Ups and Downs...

On the Appalachian Trail (yes another AT story), there is a name for the ups and downs in elevation that don't really seem to get you anywhere. They are known as PUDs - or - pointless ups and downs.

Tomorrow Nicole and I take on what could be referred to several hours of PUDs. Judge for yourself. Below is the elevation profile for the 50k.



Click on the picture if you want to see it closer. It's pretty neat that the run basically starts and ends at sea level.

The weather looks great for Sunday. Same as today. Low 70's and a little bit of cloud coverage. I'll post a run report as I am able. Tomorrow will consist of running, eating, and crashing.

I also plan to keep up with the tradition that Alright and I started in November. A dip in the ocean after the run. The water will no doubt be a bit warmer this time.

Okay, bye.

Unofficial Sponsor...

Thank you Inov8.

If you have been following this blog you may have gotten tired of my praise for the trail running shoe company inov8. Well, here it goes again.

Recently I entered a contest held by the company to submit a photo for a gross feet contest. No, this is not to say that my feet are mangled and disfigured...though I do have some killer heel spurs. I submitted a photo from a couple years back taken after a particularly wet and brutal trail experience. It was ironically just before purchasing my first pair of Roclite 315s. Anywho, the photo earned second place and a shiny new pair of Roclite 315s. These are the shoes I wore for the Appalachian Trail hike and what I will be wearing this Sunday for the 50k.

Okay enough about that. Thank you JC (no not that one).

Trail to 1000...

Okay, so what is the Trail to 1000? It is my goal to run 1000 miles of trail in the year 2009. Pretty straightforward right?


For "real" runners this may not be much of a goal. Keep in mind however I have only been running for about a year. This includes less than a year of trail running. This goal is all about the running TRAILS. No offense to road runners and treadmill junkies, but the rocks, roots, and rattlesnakes are what I like to see on my runs. Any road, track, and treadmill miles will not be counted towards this goal

Logistically it is trickier to get out to mountains to run than it is to walk outside the house and put in some miles. Also, up until the recent daylight savings it was too dark to run during the week before or after work. Due to all of the aforementioned excuses (yes I know they are excuses), I feel the Trail to 1000 is a respectable goal.

So there you have it. I'll need to average 2.74 miles every day for the year. Currently I have run 226.4 miles in 2009, so I am slightly ahead of schedule. I'll keep everyone posted with occasional with updates here. I might fall a little behind pace due to recovery time after this weekends 50k (Nicole will be running the 18k). There are plenty of days and months remaining this year to make up the miles...

Thanks for reading...and pretending to be interested.

That is all.

Lost and Found...

I spent a few hours in the mountains on Saturday with helicopters buzzing overhead.

What's that all about you may ask. Well, I will tell you. Even if you didn't ask. Of course for me to tell you it will require your reading the rest of this blog post. Read on at your own risk.

When I finished my run I walked by a search and rescue team. After a couple of questions I found that three hikers had gone for a out the previous day and not returned. Don't worry. There is a happy ending. When Nicole and I went for our run the next day, a ranger told me that the hikers had been found. I wish there were more interesting details...but that's all I've got. That and the fact that since I started my run before the police tape was up - upon my exit I had to duck under the tape to leave.

Like a good scout, always be prepared, even if you are only out for a day hike.


Only a couple more weeks until the big run for Nicole and I. Ah, that means the training runs are tapering and fewer miles are required until the event. Nice.

In other news, both of our cars need service at the same time. Come on now. I guess I could skateboard everywhere. I don't think a day has gone by since moving to CA that I didn't see at least one skateboarder. Nay, we'll just fix the cars.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...

Thank you JAD for sharing this link. Click see more Celeb Look-A-Likes to browse the hundreds of others. Some very good, some lame...but worth a minute of your time...unless you are driving. Be safe!


see more Celeb Look-A-Likes




see more Celeb Look-A-Likes

Eat Fresh...

Welcome to Subway. Eat Fresh. I hear those words all to often these days. To be more specific, these weekends. It's become a routine to hit Subway on the way home from training runs. As rumor has it, I may have something of an appetite. I admit it, I like food. Come on now, two foot long subs with the fixings for $10. That IS a deal.

Follow that up with a shower and a nap and I'm ready to eat again. It's like the hunger from hiking the AT...but only a couple times a week instead of constantly for months...and you can actually do something about it...and shower, and wear clean clothes, sleep in a bed not made of rocks roots and spiders, ready access to clean water, and the list of "luxuries" goes on and on... I'm getting soft.

According to his blog, Stitch is working on getting up at 6:30 am every day and using a neat tool to assist. I've been on somewhat of a similar "wake up" experiment for nearly 30 days now - at which point it officially becomes a habit.

I am shooting for 7:00 am starts. That gives me enough time to shower, eat breakfast, quick email check, and get out of the house and to work without feeling too rushed. The big deal is the weekends. This was brought about partly because my weekend training runs got to be around 4 hours long...plus stretching, driving to the trail, subway, etc. That's a big time commitment. An early start helps salvage the rest of the day. Yes, I do treat myself to an hour or so nap. I rationalize this with the fact that it actually helps the body with it's recovery process. That and I am tired! The nap also helps me to get up at 7:00 again the next day and run a couple more hours.

The other reason for the consistent rising time is that the body can be more efficient when you establish sleep patterns. I have NEVER ever been a morning person. I don't claim to be one now either, but I do find myself waking up every morning around 6:30, without an alarm and not always due to the dogs. Throw in a couple variables just to keep it interesting...a few weeks ago Nicole and I got a new bed and we are both sleeping deeper and better...and don't forget daylight savings just occurred. I don't think I have ever looked forward to longer evenings the way I did this year.

Okay, that's it. New poll off to the right. What kind of web browser do you typically use? One click. Be a participant.

Grandpa's Stories # ? - A Tale of Two Lunches

some people pop them to scare away hiccups
some people conceal booze in them
some people put groceries in them
some people carry thoughts in them, and when the time is right, BAM right? Just like that.

Once upon a midnight moon there lived a little thing with whiskers I suppose it was a mouse though I never asked it if it was a mouse "are you a mouse?" I could ask, but if it were a mouse it could not really reply with people words, right? I mean get real, people words are for people and trix are for kids. So there is a midnight moon and a maybe mouse and I know this because I am privy to information that most people are not. This is because I work at the phone company and I listen to your calls. And yours. But this mouse, lousy little mouse. It ate my lunch. I decided not to be friends with the mouse after it at my lunch, because I was hungry enough to eat both of my lunches that day. What with the economic crisis and all I can't afford to go to the local chain restaurant for jalapeno poppers and coffee with the rest of my shift, so I brown bag my lunch. Now I know the brown paper bag is on its way out fashionably speaking because you know what with the fancy reusable eco-friendly pretty things in the stores and on the interweb pages. So back to my hunger, it was not only for food, but power as well. I am a social climber. I have high hopes. Big dreams. I am going to own one of those chain restaurants one day and eat all the breakfast burritos and jalapeno poppers I want. All. Night. Long. All night. The waitress, she'll come over and she'll say "what will it be sir?" and I'll reply "the usual". Moments later...a double order of poppers...clutched in my greedy little hands...leaking oil through the bottom of a brown paper bag. I'll even share with the mouse. That mouse was after all my motivation, my fuel, my precious. You thought I was going to hurt the mouse didn't you? Yeah, well it's not that kind of story. Okay, get back to work or you're fired. Yes. You.