Caveman Running and 2007 Triscoopie Awards

I recorded myself trail running the other day and got all metaphysical - pretending I was a caveman running down prey with my trusty domesticated wolf.

Tacked on to that is Huck and I announcing the much anticipated Triscoopie awards. We recorded it high above an auditorium as the crowd laughs, boos, and claps for the winners.

Lastly, my new neighbor wanted to be on the show, so I interviewed him on what it was like being a New Texan. He's a really funny guy, so enjoy!

Rocky Raccoon Pre Run

An Ultra-running buddy of mine hit Huntsville State Park yesterday to pre run some of the course for the Rocky Raccoon 100. We're only running the 50 mile race, and we only ran 20 yesterday. (I love how we keep cutting the distance down.)

It was a killer run. I looked like a freak with a map and a water bottle hanging out of the front of my jogging shorts. I had the iPod Shuffle clipped to my visor and the heaphone cord hanging down my back.

Here's important notes for those of you wanting to do the run or follow my progress so you can theorize on how you/me will do.

• ran 4 minutes, walked 1 for entire thing, 20.3 miles in 4 hours.


• avg HR was 138, finished running fast and strong at the end.


• plantar fasciatis was really bad in left, then both feet about 3/4ths the way through, then I stopped to refuel, and it went away.


• HR started creeping up, finishing at 173 bpm, but I was running fast on purpose to drive home the run.


• We kept seeing the same guy running FAST.  Older, with a mustache.  My buddy said he looked like a big-name pro that could be scoping out the course to win.


• I asked another ultra-runner dude where I was, he told me the wrong place.  Made me think I was almost done when I was nowhere near done.


• Food eaten along the way was as follows - Clif bar, small orange, water, gatorade, fig newmans, gu, water, gatorade, fig newmans, gu, water.


• Was really sore hours after I finished.  Woke up today and barely sore at all.

Blink142 just emailed me and said he'll be at the race as well.  Should make for a great show!

Google Calendar Actually Being Used

Sounds almost like the title of a news podcast from The Onion.

Just like how a triathlete is always fiddling with his/her HR zones, I tweaked the calendar that you see in the sidebar (scroll dooooowwwwwn) so that it is legible and has content. My workout buddy and I are keeping up with what we do via gCal, so I thought I'd use the Zentri Calendar to post that. I'm also throwing in any events or other items worth mentioning. Keep your eye on it for some cool stuff coming up.
On that note, I'm also using the "delayed posting" feature in Wordpress to publish this a couple of days after I wrote it. Those with higher IQs and lower HRs will now be in the know that I got hopped up on coffee and wrote three posts in a row and just scheduled them to be released slowly like long chain amino acids.

I'm so glad I'm getting so clued in on how to be more productive now that I'm almost 35 and my life is half over. Where was this ingenuity when I was 12? I COULDA BEEN A CONTENDAH!

Bravery

There's a woman at my office that had to make a tough choice recently. Well, it wasn't so much of a choice as it was an abrupt lifestyle change. Her car blew up and she has no other option to get to work than on a bike. We live in one of those towns with no other alternatives from the car.

She's not a cyclist. Her ride is 8 miles each way, lots of it without bike lane. Her bike is one of those terrible $50 walmart rigs. It has full suspension and knobby tires.

I saw this person do one of the bravest things today by biking to work for the first time on a terrible commuter bike when it was 30 degrees outside.

Most other people would take a taxi every day for a year than do what she did. I'm guessing she saw enough bike lane, used Google maps to plan a route, saw others biking to work and that was enough of a magic mix to get her to bike herself.

She's decided to blog her adventures about the new cyclist's perspective on trying to commute to work daily. Don't write her off as some 'dumb Texan' - she's lived all over the world and done more in her short life than many of us will ever have the time to do. Her perspective should be entertaining. Not many people have lived in Ireland, now how to surf, AND had a pet Longhorn that you could ride with a saddle. I'm linking to her blog here and also adding it to my "Cool Links" on the right so we can watch this next crazy adventure in her life.

And when you don't feel like biking because it is a little chilly outside, think of Dawn cranking up a hill on a 40 lb. mountain bike with knobbies when it is sub-freezing just to get to work. I'm going running right now and her bravery is making the cold seem a little less severe.

Austin, Anybody?

I'm going to Austin all day on January 12.  Anybody feel like hitting Barton Springs for a swim, trail running, chowing down at Chuy's, and checking out bike porn at all the tri-shops along Riverside Road?  I'll have one of my newbie tri friends with me, so I want to show him a good time and all that a REAL tri-town has to offer.  Throw down some comments and I'll do what I can to hook up!