and run on concrete in your Air Jordans.

5) Never be the guy that stands at the starting line for a 10K or longer race, starts the race by sprinting as fast as he can until after 300 yards or so, he is standing on the side of the road, puking his guts out.

6) Also, don't be the loudmouth that has to talk non-stop during the noon run with the fellas. Shut up! Nobody cares that you are the only person on the planet that knows what a derivitive is.

7) Face it, you're a runner, not a body builder, go easy on the weights and the protein shakes. You'll save a ton of money on protein shakes, gym memberships,steroids and muscle magazines.

8) Want to make friends at the races, bring beer, it's as simple as that.

9) Want to impress the women at the races? Either win an Olympic Gold Medal or better yet, don't talk about your races, ask about her race.

10) Shower, often. Yes, even more often than that.

How not to be a running snob

Do you look at a runner as you pass, noting that they're wearing plain sneakers and not running shoes?
Do you wear brand coordinated running clothes, even to the grocery store?
Do you time everything, from walking around the mall to walking to the copy machine and record your pr's?
When someone asks if you jog, do you sneer and say, "I'm a runner, not a jogger?"
Do you know any of these names Scott Jurek, Steve Prefontaine, Grete Waitz, Dean Karnazes, Evelyn Ashford, Dinesh Dineba, Kip Keino,  Paul Tergat?
Do you know the difference between supinate and pronate?
Do you yell at people on the track when you pass, "on your left!" and then get mad if they don't immediately move over?
Do you wear your finishers medal from some race for the next week, to the store, to work?
Do you know who John L. Parker is and are you a member of the Once a Runner Cult?

If you answered yes to at least three of the above questions, then you are a running snob!

The first step in avoiding becoming one of the most tedious people on earth, besides those people who recite their golf scores to me every Monday morning, is to only talk about running with other runners. Do bowlers bore the crap out of poker players with how close they came to bowling a 300 game? No! They don't. Stick to your own kind, people who actually know what shin splints are and show some sympathy that you have them.

The second step in avoiding running snobdom, is to never wear the tee shirts from your races to non-running events. Not the mall, not the movies and definitely not to work on "casual" Friday. Also, I know how much you love your Nike Techno Running shoes, just leave them at home for weddings and funerals, okay? Unless of course, its for a funeral of a runner, in which case, you can skip the hearse and you and your five other running friends can carry the casket to the cemetary and see if you can get a PR. *

*If you know that "PR" refers to "personal record" then you are a running snob/geek.

Finally, if the only magazines or books you read are related to running, then you need to put down your Runner's World coffee cup on your Running Times coaster and go out and eat some pizza, drink some beer no, make that a lot of beer or some scotch and watch a non-inspirational movie, try Woodie Allen.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the frame shop to get my finishing certificate for the New York Marathon framed for the office.

Can Training and Coaching Mix.

Since the New York Marathon, I've been battling injuries, laziness and my golf game. I have until April, continued to put in the minimal milage to avoid getting fat. During that time, I've been doing some individual coaching. Feeling more than a little guilty about talking about serious training and not doing any, I've listed out races I want to do this year and drafted a training schedule. With that in mind, my first race is on June 5, 2010 at Mt. Diablo. It will be a 25K trail race on my home trails. The thinking is that this will make my transition back into race a little easier. More to come.

Back again

It's been a long cold lonely winter. Oh, right, George Harrison sings that in "Here Comes the Sun." But, it's true. The weather is getting warmer, the runs longer and the fitness higher. Soon, the siren call of races will be heard from runners from far and wide. This Monday is Boston. I was able to compete there last year and it was definitely an event. Hard to believe though that some people run there year after year after year. I think the challenge is over by then and the point is just to brag about how many times they've run Boston, missing the point entirely if you are a serious racer. So, good luck to all you racers getting ready for the new season!

Back on "Track"

Last week was the first week I was allowed to run. I really missed it. Ran 3 times for a total of 21 miles. The last run was pretty miserable, because it was just work to keep a 8 a mile pace. In between runs, I went to the gym and did strength and stretching work. The plan is to only run 3-4 races this year as a participant and 1-2 races as a pacer. Also planning on getting more serious about golf, took a lesson on Saturday. It must have worked because I scored my first hole in one!

Back from the dark side

Since the NYC Marathon, I've spent my time recovering, cross training and undergoing countless medical tests to see if I have prostate cancer. So, that has kept me away from my blog and my exercise has been pretty limited. At most 3 runs a week with some weightlifting and golf. I did have a lot of time for reflection on how I would deal with having cancer. I decided to treat it like a race. By that I knew that there would be times when I would feel like I was fast and flowing down the trails. There would be times when I would want to quit and stop the pain. Once I decided how I would deal with it, I was able to sleep at night and focus at work.

Two days ago, after the biopsy results came back, I got the good news that I am cancer free. So now, on to phase two of my plan. Since I tried to do some exercise these past two months, I am in reasonably good shape to start foundation training which will start on February 8th. That is the date that the doctors said I could run again. Biopsies being painful and traumatic to the nether regions and need healing.

On another note, I have been asked to do some coaching for some co-workers as they prepare for a half marathon. Writing out training plans and talking about workouts has been fun and I'll keep on doing that.

So, my apologies to those who have looked for my notes and come away empty. Of course, some people who read my notes, might feel pretty empty as well. hahahaha