Constructive weekend

It always feels nice to get a lot of things done. This past weekend, Lucy and I accomplished a lot of things that may not have been fun, but were necessary. First, we had both of our cars serviced and had the brakes replaced in Lucy's car. She will be working in St.Louis during the month of March so we wanted to get this out of the way. I'll be making a few trips back and forth from KC to St.Louis so I'll be putting many miles of my car as well.

We then cleaned the apt. for the rest of the afternoon. We washed clothes, vaccumed the apt., did the dishes, and finally, swept the patio.

Lucy skipped town on my birthday (2-17) to go to a bachorlette party in ATL so we had planned to go out to eat at a nice restaurant Saturday night, Cafe Maison. It's part of the KC Originals group, a collection of nice, locally owned restaurants. They're pretty expensive so we go when we can. The place was great and I had some of the best bread puddin' I've ever eaten! Apparently, they have a spectacular Sunday brunch and I think we'll hit it before we head to St.Louis next weekend.

Sunday was the dreaded 'tax day'. We both went to H&R Block only a few miles from the apartment. For me, 2005 was split between a having a fulltime job in Macon, GA until May and moving to KC and having freelance as my sole income afterwards. I'm no tax expert but I tried to organize all my financial info - payments received, reciepts, etc. I went to H&R expecting to have to pay a lot of money, but luckily for me, I had a lot of 'write-offs' from everything I had to buy to start freelancing (mainly $4,000+ for a G5 and a huge scanner). I didn't get back much money but anything was a relief. Maybe Lucy will extend my birthday wishes and use some of the money she got back on me!

After a busy but constructive weekend, I headed out today to enjoy the beautiful weather here and do some mountain biking. As luck would have it, I not only popped the tube, but tore the tire itself only a mile into the ride. Add 'fixing bike' to the list of things to do NEXT weekend.

Another WYCO update

All the finishing times from Psycho Wyco have been posted now. At first, I was just happy to finish and not worried about my times. Later, I saw the times and felt pretty good with my finish (23rd out of 43 finishers; 3rd in my age group [20-29]; 6hrs: 40min finishing time). Now, six days after the race, I'm a little disapointed with my finish because I KNOW I could do much better if I could have trained. I didn't 'bonk' and my breathing was perfect, but I didn't put enough 'time on my feet' to stay mobile for a 50k. My weak ankles and flat feet couldn't take it - evident by the swelling for days afterwards. Nothing bothers me more than not doing my best. Not that I think I didn't do my best DURING the race...I just didn't do my best getting ready for it.
Of course, I said I would never do another race like that again as I limped around this week. But maybe my ego and desire to keep pushing myself will get the best of me. Besides....there is a 50-miler coming up in April!!!!!!

Psycho Wyco race review

"Welp, at least I made myself finish." I keep saying to myself as I hobble around on my swollen, bum ankles today. I knew I hadn't trained enough of the past several months to compete in a 50k but I thought I could at least do the required three laps and finish.

I had run on the course many times. The KC Trail Nerds train there on Thursday nights and we usually do one lap (10+miles). No problem with that length...but my body usually starts breaking down around around the 'high teens'. It's not the dreaded 'wall' that marathoners talk about, but it's my flat feet and weak ankles that start to ache. I was just hoping that they could hold up for all three laps.

The weather in KC has been wonderful since Christas - mostly 40s and 50s and sunny. So it came as a surprise when I closed the door to leave and saw SNOW! And I saw on the news that it was only going to reach 30 degrees as the high. Thank you Mother Nature. You're not making it any easier for me. I don't mind the cold weather, but the snow makes the course HARD to run. Snow makes hill climbing harder...and even worse, the snow will melt and leave mud, my leave favorite thing on trails. I enjoy cruising on fast, rolling hills. This course is anything but: huge, steep, muddy hills to climb.

The number of people at the race took all of us by surprise. Ben, the race director, said last year, he had 40 people to sign up. This year after adding the raceday applicants, the total was 230 runners! (60 for the 50k; 50 for the 22miles; 120 for the 10miles). Ben did a marvelous job in organizing everthing (T-shirts, medals, food, marking the track, etc). Other KC Trail Nerds supplied food, soup, chili, etc so we had plenty of carbs to power through. I'll post pictures of the medal (w/ my logo!), T-shirts, and pics from the race soon!

I cruised through the first lap with no problems, but about halfway through the second lap, I knew I was in trouble. I completed the second lap after 3hr: 45min but I knew my feet were finished for the day and ready to hang it up. Call me determined (or just stupid), but I HAD to earn my finishers medal so I headed out for the third, and final, lap. It was bad...I tripped, hobbled, and whined my way through the last 10+ miles and crossed the finish line after 6hrs: 40 mins (yes...that's correct...it took me almost three hours to finish the last lap...barely more than the first two). I wasn't last place though!!! And considering it was only the second time I had ever run over 20 miles, it was an accomplishment....maybe not the smartest thing to do, but something I felt was important: to finish my hometown race in which my running group, KC Trail Nerds, sponsored.

As I crawl (literally) around my apt. today hoping the pain will go away within a few days, I consider myself lucky to be able to get outside and push myself. Maybe pushing (i.e. - hurting!) myself to finish will be a 'defenitive moment' for me. Nah...who am I kidding...it was just a race....

Songs for the race

I've been taking advantage of the ipod shuffle Lucy bought me for Christmas and have used it the last few trail runs when I go alone. I'm sure most of the 50k Saturday, I will be running alone as I won't be able to keep up with the fast KC 'Trailers'. This is where my ipod will come in handy.
I've been experimenting w/ different genres of music on my runs. Depending on what mindset or situation in the race, I'll listen to different songs. This is what I expect to happen.

As I charge out of the gate and onto the first lap, I'll be fun of energy and not focused on pain. I'll just have some upbeat background music. Maybe:
• Chesterfield Kings
• Howling Wolf
• CCR (specifically the jammin 'Heard it through the Grapevine' rendition)
• Flamin' Groovies


On the second lap, I'll have to play something I can sing along to. I have to have something to take my mind of 'the hurts' that will be inevitable. I'll turn to the 'classics' and play songs I know all the words to. I'll look like 'goon' as I run and sing.
• Johnny Cash
• Waylon Jennings
• Bob Dylan
• Townes Vand Zandt
• Gordon Lightfoot


By the third lap, I'll probably be 'loopy' and not thinking straight. My mind will be floating and probably will feel like I'm under the influence. I'll work this condition and use it to help me finish.
• Velvet Underground - heroin
• Pixies - Where is my mind
• Doors - The end
• Roky Erikson (13th floor elevators)
• Brian Eno

Last run before the 50k

Today, I got to hit the WYCO trails for the last time before Saturday, raceday. I ran one full loop and finished in 1:45 minutes which I'm satisfied with. The race will be three loops but I doubt I will be able to keep that pace. On the third lap, I'll probably be delusional, seeing spots, and mumbling incoherently so the pace won't matter anyway. The most important thing for me is to run 'my race'. I know I'm not as good as my KC Trail brethren so I can't start too fast and try to keep up with them. They'll be racing to clock a fast time, but it'll be an accomplishment for me just to finish.
I've got my ipod full of songs, my new trail shoes in (broken in today), and I'm as in-shape as I'm gonna get before Saturday. The next few days, I'll take it easy, eat right, and get plenty of sleep! Wish me luck, and if I make it out of the woods and remember any of race, I'll write something about it!

I've uploaded some photos of the course I took several weeks ago. They really don't convey the change of elavation on the trail. Brutal. It's definitely the hardest course I've run.

Another hurdle down

This has been a busy start to my year. Just as it seems I can get back in a groove of work, making my own art, and exercise (my favorite things), something else comes up. I've already written plenty about the 3 weeks bouncing back 'n forth across the country, going to weddings, and finishing grad school applications. Just as I think I've wrapped everything up, my alternator and battery died in my car. Two hundred dollars and a wasted day later, maybe....just maybe...I can get started on work. Luckily it had just enough juice to make it home 'cause when it started having problems, I was about 30 minutes from home w/ no phone.

I've changed a few alternators before (2 on my old Buick and 1 on my friend, Sam's Buick) so I knew what to expect. There a big difference in my old Buick and my new Pontiac. Mainly it has to do with 'working room'. I could practically climb into the engine in my Buick - plenty of room to work! I had to take off three parts just to get to my alternator on the Grand Prix though....aggravations and busted knuckles ensued.

Getting ready

I've got a huge physical undertaking coming up - a 50k on February 11th. I'll be the first to admit I haven't trained NEARLY enough. I've been bouncing around the country and finishing an ill-timed work load to keep any sort of schedule.
Over the last week, I have been picking up my pace though doing either biking or running on most days. It won't be enough for me to be confident I can finish the race, but it'll have to do. I'm about to go bike for a few hours then run tonight w/ the trail gang.
Lucy was sweet enough to get me an ipod shuffle for Christmas. To let you know how busy I've been, yesterday was the first day I even took it out of the box. I've loaded it up w/ some inspirational bikin' music. Here's some highlights:

Chesterfield Kings - great 70s punk band
Flamin' Groovies - another great 70s punk band. Listen to "Heading for the Texas Border"
Link Wray
Wolf Parade
Q65
The Dead 60s

Time to bike!