Snow Day and the Delayed Long Run

Its a bit hard to imagine, but having 2 separate 3 day weekends in a row has left me with less time to run.  And I am, admittedly, a little on the frustrated side for no real good reason.  

So here we go with the details.  

Firstly we should recognize I love spreadsheets.  Excel is typically the one I use as my general computing needs are done through Windows.  I have also started using Numbers (Apple's version) which is nearly identical in its functions, and has the added bonus of being cloud based and on my iPhone.  And its all about the mileage, baby.  

I have been keeping careful track of my mileage I'm putting in as I get ready for the Nanny Goat 100.  The preparation I'm putting into this is no joke.  Lots and lots of miles.  I certainly benefit from the having a visual accounting of my mileage accomplishments, and in turn my mileage deficiencies.  This is something of a double edged sword as I then have a tendency to get wrapped up in the numbers and lose sight of the fact life can often get in the way, and sometimes working around life isn't an option, and that's really OK.  Its not going to derail all the hard work I've put in thus far.  If anything, it will provide a small opportunity for my legs to not be so tired.  Which is a total bonus as far as I am concerned.  

And so here I am, I had a three day weekend, and I didn't even manage to squeeze in a long run. To say "squeeze in" makes it sound like a long run is a simple thing.  In fact, its not.  There is a certain amount of preparation needed.  I need to make sure I have snacks.  I need to have something of a route planned out.  I need to make sure I have the time.  a 4 hour (or longer) commitment to a run is not like a quick 5 miler after work.  Nor is like the idea of running 13 miles.  Which often constitutes a long run in many running schedules.  I do not say this to brag of course, nor to rub it in to anyone at all.  This is simply my life right now, and how my schedule works.  I work.  I spend time with the kitten.  I run.  For some engagements I simply have to make time.   

Case in point, this weekend is a three day weekend.  So i took the Kitten to the snow.  My little snow kitten had fun up to a point (she's not even 5, and such outings have their limitations on the fun factor).  Really, it was not a lack of fun being had, it was a lack of warmth.  When its 24 degrees out its easy to be cold and forget the fun part.  As an adult I can generally see past the discomfort when fun is involved.  As a not-quite-5-year-old the kitten was unable to do this.  As such, after about an hour there she promptly stood up from nearly waist deep powder snow and said, "lets go back to the truck."  

For an hour we made silly snowballs (the snow was pretty dry, and making a real snowball was not exactly easy, not to mention a snowman, which was part of her grand plan!!!). And we dodges crazed sledders.   and we generally didn't care about the fact it was 8 degrees below freezing.  And then in a sudden and swift moment, the fun was over and cold took over.  In three simple pictures, I shall sum up the snow trip to Horse Mountain.  One the way, mid fun, and on the way home:

Little kittens who are cold warm up quickly, and always love a little Pringles snack.  And of course, cold little kittens appreciate a warm and dry hat after a snow day.  

And what does this have to do with running and mileage?  Well, in this particular case it has to do with skipping the long run in favor of my little kitten having a snow day.  But the double edged sword of my visual accounting of mileage then got my head wrapped around the idea I was behind in my training and prep.  

This is, of course, completely silly and ridiculous (the bad ridiculous, not the good ridiculous; I have learned through experience when using the word "ridiculous" it is of paramount importance to make sure and clarify the context of the word).    

I'm in prime condition.  I'm testing my limits on a weekly basis.  My frame of mind is so different that the idea of signing up for an organized marathon has nothing to do with anything other than it fits nicely into my training schedule.  

So, with all these things in mind, with a weekend of somewhat rest and leisurely activities, I'm looking forward to this weeks full test of endurance and mental fortitude!! 

Depth of Failed.... Err, Field

Bokeh.  

I wasn't sure where this terminology came from, so I looked it up.  Wikipedia is amazing for these types of inquiries.  As it turns out, this is a Japanese word.  And refers to how a camera catches depth of field and deliberately puts one portion of the photo into sharp focus and the rest in a blur.  

I knew the general definition, I was unsure of the origin.  Now having been educated, lets get to my failure.  In order to do that, I need to put in a little back story (cause there aren't too many stories that can be truly appreciated without the proper backstory).  

I am going to call myself a Novice Photographer.  I have a camera.  I have a kit lens, specifically an 18-55mm lens for my Nikon.  I totally love my camera.  And we are getting to know each other as time allows, or as I make time.  The latter seems to be the case most often.  

I do love close up shots of various things, and often find myself gravitating towards these types of shots.  And of course, there is the Kitten.  She is also something of a focus for me (see what I did there?).   

So that has been my general point of interest when looking up the various settings and how to achieve the desired affects I'm aiming to achieve.  

With all the settings on the camera, is easy to be overwhelmed by them.  YouTube is by far my greatest mentor here.  I have burned a lot of time studying Aperture on YouTube.  And as I am finding out:  It's not that tough to understand the settings, and in my case specifically the Aperture Priority setting (I have not yet delved into full Manual Mode).  

So back to Bokeh.  My eventual goal is to get the Kitten out and do some good shots, both portraits and some "on the fly" of her just being a Kitten.  So I have been randomly practicing.  And in general feeling like I am getting the hang of things.  And there I was at work, needing to take photos of two potential new hires.  And I get this great idea.....

What if I put the agency logo on the big screen and then get a photo of the guys with the bokeh effect.  They would be in sharp focus the agency logo would be softly blurred (but obviously recognizable) behind them.  This idea had me excited.  And I kinda thought it would look freaking awesome.  

So I got it set up.  Meanwhile, the guys were at one appointment, which was running over the scheduled time, and at that point late for the next appointment.  We rushed to the late appointment when they finally arrived, and at the conclusion manage to go over the last bits of info.  

And then we went to the setting I had prepared.  And here is where I failed.  

It felt like I had the setting right.  And the general lighting was perhaps a bit dark, but still acceptable.  But I left camera on Manual Focus (MF) as opposed to Auto Focus (AF).  This was a huge mistake.  But not my worst.  The worst mistake, and an obviously rookie move, was taking only one picture of each guy.  

Wait, what??  Yeah, only one picture.  And yeah, they were both poorly focused.   And my ISO was too low.  So blurry (Bad Bokeh) and dark.  Ugh.  Why on earth did I not take advantage of the auto-focus?  Somehow, in my haste to be done with that part of the day, I had it in my head I needed to have it in MF when using one of the priority modes (which is utterly false!!!).  Further, I apparently didn't feel the need to review my handy work.  

And thus, 2 blurry photos.  Bad blurry.  Not the good blurry I was looking for.  

And now for what is even worse:  these 2 fellows were from out of town.  And I sent them packing.  And now I am left empty handed.  

And feeling foolish.  Let's just count this as a lesson learned.  

I crashed through a well and yelled, "Oh Yeah!!!"

I hit the wall.  Mostly just mentally.   But it was a pretty good wreck.  But I rallied by way of morale support.  

Let me explain. And be forewarned, there is a fair amount of truth to this tale, and a fair amount of embellishment (because sometimes the truth isn't as entertaining all on it's own).  

A 20 mile run is no joke.  That's a big un!  I'm certainly up to the task, of course.  But there are still some mental issues that go along with such an undertaking.  

It used to be I would prep (both mentally and in all other areas) for a week or more for this length of a run.  I'd pour over my various run routes I like, I'd spend inordinate amounts of time thinking about snacks and hydration and what I'm going to wear and on and on.  

Yesterday's long run was planned as such:  

• I stopped by the store and picked up various snacks.
• I mapped out a route I had been thinking about (looping around Humboldt Bay) which took about 2 minutes.  
• I figured what time of day I was going to go.  
• And I went.  

I knew I was in for about 3.5 hours of time.  I was OK with this.  I had it all figured out in the course of an afternoon.  The actual look is about 20.2 miles, give or take a 100th or two based on variations in the road, staying to inside corners, and such like that.  

The change in preparing for such an undertaking is a new part of this process I am in, getting ready for 24+ hours of running.  What hasn't changed is the simple giddiness I get as I'm more and more excited about these long runs.  

The first 12 miles of this look are actually pretty easy.  Some gentle rolling hills which wind through the area that skirts the bay and the foothills (if we actually have foothills; that term might apply more to my former life living in the Sacramento Valley).  

So the first 12 miles are scenic and winding and provide a fair amount of variety which makes the time go by at a reasonable clip.  Here are some examples is the first 12:

Yeah, its safe to say, I was loving the first 12 miles.  

But then, there is Highway 255.  Which looks like this:

This IS Highway 255, just on the west side of Arcata.  From this point, its about 8 miles to the finish line.  

Its pretty safe to say my general outlook changed a little here.  

This reminds me of the many trips to SoCal which we took when I was a kid.  We always took the back roads from Vacaville through Rio Vista and eventually got onto to Highway 5.   After the windy hilly roads came the forever interstate.  It was so straight and so flat it literally just disappeared into the horizon.  And thanks to the beauty of perspective, despite traveling at 70+ mph, those things in the distance so far away never seemed to get any closer  

And so it was with the bridges over Humboldt Bay.  I saw them.  They seemed a fair ways off.  And yet, they never seemed to get any closer.  And in my mind, I crumbled a bit.  I "hit the wall".  I "bonked".  I "crashed".  I was suddenly demoralized.  The final distance from that point was less than 4 miles.  Child's play in comparison. I could eat a 4 mile run for breakfast.  But suddenly that distance seemed insurmountable.  I might as well have been been staring at the foot of Kilimanjaro.  My legs were still moving, but mostly out of sheer will.  On top of this crash, I was not specifically getting a tail wind.  More of a cross wind.  Which isn't as bad as a headwind, but actually seemed more annoying.  Anyway, for a few moments, I lost my will to fight.  Yet I persevered.  I kept my legs moving, and breathing steady, and I just kept going.  

As a side note, its always good to have a support crew, even if they can't be on every run.  But sometimes the voice in the ear saying "Keep running!" is magical, and can bounce any person back from the brink of despair.  Even when the voice is saying things you already know, even when the voice is saying things you know make sense.  Sometimes you just need to hear it from a source outside your own head.  

IT was like the clouds had parted and the sun was shining (which is completely metaphorical here, as it was totally sunny and awesome despite the crazy wind) and the host angels were paying homage to my efforts. 

And still, I ran on.   

That last stretch of 4 miles was long, but doable.  I'm sure my pace was affected, and I do not mind this.  It is what it is.  I broke through that wall like the Kool-Aid Man breaking through the living room wall and yelling, "Oh yeah!!"  

The final mile was a bit of a set back when Frankentoe decided to show up, but that is a tale in and of itself, a persistent problem which I'm hoping we'll have remedied soon.  

All in all, this 20 miler is in the books as a success.  And now its time to simply go farther.  

I cut out of work to go running. One of the best decisions ever.

I heard a rumor its Winter.  

No really, its only a week into February.  But yesterday it was sunny, a very light breeze, and the temperature was about 65f.   Unbelievable.  

And so I was at work, and my work load was fairly light.  And suddenly I said to myself, "If i were to take a half day off I could go out running in this amazing weather."

My boss looked at me like I was a little crazy.  I simply say, "Boss, its crazy beautiful outside and I want to go running.  Can I burn a half day?"  

And so I did.  I obviously have something of an addiction.  I love to go running.  It makes me feel amazing.   It clears the head when needed, it cleans the soul when needed, and often it simply provides a constructive and insanely enjoyable way to pass some time.  

It wasn't too long ago I was talking to Skates, and discussing how running so much, as I am on a fairly regimented training schedule, takes up so much time.  In reply to my issue, she simply asked, "What would you be doing otherwise?"  And this is where I stopped to think, and realized there would be a lot of time simply spent sitting on the couch watching TV.  That seems a little on the pathetic side (were I to only do that, but the reality is I manage a pretty heavy mileage schedule AND plenty of TV time, so I'm OK with it).   

And so, when I have free time to myself, I go running.  And sometimes, you simply have to create that free time.  My peers around me, yesterday, decided I am crazy.  Who would take a day off just to go running?  Me.  That's who.  And it was a good run.  Possibly even Epic.  I'm not sure its specifically the run itself, but I believe the circumstances which contributed to the Wow Factor.

1. Half day at work.
2. Sunny.
3. Warm (it should be noted around here "sunny" and "warm" are often not used in the same sentence, especially in February).
4. Almost no wind, and for the 2nd half of a 10.25 miler what little wind there was provided a great tailwind.
5. Did I mention I took a half day at work for the sole purpose of taking advantage of numbers 2-4?

So I started off a little concerned.  Frankenankle was a little more stiff than I had anticipated.  I simply decided my total distance would be decided by one of two scenarios:  Frankenankle loosens up OR Frankenankle gets naughty.  

When a guy like me deals with ankle issues his entire life, he gets to know his problem spots and how to address them, and how they are going to effect him.  

So it seems a fair thing to say, I knew right out the gate the quality of my run was yet to be determined.  

But about a mile in I was feeling pretty good.  And then I simply got lost in the run.  For anyone who has not experienced that sort of euphoric feeling, often referred to as a "runner's high", its quite something.  I would guess it was a combination of a lot of circumstances.  I wasn't at work (a huge bonus), the weather was amazing, and I was just feeling good.   And about 5.25 miles later I realized I should probably make my way back to my truck since I wasn't prepared (not enough snacks, to be specific) for anything longer. 

So an epic 10 miler.  The waterfront  trails are quite nice, and provides an easy out and back path with minimal traffic to deal with and plenty of scenery along the bay. 

If you haven't tried these paths, I highly recommend it.  

I'm beginning to get it.

Time consumption.  Its a real thing.  I'm not talking about time wasting, that's a real thing too, and I can be an absolute professional time waster.  But lately, time consumption has been my issue.  

I have something of a set routine.  Wait, scratch that.  I can easily settle into a routine.  It doesn't bother me so much at all.  In fact, I don't even know that I notice is so much until it's disrupted.  But there is something that seems to be consuming a huge portion of my time: Running.  

When I decided to take on the challenge of running 100 miles at one shot, I was filled with a mixture of excitement, nervousness, determination, and whatever else might come of such an undertaking.  But the reality is I had no idea what to expect.  I still don't really know what to expect from the race itself.  My longest distance on the pavement, as of this date, is 26 miles.  Adding 74 to that is nearly incomprehensible.  It would be like to trying to describe in words, and painting a clear picture, how far it is from the earth to the moon, which happens to be 238,900 miles.  Can anyone really comprehend what that means?  No.  They can't.  A person can walk out at night and see the moon in the night sky, but to really understand how far away it is, that's a different thing altogether. 

Does this visual help?  Probably not.  How about the fact that the average distance between the earth and moon is great enough to fit all the planets of our solar system in between.  

Still, even with visual it feels rather incomprehensible.  Sadly, I realize this visual is under the idea that Pluto is not actually a planet.  I was raised on the idea it IS (not was).  So while technically I'm presenting good intel here, I dispute it.  Anyway, moving on.....

And thus it is with running 100 miles.  I don't know what to expect.  I can already imagine a fair amount of the various emotions which will course through me throughout the race.  Excitement.  Tiredness.  Hunger.  Pain.  Determination.  These are not uncommon emotions.  What I can't quite comprehend is the mental break which will come.  I don't know how it will affect me.  I don't know how I will react.  Will I just shrug it off?  Will I crumble into the fetal position? Will I cry like a little baby?  I'm guessing the truth lies somewhere in the middle of all this.  As I said, at this point I can only imagine.  On the plus side of this part, I have a great coach, and support, and she drives me to be better and better.  She makes the unknowns of this process seem insignificant next to the thrill of completion and the

There is a lot of this whole journey that can only be imagined until I experience each piece of it, which is where I am at right now.  I have two different parts of this that have come to full reality, and dive into each for a bit and hopefully keep this particular post at the "Not too long" status and still get the point across.

     1.This is taking up a lot of my free time.  

There is a significant difference between just running because you want to, and running because you want to AND you have a training schedule.  I have committed myself to an immense undertaking.  And when I decided to do this, I had no actual idea what kind of time commitment was going to be involved here.  Free time for me typically comes about the 2300 hours range, and about that time I'm really thinking about bedtime, and not much else, aside from wondering where my day went.  There isn't a lot more to say about this.  It is absolutely going to be time consuming.  I accept this.  I was even quasi-prepared for this.  I simply didn't fully understand it.

     2.  From last night's run of 18 miles, long runs from here on will be 20 or longer.  

I feel like this one will have more actual impact than the idea of time consumption.  And again, coming into this realization is somewhat humbling (I'm not entirely sure this is the word I'm looking for here, but I think it gets the idea across).  A while ago I quit comparing myself to other people.  Thank you Social Media for your many wonder, and not so much for setting up competition (even if that isn't the goal).  We can delve into the my love/hate relationship with Social Media at a later date.  At any rate, I love to go out and run.  And I love the short runs and I love the long runs.  Each has their own perks, and each has their own qualities when it comes to feelings of accomplishment.  But with the completion of last night's run, the short runs are getting longer, and the long runs are getting monumental.  18 miles.  That was the distance last night.  It wasn't a bad run, but doesn't anywhere near qualify as an epic run.  But it was plenty good.  But it felt long.  Overly so.  For one thing, the armory loop is extremely repetitive.  And for another, its a lonely loop.  Actual race day will be different.  There will be people.  And lots of them at all times.  I'm aware of this, and looking forward to it.  I typically do not mind making a run by myself, almost all of my running is solo.  But lap after lap, after lap after lap, the solo factor weighs on you.  I'm torturing myself quite a bit on this loop on purpose.  Its a perfect mental preparation for race day.  But 18 miles, regardless of where, is still 18 miles.  As people are becoming more and more aware of what I am doing, they are always asking how far I ran this weekend.  And often, no matter what the distance, the reactions are similar.  "Wow."  "I can't even imagine running that far"  "You ran for 3 and half hours???"  I can comprehend these things because I am doing them.  But the realization of just how much mileage I'll be putting on is now officially something I understand.  20 miles.  From here to Fortuna.  Its and easy drive.  Not so much a run.  26 miles.  Its marathon distance.  Some people don't believe they could ever run that far, and others who do spend a year or more getting ready to do so.  30 miles.  As far as definitions go, this is already Ultra Marathon distance.  These are training runs.  And nothing more.  When I finished the Redding Marathon I took about a month and a half off.  After all, I had earned it (I felt).  Now, I'm looking at longer runs, and no time off aside from a recovery day.  And its back to the pavement.  And now, even the short runs are longer.  An hour or more.  No more easy ones.  No more pussyfooting around.  This is all business.  And my legs are already tired. 

So, as we can see, I'm truly beginning to understand.  I'm starting to get it.  Let's not take this for any sort of second thoughts or wavering determination.  I'm all in. 

Or, as a person might say, I'm completely on board (and this on numerous levels).