DATE: 07/29/2008 12:24:39 / MOOD: nostalgic

I have just read "My 12 hour Ruck Experience," and I have to say, I am less than impressed. Just such an event occurs fairly commonly in the community I hang out with, and these 12 hours are usually spent running in Mosquito or Collegiate Range (10,000-14,000 feet elevation). I am glad to see that these people who have the will power and the drive to succeed, but I'd also like to see someone who can hike for 12 hours with a Camelback without having swollen knees and beat-up feet.

So my dad and I just did a 24 hour race for fun. It's gotten to the point where I can't comprehend why people wouldn't want to do these things, which is a fascinating feeling. People have 24 hour lock-ins in church, laserquest, and anywhere else they want to have fun, so why isn't this just another funfest? Kayaking, running, orienteering, biking, all in one day? It rocked! Anyways, even within my community people are reluctant to do a certain training evolution I've been planning up. I want to do 50 miles in 20 hours with a 75 pound pack. It'll be half of the LT100 course. Anyone who is interested send me a message. I'm open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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DATE: 04/08/2008 13:18:08 / MOOD: bitchy

I find people both funny and irritating at the same time. Forgive me, I have a tendency to generalize, but there seems to be a new breed of athletes emerging: the fake low-budget badass. We all know the standard low budget badass: he drags a tractor tire tied around his waist for resistance, does his cleans with bags full of sand, and overhead presses with logs. But lately gear companies have made a higher-budget version to match the lower version, and essientially you get the guys who pay for ripped jeans in the workout room. He gets an ergonomic tractor tire with an ergonomic full-body harness, gets a specialty duffel for his bag of sand that evenly distributes weight and has comfy handles, gets a wood-facsimile for a log. These people sicken me. They train in perfectly engineered austere conditions when their object is to operate in imperfect austere conditions. Way to lose sight of the objective. I'm done with my rant.

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DATE: 12/03/412 12:07:55 / MOOD: awake

Alright brothers, figure it's time for another blog of mine. It's been a while since I've been on here, but then again it's been a long bout of bronchitis. This necessitated me paring down my training only to track practice (don't want to let down my team). I figure running a 5:12 mile at my last meet with a lung infection is about as good as it gets; but it gets better. I healed up nicely in time for the 12 Hour Adventure Xstream race in Moab, which was yesterday (technically it was two days ago. I got to get to bed). That amounts to 7 miles of kayaking, 52 miles of mountain biking (with 2 2000 foot elevation gains), 6 miles of running, and a 275 foot rappel. Anyways, my dad and I as a team cut the time down to about 8.5 hours, and we were very competitive. Could have been a bit more competitive on my own, but nothing beats suffering with dear ol' dad. Anyways, it was one hell of a race, and I don't feel the least bit beat up the today, so I seem to have fared fairly well. I have the regularly scheduled track practice tomorrow, plus I'm going to restart my smokin' PT routine, only this time I'm going to do the whole thing with my SAR pack. Gonna make that thing my best buddy for the next six weeks. Adios, amigos. Time to get some shuteye and prepare for an early morning.

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DATE: 02/27/2008 13:33:05 / MOOD: jubilant

Track season is here! Nordic season was fun, but the logistics were quite the challenge. There is a beautiful simplicity in running. Anyways, I lettered in Nordic, which is pretty good for my first year. I had my first track workout yesterday, and what a workout it was! Being my first run, it was supposed to be easy, but there was someone who kept on edging ahead of me, and it turned out to be a thirty minute race of attrition. He bowed out with "knee problems." Woo. After that we got into a friendly battle over how many index-finger pushups we could do. I buckled at 8, and him at 5. I normally wouldn't be this petty in competition, but I want to be captain this year, and to do that I feel I have to assert my dominance in every discipline. Anyways, I'm a little sore, but I'm ready for more today!

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DATE: 02/12/2008 13:01:40 / MOOD: awake

Its been a while since I've written here, mostly because I've decided to get into West Point, which means prioritizing homework over sports (which is the first time I've ever done that). My workout frequency has dropped to one-a-days, which is slightly disappointing, but I'm telling myself that after state (I qualified for both classic and skate skiing) I'll work it up to two-a-days- alternating PT and swimming in the mornings, and high milage, high speed track workouts every afternoon (CrossFit may say you reap the benefits of long distance training in short intervals, but on that point they are wrong, as I know from experience. Specificity of training: high milage = bigger base = a bigger aerobic tank to empty. You can push up you anaerobic threshhold all year and never become aerobically fit). Anyways, I still have to get back into a routine after this unusual taper.

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DATE: 12/03/3666 12:00:57 / MOOD: refreshed

I had to write about this, since it was so epic: I woke up this morning at 400, and decided to do something awesome; weather.com presented me with the answer. It is currently 17 below zero WITHOUT windchill, 40 below WITH. These are probably the coldest temperatures I am going to run in for a long time. That's top of everest cold. So I did 30 minutes, covering 3.5 miles, and learned one thing: nothing really sucks if you've got the gear for it. When I had my polartech hat on and a full-face neoprene, I was fine, but when i took off my goggles (because they had fogged up) and blinked, my eyelashes froze together. That's cold. (and not unfamiliar with cold-weather athletes is the "holy crap my snot is frozen" feeling, which actually comes from your snot being frozen.)

Also, as a sidenote, I'd like to advocate the double-baselayer technique: when not windy, I wear a light wicking baselayer under a heavy wicking baselayer under some fleece. That works perfectly. When windy, add a windproof shell. Later today I'll do another blog about the rest of my workouts.

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DATE: 12/03/3256 12:00:54 / MOOD: sleepy

400- up, warning order x 4

600- 22 laps at pool

1600- 10 laps w/ fins

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DATE: 12/03/5817 12:00:46 / MOOD: cheerful

Today I did some kickass classic skiing, carrying a 7 minute mile pace for 4 miles, gaining 515 feet in elevation (up to 10,784 feet elv.) and  no-poled all the way back down. After that I swam 1000 yards, full sidestroke. I'm going right now to do warning order until failure. Adios.

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DATE: 12/03/9642 12:00:36 / MOOD: awake

Today was good as far as workouts go: An hour of pullups, situps and rowing, an hour of kick-ass skate skiing, and 1000 yards of sidestroke with some bob-travel thrown in for fun. Later I'll do some warning order PT.

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