Kicking my own Ass

I've been kicking it up this week. Not so much the number of miles run, but the quality and difficulty of the runs mixed in with lots of cross training (allied to the by-now usual lack of sleep, courtesy of my favorite 2 month old :-) ).

Here are the highlights.

On Sunday I followed up a crappy early morning run with a full hour of nonstop lunges, squats and crunches. Eventually quit when my legs wouldn't stop shaking.

Monday evening I ran Walnut Creek with Eric and Alan. The recent rains had made it really slippery, and at one point I made a tight corner and slid, but managed to stay upright. I turned around to watch Eric sliding completely off the trail into the brush, then we both turned around to watch Alan fall flat on his face. Of course, we then had to point out every bit of mud for the rest of the run. I think he was ready to kill us by the end - classic!!!

Tuesday evening I hammered road hill repeats for a solid hour - I did 21 repeats, including 3 backwards and ran myself into the ground. I was still a little sore from Sunday's mega leg session, and summer made an unwelcome temporary return - the temperature was in the mid-90s and I went home soaked.

Wednesday morning I had some welcome relief and did an early morning Danish run with Clea. I always enjoy these - just running and chatting with friends - and as an added bonus she had kindly stopped by the club meeting the night before and picked up my HCTR shirt order.

Note to Marcia - they are awesome!!!

Thursday morning I did some yoga because my neck/upper back was feeling a little stiff. Then in the evening I did some more leg work, which consisted of 30 minutes of nothing but squats. Up, down, hold, pulse, sink lower and hold again then repeat. Wide stance, narrow stance, feet pointing out, feet pointing forward, with and without weights, two legs, one leg and every variation thereof.

Friday the neck was worse, and I woke up unable to turn my head to the right. I'm not certain but I think I did it while avoiding a headbutt from baby Dylan during one of our midnight jaunts around the living room.

Then this morning I skipped my early run and just went out for 10 miles of road with my group. My neck is still sore, but I was feeling frisky so I hammered the 10 miles and left my group way behind while collecting 10 sub-7:30 miles in a row (finishing with a 6:50 last mile). Then I drove down to St Eds to meet up with Alan and did another 10 miles of trail hill repeats. That slowed me down, and not having eaten anything this morning finally caught up with me. On the last loop I was pulling myself up the hills by imagining a large bacon sandwich with mushroom and cheese sprinting up the trail ahead of me.

I never caught it so I made one when I got home - it was delicious, so I had another. And some toast. And some trail mix. And I'm still hungry.

16 miles of trails at Bastrop State park planned for tomorrow morning. Nap planned for this afternoon.

Loving this cooler weather.


***Sunday update: cut the Bastrop run short at 10 miles due to torrential rain. Still an enjoyable run though.

Anyone need a pacer?

I won't be running the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler this coming February since I will be camping outside the Austin ISD building overnight on the Friday to get a school transfer request in for Gavin when they open on the Saturday morning.

However, I will be free later in the day so thought I would see if anyone who is running needed a pacer for the last 20 or 40 miles. I did the 100 there earlier this year, had a great race and really enjoy Huntsville State park.

So if you're running and want company for the night portion, or just someone to kick your butt and bully you into crossing that finish line, let me know and we'll figure something out.

Lottery for Western States

I am debating whether or not to enter my name in the lottery for the Western States 100 next June. For those who don't know, it's kind of like the Boston marathon of ultras - 100 miles through the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. The race goes from Squaw Valley (at 6,200ft) to Auburn, with 18,000ft of climb (2,550 in the first 4½ miles) and 23,000ft of descent inbetween, and follows the original trails used by the gold and silver miners of the 1850s.

It also has an interesting origin, being first completed in 1974 by Gordy Ainsleigh. A previous finisher of the Tevis cup endurance trail horseback ride, his horse turned up lame that year so he decided to run the course on foot instead and staggered across the finish line just under 24 hours later.

I've already met the qualification standards, and although the course has a reputation of being as tough as it is beautiful I also know that I have the physical and mental ammunition to finish it.

But the big downside for me is the expense, especially with a new baby. It's nearly $300 just to enter the race - I could buy a lot of diapers for that!!! Add on flights, rental cars and expensive accommodations, and that's a sizeable chunk of change. Nancy is all for us going as a vacation, but I'd feel guilty and selfish - it won't be much fun for her following me around with two small kids when it's freezing in the mountains and over 100F in the canyons. I think they deserve a better vacation than that.

I have until October 15th to decide, but I suspect I may pass. It would be fun, but running 100s is not the most important thing in the world for me.

Odds are I wouldn't get in anyway.

Fall is in the Air

Autumn smells of cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin, and the first clue that summer is finally over is when our local grocery store starts stocking my favorite Pumpkin ale. As a bonus, this morning they also had clusters of cinnamon brooms that make the store smell divine. Halloween is also coming - one of my favorite holidays (though my Halloween this year is doubly scary since I will be attempting to run 100 miles on it).

This weekend we had some very welcome rain, and yesterday I got in a great 10 mile run with my group before it started. Since this is my pullback weekend I didn't do any extra mileage beforehand so I was feeling frisky and went out fast. We ran around the Brushy Creek neighborhood and every three miles or so I'd stop and wait for my group to catch up. I'd let them all pass me then chase them down again. I did this three times, and it was a great focused workout.

On the other hand today's run sucked, so the less said about it the better :-)

We had company this weekend, and last night we drove out to Lockhart for some yummy BBQ at Blacks. Lockhart is famous for its BBQ, and Blacks was a really cool throwback, exactly what comes to mind when you think of good ol' Texas BBQ - the jukebox was playing oldtime music and you could smell the smoke in the bones of the building. We enjoyed a great feast of brisket, sausage, potato salad, coleslaw and pinto beans, finished off with some peach cobbler.

Tonight I decided to take advantage of our cool and rainy weekend by making some of my rustic and hearty Irish Stew.

Irish Stew with GuinnessThis dish contains three of the staples of Irish cooking - meat, potato and Guinness. And let's face it, there's nothing more Irish than a good old pint of the black stuff - it flavors this wonderful stew to perfection. The addition of prunes adds some sweetness that offsets the distinctively bitter taste of the Guinness.

You could cook it in a stock pot or large saucepan, but I think cast iron imparts a ton of extra flavor, so I always use my trusty dutch oven.

Serve with a side salad and warm bread.

Ingredients
1lb beef (chuck roast, stewing beef etc), cubed
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups beef stock
1 can of Guinness
2-3 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced into chunks
2 large carrots, thickly sliced
1/2 cup prunes, halved and pitted
2 bay leaves
Thyme and ground pepper (to taste)

Heat 1Tbsp canola oil in the dutch oven and add the onions. Cook until transluscent then add the garlic and cook for a minute longer. Remove from dutch oven and set aside.

Heat another Tbsp of oil and brown the beef quickly under medium-high heat. Reduce heat and stir in the flour until the meat is coated.

Add the stock and stir until it forms a thick sauce

Pour in the Guinness and stir until it reaches a simmer. Add the onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, prunes, herbs and pepper. Stir until combined.

Simmer uncovered for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally. This will allow the sauce to reduce and thicken, and result in a wonderfully rich and flavorful gravy. A big bowl of this will warm you up and fill you up on cold winter nights, and defines the term "comfort food".

An Impression of Expression

I love the amazing range of expressions that babies have. They may not be able to talk but they can communicate in so many different ways. In a short space of time this afternoon, Nancy took the following pictures of Dylan.

Dylan thoughtful	Dylan happy

Dylan surprised	Dylan plotting mischief

He was sitting in this chair a few days ago and I sat him up on the edge so we could play. I turned around to say something to Nancy and while I was looking away he pulled himself to his feet, stood up and looked around with the cheekiest expression I've seen outside his older brother. He seemed to be saying "Hey daddy, this ain't so hard".

I thought it may have been a fluke so I sat him back down. Sure enough he pulled himself right back up again. I took my hands away and he just stood there grinning at me.

Jeez kid, you're only two months old and I'm not ready to start moving stuff out of reach yet. Please learn to crawl first!!!

Can I Still Call it Deckmart?

Last December I took on the "Deckmart" challenge - running 50 miles at Sunmart followed by the notoriously hilly Decker half marathon the next day. I felt great, smashed my 50 mile PR on day one, then ran and chatted away the entire Decker race with Clea (who had run the 50k at Sunmart) on day two. It turned out to be the last running of Sunmart, so our unique challenge seemed to be consigned to history.

But Sunmart was reinvented earlier this year at the Texas Trails 50k, and the challenge was back on. Huntsville State park is one of my favorite places to run, so I knew right then that I would probably end up running it. Last night I finally took the plunge and signed up for both races.

The only problem is what to call the challenge this year. Sunmart is no longer involved so the old name no longer applies. Anyone got any ideas?