The last hustle of 2010

A few weekends ago I ran my last race of the season, a 5K “Holiday Hustle”. The weather was cold. My lungs burned with every breath. When I was done I could taste my own blood.
Every race has it’s theme. This time, it was working through discomfort, a skill I have to confess, is one that needs some improvement.
I’ve been reading a lot lately about top runners and one thing they have in common is that their training, their genetics, only take them so far. After a point, what makes them perform amazing physical feats is the mental ability to push through their discomfort, their pain, their apparent limitations and tough it out.
Now I primarily race against myself.  Yes, I enjoy placing and the accompanying swag that goes with it, but that’s not what motivates me (entirely). I want to see how far I can push myself. I like to challenge my mind and my body and running allows me to do both. And this race, more than any other this season, challenged me to work through an intense burn with every breath.  My reward was that I ran my fastest 5K of the season (and the sole ornament for our little Christmas tree).

As I reflect on my running season, I realize that my success came from not just my efforts alone, but the support of my wife, Angela, and Cadence, when she brought him, who were always there to cheer me on, either at the finish line or at the start.  For them I am grateful.

Turkey Trots (with Iron and without)

Last weekend marked the start of the holiday series of races with the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot.

Three distances were offered: 10K, 5K, and for kids, the 1mile. If you wanted a cool “Iron Turkey” t-shirt, you could run both, back to back. Well, I wanted the t-shirt, so that’s what I did, while Dharmaspoon Gal entered the 5K.

Dharmaspoon Gal was a little sore going into the 5K and unfortunately ended up with a nasty case of shin splints in the days after the race. Given the choice to pull from the race or go all out, without fear, she went, and gave it her all. And now she’s giving her all to recovery, and will be back before you know it.

As of race day, I was in the middle of reading a fascinating book, “Born to Run.” The book connects our love of running as a species to it’s primal and evolutionary roots via a mix of science, anecdote, and the spellbinding tale of an almost mythical group of distance running villagers in the Copper Canyon of Mexico, and a race between a group of them and a rag-tag collection of “gringo” challengers.

Within the book, a number of observations are made about the both the joy and the lightness with with these villagers run. And also their perfect form, running only on their forefeet, as humans were actually designed to do.

With the book in mind, I decided to spend the race(s) focusing on running light, and with joy. I also made an effort to watch the runners around me to try to find others who were doing the same, so I could learn from them.

This change in perspective and focus made both races much more enjoyable. I was not worried about passing and being passed (well, until the last mile of each race, anyway), and just focused on how I was running, on enjoying running within the group, and catching glimpses of the handful of runners who were doing the same, but better. What I realized was that the really excellent runners fell into two groups:  some appeared to expend less energy and have smiles on their faces while the others ran with contorted bodies, faces grimacing with equal parts determination and pain.  Now that I see there is a choice, my new goal is to train to be the light joyful runner. Had my first lesson observing the kids running the mile race before we headed home.

A philosophical agility halloweekend

Had a wonderful two days of agility this past Halloween weekend. There were costumes, there were friends, there were lots of runs, and lots of successes.

As I sat down to write about what happened just a few days ago, it occurred to me that I have no idea how many qualifying runs we had, how many times we placed, or what those placements were. And I think this reflects my philosophy about competition:

1. Put in your best performance

2. Learn from your mistakes

3. Remember to have fun

4. Whether you win or lose, experience the moment, and then move on

5. Be grateful for the opportunity to compete

Here is what I do remember about the weekend:

• Spending quality time with my wife, dogs and agility friends
• Watching Django get his mojo back
• Completing two runs with Tristan and having him remain sound, even days later
• A great costume contest
• A magical jumper’s run with Maebe
• Well timed lead-out-pivots, serpentines, and back-to-back rear crosses, all of which we have worked really hard on  
• Figuring out what I need to work on next

Django with his mojo restoring costume:

Run Ichabod, Run

 

“…He stopped, his heart pounding in fear. Before his startled eyes, a white mist burst forth from an unmarked grave and formed into a large horse carrying a headless rider.  Ichabod Crane let out a terrible scream as the horse leapt toward him at a full gallop. He took to his heels, running as fast as he could…”

Last Saturday, we found ourselves in “Sleepy Howell” for the Headless Horseman 5K. It was our first night race, which was pretty cool. We often train in the dark, but have never raced in it.

   The course was fun and fast, taking us through downtown and then lakeside and through a luminary-lit cemetery.

The headless horseman started things off, oddly, galloping away from us. I guess he was intimidated, as there were 600 of us.

Running in a hooded cloak and mask was about as comfortable as you might think, so I pulled the hood down and the mask off after the first quarter mile. A few people thought I was wearing a black dress as a costume. That’s ok. Black goes with everything.

I started at the front of the group, as is typically my strategy. I’d rather get passed by a few fast runners than have to pass hundreds of slower runners. Lined up along side me was superman, a zombie, a male nun with a baby stroller, who others around us and who knew him, assured us would still kick all of our asses, which he did.

Angela started a little further back. She has a more nuanced calculation when deciding where to place herself in the pack. It involves the BMI of the other competitors, how much crap they’re wearing, and the phase of the moon.

We both ran our hardest, and both of us ran paces we were proud of. Angela placed 7^th out of the 50 women in her age group, which is nothing to sneeze at. I ended up placing 2^nd in my age group and 25^th overall. There were a lot of fast runners. Many of them were young. I’m glad that I wasn’t in the 14-15 year old age group, for example, were my time would have earned me 8^th in my age group. Where do these kids come from?

Post race refreshment was fun, a mix of the usual stuff and Halloween candy, which was pretty cool.

Overall, it was a fun race and a good time. We’ll be back next year.

Up North Birthday Bustle

It’s fall in Michigan. It’s a time of year when we Michiganders are drawn to the mythical “up north,” which is a point 2 or more hours north of where you started, if you are anywhere in the Lower Peninsula, plus all of the Upper Peninsula. The fall colors are spectacular and the weather can still be pleasant.

And so last Friday we dropped off the old guys at the farm and then headed “up north” with Django, Maebe, and Cadence for a long birthday weekend (mine).

We set up camp at Interlochen, which is on a sand bar between two glacial lakes. From there, we embarked on our many adventures, because that’s how we roll on “vacation.”

The weather was beautiful; sunny; 70’s. The leaves were about at peak color. There were, surprisingly, no crowds.

Our first activity was to drive a little farther northwest to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We hiked up to Pyramid Point, a several hundred foot sand bluff overlooking Lake Michigan and the Manitou Islands, once a stopping point for steamships en-route to Chicago.

The dogs seemed to enjoy their first hike. Cadence wore his backpack and carried water for all of us. Django and Maebe were more than happy to let Cadence be the sole backpacker. I think they’re just jealous because their backpacks look pretty lame compared to Cadence’s.

This part of the state is known for its massive sand dunes and the clear blue water of Lake Michigan. It was once also known for expansive stands of massive pine trees. All but a few of the trees in the state were cut down to rebuild Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871, which occurred 139 years ago on the exact date of our visit, October 8. The remnant of one of the surviving stands occupies a small section of the park at which we camped, and so in the evening, when we returned from Sleeping Bear, we took a walk through the forest.

We capped off the evening with a nice campfire and got to bed a little early, because the next day, my birthday, I thought it would be fun to celebrate by running a 10K trail race on part of a popular trail system north of Traverse City, the cherry capital of the world.

On Saturday we were up at 5 to get everyone fed and to get out to the trail head in time to have our pick of parking space. Picked up my race packet before dawn.

When the sun came up, a wonderful scene was painted with red, yellow, and orange maple leaves against a backdrop of clear blue sky.

While Django and Maebe rested in the car, Angela and Cadence were there to see me off on my run and to cheer me on when I approached the finish line.

Seeing Angela and Cadence really helped me to finish strong.

 

The race itself was tough, but nice, because it was so beautiful. There were more than a few hills and it was actually 2K more than advertised, but some of my strongest running was actually in those last 2K. I ran hard and my reward was a 3^rd place finish in my new age group.

When we got back to the car, Angela presented me with a very thoughtful gift. She got an artist/blogger/agility enthusiast we follow to draw a Maebe “logo”, which Angela then had printed on a number of clothing items and a tote bag. It was the coolest gift.

I changed clothes and then off we went, back onto the trails, for a 5K hike with all of the dogs. It was nice because Angela got to see some of the same trails I had just run through and to appreciate the trees in their colorful glory.

During the hike we came across a stream and Cadence got to get his feet wet. That dog loves water.

Keeping Cadence’s love of water in mind, our next stop was back at Sleeping Bear, on a trail that brought us to the shore of Lake Michigan. The five of us trekked over a few low lying sand dunes and were rewarded by a virtually private beach that went for miles in either direction. Maebe and Django relaxed while Cadence had his first encounter with waves. I bet he couldn’t believe it. All of that splashing and he didn’t even have to cause any of it. He just stared and bowed and barked. We could have probably left him there all day and he wouldn’t have moved, but eventually, it was time to move on.

Back at camp we hiked the virgin pine forest again, had a nice meal, a tasty beverage, and a warm fire. It was a perfect birthday.

   

On Sunday we awoke to an amazing sunrise over Green Lake. I gathered some wood for a morning fire to keep us warm while we at pancakes.

After another virgin forest hike we packed up and headed back home with the dogs and our “Up North” memories.

Fall Outing from a different perspective

The gang headed up north this weekend for the annual fall outing at Dog Scout camp for a weekend of hiking, playing, sitting by the campfire, playing games, and of course, braving the spooky trail.

  My two favorite things on this outing outside of the usual dog stuff are large campfires and the spooky trail. The spooky trail is basically a quarter mile loop around the pond lined with what looks like the entire contents of the Halloween section of a dollar  store strategically placed for maximum fright. There are lights. There are sound effects. There are talking vampires. There are ghosts and witches and pirates.

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Angela and I have been involved with the Dog Scouts for about 9 years at this point. We started out as participants in camps and outings, looking to others to guide those experiences. Over time, our roles have started to change to the point that we are just as much contributors as participants.

Now I build the fires instead of just sit by them. We both, for the first time, set up the spooky trail on our own. I even had to learn how to drive a quad (including how to back up with a trailer attached). I am on the board of directors and teach the overnight camping merit badge at camp. Angela has actually created a canine fitness merit badge that people can earn and in the process, end up with a healthier happier dog.

Our experience is still a rewarding one, it’s now just from a different perspective. We get to watch people have their “ah-ha” moments about why you train using positive reinforcement and punishment; see them experience a variety of activities with their dog for the first time; enjoy the warmth and companionship offered by nightly campfires; and for this outing, get into the Halloween spirit a little early with a stroll through a haunted forest. From our new perspective we can appreciate more fully why there need to be organizations like they Dog Scouts of America, enjoy what we have gained from our involvement, and then give back by helping others experience some of the same things.

Kicking Woodstock’s Ass

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!"
— Hunter S. Thompson
For the second week in a row, Angela and I have challenged our minds and bodies in competition. This last weekend was Run Woodstock, a three day festival of classic rock and tough trail running in the aptly named Hell, Michigan. The brainchild of a local running guru. the event included camping (which we hope to do next year), 5 different bands, and runs of all distances including a 100 miler, a 50 miler, a marathon, half marathon, and a 5 five miler. Angela and I feel the need for speed, so the 5 miler was the one for us.

There were about 142 competitors in our race. The trail was one hill after another. Narrow. Twisty. Muddy. Filled with roots. Plenty of people ate dirt as they stumbled their way through.
Angela and I prefer trail races. We like the idea of being in nature. Running on dirt is easier on your body. The distance seems to fly by. And then, there’s the mental aspect. We both love hills. We live in a hilly area and we finish just about every run going up a pretty big one.
Trail races psych a lot of people out. Sometimes they take hills too hard and kill their legs. Other times, they’re too intimidated (or tired from the last hill, or haven’t trained enough) and pretty quickly, end up walking. Running downhill, they put on the brakes, afraid to take a tumble. They worry about getting lost, don’t pay attention to the signs, and end up running the wrong course. All this works to our advantage.
A trail race is as much a mental challenge as a physical one. Both of us noticed the negative self-talk of other athletes at as we were corralled for the start. They line us up by our expected pace and many people started with the exclamations about how slowly they were going to run or how poorly they were going to do on these trails. We’ve learned to ignore it. Plus, we train hard and frequently, so we have the edge of feeling prepared.
My race strategy this year has been to go out with the leaders, hang with them as long as I can, and then run the hardest I can run given my heart rate. That strategy has worked pretty well for me. I have placed in my age group in every trail race I have run this year doing this.
This was Angela’s first pure running race in a couple of years and her strategy was to do her best and not get stuck behind the people who were selling themselves short, not pushing themselves, but taking up space.
Angela has not always thought herself a good runner, but I have been watching her times, especially when we do our “speed” workouts, and observed that she is capable of running faster than she thinks. This has shown itself in her strong running performances in the triathlons she’s run this year. With those observations in hand, I expected she’d do pretty well in her age group.
My race felt pretty good. I went out with the leaders, as planned, held off someone who ran practically at my heels for a few miles, and finished strong. I ended up finishing 6^th overall and winning my age group and am quite proud of that.
What made me proudest, was how Angela did. She won her age group too, finishing 39th overall.
For our hard work, we got the best race prizes ever:

To be honest, I usually don’t care about the prize or placement, but in just doing my best, but when I saw what was at stake, I got a little more competitive than usual. I suspect that the same thing happened to Angela.  Anyhow, it was a great way to finish the day!

A trial and a triathlon

Just wrapped up another busy weekend doing two of our favorite things for the last time outside for the season: agility and triathlon.

On Saturday, Django and Maebe and we had our first USDAA Agility trial, hosted by AWSOMM Agility.

The competition and the scheduling (having to juggle two different rings) was kind of intense and Maebe had to jump a huge height given how small she is. Django was signed up for 2 runs, Maebe, 7. Django had a nice Standard run. Wasn’t clean, but he and Angela and fun out there. Maebe and I were pitted against some of the best handlers in the nation for a few of our runs. We had fun and I was pleased with the majority of the handling, but we had a lot of knocked bars given this was the first time Maebe had to jump 22 inches in a trial (she normally jumps 16). About halfway through the day, we were all exhausted and decided to pack it in so that we could give the dogs a rest and focus on preparing for Sunday’s triathlon, the last of the season. We learned some lessons about how to pace ourselves in future trials (don’t sign up for everything), and only sign up for events in one ring so you don’t have to risk trying to memorize two courses simultaneously. Our “coach” was there and so we got great feedback as we ran. Many of our agility friends were in attendance, which was nice too.

Sunday morning, we headed out bright and early for the MI Triathlon & Duathlon State Championship at Stony Creek Metropark.

We were entered in the sprint, which involved a 500m swim, 20k bike, and 5k run. As an added treat, Angela’s father was there to cheer us on. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful venue, although the roads in the park were under construction, so we had to bike through an area open to traffic. Angela placed 4^th in her age group and I placed 8^th. We both ran our fastest run paces of the season.

We had a good time but were happy to be headed home afterwards to let the dogs blow off   some steam in the yard.

We weren’t home long before we crashed. A lovely end to a nice weekend.

Camp to ourselves

Over the weekend, the gang hooked up the trailer and headed north to Dog Scout Camp for a private outing, just us and the dogs.

After spending some time catching up with the property manager and the camp director, we went hiking,

 

running,

played in the play yard, practiced agility, took the horses out on the adjacent State land,

and Cadence went swimming. Just swam to the middle of the pond and splashed. And swam. And splashed.

We grilled some. We had a campfire on night.  Went out to dinner the next. 

It was very relaxing…

Despite the miles of hiking, running, horseback riding, and hours playing with dogs. Yeah, we  don’t really do downtime very well. Great weekend, though!

 

Hot Time @ Capital City

Over the weekend we participated in an agility competition at one of our favorite outdoor venues, the local YMCA camp.

The courses were fun and challenging. The dogs were happy. But my, it was hot. Here is what the dogs did most of the time we were there:

Luckily there was a river nearby where the dogs were able to cool off a bit.

Agility trials are like the weather. The conditions are not always ideal, you can’t really control it, the best you can do is be prepared.

As sunny and hot as it was, I had a bit of a rain cloud over my head. You see, I backslid into a bit into perfectionist thinking, getting overly frustrated by handling errors on my part; the frustration in turn leading to more errors. I never get mad at my dog, but sometimes I take myself too seriously, and I’m afraid that was often the case this weekend.

In agility, they often talk about how you have to work to maintain behaviors the dog already knows. It’s not a simple matter of you train your dog and you’re done. You have to be vigilant.  For example, I have not held Maebe responsible for stopping at the end of contact obstacles and now that behavior has disappeared at trials. Unchecked, this will deteriorate further to her flying off the obstacles completely.  Time for some contact maintenance work.

For me, I had been at a point where I was just having fun and not worrying about being perfect, but in fact embracing the fact that you cannot be perfect and that of course you are going to make mistakes and that those mistakes are valuable for letting you know what you need to work on. Well, without really realizing it, the more I trained, the more I believed I shouldn’t be making mistakes. At all. Guess how fun that makes things.  So what was good about this trial was that it was an opportunity to reset myself; to do some maintenance work on my attitude.

Despite my attitude, Maebe ended up getting a games title and qualified/placed in about half of her runs. Which is pretty respectable.

Django, my wife’s dog, finished the second day of the trial with a perfect day, which is fitting, because she doesn’t obsess over having things like perfect days. She just goes out there and does her best with her dog and that tends to pay off. I’ve learned a lot from the two of them.

Tri Sprinting @ Island Lake

On Sunday morning, Dharmaspoon Gal and I got up at 4am, pottied the dogs, and headed out for the last (and my first) triathlon of the season. This was a true “sprint”, which means it is half the distance of an Olympic version. That translates into .5 mi swim, 12 mi bike ride, 3.1 mi run.

The first thing you do when you get onsite is you get your registration materials and body marked with your race number and age. Then it’s off to set up your transition area. This is where you rack your bike and lay out your swim, bike, and run gear. There is somewhat of an art to setting things up so that you have access to everything you need when you need it. You also need to memorize how to find your area, even when your bike isn’t there.  In a triathlon, you start in the water and do your swim. After the swim, you run to your transition area, get into your bike gear, and head off to your bike ride. When you’re back from biking, you return one last time and switch to running hear.  The amount of time you spend here counts against your total, so you want to do this as quickly as possible. Which is difficult, because sometimes you want to take a nap. Here is what my transition area looked like at about 5 in the morning, prior to the race:

 

After I get set up, and use the port-a-john, and get back in line and use the port-a-john again, one of my favorite things to do is watch the sun rise over the water where I’ll be swimming while I stress out about whether or not the swim will be “wetsuit legal.” If the water is under a certain temperature, you are able to wear a wetsuit, which, for a crappy swimmer like me, provides an advantage in terms of extra buoyancy. If you know what you’re doing in the water, it may actually slow you down.

 

The swim at a triathlon is an interesting experience. I saw an ad on TV once where they were helping someone train for a triathlon and they were simulating the swim by beating the guy with paddles as he tried to swim in a lake. That’s pretty much what it’s like as people kick you in the head, swim over you, your goggles fill up with fog/water and you have to stop all the time to make sure you’re still going in the right direction. Oh, and many people choose to relieve themselves right before the swim. In the water. Right next to you. I hate the swim. The swim is the most challenging leg for me.  It does however serve as a great warm-up for the rest of the event and does not tire you out too much.  On Sunday, I did as well as I ever do on the swim, maybe a little better. Took about 19 minutes and had the 9th fastest time in my age group. The top swimmers made it out in 12 minutes or so. For this triathlon,  that  included a group of middle-school children.  The really good swimmers usually suck at the rest of the event, so after the swim, you look forward to passing them all on the bike portion of the race. We call this “fishing.”

The bike course was a nice rolling course with a couple of very tight turns.  For better or worse, you can actually shave minutes off of your time just by paying money for a really expensive bike. The more you spend, the more you can shave off. The people with the most money have bikes with disk wheels that make a characteristic droning noise as they pass you.  That sound also gives you time to drop tacks in the road right behind you, causing them to spin out of control and off the race course.

I have a middle-of-the-road tri-bike myself, and was pleased to blow past a number of people with custom made bikes several times more expensive than mine.

I ride a single speed to work every day and have to negotiate a number of steep hills without the ability to shift gears, so that really pays of when I hit the hills and can shift gears.

After the bike, it’s time for the run. For the first mile, your legs feel like bricks because the muscles have to get used to the transition from biking to running (the blood has to redistribute itself). Was feeling pretty good at this point and passed quite a few people. The racers all have their ages written on their legs, so you can see if it’s worth passing the person in front of you.

Finally, it’s time to finish. What’s nice about a sprint triathlon is that usually by the time you start to wonder why you’re putting yourself through all of this, you’re done.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ended up finishing 7/33 in my age group, 42nd overall out of over 300. What I am most proud of is that Dharmaspoon Gal finished 3rd in her age group and got herself a nice liquid prize:

Looking forward to doing it all again next season.