Blog

5/9/08 Breathe, find your bearings, move on

It's happened to all of us: you seem to be going along well, you're pushing but in control, it all feels right, and then you suddenly realize that something's off. Then, that queazy feeling sets in as you realize that you're not only off, you're way off.

I'm not talking about orienteering, I'm talking about life. Anybody who's bothered to read my training log or check here and find nothing knows that I've obviously had my mind on other things lately. When it was just extra hours at work, I didn't think much of it. I was still getting in some training, still spending some time with my family, still making some progress on Carol's Song.

What I wasn't doing much of was sleeping (something I'm usually pretty careful about). Then the wheels came off. Remarkably, I was still physically healthy (albeit a bit heavier than I'd like), but mentally, I went to pieces. The result was nothing dramatic like a drug overdose or nervous breakdown. Rather, it was just that slow, sickening realization that not only was my current direction wrong, but I was much further off course than I wanted to admit.

I decided the only way to get things back under control was to radically simplify my life for a while. Work and family weren't optional, so I jettisoned just about everything else. Two months later, I think I've got myself reset. I'm still working overtime, but not nearly as much as I was. I've taken a vacation to see my parents and go camping with YaYa (giving Kate a break of a few days from caretaking).

My sister, Anne, certainly noticed the change. After a truly dreadful run at Middle Distance Nationals, she was shocked (and relieved) to hear me say, "It's just a race, let's go hiking." Indeed, the day at Letchworth was a very happy one only because I let it be.

I'm not going to immediately start pushing towards national-level competition again. In fact, it may well be that my days on the Blue course are done for good. However, I think I've got myself back to where a reasonable training schedule can be added to my life without throwing everything back into turmoil.

This blog is a little harder to justify. It's time consuming and without the ongoing experience at the elite level, I feel something of a fraud. The crucible of competition is the difference between a grounded position and a "thought experiment." Either might be wrong, but at least in the former case, you've made some attempt to validate your position. I could, of course, remove the tuition and just make it a sort of diary, but I don't know how long I'd stay interested in that. Besides, I already put a fair bit of personal information in my log on Attackpoint, so it would be a bit redundant to bring that focus to Carol's Team.

Therefore, I'm going to refocus this blog on the development of Carol's Song. I realize that this probably alienates the bulk of my readers, but getting regular posts on the development out in the public domain might help keep me moving on that front. Completing the program is a promise I made both to Carol and to those who have supported this site, and not one I care to break. For those who like to read what I have to say about training and racing, I should be getting back to regular posts on Attackpoint.

3/9/08 Wedding bells for Doug

Actually, I don't recall hearing any bells, but Doug and Sara did get married yesterday. A better looking couple would be mighty tough to find. You'd also be hard pressed to find two nicer people. I just hope Doug doesn't gain 60 pounds in his first year of marriage like I did - I have enough trouble keeping the boat straight without putting an extra sack of concrete in the bow.

3/8/08 S-F

SLOC put on a meet today at S-F. The course was a bit on the easy side, which was a little disappointing given that S-F is some of our best technical terrain. However, it was still a lot of fun to run fast in the open woods. David Frei, Jeff Sona, and I drove down early because we had to get back for Doug Nishimura's wedding. David got me by three minutes. Not sure how the rest of the field did.

3/5/08 March Mapness, 2008

This year I'm going to repeat the intense map training. I'm going to do it a little different this year. Rather than focus on simply getting out on a map every day, I'm going for 4-5 quality sessions each week. A "quality" session will incorporate at least one of the following:

1. Technical navigation.
2. Map reading at or close to VO2Max.
3. Very meticulous terrain interpretation (e.g., mapping).

3/4/08 Faster than driving

Another reason to run to work: it's faster. Really! OK, it's usually not, but today it was. We got 8 inches of snow during the day (which is a lot for this town). I took the train to Clayton and then ran home from there. Traffic was totally snarled, so I counted how many cars I passed. At times, traffic would start moving so I'd have to count backwards. That made my brain hurt, so I gave up, but I was around +300 and I don't think I lost many places after that (I was only a mile from home when I stopped counting).

My commute time for the 17-mile trip home was 2:08 (including 3 minutes waiting for the train and 15 minutes riding it which cut the run down to around 12 miles). It was tough running in such deep snow, but fun. I would have gone nuts sitting stationary in a car for that long.

3/3/08 Buried

The last week has just been insane. Aside from putting in 55 hours at work (which has been pretty common lately), I also threw a surprise party for Kate's birthday, and had her sister over to visit for the weekend. Overall, a lot of fun, but it sure hasn't left much room for training (and no room for writing about it).

That hasn't been an entirely bad thing. I think I've healed up a bit. I seem to be running reasonably well without any debilitating pain the next day. Now, if I can just get some time in the woods and some time to sleep, I might turn in a decent result or two this spring.

2/24/08 Return of the Rex

After being sidelined for a bit over four months, I've got my car back. I gave up on finding a used engine for it and ended up just buying a new short block, getting the heads machined, and valve train rebuilt. It ended up costing about the same, and now I at least know that none of the parts were abused in ways that might necessitate a similar repair next year.

While it's nice to have a car again, I can't say that it's been a big deal to be without it. I don't need it for commuting to my current position and I don't do much traveling in the winter. However, now that March Mapness is almost upon us, I'll be needing the car to get out on maps. There's not enough daylight in the evenings yet to ride to the woods and get in any kind of quality workout.

2/23/01 Sitting out

I've recovered significantly this week, but decided it was best if I didn't make the trip to Arizona. I'm a little bummed to miss a meet on such great terrain and the fact that it's cold and drizzly here in St. Louis hasn't been much of a comfort.

Apparently, Spike got himself sick but went to the meet anyway. He contented himself with walking the Brown course. I did this back in 1999 when I broke my ribs just prior to US Champs near Lake Tahoe. Kate and I had already planned it as a vacation and bought non-refundable hotel rooms, so we went anyway. It turned out to be a great time, and I would agree with Mike's assessment that, "Walking the course was fun...but not as fun as running a course."

In a somewhat humorous side note, I ended up getting as US Championship medal for winning the M-Brown class (the class for people who enter on Brown, but should be running a longer course). I don't know why they gave me that, since M-Brown isn't a championship class; I never regarded it as a legitimate win.

2/18/08 Auspicious start

Well, this year isn't off to a very good start. After two fairly lame efforts in local O-meets, I've come up actually lame. I was going to wait until after my session with the masotherapist tomorrow to decide for sure, but I can tell from how I feel today that there's no way I'm competing this weekend. I'm sure I could patch myself up enough to run the first day, but I don't see how I could put anything together for day 2. Next event that matters is the Flying Pig first week of April. That should be enough time to heal up - if I can figure out what's actually wrong. The fact that I don't know that right now is troubling.

2/17/08 Now what?

One of the things that bother me about getting older is that even little injuries take a lot longer to heal. What bothers me more is the realization that some injuries will never heal. I'm hoping that's not the case with whatever is currently wrong with my hamstring.

This one has been nagging me since Pere Marquette. The strange thing is that both hamstrings are sore. It's pretty unusual to get the same injury on both sides at once so I assumed it was just sore muscles. Two months later, they're still sore, so it's obviously a little more serious than that. I haven't really pushed myself since then as this is the "down" part of my season. However, today they were really sore following a fairly mild effort in yesterday's race. That doesn't bode well for a 2-day event on fast terrain. If I don't see some real improvement in the next couple days, I'm going to have to cancel the trip to Arizona.

Viewing it on the positive, if you had asked me before the event if I would have traded a career-ending injury for breaking the hour at Pere Marquette, I would have said yes. So, I suppose I should be happy that I'm just coming away with a chronic nag.

2/16/08 Cliff Cave

SLOC held a meet at Cliff Cave today. This is the area that I mapped in 2004 for US Intercollegiate Championships. I've always run pretty well here and, until today, had a perfect record (6 wins on the old map, 4 wins since remapping). Today, David Frei kicked my ass. I didn't think I was doing particularly poorly (although I was certainly aware of the fact that I wasn't moving as well through the thick stuff as usual). I figured he might have me, but I sure didn't expect the gap to be 4 minutes (he finished in 37:52, I was 41:52). I'm glad David's running well again since it's nice to have a push at local meets. Meanwhile, I'd better get some sleep between now and going out to Arizona next weekend because my game is clearly off more than I realized.