Run

5K

Trail and road.

I fed a young
horse two dandelions.

Yesterday, at work,
I fed a deer a banana.
I peeled it and broke
it into three pieces.

We were laughing
pretty hard. Wild
deer. Bananas. Imagine
that.

The doe looked
expectant after
she tried to eat
the peel and spit
it out.

No more bananas,
I said, and scratched
her head: how graceful
they are. How alert.

You’ll have to
head south to
Costa Rica, miss
for more bananas.

))){

10 min warming.

4×100m with jogging between.

4×300m with jogging between.

2.0 miles cooling and a hike
up a steep hill.

00:43.42
150 AVHR
185 MaxHR

Feel like a
runner again.

))){

Ran through several dissipating
clouds of pot smoke. Thought it
was excessive until I remembered
the date.

Saw several deer, one pheasant,
one momma duck with ten ducklets,
one feral cat (which ran into a
culvert) and one red-tail hawk
which swooped right down head
level in front of me on the trail.

I kept running (ptp) into this
girl who was running. After the
fourth time we laughed. Small
place, I said. She looked like
a Viking; her two thick braids
bouncing along. All she needed
was an axe and a steel helm with
horns.

01:36.42
About 11 miles
24 ounces HEED
6 Endurolytes

))){

_{Morning run past Llamas
and horses and a million
dead worms in the road.}

I wonder why. The worms,
that is.

Mist. Dogs barking at me.
I meet P and someone training
with her; puffing up the
steep hill out of Eastsound.
I am gliding down easy into
town and coffee. Nice and easy
135 AVHR which I can sustain
for four hours now.

Everyone drives here. There
are no walkers and the only
runners are the endurance
crowd and road bikers. A
couple of triathletes and
one is me.

I wish more people would
run and walk and smile here.
But they are grumpy and fat
and constipated and watch
too much television which
makes me sad.

10K
00:55.32

))){

_{Went for a night run
with S}

It was foggy and misty
and we stayed on the park
trails running at talking
speed.

Didn’t see one car.

00:55.32
6 logs to hop over
1 tree to duck under
about 6 miles

<;))){

_{10K with beagle}

New Salomon XA Pro 3Ds
and Sporthill Nomad 2s
from Zappos. Love Zappos.

Shoes are awesome. Was
afraid they’d be a little
narrow but I’m a D plus and
they fit bombers. Love the
lacing system and light
weight.

Sporthill makes bulletproof
pants – the Nomads are supahcomfy
and’ll last me six
years or so probably.

00:55.32
(3 miles dirt/singletrack
3 miles alongside road into
town and back))
One beagle everywhere on leash
138 AVHR
581 kcal

))){

_{Nice 33F day, cold and clear – blue sky.}

S and I started late as usual:
plus 12 minutes on the race clock.
We were like, whatever – no pressure
and then started running faster and
faster to catch up.

I picked up two dropped gloves and
we passed two older women with loud
DirtGirlGaiters! over their shoes.
Cool, I said. You can find them online,
they said. Just don’t go to Dirtgirl.com – or
maybe you boys would like that, huh?
(leering) Ha, ha! Hey, we’re married!
I thought – we’re good boys.

We were running the snow alternate route
which was twice as hard as the original
route I thought. I was wondering how the
50K people were fairing (twice around) it
was just a grinder of hills up and down and
mud.

I had a bottle of Hammergel which was
off and tasted weird so I finished my
water/HEED and filled up with Perpetuem
at mile 6.7 at the drop bag station.

I ran out of gas at mile 14 and shifted
into stubborn will power running and
S would laugh at me as I puffed
up the steep hills and that kept me
putting high feet in front of little steps:
quick leg turnover which helps on the steeps.
Too much running the flats in Australia
for Fishboy – waaap-waap.

Great, muddy fun though! LL was waiting for us
with my folks at the finish. I had a
couple of Nuun with water and a coffee
and I feel great – a little tired. GT was
up shooting so we should have some images
I hope.

Nappy-nappytime…

25K
03:20.30
22 ounces HEED
22 ounces Perpetuem
2 tablets of Nuun after race
16 ounces of coffee
158 AvHR
177 HRmax

))){

Image by G. Tachiyama

_{Up early for a 4.0 miler}

OK!

Afternoon slog trail run with
S’ler. Serious mud slipping
and laughing in the rain.

Good times.

11.0 miles total
01:58.32
22 ounces HEED and Sustained Energy
2 pairs of soaked shoes
945’ elevation gain

))){

_{The rising full moon was
awesome over the stubbled
stalks of harvested wheat.}

Morning runs before the
flies come out.

About 45,000 meters
11.4 km times 4
In 45 hours
A handful of Endurolytes
60% effort @ 138 AVHBPM

))){

_{LL and I are in South Australia,
Adelaide and the Barossa Valley
wine region.}

There is some darn good wine in Barossa:
We have been to Miranda, Jacob’s Creek,
Penfolds and Wolf Blass wineries for
tasting. My favs were at Wolf Blass -
a damn fine chilled Cab/Sav redolent
of tropical blossoms and a pretty
amazing Reisling (not too sweet).

There was a superb Shiraz there as
well which was going for 100 bucks a bottle.
We did not buy a bottle: we did, however,
taste some (meaning 2 ounces for 5 bucks).

It tasted like 80 bucks a bottle wine
I guess. I’d pay 10 bucks a glass
for it sans the chocolate it came with.
I imagine it’s a good wine before wild sex. We
did not get to test this theory because
we had to drive home and I just thought
of it anyway.

I’ve been running in the heat. I
faked a 10K in 104F heat on Monday.
It was so hot my sweat was drying
and I had two tracks of salt running
down the corners of my eyes. There’s
a rough 50K in mid-February back on
Orcas Island that I’m training for.
It will not be hot there however. I’m
prepared to freeze actually.

Tomorrow we’re going to the beach
for some body surfing. I love
body surfing; it’s too flat to
surf with a board I think. Maybe
a long board. We’ll see. I hope
to see some squid because I’m going
night swimming.

))){