Crash and Burn like Bamboo
Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 10:39PM 
I wondered if something was going to go wrong when I started running Friday afternoon and I felt sore and just a tad bit tired. Nothing big in itself, but I had my third epic run in just as many Saturdays the very next day. It crossed my mind that I should take the day off before I try to run 28 miles, but I ran anyway.
I got up at 5 am on Saturday, got my crap together, and drove to Lake Bryan to run on the trails. It had rained all day Friday. I got there about 15 minutes before dawn and had an overwhelming feeling to sleep. Yet another bad sign.
I was too tired to run.
But I'm no sissy, so I did it anyway. I had full intention of completing 4 of the 7 mile loops for a total of 28 miles. I also had show notes and a mic to record a podcast on the last loop.
The first loop hurt. That was another bad sign. The second loop, well, that's when I started thinking about possibly not doing a fourth. The course was very runnable, but 2 sections had that sticky mud that made your feet resemble 20 lb. snowshoes.
The third loop made me realize that doing a fourth would cause me more harm than good. My upward curve of improvement had hit a brick wall. There was no more improvement to make with running, only rest.
It was still a great time. 21 miles in the butt-ass cold and mud was very primal and fun. I went home, then went to a birthday party of Kai's friend. Then the crash and burn occured.
I couldn't warm up. Hell, I'm still cold two days later. We were supposed to go to a punk rock concert and I felt too chilled and sick and tired to go. I was supposed to go on a recovery ride today, but pushed it back until Monday.
Never one to have a shortage of crazy projects to work on, I started collecting bamboo to make a bike rack. Why bamboo? It's a grass and grows like crazy, so it is considered a much more renewable resource than trees. It also has incredible strength, commonly called nature's carbon fiber. The trick is curing it so it doesn't get brittle and crack with time. Here is a cool link to Calfee building bikes out of bamboo.
I stumbled across a website that showed a great way to cure bamboo quickly. The magic occurs with the use of a torch, which freaks me out and excites me at the same time. Armed with information that only the Internet could provide (that ain't saying much), I chopped down some THICK sections of bamboo that was growing near my house. I then bought a torch and went to work. I had a ton of fun, but this is going to take some time. I'll post some pix soon. After working on computers 5 days a week, I love working on a project with my bare hands.
I gotta say, I was surprised at how impressive a 2 inch thick piece of bamboo can be. If the curing method works, I've got a little side business making some cool stuff going on.
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