Thinking out loud.

My wife may be P.O.d...

Two years ago, I started my running "journey" by undertaking a trail marathon put on by Gemini Adventures (GA) on a Saturday and following that up with another 10 mile jaunt the next day.  GA didn't call it a marathon, but the dang 25 miler measured out at 26.1 with my GPS.  I'll call that sucker a marathon thank you very much.

The 25 miler and 10 miler were 2 races in a four race "Trail Running Festival".  They were run on a weekend where the  "25" mile race and the "50" mile race were run on Saturday and pair of races measuring 10 and 5 miles were run on Sunday.  I thought that running the 10 miler on Sunday after the "25" would be a good way to see if I might not like to try an ultra some day.  Hmmmm....

Right now, my foot is pretty well heeled and I'm looking for something to motivate my training for the next several months.  Hmmmm....

The Trail Running Festival is on April 22 and 23....

Hmmm....

50 and 10...

Hmm...

Thanks for reading and I think I spelled something wrong somewhere...
J

P.S.
My mom took this photo of Deneb and me crossing the finish line together (albeit recreated) at the 25 miler in Fruita - he was just about to turn 1.

Didn't just run yesterday...

I made some bread.

Up in Cuevas, we've got a giant field of potatoes and Saturday night Hugo and I dug out 2, 5 gallon paint buckets full of them.  Needless to say, I've had potato in some form or another every day since then.  They're tasty.

Monday night I roasted a batch, and yesterday turned that yumminess into Roasted Potato Bread.  I'll spare you the recipe this time; it's straight out of Hamelman.  I accidentally doubled the pre-ferment on Monday night, but that's the good thing about those recipes:  If you've got the ingredients, it's easy to adjust on the fly.  I ended up with 4 loaves, one which I gave away, another which got eaten yesterday (except for the scrap you see in the picture below), and 2 for the near future.

Anyway, it seems that my run yesterday was a bit overzealous so I'll be taking it easy on the foot today.  It is achy, and won't let me walk without a hitch in my step.  If it loosens up today, I may try to get some form work in later on.

Thanks for reading and be safe out there.
J

And...We're back...?

This past Sunday, I got out for my first workout since the Blues Cruise.  Sunday marked the 5 week anniversary of my injury.  It also marked my first workout in my new trail shoes - the Brooks Pure Grit.  I'll give them a review eventually, but my first impressions are positive (with the exception of the stupid strap over the top of the foot).

Unfortunately I don't have GPS on my workout from Sunday, but repeats on the course will become regular fare in my training for Leadville.  I had to make a call in the morning to Nataly to get some information for Cuevas, so I powerhiked up out of the valley to get some cell signal.

Since that specific trek is going to be featured often in this journal, I am giving the location the name Dissertation Ridge.  Nataly used a couple of locations above the waterfalls in Cuevas to investigate whether there was a connection between hillslope angle and nutrient availability.  I didn't understand much beyond that but...

What I do know is that the climb up to Dissertation Ridge gains 600 feet in less than a 1/2 mile.  That's a good grunt on any day.  A 5xDissertation Ridge workout would be a tremendous effort. I expect that'll be a goal as I prepare to prepare for Leadville.

I actually ran today too.  A short loop here in Kilometer 14.  My foot hurt.  It probably didn't help much that I wore my Bikilas, but the pain never got worse.  My conditioning is way off. It was hot.

We'll see how my foot is tomorrow.  It hurt during my power hike up to Dissertation Ridge on Sunday, but Monday felt much better than in many days preceding the effort.  I wonder if working the foot is what's best for it now.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your training.
J

What's the forecast? Whatever it is, it makes me sad.

[note--I just finished this note, after a spending a couple of days in Cuevas::I'll start writing about that in a few minutes.]
Whew, here comes another one.  I'm was sitting around with an achy foot and frustration building re: Web Design and content development, so I thought I'd see what the popular stories on Yahoo News were...

While topic #1 is interesting, issue #2 falls into a hot button category for me.  

First thing first, I've got to take issue with the use of "Global Warming" in the headline above.  Global Warming feels like a marketing term.  Global Warming isn't something to be feared.  Everybody likes to be warmer don't they?  What's not to like about warm days.  Warm is often accompanied by sunny.  Given all the recent snow in Colorado, I bet one or two folks would enjoy coming to visit Bolivia, where it's warm.

While still having a somewhat positive aspect, (Green) + (House), I like the term Greenhouse in place of Global Warming in the headline there.  "Greenhouse" actually captures some of the science behind what is often called the "Theory of Global Warming" and I feel it's a more neutral term. And while this is a rant for another day, I feel journalism needs to return to a more neutral tone in general.

Other than that, I have little to no argument with the article itself.  Greenhouse gasses are introduced into the atmosphere as a result of development, both past development and ongoing.  Sustaining development requires energy and energy production releases greenhouse gasses.  2010 was a banner year:

The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated...

and this:

Boden said the latest figures put global emissions higher than the worst case projections from the climate panel.

The International Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC, the panel referred to above) worst case scenario would have the global average temperature of the planet rising by 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.  In 2001, the IPCC published this graphic in their report (wikipedia link):

One way to read this chart is:  Depending upon how humanity modifies it's behavior with respect to greenhouse emissions, this is what will happen in year 20xx.  (Note the error bars underneath the years 2025, 2050, 2075 and 2100.)

For instance, if we continue as we (were going) in 2000, in 2050, Earth's temperature will have risen an average of almost 3 degrees C, and we can expect negative consequences in 4 of their 5 Future Scenarios and Uncertainties. On the other hand, if we had implemented the panel's recommended changes quickly and globally, Earth in 2050 would only see a temperature increase of less than 1 degree C with few negative impacts and a planet which resembles the one we live in today.

What's chilling about the article, is that here we are in 2011 and we're exceeding the worst case projections of the IPCC.  It's a terrifying and sad story, and it's one which I can't stand reading about.  But really, what can be done about it?

I look around here in Bolivia and have to ask, "Do you really expect these people to adopt greener practices, when it costs so much more?  Especially when the United States is unwilling to take a leadership role in their implementation."  Here, I'd be happy if people would just dispose of their garbage some place other than a random gutter.

I'll end it there, my brain is starting to go off on a tangent in regard to competing Nation States and their inability to deal with problems of global scale.

Thanks for reading, and yeah, I think we're all fucked.  Sorry Deneb.
J

Going to have to add a new tag: LT100

Holy crap what have I done.

Yesterday, I signed up for the Leadville 100.

That's not really the scary part.  What I find scary is the content behind the first link on this google search: "Splits for 25 hour LT100".

I'd read Brandon's account of what transpired for him during last years Leadville 100 and for some reason that only made me want to line up for the start more.  What I hadn't seen was his sister's tale: the race from the crew chief's perspective (the first link in the search above).  That's some compelling reading which drives home the magnitude of a 100 mile race; it's not just a huge undertaking for the racer, it's a huge undertaking for all around him.  Whew.

The finality of dropping the better part of 300 dollars on a race leaves very little option other than to begin thinking about training, thank everyone around me and apologize in advance for those times when I will offend someone.

In re: Training.  I've decided my foot wants 1 more week.

At this point I can balance on the ball of my foot and even do multiple sets of calf raises, but Monday while pacing out the fence-line, I stepped, with my bad foot, on a small stump (1.75 inches in diameter, 3 inches tall) while wearing my Minimus trail shoes.  That rewarded me with some stabbing pain and induced some new swelling.  The swelling was gone Tuesday morning and I've been walking confidently without a noticeable limp for the last several days (Monday excluded).  I can really feel that my foot is getting healthy.

I want a couple more days for it to heal up before testing it out though.  I'm thinking now that next Monday will be my first run post Blues Cruise.  I could go out today in all likelihood, but there are times where discretion truly is the better part of valor and I would think this is one of them.  Wouldn't want a lingering injury to keep me from making it to the start in August.

Thanks for reading, and wonder if a race takes 30 hours to cover 100 miles, is that really running?
Jay

60% Whole Wheat with Oatmeal and Chia Seeds

Baking bread is something of a hobby for me.  It's one of the reasons I could never become a "Paleo" dieter - grains are off the menu.  The reasoning seems sound, but frankly I like grains and legumes and that is that.

Anyway, today I made my first original recipe bread.  I'm actually sure it's not original, but I don't have a recipe for it, rather I applied techniques I've learned by baking from the book Bread.  That book isn't for everyone, but it sits squarely in my wheelhouse going into meticulous detail and teaching why a baker would do something.  It's written more for the professional baker, but I have found that it suits for my kneeds.

One of the reasons I like the book so well, the recipes are all written to scale; every amount is given for large batch cooking, home baking and as a percentage of the total weight of flour.  That means that if you use 1 kilogram of flour and a recipe calls for 68% water, you know you need 680 grams (or ml) of water.  Guess work gone.  That's tremendous.

Here's the recipe, I'd give cups and tablespoons, but I use a scale because of the variability in weight of a cup of flour.

Prefermented Flour.
300g Whole Wheat Flour
200g Bread Flour
3g Yeast
500g Water

Simply mix the ingredients above in a bowl and let them sit on the counter overnight.  It's likely you'll see a ring indicating the dough inflated and deflated overnight.

Soaker.
150g Rolled Oats
50g Chia Seeds
40g 24g Salt
180g Water

This also got mixed the night before.  Use hot water, allow to cool on the counter, then stick in the fridge.

Final Dough.
300g Whole Wheat Four
200g Bread Flour
90g Water
50g Honey
Soaker
Pre-ferment

Combine all of the above ingredients together in a bowl and kneed for a while.  (I usually look for 10 minutes of 600 strokes whichever comes first.  The gluten will develop more as the dough rises.)

I let the dough rise for probably 2.5 hours and I folded it twice during the rise.  Your results may vary depending on the temperature of your house. Once risen, preshape the dough into rounds and then form whatever type of loaf you like.  Pan loaves, I like hearth loaves, rounds...

The final rise took this dough 1.5 hours during which time I ran a couple of errands.

Cook in a hot oven with a pan of boiling water on the bottom shelf.  The recipes I used suggested 450 degrees, but my oven has temperature marked out as 5,4,3,2, and 1.  I had the setting on 4.  Bake for 40 or so minutes and allow to cool before cutting.  The hardest part.

I can report that this bread is delicious and the chia seeds give a really nice texture to the bread.

Thanks for reading and feel free to send me your bread recipes, I'd like to see what you like.
J

A little bit of Ugh and thinking ahead.

So, I'm sitting here wallowing in something resembling self pity.

I want to get out running, but I don't want to risk re-injuring my foot.  It still hurts when I walk around.  It's getting better.  I can can curl my toes back with a minimum of pain in the top of the foot, but there's still pain.  It also seems slightly swollen too.  Frustrating.

I never did get an xray on my foot, but based on the opinion of two doctor friends, I most likely cracked my 3rd metatarsal.  They also opined that there isn't a great deal you can do for an injury like that.  Stabilize it as best you can and try hard not to do anything that makes it hurt.  A walking boot might have helped initially, but for reasons long and complicated I'm not a huge fan of those things.

I would say I'll wait until I'm pain free before I start running again, but one thing I've acknowledged during my 41st trip around the sun is that there is rarely a day where I'm truly pain free.  Something always aches.  That is the way of things.  If I don't have pain I can directly associate with the Blues Cruise injury, I'll try get out and run a few easy miles next Tuesday.  The way things are going, I think that's a reasonable expectation.

Looking ahead, I've decided that I'm going to register for the Leadville 100 the minute registration opens.  I wouldn't be surprised if this year their slots fill very quickly.  My friend from the Steamboat 50 suggested I flagellate with a different 100.  One which is more scenic and less commercial.  Under normal access circumstances I would absolutely agree with him, but given that I live in a location where the constellations are all screwy I need to choose a race which has friends and family close by.


Anyway, my first steps in preparation for the Leadville 100 will involve an attempt to get faster.  I'm going to focus my first 26 weeks of training for Leadville on getting faster over the 10K and Marathon distances.  Once I've got a "speed" base established, I'll work on climbing strength and long distances with a hope of logging at least 4, 100 mile weeks in the time leading up to Leadville 2012.

When I started this blog, I had no intention of ever running 100 miles, but for some reason I chose a background image I took while doing a training run for the Steamboat 50.  The photograph was taken on the summit ridge of Mount Massive and off in the distance is Leadville, Colorado.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon Colorado.
J