Month: January 2014 Page 2 of 3

I got my ass kicked.

http://www.strava.com/activities/107633439

Up a mile, down a mile, up a mile, down a mile, up, finish.
No excuses other than that was the first time I’ve run in snowshoes in … 6 years?

I forgot how brutal trying to go really fast in snowshoes can be… a little altitude thrown in too – though I’m not sure that was a factor – 4200ft to 4800ft. Up, down, up down, up down. Super fun letting loose on the downhill though – it’s more stable on the snow than on singletrack trail. Just kind of let the snowshoes slide – ease back a bit.

Beautiful day, temp maybe mid-40’s.
Ran in thin tech top, running cap and thin gloves – and was cooking in the sun.

Super super bonus: I didn’t get hurt… which I was most worried about.

(A taxonomy)

Make art and live like a pauper – maybe your art will make your progeny rich after you die.

Make other people really (really) happy… and have them pay you for that.

Make other people richer than you yourself require (I think most of us do this).

I finished Bleeding Edge today.
Recommended. I’ll go back and read some more Pynchon later. Or not.

Here are some choice passages:

“Yep, and your Internet was their invention, this magical convenience that creeps now like a smell through the smallest details of our lives, the shopping, the housework, the homework, the taxes, absorbing our energy, eating up our precious time. And there’s no innocence. Anywhere. Never was. It was conceived in sin, the worst possible. As it kept growing, it never stopped carrying in its heart a bitter-cold death wish for the planet, and don’t think anything has changed, kid.”

And another:

“Beaming at her with that vacant, perhaps only Californian, the-Universe-is-a-joke-but-you-don’t-get-it smile which so often drives her to un-Buddhist daydreams seething with rage.”

Another:

“Refugees from the sunless half of the cycle. Whatever it was they thought they needed, coffee, a cheeseburger, a kind word, the light of dawn, they’ve kept watch, stayed awake and caught sight of it at least, or nodded off and missed it again.”

American poetry. Damn. Recommended.

Not sure what’s next, on deck are:

• Multipliers (Liz Wiseman)
• The Art of Action (Steven Bungay)
• Design Research Through Practice (Ilpo Koskinen, John Zimmerman)
• Ambient Commons (Malcolm McCullough)
• Smart Cities (Anthony Townsend)
• People Analytics (Ben Waber)

I think it might be Multipliers first… and then I’ll skip to something fun… like Ambient Commons.

Last 2 read before Bleeding Edge:
Design is a Job (Mike Monteiro)
Daily Rituals (Mason Currey) [holy shit people used to take a lot of Benzedrine…]

[vimeo 83728153 w=500 h=281]

WES from Alejandro Prullansky on Vimeo.

I do my best thinking when I’m running and never remember what I was thinking about when I get back or ever write it down. Today I mostly remembered, here is the list:

1. Clarity of purpose – knowing what you want and why.
2. Making the time – saying no and disappearing (b/c I did this today).
3. All history is shared – you may think you’re not connected, but you are.
4. The privilege of contributing to that history (it’s a privilege).
5. Living and dying in every heartbeat – really a metaphor for running and life.

1. It’s filling
2. A can or cup are negligible calories
3. It’s an entire meal
4. …with a piece of bread
5. It’s packable (in a tetra pak or can)
6. Soup can bring peace to the world

Seriously – if you’re trying to curb a raging appetite – eat some soup. If you’re still hungry – eat a banana (unless you have issues with the carbon footprint of shipping bananas from south america… if so… eat more soup).

Here’s a starter recipe (one of my faves):
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Potato-Soup-with-Kale-and-Chorizo-241646

More heat? This is your answer:
http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/sriracha.htm

Dang.

My proposal for IASummit14 didn’t get accepted. I submitted my presentation from EuroIA, but the talk on “Uncle Ralph, Threadjacking and LolHolla” would have been really really fun to give.  The gist is mostly around the behaviors that emerge in big social networks as users try to navigate social interactions with no …. like … physical cues or feedback. What happens ultimately is that another culture emerges – with its own rules and language and customs. Fascinating stuff.  It exists at Jive and it’s super evolved primarily b/c we’ve been around so long and every weird or awkward social interaction that can happen in a community… has already happened.

I think it’s best that it wasn’t accepted. I was on the fence of whether or not to bail if it was accepted. I had a great time in Edinburgh at EuroIA, but truth be told – me and conferences don’t mesh.

I used to get a power up going to IASummits or IxDA conferences … <shrug>. As I’ve gotten further along in my career, I guess the idealism of the “right” way to do things gives me the yawns.

File this under “top secret tips that no one really talks about”. One thing that I’ve learned over the years is to be really nice to your feet. Like really nice. I don’t get blisters anymore and rarely if ever have hot spots on long runs. Couple of things that work for me – ymmv:

1. Buff them smooth with a pumice rock. And then buff them some more.
2. Keep your tails trimmed. Best way to lose a toenail is to have your nails too long and jam them into your shoes descending on trail.
3. Apply Body Glide liberally to your feet (and anywhere your clothes rub).
4. Put on your toe stretchers and prop your feet up with a good book.
5. Thin socks.

And now for a fun story.

One winter T and I drove up from D.C. and planned a climb in the Presidential range of New Hampshire. From Pinkham Notch the climb goes up Mt. Washington and then you climb Jefferson and Adams going north, drop back into the valley and hump it back to Pinkham notch. We decided that fast and light was the way to go. We sat in his truck and ate dinner and then hiked to Hermit Lake shelters around 8pm … slept a little bit and then got up at midnight and started climbing. No stove, no sleeping bags … not much margin of error. Amazing what you can do when really committed.

So it went..summit… summit… summit. Then things got shitty.

Descending snow covered rocks – my crampon kept popping off my boot slowing me down. We were both wearing plastic boots and vapor barrier liners – essentially creating a little micro climate around your feet – totally works… just not so good for your feet after being on the move for so long. We were exhausted. We ran out of water back in the valley, it was dark… we were drinking water from creeks.

When we got back to the climber’s room at Pinkham it was a bit cathartic to say the least. And when I took my boots off… I saw what wearing vapor barriers and plastic boots for 20 hours will do to your feet … I’ll spare you the image. But it was the worse my feet have ever been.

http://www.strava.com/activities/105890576

That’s the fastest I’ve ever run that loop. In the past mile 7 to 8 has been generally an unpleasant experience. But this is the first week that I’ve decreased miles (intentionally) in order to rest and let everything settle under new load. I’ve also sleeping really really well – going to bed early and not being waken up at all during the night.

Training runs are mostly on trail and have about 1200+ of vertical gain.  Friday’s run had a burly 1600+ ft of vertical. This 8 miler has only about 500 ft of vertical – mostly flat with 2 short climbs at the end.  (for comparison, most of the stratovolcanoes [Hood, St. Helens, Rainier, Adams] in the PNW are about 5000 ft of vertical start to summit). It was a bit windy today – noticeable cross winds across Hawthorne bridge. Some tailwind after the midpoint, some headwinds.

The tailwind had me trying to calculate what forward push the wind provides for the split second both feet are off the ground. It has to be something. Everything helps.

I really felt the work of the past 2 weekend long runs on mile 7 – 8. I’ve slowed a little on those last 2 climbs in the past. But today, I accelerated into them and maintained speed and form on the ascent. Hoo hoo ha…hoo hoo ha (that’s what my anaerobic threshold sounds like). When I’m there, I know it and I can modulate just above or just below. I stopped wearing my heart rate monitor months ago… I found that it was telling me that I was going too hard and found myself easing off. Now I just go until I feel like I’m going to blow up… then go for more. It’s always there.

Next weekend I’m racing. It’s an 8K snowshoe race at Mt. Hood.

I took my racing snowshoes out last weekend and cleaned them off and checked the straps. Racing shoes are lower profile and have an offset tail so that you don’t step on the shoe when you’re in a running stride. They’re also a lot lighter and meant to be worn with running shoes. I’m pretty excited – but as always in events like this, there will be a few really fast people. This race is a qualifier for the US Snowshoe Championships.

I just need to keep in mind the 3rd rule of fight club, “have fun and try your best” 😉

Some remixed Doughy – Idiot Kings.
“..well I could be condemned to hell for every sin but littering…”

I read a race report from last year’s Mt. Hood 50 miler yesterday and the ummm… it was brutal and sobering. It brought back some memories of Bull Run and the physical pain that I was in a couple of days after the race. Really the highs and the low low lows.

I think I’m actually in better shape now, but it’s time to knuckle down. Post haste.

I’ll be working to dial in my nutrition over the next 2 months and make sure I’m hydrating and eating on a regular schedule. I might just put a feed interval on a piece of tape on my forearm so that I can do what I told myself to do.

I’m also switching to an ultimate directions SJ vest instead of a single bottle and pouch. Both because of the ID debacle last weekend and because I need to carry more fluids/food/shell/arm warmers/beanie.  I used to carry 2 UD handhelds… but it actually wears out your upper body carrying full bottles over miles and miles.

I passed on Leadville 100 this year. A friend wanted me to come out and do the ride again… but I’ve already done it… maybe if I need a break from running in the future. I would rather to do the run. I had my reminders set and was ready to register on December 31… and thought long and hard about my motivation, realities of the stress of training and how bad I wanted it. How bad?  What are you willing to give up? How deep can you dig? Leadville is also a circus. I don’t want to drag a crew out there from OR, line up pacers and then f**k it up. A lower key 100 might be a better option. Cascade Crest looks good, but I’m not sure if I’ll be recovered from a 50 in July and then do a 100 in August. No. No way that’s happening.

The truth is also that I just can’t wrap my mind around the distance. I know it’s possible – for many people.  I can grok 3 10’s, I can grok 5 10’s – I know that pain. I cannot grok the 10th 10. Not right now. Mentally I could drop the hammer, but I’m not sure if my body would hold. I could break myself.  Maybe next year… the pain is going to be epic. Book of Job epic.

I want to see how I hold up on the 50 miler. It’s a good goal for this season.