Writing a post for the excuse to sit for a few extra minutes...

We have been furiously building.  Literally getting up and working until 9PM when it's too dark to see.  Today Dave's at work and it's raining out, so I'm getting caught up on emails and trying to get stuff planned for our trip.  My least favorite thing in trip planning is figuring out other countries' transportation system.  The websites are always so different and especially if there's a language difference it's just such a headache.  But I think I've got a good handle on stuff and shouldn't get too lost when we first get there.  Fingers crossed!  (PS, this picture is from about 3 days ago, we now have the sheathing on three sides all the way up.  And let me tell you, getting that last piece up 20 feet in the air was not a lot of fun!)

I'm glad it's our taper, because with this much working/building there's no way I could also be doing huge mileage.  We drove up to Syracuse last night for the Syracuse Chargers' summer series and gave a little clinic to some people and raced.  It was over 90 and humid, so probably a bit like Lyon will be.  It was hot for sure, but I think we've been spending so much time outside that we're decently acclimated, so it wasn't too bad.  We all raced the mile and then Dave did a 200 and the 3,000.  I did a 400 and an 800.  They all went decent.  Dave raced super strong in all three and I think he should do very well in France!  One of my athletes raced and I'm just so happy with how he's progressing!  He's such a hard worker and he's still at that new stage where every race is a PB!  What excites me the most about him is his desire to work and better himself.  He seems great at setting goals and then just completely going after them!

The garden is really coming along, but I'm spending almost no time out there.  Hopefully it won't be all overgrown and rotting when we get back.   The cows are in the fields happy and munching on grass.  The chickens are as stupid as ever, but make me chuckle.  And the cats are happy.  We decided two nights ago to sleep in our new building, so we got our air mattress and put it up on the second floor and slept under the sky.  Little Kitty (yes, that's her name) was so happy she spent the whole night with us.  She's quite good at climbing ladders.  

We have four partial days to get the roof up.  It'll be tough and it'll be tight, but I think we can manage.  Our neighbor called us last night offering to help us to get it up faster, and that's just so nice.  And two of my friends have offered their sons to come help too :)  So we'll get it done and probably even have time to pack.  I can't wait to go and see a new country, see old friends, and race my guts out!

What The Numbers Can Teach Us....

Really the last post should've been a two-parter... the thought stream wasn't continued out to the end.  Because I think the level of success that these ultra walkers have compared to their level of training can be extrapolated out for shorter distances. 

I hear athletes all the time say they're not ready to hit certain times.  They know what they're capable of doing and they don't believe they are capable of more.  I remember one time I was doing a 5K fartlek.  It was probably 5 years ago.  I knew what kinds of times I had been doing and knew what to expect.  I figured I'd probably be high 25 or low 26 minutes.  I broke 25 minutes!  I had never broken 25 minutes before, ever!  I was sure there was something wrong with my watch, there had to be!  I did it in the park off my Garmin, so maybe the watch was beeping weird.  But I went the same distance I usually went.   I was happy and excited, but figured there was still something "wrong" and I hadn't actually gone that fast.  Then a week or so later I did it again!  This time on the track so there was no doubt as to the distance.  Again I broke 25!  It was a huge break through for me.  It caused me to have to readjust my mentality as to how fast I was.  It was a wonderful problem to have, but one that took me a really long time to adjust to.  I had been a certain speed for so long, now, suddenly thinking of myself as faster was a shock to my system. 

Why was my first thought when I did that awesome workout that something was wrong?  Why didn't I expect it?  Obviously I was in shape for it, since I did it twice, why didn't I have that belief that I could pop one out and really do something great? 

I love to read.  I like to read all kinds of books (so recommendations are always welcome!) but I really love to read about the mental aspects of sports.  I've read a lot of books on the subject.  My local librarian (who happens to also be my friend) has helped me scour the library system for cool books to read.  Some are pretty good, some are just so-so, but one stands out to me as the best I've read on the subject.  I've had eight people read the book and everyone has said the book is awesome and some have called it life changing.  It's called With Winning In Mind by Lanny Basham.  Lanny Basham was a world and Olympic champion shooter (as in rifle shooting).  He writes in an entertaining way that's easy to understand.  Many books will tell you, "you have to set goals!"  And that's it.  Lanny tells you how to set goals.  Many books will tell you, "you have to visualize!"  And that's it.  Lanny tells you how to visualize. 

One thing he talks about is what your brain considers is "like you."  You have an idea of what you yourself can do and are like.  Once you decide what is "like you" it's very hard to break out of that.  Possible, but you usually have to actively try to break out of it.  For a long time it was "like me" to do a 5K fartlek in high 25 or low 26.   I had probably been ready to break 25 for months, but had always held myself back.  Obviously not on purpose, but how many times have you gone out in workout, gotten to the first 500 or 1K and said to yourself, oh, that's too fast, I won't be able to hold that pace?  I was lucky that I was able to break out of that range and have my awesome workout.  It started to teach me that I could expect more of myself (this was before I read the book and really understood the phenomenon better). 

Back to 20K/50K/100mile training racing.   People have decided, mentally, what types of training they need to be successful at various distances.  And obviously you do need to train and train smart!  But if you're just looking at the numbers, then a case could be made for people to almost never succeed at 100 miles.  But people do succeed at 100 mile races all the time.  Why?  Because they know it's "like them" to do it!  They know they can do it!   Why can't we have that same belief in everything we do?  I'm not talking going towards completely unrealistic goals, there has to be a semblance of realism in there.  I'm not suddenly going to say I'm going to break 20 minutes for the 5K (I mean race walking, I can run faster than that).  But why not reach for the stars?  One of my favorite words of wisdom I've heard is to reach for the stars, you might just hit the moon, because if you reach for the moon you might only hit the clouds.  Why not reach that extra bit?  Why not believe you can achieve it?  When I first started working on 50K my coach never thought I was going to do them as fast as I did.  My first "real" one he thought I'd be lucky to be around 5:15, I was 4:57.  He thought it'd be quite hard for me to hit the Olympic Trials qualifier of 4:45, I was 4:42 and change, and that was three weeks after competing in the Portland to Coast relay.  But I always believed I could do it, and I did. 

What would happen if those around us believed in us just as much, if not more?  What if we were surrounded with people saying, if you work hard, if you want it, if you give it all you've got, I believe you can do it?   I love coaching newbies.  They don't yet know what they "shouldn't" be able to do yet.  They have  no idea of what seems too fast, they don't know what their self-imposed limits are.  They just go out and race and push and work hard.  And sometimes you get these phenomenal results.  The expectations aren't holding them back.  We should all be like that.  Who knows if today is your day to have a breakthrough race or workout!  Again, you don't want to go crazy, but who knows!  Are you holding yourself back?  Many ultra people don't hold themselves back, they go for it.  They race smart and they go after their dreams.

Make a deal with yourself to stop holding yourself back.  Think about what things you have made "like you" and if you can change them.  And read the book!   I'll even make it super easy for you and link you to the amazon page...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=with+winning+in+mind&sprefix=with+winning+in%2Caps%2C198

hopefully this link works...  Read the book, learn from it, and believe and know that with hard work, focus, and perfect practice you can keep improving.  I shouldn't still be getting faster at this age, but I am!  People in USATF want some of us who are getting older to retire and stop trying to make open teams.  How ridiculous!  If I'm still getting better then who cares what my age is?  Who's going to tell Yohann Diniz to stop because he's too old (he just broke the world 50K record and 20K record.  Unfortunately he only held the 20K record for 6 days, but still!  Oh, and we're the same age). 

Next time you're looking at your workouts and you're looking at your times and you're looking at the numbers, don't forget what the numbers can't tell you.... what's in your head, what you believe, what you know is "like you" to do.  Because that can overcome the numbers. 

By The Numbers...

We went camping for a few days, a really nice spot.  One of the benefits was there was a wonderful one mile loop around the pond that was mostly shaded and gently rolling.  I had my last long one before the 100 miler and decided to make it a dual purpose workout.  I knew I wanted to do somewhere between 40-60K.  I did the first 40K at closer to a 50K training pace, around 6:10 per K pace.  I almost decided to stop there, but as I was waiting for Dave to get to the campground I thought I'd just slow down and walk for a bit.  So I did about 1.5 miles at around 15-16 minute mile pace while I ate some food.  Then I picked it up a bit.  My legs didn't feel quite so bad after that little break.  So I started picking it back up.  I ended up finishing the 60K in 6:44 and feeling really darned good for such a long walk.   What I find though during these super long walks is I have a lot of time to spend in my own head.  Sure, I got to look at the beautiful scenery, and said hi to the deer that were chilling around the pond, but 7 hours is a long time.  A lot of what I thought about had to do with numbers...

Whenever I travel internationally I love to talk to other athletes to see what kind of training they do.  I have found that, in general, people who train for 20K will generally do a 25K as their long walk.  Some do 18K, some up to 30K, but the average seems to be about 25K.  That is 125% of their race distance.  I've found that average weekly mileage tends to be between 80-120K.  That's 4 - 6 times their race distance in a week.

In general, people who train for 50K tend to do 40K as their long walk.  Again, some do 35K, a few do 45K, so 40 seems like a good average.  That's 80% of their race distance.  Average weekly mileage seems to be between 150 and 200K per week.  That's 2 - 3 times race distance in one week.

When it comes to ultra events I have a lot less data.  One ultra expert I've talked with did a 4-6 hour walk once a week and a few times would do 6-8 hours.  That would be approximately 32 - 48K for the shorter day and maybe about 48- 54K for the longer walks.  That is less than 50% of race distance.  One guy did a 12 hour race as part of his training.  I've been told that outside a long one, my regular training distance per week would be enough.  So that's maybe 1 to 1.5 times race distance in one week.  One very elite endurance walker, who has done some amazing 100 milers only trains 80K per week!

Look at those numbers.  A lot of athletes feel for 20K they have to be able to do a significant amount more than their race distance to be successful.  50K walkers not as much, but still are doing well over race distance.  Now we get to ultra distances.  The distance that just wears and tears on your body.  But I have yet to hear of anyone doing a 130K training walk (80% of 160K).  I haven't heard of anyone doing 320 - 480K per week (2-3 times race distance in a week).   But, by the numbers, would you think you'd want to be training that much?  Wouldn't you want that peace of mind?  Wouldn't you want to know that you could handle it? 

There's something huge missing from the equation.  Any ideas what it is?  There's pacing, nutrition, "little" things like that, but I think there's something huge, something that is many, many times more important than those things.  I think that missing link is the mental aspect of the race.   What else could it be?  Look again at those numbers, you can't be sure you're going to succeed based on the quantity of your training you wouldn't have much confidence.  "They" always say that sports are 90% mental.  I now really believe that they were talking about ultra events when "they" said that.

Two years ago Dave and I went to the Isle of Man to give the 100 miler a go.  I knew I could do it.  I had confidence that I could do it.  I had no reason to have said confidence.  I had never raced over a 50K, I was coming off my discus-to-the-knee injury and my longest training walk was 25K.  I knew nothing about nutrition, and I went out WAY too fast.  I didn't make the 100 miles, but I did make it 76.  I only stopped because I could no longer flex or point my foot.  Mentally I was still ready to keep going.  I "shouldn't" have even been able to go that far.  But I believed I could and that belief got me 76 miles.

Now we come to this year.  I'm sooooooo much more prepared.  I've done three walks at 60K.  I've done I think 5 or 6 walks around 40K.  I've done 4 weeks (not in a row) over 200K of training.  I've worked on my eating and am comfortable with eating during the race.  I smartened up about pace and will not go out as fast as I did last time.  Everything points to me being super ready and should be tons more confident than last time.  But instead I've spent time looking at those numbers.  And those numbers worry me.  My longest walk was only 37% of my race distance.  I can't imagine only walking 7K as my longest walk for a 20K.  Or 19K as my longest walk for a 50K. 

My goal for the next three weeks is to find that confidence I had last year.  I know I'm a good endurance walker.  I know I'm strong.  I know I'm tough.  I know this year's 50K nationals I'm going to be in rip-roaring good shape.  I'm going to head to the Isle of Man and have fun.  I'm going to race smart, eat well, and make sure my shoes aren't tied too tight.  And we'll see what happens!

Do you really want me to wish you good luck?

How many times have you been right before a big event like a race, a test, a job interview, a concert, and people say, "Good Luck!"?  Quite a bit, right?    We all know what they mean.  Urban dictionary defines the phrase good luck thusly:

1.  A phrase used to wish someone well in an endeavor.
2.  Sometimes a pointless phrase if the task at hand does not even remotely involve or require luck.

I always appreciate it when someone wishes me well.  It's great to know that people want me to succeed.  And it's a socially acceptable phrase to say to someone.  But what does it really mean? 

Dictionary.com defines luck as:

1.  The force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities:

2.  Good fortune; advantage or success, considered as the result of chance:

3.  A combination of circumstances, events, etc., operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person:

 

So I'm getting ready for my race or my musical performance and the words are "I hope you have good fortune or success, all based on chance."  

 

In high school I had a great clarinet teacher.  He instilled in me a great work ethic, taught me that working hard and not just practicing but perfect practicing paid off and taught me how to play my scales REALLY FREAKING FAST.  One thing he always said before I had a big concert or competition was, "I hope your skill and preparation come together at the optimal moment."  He knew there was no luck to it.  He knew that for me to get that really hard phrase perfect was not luck, it was the hours of dedicated practice I had spent on it.  It was not chance that would make sure that I didn't mess up tricky phrases or get nervous and freeze up.  Instead it was studying, hard work, and practice, practice, practice.   

 

The same is true for an athletic event.  Before a race it's not luck that's going to get me a PB, it's not chance that's going to make sure I don't face the wrath of the judges.  I have spent hours, and hours, and hours and put in miles, and miles, and miles to get where I am.  I have worked on my technique, I have studied, I have lifted weights, done ab work, cross trained, watched videos, talked to others, and read whatever I can find.  There's no chance involved!  Luck has nothing to do with it! 

 

The only place in my life I feel I need luck is in my garden.  I still can't always figure out why some plants do so well and some don't.  Half my eggplants are doing great and half are just sad and still trying to limp along.  I have no idea why some are good and some aren't.  I got them from the same place, they're planted in the same area, they get the same amount of water.  Same thing happened with my beets this year.  But from all I've learned you sometimes just never know for sure with plants/seeds.   But funny thing, no one ever wishes me good luck with my garden! 

 

Next time you're getting ready to encourage someone before a big event think about what you're saying.  Is "good luck" really appropriate or something else?  Could you say something like "I hope all your hard work really pays off!"  or "You've really prepared for this, I know you'll see success!"  And also, be able to say to yourself, "I've worked hard, I've prepared, I'm ready for big things!  Today is my day!" 

 

So go out there and prepare, work hard, practice, and get ready to kick bootie at whatever it is you're trying to do!

A mighty sequoia...

Hopefully many of you have had the opportunity of seeing a giant sequoia.  They are magnificent trees; tall, wide, majestic.  According to the all-knowing Wikipedia the giant sequoia is the single largest tree in the world and the largest living thing by mass.  Basically they're huge!  A tree that can grow to be over 300 feet tall and have a circumference of 56 feet you would think would come from a huge seed.  But another interesting fact about the giant sequoia is that it has one of the smallest seeds.   One seed is .16-.20 inches long and .039 inches broad. That's pretty darned small.   Think about that for just a second, how something so huge grew out of something so small.

I was thinking about this during my walk today, not specifically giant sequoias, but about how a thought or idea, a tiny one, can grow to become something large and important, either for the good or for the bad.   When I wrote my last blog post a friend of mine, who had nothing but my best interests at heart, made a comment to me, "I'm afraid you might be over training."  And later, "Don't hurt yourself."  I am always touched and appreciative of people's concern and advice, it means the world to me that people care.   But it planted a seed.  A small one.  But one that grew...

My workout started off great, I was nice and consistent and felt good.  My plan was to do 60 laps of the park, which equals about 61.8K, close enough...  I had moments of ups and downs, thoughts of, this is boring, when is Dave going to get here (he would meet me after he got done with work, I started about 3 hours before he got there), is it time to eat something yet, mostly mindless dribble.  Dave got there and we had some nice chit chat and he told me about his day.  I was solid through 30K, exactly on the pace I wanted.  Then I started to ache.  Not a lot, just the - I've been training a lot ache in my legs.  My left leg felt a bit tight, but I had no pains.  But then that little seed that was there started to grow;  do I really need to do a full 60K?  It's been a long few weeks, I could just stop at 40K.  How important is this long one, maybe I could cut it short.  Thoughts along that line.   Then I started feeling the aches and pains even more, and the seed kept growing.  I decided at 40K that I would regular walk a lap and see if that would help my legs loosen up. 

As soon as I stopped my left leg rigged up.  It got super tight.  Painfully tight.  Making me gimp tight.  I decided to see if I could walk it out.  I started regular walking and it felt better, but not great.  The good news was after I did my easy lap my legs felt refreshed.  I was very, very happy to learn that.  But my left leg was still hurting.  I tried stretching it and it wouldn't loosen.  I regular walked another 4 laps, to end at 45 laps.  I knew I was making the right decision because my leg was not happy. 

But all that got me thinking about that seed.  In this case the seed was not the reason I stopped, it was the pain in my leg, and I know thinking about being tired did not cause the tightness in my legs, but how often do we plant negative seeds in people's minds? 

I loved to run when I was a kid.  Track and Cross Country were natural things for me.  My junior year of high school during the summer I went to a running camp.  We did a lot of running.  I had fun.  One day we were adding up mileage and someone noticed that if I ran one more mile I would have the longest run of anyone there.  So I trudged off and did another mile.  At the end of the week the head of the camp said something to my parents that I believe has shaped the rest of my athletic career.  He said, "She's not really fast, but she can go forever."  Since then that's what I've believed, I don't have a lot of speed, but I can just keep going.  It's what I knew about myself, it was who I was.  It took a while, but then I started race walking long distances and the rest is history.  In the last few years I have discovered that I do have some foot speed.  Nothing spectacular, but I have moments where I really get moving.    What if I had started developing that speed years ago?  What if that coach had instead said, "boy, she can really go forever, if she works on her foot speed she could be an amazing athlete!" 

How different of a seed would that have planted?  What if my whole life I had believed I was fast AND good at distances?   How many stories are there of people who never gave up?  Who tried, and tried, and tried?  How many times was Walt Disney rejected before he was accepted?  He believed.  Somewhere along the way someone planted a seed that he was able to nurture and grow. 

What type of seeds do you plant?  Both for yourself and others?  Are you building others up?  Are you building yourself up?  Are you constantly telling people that they can accomplish things, or putting limits?   I had an interesting conversation with an amazing walker from another country.  We were talking about belief, both belief in yourself and belief coming from others like coaches.  He said that he sometimes felt like his coach never really showed belief in him like some others on the team.  No one was there telling him he COULD hit certain times and reach certain goals.  We talked a lot about the importance of self belief, but also of others believing in you.  In others planting seeds.  Now he holds numerous national records and has qualified for the World Championships and you can tell he really believes in himself!  I'm so happy for him! 

If you find someone is planting negative seeds, get rid of them.  Be smart, listen to advice. learn from everyone you can, but believe.  If you don't think you can do it you won't. 

I didn't get in my full 60K, but I feel I trained as smart as I possibly could.  I learned I need to stretch a bit more than I have been.  I learned that if I really need to a short walking break seems to refresh my legs, and I learned that I can eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at 100 mile race pace!  So I count today as a success and hopefully with some attention to my leg and a little rest I'll be ready to bounce right back. 

I'm going to bed and think about what positive seeds I can plant.

Wish me luck!

Today I will attempt to do a slow RW/Centurion walk for 60K.  I'm guessing it will take me between 7 to 7.5 hours.  This will be my longest ever training walk and probably my longest walk before the Isle of Man race.  I'll probably do one or two more 40Ks before then, but I think this might well do it for long ones.  I'll practice eating, drinking, trying new foods, and seeing how well (or not) I keep on pace.  I'm planning on doing it in Marvin park, which right now is a little over a 1K loop.  It's where we will hold our Centurion walk in 2016 (although by then we will have a modification to the road so that it can be an exact measurement.).  I'll be able to get aid close to when I will in the Isle of Man and I won't have to carry a lot of stuff with me.


My legs have basically recovered from Sunday, they feel great, but there's still a little swelling down near my ankles.  But I did 30K of training yesterday (some cross training) and they felt okay, and I did a modified speed session where I was able to do a 1:48 400.  So fingers crossed everything goes well, both physically and mentally!  If you're bored today (July 15th) between noon and 7:00 to 7:30 EST, send me some happy thoughts!

And just because I want to include a picture, here's what the sky looked like just as I was finishing my workout last night.

 

 

 

PS.  The title of my blog post for today will actually be the subject of another post.  I don't really think that luck will get me through this workout, but it's just the socially accepted wording for such a situation.



What a weekend!

Made it through another week of good training!  Earlier in the week I was afraid I wouldn't hit 200K, but with three huge days to finish it off, I did it! 

Started off Friday dropping off the car and walking home through the hills.  Dave joined me part way and I did 30K while he did 20K.  Wasn't super fast with all the hills, but was really pleasant.  Got home and started packing for our camping trip!  First camping of the season, we were so excited.  Got everything ready, took off, and made it just before dark to set up camp.  They were unfortunately out of camp fire wood, so no marshmallows the first night :(   As we were pitching the tent we realized there were tons of mosquitos!!!!!!  Ugh!  All the rain we've been getting has been great for the mosquito population.   We went to bed early as we were both tired and had no fire to enjoy.

Here's the view I woke up to:

Dave had a speed session scheduled Saturday so we headed off to find a track.  After a little difficulty we found what was probably the roundest track we've ever been on...

Happily, after a little bit of a rocky start, Dave had a great speed session.  His psoas is super duper tight, but we talked about just doing the best he could do and working through it, and I tried to stretch it out a bit, and he went way better than we thought he would.  Especially since it was pretty hot!  I did distance while he was going and gave him his drinks.  Once he was done I did 10x30/30.  This is a great workout Ian introduced me to.  You sprint holy guns for 30 seconds, then have 30 seconds recovery.  I did it 10 times, just to see if I had any speed.  I haven't done any speed work since the week before outdoor nats, so I was just going to have fun and not really expect anything.  However, I flew!  In those ten minutes I went almost 2.1K!  I hit 2K around 9:25, and with the recovery times in there I'm very, very happy with that.  Maybe I do still have some speed in my legs after all! 

We went from the workout to Fort Stanwix, which was fun.  It was still hot and sunny, so walking around was tiring.  But we got to follow the park ranger for her tour and see them fire off a 6 pound cannon!  I mentioned to Dave at one point, if we were normal people this is the kind of stuff we'd do most weekends, instead of training all the time :) 

We went back to the park and hiked another 9K.  So by the time all was said and done we'd done 25K for the day!  Managed to get the fire going, had a few marshmallows and off to bed, the next day would really test us.

Sunday we got up early and headed out to a portion of the Erie Canal.  Our goal was to hike 60K or 12 hours, whichever came first.   We loaded up on food, GU, water, and everything else and took off.  What a beautiful trail!  Only problem, since the canal isn't used in places it's basically stagnant water, which means breeding ground for mosquitos.  We went through a 4 mile stretch of mosquito swarm.  I am not exaggerating when I say that Dave killed about 200 on me.  My back and legs are literally covered with mosquito bites!  At one cross road there was a guy sitting on his porch.  We said hi and asked him if he had any repellant.  He had some sitting right there with him!  And he was nice enough to give us some! 

At one point we realized we'd need to leave the canal trail and go along the road to get to a town to get more water and food.  After restocking and getting some ice cream, we were headed back.  We hit 30K in 5:15, so well under the pace we were thinking about.

Probably should've had this picture earlier, but here's us getting ready for our hike. 

As we were coming back Dave started to not feel so good.  It was warm, luckily the sun was behind some clouds, but it was very humid and sticky.   Dave sweats way more than I do, and needs a lot more water.  We decided that Dave would finish at one of the locks and I would continue back to the car and come back and get him.  We decided this with about 20K to go.  I decided at that point that I'd try a modified race walk, instead of hiking.   Our mile pace had been between 16:30 and 18:30 on the way out.  I was able to pick it up to between 11:30 and 13:15 for the last 12 miles!  That made me very happy and very hopeful for success at the Isle of Man 100 miler!  Even though Dave didn't do exactly what he was hoping, we both learned a lot and he still had a great day.  It's one of the first times he's gotten through a long/hot walk without cramping, so I count that as a huge success!  Because I did the modified RW on the way back I was actually able to negative split the halves of the 60K, so another reason to be happy.

After I collected Dave we grabbed some food and headed back to camp for a nice shower.  One thing I noticed has happened the last few long walks I've been on is that my legs have gotten a very strange rash.  It doesn't really itch, but some of it gets very puffy and swollen and it feels like my skin is stretching more than it should.  I've tried various google searches and can't really find what it is.  Anyone have any ideas?

Not a great picture.  I didn't get it anywhere else, just my legs/feet.  Dave says it might be golfer's vasculitis, ideas?

After the shower we looked at all the mosquitos at camp and how warm and sticky it was and decided that a movie in an air conditioned theater sounded very nice.  We went and saw Self/Less, and we liked it.  We really liked sitting and being cool with no mosquitos too. 

So with those three big days at the end of the week I hit 200K!!!  That's two weeks in a row.  One more week of 200K + and then I'll start tapering and working on speed for World Masters in Lyon.  I know at that point I'll be the strongest I've ever been, I'll just have to sharpen up. 

And today I'm happy to say that I've recovered really well.  I did a solid hour on the elliptical and worked outside on the facility.  We have beams in the ground!!! 

So here's to working hard, staying as focused as I can, and having fun doing it.

The best laid plans...

We have broken ground on our bunkhouse!  It's very exciting!  But what we thought would be done Monday basically just got done today.  First we rented a backhoe, but the guy brought us a mini backhoe, not the right tool to dig a septic system, a leech bed, and about 250 feet of trench.  We had things scheduled to come though, so Dave accepted it and got to work.  It was slow going, but he was getting it done.  The machine was just so small and wimpy.  It would jerk him around all over the place, and the seat was broken.  After about three and a half hours the bucket stopped working.  So he calls the guy.  To make a long story short, the thing was broken, couldn't be fixed there and we hadn't even gotten the hole for the septic dug.  We had to call the septic tank people and the gravel company and cancel.  The guy we rented from is being a big jerk, which was annoying and stressful. 

I started calling around and found a place in Binghamton to rent from, they were super nice, and the had a full sized backhoe and it was cheaper!  Whew!  It came Wednesday morning.  Dave got right to work as the septic would be coming later that day and things were going great.  Then I noticed I wasn't hearing anything outside and discovered that the dumb thing broke!  Luckily this was an easy fix, it was just a bolt that broke, but it still was frustrating.   I called them and let them know it happened and they apologized and said we could keep it longer to compensate us.  Good customer service!

Dave got the hole dug with plenty of time for the septic tank to be delivered.  The guy was putting it in and he says, "Have you put in one of these before?"  I start thinking, uh-oh, we must have done something wrong!  Dave told him no, he hadn't.  He says, "you did a better job than most contractors do."   Whew!  That was such a great thing to hear, after that rocky start, to hear that we're doing really great work.  Dave got the leech bed dug, the rocks came and that was done.  Dave was furiously digging on the trenches.  Since we're running water lines they have to be three feet down to get below frost line.  We live in an area with a lot of hard pan, which is really mucky stuff and super hard.  So it was slow going.  We realized that he wasn't going to get it all done Wednesday.  So he got up as soon as he could see and got to work.  I called the place as soon as they were open to see how long we could keep it.  For some reason I was feeling super stressed about how things were going.  Now instead of Dave taking one day off he had to take three off.

Dave got the trenches dug and it was time to lay the lines; water, natural gas, and electric.  The electric was pretty big as it was going so far, and it had to be put through conduit.  We got it done, but it took quite a while.  We really wanted to get it in while we had the backhoe so Dave could use it to fill in the trench.  Otherwise it would be A LOT of shoveling that we'd rather not have to do by hand! 

Right where we had to tie into the house a lot of hand digging had to be done as there's other pipes buried in the ground.  Dave got all the other trench filled in so we started working on that.  Wouldn't you know it but it started to rain.  Not just a little sprinkle, but a decent downpour.  Now our trench is getting full of water.  We have the electric in conduit that really shouldn't get water in it, all sorts of stuff.  So we're furiously working, trying to get it done.  At about 9:15 we got everything done that we could do.  Wet, tired, and very dirty we headed inside.

Now here's the thing, we're athletes, we need to do our workouts.  Monday was an off day for me after my tough weekend, so helping Dave with stuff was no problem.  Tuesday I did a 60 minute session with the trainer and then went straight out for a nice 40K, a solid day of training!  Wednesday we got up early before the backhoe was to be delivered and got 5K easy in.  Dave was going to do his speed workout in the afternoon/evening.  I decided to make it a cross training day so I could be close by in case he needed help, so I did 25K of cross training to make a 30K day.  Thursday we got up super early, I was going to do a nice 20K in the morning and we had classes to go to in the evening.   I only got in 3K before feeling stressed about helping Dave.  We were working most of the day, and at one point I wasn't needed for a while and I was so tired I decided that a nap was the smartest thing.  I thought I'd be able to come in and get some cross training in, but that didn't happen.  Dave got no workout in, and we didn't get to go to our classes.

As an athlete, how do you handle when things go wrong or not as planned?  I really wanted this to be another 200K or more week.   Now I'm not sure I can make that happen.  I know sometimes life can get in the way, but if I'm really serious about my goals, how can I justify not doing my workouts exactly as they're scheduled?  Everyone handles things different ways.  I know one athlete who ALWAYS does exactly what's on his program, no matter what.  He said he's only modified his workout about five times in the last four or five years from what his coach has given him.  I know people that barely even follow a schedule and just do whatever from day to day (some are quite successful too....)  and most I think are in between.  Sometimes you get sick, have a deadline at work, issues with the kids, life things.  

They say you always make time for the things that are important to you.  What is important to you?  If you can't always get your full workout in, do you get something in?  Do you do your ab work?  Do you stay hydrated?  Do you meditate?  Read a motivational book (or blog)?  Do you find a way to keep moving forward every single day?  Sometimes life gets in the way, but you can choose how you will handle it!  Do what you can, work your hardest, use your time wisely, and at the end of the day be able to look yourself in the mirror and know you did everything you could.

The case of the mysterious white rooster....

We have nine white layer hens.  They have a deluxe coop that they sleep in at night, but sometimes a few of the girls like to go "camping" and will roost in our lilac trees.  When that happens we'll go and pluck them out and they'll run to the coop.  The other night I went to put the chickens in and one of them was in the lilac.  It was almost dark and I tried to kick her out of the tree but was having more difficulty than usual.  Finally I got her out of the tree and on the ground.  Usually they will run for the coop, but tonight she just wouldn't go that way.  I chased her around and got annoyed and just figured I'd leave her out.  she'd go back in the tree and would probably be fine.  I went in and counted and saw eight hens, which made sense with the one outside.  But I did notice the one outside looked a little funny, her feathers seemed a bit droopy.... 

A few days ago I was visiting a friend and she was talking about how sometimes when you've got a bunch of chickens and they're all female one will take on the roll of rooster and will actually start crowing in the morning and all sorts of silly things.

The next morning as we're sleeping I hear a rooster crow.  Sometimes I'll hear the rooster from up the road, but this sounded really close.   We were heading out early for a workout so Dave went out to let the chickens out.  He came back in and said we had all nine of our hens in the coop, that chicken is not ours!   So he's hanging out with us, we're trying to figure out where he could be from.  Dave did his workout down the street yesterday and went by the neighbors who have chickens were out.  Dave asked them if they were missing a white rooster and they said yes!  Awesome!  They said they'd be up later to grab him.  A little later they show up with a net and I take them over to where he's been hanging out.  They see the rooster and exclaim, "that's not our rooster!"  

What are the chances that they would misplace a white rooster and a white rooster would show up at our place, and it wouldn't be theirs!  He's been getting along well with our girls, he's a heritage breed and a bantam, so he's actually a little smaller than our hens. 

Here's my dilemma....  It's entirely possible that he comes from up the hill.  We are not on good terms with the guy up the hill.  Not something I really want to get into here, but he's a not very nice guy who feels entitled to more than his.  He's tried to kick us off our own property, and he's threatened to call the sheriff if we come on his property (we've never had any desire to go on his property).  With that threat from him I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy about going up and asking if it's his chicken.  I suppose I could find his number and call and ask, but I really don't even want to talk to him. 

What is the right thing to do?  Do I get over my reluctance and call and ask, or do I take his threats seriously and just leave him completely alone?   Do we even want a rooster?  Tonight we put him in the coop with the girls, hopefully that will also cut down on the volume of cocka-doodle-doos in the morning! 

Great end to a great week!

It's been a great week of training!  I did my third highest mileage ever, 205K, which was extra exciting with Monday only a 10K (day after outdoor nats and we had to get to the airport) and Friday being only 5K of cross training.  I was just wiped out on Friday.  I did a 40K walk on Thursday and today we did our longest ever workout, 53K!  We traveled up to Montour Falls and walked on the Catherine Valley Trail, a nice multi-use path that's hard gravel on an old rail road bed, basically a rails to trails project.  Our plan was to do it as a Centurion walk practice, go out easy and just get miles in.   Here's a picture of the falls very close to where we started.

 

 

The morning was beautiful, about 60 degrees and a lot of the path looked like this, nice and shaded.  About 15K of it went gradually uphill, which was awfully nice when we turned around!

 

 

There were lots of great things to see along the way, only got pictures of a few of them.




I learned a ton during this workout.  We planned to eat something every 45 minutes.  In total I had about 9 sports products, between GU, Honey Stinger, Glukose, and a few others.  I had my Amino Vital and High 5 to drink and we found a water fountain along the way.  And at about 42K we stopped at a gas station and bought stuff to try to see if it would settle well.  Before we got there we started thinking, what sounds good?  Because especially with me my stomach will only tolerate certain things.  For some reason I really wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I haven't had a PB&J in probably a year, but man I wanted one then.  Luckily the gas station had a deli and they made me one!  And it was fantastic!  I was able to eat that, some salty chips, and drink some strawberry milk.  And it all agreed with me!  I'm super happy learning that.  Also think next time I'll try having some black olives there, and maybe watermelon.  And some bullion, that sounded good too.   But I did learn that I don't think how much I ate was enough.  I was starting to get pretty darned hungry, and as that's only 33% of my race distance I don't want to be hungry for another 15 hours.  Next time I'll try eating every 30-35 minutes. 

When Dave and I tried the 100 miler before I had to stop because I got to the point where I couldn't flex my right foot.  Just a little I started to get that feeling today.  On a whim I decided to loosen my shoelaces.  As soon as I did my foot felt so much better!  So I think my foot got to that point last time because my feet swelled and my shoes just got tighter.  So I will really pay attention to shoe tightness from now on.

Everything else felt good except my left heel, it started to hurt.  A few weeks ago I got a little bit of a blister.  I thought it was basically gone but ends up it was not!  About 45K it started to really hurt and it was causing my technique to change drastically.  We decided to finish it up about 53ish K.  I was planning/hoping to go about 60K, but this workout wasn't important enough to do damage, so I felt good about how I did do.  Some of those miles ended up being hiking as it was easier on my heel, but overall it was a really solid pace!
(Time on the watch also includes a few stops where I forgot to stop my watch)


We ended up being really hungry, but our eyes were a little bit bigger than our stomachs!




Not sure how well you can see it, but turns out the blister on my heel got HUGE!  Guess today will have to be a rest day :( 

So that concludes a great week!  Tomorrow we break ground on our new building!  Soon walkers will be able to come and stay and train!  I hope people are getting an idea in mind of when they want to come!  

Happy training!

"I never do well...." Part two

I really hate those words; I never.  I hear them all the time; "I never do well in the heat,"  "I never have time for ___________"  "I never can go that fast,"  "I never do well when __________." 

Sure, there are things we are all strong at, and things we all need to work on.  That's what training usually is, building on what we're good at and improving our weaknesses.  As a musician I am pretty good at scales, but my scales in thirds were always a bit shaky.  So I spent more time working on scales in thirds.  As a race walker I'm pretty good at distance, so what's my weakness?  I think it's speed work, and I mean all out sprint speed, and strength work.  So I work on those.  Positive steps forward (get it, steps forward, race walking joke...)

But when people say "I never" to me that means two things; first, they have their excuse premade.  Second, it's focusing on the problem, not the solution. 

Let's start with the one I hear fairly often; "I never do well in the heat."  Racing in the heat is challenging.  You sweat more, your body sometimes just doesn't adapt, you have to worry about heatstroke or heat exhaustion.  But to say that you NEVER do well in the heat, you're just setting yourself up for failure.  It's like a self-fulfilling prophesy.  If you tell yourself you're not going to do well, chances are you're not!  Your body listens to your brain and if your brain is constantly saying, I hate the heat, I never do well, it's too hot, then you're probably going to suffer.  It's focusing on the problem.  Why don't I hear people focusing on the solution?  What can you do to improve your situation?  For this specific example there are a few different things you could do.  Spend more time outside in the heat.  Do some of your easier workouts when it's hot out.  Really focus on hydration, if you live in a colder climate then you can wear more clothes in cooler weather, take a room in your house and crank the heat up and do some cross training, get the negative mentality out of your head!  So many things you can do!

In 2013 the national 50K was in Florida in November.  Usually that's a fairly decent time of year for temperature, but that year it was fairly warm.  And it ended up the day of the race got up to about 86 degrees F (30 C).  Upstate New York that time of year is quite cool, sometimes cold, so I couldn't train in warm weather.  But I could wear extra layers when I did train.  I also went to our workout room and put the gas heater up to full blast and got the temperature close to 86 with an 80% humidity level.  I'd then get on the elliptical and work my tooshie off for an hour.   Come race day I heard multiple guys worrying about the heat.  I knew that I had done all I could to prepare for the heat.  And it ended up that while a lot of guys suffered, I suffered less than almost all of them.  I ended up being the second American, beat only by one American guy.  I drank more in that race than I usually do in three days!  I actually had to go to the bathroom about 30 minutes after the race, and if you've ever done an endurance race in that heat you know that it can sometimes take forever to be that hydrated.  (As a side note, the drug testers showed up late and came and told me I was to be drug tested about 10 minutes after I just used the restroom.  Then it took me forever to have to go again.)  

I challenge you, next time you make the statement, "I never ___________"  stop yourself.  Take a look at that sentence and decide if you're focusing on the problem or on the solution.  Is there a way you can change that from "I never do well in the heat" to "I have done everything I can to prepare and I'm ready do my best and work my hardest!"  Or "I never have time for ______" to "I make time for what's important to me."   There is almost always a solution if you're just willing to look for it and work towards it.   I may not be easy, it may not be comfortable, it may not be fun, but it'll be worth it!

I very easily could've said to myself before the race, "I never do well when I'm this tired."  Especially with how the warm up went.  But I left my options open and look what happened!   So the only time I want to hear the words "I never" is if it's "I never give up!" 

Happy training everyone!

I never do well... part one.

It's become our tradition to head to Cazenovia, NY to do their Fourth of July 10 miler.  It's a nice course, going around a big lake.  The first half is basically rolling and at 5 miles there's a nasty downhill that we generally run down as it's just too steep to race walk, and then an even bigger hill up.  Then the backside of the course constantly goes up and down.  The last two miles has some decent downs where you can really try to get your foot speed back up.  This would be the fourth year I've done it.   I was going into this race with no real expectations except to have fun.  I've had a fairly hard week of training, knowing I'll hit over 200K by the week's end.  So with all that distance I wasn't expecting a lot of foot speed, but knew the race was fun and would go out to enjoy it.  Dave also had a tough week of training, so we figured we'd go out easy together and then try to push the second half of the race.

The warm up was super rough.  I was barely able to break 7 per K pace, my legs were dead and I was tired.  I did manage some pickups and got some foot speed going, but not much.  I convinced Dave that we should start farther back in the pack at the start, both so that we wouldn't go slower than people at the front and get in the way, but also so we wouldn't be tempted to go out too fast.  Our first K was right around 6, and we thought uh-oh.  But we were having fun and chatting and enjoying being in a pack.  We were able to pick it up a bit after that first K and settled into about 5:40 per K pace, maybe a bit faster.  We hit the downhill quite well, and we were prepared for the uphill.  As we got too it I exclaimed, "I love this hill!"  And this runner behind us responded, "you must be joking!"  My response was, "I'd rather say that to myself than anything else."   But what happened up that hill was Dave and I passed probably 10 runners.  We charged it!  Dave got a bit ahead of me, about 10 meters or so, and as he passed one lady she said, "wow, he's really moving!"  I said, as a joke, "What about me?"  She looked at me weird.  I said, "Okay, I'll catch up to him then" and sprinted up there.  Then she realized I was race walking too :) 

Now that we were past the half way point (oh, one local person had a radio out there playing Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer"  which has the lyrics:  ohhhhhhh, half way there..... which was funny as heck.  Here's the video in case you don't remember the song  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDK9QqIzhwk    )  Dave started taking off a bit.  He got about 20-30 seconds a head of me.  We both started moving much better!  Then with about 3K to go there's a big uphill and then you start heading down.  Dave is generally stronger than me on up hills, while I can generally move better than him on the down hills.  However, I noticed on the uphill that I was catching him!  I was feeling great!  So I kept pushing.  I caught him right after the crest of the hill.  Then I started really pushing the downhill.  I think one of my miles was darned close to an 8 minute mile, which I was overjoyed with.  I pushed like crazy to the end, certain Dave was going to be chasing after me.  But when all was said and done I managed to get Dave by about 30 seconds at the finish line!  I ended up negative splitting by almost 3 minutes!  I was so happy, even though it was over 4 minutes slower than how I raced it last week.  I really pushed hard and got my legs moving.  

A young gentleman rode with us and ran the 5K.  He was supposed to do it as a workout and do it as a kickdown.  He ended up going out too fast, but still had a great race, placing 5th overall, second in his age group.  On the way home we were talking about stuff and he was saying how the night before he had his graduation party and had cake and goodies.  Then he said, "I never do well after I eat that stuff." 

There are a few groups of words that I really despise.  My top two are "I can't" and "I never..."  I'll do a post one day on the "I can't" but now I want to talk about "I never...."  However, I've just written a bunch, so I'll finish the rest in a second post.  My version of a cliff hanger :) 

BIG things are happening around here!

Big things are starting around here!  Dave and I have been scheming and hatching plans and now we're ready to start!  We are going to build a two-story, 20'x30' building!  The top will be an apartment and the bottom will be a bunkhouse!  There have been too many times where we've had people come to train and not quite enough room.  Now we will have the room!  We are hoping to have athletes come and stay and train and everyone can help each other!  We've already had people come and stay that have then gone on to do some awesome PBs! 

So, life will be very busy for the next month while we train for World Masters in Lyon, France and the 100 miler on the Isle of Man.  But we are so excited to get started!  I'll post pictures and give updates, and everyone figure out when you want to come and train with us!

Here's a picture of the first load of wood being delivered...

Here's Dave being a goof and standing on top of a not entirely stable stack of wood...

Here's more wood and you can just see the stakes in the ground of where the building will be.  The stakes that are closest to the camera are where the porch will be.  It will be a 10 foot porch the length of the building.