More Volume!

I'm talking running, bicycling, climbing, aerobic exercise, even going for a walk. The secret is, most success at endurance sports is based largely on total volume of time spent doing aerobic activity over your life. It's not hard and fast, speed wins of course, but the person still standing at the end of the marathon will do better than the one that couldn't take another step at mile 23 because he didn't have a big enough base.

In short, do more volume, your whole life.

Continuously Raising the Standard

I like to imagine that I am continuously raising the standard for myself. The challenge is, on some level it becomes harder to achieve what I achieved yesterday. I'm working on a huge blog post about my Colorado weekend and this little post pales in comparison. I didn't even feel like writing anything. That's the challenge, when you have run a 15:something 5k running a 16:something or 17:something 5k is not a positive mental experience. Yet performance, of many kinds, is more like a power law than a bell curve. For a lot of below average, mediocre, performances, sometimes you hit one out of the park. That being said, everyone has an average, a baseline, and that can be higher or lower. The point being, it's not linear. You don't wake up and have a #1 hit. You don't solve the world's problems on the first try, and even if you do solve a problem, you might really struggle to solve the next one. Life is non-linear. 

I Live in Iowa: Week 159

I have such a wonderful life! It's just amazing. It should all be taken from me and gifted to someone who has suffered much more. I don't deserve the many forms of wealth I have. For example, Friday and Saturday I spent most of the daylight hours running and hiking up and down the high mountains in Colorado, doing four of the highest and covering something on the order of 60 miles. And... You know what? I'm a little sore, but I've had worse long runs. All things considered I feel great. On top of all that, I just went and did it. I have a great job, a great career, wonderful friends, I'm still acclimated from Everest, I am physically gifted at running and hiking, and I am not taking any of those forms of wealth for granted right now.

Work was a light week, many people were out of the office. Despite that I managed to get some things closer to completion. My job, and many of yours, is to fix things. To make something better today than it was yesterday. Some days that is hard to remember as I am redoing something for the, no lie, fifth time. Yet, that's why I am there, because someone with my skills has to do it and I am getting paid to make it happen.

Not sure how much I ran or walked, but it is quite likely over 100 miles for the week, even though Thursday I didn't do any mileage. I recovered from the marathon fantastically! I did 8 miles Sunday and 10 on Monday, which is great for the two days after a hard effort like a 2:50 marathon.

I'm tired, that's all you're getting today.

I'm Aiming to "Run" Part of Nolan's 14 Tomorrow and Saturday

Plan is to start up Mt. Massive around 7:30 AM, then do Elbert, and La Plata, then a whole bunch of others, ending late Saturday descending Yale. Drive home Sunday and be at work Monday.

Yes, I plan to run and walk and climb about 70 miles over about 40 hours including something like 30,000 feet of elevation. I will have my inReach from Delorme tracking me the whole way and be Tweeting. I have maps and route descriptions and the skills. My biggest fears:

1. Hypothermia
2. Animals (bears mostly…)
3. Bad Weather
4. Injury
5. HAPE/HACE

I could obviously elaborate on all of this. Why am I doing this? Isn't this risky? (I'll answer that now, risky compared to Mount Everest or compared to sitting on my couch for three days? Enough said.) Why didn't I advertise this more? Why not go for the whole Nolan's 14, not just 10 of them? Why am I doing this alone? Honestly, maybe I'll answer these later, but it's about a consolation prize for Everest and if I don't go now, when I am still a little acclimated, when will I go?

I'm in Colorado!

Surprise! You didn't see that coming did you?

I Live in Iowa: Week 158

A busy week. Lots of work, lot of running, not a whole lot of sitting around.

Highlight of the work week was and is one of my coworkers from India being here and having the opportunity to show him around, operate machines, and otherwise do the physical things that he can do here he doesn't have the opportunity to do in India.

I ran the Run4Troops marathon on Saturday coming in second in 2:50, to the guy I beat last year. I'll take it, not a great race, but a really good run considering my fitness. I even will say I worked harder this year than last to put this time down. It became pretty emotional too around the last five miles, no crying, but I wanted to stop and cry and be held. Plus, at that point I was thinking of Everest, and Everest 2014 is certainly something worth crying about. Regardless, it's nice to know I can fake a 2:50 marathon on a few weeks of training and one 20 minute tempo.

Just to show my weekend, after the race I worked a four hour shift bartending at Park Farm Winery, on my feet the whole time. Then in the evening I went to the musical Oliver that a friend was in. That was a long day.

Planning the Illogical

How do you go about planning something so out there fewer than ten people have done it? How do you plan to do something the first time? When logic says go right, how do you plan the illogical left turn?

I don't really know, except to say, you are thinking about it. First there is the thought...